2023-07-13 07:25:21
kyiv strongly targeted tonight
Ukraine claims to have shot down 20 Russian drones and 2 cruise missiles in a third night attacks on the capital.
After the Vilnius summit, Zelensky positive
In his daily address last night, the Ukrainian president wanted to send a positive message to conclude the two days of the NATO summit, “countdown towards a new security”. “It is very important: for the first time since independence, we have established a security base for Ukraine on the way to NATO. These are concrete security guarantees that are confirmed by the top 7 democracies in the world. Never before have we had such a security base (…). On this basis, we will build a new legally binding architecture of bilateral security treaties with the most powerful countries,” says Zelensky.
In the secret of a phone call
Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin says he discussed with his CIA counterpart William Burns “what to do with Ukraine” in a phone call in late June, Russian news agency TASS said.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal had reported that the two men had spoken to each other, Burns wanting to assure the Kremlin that the United States played no role in the brief mutiny of Wagner’s militiamen. But Naryshkin says that for most of the call, which lasted about an hour, “we considered and discussed what to do with Ukraine.” The CIA declined to comment on those remarks.
NATO’s weapons record
Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t get the membership schedule he wanted, but…he got new weapons. Canada has promised to reinforce the armed forces with armored vehicles, Germany will transfer additional Patriot systems, Australia will provide a new defense package including Bushmaster armored vehicles, Norway has promised 1,000 Black Hornets and Nasams UAVs , and France will send long-range missiles and engineering equipment. The UK will also send more than 70 armored vehicles, including combat CVRTs, ammunition for Challenger tanks, as well as £50 million to support equipment the country has previously transferred.
Wagner reportedly handed over his entire arsenal to Moscow
In a statement on Telegram late yesterday afternoon, the Russian Ministry of Defense suggested that the Wagner militia had handed over all its weapons to the Russian army. “The Russian Armed Forces, in accordance with the plan, complete the reception of weapons and military equipment from the units of the Wagner Group,” the text reads. More than 2,000 items of equipment – including T-90 tanks, Grad and Ouragan rocket launchers, Pantsir anti-aircraft defense systems and howitzers -, 2,500 tonnes of ammunition and 20,000 small arms are said to have changed hands.
kyiv does not want “a frozen conflict”
Ukraine will not be satisfied with a “freeze” of the front against Russian troops and intends to recover all of its occupied territories, declared in Vilnius President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We want to recover our lands, restore security on our territory, obtain the return of people who were forced to leave the country” and “punish all Russian crimes”, he insisted. “That’s victory” and “a frozen conflict is not a victory”, he added.
Drones hit kyiv again
The Ukrainian capital is not spared by the war. For the third consecutive night, night strikes by drones left at least one dead and four injured. A dozen Shahed were shot down in the airspace of the old town, according to the military administration. Debris falls were reported in five neighborhoods. A 19-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man were hospitalized with shrapnel injuries.
“In the Podilsky district, while fighting a fire in an apartment building, the body of a deceased person was discovered,” laments the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko on Telegram.
NATO: on the front, the bitterness of the soldiers of kyiv
“Who else is going to fight here?” Person ! » : at the heart of the war in the trenches, the Ukrainian soldiers regret that their country cannot today be integrated into NATO, of which they say they are already the « shield » against Russia.
In a room of a small house in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, half a dozen screens broadcast images of the nearby front line, filmed by drones.
Sitting in front of the screens, Vladislav, the deputy commander of an infantry battalion, scans the slowly passing landscapes, watching for the slightest movement of the Moscow forces. He is in constant audio link with the drone pilots hiding in shelters a few miles away. Even at the epicenter of the fighting, the commander followed the NATO summit which took place Tuesday and Wednesday in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. “For the moment, we are being delivered weapons from NATO. On the other hand, we already serve as a shield for NATO. And entering it would formalize the fact that we are this shield, ”explains the soldier to AFP journalists. “The more we lose our Ukrainian land, the closer the Russians are to the borders of Europe,” he warns.
Arrival in Finland of Joe Biden
The presidential plane Air Force One, coming from Vilnius where the annual summit of the Atlantic Alliance was taking place, landed at Helsinki International Airport. Joe Biden is due to meet Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, the main architect of Finland’s entry into NATO, on Thursday, as well as the leaders of the other Nordic countries.
Joe Biden. Newspaper photo/EMMI KORHONEN via REUTERS.
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