The week was marked by the loss of Avdiyivka, and Russian attacks intensified along the entire front line. In particular, Russia is trying to take an offensive in the Zaporizhzhia sector. The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine reported on changes in enemy forces over the two years of the full-scale war, the ground part of the enemy grouping deployed in Ukraine is about 470,000 servicemen, and the group of troops covering the state border in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions of the Russian Federation has also been reinforced before the “elections.”
The SBU provided evidence that Russia had fired more than 20 missiles at Ukraine that were supplied by the DPRK.
The Polish border blockade is getting tougher as protesters try to block railways, dump grain, stop buses.
The week’s positive news was that Ukraine is about to receive F-16s, and the EU, according to media reports, approved the 13th package of sanctions against Russia. Stoltenberg said that Ukraine would have the right to attack military targets in the Russian Federation with F-16s.
By spring, Ukraine faces a “catastrophic shortage” of ammunition and air defenses that could turn the tide of the war — ABC. Ukraine will face a catastrophic shortage of ammunition and air defense equipment by the spring of 2024. This will turn the tide of the war and give the aggressor country, Russia, a significant advantage, ABC News reported on Thursday, February 22, citing American officials who are familiar with the internal U.S. estimate.
They described late March as a particularly crucial time for the fate of Ukraine, if the U.S. Congress does not approve additional aid to Kyiv.
A senior U.S. Defense official believes that the juncture in the war starts now and it just keeps getting worse progressively through the spring and into summer of 2024.