The Russia-Russia Counteroffensive During the Ukrainian Invasion of Crimea: State-of-the-Art and Outlook for Moscow

WASHINGTON — For all his threats to fire tactical nuclear arms at Ukrainian targets, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is now discovering what the United States itself concluded years ago, American officials suspect: Small nuclear weapons are hard to use, harder to control and a far better weapon of terror and intimidation than a weapon of war.

The primary utility, many U.S. officials say, would be as part of a last-ditch effort by Mr. Putin to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive, by threatening to make parts of Ukraine uninhabitable. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to give an insight into some of the talks inside the administration.

The Russian government has different ideas about how it could be done. They could fire a shell six inches wide from their gun or a half ton warhead over the border into Russia. The Ukrainian military base could be one of the targets. How much destruction — and lingering radiation — would result depends on factors including the size of the weapon and the winds. Thousands of people could die from a small nuclear explosion, which could cause a base or a downtown area to be rendered uninhabitable for years.

These attacks began at the outset of the war and have only increased in scope and virulence since Ukrainian forces last month attacked a bridge – one particularly close to Putin’s heart – between mainland Russia and Crimea, which the Russians annexed in 2014.

The barrage continued on a day when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to human rights activists in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, an implicit rebuke to Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his invasion of Ukraine.

Overnight nearly 40 Russian rockets hit Nikopol, on the Dnipro River, damaging at least 10 homes, several apartment blocks and other infrastructure, according to the head of the regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko. He said that further shelling on Friday evening killed one man and wounded another.

As Ukraine races to shore up its missile defenses in the wake of the assault, the math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles are bound to get through.

Estimating Russian missile inventories is guesswork. In May, President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia had launched 2,154 missiles and had probably used up 60% of its precision-missile arsenal. That looks like a bad idea.

While estimating the military reserves of either army is murky, experts think Russia’s aerial bombardment won’t form a pattern and Moscow might not have the capacity to keep it up.

The Russians have also been adapting the S-300 – normally an air defense missile – as an offensive weapon, with some effect. Their swift speed makes them difficult to intercept and they have wreaked havoc in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. They are not accurate.

Sky is falling: How Ukrainian air defense systems have become innovative in the war against the West and their role in the U.S. military mission in Ukraine

But Ukraine’s energy operators are getting used to repairing electricity substations, pylons and thermal power plants. Zelensky said Tuesday: “Most of the towns and villages, which terrorists wanted to leave without electricity and communication, already have electricity and communication back.”

This was the first time in the war that Russia has targeted energy infrastructure, he stated in a CNN interview.

The NATO air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles were shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems.

Ukrainian air defense battalions have become innovative: One video from Monday, referenced by Zelensky, showed a soldier using a shoulder-held missile to bring down a Russian projectile, purportedly a cruise missile.

Unlike predator drones that can be remote-controlled and drop ammunition loads and fly off, the Shahed drones are programmed with coordinates ahead of time and rely on GPS to hit their targets.

The US is being pushed to provide the weapons by a Ukrainian lawmaker. He told CNN that it was extremely important because it would change the situation on the battlefield. The war is going to be much faster with these.

Ukraine’s wish-list – circulated at Wednesday’s meeting – included missiles for their existing systems and a “transition to Western-origin layered air defense system” as well as “early warning capabilities.”

He said that the system was designed to control priority targets, but would not control all of the airspace over Ukraine. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”

Western systems are beginning to trickle in. A new era of air defense has started with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany and two units of the US National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System expected soon, according to the Ukrainian Defense Minister.

Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States, Bronk said.

What have the forces in Ukraine told us about the recent wars in Ukraine, and what are they saying about the prospects for the future of the air defense system?

Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tweeted Tuesday his thanks to Poland as “brothers in arms” for training an air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.

He said Poland had given Ukraine “systems” to help destroy the drones. Reports surfaced a month ago stating that the Polish government had bought advanced Israeli equipment and was then exporting it to Ukranian.

There was a relative calm this week in the Ukrainian cities that were far from the fighting. However, the air raid sirens and the Russian attacks shattered that.

The wide bombardment echoed the early days of Russia’s scattershot initial invasion in February, but also underlined that the conflict in Ukraine, which for months appeared to be descending into a slow and painful grind in the Donbas, has erupted once again as winter nears.

The war is close to a new phase, not for the first time. Keir Giles is a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House and he said this is the third or fifth war they had been observing.

