Pentagon predicts Ukraine offensive will be long and ‘very violent’
Pentagon officials predicted on Thursday a long, violent battle as Ukrainian forces attempt to drive occupying Russian troops out of their country, offering their most candid comments to date about a new offensive campaign reliant on Western military equipment and training.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would be “very premature” to estimate how long Ukraine’s counteroffensive could take, considering that Russia has several hundred thousand troops dug in on the front lines. But he characterized the operation as “a very violent fight” that will “likely take a considerable amount of time — and at high cost.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, appearing alongside Milley at NATO headquarters, noting that photographs of damaged Western combat vehicles have begun to emerge from the battlefield, said Ukrainian forces have the ability to recover damaged military equipment and repair it.
Read the full story here.
Pentagon officials predicted on Thursday a long, violent battle as Ukrainian forces attempt to drive occupying Russian troops out of their country, offering their most candid comments to date about a new offensive campaign reliant on Western military equipment and training.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would be “very premature” to estimate how long Ukraine’s counteroffensive could take, considering that Russia has several hundred thousand troops dug in on the front lines. But he characterized the operation as “a very violent fight” that will “likely take a considerable amount of time — and at high cost.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, appearing alongside Milley at NATO headquarters, noting that photographs of damaged Western combat vehicles have begun to emerge from the battlefield, said Ukrainian forces have the ability to recover damaged military equipment and repair it.
Read the full story here.
Amid NATO divisions, U.S. backs incremental step for Ukraine’s entry
The United States is giving tentative backing to a plan that would remove barriers to Ukraine’s entry into NATO without setting a timeline for its admission, a modest step that American officials hope can bridge divisions among member nations over Kyiv’s path to joining the transatlantic military alliance.
A senior U.S. official said the Biden administration is “comfortable” with a proposal from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that would permit Ukraine to forgo a formal candidacy process that has been required of some nations, a move that could hasten its entry.
The NATO chief’s proposal, if accepted by all 31 members, would cap a polarizing debate about what to offer the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky when alliance leaders gather for a major summit next month in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Read the full story here.
The United States is giving tentative backing to a plan that would remove barriers to Ukraine’s entry into NATO without setting a timeline for its admission, a modest step that American officials hope can bridge divisions among member nations over Kyiv’s path to joining the transatlantic military alliance.
A senior U.S. official said the Biden administration is “comfortable” with a proposal from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that would permit Ukraine to forgo a formal candidacy process that has been required of some nations, a move that could hasten its entry.
The NATO chief’s proposal, if accepted by all 31 members, would cap a polarizing debate about what to offer the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky when alliance leaders gather for a major summit next month in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- Several leaders of African nations arrived in Ukraine on Friday on a diplomatic tour aimed at encouraging peace negotiations and highlighting the impact of the conflict on their continent.
- In Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior officials from NATO member nations continue a second day of defense ministerial meetings in Brussels, as Ukraine wages its counteroffensive against entrenched Russian occupation forces.
- U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that would authorize using confiscated Russian assets to pay for aid to Ukraine and help finance the country’s reconstruction.
- The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog concluded a visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine late Thursday.
- Putin called Zelensky a “disgrace to Jewish people,” while addressing business leaders during his keynote speech at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
More live updates here.
- Several leaders of African nations arrived in Ukraine on Friday on a diplomatic tour aimed at encouraging peace negotiations and highlighting the impact of the conflict on their continent.
- In Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior officials from NATO member nations continue a second day of defense ministerial meetings in Brussels, as Ukraine wages its counteroffensive against entrenched Russian occupation forces.
- U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that would authorize using confiscated Russian assets to pay for aid to Ukraine and help finance the country’s reconstruction.
- The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog concluded a visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine late Thursday.
- Putin called Zelensky a “disgrace to Jewish people,” while addressing business leaders during his keynote speech at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
More live updates here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- The Kremlin said the African delegation would arrive in St. Petersburg on Saturday. “Vladimir Putin will receive the leaders of a number of African states who, in accordance with an earlier agreement,” will “hold talks on possible ways to reach settlement in Ukraine,” the Kremlin said.
- The Russian missile attack on Kyiv only made the African peace mission more important, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
- Ukraine has advanced up to two kilometers, or about 1.25 miles, in the south, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said late Friday.
