Zakarpattia will be one of the drivers of development for the whole of Ukraine – address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

2 August 2023 – 21:33

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

It was a long and very busy day.

In the morning, we received reports from our warriors, from air defense on the downing of “Shaheds”. There were 37 “Shaheds” in total during this one night. Some of them were shot down. But only part of them. Fortunately, people were not injured. There were hits in the southern areas – Odesa region, our ports.

We are doing our best with our partners to increase the supply of air defense systems. It is very important for the world not to get used to this Russian terror. Every hit is a common problem. Not only for Ukraine, but also for all those in the world whose stability Russia is trying to destroy by attacking our ports and infrastructure.

Now, for the Russian state, this is a battle not only against our freedom, not only against our state. Moscow is fighting a battle for a global catastrophe: these lunatics need the world food market to collapse – they need price crises, supply disruptions. Someone in Moscow thinks they can make money on this… Someone in Moscow hopes they will be able to bargain for something… These are very, very dangerous hopes.

In particular, we talked about food security today with our ambassadors – I held an extraordinary large meeting with all the heads of Ukrainian diplomatic missions.

We gathered in Zakarpattia. On the eve of a new political season in our partner countries. For 16 months of full-scale war, we have been working together – the entire diplomatic team of Ukraine, everyone who works in the field of our foreign policy – to make sure that the world sees events in a completely truthful way. The way they are happening, not the way Russian propaganda wants to depict them. Most countries in the world stand with Ukraine. We have achieved extremely significant results in supplying weapons to our troops. There are powerful sanctions against Russia for terror. Now there are new tasks for Ukrainian diplomats – to attract defense production to Ukraine… equipment, artillery, shells. To expand training missions for our warriors. To ensure the supply of F-16s. Long-range missiles for Ukraine.

And always – absolutely always – political decisions in favor of our country, our freedom. The Crimea Platform, the UN General Assembly, the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, the Global Food Summit, and the very important Peace Formula Summit, to which we are inviting the world’s majority, are ahead. The launch of accession negotiations with the European Union is a task for this year. Preparing more in our relations with NATO is also a task that our diplomats have to fulfill. Today we talked about all this in great detail.

Ukrainian diplomacy has very clear, significant accomplishments. In all areas. We do not forget about the sphere of national memory, our history. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, and we are constantly active in communicating with partners to recognize the historical truth – to recognize the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Already 28 states have recognized the Holodomor as genocide – this is at the state level. In four more countries, one of the chambers of national parliaments has adopted a decision. And during the full-scale war alone, 17 such recognition decisions were made. This is a very high pace. And all Ukrainian diplomats should maintain this pace – remain that active in the interests of Ukraine. Every day, every week, every month, they should prove with concrete results for Ukraine that our diplomacy can and will be a global leader.

I held a meeting on the security and social situation in Zakarpattia. General Deyneko, Head of the State Border Guard Service, reported on border issues, which are strategic for the region. A thorough report by head of the regional administration Mykyta – it is clear that the region has the necessary results. Well done!

Relocation of business and creation of new jobs in different communities of the region is an important area of work. Facilities for the rehabilitation of our warriors are the right projects. Many initiatives to develop the economy of Zakarpattia – those opportunities that have not been used for decades.

In particular, the development of a salt deposit has already begun here in the region, which can provide all of Ukraine with table and industrial salt. There are other projects that we will discuss with government officials.

Zakarpattia will definitely be one of the drivers of development for the whole of Ukraine, economic and social growth.

I am finishing this day in Berehove with a meeting with representatives of the Hungarian community in Ukraine. It is an important meeting. Educators, doctors, representatives of public and religious organizations and, of course, our warriors, whom I had the honor to award. Brave and courageous warriors whom we are proud of – all of them. All of us, Ukrainians, all of us, citizens of Ukraine. Everyone defends our country and freedom, everyone strives for victory for Ukraine, to live in Ukraine and develop life here – for the sake of their families, for the sake of their children.

I thank everyone who defends freedom! I thank everyone who is fighting for Ukraine! The 128th separate mountain assault brigade of Zakarpattia and the 101st separate brigade of the Territorial Defense… Thank you, warriors. Today – especially!

Thank you all – Berehove, Uzhhorod, Mukachevo and all of Zakarpattia!

Glory to Ukraine!

This is not going to happen:

https://twitter.com/NuclearPolicy/status/1686457648315514906

 

Here’s Illia Ponomarenko’s take on Putin’s trip to Turkiye:

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1686688890042667008

Of course, Putin is going to come to 🇹🇷and talk.
Putin NEEDS Erdogan.
He needs the Sultan DEARLY.

