Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell in Kyiv. Reuters
Some of Europe’s top diplomats gathered in Kyiv on Monday in a display of support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion as signs emerge of political strain in Europe and the United States over the 19-month-old war.
A pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and the US Congress has left Ukraine war aid out of its spending Bill.
European Union foreign ministers converged on the Ukrainian capital for an unannounced informal meeting that officials said would review the bloc’s support for Ukraine and discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s proposed peace formula.
EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said the foreign ministers’ first joint meeting outside EU borders signalled that the 27-nation bloc’s support is “unwavering”, and underscored the European Union’s commitment to Ukraine.
The United States, the EU and the United Kingdom have provided massive military and financial support to Ukraine, enabling it to stand up to Kremlin’s attack.
The assistance is crucial for Ukraine’s weakened economy and has so far been open-ended.
But uncertainty has set in over how long Kyiv’s allies will keep sending it aid worth billions of dollars (euros).
Smoke rises from the shipyard that was reportedly hit by Ukrainian missile attack in Sevastopol, Crimea, in this still image from video taken September 13, 2023. REUTERS TV via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
Ukraine said on Thursday it attacked two Russian patrol ships and destroyed a sophisticated air defence system in the west of occupied Crimea, ramping up its strikes to challenge Moscow’s dominance in the Black Sea region.
The attacks come a day after Kyiv said it seriously damaged a Russian submarine and landing ship undergoing repairs in a missile strike on a shipyard in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gets in a Tesla car as he leaves a hotel in Beijing, China May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Elon Musk said he refused a Ukrainian request to activate his Starlink satellite network in Crimea’s port city of Sevastopol last year to aid an attack on Russia’s fleet there, saying he feared complicity in a “major” act of war.
The billionaire businessman made the comment on his social media platform X after CNN cited a excerpt from a new biography of Musk that says he ordered the Starlink network turned off near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt the Ukrainian sneak attack.
In the post on X – formerly known as Twitter – late on Thursday, Musk said he had no choice but to reject an emergency request from Ukraine “to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol.” He did not give the date of the request and the excerpt did not specify it.
“The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor,” Musk wrote. “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
Russia, which seized the strategic Crimea peninsula in 2014, bases its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and has used the fleet in a de factor blockade of Ukrainian ports since its full-scale invasion in 2022.
The Russian fleet fires cruise missiles at Ukrainian civilian targets, and Kyiv has launched attacks on Russian ships using maritime drones.
According to CNN, Walter Isaacson’s new biography “Elon Musk,” to be released by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, says that when Ukrainian explosive-laden submarine drones last year approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.”
It said Musk’s decision, which left Ukrainian officials begging him to turn the satellites back on, was driven by an acute fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack with nuclear weapons.
CNN said that according to the biography, this was based on Musk’s conversations with senior Russian officials and his fears of a “mini-Pearl Harbor.”
In August, a Russian warship was seriously damaged in a Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk, the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected its power so far from the country’s shores.
SpaceX, through private donations and under a separate contract with a U.S. foreign aid agency, has been providing Ukrainians and the country’s military with Starlink internet service, a fast-growing network of more than 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, since the beginning of the war in 2022.
Ukraine has made important progress in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday during a visit overshadowed by a Russian attack that killed at least 17 people.
Police officers and rescuers carry the body of a person killed by a Russian military strike in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, September 6, 2023. Press service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack, which hit a crowded market in the eastern front-line town of Kostiantynivka, which is close to the devastated city of Bakhmut. He said a child was among the dead, and officials said at least 32 people were hurt.
“This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible,” Zelenskiy said, describing it as a deliberate attack on a “peaceful city”. Aides posted video footage showing an explosion after what sounded like a missile approaching, and people scurrying for cover or falling to the ground.
Russia did not immediately comment on the attack, and has denied deliberately targeting civilians in its more than 18-month-old invasion, which has shattered towns and cities and killed thousands of civilians.