- Russia has no reason to resort to nuclear weapons for now, Putin said Friday while speaking to Russian business elites at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
More live updates here.
- The Kremlin said the African delegation would arrive in St. Petersburg on Saturday. “Vladimir Putin will receive the leaders of a number of African states who, in accordance with an earlier agreement,” will “hold talks on possible ways to reach settlement in Ukraine,” the Kremlin said.
- The Russian missile attack on Kyiv only made the African peace mission more important, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
- Ukraine has advanced up to two kilometers, or about 1.25 miles, in the south, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said late Friday.
- Russia has no reason to resort to nuclear weapons for now, Putin said Friday while speaking to Russian business elites at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
More live updates here.
Zaporizhzhia steel plant refuses to bend to Russian attacks
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — The air raid alarm doesn’t care if the blast furnace is blowing.
So when the siren sounds warning of a missile attack, which is often, Oleksii Klashnik doesn’t run down to one of Zaporizhstal’s 14 underground bunkers. Instead, he and a few key workers don protective vests along with their heatproof outfits. Then they continue working with the molten metal at temperatures up to 1,100 degrees Celsius.
Zaporizhzhia city is less than 30 miles from the front line in Ukraine’s high-stakes counteroffensive and has been frequently targeted by Russian forces. The air alarm signals real danger. But stopping a blast furnace in the middle of smelting molten iron used to create steel could be even riskier.
Read the full story here.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — The air raid alarm doesn’t care if the blast furnace is blowing.
So when the siren sounds warning of a missile attack, which is often, Oleksii Klashnik doesn’t run down to one of Zaporizhstal’s 14 underground bunkers. Instead, he and a few key workers don protective vests along with their heatproof outfits. Then they continue working with the molten metal at temperatures up to 1,100 degrees Celsius.
Zaporizhzhia city is less than 30 miles from the front line in Ukraine’s high-stakes counteroffensive and has been frequently targeted by Russian forces. The air alarm signals real danger. But stopping a blast furnace in the middle of smelting molten iron used to create steel could be even riskier.
Read the full story here.
With African leaders visiting Ukraine, Russia fires missiles at Kyiv
As a delegation of African leaders visited the Ukrainian capital Friday morning, bringing a proposal for “confidence-building measures” aimed at halting Russia’s war, Moscow launched a daytime barrage of airstrikes, bombarding Kyiv with a “massive combined attack” of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, officials said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s official Twitter account posted a video of his arrival in Kyiv by train early Friday, along with the leaders of Senegal, Egypt, Zambia and the Comoros — the first stop in a peace mission to Ukraine and Russia. Shortly after, air raid sirens sounded in the capital. Then, explosions from air defenses rang out.
The barrage was a departure from the Kremlin’s typical strategy of bombarding Ukrainian cities during the early-morning hours as residents attempt to sleep and the darkness makes it easier to detect the location of Ukrainian air defenses.
Read the full story here.
As a delegation of African leaders visited the Ukrainian capital Friday morning, bringing a proposal for “confidence-building measures” aimed at halting Russia’s war, Moscow launched a daytime barrage of airstrikes, bombarding Kyiv with a “massive combined attack” of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, officials said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s official Twitter account posted a video of his arrival in Kyiv by train early Friday, along with the leaders of Senegal, Egypt, Zambia and the Comoros — the first stop in a peace mission to Ukraine and Russia. Shortly after, air raid sirens sounded in the capital. Then, explosions from air defenses rang out.
The barrage was a departure from the Kremlin’s typical strategy of bombarding Ukrainian cities during the early-morning hours as residents attempt to sleep and the darkness makes it easier to detect the location of Ukrainian air defenses.
Read the full story here.
To fight Putin, Russian militias aid Ukraine with cross-border attacks
The first cross-border raids were quick and furtive, the commander said, just a handful of fighters entering a village, scouting the terrain, taking a few shots at Russian border guards and slipping away. Later, he said, a group carried out the main mission — killing dozens of enemy troops, taking others prisoner and stealing weapons.
The commander, Denis Kapustin, is a leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, one of two independent militias that staged a series of joint cross-border attacks inside Russia’s Belgorod region.