And of course, Putin is ready to renew the gain deal — because any sort of real victory over Ukraine is out of the question since long ago, and now the entire war for Putin is about buying time, not admitting defeat, and possibly treating his oligarchic entourage with fresh goodies to keep them on his side.

The FSB gray cardinal Nikolai Patrushev’s son Dmitry will be more than pleased if Putin manages to lift sanctions from the RusAg bank in exchange for renewed grain deal.

So Erdogan may do whatever he wants — and the release of the Azovstal commanders is the least painful slap in the face —and of course, Putin will come to the Porte and talk.

It’s not that he’s got a lot of options, and his Potyomkin summits with African leaders impress no one.

It appears the F-16 training program has had a failure to launch:

https://twitter.com/paulmcleary/status/1686785973298905089

Kyiv:

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1686723811876421632

Bakhmut:

https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1686739976925437953

Kamianske:

https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1686807918773944325

Velyka Novosilka:

https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1686763193257906176

Odesa:

https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1686629842588954624

https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1686638401070456832

 

Today is the 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, not to be confused with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising:

https://twitter.com/RealCynicalFox/status/1686596868157886464

#OTD 79 years ago the Warsaw Uprising begins in 1944. Polish Home Army units rise up and storm Nazi positions in and around Warsaw, intending to hold the city until they can be relieved by the advancing Soviet Army. Unfortunately the Soviets halt and allow the Polish units, thought by the Soviets to represent a danger to their plans for a communist puppet government post-war, to be slaughtered.

British & American forces conduct a belated and half-hearted attempt to support the effort with long range supply drops.

The Poles hold out for 63 days, suffering as many as 20,000+ combatant casualties in addition to 150-200,000+ civilian casualties. The majority of the city is subsequently reduced to rubble.

I highly recommend following
@WW2girl1944
if you’re interested in an in-depth accounting of this engagement, and Polish military history during WW2 in general.

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

A new video from Patron’s official TikTok:

@patron__dsns

Професійно засинаю де завгодно і коли завгодно🙈

♬ original sound – Ron

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

I fall asleep professionally anywhere and anytime 🙈

You and me both little guy! You and me both!

Open thread!

The occupiers will strongly feel the consequences of our work – address by the President of Ukraine

1 August 2023 – 21:52

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

This day began with very informative reports from representatives of the defense and security forces of our country.

Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Malyuk and Minister of Internal Affairs Klymenko on the liquidation of the consequences of Russian terrorists’ attacks on our cities: Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, and our other cities.

General Zaluzhny reported on the general situation in the defense. Generals Syrsky and Tarnavsky reported on the front and specific directions. Commander of the Air Force Oleshchuk reported on the results of the use of air defense. “We are constantly working with our partners on a daily basis to bolster our sky shield, step by step we are adding protection.

There was also a separate detailed report by Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate Budanov – the occupiers will definitely feel the consequences of our work. They will feel it strongly.

We are preparing a number of international events – this week will be very important for Ukraine and our foreign policy.

A month remains before the start of the new political season in our partner countries. And we will do everything possible to make this season as conducive as possible to our movement forward, to victory, to our desire to restore peace for the whole of Ukraine – without exception. More political support for Ukraine. More weapons for our warriors. Full responsibility of the terrorist state for everything it has done against Ukraine, against our cities, villages, and people.

And today I would like to honor our warriors from the areas in Donbas and the south of our country more specifically, by name. Warriors whose bravery and courage are special. The story of each of them is a true heroism!

Soldier Andriy Kalkutin, the 56th separate motorized infantry brigade of Mariupol. Soldier Pavlo Karasiov, the 28th separate mechanized brigade. Soldier Viktor Konstantiuk, the 30th separate mechanized brigade. Soldier Roman Sydorchuk, the 33rd separate mechanized brigade.

Senior Soldier Andriy Hora, the 5th separate assault brigade. Senior Soldier Dmytro Humeniuk, the 214th separate special battalion. Senior Soldier Mykola Zaruchevskyi, the 55th separate artillery brigade. Senior Soldier Yaroslav Ilkiv, the 24th separate mechanized brigade.

Junior Sergeant Taras Vozniuk, the 3rd separate assault brigade. Junior Sergeant Serhiy Savchuk, the 36th separate marine brigade. Well done, guys!

Junior Sergeants Mykola Paytsan and Mykhailo Shcherban, Sergeant Ihor Apolitov – all three are from the 65th separate mechanized brigade. Junior Sergeant Ruslan Kryvalets, the 110th separate mechanized brigade.

