Ukraine is working on its own air defense and anti-missile systems, the country\u2019s army chief says. The state of fighting in key directions of the front line where Ukrainian troops are engaged in difficult battles. Trump tasks his aides with arranging a phone call with Putin, CNN says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine is developing its own air defense system capable of intercepting Russian missiles, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in an interview with war correspondent Andriy Tsaplienko for TSN news channel aired on national television on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBack in the Soviet times, [Ukraine] produced control systems for air defense systems. We have technical capacities and possibilities to create a domestic air defense system, and these works are underway,\u201d Syrskyi said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked whether Ukraine would be able to manufacture a homegrown equivalent to the U.S.-made Patriot system, Syrskyi smiled and said: \u201cI hope it will be comparable in performance to the Patriot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to a question on whether Ukraine has systems that can intercept Russia\u2019s new Oreshnik missile, Syrskyi said: \u201cUnfortunately, we don\u2019t yet have one, but we need to do everything we can for them to appear.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syrskyi said that only a handful of air defense systems can intercept the Oreshnik, and that the missile represents a threat to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis encourages us to create our own air defense system, which would also operate as an anti-missile system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked if Ukrainian air defense and anti-missile systems exist in theory or in practice, Syrskyi said: \u201cActive work is underway toward this goal. I hope that we will have a desired result in the nearest time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He argued that in order to advance in a situation when Russia has superiority in manpower, Ukraine needs to \u201cuse what we have superiority in.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing on the defensive eventually leads to retreat. We have to actually hold defensive positions along the entire front line,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to implement what we have superiority in. We were the first in the world to create the Unmanned Systems Forces. We are currently scaling up the unmanned systems component. We are actively developing unmanned ground platforms,\u201d Syrskyi explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This month, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has reported an average daily tally of 150 combat engagements. The numbers vary across the front line, with the highest ones indicating the areas of the fiercest fighting, Ukrainska Pravda said in an article Monday. The piece gives an overview of what\u2019s happening in key sections of the front line in Donetsk region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cities and towns of Pokrovsk, Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, Kupyansk (in Kharkiv region), and Velyka Novosilka are often in the news. They\u2019re often labeled as having a difficult situation. Yet there are still civilians there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Pokrovsk<\/strong> direction, the situation is critical. Ukrainian troops are losing ground there and cannot stabilize the front line after they retreated from Avdiyivka last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of storming the city of Pokrovsk, Russian forces are trying to bypass it from the south and cut off supply routes to Ukraine\u2019s troops. As of Sunday, they were three kilometers from Pokrovsk and five kilometers from the neighboring region of Dnipro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian forces are cutting roads to Pokrovsk. They have recently cut the Mezhova-Pokrovsk highway and burnt a number of Ukrainian vehicles there. In the past several days, they have advanced to the north of the road, entering parts of Kotlyne and Udachne \u2014 the last villages before the administrative border with the region of Dnipro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation in Velyka Novosilka<\/strong>, in the Novopavlivskyi direction, is close to critical. Russian forces began to storm the town on Saturday, using two convoys of vehicles and weapons. A few vehicles broke through into the town. The Russians began storming Velyka Novosilka in the foggy hours when drones had poor visibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A few days earlier they had captured the village of Vremivka that sits on a supply route to Velyka Novosilka from the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Toretsk<\/strong> direction, the situation is difficult. Ukrainian troops control around 30 per cent of the city of Toretsk. Intense urban fighting is raging. Ukrainian units aim to spot and target Russian infantry that try to advance further into the built-up area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a risk of fully losing control of Toretsk. The city sits on a height that can be used to station artillery or conduct electronic reconnaissance from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are four spoil heaps on the western outskirts of the city, each 200 meters high. Should Russian forces capture them, their artillery will come within range of the road Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka and the city of Kostyantynivka. The spoil heaps are now controlled by Ukrainian troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Chasiv Yar<\/strong>, in the Kramatorsk direction, the situation is difficult. Ukrainian troops control around 30 per cent of the city with 20 per cent more being in the grey zone. Ukrainian troops retreated from a refractory plant in Chasiv Yar earlier this month that served them as a large fortification. They will now fight from a built-up area damaged by artillery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Lyman<\/strong> direction the situation is difficult. Russian forces advanced to the west bank of the Zherebets river near the village of Ivanivka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The fiercest fighting in this section rages along the line Ivanivka \u2014 Terny \u2014 Yampolivka \u2014 Torsk. Russia is trying to expand the area it controls there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian forces are probing Ukraine\u2019s defenses in the Kolodyazi village that sits next to Ivanivka on the right bank of the Zherebets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President-elect Donald Trump has directed his aides to arrange a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the days after he\u2019s sworn in, with one goal of the conversation to discuss an in-person meeting in the coming months to try to end the war in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter cited by CNN on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Officials on Trump\u2019s national security team began working toward a call with Putin several weeks ago. It\u2019s unclear whether a date for the conversation has been finalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any talks between the two men will reflect a sharp break from President Joe Biden\u2019s approach. He hasn\u2019t spoken directly with Putin in almost three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump sees things differently. His view, described by a person familiar with his thinking, is that direct engagement with Putin is exactly what is needed to find a solution to end the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s largely unknown how much Trump plans to continue the Biden administration\u2019s strategy of providing arms and intelligence to Kyiv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump tasks aides with arranging phone call with Putin, CNN says<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n