Ukraine shoots down Russian spy balloons
Multiple Russian balloons, believed to be carrying reconnaissance equipment, have been shot out of the sky by Ukrainian defence forces.
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Ukraine said its aerial defence units had detected half a dozen balloons, apparently launched by Russia, over the capital Kyiv and shot most of them down.
Kyiv authorities said the balloons could carry reconnaissance equipment and were launched to “detect and exhaust our air defence forces.”
“Most of the probes have been shot down,” the city administration said in a statement, adding authorities would carefully examine the debris.
The presence of the balloons in the sky prompted sirens to go off in the Ukrainian capital, which usually happens when missiles are approaching.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said that Russia uses balloons to exhaust Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles.
“The Russians will use all available methods of warfare to achieve their goals,” he told AFP.
“Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that these devices can conduct some kind of surveillance, so it is important to see what they are and understand them.”
Since the start of the Russian invasion last February, Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly reported Russian balloons drifting in the country’s airspace.
On Tuesday, neighbouring Moldova temporarily closed its airspace due to the presence of a flying object resembling a weather balloon amid heightened tensions with Moscow.
The United States has been in a state of alarm since a huge white balloon from China was spotted tracking over a series of top secret nuclear weapons sites.
US President Joe Biden is considering a rare public address after it emerged the Chinese spy balloon was tracked for a week before it entered North American airspace.
Three unidentified flying objects have been shot down over the United States since the diplomatic crisis began almost two weeks ago.
‘SITUATION IN BAKHMUT THE MOST DIFFICULT’
Mr Zelenskyy has described the situation near the east town of Bakhmut as the “most difficult” on the front line, but insisted Ukrainian troops were holding back Russia’s advances.
“The situation in Bakhmut is the most difficult on the territory of our country,” Mr Zelenskyy told a news conference with visiting Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Wednesday.
“It’s not easy for our soldiers in the east but they don’t call it ‘fortress Bakhmut’ for nothing,” he said, adding that Ukrainian forces were “firmly holding” their positions.
Mr Zelenskyy also singled out Vugledar, a town south of Bakhmut that has recently seen heavy fighting.
Bakhmut has been at the centre of months of heavy fighting in Russia’s nearly year-long offensive in Ukraine, with both sides suffering heavy losses.
The Swedish Prime Minister said Stockholm would continue to “provide as much support as possible politically” to Ukraine.
Referring to fighter jets that Kyiv has been urging allies to deliver, Mr Kristersson said: “We don’t exclude anything right now.
“But at the same time we also acknowledge the fact that we need an international coalition to take further steps,” he added.
On Wednesday, the governor of the eastern region of Lugansk, which is largely under Russian control, reported an “escalation” near the settlements of Kreminna and Bilogorivka.
Sergiy Gaidai said Russian troops were attacking in “waves” with air support. In the eastern town of Pokrovsk, strikes hit a residential building on Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring 12 others, emergency services said.
“At least two other people remain under the rubble,” rescuers said.
RUSSIA’S TWO BIGGEST ‘MISTAKES’ REVEALED
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has provided a fresh condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and outlined President Vladimir Putin’s two big strategic “mistakes”.
Speaking at the NATO in Brussels about support for Ukraine, Mr Stoltenberg said Mr Putin had underestimated Ukrainians and NATO.
“He underestimated the strength and bravery of people of Ukraine and its armed forces, and he underestimated the unity and resolve of NATO and its partners.”
He added that NATO allies are giving unprecedent support to Ukraine, and reiterated that the Western alliance will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes”.
Ukraine’s Western backers pledged at a meeting Tuesday to keep the huge amounts of ammunition and arms Kyiv needs flowing to the frontline, as Russia battled for the devastated city of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has knuckled down on his plea for Western aircraft after securing commitments for tanks, air defence and precision missiles.
But allies meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels remained focused on ensuring his forces have the ammunition, armoured vehicles and air defences they need on the ground to push back renewed Russian offensives.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the priorities were to protect his country’s skies, bolster promised tank supplies and ensure ammunition stocks.
“Russia has lost, they’ve lost strategically, operationally and tactically and they are paying an enormous price on the battlefield,” top US General Mark Milley said after the meeting of more than 50 countries.
“Until Putin ends his war of choice, the international community will continue to support Ukraine with the equipment and capabilities it needs.”
Ukraine’s Western supporters – spearheaded by the US – have already supplied billions of dollars of arms to help Kyiv hold Moscow back.
