Ukraine consolidates gains amid push for more military aid

The US hails ‘significant progress’ in the Kharkiv region as Kyiv tries to leverage its battlefield gains.

A residential building destroyed by a missile strike in the centre of Kharkiv. Picture: AFP

Ukrainian forces looked to maximize gains from a lightning quick offensive in the country’s northeastern Kharkiv region, making a diplomatic push for more weapons and deeper security ties with Western allies.

A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former chief of NATO, said on Tuesday night they were drafting a proposal to shore up ties between Kyiv and its Western allies with the aim of guaranteeing the flow of weapons, intelligence, financial aid and training to the country.

The document, they said, won’t include a commitment similar to Article 5 of the NATO alliance, which requires allies to intervene militarily if a member is attacked. Instead, the officials said the document is modelled on guarantees between the US and Israel, which ensures the flow of support is steady and unwavering.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said if the West keeps sending weapons to Ukraine, “sooner or later the military campaign will move to another level.”

The diplomacy shows how Kyiv is trying to leverage its recent gains on the battlefield to deepen ties with its Western backers. Ukraine was under pressure to show tangible signs of progress before the onset of cooler temperatures, when dwindling supplies of Russian natural gas will test Europe’s economy and political unity.

Since the start of its offensive earlier this month, Ukraine has said it has retaken about 9000 sq km of territory from Moscow’s forces in the region of Kharkiv, handing Russia the biggest setback since it invaded in February. That is more than a tenth of all areas Russia gained and kept since the invasion.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday hailed “significant progress” by the Ukrainians in the country’s northeast, which he said was a product of US support, as well as “the extraordinary courage and resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian people”.

The diplomatic moves came as retaliatory Russian strikes plunged Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, back into darkness. Russian shelling hit the Lozova district, south of the regional capital, early Tuesday morning, Kharkiv Governor Oleg Sinegubov said on Telegram. Backup power lines to Kharkiv failed after temporarily restoring electricity following a Russian attack on the city’s power station over the weekend.

The Kharkiv metro suspended service, citing technical reasons, while online videos showed stranded commuters walking out of a darkened underground station. The metro authorities said Tuesday afternoon that movement had been restored. Mr Zelensky said the strikes against civilian infrastructure had cut power for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians over the past few days.

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday said its forces had launched “massive strikes” on Ukrainian units “in all operations directions”, including targets near Slovyansk, Kostiantynivka and Kharkiv.

The latest offensive has drawn attention from Russia’s official state media, which was previously impervious to military setbacks. Pundits on state TV have called for a reassessment of Russia’s military strategy and an even harsher clampdown on dissent in Ukrainian cities and towns that Moscow still occupies. Even some pro-Kremlin propagandists who hew to the state-approved narrative have raised questions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response on Tuesday that the Russian people supported what Moscow calls a special military operation. “The Russians support the president, and this is confirmed by the mood of the people, their actions, and their participation in elections,” Mr Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency RIA Novosti.

The UK’s Defence Ministry said some of the Russian forces that withdrew from Kharkiv were from an elite unit called the 1st Guards Tank Army, which had been groomed to defend Moscow and lead counter-attacks in the event of war with NATO.

The unit suffered heavy losses in the initial phase of the invasion and hadn’t been fully reconstituted before the Ukrainian offensive in Kharkiv. “Russia’s conventional force designed to counter NATO is severely weakened,” the ministry said, predicting it would take Russia years to rebuild that capability.

Ukraine’s foreign minister called on the country’s Western allies to increase military support to enable Kyiv to capitalise on the recent advances. The US has provided more than $US15bn in military assistance to Ukraine since the start of the Biden administration, including advanced systems that played a crucial role in achieving recent gains.

On Tuesday, Andriy Yermak, a senior aide to Mr Zelensky, held a news conference with Mr. Rasmussen to push for deeper security ties, saying formal guarantees would allow military aid to flow without delays and uncertainty that cost the lives of Ukrainian troops who were outgunned earlier this year.

“We need a military power strong enough to repel the Russians’ desire for revenge,” Mr Yermak said. “Security guarantees are aimed at helping us create such a power.”

On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials provided the first concrete indications that Russia is using Iranian drones in battle.

A Ukrainian officer shared photos of debris from a drone that he said was shot down during fighting in Kupyansk, a city in eastern Ukraine that was recently recaptured from Russia by Ukrainian forces. The Strategic Communications Directorate of the Ukrainian armed forces confirmed that an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone was shot down near Kupyansk.

Arms experts said the wreckage appeared to be from an Iranian-made Shahed-style drone with its distinctive fin design. The Shahed-136 is known as a kamikaze drone that blows up as it reaches its target and has a speed of about 200km/h.

“An analysis of the elements of the drone’s wing allows us to confidently state that the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed an Iranian (unmanned aerial vehicle) for the first time. We are talking about the long-range kamikaze UAV Shahed-136,” the Ukrainian military said.

US officials have accused Iran of supplying Russia with scores of drones for use in Ukraine.

Over the summer, the White House said that Iranian officials had started training Russians on how to use their advanced drones.

Late last month, the Biden administration said that Tehran had delivered the first shipment of drones to Russia, including Shaheds and Mohajer-6 designs, both of which can carry precision-guided missiles and stay in the air for long periods. At the time, US officials said the Iranian drones had proved to be unreliable and experienced a variety of failures, but declined to provide more details.

Russian and Iranian officials have repeatedly dismissed the US accusations as American disinformation.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for the first time since June to ask him again to seek a diplomatic solution to the war that would include a ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops, as well as restoring Ukraine’s integrity and sovereignty, the Berlin government spokesman said. Mr Scholz warned Mr Putin that any attempts to annex more Ukrainian territory would have consequences and would never be recognised, the spokesman said.

The Wall Street Journal