The United States lacks the means to defend itself against modern Russian strategic weapons, including Poseidon nuclear torpedoes. This was stated by Senator Roger Wicker (Republican of Mississippi) in a hearing before the Congressional Senate Armed Services Committee. Not only do we learn from the US media that the States intend to drastically reduce aid to Ukraine after 2023, which could indicate Washington’s desire to freeze the armed conflict.
The well-informed Ukrainian Telegram channel “Resident” also spoke of the possible freeze, analyzing the dynamics of the imminent expenditure of the American budget to support the Kiev regime. The channel’s analysis shows that in the US budget for 2022, total support to Ukraine was provided to $13.6 billion and increased to $44.9 billion for 2023. Kiev hoped the momentum would of growth continued in the following period.
However, the day before, information appeared that only 6 billion was allocated to the US budget in 2024 to support Ukraine. That is, we are talking about reducing the volume of assistance by almost an order of magnitude.
In the meantime, the Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN has specified once again that: “The supply of combat aircraft to Kiev will mark NATO’s direct participation in the conflict (…) Any supply of combat aircraft to Ukraine will lead to direct NATO involvement in the conflict, in particular through the supply of airports”. Said Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN. “Imagine that these planes take off from Poland, enter the skies over Ukraine and return to Poland for maintenance. So will Poland be involved in the conflict? I think so. Direct involvement”, summed up the representative of the Russian Federation to the UN.
Hungary, through Orban, has made it known that it will not interfere in the Ukrainian conflict. Budapest takes a different position from that of a number of EU member states regarding the Ukrainian conflict. The Hungarian government does not allow arms supplies to Ukraine via Hungary when providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
The Poles, on the other hand, after starting the construction of barriers on the border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad in February, have now started, on March 9, to build fortifications on the border with Belarus. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak tweeted about building fortifications on the border with Belarus. “This is part of our defense and deterrence strategy,” the politician underlined. He did not specify on which section of the border the barriers were installed.
After the bombings in twelve regions of Ukraine, the energy situation is more difficult in the regions of Kharkiv and Zhytomyr according to the Ukrenergo electricity company. Power supply to critical infrastructure has been resumed in the Zhytomyr region, however repairs are ongoing and could take up to two weeks. Critical infrastructure has been powered up in the Kharkiv region, they promise to stabilize the situation in the coming days. In the Odessa region, the schedules of scheduled breaks have been introduced. There are no network restrictions in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
During the morning of 10 March in Zaporozhyia, following the bombing of the 9 evening, a fire broke out in critical infrastructures. About 20,000 subscribers to have been left without electricity, heating and water supplies are down in some areas.
The Ukrainian military used a US-made JDAM “smart bomb” near Bachmut for the first time.
Eastern Bachmut area is mostly occupied by Russian troops. The Ukrainians, as expected, withdrew to the western quarters of the city, using the river, the industrial zone of the Azom plant and the residential areas southwest of Bachmut. The Ukrainians in this area are quite organized and resist Russian attacks by trying to maintain supply lines through the Khromovo settlement.
And again the Armed Forces of Ukraine are counterattacking in the Krasnoye area, trying to unblock the Chasov Yar – Krasnoye – Bachmut road. Chasov Yar is currently being used for counterattack actions.
On the morning of March 9, messages came about the liberation of Dubovo-Vasilyevka and the rise of the pressure on Bogdanovka. Bogdanovka, according to Russian analysts is one of the keys to Bachmut’s cauldron. In the event of a Ukrainian bankruptcy, the road through Khromovo cannot be used in full. So the Ukrainians will have to use agricultural roads through the fields to get to Krasnoye, which makes it difficult to transport ammunition, remove the wounded and rotate the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city.
The Ukrainian subdivisions of the “popular forces”, Georgian, Chechen and so on, remain in the four zones of the city of Bachumt. “Personnel units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are roaming there less and less, which confirms the withdrawal of the enemy formations most trained by Bachmut”. Foreign and popular formations in the city can be sacrificed, but if successful, counterattacks will prevent the Wagner to connect the southern and northern assault routes around the city. In this case, Bachmut is given the role of a German fortress since the end of the Second World War”.
Graziella Giangiulio