Their aim is to give Russian civilians a taste of the death and destruction that President Vladimir Putin’s war has wrought on Ukraine. The raids also created a military and political distraction as Ukraine prepared to launch its counteroffensive, diverting attention from more important areas and creating a political problem for Putin, who has sought to keep Russian lands and citizens out of the war.
Read more here.
The first cross-border raids were quick and furtive, the commander said, just a handful of fighters entering a village, scouting the terrain, taking a few shots at Russian border guards and slipping away. Later, he said, a group carried out the main mission — killing dozens of enemy troops, taking others prisoner and stealing weapons.
The commander, Denis Kapustin, is a leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, one of two independent militias that staged a series of joint cross-border attacks inside Russia’s Belgorod region.
Their aim is to give Russian civilians a taste of the death and destruction that President Vladimir Putin’s war has wrought on Ukraine. The raids also created a military and political distraction as Ukraine prepared to launch its counteroffensive, diverting attention from more important areas and creating a political problem for Putin, who has sought to keep Russian lands and citizens out of the war.
Read more here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- The United States is “not going to make it easy” for Ukraine to join NATO, President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday as he boarded Air Force One. The comment comes days after Biden met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and ahead of next month’s NATO summit.
- Leaders from African nations met with President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, with the hope of persuading the Russian leader to seek peace talks with Ukraine. The Kremlin said the talks would focus on “possible ways to reach settlement in Ukraine.”
- The Russian missile attack on Kyiv only made the African peace mission more important, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said before the Putin meeting.
More live updates here.
- The United States is “not going to make it easy” for Ukraine to join NATO, President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday as he boarded Air Force One. The comment comes days after Biden met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and ahead of next month’s NATO summit.
- Leaders from African nations met with President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, with the hope of persuading the Russian leader to seek peace talks with Ukraine. The Kremlin said the talks would focus on “possible ways to reach settlement in Ukraine.”
- The Russian missile attack on Kyiv only made the African peace mission more important, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said before the Putin meeting.
More live updates here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- President Biden criticized the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons from Russia to Belarus, speaking to reporters.
- Leaders from Africa met Russian President Vladimir Putin with a message of peace Saturday following a trip to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- The death toll from the explosion of Kakhovka dam has risen to 16, Ukraine’s interior ministry said.
More live updates here.
- President Biden criticized the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons from Russia to Belarus, speaking to reporters.
- Leaders from Africa met Russian President Vladimir Putin with a message of peace Saturday following a trip to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- The death toll from the explosion of Kakhovka dam has risen to 16, Ukraine’s interior ministry said.
More live updates here.
With Russia claiming Bakhmut, Ukraine tallies cost in lost lives and limbs
LVIV, Ukraine — A Buddhist chef was sent to Bakhmut to cook for soldiers on the front line and ended up joining the men in the trenches instead, losing nearly all his hearing when a drone crashed into his chest.
A 24-year-old foundry worker turned soldier lost both of his legs and an arm when Russian shelling landed by his feet. A 28-year-old IT worker lasted less than two weeks defending the city before a rocket blasted off the lower part of his left leg.
They are among the soldiers who fought in Bakhmut — and are now living with the cost of the war’s bloodiest battle.
They arrived in the eastern city and faced off against a ferocious army of Russian mercenaries and soldiers. They left with life-altering injuries.
And in recent weeks, they watched Russian forces declare victory and claim control of the ruined city. In a new counteroffensive, Ukrainian troops are already pushing to take it back.
Read the full story here.
LVIV, Ukraine — A Buddhist chef was sent to Bakhmut to cook for soldiers on the front line and ended up joining the men in the trenches instead, losing nearly all his hearing when a drone crashed into his chest.
A 24-year-old foundry worker turned soldier lost both of his legs and an arm when Russian shelling landed by his feet. A 28-year-old IT worker lasted less than two weeks defending the city before a rocket blasted off the lower part of his left leg.
They are among the soldiers who fought in Bakhmut — and are now living with the cost of the war’s bloodiest battle.
They arrived in the eastern city and faced off against a ferocious army of Russian mercenaries and soldiers. They left with life-altering injuries.
And in recent weeks, they watched Russian forces declare victory and claim control of the ruined city. In a new counteroffensive, Ukrainian troops are already pushing to take it back.
