Russia Seeks Gains in Ukraine Before Western Tanks Arrive; Pentagon Won’t Rule Out F-16s for Ukraine: ‘We’re Not Going to Take Anything Off the Table; Ukraine to form ‘first in the world’ Attack Drone Units; Poland to Send 60 Modernised Tanks to Ukraine in Addition to Leopards, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

By admin On Jan 29, 2023

WSJ: Russia Seeks Gains in Ukraine Before Western Tanks Arrive:

Russian forces have advanced deeper into Bakhmut in recent days, according to Ukrainian soldiers there, moving house by house and threatening Ukraine’s hold on the eastern city, which Russia has made its main immediate target.

The Russian advance has been incremental and comes with heavy losses, Ukrainian commanders say. Ukrainian military and civilian leaders have said they would stand and fight for the city, and seek to whittle down Russian forces engaged in costly assaults.

Deeper Russian penetration into the city leaves Kyiv facing the choice of whether to pursue bloody street fighting or to withdraw to preserve troops. Ukrainian forces hold higher ground to the west of Bakhmut that is more easily defensible, and commanders have said the city holds little strategic value.

But Bakhmut has taken on a symbolic significance in recent months, as Russia seeks to expand its hold on the eastern Donbas region. Moscow has dispatched thousands of fighters from the paramilitary Wagner Group, many of them convicted criminals, in an effort to retake the city. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the city in December and called it “Fortress Bakhmut.”

He has suggested that Ukraine will stand firm and seek to bleed Russian forces.

“The more Russia loses in this battle for Donbas, the less its overall potential will be,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address Thursday. “We know what the occupiers are planning. We are countering it.” —>READ MORE HERE

Pentagon Won’t Rule Out F-16s for Ukraine: ‘We’re Not Going to Take Anything Off the Table:

The Biden administration would not rule out sending F-16s to Ukraine after it announced it was sending 31 Abrams M1A2 tanks.

After President Joe Biden announced the sending of the tanks, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister told Reuters that the country will now push for F-16s. “The next big hurdle will now be the fighter jets,” Yuriy Sak told the wire.

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, when pressed repeatedly at a briefing on Thursday, would not rule out sending the fourth-generation fighter jets.

“We haven’t announced other packages yet,” she said.

She added later that operating the F-16 would require training but again refused to rule them out:

This is a capability that would require training. It would require more people to come off the battlefield to learn a new — an entirely new system. And again, the Ukrainians have proven that they can learn complicated, complex, challenging systems. It is more — in terms of, like, the Abrams, it is more the sustainment, the maintenance when it’s on the battlefield. With the F-16s, again, another challenging system that would require training.

“And I’m not going to get ahead of any announcement cause I don’t have an announcement today. So I’ll leave it at that,” she said. —>READ MORE HERE

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