There should be no place of rest for the occupier – address by the President of Ukraine

11 March 2024 – 20:56

Dear Ukrainians!

Today, most of the day was devoted to military and war issues. First, the meeting of the Staff. Detailed reports on each direction of our frontline: from Kupyansk to Kherson region. The Commander-in-Chief, the Chief of the General Staff, the commanders of the directions, the Ministry of Defense.

The troops are now stabilizing our positions at the front. And they are doing so despite the fact that supplies from our partners remain significantly limited. I am grateful to every soldier and commander – to all our warriors who ensure our defense and our frontline operations with their strength and resilience. And I am grateful to every enterprise here in Ukraine and to all joint ventures with partners for the continuous increase in our own supplies, for the much-needed weapons for our independence: drones, shells, artillery, and vehicles.

There was also a report on the construction of fortifications. More than 2,000 kilometers of tasks, shoring up the existing fortifications and creating new ones – at least three lines of our strength. They are designed to meet the threats. All the necessary resources have been deployed. The government, regional leaders and the military are personally responsible for the result. The result should speak for itself, with its reliability for every soldier.

Today, Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi and Defense Minister Umerov made a separate report. They spoke about the current situation at the front and about planning our actions. There should be no place of rest for the occupier. Today we also discussed preparations for the next Ramstein meeting and the key points of our communication with partners regarding weapons and ammunition.

Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Budanov also delivered a separate report. Several issues were raised. First of all, Russia’s military plans. Not only against our country, but also against other nations. The common task of the world now is to thwart this sick Putin’s fantasy that he allegedly has time to continue the war. Perhaps he will intensify mobilization after the imitation of “elections” now in March. Mobilization of Russians. However, we must further limit the mobilization of resources and finances, tightening the remnants of Russia’s ties with the world even more severely. And everyone who values the lives of their people must do this – every leader. I am grateful to everyone who helps.

Today I held several meetings with government officials, the financial and economic block of our government and the National Bank, to discuss the state of our financial system. We ensure the stability and reliable operation of financial institutions. We also discussed this year’s budget work. I am grateful to all entrepreneurs who work, pay taxes and preserve jobs.

This is the period of our maximum concentration, our maximum initiative to ensure that it is Ukraine that determines a just end to this war. We can endure. We have to win.

Glory to all who fight and work for the sake of Ukraine and Ukrainians! Glory to everyone in the world who upholds justice!

Glory to Ukraine!

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1767118649817530497

20 Days in Mariupol has won an Oscar 2024 in the Documentary Feature Film category.

The documentary directed by Mstyslav Chernov describes the terrible events in the city: the deaths of children and adults, the mass graves, the maternity ward destroyed by a russian airstrike, and other russian war crimes.

The world has to know the truth about russia’s war crimes.
Democracies have to provide Ukraine with military aid to defeat russian aggression.

https://twitter.com/mstyslavchernov/status/1767211699449278579

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1767185346750480756

The City of Mary by the Sea.

We remember you as you were living your best life that hot and bright summer of ‘21.

Clean streets, wonderful coffee shops and new restaurants, the gentle roar of the sea, boys and girls playing volleyball on the beach, the magnificent contours of gigantic steel factories.

The last summer before the Russian plague came — and turned a vibrant city, the fastest developing one in Ukraine, into a giant mass grave amid ruins.

Why, whatever for, how could they have so much hatred, savagery, and bloodthirstiness on their mind to do THAT.

I’m afraid the holocaust of Mariupol was in 2022 was so horrific that we, even two years on, do not fully realize what had happened to the City of Mary by the Sea.

Guys behind @20DaysMariupol did the greatest piece of journalism amid this war, and one of the greatest journalistic works of all time.

I just hope the world will finally make conclusions from what it saw as the Oscar’s best documentary 2023.

Otherwise, we fail as a species again.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held its annual hearing with the Directors of National Intelligence, Central Intelligence, and the FBI today.

https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1767266417622016017

https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1767285357282722097

https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1767275640187752728

https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1767281788206936315

https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1767282718327316747

Here’s the link to the Annual Threat Assessment.

https://twitter.com/laraseligman/status/1767250372979016083

From Politico: (emphasis mine)

The Pentagon has sent $10 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine that it still does not have the money to replace due to congressional gridlock, according to a top Defense Department official.