Sergeant Serhiy Datskiv, the 25th Sicheslav separate airborne brigade. Sergeant Oleksandr Pshenychuk, the 47th separate mechanized brigade. Senior Sergeant Andriy Samohalskyi, the 22nd separate mechanized brigade. Lieutenant Ihor Lytvyn, the 57th separate motorized infantry brigade. Major Yaroslav Volianskyi, the 44th separate artillery brigade.

I thank you, guys, for the enemies you destroyed and for the brothers you saved! I am proud of your results! You are our pride, you are the pride of Ukraine.

Glory to all our warriors!

Glory to everyone who is fighting for Ukraine, who is helping us bring our victory closer!

Glory to Ukraine!

The cost:

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1686478465761959936

Eleonora Maltseva was killed in the line of duty. She has been defending Ukraine since the beginning of russian aggression nine years ago. Eleonora used to play for “Bilychanka” sports club, a 10-time national futsal champion, and was a member of the national futsal team.
She gave her life so that her 14-year-old son and all Ukrainian children could live in a free country. We will prevail. That is our promise.

Russian Occupied Sevastopol:

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1686395099620761605

Kherson Region:

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1686372137190256640

Poland:

Oopsie!

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1686444603988185088

Here’s the full text of the first tweet:

The Ministry of Defense of Poland reported that today, 1 August 2023, two Belorussian helicopters violated the Polish state border.
“The border crossing took place in the Bialowieza area at a very low altitude, making it difficult to detect by radar systems… The Belarusian side had previously informed the Polish side about the trainings… NATO was informed of the incident…” – Polish Ministry of Defence.
Full- https://gov.pl/web/obrona-narodowa/komunikat-mon-granica

Earlier today, Polish media published photos or Belorussian Mi-8 and Mi-24 near Bialowieza area. When the photos were published there were no official confirmation that the polish border was violated by Belorussian helicopters yet.
https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/bialoruskie-smiglowce-niedaleko-bialowiezy-generalowie-komentuja-6925857320102528a?amp=1

The Financial Times is reporting trouble with the US’s ability to ramp up production of 155mm shells.

The Biden administration is seeking to increase stretched supplies of crucial munitions for Ukraine to support the counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces.

The weapons effort is focused on delivering more 155mm calibre shells used in the howitzers Ukraine is deploying along the front line, officials said, and includes supplies from international allies in the short term and plans to ramp up US production in the next two years.

“I personally sit in my office every morning and spend 30 minutes on 155[mm] ammunition,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last month at the Aspen Security Forum.

Officials said the Biden administration had been aware for months that Ukraine’s high burn-rate of munitions would begin to stretch supplies and had stepped up efforts to get the shells to the front line as the war entered a crucial phase. European supplies have also become stretched, and the Financial Times reported last week that Ukraine had begun firing rockets made in North Korea.

“We are actively working as rapidly as possible to build out the production lines for 155,” Sullivan said. “We do not want to lose a day and there is not a tool, authority or dollar that we’re going to set on the sidelines to not being able to do that.”

The US has already struck deals with Bulgaria and South Korea to supply the shells to Ukraine and is in talks with Japan to do the same, officials said.

But a US Army effort to increase monthly output of the crucial munitions to 90,000 will take until 2025, highlighting the challenge of ramping up such production quickly, particularly when the US had not previously been focused on it.

“Prior to the Ukraine spin-up, most of the army’s focus was on building out new tank munitions,” said Retired Brig. Gen. Guy Walsh, executive vice-president at the National Defense Industrial Association.

The Pentagon has asked to buy only about 790,000 155mm rounds over the past 10 years, mostly for use in training exercises. That suggests the US has already given Ukraine more than the quantity it procured in 155mm purchases over the past decade, according to a report by the Center for a New American Security think-tank in Washington.

Compounding the effort to ramp up production was a US decision to downsize its defence industrial base after the cold war.

“We did not anticipate or prepare for a long war and the industrial base was constrained for efficiency,” said Mark Cancian, senior adviser at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies

The munitions effort by the US and its allies comes as Ukraine intensifies its weeks-old counteroffensive in the south and east of the country. On Thursday and Friday, Kyiv said it had recaptured Staromaiorske, a village in south-eastern Donetsk region that had been under Russian occupation since early in the full-scale invasion.

Artillery warfare has dominated much of the fighting on the front line, with both sides firing thousands of shells each day.

The dearth of US supplies of 155mn shells to support the current push was an important driver behind President Joe Biden’s controversial decision last month to authorise shipments of cluster munitions to Ukraine.

The decision “helped ensure that Ukraine has the ammunition it needs and that they would not run out”, one US official said.

“We’re at the point where they’re supplying Ukraine at the level they can, and they’ve given them as much as they can, while keeping the reserves that they think are important to have in case there were an unforeseen crisis,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the Defence Program at CNAS.

