Five Ukrainian civilians killed as warring sides mull next move
KYIV, UKRAINE Fighting remained largely deadlocked Monday in eastern Ukraine where Russian shelling killed five civilians over the past day, according to Ukrainian officials, as the warring sides sized up their needs for renewed military pushes expected in coming weeks.
The casualties included a woman who was killed and three others who were wounded by the Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the country’s northeast, regional Gov. Oleh Syniyehubov said Monday.
Russia’s troops seized large areas of the northeastern Kharkiv region in the months following its invasion of its neighbour last February. But Ukrainian counteroffensives that began in August snatched back Russian-occupied territory, notably in Kharkiv.
Those successes lent weight to Ukraine’s arguments that its troops could deliver more stinging defeats to Russia if its Western allies provided more weaponry. Kyiv last week won promises of tanks from the United States and Germany.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday hinted at the prospect of more upcoming pledges, saying that “any activity aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defence powers is under consultation with our NATO partners.”
Such a move could encounter some familiar political obstacles, however.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after deand murring for weeks over sending Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, looks set to dig his heels in over providing fighter jets. Germany would not have the key role in aircraft deliveries that it did with the Leopards, which are Germanmade and require German export approval.
Scholz, who is on a trip to South America, said he regretted the emergence of the discussion on aircraft.
He said in Chile on Sunday that a serious debate is necessary and not a “competition to outdo each other … in which perhaps domestic political motives are in the foreground, rather than support for Ukraine.”
Military analysts say more aid is crucial if Ukraine is to block an expected Russian spring offensive launch its own effort to push back Russian forces.
“The pattern of delivery of Western aid has powerfully shaped the pattern of this conflict,” the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.based think tank, said late Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said keeping up the pace of allies’ support is crucial.
“The speed of supply has been, and will be, one of the key factors in this war. Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon,” he said Sunday in his nightly video address.
“We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”