Recent days have meanwhile shown that sites beyond the current theater of ground fighting are far from immune to attacks. While it’s not clear exactly how the bridge bombing was carried out, the fact that it was successful indicated a serious Ukrainian threat towards key Russian assets.

“What seemed a distant prospect for anything that could be convincingly described as a Ukraine victory is now very much more plausible,” Giles said. The response from Russia is likely to get worse.

Russia is struggling on the ground and has failed to achieve supremacy in the air, but the attacks may have given a signal of strength to the growing list of Putin’s critics.

Ukraine’s Road to War with Ukraine: Pushing the Russian Front Towards Resolving Moscow’s Last Battlegrounds in the Oskil River

Oleksii Hromov, a senior Ukrainian military official, said last week that Kyiv’s forces have recaptured some 120 settlements since late September as they advance in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. In a release, Ukraine stated it had liberated more settlements in Kherson.

Russia said Thursday its forces would help evacuate residents of occupied Kherson to other areas, as Ukraine’s offensive continued to make gains in the region. The head of the Moscow-backed administration in Kherson appealed to the Kremlin for help in moving residents out of harms way, a sign that the Russian forces were struggling in the face of Ukrainian advances.

These counter-offensives have shifted the momentum of the war and disproved a suggestion, built up in the West and in Russia during the summer, that while Ukraine could stoutly defend territory, it lacked the ability to seize ground.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

The Kremlin appointed a new overall commander for the invasion as it faced growing setbacks. But there is little sign that Gen. Sergey Surovikin can lead his forces back onto the front foot before the end of the year, given the pace and cost of the Ukrainian counter-offensives.

Ukrainian troops are focused primarily on pushing Russian forces eastwards, having crossed the Oskil River in late September, with Moscow likely preparing to defend the cities of Starobilsk and Svatove in the Luhansk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

“There are so many reasons why there is an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly,” Giles said. “The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.”

NATO leaders have vowed to stand behind Ukraine regardless of how long the war takes, but several European countries – particularly those that relied heavily on Russian energy – are staring down a crippling cost-of-living crisis which, without signs of Ukrainian progress on the battlefield, could endanger public support.

Ukraine’s national electricity company, Ukrenergo, says it has stabilized the power supply to Kyiv and central regions of Ukraine after much of the country’s electricity supply was disrupted by Russian missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday. But Ukrainian Prime Minister has warned that “there is a lot of work to do” to fix damaged equipment, and asked Ukrainians to reduce their energy usage during peak hours.

The UK’s spy chief said that the Russian commanders on the ground knew their supplies were running out.

That conclusion was also reached by the ISW, which said in its daily update on the conflict Monday that the strikes “wasted some of Russia’s dwindling precision weapons against civilian targets, as opposed to militarily significant targets.”

According to a military expert with the Royal United Services Institute, the success rate ofUkrainian intercepts against Russian cruise missiles has risen significantly since the start of the invasion.

The impact of such an intervention in terms of pure manpower would be limited; Belarus has around 45,000 active duty troops, which would not significantly bolster Russia’s reserves. But it would threaten another assault on Ukraine’s northern flank below the Belarusian border.

Giles said that the reopening of the northern front would be a new challenge for Ukraine. It would give Russia a new route into the region which has been reclaimed by the Ukranian army, he said.

By flipping the narrative of the conflict over the past two months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has achieved one of his own key objectives: showing Ukraine’s Western allies that their military aid can help Kyiv win the war.

Ahead of the NATO defense ministers meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that more systems were needed forUkraine to better halt missile attacks.

U.S. drone attacks on rebel fighters in Donbas and Donetsk: A critical test for Putin and the rest of the world

The coming weeks are therefore crucial both on the battlefield, as well as in Europe and around the globe, experts suggest. “As ever, where Putin goes next depends on how the rest of the world is responding,” Giles said. Russia’s attitude is shaped by the failure of Western countries to deter it.

The last shipment of weapons from Iran to Russia included about 450 drones, officials said, which the Russians have already used to deadly effect in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said last week that they have shot down more than 300 Iranian drones.

The name “kamikaze” refers to the fact the drones are disposable. The military drones that drop missiles back home after the attack are not designed to hit behind enemy lines.

Kremlin-backed separatist authorities have accused Ukraine of numerous strikes on infrastructure and residential targets in the occupied regions using U.S.-supplied long-range HIMARS rockets.