DOD officials expect funding to replenish the equipment the U.S. has already sent to Ukraine to be included in President Joe Biden’s supplemental request, which provides billions of additional dollars in aid for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. But that legislation has languished on Capitol Hill for months amid partisan bickering.

If DOD does not get the funding to backfill its stocks, the impact of that “ongoing hole” will ultimately be felt by the U.S. military’s own forces, said a senior DOD official, who was granted anonymity to speak ahead of an announcement.

“We have not been able to, with the funding we have to date — and there’s a big funding piece waiting in the supplemental — replenish everything we’ve already given to Ukraine,” the official told reporters. “So it would come back on our own readiness on our own stockpile to a certain extent if we can’t get new funding.”

DOD announced in December that it would be unable to send new weapons to Kyiv until Congress approves Biden’s supplemental request. But this is the first time officials have acknowledged that the U.S. is already in a $10 billion hole when it comes to backfilling its stocks.

The deficit stems from the difference in the value of the equipment sent to Ukraine compared to the cost to replace it: For example, if the Army sends older munitions that are no longer being produced, it might replace them with a newer version that is more expensive.

The comments come as the Pentagon on Monday unveiled its budget request for fiscal 2025, though lawmakers have yet to pass an appropriations bill for fiscal 2024. The Pentagon is operating under a stopgap measure, called a continuing resolution, that freezes spending at last year’s levels and prevents officials from starting new programs.

U.S. officials are growing concerned that Ukraine is running out of critical weapons, including ammunition and air defenses, as lawmakers stall on the aid package. But there are worries, too, about shortfalls in U.S. weapons if officials are not able to replenish DOD’s stocks.

The $10 billion covers only the cost to replace munitions and other weapons the U.S. has already sent Ukraine. It does not include the increase of U.S. forces to Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine to help defend allies in Eastern Europe as well as train the Ukrainians, which is an expense the Army is paying, the official said.

But officials view Ukraine as the more urgent problem. DOD has been unable to send Kyiv additional weapons since December, when appropriations to backfill its stocks ran out. The department still has $4.4 billion in authority to send aid to Ukraine, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been “reluctant” to tap into that fund without money to replace the weapons in the U.S., the official said.

DOD is unable to legally transfer money from other accounts to replenish the weapons it sends to Ukraine, the official stressed.

As another option, DOD officials have discussed using $200 million in savings that the Army negotiated in prior contracts for weapons for Ukraine to send additional aid, the official said. However, that is not an alternative to the $66 billion supplemental, the official said. Bloomberg first reported this option.

“We are still, in the big scheme of things, pretty close to broke,” the official said.

The senior official urged lawmakers to pass the legislation, saying the failure to do so will cost Ukraine dearly.

“They are low on ammunition today. They are fighting and dying today. If we can’t help them, there isn’t another industrial base on the planet that can really take our place,” the official said.

Given the House GOP majority’s unwillingness and inability to pass regular appropriations, let alone the Ukraine supplemental, these developments in Brussels are welcome.

https://twitter.com/HenryJFoy/status/1767276953336209878

From The Financial Times:

Brussels is pushing to give Ukraine €2bn-€3bn this year from profits derived from Russia’s frozen assets, accelerating the funding plan as US financial support to Kyiv wanes.

The European Commission is preparing a plan, according to officials, that would involve seizing sanctions-related profits, dating from February onwards, earned at the central securities depository Euroclear.

After months of wrangling, a first tranche of money could be disbursed as early as July if Brussels can secure approval of member states, officials said. The proposal is expected before a summit of EU leaders next week.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has called for the funds to be used for military support, rather than postwar reconstruction as had been originally envisaged — a contentious approach for some capitals.

About €190bn in Russian sovereign assets have been immobilised at Euroclear since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, generating €3.85bn in profits.

The latest plans would provide between €2bn and €3bn to Ukraine this year, depending on interest rates, the officials said. The total profits siphoned from Euroclear could reach €20bn by 2027, according to EU officials.

The hotly debated question of whether to use Russian funds tied up in Brussels-based Euroclear to aid Ukraine has become more pressing as the war has entered its third year and international aid has dwindled.

The depository holds the bulk of the €260bn in Russian central bank assets frozen by western sanctions.

With G7 countries split over whether to seize the underlying assets and hand them over to Ukraine, the EU proposed a parallel track of using only the profits.

