Despite the recent fall of the eastern city of Bakhmut to Russian and Wagner forces, Ukrainian officials still insist that they will “get back what’s ours,” according to top military officer, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reiterating the same message claiming that “we strongly believe that we will succeed.”
Poland and Norway have joined the ever-expanding faction of NATO countries that are willing to begin training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. The countries’ willingness comes after President Joe Biden gave his approval at last week’s G7 summit in Japan for Europeans to send Western fighters to Ukraine. The policy change occurred after months of debate inside the administration.
Seymour Hersh: ‘Something Else Is Cooking’ In Ukraine
As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) summit approaches, member states have been privately discussing what Ukraine’s status within the alliance should be. While all members are in favor of elevating Kyiv’s status, the members have not been able to agree on a united path for Ukraine to join the bloc.
Last Friday at an event in Florence, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made some blunt statements regarding Ukraine’s precarious position and noted that Kyiv would collapse “in a matter of days” if military support from its Western allies were to stop being given. Borrell also noted that the situation is regrettably not right for peace talks at the present time.
On Friday, a NATO official announced that a Polish jet patrolling over the Black Sea near Romania on behalf of Frontex, the EU’s border agency, had a concerning encounter with a Russian aircraft.
The former, briefly lived, UK prime minister, Lizz Truss, renewed calls this week for Ukraine’s NATO membership to be fast-tracked. “I also believe we should fast-track Ukraine’s membership of NATO. We should have done it years ago, but the best time to do it will be now,” Truss told listeners during a speech at a Heritage Foundation event.
In an effort to garner more support for the war in Ukraine from U.S. allies, the White House has decided to send 2 U.S. Treasury officials to Europe and Central Asia next month to demand that Washington’s allies implement sanctions against Russia.