Category Archives: Ukraine

Why It Matters: Some Republicans want to prioritize aid to Taiwan.

Ms. Hsiaos statement rebuts arguments by a few Republican lawmakers and former U.S. officials that the United States should decrease weapons aid to Ukraine in order to prioritize building up Taiwans defense capabilities and U.S. military resources aimed at countering China. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, is making this argument, as is Elbridge Colby, a Pentagon official in the Trump administration who has advised Mr. Hawley.

They say some of the same missile and weapons systems that Taiwan needs for preventing a potential Chinese invasion including Javelins, Stingers and Patriots are being sent to Ukraine. The fastest way for the weapons to reach partner nations is through a process known as the presidential drawdown authority, which allows the U.S. government to transfer arms from the Pentagons stockpiles. But those reserves have been depleted by aid to Ukraine.

Those current and former Republican officials also say Taiwan should take priority in receiving weapons that roll off production lines years in the future. Ms. Hsiao said she is not concerned about that since Taiwans weapons orders are on a separate track from those of other governments.

Ms. Hsiaos main big-picture point is that China is watching Russias invasion of Ukraine closely and drawing lessons from it. The greater the cost to Russia, the less likely it is that China will take similar steps, the thinking goes.

Our best hope is that Beijing also takes the lesson that aggression will not succeed, that there will be tremendous international pushback against aggression, she said.

China is Russias most powerful partner, and the two nations declared their relationship had no limits before President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Xi Jinping, the leader of China, has continued to show support for Mr. Putin, but so far has refrained from giving weapons aid to Russia, U.S. officials say. This shows that China is being cautious about running afoul of sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other nations.

Like Chinese leaders before him, Mr. Xi has asserted that Taiwan must eventually come under the rule of China. But senior Biden administration officials say there is no intelligence indicating Mr. Xi has explicitly laid out a timeline for this. Ms. Hsiao said Taiwan does not have evidence of a specific timeline either.

The U.S. government is determined to turn Taiwan into a porcupine, an entity bristling with weapons that would be too painful to attack. Ms. Hsiao said Taiwan is aware of the need to build up military deterrence while assuring China it wants to maintain the status quo rather than declaring independence. She noted that Taiwan is increasing the length of its compulsory military service for men from four months to one year; is working with the United States to improve military training; and is creating the capability to service F-16 fighter jets on its own.

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Taiwan Ambassador Says Ukraine's Success Against Russia Will Help Deter China - The New York Times

MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) -Russia said Ukrainian artillery hit a Russian town for a third time this week and drones struck two oil refineries in an uptick in attacks on Russian territory as Ukraine prepares a Western-backed push to end Moscow's invasion.

Inside Ukraine, Russian-installed officials said five people had been killed in Ukrainian army shelling of a Russian-occupied village in the east, where Russia has fought months of bloody and inconclusive battles to try to seize more territory.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the Russian reports, in a week when the two countries accused each other of spreading terror in their capitals with air strikes.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in Ukraine and towns and cities laid to waste since Moscow's forces invaded 15 months ago, but Tuesday marked only the second time Moscow had come under direct fire - from a flurry of drones - although oil and military facilities elsewhere in Russia have been hit.

In the Russian town of Shebekino on the Ukrainian border, two of four wounded people were hospitalised and shells damaged an apartment building, four homes and a school as well as power lines, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Later, Gladkov told Russian television there had been more Ukrainian shelling of Shebekino and a fire had broken out at an industrial site.

Both sides say they are targeting the buildup of each other's forces and military equipment ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, which it says will come in days or weeks, to try to drive Russian forces out of eastern and southern regions.

Away from the front lines of the conflict, the United Nations was trying to salvage a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports.

To that end, the U.N. has made a "mutually beneficial" proposal that Ukraine, Russia and Turkey begin preparatory work for the transit of Russian ammonia through Ukraine, a source close to the talks said on Wednesday.

Story continues

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, accused Russia of blocking all activity at the port of Pivdennyi, with 1.5 million tonnes of agricultural products unable to move.

"... the blockade of one port in Ukraine poses extremely serious risks for different nations, particularly those with relations that Russia tries to use for speculative purposes."

The U.N. and Turkey brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative between Moscow and Kyiv last July to help tackle a global food crisis aggravated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a leading grain exporter.

ARTILLERY FIRE INTENSIFIES IN BAKHMUT

Russian-installed officials in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region - one of four Moscow claims to have annexed - said Ukraine had killed five people and wounded 19 in a rocket attack on a farm in the village of Karpaty.

In the fiercely contested eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Russia was replacing Wagner private army troops with regular forces - paratroops and motorised rifle units - but intensifying its artillery shelling, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday night.

"The days to come will show whether the rotation strengthens or weakens them," Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern grouping of troops, told Ukrainian television.

Russia's defence ministry said it had pushed Ukrainian forces back around two settlements in Donetsk province, part of a 1,000-km (620-mile) front line that has barely moved despite months of fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

Reuters was not able to verify either side's reports.

REFINERIES HIT

Drones attacked two oil refineries 40-50 miles (65-80 km) east of Russia's biggest oil export terminals on Wednesday, according to Russian officials, who did not attribute blame. They said a fire at one of the terminals was later put out.

Ukrainian drones struck wealthy districts of Moscow on Tuesday and two people were injured, according to the Russian capital's mayor. The Kremlin said Moscow's air defences worked effectively but had room for improvement.

Russia's ambassador to Washington accused it of encouraging Ukraine to attack. The White House said it does not know who carried out the Moscow drone strikes but reiterated that the U.S. does not support attacks inside Russia.

The United States, Britain and Germany are among Western nations to have supplied arms to Ukraine on condition it uses them to defend itself and retake Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, which they say launched an unprovoked war of conquest.