The EU initially planned to use some of the Euroclear funds for Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction, but with further US military aid blocked by Republicans in Congress, the focus has moved to military support.

Von der Leyen last month floated the idea of using the profits to buy weapons for Ukrainian forces, but this suggestion is likely to face opposition from member states, including Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.

According to the Kyiv finance ministry, only about half of the $37bn needed from international partners this year has been committed by the EU and the IMF. Officials in Ukraine have reached out to other partners and are hoping the profits on frozen assets could help fill that gap.

The EU could use the profits to buy weapons for Ukraine through an existing fund for which member states are currently negotiating a €5bn top-up, or to invest in the Ukrainian defence industry.

According to a draft of the commission’s internal proposal seen by the Financial Times, Brussels could appropriate 97 per cent of the net profits derived from frozen Russian assets held by Euroclear, and transfer them to the EU budget.

The money would then be paid out every quarter or twice a year and “could be used to the benefit of Ukraine according to different arrangements”, the draft says.

More at the link.

Now we have to wait to see if the EU actually does it and what it means if it does do so. One of the major issues is that neither the US, nor the EU member states defense manufacturing base are currently able to produce enough weapons systems, ammunition, and other defense material to meet Ukraine’s needs. Having more money to buy weapons, weapons systems, and ammunition is a great thing. But only if there is stuff one can buy with it. Also, Euroclear is a major financial system player. It is unclear what doing this would do to global markets. As in whether it would destabilize them.

As are these in the Czech Republic:

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1767095813354729592

Czech President Petr Pavel made the impossible possible and not only organized 800,000 artillery shells for Ukraine but also the financing. Around €1.5 billion have been organized and the ammunition will arrive the coming weeks.

The source of the ammunition is not entirely disclosed but according to to Bild speculations go that it might be South Korea, Turkey and South Africa. I would like to add that I find it possible that Pakistan is also one of the suppliers.

This extraordinary feat shows once again that if there is a will then there is a way.

Source: Bild

Left bank of the Dnipro, Russian occupied Kherson Oblast:

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1767212502041935922

 

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1767344240097362385

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1767220416119009424

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1767321750767874559

More about the drone strikes at Taganrog, Russia:

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1767293992423834057

It appears the Ukrainians did damage more Russian A-50s.

The Financial Times has the details:

Ukrainian officials who confirmed the change in Russia’s navy leadership also told the FT that an attack by Ukraine at the weekend had critically damaged two Russian A-50 long-range radar detection planes at an aircraft repair facility in the southern port city of Taganrog.

In addition to attacks on the Russian navy, Ukrainian officials said that Kyiv’s forces on Saturday had successfully used domestically produced drones to critically damage the two Russian A-50s.

Satellite images appeared to support their assessment. They showed blast marks in the area where one of the long-range radar detection aircraft had been parked on the tarmac at the time of the attack and on the rooftop of the hangar where the other plane is believed to have been located.

A representative for Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate said on Monday that the agency was still working to clarify the extent of the damage to the planes and declined to provide further information. Ukraine’s air force declined to comment.

Serhiy Prytula, a Ukrainian public figure with connections to the military whose charity has hugely contributed to Kyiv’s wartime fundraising and production of its drone programme, boasted to his donors on X that their efforts had contributed to the success of the attack on the Taganrog facility.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Saturday that it had shot down 41 drones in the area but did not comment on reports the facility had been hit. One emergency services worker was taken to hospital, according to local officials.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s chief of military intelligence, told the FT in January that Russia had eight operational A-50 long-range radar detection planes prior to one being shot down by Kyiv’s forces over the Sea of Azov at the time. The three attacks since then means that Ukraine has now destroyed or badly damaged half of Russia’s A-50s in under two months.

The destruction of just one A-50, Budanov said in January, would probably affect Russia’s ability to operate and communicate in the war zone “around the clock”. The destruction of three more could have a huge impact on its reconnaissance and communications abilities, officials said.

After the second loss of an A-50, British defence intelligence said that Russia had “highly likely grounded the fleet from flying in support of Ukraine operations”.

Russia’s defence ministry has not commented on the loss of the first two planes, which pro-war bloggers ascribed to “friendly fire”.

Kursk, Russia:

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1767324206813901047

Oryol, Russia:

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1767340784360071525

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1767108822701629790

Open thread!