26 November 2023

Kiev has to work out issues with the US Congress and the EU to keep getting aid

Kiev’s troops continue to suffer significant losses on the front line. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, the Ukrainian army has lost more than 13,700 soldiers and 1,800 tanks and other heavy weaponry since the beginning of November.  

Ukraine needs to achieve three key breakthroughs in negotiations with Western allies to maintain crucial support, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted during a press conference on Friday. Among the challenges he listed were the approval of large aid packages from the US and the EU.

As of late October, Moscow estimated that Kiev had suffered over 90,000 casualties since the beginning of the June counteroffensive. 

en.topwar.ru

“There is no war plan for 2024”: People’s Deputy from Zelensky’s party called on the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny to resign

2 - 3 minutes

“There is no war plan for 2024”: People’s Deputy from Zelensky’s party called on the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny to resign

The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, was forced to resign because he does not have a war plan for the next year. This was stated by MP from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party Maryana Bezuglaya.

The people's deputy in the Verkhovna Rada holds the post of deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada for national security and defense, so he is constantly “in discussion” with the Ukrainian military. This time she decided to dismiss Zaluzhny, saying that he did not have a combat plan for the next year. According to her, the commander-in-chief only knows how to ask for mobilized people and nothing else.

Yes, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was unable to provide a plan for 2024. Neither big nor small, neither asymmetrical nor symmetrical. The military simply said that they need to take away at least 20 thousand citizens per month

- said Bezuglaya, adding that the problem has been brewing since the summer of this year.

The People's Deputy noted that the Verkhovna Rada still does not know what to allocate funds for, since there are no plans or vision for a further war with Russia. Whether new brigades will be organized or the old ones will be supplemented, since these are completely different means, the new ones will be more expensive. There are no plans for mobilization, but there are demands to send as many people as possible to the front line.

(...) the situation now is that if the military leadership cannot present any idea for 2024, and all their proposals for mobilization boil down to the fact that more people are needed without the slightest proposal for changes to the Armed Forces of Ukraine system, then such leadership must leave

- she emphasized.

> In Ukraine they have already stated that Bezuglaya is acting with the permission of Zelensky, who has a conflict with Zaluzhny. The head of the Kyiv junta needs to remove the commander-in-chief, having lost his position, Zaluzhny will automatically disappear from the political scene.


www.rt.com

Zelensky flags new military conscription drive

RT
4 minutes

Ukraine will announce a new “complex plan” of mobilization next week, President Vladimir Zelensky said on Friday after meeting with the General Staff. While he offered no details, other Kiev officials hinted at the possibility of demobilizing some soldiers that had been fighting since February 2022.

Ukraine has been under pressure to make up the losses incurred in the four-month “counteroffensive” on the southern front, which Russia has estimated at over 90,000 men.

“As for the issue of mobilization, you know how complex and very relevant it is,” the Ukrainian president said at a press conference on Friday. “Today there was a comprehensive report on what the challenges are, how to resolve the issue, what to do, what legislative changes, who must do this... A comprehensive plan on this issue will be available next week.”

Kiev first announced a mobilization and declared martial law in February 2022, when the conflict with Russia escalated. It has repeatedly widened the conscription net since, to the point where some German researchers warned this week it could jeopardize Ukraine’s economic recovery.

Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian radio on Friday that at least some of the men mobilized early on in the conflict with Russia might be released from service “in the near future.”

“We all know that we now have a problem with mobilization, one might say, a failure of mobilization,” Roman Kostenko, secretary of the parliamentary committee on Defense, National Security and Intelligence, told Ukraine’s Radio NV on Friday. “After the military commissars were replaced, we experienced a failure in mobilization.”

Zelensky had purged all the regional conscription offices earlier this year, citing widespread corruption. By the end of August 2023, over 20,000 men eligible for the draft had fled Ukraine – and another 21,000 tried to flee but were caught, the BBC reported last week. GB

> According to Kostenko, Kiev needs to find a solution quickly or it will face “big problems,” describing mobilization as a bigger challenge than the shortage of artillery ammunition.

