Ukrainian troops continue to hold defense of Soledar as heavy fighting rages
“Heavy fighting is raging for control of Soledar,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said in a Telegram post Tuesday. “The enemy disregards the heavy losses of its personnel and continues to storm actively. The approaches to our positions are simply strewn with the bodies of dead enemy fighters. Only a very strong nation can fight so relentlessly against an outnumbering and well-equipped enemy force,” she said.
The Ukrainian troops continue to bravely hold the defense, Malyar added.
Allies step up military assistance to Ukraine
On Tuesday, Canada’s Defense Minister Anita Anand announced that Canada will purchase a NASAMS air defense system from the U.S. to donate to Ukraine.
The announcement came after a phone conversation with her Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov held earlier on Tuesday.
Anand said in a tweet that this is the first air defense system Canada has purchased for Ukraine. “In the face of Russia’s brutal airstrikes on Ukraine, this air defense system will help to protect Ukrainian population centers and critical infrastructure against drone, missile and aircraft attacks,” she said.
During an unannounced visit to Kharkiv on Tuesday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Germany would provide EUR 20 million for demining efforts and another EUR 20 million to boost Ukraine’s access to Starlink internet terminals.
The donation will fund the operation of 10,000 Starlink terminals, one-third of which will be donated to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukrainian troops are set to begin training on the Patriot missile system in the United States as soon as next week, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.
The training program will take place at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where the U.S. conducts its own training on operating and maintaining the advanced air defense system, CNN said.
Instructing the Ukrainians on how to use the air defense system will take “several months,” Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia told reporters on Friday, January 6. She said she was not able to give a specific timeframe for the completion of training.
Long-term containment strategy for Russia
A piece by the Foreign Affairs (Magazine) charts the prospects of how the West can help Ukraine in a protracted conflict with Russia. Putin needs to be denied the ability to expand his evil empire, even if his war against Ukraine grows into a protracted conflict. That will require integrating Ukraine fully into the West, the article reads.
The authors of the piece are Ivo H. Daalder, President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013, and James Goldgeier, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
In the event of a prolonged, grinding war that gradually becomes frozen along a line of control that neither side accepts, the United States and its allies will need to lay a long-term basis for security and stability in Europe. That will require integrating Ukraine fully into the West while forging a containment policy, the authors say.Read the full piece here.
How Kremlin propaganda tries to manipulate Western audience? Ukraine in Flames #305
Hybrid warfare is a significant element of the russian war. And therefore, we are continuing to talk about Kremlin propaganda fakes and debunking them. Among others, kremlin propaganda is trying to shift the blame for their aggression by depicting Ukraine as valiant via their pseudo-media and pool of pocket pseudo-experts. Watch Ukraine in flames #305 to learn what methods and techniques they use to influence audiences in the European Union and the United States of America.
Guests:
- Ksenia Ilyuk, Head of the Research Center of the NGO “Media Detector”
- Alyona Nesterenko, Media Expert at the Institute of Mass Information
How russians kidnap people from occupied territories. Ukraine in Flames #306
