Political strategic level
The United States is looking for ways to counter Iranian drone production through sanctions and export controls. It is also "talking" to private companies whose manufactured parts were used to assemble the drones, the White House said. "We appreciate the further steps we can take in the area of export controls to limit Iran's access to the technology used in drone production," White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
The United States has previously imposed sanctions on companies and individuals who have manufactured or transferred Iranian drones to Russia. The terrorist state is targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine with drones.
We estimate that some 600 Iranian drones have already been used in Ukraine, of which only a tenth have reached their targets. At a conservative estimate, Russia may still have the same number of drones in stock and is making every effort to secure its future supply. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia is due to receive a total of 1 750 Kamikaze drones under the contract, and a new batch is on its way.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stated that his country will provide military assistance to Ukraine in the coming weeks and months to help it defeat Russia on the battlefield. In a telephone conversation with President Vladimir Zelensky, the leaders discussed the Russian attacks in the first days of the year.
R. Sunak confirmed that Ukraine can count on Britain's long-term support and welcomed the recent successful delivery of more than 1,000 anti-aircraft missiles for Ukraine's defence.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky that his government would send AMX-10 RC light armoured fighting vehicles to help in the war against Russia, the French head of state said on Wednesday after a telephone conversation between the two. "This is the first time that armoured vehicles made in Western countries are being delivered to support the Ukrainian army," he said. However, no details on the volume or timing of the planned deliveries were given.
V. Zelensky thanked Macron for the report and said that it showed that others also need to be supplied with heavier weapons. "This is something that sends a clear signal to all our partners - there is no rational reason why Ukraine should not yet be supplied with Western tanks", he said in a video address.
"This year we must put an end to Russian aggression", he said, adding that "modern Western armoured vehicles and Western-type tanks" are the main tools that Ukraine needs.
The media were quick to point out that France would supply tanks, albeit light tanks. Sceptics, however, began to express their disappointment and some openly ridiculed such a supply of "tanks".
It is understood that six-wheeled armoured fighting vehicles, designed to move quickly on the battlefield and to destroy enemy heavy equipment, including tanks, are not really heavy tracked tanks. However, we would like to point out three things. Firstly, this is indeed an important psychological step, a small step, but a step forward, in the decisions of Western leaders. And although Macron's statement is probably due to the fact that US President Biden has confirmed the intention to send Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, this does not change the substance. Secondly, the designation of the armoured personnel carriers as 'tanks' was deliberate on the part of the Ukrainian side, sending a message both to Russia and to the rest of the pro-Ukrainian world. And thirdly, instead of calling Putin, Macron was busy talking to Mr Zelensky. A good sign. For those who believe in signs.
The fact that Ukraine's strategic communication is working is demonstrated by the comment made by Marie-Agnes Struck-Zimmermann, head of the Bundestag Defence Committee, on France's decision to hand over so-called Bastion light tanks and armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine. She addressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying that "everything now depends on Berlin". Struck-Zimmermann has repeatedly advocated the transfer of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
"The other partner countries are again leading the way. Now we can finally start the spirit of Franco-German friendship, right, Olaf Scholz? The ball is now in Berlin's court. Now we just need to score," Struck-Zimmermann wrote.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said earlier that Berlin would not send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to "prevent the spread of war". Germany has said that the issue of the transfer of tanks to Ukraine will be dealt with in coordination with NATO partners.
NATO partners, as we can see, are 'coordinating'. It is time for Germany to do the same.
Ukraine wants the UN to send peacekeepers to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, even without an agreement with Russia on the creation of a security zone. This was stated by Petro Kotin, head of the Ukrainian state nuclear energy company Energoatom. "The problem is that there is no solution at the IAEA level. The process is not moving forward. We propose to take this problem to a new level", Kotin said.
We talked about this four or five months ago. This is just an observation, without any further comment.