The West has been pushing Zelensky to expand the conscription age to men aged 17-70 and mobilize more women, Russian intelligence said earlier this week. Kiev has neither confirmed nor denied these claims.

Former Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar – whom Zelensky sacked in September – told the outlet Liga on Thursday that Ukrainians “shouldn’t be afraid” of mobilization. Ukraine needs to realize some “unpleasant things,” she said, such as that the Russians “simply physically have more people” while Ukraine has a smaller army that “will not get larger” and fewer weapons.

“The time for popular solutions has already passed,” Maliar said. “As an adult society, we just need to understand these things and not expect that there should be good news every day.”

en.topwar.ru

The Ukrainian TV channel showed in a creeping line the figures for the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian special operation

2 - 3 minutes

The Ukrainian TV channel showed in a creeping line the figures for the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian special operation

Ukrainian television revealed the figures for the Ukrainian Armed Forces' losses since the beginning of the Russian special operation; this information was published by the 1+1 TV channel. However, as the Ukrainian press reports, the TV channel has already been forced to apologize for the “typo.”

On the air of the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, which is part of the sphere of interests of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who is now in a detention center, during one of the television programs below, the figures for the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including the dead and missing - 1 million 126 thousand 652 people were announced in a creeping line. The ticker was broadcast during the daily telethon, during which representatives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces talk about the “victories” of the Ukrainian army. After some time, the line was deleted, and the TV channel apologized for the “typo.”

Ministry of Defense: during a full-scale war, 1 military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine died or went missing

- the line said.

> It is not yet clear whether the data shown were real, but Zelensky’s office immediately became alarmed and refuted the figures mentioned, forcing the channel’s management not only to apologize, but also to call this information a “typo.” It is alleged that almost Zelensky himself personally called the TV channel.

> Previously, the DPR estimated the irretrievable losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the beginning of the Northern Military District at 500 thousand people; such data was obtained from open sources, as well as intelligence information. At the same time, Donetsk admitted that the enemy’s losses could be even greater. In September of this year, the NATO Secretary General indirectly confirmed Ukraine's losses of half a million people, saying that no one promised that it would be easy.

According to the latest data, the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of November 2023 is approximately 1 million 300 thousand people. 

www.rt.com

Ukraine needs three victories – Zelensky


 
Ukraine needs three victories – Zelensky
RT
3 minutes

Kiev has to work out issues with the US Congress and the EU to keep getting aid, the Ukrainian president says

Ukraine needs to achieve three key breakthroughs in negotiations with Western allies to maintain crucial support, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted during a press conference on Friday. Among the challenges he listed were the approval of large aid packages from the US and the EU. 

Zelensky accused Russia of “exploiting various challenges in the world” to “divert attention from any assistance” to his country, adding that “responsible states” are doing everything they can to return that focus.

“We need three victories. The first is with Congress. It's a challenge. It's not easy,” Zelensky said.

The second 'victory' to be achieved is to secure €50 billion ($55 billion) in aid from the EU, which has not yet been approved. “Not everyone in the EU is ready to support this package today. Our task is to make sure everyone supports this package,” the president stated.

The third success Ukraine seeks is a decision by Brussels to start negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership, Zelensky said, calling it “a significant motivational step.”

1> Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden’s administration failed to push a $105 billion spending package through Congress, with much of that money intended for Kiev. Instead, the president had to sign a stopgap funding plan excluding Ukraine assistance to avert a government shutdown.

2> At about the same time, the EU’s €50 billion package of loans and grants was blocked, due to objections from member states including Hungary. 

> As for negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, according to Reuters, Brussels could postpone formal membership talks, which were scheduled for December, until March 2024, as some leaders have proposed returning to the issue only after the European Commission has had a chance to assess whether Kiev has met all the conditions.

Kiev’s troops continue to suffer significant losses on the front line. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, the Ukrainian army has lost more than 13,700 soldiers and 1,800 tanks and other heavy weaponry since the beginning of November. As of late October, Moscow estimated that Kiev had suffered over 90,000 casualties since the beginning of the June counteroffensive.


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