We Are Pushing for More Air Defense and F-16 Aircraft for Ukraine, Additional Security Commitments and Decisive Actions by America and Europe – Address by the President

9 July 2024 – 18:57

Dear Ukrainians!

Now, in Washington.

The NATO Summit starts today.

We are pushing for more air defense systems for Ukraine. I am confident it will happen. We are pushing for more aircraft. F-16s. We are pushing to get them. We are pushing for additional security commitments for Ukraine, which means weapons and finances, political support. We are pushing for the necessary decisive actions by America and Europe, something that will strengthen our warriors.

We are doing and will always do everything to make Russian terror lose. And not only does our country need it, but everyone needs it, literally every partner, all nations.

We will restore Okhmatdyt. I am in touch with the Cabinet of Ministers, and the first decision has been made – UAH 100 million to support Okhmatdyt. Another 300 million will follow.

There will be other decisions for Kyiv, for the cities of the Dnipro and Donetsk regions, and we will support them all.

We will help all the children, all the families – all those affected.

I also thank all our people who have supported Okhmatdyt, who are collecting funds at United-24, who are helping: companies, volunteers, everyone who has united now.

This is our unity, Ukrainian unity, and it is so essential.

I thank the leaders, the countries – everyone who yesterday and today has condemned Russian terror. We appreciate your support, friends! We are on the phone – we are working with our partners now to make sure that no one is silent. That everyone condemns. And we really want everyone to act. So that the decisions that will restore security are made. Including decisions here in Washington, here at the NATO Summit.

Glory to Ukraine!

I mean, we’re talking about basic practical things here.

You guys allocate resources worth tens of billions of dollars in weapons and hardware to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion (and kudos to you, it’s a wise win-win decision for you and us) — and at the same time, you…

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) July 9, 2024

Here’s the full text of Ponomarenko’s first tweet:

This is simply incredible.

I think it’s the first war in human history in which the powerful aggressor is deliberately put at an advantage and given a safe haven for its relentless bombing campaigns while the defending side is directly prevented from hitting the enemy’s key military facilities used for that.

They know this makes zero sense and is profoundly absurd.

And yes, Putin and his generals are once again just rolling on the floor laughing from that and are sending their very best regards to the WH.

And the second one:

I mean, we’re talking about basic practical things here.

You guys allocate resources worth tens of billions of dollars in weapons and hardware to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion (and kudos to you, it’s a wise win-win decision for you and us) — and at the same time, you stultify a significant part of your effort and investment by directly preventing Ukraine from doing things that are necessary for winning this war, or at least for effectively making Russia stop and seek stable peace.

And this drags on, and on, and on, and on, and on.

Stop listening to escalation managers playing 5D Kissinger chess in front of the KGB mafia — their concepts have gone bankrupt several times over in this war.

Seeing @elonmusk already thinks Bellingcat is a “psy-op” you have to wonder if this is deliberate censorship from the so proclaimed free speech absolutist. Based on his recent behaviour I guess that only counts when you’re a far right grifter posting CSAM.

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) July 9, 2024

Worth noting that this article about Russian bombing a children’s hospital is the only Bellingcat link that shows the warning.

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) July 9, 2024

From Bellingcat:

An analysis of open source evidence, as well as missile experts, have pointed to a Russian launched Kh-101 cruise missile being the weapon that struck a children’s hospital in Kyiv, debunking claims from pro-Russian accounts and actors that denied responsibility and sought to shift the blame for the incident on to Ukraine.

The July 8 attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital killed at least three children and injured 16 others, according to the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU). However, the full toll of dead and injured remains unknown with individuals reported to still be trapped under rubble.

In the aftermath of the strike, several social media accounts known for spreading disinformation — including that of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs — began to claim that the missile was American-made and that it had been launched from a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile system.

Yet an analysis conducted by Bellingcat using social media footage as well as  a 3D model of the missile, all point to the munition being a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. The analysis is in line with the view of experts, including Fabian Hoffman, a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo who specialises in missile technology.

Enhanced resolution video imagery once again and very clearly demonstrating that the missile is a 🇷🇺 Kh-101. Why?