On the front line, “the key hotspots in Donbas are (neighboring towns) In a video address on Sunday, the president of the Ukranian stated that extremely heavy fighting is continuing in Soledar and Bakhmut.

The towns and the city of DONET are in the Donbas region, where Russian-backed fighters have been fighting for the past three years. The Donetsk region is among four that were illegally annexed by Russia last month.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive against the pro-Kremlin fighters in Luhansk, a source familiar with Russian intelligence

Western intelligence officials said that Russia had included convicts “with long sentences for serious crimes” in its front-line troops.

Zelenskyy’s office said Moscow was shelling towns and villages along the front line in the east Sunday, and that “active hostilities” continued in the southern Kherson region.

The region of Zaporizhzhia also was illegally annexed by Russia last month, despite the fact that some 20% of it remains under Ukrainian military control.

Meanwhile, Russia opened an investigation into a shooting in that region Saturday in which two men from a former Soviet republic who were training at a military firing range killed 11 and wounded 15 during target practice, before being slain themselves. The Russian defense ministry called the event a terrorist attack.

France has pledged air-defense missiles and is increasing military training for the country of Ukraine. Sébastien Lecornu, the French defense minister, stated in an interview that between 2000 and 2200 Ukrainian soldiers would be embedded with military units in France for several weeks of combat training, specialized training, and equipment supplied by France.

— The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, accused Moscow late Saturday of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians,” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

It references statements made by the Russian authorities who claimed that thousands of children from a region held by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and camps in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti on Friday.

Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they said were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a potential breach of an international treaty on genocide prevention.

— The Ukrainian military accused pro-Kremlin fighters of evicting civilians in occupied territories to house officers in their homes, an act it described as a violation of international humanitarian law. It stated that the evictions were happening in the eastern Luhansk region. It did not provide evidence for its claim.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/16/1129387209/ukraine-donetsk-separatist-russia-rocket-mayor

U.S. response to the spate of the killing of MH17 suspect Mohamed El-Ginzburg: an analysis of the case against Iran’s Shahed drones

Girkin has been on an international wanted list over his alleged involvement in the downing of Kuala Lumpur-bound flight MH17, which killed 298 people. He remains the most high-profile suspect in a related murder trial in a Dutch court, with a verdict expected Nov. 17.

Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency said Sunday it would offer a $100,000 reward to anyone who captures him.

Ret said the Shahed drones had a disadvantage of their speed. Marine Col. Mark Cancian, who now serves as a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The problem with them is that they’re slow,” Cancian said. They’re like all propeller-driven drones, they’re just not very fast. so they’re susceptible to being shot down by either missiles or by aircraft guns.”

The US imposed a sanction on an air transportation provider for their part in the shipment of Iranian drones to Russia. The under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence stated that the US is ready to target producers and procurers who are involved in the program.

The Moscow-Ukraine War, U.S.-Swiss Air Defense Campaign and Pentagon-French Air Force Missions

Iran has repeatedly said that it does not support any side in the Russia-Ukraine war. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on the internet that Iran had not given arms to warring sides.

Cancian compared the Russian bombing campaign on cities to the German bombing campaign on London in World War II.

Cancian said the military would have more time to recover because it would be focused on the cities.

At the same time, the U.S. has said it is speeding up its delivery of NASAMS, the same ground-based air defense systems that are used to protect the White House in Washington, D.C., and the systems are expected to be in Ukraine in a few weeks.

Both Ukrainian and Russian forces have used battery-powered commercial drones that are less expensive than the larger ones. Small weapons like grenades are dropped on enemy troops before the quadcopters fly away. They are designed to be rearmed and used again after their batteries have been charged.

In March, the Pentagon announced it would send 100 “tactical unmanned aerial systems” called Switchblades. The administration said it would provide another 300. Eight days later, the Defense Department said it would send 120 Phoenix Ghost drones to Ukraine. In July, the United States provided funds for Ukraine to buy 580 more of them.

The Pentagon said in August that they would start sending small aircraft called “pueblo drones”, that soldiers toss into the air to launch and control by remote control. The umas are able to stay at altitudes of 500 feet.

The Iranian War on the War and the U.S.-Russia Relation to the Blast of the Crimes in the Baluchistan Conflict

This new expected shipment would mark a significant increase in Iranian support to Russia’s war effort. While the precise timing of when the shipment will arrive in Russia is unclear, officials believe the weapons will definitely be delivered before the end of the year.