Blinken, the first top U.S. official to visit Kyiv since the counteroffensive began in early June, announced a new package of U.S. wartime assistance worth more than $1 billion, including support for Ukraine’s air defences.
“In the ongoing counteroffensive, progress has accelerated in the past few weeks. This new assistance will help sustain it and build further momentum,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Blinken earlier described the progress as important and “very, very encouraging”.
U.S. media reports have cited unidentified U.S. officials as saying the Ukrainian counteroffensive has been too slow and hindered by poor tactics – criticism that angered Ukrainian officials and prompted Kuleba to tell critics to “shut up”.
Ukraine has retaken more than a dozen villages and small settlements in its offensive. But its push into Russian-held territory has been slowed by minefields and trenches.
U.S. officials have not publicly criticised Ukraine’s military tactics, and last week said they had seen progress in the southeast.
The new U.S. aid would include HIMARS missile launch systems, Javelin antitank weapons, Abrams tanks and other weapons systems, White House press secretary Larine Jean-Pierre said. The Pentagon said it would also send depleted uranium ammunition.
Asked about Blinken’s visit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peso said Moscow believed Washington planned to continue funding Ukraine’s military “to wage this war to the last Ukrainian”.
He said U.S. aid to Kyiv would not affect the course of what he called Russia’s special military operation.
LONG-RANGE MISSILES
Ukraine’s Kuleba said he and Blinken had discussed the U.S. providing ATACMS long-range missiles and he hoped for a positive decision, adding that arming Ukraine was protecting the world from Moscow’s aggression.
The European Union condemned the Russian attack on the market in Kostiantynivka – which took place on the second day of Blinken’s visit to Kyiv – calling it “heinous and barbaric” and said those behind it would be held to account.
When the shells hit, pharmacy employee Diana Khodak saw a flash and shouted to colleagues to lie on the floor. “I heard things falling over, then everything was covered in smoke and fire started,” she said.
Two injured women were brought to the pharmacy, one carried by a soldier. She had a bone protruding from an open leg fracture. “She was very pale. She remained conscious but in shock while she was given first aid,” Khodak told Reuters.
Ukraine appears to have launched a drone attack on Moscow overnight, with Russia claiming to have downed two drones – one near a major airport, and the other near a motorway. Meanwhile, an arms dealer and a European country have agreed to send dozens of second hand tanks to Kyiv.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive tactics
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In its latest intelligence update, the MoD said local counterattacks have hampered Russian attempts to reorganise its forces, amid fears Chernihiv could become the next Mariupol.
An armoured vehicle painted with the Z of pro-Russian troops near Mariupol in southern Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted it would be “impossible” to completely force Russian forces out of Ukraine, amid fears Vladimir Putin is seeking a Korea-style split.
The head of military intelligence in Kyiv said the Kremlin wanted to split the country like “North and South Korea”, securing itself a region controlled from Moscow after failing in its bid for a complete takeover.
Speaking hours later, Mr Zelenskyy appeared to acknowledge his government would have to concede territory.
He said attempting to completely force Russia out “would lead to a Third World War”.
Mr Zelenskyy said he was seeking a “compromise” with Moscow over Donbas, the region which has been partly controlled by Russian-backed separatist groups since 2014.
It’s been suggested that the Kremlin wants to hold “referendums” in such areas to determine whether the people living there want to be part of Russia.
But Mr Zelenskyy wants Russian troops out of parts of the country they’ve occupied since last month’s full invasion, saying a deal is “only possible” if they are withdrawn.
India has decided to temporarily relocate its embassy in Ukraine to Poland, the government said on Sunday.
Poland, China, India
The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that the decision to move the embassy from Kyiv was being taken in view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the western parts of the country.
“The situation will be reassessed in the light of further developments,” it added.
Earlier this month Ukraine’s government said that it had helped evacuate about 20,000 Indian students from areas of the country attacked by Russian forces following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but several were still trapped.