The White House on Wednesday announced the latest in a series of U.S. aid packages for Ukraine that includes up to $300 million worth of air defence systems and ammunition.

Russia says it is waging a "special military operation" to neutralise a threat from Kyiv's moves towards the West.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Pavel Polityuk, Tom Balmforth, Max Hunder, Olena Harmash, Valentyn Ogirenko, Gleb Garanich and Ron Popeski; writing by Philippa Fletcher, Mark Heinrich and Grant McCool; Editing by Sharon Singleton, William Maclean and Diane Craft)

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Russia reports hits on oil refineries and town near Ukraine - Yahoo! Voices

Among the latest aircraft to join the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense inventory following the full-scale Russian invasion is a Bell 427 helicopter, and one that appears to have a very unique history, having been the personal mount of Viktor Medvedchuk oligarch, pro-Russian politician, and close friend of Vladimir Putin. While the Bell 427 a twin-engine rotorcraft with the capacity to transport up to six passengers is not the most warlike addition to Ukraines fleet, its nonetheless a relatively modern type and one that could still be a very useful asset.

Photos that were recently posted to social media show the Bell 427, in an overall dark blue paint scheme, with a prominent maroon and yellow cheatline, and the oversized Ukrainian national roundel and flag emblazoned on the fuselage. The location and the date of these photos cannot presently be confirmed, although multiple accounts state that the operator is the Ukrainian Ministry of Defenses Main Directorate of Intelligence better known by its Ukrainian abbreviation GUR.

It seems this Bell 427 is the same aircraft that was among the assets belonging to Viktor Medvedchuk that were transferred to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense last year. In a Telegram post in July 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine stated that a helicopter and airplane belonging to Medvedchuks family had been seized and turned over to the Defense Ministry. Although the statement didnt mention the particular types, accompanying photos showed a Bell 427 and a Gulfstream G650 bizjet. The Bell 427 has the Aruban civil registration P4-IKH and apparently wears a standard Bell factory color scheme.

A video showing Bell 427 P4-IKH, which previously belonged to Viktor Medvedchuk:

The statement said that the two aircraft were seized as part of criminal proceedings related to the alleged abuse of power or position, as well as misappropriation, embezzlement, or seizure of property through abuse of office, under the criminal code of Ukraine.

At the time, it was reported that the helicopter was valued at approximately $3 million, while the Gulfstream was valued at over $65 million.

As for Medvedchuk, he was arrested by Ukrainian authorities in April 2022, having escaped house arrest only four days after Russia began its full-scale invasion. In September 2022, Medvedchuk (together with 55 Russian prisoners of war) was exchanged for 215 Ukrainian POWs from the siege of Mariupol.

The Ukrainian authorities interest in Medvedchuk was hardly a surprise. The close ally of Putin was dubbed Russias main guy in Ukraine, having headed up a pro-Russian political party for many years. Medvedchuk also had a close personal connection with Putin, holidaying with the Russian leader, who was chosen as the godparent to Medvedchuks daughter, Daria. As well as his political activities, Medvedchuk was a prominent oligarch, with a business empire that spanned oil and media, and funded assets such as his aircraft fleet.

The whereabouts of the Gulfstream G650 bizjet are not currently known, but it seems that the Bell 427 is already being used by the GUR or is otherwise preparing to join it.

The Bell 427 is only in very limited military service, with one example serving the air force of Paraguay as a VIP transport. However, it saw more uptake as a platform for police work, with operators in this capacity being found in Argentina and Nigeria, for example. Other Bell 427s are also used for search and rescue work.

The photos originally published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs show Medvedchuks Bell 427 apparently immediately after its seizure, with a civilian-style interior including comfortable seating. Its not clear what if any, modifications have been made to the helicopter since. While the GRU might be using it as a VIP transport, its very possible that it has been adapted to undertake more specialized roles.

Should the GRU be using the Bell 427 to transport fully equipped personnel, for example, then the seating configuration will almost certainly have been adapted. Another option is that the seating has been replaced with a medical evacuation interior. Typically, the medevac Bell 427 is equipped to transport two stretcher patients and two medical attendants.

The Bell 427 is not the first Western helicopter design to have joined the fleet of the GRU since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

In the past, The War Zone has reported on the U.S.-made UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter that the GRU is now using, including working with special forces units. The Main Directorate of Intelligence has also stated that the Black Hawk offers certain important advantages over the Soviet-designed Mi-8 Hip and Mi-24 Hind series helicopters, which it otherwise operates.

While the Bell 427 is in an entirely different class to any of these types, its conceivable that it could also have a role to play in medical evacuation, as well as the insertion and extraction of small teams of troops or special forces. Depending on how this particular Bell 427 is equipped in terms of avionics, it could also be better able to conduct night flights than other assets.

The Bell 427 is also notably small and relatively discreet, with a correspondingly smaller footprint and noise signature than the larger GRU rotorcraft. It also offers comparatively high speed, big power reserves for its size, and a very good level of maneuverability, at least compared with the much larger Mi-8. This, too, may make the Bell design better suited to certain covert operations, with the proviso that only a much smaller number of troops can be embarked.

The Ukrainian Bell 427 has no winch. Although troops could potentially still rappel down from the hovering helicopter, its by no means suitable for operating on any kind of contested battlefield, with no provision for self-protection features in its basic form. The GRUs UH-60, at least in its initial configuration, also doesnt seem to feature missile approach warning systems and countermeasures dispensers or other self-protection equipment, although this doesnt seem to have prevented it from undertaking more hazardous missions.

