Videos of 16 US Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles allegedly destroyed in Ukraine cause cheers and applause on Russian propaganda channels on Telegram. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the armored vehicles were captured in front of Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are launching a counter-offensive these days. The US response was immediate: US President Joe Biden announced a new $325 million weapons package, including new Bradleys for the Ukrainian military.
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“It is an important political signal to Moscow that the United States will immediately replace the destroyed Bradleys,” Fabian Hoffmann, a military expert at the University of Oslo, told the editorial network Germany (RND). In military terms, however, this commitment is not significant at this point, as Ukraine still has numerous armored vehicles.
It is also unclear whether all 16 Bradleys are destroyed and in Russian hands or whether some of them can be salvaged and repaired by Ukraine. “But it sends a clear message: no matter how many Western weapons the Russians can destroy, the US government is still clinging to Ukraine’s victory,” Hoffmann said.
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New ammunition for Ukraine
According to the expert, the decisive factor at this moment is the ammunition of the new US military package. “The supply of artillery ammunition is incredibly important right now, including rockets for Himar systems and 155mm and 105mm caliber ammunition,” says Hoffmann. This would allow Ukraine to continue to press Russian troops, bomb Russian positions and achieve a breakthrough in the ongoing offensive.
This ammunition is incredibly important now to further pressure Russian troops to bomb Russian positions and achieve a breakthrough in the ongoing offensive.
Fabiano Hoffman,
Military Specialist at the University of Oslo
Ammunition for the Ukrainian air defense also comes from the US. In recent days, Russia has launched new airstrikes against civilian buildings, including targets in Odessa and Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyky. But that’s not all: “Russia has now extended airstrikes to military targets at the front,” explains Hoffmann. Defense has now become more difficult for Ukraine because it can no longer concentrate its anti-aircraft defenses in the interior of the country in the big cities, but has to advance more than 1,300 kilometers forward.
Russian Defense Ministry releases drone video of tank attacks in Ukraine
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, drone footage shows destroyed Ukrainian army tanks near Zaporizhia.
© Source: Portal
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More help for Ukraine from NATO and the EU
In addition to US supplies, Ukraine will soon receive more support from NATO and the EU. The European Commission has given the green light to new loans to Ukraine worth €100 million. The funds are earmarked, among other things, for restoring infrastructure and repairing power lines destroyed in Russian air strikes.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also announced that member states of the military alliance will provide the Ukrainian armed forces with new equipment and training. Aid “will make a difference on the battlefield,” Stoltenberg said in the US. “President Putin must not win this war because that would not only be a tragedy for Ukrainians, it would also make the world more dangerous.” NATO members want to discuss details of new aid at Vilnius summit in four weeks . Commitments are expected from member states to continue to support Ukraine in the medium term with arms, ammunition and cash.
Ukraine contact group meeting
The US Department of Defense announced that a face-to-face meeting of the Ukraine contact group will take place on Thursday at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said details of the fighter jet coalition were among the issues on the agenda. “It’s not just about training pilots, but also our technicians and engineers who have to deal with aircraft maintenance.” Because fighter jets are a very complex system.
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Meanwhile, losses of war material on the Russian side are also increasing. The Dutch platform Oryx, which counts the material destroyed by the Russian armed forces since the beginning of the war based on images and videos, now reaches more than 2,000 destroyed or abandoned tanks. As only publicly accessible photos and videos are assessed, and there are not many photos of wrecked vehicles, the actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher. According to Oryx, 62 percent of Russian tanks are considered permanently destroyed, another 27 percent were captured by Ukraine, and the rest were left behind by the Russians or were seriously damaged. Meanwhile, the Russian military has to use the aging T-64 and T-55 tanks on the front lines more and more often.