Read the full story here.
Analysis: Ukraine’s current counteroffensive may dictate the fate of the war
Few military campaigns have been as anticipated in recent memory as the current Ukrainian counteroffensive that appears to be underway. For months, speculation built over when and how Ukraine’s forces would strike back across the front lines in the south and east of their country. Kyiv shared little publicly about its plans to retake territory seized in the Russian invasion, though it clamored for Western tanks, infantry vehicles and other sophisticated military aid as it made its preparations.
Spring began to melt into summer. The brutal fighting over the eastern city of Bakhmut captured attention; so, too, the incessant barrage of Russian missiles and drones on civilian areas of Ukraine, including cities far from the main battlefields of the war. The specter of a nuclear escalation loomed darkly over the conflict. And in the past week, we saw a new horror.
Read the full analysis here.
Few military campaigns have been as anticipated in recent memory as the current Ukrainian counteroffensive that appears to be underway. For months, speculation built over when and how Ukraine’s forces would strike back across the front lines in the south and east of their country. Kyiv shared little publicly about its plans to retake territory seized in the Russian invasion, though it clamored for Western tanks, infantry vehicles and other sophisticated military aid as it made its preparations.
Spring began to melt into summer. The brutal fighting over the eastern city of Bakhmut captured attention; so, too, the incessant barrage of Russian missiles and drones on civilian areas of Ukraine, including cities far from the main battlefields of the war. The specter of a nuclear escalation loomed darkly over the conflict. And in the past week, we saw a new horror.
Read the full analysis here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
- Ukraine has claimed advances covering a little more than 40 square miles of territory in its counteroffensive. Russia occupies more than 800 times that amount, roughly 33,000 square miles, about half of which was seized before the February 2022 invasion.
- During his visit to Beijing, Blinken will reiterate the U.S. expectation that China not provide lethal aid to Russia, officials said Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic planning.
- St. Petersburg will host a second Russia-Africa summit, the Kremlin said Sunday. A Telegram post from the Foreign Ministry did not say when the summit would be held, but it would follow Saturday’s meeting between African leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
More live updates here.
- Ukraine has claimed advances covering a little more than 40 square miles of territory in its counteroffensive. Russia occupies more than 800 times that amount, roughly 33,000 square miles, about half of which was seized before the February 2022 invasion.
- During his visit to Beijing, Blinken will reiterate the U.S. expectation that China not provide lethal aid to Russia, officials said Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic planning.
- St. Petersburg will host a second Russia-Africa summit, the Kremlin said Sunday. A Telegram post from the Foreign Ministry did not say when the summit would be held, but it would follow Saturday’s meeting between African leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
More live updates here.
Russia aims to defeat counteroffensive with mines, artillery and aviation
As Ukraine readied its counteroffensive by gathering Western weapons and sending its troops for NATO training, Russia spent at least seven months preparing for this potentially definitive stage of the war — by readying reserves, artillery and aviation support, stockpiling ammunition and fuel, and procuring more drones.
Russian forces also burrowed into the territory they occupy in southeast Ukraine, digging lines of trenches and erecting fortifications along the entire 900-mile-long front line, from Zaporizhzhia to Russia’s Belgorod region.
The massive network of defenses has weaknesses, according to military experts who described Russia’s preparations, but it is already slowing offensive operations and creating bottlenecks for the Ukrainian army, forcing it to try to break through on narrow paths, which allows Russia to regroup and aim more precisely.
Read the full story here.
As Ukraine readied its counteroffensive by gathering Western weapons and sending its troops for NATO training, Russia spent at least seven months preparing for this potentially definitive stage of the war — by readying reserves, artillery and aviation support, stockpiling ammunition and fuel, and procuring more drones.
Russian forces also burrowed into the territory they occupy in southeast Ukraine, digging lines of trenches and erecting fortifications along the entire 900-mile-long front line, from Zaporizhzhia to Russia’s Belgorod region.
The massive network of defenses has weaknesses, according to military experts who described Russia’s preparations, but it is already slowing offensive operations and creating bottlenecks for the Ukrainian army, forcing it to try to break through on narrow paths, which allows Russia to regroup and aim more precisely.
Read the full story here.