It is interesting, too, that Bell is also increasingly looking at options for doing exactly as Ukraine has done, and adapting civilian helicopters for armed conflict. Bell could potentially step in and offer a suitable modification package for Ukraine or offer mission kits. At the same time, Bell and others are seeing a broader opening for exporting civilian helicopters adapted for military uses as a result of the Ukraine war and subsequent Russian sanctions that have effectively removed spare parts and support for Russian types.

For now, we simply dont know what kind of missions the GRUs new helicopter is flying or will fly in the future and to what degree it has been adapted for military work. There is a question, too, about how the GRU trained personnel to fly and maintain the helicopter, although its worth noting that the UH-60 was apparently mastered remarkably quickly, being first flown by Ukrainian pilots on the day it was received.

Without a doubt, the Bell 427 is an interesting addition to an increasingly varied fleet. We have approached the GRU with a request for more information on this aircraft and we look forward to gaining more details about how it is being used.

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Oligarch's Bell 427 Is The Ukrainian Military's Latest Helicopter - The War Zone

When Constantine Kalynovskyi served with the Ukrainian Armed Forces during Russian President Vladimir Putin's initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, the combat veteran's unit lacked equipment that has drastically changed how audiences consume war reporting in today's full-scale invasionsurveillance drones.

Nine years on, Ukrainian combatants are using commercial drones and GoPro cameras to record their battlefield victories, uploading videos that capture with precision the destruction of enemy tanks, sniper kills, and grenade explosions.

Ukrainian battalions such as the White Wolves are filming footage for social media consumption from a bird's-eye view that verges on the gamification of real-life combat. Meanwhile, footage has also emerged from Russia, including the gruesome sledgehammer execution of a former convict who fled notorious paramilitary outfit the Wagner Group, and a video that appeared to show a Ukrainian soldier being beheaded with a knife.

Some of these video techniques were pioneered by ISIS, the Islamic State group, during its rapid ascent across Syria and the Levant nearly 10 years ago. The group published sophisticated, polished, and sometimes graphically violent videos as part of a wider campaign for recruitment, to try to show its legitimacy, encourage supporters and frighten enemies.

For Ukraine, the motivation behind the creation of slick videos from battlefield scenes is to draw in enough viewers globally to ensure that the country's fight against Russia isn't forgotten, and to prove that the West's financial and military support for Kyiv hasn't been, and won't be, in vain.

That's according to Kalynovskyi, who was mobilized in 2014, when Putin invaded Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and illegally annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

He served for 14 months before he was demobilized due to a freezing of the conflict. Kalynovskyi moved to the United States in 2018, where he now assists Ukrainian units in procuring protective, medical, and surveillance gearincluding in-demand DJI Mavic 3 drones that are being used by soldiers to film battlefield footage.

"In 2014, such videos would be really rare. The only drones that were available back then were military-grade, professional dronesthe smaller commercial drones simply did not exist," Kalynovskyi told Newsweek.

Surveillance drones have "changed absolutely everything on the battlefield," he said.

"We have seen how Ukrainian military aid comes in from supporting countries. It usually comes in when Ukraine is successful, because no one wants to help someone who does not know how to use the help."

"With this drone footage, Ukraine is capable of showing that we can defend. We can fight, we can we can stand our ground, we can resist this genocidal war. Drone footage and media coverage cemented the support for Ukraine all over the world," he said.

"It's shown that the Russians can be foughtthey're not some superpower. A big reason why Ukraine is getting so much support, in my opinion, is due to the availability of this footage."

Newsweek contacted the defense ministries of Ukraine and Russia by email for comment.

Ukraine's White Wolves unit has been releasing videos throughout the conflict showing how its forces destroy Russian targets, including tanks. One such clip tweeted by Ukraine's security service the SBU in March shows an aerial view of military vehicles exploding after being hit from above.

Sean Heuston, a professor who teaches courses on propaganda, social conflict, and media studies at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, told Newsweek the clip is "a great example of the gamification of combat videos and the strange quality overlap between video games and real-life footage" that ties in with video techniques employed by ISIS.

ISIS, Heuston said, emphasizes a type of propaganda video that "unfortunately is much more appealing to younger audiences."

"They often resemble action movies and prioritize dramatic conflict, whether that be combat footage or on-camera beheadings. And thus, they're more likely to generate views and clicks," he said.

Heuston said some Citadel cadets have told him it has become difficult for them to tell the difference between real-life combat footage and video-game footage in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

"That sort of blurs the line between the two, especially when most young people watch videos and play games on their phones, where the small screens minimize differences between high-quality video and lower-quality video that might look a lot worse on a laptop screen," he said.

"The White Wolves videos are so sharp and clear that you can even get a good look at the ammunition they're using as the shells plunge toward their targets."

Russia and Ukraine are "looking at different targets" in the types of videos that are being produced throughout the war, Heuston said, assessing that Russia's focus appears to be drawing in recruits, while Ukraine hopes to pull in financial and military support from the West by keeping audiences invested.

"I think Ukraine has figured that out and has sort of reverse engineered the important parts of or some important parts of the ISIS propaganda approach, while separating it from the morally horrifying or morally repugnant parts of ISIS," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has used media "brilliantly" so far in the war, Heuston said.

"The type of video that Ukraine is releasing is not an afterthought. It's part of Ukraine's grand strategy which employs different forms of power from traditional diplomacy to public appeals via social media. Videos like the ones they are releasing draw eyeballs and generate clicks."

Ukraine has "figured out how to go viral repeatedly" and "how to keep international attention on the Russian invasion."

"I'd say Ukraine is conducting a masterclass in contemporary warfare and digital diplomacy, and its use of videos helps keep attention and money and material coming in to sustain the war effort," said Heuston.

Ukraine understands that it has not only the battlefield operational level to contend with but the larger issues of support and continued funding worldwide. "I think they are intelligently trying to keep the Russian invasion from becoming normalized," he added.

