Poorly trained recruits contribute to loss of Ukrainian territory on eastern front + The US Is Sending $125 Million in New Military Aid to Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Some new Ukrainian soldiers refuse to fire at the enemy. Others, according to commanders and fellow fighters, struggle to assemble weapons or to coordinate basic combat movements. A few have even walked away from their posts, abandoning the battlefield altogether.

While Ukraine presses on with its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, its troops are still losing precious ground along the country’s eastern front — a grim erosion that military commanders blame in part on poorly trained recruits drawn from a recent mobilization drive, as well as Russia’s clear superiority in ammunition and air power.

Poorly trained recruits contribute to loss of Ukrainian territory on eastern front, commanders say

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Reuters: Russia and Ukraine report gains as some Ukrainians flee strategic city

But although the incursion is an embarrassment for Russia, Moscow’s forces have continued their gradual advances of the past few months against tired Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine worn down by 2-1/2 years of heavy fighting.

Moscow said its troops had taken control of the village of Mezhove in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, and that they had beaten back an attempt by a Ukrainian force to infiltrate its border in a different region to Kyiv’s Aug. 6 incursion.

Ukrainian authorities say Russian troops are now just 10 km (six miles) outside Pokrovsk, an important transport hub in eastern Ukraine, and this week started evacuating elderly residents and children.

Moscow’s capture of Pokrovsk, which lies at an intersection of roads and a railway line, would give Russia options to advance in new directions and also cut supply routes used by the Ukrainian military in the Donetsk region.

WSJ: Ukraine Moves to Encircle Russian Troops in Kursk and Digs In for Long Fight

The incursion hasn’t, so far, shifted the dynamic on the war’s main battlefields in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is advancing in toward Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian logistical hub, and Toretsk, a city on strategically important high ground.

The US Is Sending $125 Million in New Military Aid to Ukraine, Officials Say

NATO has failed to weaken Russia

Full video

US General Says Russia’s Military Is Bigger Than Before Ukraine Invasion

“In sum, Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent,” he said. “Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia will be larger, more lethal, and angrier with the West than when it invaded.”

Back in April 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declared one goal of the proxy war was to “weaken” Russia. More recently, hawks in Congress have been claiming that the damage being done to the Russian military is a good enough reason to continue fueling the conflict.

Related:

Ukraine’s Top General Says Situation on the Battlefield Has ‘Significantly Worsened’

Kosovo War at 25: Blair’s secret invasion plot to ‘topple Milosevic’ revealed

Source

Top secret papers reviewed by The Grayzone reveal Tony Blair demanded strikes on civilian targets in Yugoslavia days before NATO attacked them. While the UK military acknowledged a NATO strike on Hotel Jugoslavia would mean inflicting “some civilian casualties,” it insisted the deaths were “worth the cost.”

Kosovo War at 25: Blair’s secret invasion plot to ‘topple Milosevic’ revealed

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Breakup of Yugoslavia

US and EU officials discuss possible negotiations with Russia with Ukraine

US and EU officials discuss possible negotiations with Russia with Ukraine

Background: In September, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Kyiv could not conduct peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin because he could not be trusted.

Kuleba also stated that the war started by Russia could not be stopped by sitting down at the negotiating table.

H/T: Emil Cosman

Related:

US and Europe in Talks With Ukraine on Possible ‘Peace Deal’ With Russia – Report

As for ‘peace’ talks with Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it is ready for negotiations, but Kiev has introduced a ban on them at a legislative level. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized at the UN General Assembly in September that Moscow would not consider any proposals of a ceasefire, “because the one time we did consider it, you [Kiev] deceived us.” Speaking about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point “Peace Formula,” Sergey Lavrov noted it is not remotely realistic, although the West regards it as the only basis for peace in Ukraine.