Operational level
The Norwegian Ministry of Defence pledges that Norway will continue to support Ukraine in 2023 and has announced the transfer of new military aid to Ukraine as proof. In the near future, and perhaps even at the time of writing, a consignment of 10,000 projectiles for artillery has arrived in Ukraine. These munitions can be used to fire the M109 self-propelled howitzers that Norway has previously supplied to Ukraine, as well as some other 155 mm calibre artillery systems.
Information has emerged, which we are cautious about for the time being, that Ukraine may receive air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles capable of striking targets with high precision at a range of 450 km. "Storm Shadow is the result of a joint Anglo-French project. The first successful firing took place in France at the end of December 2000, and the missiles entered service in 2002. The first use of the missile was by the British Army in the 2003 Iraq War.
The missile is guided by an inertial guidance system, the trajectory is calculated by an onboard computer which uses GPS and a terrain comparison with a model in the missile's memory.
These missiles would greatly accelerate the collapse of the Russian Horde.
The Russian occupiers have begun to turn the Mariupol seaport into a military base. According to the adviser to the mayor, Petro Andriushchenko, all the residents of Mariupol working at the port have been fired and replaced by Russian citizens. "The division of the berths into relatively civilian and relatively military has begun", Andriushchenko said.
Unfortunately, the war will be long, bloody and will continue until the horde is destroyed and the heart of the hydra ruling the horde is pierced by a trumpet in the Kremlin.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence's Main Intelligence Directorate, has stated that Ukraine is planning a serious offensive on the front in the spring. In an interview with ABC News, he said that the fighting in March will be "the hottest". "Then we will see more liberation of territories and the final defeat of the Russian Federation. This will happen all over Ukraine, from Crimea to the Donbas", the GUR leader stressed.
In response to this statement, Führer Putin sent a frigate armed with a new generation of supersonic cruise missiles to the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday. In a video conference with Minister for Terrorism and War Crimes Sergei Shoigu and Igor Krochmal, commander of the frigate named "Admiral Gorshkov of the Soviet Navy", Putin said that the ship was armed with "Cirkon hypersonic weapons". "I am convinced that such powerful weapons will reliably protect Russia from possible external threats," the "messiah" crowed in Mussolini style.
Mussolini believed in a navy he did not have. Putka believes in the 'second army in the world', in the invincible Armata tank that no one has seen, in the underwater torpedo-drone Poseidon that reaches targets thousands of kilometres away and does not work, and, finally, in the Cirkon anti-ship missile, which is the product of propaganda.
That is good. And very, very bad.
Tactical level
The Kremlin claimed to have destroyed more than 100 Ukrainian "fascists" with a precision strike in Druzhkivka, some 50 km west of the border of the territory controlled by the occupying forces.
The Russian propaganda machine is beginning to work with the best methods of the Soviet information bureau, with tales of Morozov and Matrosov being created on a level playing field. In reality, a Russian terrorist strike destroyed a children's hockey rink, a skating rink with neither military personnel nor equipment.
In the east, the Ukrainian Joint Defence Forces are pressing on the Kremlin in a semicircle. Battles are being fought at Pischan to the southeast and at Shypylivka to the northeast, where Wagner's marauders are entrenched. The tactical objective is to encircle the Driski in Kremin, reach Rubizhne and drive a wedge between it and Lysychansk.
In the north-east, between Sviatove and Kremina, clashes are taking place along the P-66 highway, as the Drisky leadership realises that losing control of this stretch would open the way for a Ukrainian strike on Sviatove and possibly Troitsk.
Partisans and Ukrainian special operations forces are active in the south. As a result of successful intelligence operations, HIMARS has struck targets in Kherson and Zaporizhia. Officers of the occupation forces disappear in the vicinity of Melitopol under unclear circumstances. They are later spotted by the jubilant Kobzon Society.
This morning, explosions and a fire broke out on Cape Fiolent near Sevastopol in temporarily occupied Crimea (Ukraine). Cape Fiolent is approximately 250 km from the front.
Photo: French AMX-10 RC tank hunter promised to Ukraine.
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