Russian propaganda has "not done that nearly as effectively," Heuston continued. "Putin doesn't primarily care about presenting an acceptable face to the international community."

"Most likely, Russia has basically decided that the potential benefit of the sledgehammer video and macho posturing will outweigh the risks to themI think they see the benefit as possibly drawing large numbers of Russian recruits. But they are, by all accounts, short on manpower and desperate to do that."

Many recruitment videos produced by ISIS prey on a target's weak sense of identity, something that has been mirrored by Russia throughout its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Heuston said.

A video ad was shared to Russian social media networks in April that promises volunteers can become "a real man" by fighting in Ukraine. It urges men to abandon their mundane jobs in Russia for the more manly pursuit of combat and a salary of 204,000 rubles per month ($2,500).

The recruitment video asks Russian men with domestic occupations like grocery store security guard and taxi driver if this is "the kind of defender" they "dreamt of becoming." Men are urged to find where their "strength lies" by joining the military, with the ad concluding "you're a real man, be one."

Heuston drew parallels to Shamima Begum, a British-born woman who entered Syria to join ISIS at the age of 15. He noted that she has spoken publicly about being radicalized and recruited by ISIS videos that "presented this notional caliphate as a utopia."

"I don't want to trivialize it by reducing it all to advertising. But clearly, some of this has an advertising element to it. And in some ways, the fundamental thing of, identify the problem, and then propose a solution."

"The Russian recruiting video that challenges the masculinity of young men and frames enlistment as a way to prove that they're real men effectively targets the widespread sense of disaffection many young men worldwide struggle with because real life mostly isn't like the video games they spend so much time playing," Heuston said.

"If you dangle the opportunity to play a real-life first-person-shooter game in front of enough young men, quite a few of them will bite."

Kalynovskyi said recruitment videos in Ukraine vastly differ from Russia-produced adverts.

"Russia wants to promote masculinity of a big man with big muscles that wants to fight and defend his neighborhood through his Motherland. But in Ukraine, we don't do such promotions," the combat veteran said.

"We have a lot of those videos that are more like emotional, appealing to a person's human side as opposed to a masculine side. Completely opposite from what Russia is doing."

Combat footage aside, Kalynovskyi said drones have "changed absolutely everything on the battlefield" compared to when he served in the armed forces in Ukraine in 2014. The equipment has played a vital role in preventing Russia from seizing territory in Ukraine in the full-scale invasion, he said.

"The drone is something that I call a force multiplier. If your unit knows how to utilize and has the drones, your effectiveness can be multiplied by like tenfold," he explained. "Before you would need some frontline observers to tell you if you hit the target or you did not."

"It's because Ukraine managed to utilize these cheap commercial drones, I will say that's one of the key reasons why Ukraine managed to stop this invasionin Kyiv, in Chernihiv, in Kharkiv, in Sumybecause we simply had this intelligence information."

Kalynovskyi added: "If we're talking about surveillance drones, they provide information and information here is the key."

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How Ukraine Followed the ISIS Playbook - Newsweek

With First Person Video (FPV) drones gaining an increasing role on the battlefield, Ukraines Ministry of Digitial Transformation is hosting what it calls The Drone Army FPV Super Bowl to help spur domestic development of these weapons.

The goal of the event, which will be held June 1, is to show the capabilities of Ukrainian-made FPV drones to the Security and Defense Forces for further contracting, Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Federov said on his Telegram channel Tuesday.

"We are holding a competition of FPV drone manufacturers to strengthen the Defense Forces of Ukraine," said Federov.

The competition will take place in several stages, said Federov, including hitting moving and static targets, overcoming an obstacle course and more.

The participants will be watched by representatives of the Ministry of Defense and various branches of the military, said Federov.

FPV drones, descended from racing drones, are commanded by an operator wearing a headset who can fly the weapon into a particular target. The drones "are the future, Federov said, and are successfully working on the front lines today.

They've hit tanks, trucks, troops in trenches, and, as you can see in this video below, even other drones.

The Ministry of Digital is systematically working on the development of defense technologies and stimulation of domestic UAV manufacturers, he said. So if you have cool products and want to strengthen the Drone Army with your birds - register using the link.

Speaking of FPV drones, the Ukrainian blockchain company Everstake donated 500 Pegasus FPV drones to Ukraines Drone Army, according to the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

The drones were distributed among 13 units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, the ministry said on its Telegram channel Tuesday. Some of them have already destroyed dozens of enemy objects."

FPV drones are a competitive advantage on the battlefield. They catch up and destroy almost any target. And most importantly, they save the lives of our soldiers, who see every step of the Russians while in hiding.

Russia, meanwhile, has launched its own crowdfunding campaign for FPV drones, which, as you can see in this video below, it is using to deadly effect as well.

We continue to collect for a batch of FPV drones for the Russian Federations Armed Forces, the Russian Colonelcassad Telegram channel wrote Tuesday. The first thousand are going to be sent to the front in full in the near future.

Before we head into the latest updates from Ukraine,The War Zonereaders can catch up on our previous rolling coveragehere.

On the battlefield, Russian forces made no progress, Ukraines Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on her Telegram channel.

The situation on the northern border with Belarus is stable, she said. There were no signs of the formation of offensive groups on the border with the Russian Federation. The enemy continues to maintain a military presence in the border areas. It carries out mortar and artillery attacks and carries out airstrikes.

In the south, the Russians are on the defensive, while the east continues to be the epicenter of hostilities, she said.

The enemy does not abandon the goal of capturing Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The intensity of the enemy's offensive actions during the day is somewhat reduced. Instead, the intensity of artillery shelling and airstrikes is maintained.

