Russian Missile/Drone Strikes Ukraine’s Power Grid – Ukraine’s Top Brass Admits Resource Shortage

Update on Russian military operations in and around Ukraine for December 17, 2022:

– Russian missiles and drones deliver massive damage to Ukrainian electrical infrastructure;

– The extensive damage reported by Russian strikes contradicts Kiev’s claims of intercepting “most” Russian missiles and drones;

– Pentagon plans training program for 500 Ukrainian forces per month falling far short of necessary numbers just to replace lost Ukrainian manpower;

– Ukrainian General Zaluzhny admits a growing logistical crisis and shortcomings regarding Western systems transferred to Ukrainian forces;

– Zaluzhny complains about HIMARS’ limited range;

– Zaluzhny demands arms deliveries on a scale the US and NATO are incapable of;

References:

An interview with General Valery Zaluzhny, head of Ukraine’s armed forces

Russian Missile/Drone Strikes Ukraine’s Power Grid – Ukraine’s Top Brass Admits Resource Shortage (Odysee) via The New Atlas

War Industry Looking Forward to “Multiyear Authority” in Ukraine

Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently offered some matter-of-fact observations about the immense human suffering and death caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and placed the responsibility for ending the war squarely on Moscow’s shoulders. “There’s one guy that can stop it — and his name is Vladimir Putin,” Milley said. “He needs to stop it.”

But then Milley crossed what he most certainly never imagined to be a tripwire when he said, “And they need to get to the negotiating table.”

War Industry Looking Forward to “Multiyear Authority” in Ukraine

U.S. and NATO scramble to arm Ukraine and refill their own arsenals

Either this narrative about weapon stockpiles, being depleted, is part of the information war or Russia is demilitarizing NATO!?!

U.S. and NATO scramble to arm Ukraine and refill their own arsenals

In Ukraine, the kind of European war thought inconceivable is chewing up the modest stockpiles of artillery, ammunition and air defenses of what some in NATO call Europe’s “bonsai armies,” after the tiny Japanese trees. Even the mighty United States has only limited stocks of the weapons the Ukrainians want and need, and Washington is unwilling to divert key weapons from delicate regions like Taiwan and Korea, where China and North Korea are constantly testing the limits.

So the West is scrambling to find increasingly scarce Soviet-era equipment and ammunition that Ukraine can use now, including S-300 air defense missiles, T-72 tanks and especially Soviet-caliber artillery shells

There are even discussions about NATO investing in old factories in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria to restart the manufacturing of Soviet-caliber 152-mm and 122-mm shells for Ukraine’s still largely Soviet-era artillery armory.

The European Union has approved €3.1 billion ($3.2 billion) to repay member states for what they provide to Ukraine, but that fund, the [ironically-named] European Peace Facility, is nearly 90 percent depleted.

Smaller countries have exhausted their potential, another NATO official said, with 20 of its 30 members “pretty tapped out.” But the remaining 10 can still provide more, he suggested, especially larger allies. That would include France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has advised the alliance — including, pointedly, Germany — that NATO guidelines requiring members to keep stockpiles should not be a pretext to limit arms exports to Ukraine. But it is also true that Germany and France, like the United States, want to calibrate the weapons Ukraine gets, to prevent escalation and direct attacks on Russia.

Washington is also looking at older, cheaper alternatives like giving Ukraine anti-tank TOW missiles, which are in plentiful supply, instead of Javelins, and Hawk surface-to-air missiles instead of newer versions. But officials are increasingly pushing Ukraine to be more efficient and not, for example, fire a missile that costs $150,000 at a drone that costs $20,000.

[3-8-22] Trump Calls Out ‘Fake News’ Over Reports He Did Nothing for Ukraine

Trump Calls Out ‘Fake News’ Over Reports He Did Nothing for Ukraine

“The fake news media refuses to report that I was the one who, very early and strongly, gave the anti-tank busters (Javelins) to Ukraine, while Obama/Biden was giving blankets, to great and open complaints,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday.

“Then [President Joe] Biden came in, and canceled the remaining military equipment that was packed, loaded, and ready to be shipped. Now the fake news media is trying to say that Trump gave Ukraine nothing, and it was Biden who is their great friend and gave them weaponry. The dishonesty is so unbelievable. All I can do is report it!”

“When Trump was elected, the first thing they did was send in the Javelin,” U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy Jim Townsend said at the time. “It wasn’t exactly high-end, but we were very happy, and they built on a very firm foundation.”

Related:

Trump Says Russia-Ukraine Tensions ‘Would Never Have Happened’ Under His Presidency:

The Russian Embassy in Washington said if the U.S. was “truly committed to diplomatic efforts to resolve the internal Ukrainian conflict” it would “abandon plans to supply new batches of weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

On the claim that Obama didn’t send military weapons to Ukraine (supposedly he just didn’t send Javelins)

U.S. officials were concerned that providing the Javelins to Ukraine would escalate their conflict with Russia. Key allies, including Germany, were not keen on sending weapons into the conflict zone, said Michael Kofman, an expert on Russia and senior research scientist at the CNA Corporation.

The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which became law in November 2015, called for “lethal assistance such as anti-armor weapon systems, mortars, crew-served weapons and ammunition, grenade launchers and ammunition, and small arms and ammunition.”