The West’s Dithering Has Brought Ukraine to the Brink— But There’s Still Time to Stave Off Disaster; US Long-Range Rockets Arrive in Ukraine; Ukraine Loses Ground in Battle for Severodonetsk but Gains Firepower From U.S.; Why Ukraine’s Snake Island Is Key to Russia’s War Strategy, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

By admin On Jun 23, 2022

The West’s dithering has brought Ukraine to the brink— but there’s still time to stave off disaster:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reached a grim critical point, thanks to Western dithering.

After four months of horrific bloodshed, Russia has won control of nearly all of Luhansk, the northeastern part of the Donbas region. Though fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces slowed its advance, analysts predict complete Russian control of Luhansk within days.

It didn’t have to go that way: President Joe Biden — and leaders of other Western nations — did little as Vladimir Putin amassed troops on Ukraine’s border and made his intentions all too clear. Even after Russia’s attack in February, they were unforgivably slow in getting Ukraine the weapons needed.

Indeed, the long-range artillery systems the West promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are still barely trickling in, even as he pleaded last week that his troops are badly outgunned. The firepower shortage has allowed Russia to gobble up Luhansk, town by city by town — and leaves it free to move on from there. —>READ MORE HERE

US long-range rockets arrive in Ukraine as war with Russia continues:

An American-made rocket system is finally in the hands of Ukrainian troops — after weeks of clamoring by Kyiv for more long-range weapons to curb Kremlin advances in the eastern region of the country.

“HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine,” the country’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, tweeted Thursday. “Thank you to my American colleague and friend [Secretary of Defense] Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools!

“Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them,” he added.

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is a modern, truck-based American rocket system that US officials say will allow Ukrainian forces to hit targets up to 50 miles away.

Manufacturer Lockheed Martin, however, indicates that — armed with the right rockets — a HIMARS system can hit targets at more than three times that distance.

Washington has expressed concern that Ukrainian rocket strikes beyond the Russian border would further escalate the conflict, and has sought assurances from Kyiv that Russian territory is off-limits for strikes.