The Russians are conducting unsuccessful offensive actions in the Kupiansk region while our defenders repelled 12 enemy attacks in the area of the city of Marinka during the day.

The Russians are not currently conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut direction. However, it continues shelling and carries out airstrikes. The replacement and regrouping of enemy troops is also underway in this direction.

Ukrainian forces, she added, control the southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut, while in the north and south of the suburbs of Bakhmut, the advance has not been carried out for several days, as the movement of our troops has been suspended for the performance of other military tasks. Which, in fact, are performed.

She did not specify what those tasks were.

The $300 million package will also include more Zuni unguided rockets as well as AIM-7 air-to-air missiles for air support, additional Avenger air defense systems and Stinger surface-to-air missile systems as well as more tank ammunition. The AIM-7s are of interest as they are likely for the same Soviet-era systems that the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow was being adapted to, although we are trying to confirm that at this time. You can read more about those efforts here.

U.S. President Joe Biden has not ruled out sending Ukraine U.S.-producedArmy Tactical Missile System(ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles, which can hit targets at about 200 miles away with a power punch.

In a quick media gaggle before boarding Marine One on Monday, Biden was asked about the recent massive drone attack on Kyiv.

"It's not unexpected," Biden said. "That's why we got to continue to give Ukraine all that it needs."

Asked whether "it was time for ATACMS for Ukraine," Biden offered a response that seemingly keeps them on the table.

"That's still in play," he said, without offering any further details.

Biden's comment about the ATACMS does not representa policy change, a U.S. government official told The War Zone Tuesday. "We have not provided them thus far and no decision has been made to move forward with providing them either."

Reluctance to send ATACMS has been based on fear of escalation as well as the need to keep the missiles for U.S. contingencies. A confrontation with China is top of mind in this regard.

Two people were killed and seven injured in the latest wave of drone attacks against Kyiv Monday night into Tuesday, local authorities said.

"Tonight, the enemy attacked Kyiv with IranianShahed-136/131" drones, Serhii Popko, head of the KMVA, said on his Telegram Channel Tuesday. A total of 31 unmanned aerial vehicles were launched from the north and south across Ukraine.

The Air Force in cooperation with the air defense of other components of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, destroyed 29 drones, Popko said. Almost all Shahed [drones] are affected on the outskirts of the capital and in the sky of Kyiv. As a result of falling debris, fires, destruction of residential and non-residential buildings and damage to cars were recorded in various areas of the capital.

Except for one victim, "all the casualties were recorded in the Holosiiv district of the city, where the debris hit a multi-story building," Popko said.

Ukraine continues to strike targets in Russia with artillery, mortars and drones, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel Tuesday.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled a [Temporary Accommodations Center]with cannon artillery, said Gladkov, adding that a security guard at the institution died while two other people there were injured, one critically.

Three direct hits in the sanatorium fell on the residential and administrative buildings, as well as on the territory of the checkpoint, Gladkov claimed. The roof was broken, window openings and glass were broken. Two cars were also hit.

That attack came after what Gladkov claimed was a series of strikes in Belgorod on Monday, with one man killed after nearly 200 artillery, mortar and drone strikes hit the oblast.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made some pretty bold claims Tuesday without offering any proof to back them up.

In the month of May alone, Ukraine has lost over 16,000 troops, 16 aircraft, five helicopters, 466 drones, over 400 tanks, and other armored fighting vehicles, and 238 pieces of field artillery and mortars, Shoigu said during a special teleconference Tuesday. In addition, 196 HIMARS rockets, 16 HARM missiles, and 29 Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles have been intercepted and destroyed.

Despite "the AFU's significant losses, Western supervisors continue to encourage the Kyiv regime to launch a large-scale offensive," Shoigu said. "Ukraine is receiving more hardware and weapons. We monitor supply volumes and routes and strike when identified."

Shoigu added that large Western arms depots in Khmelnitsky, Ternopol, and Nikolayev have been destroyed in recent days, as well as U.S. Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in Kyiv.

The Pentagon "takes everything Russia says with a grain of salt," a U.S. defense official told The War Zone Tuesday. "Wed have to refer you to the Ukrainian Armed Forces regarding your questions but Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder [the Pentagon's top spokesman] spoke of the one Patriot system that has been repaired and is operational two weeks ago."

Speaking of bold claims, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, pushed back against claims by noted Russian milblogger Igor Girkin that he was plotting a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an audio message on the Telegram channel for his company Concord, Prigozhin responded to former Russian commander Igor Girkin's accusations that he and his paramilitary outfit are preparing for a coup in Russia, saying they are untrue and that he has a "very respectful attitude" towards Putin.

"In order to carry out a coup d'tat or a military coup, it is not at all necessary to have a large number of armed people," Prigozin said Tuesday in an audio message posted on his Telegram channel, according to a translation by Newsweek. "But, as a rule, coups are carried out by the army, as a rule, by some part of a breakaway army. PMC Wagner is not an army at allwe have a very respectful attitude towards the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin."

Days earlier Girkin - a former military leader in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic who is also known by the name Igor Strelkov - said Prigozhin "practically declared war on part of military and state nomenclature."

At least 100 Russian troops were killed and another 400 injured in a Ukrainian strike on a barracks in Mariupol, Mariupol mayoral advisor Petro Andriushchenko said Monday on his Telegram channel.

One hundred good Russians will never fight again, he wrote. Except in hell.

"The Russians have a very limited capability against low-flying objects, especially when it comes to the time detection of them," the official said.

The War Zone could not independently verify that claim.

Pavel Gubarev, a Russian nationalist and former "governor" of the so-called "Novorossiya" admitted that Russia destroyed a significant part of the male population of the occupied cities, "using them in meat assaults."