The Iranian drones are classified as a loitering munition because they have the ability of circling in an area and only hitting when an enemy asset is identified.

The US is “looking at everything that we can do, not just with sanctions” in order to disrupt the Iranian weaponry from going to Russia, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said last week. He said that the US wants to break up the networks.

John Kirby, the communications chief at the National Security Council, said that the presence of Iranian personnel was proof that Tehran was involved in the conflict.

The drones have been used to target civilians. Iran, in spite of all of the evidence, keeps lying and denying that it is happening.

On Monday a senior US defense official said they didn’t have any information to provide on the suggestion Iran is preparing to send missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Many Russian soldiers are refusing to fight and rebelled against what they were told to do. Amid plummeting morale, the UK’s Defense Ministry believes Russian troops may be prepared to shoot retreating or deserting soldiers.

Grisly videos filmed by Ukrainian drones showing Russian infantry being struck by artillery in poorly prepared positions have partly supported those assertions, as has reporting in Russian news media of mobilized soldiers telling relatives about high casualty rates. The videos have not been independently verified and their exact location on the front line could not be determined.

Russian forces are going to stage up to 80 assaults a day, according to General Zaluzhnyi, which was described in the statement.

General Zaluzhnyi wrote that they had a discussion at the front. Ukrainian forces, he said he had told his U.S. colleague, were beating back the attacks, “thanks to the courage and skills of our warriors.”

The Institute for the Study of War has said that the increase in infantry did not change the course of the fight between Russia and rebels in the east.

The institute said in a statement that Russian forces would have had more success in offensive operations if they had waited until enough personnel arrived to boost the force.

Throughout the weekend, the Ukrainian military sought to target Russian forces as they tried to regroup after their retreat from Kherson. The Ukrainian air force launched strikes on the east side of the river, with the Ukrainian military saying it had fired on 33 Russian positions.

With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently ready to battle in Kherson, the remaining residents of the city have been stocking up on food and fuel to survive.

Ukraine will be watching the election results in America, especially after some Republicans warned that the party could limit funding if the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives.

State of Ukraine at the End of the Ukrainian War: U.S. Response to Ukraine’s Decay to the Kherson Reservoir

Also Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Before Sweden can become a member of NATO, it must meet certain conditions.

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday is scheduled to discuss an International Atomic Energy Agency report, in which Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda.

Russia rejoined a U.N.-brokered deal to safely export grain and other agricultural goods from Ukraine, on Nov. 2. Moscow had suspended its part in the deal a few days prior after saying Ukraine had launched a drone attack on its Black Sea ships.

There will be $400 million in additional security aid from the Pentagon, including 45 refurbished T 72 tanks, 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones and other vehicles.

You can read past recaps here. Here you can find more context and in-depth stories from NPR. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian and Russian forces traded fire on Monday from across the broad expanse of the Dnipro River that now divides them after Russia’s retreat from the southern city of Kherson, reshaping the battlefield with a victory that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, declared marked “the beginning of the end of the war.”

In southern Ukrainian, the Dnipro has become the new front line, and officials have warned of continued danger from fighting in areas already suffered months of Russian occupation.

There were fears that the Russian army would retaliate for the loss of the city by unleashing a bombardment on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river at the southern district of the city.

Smoke came from mortar shells that struck near the bridge. Near the riverfront, incoming rounds rang out with thunderous, metallic booms. It was not possible to assess what had been hit.

“I’m not afraid of Russians,” a resident tells a colleague in Skadovsk, Kherson City, Ukraine

The mines are a significant danger. Four people, including an 11 year-old, were killed when a family driving in a village outside of the city ran over a mine. Another mine injured six railway workers who were trying to restore service after lines were damaged. There were at least four more children injured by mines in the region, Ukrainian officials said in statements.

The deaths underscored that there are still threats, even as Mr. Zelensky made a surprise visit to Kherson.

“We are, step by step, coming to all of our country,” Mr. Zelensky said in a short appearance in the city’s main square on Monday, as hundreds of jubilant residents celebrated.

Russian forces continued to fire across the river on towns and villages that were regained by Ukrainian forces, according to the Ukrainian military. The military said two missiles struck the town of Beryslav, which is north of a critical dam. It was not immediately known if there were any casualties.