More at the link!

Ukrayinska Pravda is reporting that the US has signed a deal with Bulgaria and South Korea to supply Ukraine with 155mm shells.

Details: Officials cited by the newspaper say the United States has already signed agreements with Bulgaria and South Korea to supply shells to Ukraine and is negotiating with Japan on the same.

The Financial Times says that the Biden administration has been aware of Ukraine’s  depleted ammunition stockpile for several months and has stepped up efforts to deliver the shells to Kyiv.

Commenter YY_Sima Qian asked for my take on this tweet by Ukrainian Army officer Tatarigami:

https://twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1685074787553378304

Here’s the full text of the tweet:

While minefields and insufficient supplies from the West undoubtedly contribute to drawbacks, it is essential to recognize that failures in planning and coordination at the commanding stage above the brigade level lead to far more significant drawbacks. In any war or military operation, there are both competent and ineffective commanders.

However, the main question is whether we will draw conclusions based on the performance of certain generals or simply lay blame on the West and minefields. Whether the assault concludes in Crimea or elsewhere in the South, it’s vital to acknowledge both victories and failures and hold individuals accountable for serious shortcomings.

No amount of NATO training for NCOs and privates can compensate for the absence of similar training and the right mindset among certain senior officers.

To conclude, I would like to share a brief radio interception between Russian service members that I heard almost a month ago:

– How is it going for you guys? Are you holding?
– Yeah.
– What about Ukrainians? What do you think?
– I have a feeling that their assault was planned by Gerasimov and executed by Muradov.

There are a couple of follow ons:

https://twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1685079380559609856

https://twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1685080309581193216

https://twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1685092983555694592

There’s a lot to unpack here. First off, a good chunk of this is not new for or from Tatarigami. We’ve seen the interviews with the Ukrainian military’s senior leaders where they have all been very candid about having to work hard on themselves to remove the indoctrination into the Soviet way of war that they grew up with as officers. And we know that most if not all of the more junior officers, NCOs, and enlisted have basically been creating their own Ukrainian way of war since the initial Russian invasion in 2014. Where the issue seems to be is in the middle. And it takes a long time for that to work its way out. Some of you may remember that the late GEN Odierno once got himself in a lot of trouble over not wanting to do any of the counterinsurgency stuff. He didn’t see the need. Because at the time that doing so became the theater strategy he was at a point in his career where he had been educated and trained as an officer that the US was not going to do that stuff again. He got rhetorically smacked around a bit and some of the generals senior to him, as well as some of his peers, more quietly explained to him why he was wrong and he eventually came around. By the time he was Chief of Staff of the Army he was unabashedly demanding more of the type of things I provide in my professional work. He had an entire slide with little word clouds that had culture on them in bold font all over the place. Unfortunately, including for my career, the Army decided it could outlast him. Because the US Army is NOT a learning organization. GEN Odierno was not the only US general or even colonel or lieutenant colonel that didn’t embrace the change. Some came around, some were a real problem. It is this type of dynamic that Ukraine is facing.

We’ve covered the training the US and its NATO allies are providing the Ukrainians several times over the past few months, largely because of the concerns the actual Ukrainian Soldiers have regarding the training they are getting. Here the Ukrainian’s needs have run hard into the American way of military training, especially for non-peer foreign allies and partners. So this is definitely a deficit that needs addressing, but it is really only something the US and its NATO allies can fix in regard to Ukrainian criticism.

As for properly bringing over advisors, my understanding is that it is hit or miss. Some of these folks are great. Some of them are trying to create personal national security brands by going to Ukraine to do whatever it is they’re doing. We’ve also seen this with some of the American volunteers for the International Legion.

Finally, the issue about echelons above brigade seems legit. Especially as the Ukrainian military transitions from the legacy Soviet model to the NATO one. From the distance and safety of my home in the US, I think that echelons above brigade as organizing and coordinating headquarters would be very useful. But only if the commanders and staffs have been able to break themselves away from the legacy Soviet military model they grew up in as officers. Even more important is that subordinate commanders have to be empowered to make decisions when they do not have time to seek approval from higher.

Last night Anonymous at Work asked:

What’s the disruption going to be for the lack of rail on the Russian southern and western fronts?  Artie’s getting chewed good, I imagine that regular ammo isn’t available in quantity, but what’s the food/water situation like?  Without rail and the roads not in great shape, what gives?

The Russians move things forward as far as possible by rail and then by truck. So any disruption is going to have an impact. If the Ukrainians can continue to attrit the railways and bridges, as well as ammo dumps and other supply and logistics facilities, then the Russians are going to have a hard time.

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1686470964165435392

https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1686490557726539777

Open thread!