"Now there is no such category as an adult male aged 25 to 55 years," Gubarev said in a recent interview, according to the Kremlin Circus Telegram channel. "This is in fact a deserted (of adult men) territory. Those who did not leave were mobilized (by Russians) and among them were huge losses."

The "so-called 'people's militia'...continues 'to be grinded down' in senseless frontal attacks, the so-called 'meat assaults.'"

The Spy Dossier Telegram channel posted pictures on Twitter claiming to be the first destruction of a Russian PBU 55K6E mobile command post for an S-400 air defense system."

"The incident occurred during an attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on warehouses for temporary storage of weapons in the Kherson region," The Spy Dossier Channel reported, claiming the attack was carried out by a HIMARS munition on May 20.

And Russian military trucks were hit by Polish Warmate loitering munitions in use by the State Border Service of Ukraine.

That's it for now. We'll update this story when there's more news to report about Ukraine.

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Ukraine Situation Report: Kyiv To Hold First Person Video Drone 'Super Bowl' - The War Zone

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced $300 million in military aid for Ukraine, the latest package of weapons and other military equipment that the United States has been sending to Kyiv since the beginning of Russias invasion.

The package includes additional ammunition for drones and long-range artillery. It also includes additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems as well as munitions for other air defense systems, including Stingers, Avengers and Aim-7 systems, the Pentagon said in a statement, as Kyiv gears up for its long-anticipated offensive to try to push Russian forces back and defend against aerial attacks from Moscow.

The aid also includes other artillery support, anti-armor weaponry and tens of millions of rounds of small-arms ammunition, defense officials said.

Moscow came under a drone attack on Tuesday, a move which the Kremlin has blamed on Kyiv. A senior Ukrainian official said Kyiv was not directly involved in the assault, though it was happy to watch.

So far American officials say that no U.S.-made drones or munition have been used in attacks on Moscow. But the fact that the United States plans to send additional ammunition for Ukrainian drones shows how serious the Biden administration is about arming Ukraine in advance of the counteroffensive, a Pentagon official said on Wednesday. The air defense munitions in the shipment also suggest that the United States is seeking to give Ukraine an advantage amid continuing strikes from Moscow.

The Pentagon did not specify which unmanned systems were being bolstered with the drone munitions in the aid package. The United States has given Ukraine both surveillance and attack drones in the past year, but officials have been reluctant to publicly describe exactly which systems have been sent.

The package brings the amount of security assistance to Ukraine from the United States since Russia invaded in February last year to $37.6 billion, the Pentagon said.

This authorization is the Biden administrations 39th drawdown of equipment from D.O.D. inventories for Ukraine since August 2021, the Pentagon statement said, referring to the Defense Departments supplies. It includes key capabilities to support Ukraines air defenders as they bravely protect Ukraines soldiers, civilians, and critical infrastructure amid Russias continuing airstrikes killing civilians across Ukraine.

John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, said Wednesday that the administration would keep up the weapons shipments through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in the fall.

As for when the administration would need to go to Congress for more money for Ukraine, Mr. Kirby said that weve got some time to figure that out.

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

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U.S. Adds Aid to Ukraine to Deliver Ammunition for Drones and Artillery - The New York Times

They beat prisoners relentlessly and tortured them with electric shocks, waterboarding and mock executions. Three people died in their custody. Yet such was their sense of impunity, the Russians who seized control of a detention center in southern Ukraine last year and filled it with 200 detainees were careless about concealing their identities.

Last week, Ukrainian prosecutors announced war crimes charges against four members of the Russian National Guard the commander who ran the detention facility and three of his subordinates. They were accused in absentia for cruel treatment of civilians and violating the laws of war.

The case is one of the first to emerge from months of investigations by Ukrainian prosecutors in the southern region of Kherson, which Russian forces occupied for more than eight months until they were forced out by a Ukrainian counteroffensive in November. Investigators say they have uncovered hundreds of crimes that were carried out under the Russian occupation, including executions and deaths in custody, torture, sexual violence and beatings in the recaptured areas.

Investigators in the Kherson region have found 11 detention facilities with torture chambers where men and women were abused. The four men charged with war crimes oversaw the pretrial detention center at No. 3, Thermal Energy Street, in the center of the regions main city, Kherson. Some of the victims helped identify them from photographs of the Russian National Guard unit that took over the detention center last summer. Prosecutors arranged for four of those victims to talk to journalists in Kyiv last week.

Two men and one woman died at the center, investigators said. The men had been beaten and all three had been denied health care, the investigators said, adding that 17 detainees said they had been subjected to sexual torture with electric shocks to the genitals.

The four Russians accused are Col. Aleksandr Naumenko from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Aleksandr Bocharov from the Krasnodar region, Anver Muksimov from Stavropol and Aleksandr Chilengirov from the Orenburg region.

The National Guard was established in 2016 by President Vladimir V. Putin to consolidate Russias various Interior Ministry units. The National Guard, which is separate from the Armed Forces, is responsible for internal security and answers directly to the president.

Investigators said they had identified the National Guard unit using information from Ukraines intelligence service, telephone intercepts and witnesses. Much of the violence was gratuitous and applied during interrogations to force confessions, Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, wrote in a Facebook post about the Kherson case.

Confessions were beaten out of people about things they did not do, he wrote, comparing the methods to those of the secret police during Joseph Stalins purges.

Oleksii Sivak, 38, a Ukrainian seaman who became an activist during the occupation, painting Ukrainian flags, national symbols and graffiti around Kherson city, was arrested in August; he suffered beatings and electric shocks, including to the genitals, during interrogations. He was able to identify at least one of the men accused.