“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for samogon,” or homemade vodka, said one resident, Tatiana, who communicated via a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river from Kherson City. “Then they get drunk and even more aggressive. We are very scared here. She wanted her name kept out of the news for security.

“Russians roam around, identify the empty houses and settle there,” Ivan, 45, wrote in a text message. He lives in Skadovsk, which is south of Kherson city, and asked that his surname not be used out of concern for his safety. We try to reach out to the owners and arrange for someone to stay in their place. So that it is not abandoned and Russians don’t take it.”

The Russian War on Ukraine, the UN Security Council, and the Kremlin High: The Case for a Russian-Flavored President

The author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might still happen” is David A. Andelman, who has been a contributor to CNN twice and won theDeadline Club Award. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion.

The final analysis shows that Putin is likely to be isolated and weaken Russia due to his lack of knowledge that revenge is not an appropriate tactic on or off the battlefield.

Now Poland is facing the repercussions from these attacks – and it’s not the only bordering country. Russian rockets have also knocked out power across neighboring Moldova, which is not a NATO member, and therefore attracted considerably less attention than the Polish incident.

It’s clear that the missile has one thing in common. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Wednesday.

His forces have planted mines in a lot of territory in Kherson, similar to the way the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia during the 1970s. Indeed, Cambodian de-mining experts have even been called in to assist with the herculean task facing Ukraine in 2022. Evidence of atrocities and torture has been left behind by Russian armies, which is similar to the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.

The Ukrainian military intelligence project, launched as a hotline and Telegram channel, has taken off and bookings have reached over 3000 in the first two months.

Putin is finding himself isolated on the world stage. He was the only head of state who stayed away from the G20 session. Though Putin once lusted after a return to the G7 (known as the G8 before he was ousted after his seizure of Crimea), inclusion now seems but a distant dream. The comparison with North Korea was made more striking by Russia banning 100 Canadians, including Jim Carrey, from entering the country.

Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. Writers, artists, journalists, scientists and engineers are included.

One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/opinions/putin-poland-missile-ukraine-nato-andelman/index.html

The Russian War on Nuclear Cluster Warheads: The Case for a First Order, Faster, Cheaper, Stronger, Orbital, or Longer?

Rumbling in the background is the West’s attempt to diversify away from Russian oil and natural gas in an effort to deprive the country of material resources to pursue this war. “We have understood and learnt our lesson that it was an unhealthy and unsustainable dependency, and we want reliable and forward-looking connections,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 on Tuesday.

The conflict has proved to be a thorn in the side of the Western alliance and Putin believes that it would drive wedges into the alliance. On Monday, word began circulating in aerospace circles that the long-stalled joint French-German project for a next-generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System – Europe’s largest weapons program – was beginning to move forward.

While speaking in the Kremlin, he stated that attempts to rewrite and remake world history were becoming increasingly aggressive and that they were trying to divide our society and weaken Russia.

Ukrainian officials and lawmakers have in recent months urged the Biden administration and members of Congress to provide the Ukrainian military with cluster munition warheads, weapons that are banned by more than 100 countries but that Russia continues to use to devastating effect inside Ukraine.

CNN has learned that senior Biden administration officials have been fielding this request for months, and have not completely rejected it.

Cluster munitions are imprecise by design, and scatter “bomblets” across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines. They also create “nasty, bloody fragmentation” to anyone hit by them because of the dozens of submunitions that detonate at once across a large area, Mark Hiznay, a weapons expert and the associate arms director for Human Rights Watch, previously told CNN.

The Biden administration could use the option, if needed, but it would be used as a last resort. The proposal has not been considered much due to statutory restrictions that Congress put on the US ability to transfer cluster weapons, according to sources.

The prospect of them posing a risk to civilians is raised by the fact that munitions with more than one percent unexploded ordnance rate are subject to those restrictions. President Joe Biden could override that restriction, but the administration has indicated to the Ukrainians that that is unlikely in the near term.

According to a congressional aide, the ability of the Ukrainians to make gains in the current and upcoming phases of conflict is not dependent upon or tied to their procuring said munitions.

The Defense Ministry told CNN that it did not comment on reports about requests for specific weapons systems, preferring to wait and see if an agreement is reached with the supplier.

“They [DPICMs] are more effective when you have a concentration of Russian forces,” the Ukrainian official told CNN, noting that Ukraine has been asking for the weapons “for many months.”