Now, just under a year into the war, NATO says Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be starting a broader new offensive in east Ukraine.
“We see Russia introducing a number of new troops to the battlefield. Many of those troops are ill-trained and ill-equipped, and so their casualty rate has been really high,” US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said.
He said Ukraine was looking to turn the tide on the battlefield to gain momentum and he expected Kyiv’s forces to launch their own counter-offensive in the spring.
US TELLS CITIZENS: ‘LEAVE RUSSIA NOW’
The war in Ukraine is depleting Western and European allies’ ammunition stockpiles, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.
“For example, the wait for large calibre ammunition has increased from 12 to 28 months. Orders placed today will only be delivered two and half years later,” he said during a press conference in Brussels, adding that the depleted stockpile puts defence ministries under strain.
“We need to ramp up our production and production capacity.”
However, fears over dwindling stockpiles of munitions did not appear to derail NATO’s commitment to support Ukraine as Mr Stoltenberg highlighted the need to send Kyiv more weapons.
“The reality is we are seeing the start” of new Russian offensive already, Mr Stoltenberg told journalists. “It’s urgent to provide Ukraine with more weapons.”
The meeting of defence ministers on Tuesday will focus on ways to increase stockpiles and defence industrial capacities.
Meanwhile, Russia continued a high pace of attacks in Ukraine’s Luhansk region ahead of what the Ukrainian leader of that region said is a prelude to “massive attacks.”
He said that he believed that Russia was preparing for a “full-scale offensive,” pointing to increased shelling and air strikes. “They have a lot of reserves in personnel and a lot of equipment,” he said. “So we are waiting for them to launch around-the-clock massive attacks in the coming days.”
Allies will “step up and sustain” support for Ukraine, NATO’s Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.
“Almost one year of the invasion, President Putin is not preparing for peace. He is launching new offensives,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference.
His comments come ahead of a meeting of NATO ministers of defence on February 14.
US TELLS CITIZENS TO LEAVE RUSSIA IMMEDIATELY
The United States on Monday issued a top level advisory urging American citizens to leave Russia immediately and advised US citizens to avoid travel to Russia as its war against neighbouring Ukraine continues.
US authorities cited risks of harassment and Russia’s potential for wrongfully detaining Americans.
“Do not travel to Russia due to the unpredictable consequences of the unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the (American) Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, and the possibility of terrorism,” the alert said.
PUTIN LOSING RECORD AMOUNT OF TROOPS
It comes as Vladimir Putin is losing more soldiers in Ukraine this month than at any time since the first week of the invasion, according to fresh data.
Figures seen by the UK Ministry of Defence show 824 Russian soldiers are dying per day in February.
The numbers, which cannot be verified, are “likely accurate”, the UK MOD says.
“The Ukrainian General Staff release daily statistics on Russian casualties. Although Defence Intelligence cannot verify Ukraine’s methodology, the trends the data illustrate are likely accurate,” the UK MOD said in a statement posted Twitter.
“The mean average for the last seven days was 824 casualties per day, over four times the rate reported over June-July 2022. Ukraine also continues to suffer a high attrition rate.
“The uptick in Russian casualties is likely due to a range of factors including lack of trained personnel, co-ordination, and resources across the front – this is exemplified in Vuhledar and Bakhmut.”
It comes as the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner has alleged that his troops have taken an eastern Ukrainian village a few kilometres from the key city of Bakhmut which Moscow has been trying to capture for months.
“Today, Wagner’s assault units took the town of Krasna Hora,” Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement on Sunday.
The claims have not yet been independently verified.
Experts have debated the strategic importance of Bakhmut, but the city has turned into a key political and symbolic prize as the battle has dragged on.
Rivalry between the paramilitary Wagner group and the Russian army have come to the surface during the fight for Bakhmut – though the Kremlin denies any rift.
On January 11 Prigozhin claimed his fighters had taken control of the city of Soledar, a salt-mining town with a pre-war population of around 10,000 near Bakhmut.
The Russian defence ministry only said two days later that Moscow’s forces were controlling the town.
“After the capture of Soledar and the mass hype saying that there were other (soldiers) besides Wagner in Soledar, of course, the guys were very frustrated,” Prigozhin said on Sunday.
“Within a 50km radius, more or less, only Wagner fighters remain, and they will take Bakhmut.”
– with AFP
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