Every question was followed by an electric shock or a punch, he said in an interview in Kyiv. If you fell from the electric shock onto the floor, they kicked you and put you back on the chair.

The shocks continued for about an hour, with only 30-second breaks, he said. The moment you enter, they start doing it and they take it in turns on this dynamo machine, he said. There was a man asking questions and men who were torturing.

At one point, he caught sight of his interrogators when they pulled off a knitted cap covering his eyes and put a pistol to his head to force a confession.

I saw, at that moment, two guards and two intelligence servicemen who took me from my home, he recalled. The men were all wearing balaclavas, he said, as was the colonel in charge of the detention center.

But the guard who escorted him to the torture chamber did not bother to wear a mask, Mr. Sivak said, and he was able to identify the guard from photographs.

Mr. Sivaks neighbor, Roman Shapovalenko, 38, who was arrested on the same day, said in an interview that he had suffered electric shocks and beatings that broke his ribs. On one occasion, his torturers stabbed him in the leg and jumped on his chest, he said, and he lost consciousness several times while being waterboarded. Another time, his torturers pulled off the hat concealing his eyes and made him attach the wires to his genitals himself. He saw at least three people in the room, but they all wore balaclavas.

Mr. Shapovalenko said the most painful torture had involved electric shocks to the earlobes. You have flashes like lightning in your eyes, he said. I could not sleep for three days. He joked with his cellmates that he had obtained a Wi-Fi connection and that he was watching YouTube videos and war movies play before his eyes.

One of Mr. Shapovalenkos cellmates, a man in his 50s named Ihor, died from the vicious beatings he had received, he said. Ihor was interrogated for three or four days, and after they returned him to the cell, the Russian guards ordered him to write a statement and kept rousing him to prevent him from sleeping. On the fourth day they let him sleep, but by then it was too late and he died that night.

They never read his testimony, Mr. Shapovalenko said. All of us thought we would end up like that.

Another man, Serhii Ruban, 42, a sales consultant, also died in the detention center, prosecutors have established. His mother, Nina Ruban, 70, said she last saw him alive when he was arrested on June 12. Six days later, she was told at the army headquarters that her only son was dead.

Two witnesses saw him being heavily beaten in the corridor and inside their cell, prosecutors said, and a third witness moved his body to the morgue. Investigators found his body among the remains in a mass grave, and in February, his mother identified him by a tattoo on his knuckles. He had multiple rib fractures, leaving her in no doubt that he was beaten to death.

He was all broken, she said, weeping.

Oleksandr Chubko and Dyma Shapoval contributed reporting.

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Russian Guards Beat and Tortured Kherson Prisoners, Leading to Deaths - The New York Times

WASHINGTON Equipment drawn from the U.S. Armys Kuwait-based pre-positioned stock bound for Ukraine was not ready for combat operations, the Pentagons inspector general has found.

During the inspector generals audit of that pre-positioned stock area, the fifth of seven such locations around the world, we identified issues that resulted in unanticipated maintenance, repairs, and extended leadtimes to ensure the readiness of the military equipment selected to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the May 23 report stated.

All six of the M777 howitzers and 25 of 29 M1167 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles were not mission ready and required repairs before U.S. European Command could send the equipment to Ukraine.

By January 2023, the U.S. government used its drawdown authority 30 times in total to provide $18.3 billion in equipment and ammunition to Ukraine, which is fighting a Russian invasion.

Army pre-positioned stock, or APS, is meant to be kept at the highest level of readiness so that it can be used immediately in case of an emergency.

The inspector general issued the report mid-audit out of concern that issues with poor maintenance and lax oversight of the [APS] equipment could result in future delays for equipment support provided to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the report read. In addition, if U.S. forces needed this equipment, they would have encountered the same challenges.

The 401st Army Field Support Battalion in Kuwait is responsible for overseeing contractor maintenance work, which includes issuing equipment.

Because the battalion did not ensure the contractor was meeting its maintenance requirements for approximately 19 months on M777 howitzers, an Army Materiel Command senior representative from Kuwait issued a request for assistance, bringing in a U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command mobile repair team from Anniston Army Depot, Alabama.

When the team arrived at Camp Arifjan in March 2022, the contractor provided a howitzer that it said was fully mission capable. But the weapon system was not maintained according to the standard technical manual, per the mobile repair team, and would have killed somebody [the operator], in its current condition, the report stated.

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Defense News has reached out to Office of Inspector General for the Defense Department to identify the contractor.

The team subsequently found that all six howitzers had operational issues. Four of the six howitzers had breech blocks improperly aligned with the rack gear, which prevented the breech from correctly locking. A breech not properly locked could result in an explosion that could kill the crew, the report noted.

Additionally, all six howitzers contained reused, old hydraulic fluid, which is not allowed because the fluid degrades over time and could lead to disastrous results and malfunctions of critical systems, the inspector general found.

The contractor paid the mobile repair team $114 million for labor and travel expenses, according to the report.

As the howitzers were being prepared to leave Kuwait for shipment to Europe on June 21, 2022, one of the howitzers experienced a brake fire, likely due to the contractor not releasing the parking brake when moving it, according to the report, which cited a specialist with the mobile repair team. The contractor claimed it was likely due to leaking brake fluid, the report noted.

When the howitzers reached Poland for distribution to Ukraine, officials there said all six howitzers still had faults that made them non-mission capable, according to the report, including worn firing pins and issues with the firing mechanism. The repairs cost about $17,490 in labor and materials.

Officials said they were able to avoid delays in getting the howitzers to Ukraine, but the inspector general noted in the report the inadequate maintenance on the howitzers highlights the need to consider the time it would take to maintain and repair equipment coming from the APS site in Kuwait for Ukraine.