– Highly visible TRDD-50A turbofan engine (rear section)
– Two relatively long wings (mid section)
– blunted nose (top section)

H/T to @zakarpatfan for the video. pic.twitter.com/AJ3EywdxQ5

— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) July 8, 2024

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons and missile expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California, similarly concluded in an email to Bellingcat that a Kh-101 missile could be seen in footage of the attack posted to social media sites.

Bellingcat also tested an alternative theory floated online that the missile was a US-made AIM-120, but found no evidence for this.

The hospital attack came as part of a wider Russian missile barrage that hit civilian targets elsewhere in Ukraine, including the city of Dnipro. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the attack began at approximately 10:00 AM local time and involved at least 36 missiles, including 13 Kh-101 cruise missiles.

More at the link.

The Russians, of course, responded the way you’d expect.

Even after experts confirmed Russia hit the hospital with a Kh-101 missile, Russia keeps lying about not targeting military sites. Does Nebenzya really think repeating lies about Russia’s war crimes will make people numb to them? pic.twitter.com/fvnNkbT0tb

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) July 9, 2024

Citizen Nebenzia, you are not a legitimate president of the Security Council, and I will never address you as one. You are sitting on the seat that Russia invaded illegally, and the only proper seat for you before you end up in hell bypassing purgatory is in the dock.

And as… pic.twitter.com/OPAFAUVvtv

— Sergiy Kyslytsya 🇺🇦 (@SergiyKyslytsya) July 9, 2024

Citizen Nebenzia, you are not a legitimate president of the Security Council, and I will never address you as one. You are sitting on the seat that Russia invaded illegally, and the only proper seat for you before you end up in hell bypassing purgatory is in the dock.

And as for the Rule 37 of the Rules of Procedure that allows my invitation, there’s not a single word about the presidency, let alone about the invaders of the seats in this Chamber. 👇

“Rule 37
Any Member of the United Nations which is not a member of the Security Council may be invited, as the result of a decision of the Security Council, to participate, without vote, in the discussion of any question brought before the Security Council when the Security Council considers that the interests of that Member are specially affected, or when a Member brings a matter to the attention of the Security Council in accordance with Article 35 (1) of the Charter.” Any one sees the word “presidency”? At least once?

You want to refer to “established practice”, that is not even mentioned in Rule 37? Then, guess what!

I will never take lectures from an accomplice to war criminals whose boss openly reject rules aka practices while pretending to be a UN Charter “defender”. It’s impossible to stomach malarkey from Lavrov like this one, direct quote: “certain UN members to replace international law and the UN Charter with some “rules-based international order.” These mysterious “rules” have never been the subject of transparent international consultations, nor have they been laid out for everybody’s attention.”

So much about the rules, and procedures by the invader of a UN permanent seat, and never the “president”! Surely a prisoner one day!

As I wrote last night, the bilateral security agreement that Ukraine and Poland signed is much, much stronger than any of the other bilateral security agreements that Ukraine has entered into.

Poland going much further in its guarantees to Ukraine than UK or France have done thus far. https://t.co/cTg89wqwI0

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) July 8, 2024

Which has ledt to some speculation in regard to yesterday’s genocidal Russian attack:

https://t.co/Nf940cq6MA

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) July 9, 2024

Here’s the full text of the quoted tweet:

TL;DR – no.
The issue has been clarified by the 🇵🇱 Polish PM. His lengthy explanation makes it clear – 🇵🇱 wants to do it, but makes it conditional on full NATO’s backing and solidarity. And from Tusk’s words it is rather painfully obvious – it has not got it yet. What he said, essentially, is that Poland will keep on pressuring the allies, full court, together with Ukraine. But that’s about the extent of his declaration today. So – no, the issue hasn’t been finalized. https://x.com/michaeldweiss//michaeldweiss/status/1810300483279438051

While Poland has clearly had enough, NATO itself is still going with baby steps and milquetoast obtuse statements that can mean anything or nothing:

Diplomacy by thesaurus. Essentially a slightly stronger restatement of Vilnius communique: “Ukraine’s future is in NATO. We reaffirm the commitment we made at the 2008 Summit…that Ukraine will become a member of NATO” https://t.co/Isb4ZhtjZ4 https://t.co/0AEIOJC9xj pic.twitter.com/OEcnjISEfa

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) July 9, 2024

Trying to straddle the fence, to both claim that NATO is fully supporting Ukraine, while providing that full support in a piecemeal fashion, has gotten Ukraine where it is right now. Ukraine is not losing, but it cannot win. You heard Kirby’s evasive non-answer in the clip above. Russia committed another in a long line of genocidal war crimes yesterday, spent all day yesterday after they did so, as well as today denying it and then blaming it on Ukraine, the US, or both Ukraine and the US.

In the wake of yesterday’s attack and in light of Poland’s position, the US and its NATO allies and partners now face a test. Are they mush or are they steel. What Poland is proposing is what the US organized and led in the Middle East back in April. In April, the US organized a regional coalition that brought down almost all of Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone strike against Israel through a coordinated multi-state air defense operation. Not a single one of those air defense launches, from land or air, targeted anything in Iran. All that was targeted were the airborne missiles and drones. Many in the air space of the states participating in the air defense coalition.

What Donald Tusk is calling for is something similar because the Russian cruise missiles often cross into or through Polish air space prior to getting on target in Ukraine. Tusk is proposing that NATO aerial air defense assets take down these Russian missiles over Ukraine because you just can’t know which ones will cross out of Ukrainian air space and into Polish air space or the space of any other of Ukraine’s NATO neighbors. Tusk is not suggesting that NATO aviation target anything in Russia, nor any Russian military assets on the ground in Ukraine. Rather, he’s proposing creating an air defense dome over Ukraine because when Russia launches these massed cruise missile attacks against Ukraine from within Russian airspace, the cruise missiles don’t stay in either Russian or Ukrainian air space.

The US and its NATO allies and partners have to decide if they will meet the Polish challenge. A challenge that calls for them to rise to the occasion and meet the moment to protect NATO members’ airspace by protecting Ukraine’s airspace.

If Ukraine is not going to be given a path to NATO membership, which is the reality of this week’s summit. And if Ukraine is not going to be given permission to use their American supplied weapons to strike far enough into Russia to deter genocidal bombardments like yesterday’s, as well as be supplied with what they ask for when they ask for it because the Biden administration in the US and the Scholz administration in Germany have both given Putin a veto, which functionally makes them strange bedfellows with Orban who is simply Putin’s lackey, then the only way to effectively clear Ukraine’s skies is the plan being put forward by Donald Tusk.

The US and its NATO allies and partners have reached the point where they can either give Ukraine what it needs, in both material and permissions, to fight more effectively or it can protect Ukraine by protecting themselves. All the half measures are producing are dead Ukrainians, including Ukrainian children with cancer, their family members, and their medical care givers.

Mush or steel, NATO has to chose which one it will be.

Here’s something a bit more pleasant from Kharkiv:

Summer evening at Kharkiv central station. He comes here every night to play as the trains arrive. pic.twitter.com/Yn3JWpgVtT

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) July 9, 2024

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron tweets or videos today. Here is some adjacent material.

+34 in Kyiv pic.twitter.com/ecVv4sRl3J

— Eugene Kibets (@eugenehmg) July 4, 2024

During this expedition, we traveled many kilometers, visited numerous units, personally spoke with them, and delivered Starlinks. In the video, you can see all these amazing people who greatly benefit from the terminals 📡

And we have a sweet surprise – Dzyga and her ice cream🍦 pic.twitter.com/EzkklW2jeV

— Dzyga’s Paw (@dzygaspaw) July 9, 2024

We documented our team’s trip to the frontlines, so you can now watch it on YouTube! We visited various units we work with, and it was a great opportunity to meet them in person ☺️

Watch it and tell us – should we film more when OPSEC allows?https://t.co/ulRbgRPZMG pic.twitter.com/QhSZicEkLc

— Dzyga’s Paw (@dzygaspaw) July 6, 2024

Open thread!