According to a U.S. military official, Ukrainian forces have lost more than 15 percent of the Bradley fighting vehicles the U.S. has provided to Kyiv. Many of the vehicles have been destroyed as Ukraine began its counteroffensive about three weeks ago amid heavy minefields laid by Russian troops and other difficult resistance.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department took immediate steps to distance Washington from a cross-border attack in Russia’s Belgorod region by Ukrainian-aligned individuals that occurred over the weekend. “We have made very clear to the Ukrainians that we don’t enable or encourage attacks outside Ukrainian’s borders,” the State Department commented before adding that it is “up to Ukraine to decide how they want to conduct their military operations.”
Russia has extended another harsh warning to the U.S. regarding potential future attacks on Russian-controlled Crimea. “Strikes on this territory are considered by us as an attack on any other region of the Russian Federation. It is important that the United States is fully aware of the Russian response,” Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. said on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s campaign to get Western leaders to provide Kyiv with fighter jets got a promising prospect on Monday when French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France has “opened the door” to training Ukrainian fighter pilots. The announcement came the day after Zelensky visited Paris as part of a broader tour of Europe. Macron also vowed to send more tanks to help with Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression.
This week, the White House released the details of its latest $300 million defense aid package for Ukraine, which will be pulled from already existing, although dwindling, Pentagon stockpiles. This package includes the Hydra-70 rocket for the first time. The rockets are unguided missiles that are usually air-to-ground and fired from an aircraft.
Among other rather unsavory revelations from the trove of Pentagon materials leaked by Airman Jack Teixeira, it has been discovered that the Biden administration’s efforts to slow Putin’s war in Ukraine by imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia are failing. According to the classified assessments, U.S. intelligence believes that Putin can afford to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine for at least another year. The assessments confirm what many in the West already knew to be true – economic sanctions are having little effect on Russia’s war.
According to Pentagon documents leaked by Airman Jack Teixeira, Washinton does not believe Ukraine will be able to recapture any significant territory during its much-anticipated spring offensive. The doubt expressed in the leaked February assessment has left the Biden administration preparing for failure.
During a recent visit to China, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that the U.S. should stop “encouraging” the war in Ukraine and support peace efforts instead. In response, on Tuesday, the White House accused Lula of repeating Chinese and Russian propaganda.
On Wednesday, Seymour Hersch, an investigative journalist, published a report on Substack alleging that the CIA is aware of large-scale corruption in Kyiv and the embezzlement of U.S. aid.
According to a Pentagon spokesman on Saturday, rising concerns that Iranian forces might target foreign commercial ships or oil tankers in the Persian Gulf has led the U.S. Navy to deploy a nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine carrying Tomahawk missiles to the region.