Prior to August 2022, the 401st declared 28 of 29 Humvees as fully mission capable, but when it received an order to pull those out for Ukraine on Aug. 24, only three of the 29 were ready, the inspector general said.

Problems with the Humvees included dead batteries, inoperative lights, faulty gauges, damaged seat belts, broken door lock latches and fluid leaks, the report listed.

In order to meet the deadline to ship the equipment to Europe, the contractor took parts from other Humvees in the inventory, including in one case a transmission, potentially making that equipment non-mission capable, the report noted.

When the vehicles arrived in Poland, officials there reported one of the tires on a Humvee was shredded due to dry rot. When the tire was replaced with a spare, that one also failed due to dry rot, the report described.

The officials in Poland opened up work orders to replace tires damaged with dry rot in September 2022. Additionally, the vehicles did not come with spare tires, the officials noted, causing concern they would cross the border and fail with no means to replace tires there.

Tires were ultimately pulled from other equipment for the Humvees headed to Ukraine.

The process delayed delivery to Ukraine and required significant labor and time, pulling soldiers away from primary duties, and cost $173,524 for labor and material, the report added.

The head of Army Sustainment Command explained, in response to the report, that the services funding level for APS maintenance in Kuwait was 30% of the validated requirements in fiscal 2023 about $27.8 million of the $91.3 million requirement.

And the commander stated the contractor is not contractually obligated or appropriately resourced to maintain [APS] equipment at standards laid out in the technical manual the inspector general followed to make determinations regarding mission-capable readiness of the equipment.

The inspector general disagreed that the contractor was not obligated to follow the same technical manual used by the inspector general and also noted in the report that the Army obligated nearly $1 billion from Aug. 31, 2016, through April 13, 2023, for the APS location.

The inspector general recommended in the report that the Armys deputy chief of staff or G-3/5/7, which is responsible for issuing what goes into APS consider the level of maintenance and leadtime required before selecting Army Prepositioned Stock [in Kuwait] equipment for sourcing Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The commander of the 401st should also develop and implement increased inspection procedures to not only validate that the [APS] contractor has properly corrected known maintenance deficiencies but also to conduct a thorough visual inspection of equipment and correct any deficiencies including tires damaged by dry rot, before shipping the equipment to [U.S. European Command] for transfer to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

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Equipment for Ukraine drawn from Kuwait wasnt combat-ready, IG says - Yahoo News

Stphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, has stated that it is inappropriate to compare the drone attack on Moscow with the regular missile attacks on Ukraine by the Russian Federation.

Source: Ukrinform citing Dujarric

Details: The spokesman emphasised that the UN condemns any attacks on civilian targets. According to him, the position of UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres regarding attacks on civilian infrastructure remains unchanged.

"But in no way can you compare the drone attack on Moscow with the constant shelling of Ukraine," said Dujarric.

Background:

According to various reports from Russian media, 25 to 32 drones attacked Moscow on the night of 29-30 May, damaging at least two multi-storey residential buildings, and most of the drones were reportedly shot down near the Russian capital.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow's air defences were "operated properly" during the 30 May drone attack, but "there is still room for improvement".

Vyorstka, a Russian media outlet, mapped the locations of the drone attacks in Moscow, including the areas of drone strikes and the points where explosions were reported.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!

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UN considers comparing drone attack on Moscow with constant shelling of Ukraine inappropriate - Yahoo News

Russian adventurism is a drain on U.S. resources. By decimating the Russian military threat, Ukraine is reducing the amount of money the United States will have to spend defending Europe without risking American lives to do it.

Russia might never regain the strength it has spent against Ukraine. Its military has suffered more combat deaths in Ukraine than in all of its wars since World War II combined. Russia has lost about 2,000 tanks more than half its operational fleet plus thousands of other pieces of military equipment, including combat aircraft, combat vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, radar and antiaircraft systems, and at least 18 Navy ships. The British defense ministry estimates that 97 percent of the Russian army is now committed to Ukraine. For every Russian tank, plane and infantry division the Ukrainians eliminate, the United States will have to spend that much less to deter Russian aggression in the decades to come.

The impact will go beyond Europe. During the Obama administration, Russia intervened militarily in Syria on behalf of Iran and the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Today, the war in Ukraine has flipped the script: Russia has been forced to reduce its presence in Syria and redeploy critical military hardware to Ukraine. And instead of Russia helping Iran, Iran is now shoring up Russia with weapons, including military drones.

Vanquishing Russia in Ukraine will produce a Russian defeat dividend, allowing the United States to redeploy resources from Europe to the Pacific theater to counter China. A Ukrainian victory will also create conditions of peace and stability in Europe that will expand trade and investment with our largest trading partners. Over time, it will allow the United States to supplant Russia as the primary energy supplier to Europe. The financial benefits to Americans will be enormous.

On the other hand, for the United States, the costs of a Russian victory in Ukraine would be astronomical. After absorbing Ukraine, Putin would likely absorb Belarus in a Russia-Ukraine-Belarus confederation, former national security advisor Stephen Hadley tells me. This new Russian empire would threaten the borders of Romania, Slovakia and Poland. Putin would likely move against Moldova, the Baltic states, and maybe even Poland, Hadley says, perhaps setting his sights on establishing a land bridge across NATO territory to the isolated Russian Baltic region of Kaliningrad. The Black Sea would essentially become a Russian lake, allowing Putin to threaten southern Europe.

This new map would require the deployment of more U.S. troops to Europe, and massive increases in overall U.S. defense spending because the United States would now have to defend Europe from a growing Russian threat while also preparing to defend its partners, allies and its own territory in the Pacific from Chinese aggression. In other words, arming Ukraine is a bargain compared with the alternative.

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Opinion | 'America First' reasons why the U.S. should support Ukraine - The Washington Post