The United States has announced a $425 million aid package for Ukraine, which includes additional air defense assets, air-to-ground munitions, armored vehicles and ammunition to meet Ukraine’s immediate needs. In the coming months, the United States will provide Ukraine with a number of additional capabilities, including hundreds of anti-aircraft guided missiles, dozens of tactical air defense systems, additional artillery systems, significant quantities of ammunition, hundreds of armored vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles and thousands of other armored vehicles, which will help arm the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The White House has assured that US approaches to limiting Kiev’s use of long-range weapons to strike deep into Russia “have not changed and will not change.” President Volodymyt Zelensky informed President Biden of his plan to defeat Russia, and the two leaders instructed their respective teams to engage in further consultations on the next steps. The decisions were apparently made during Zelensky’s visit to the United States. The total volume of US military support to Ukraine since the beginning of the administration of current US President Joe Biden has approached $60 billion, the Pentagon reported on Wednesday.
Biden will host a virtual meeting of the Contact Group of Heads of State on Ukraine in November, the White House said. As specified, the meeting will discuss coordination efforts to provide further assistance to Kiev.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the alliance’s strategy is to provide arms to Ukraine so that it can enter negotiations from a position of strength. “Don’t let Putin get what he wants in Ukraine. This means providing massive aid to Ukraine so that it can fight back. We must do everything possible to ensure that Ukraine has the opportunity to continue to act.” Media sources say: “The situation at the moment is not favorable for inviting Ukraine to the NATO-US permanent representation in the Alliance.”
“Ukraine’s borders must be clearly demarcated before it has the opportunity to join NATO,” AP reports, citing diplomats from the Alliance. In this case, the Agency notes, “it will be clear under what conditions Article 5 of the NATO Charter on collective defense will apply.” Earlier, the US Permanent Representative to NATO, Julianne Smith, said that the Alliance will not invite Ukraine in the near future.
Swedish Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin shared the same opinion: “The issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO is not being raised now, it is in a state of war.”
NATO has not confirmed reports of North Korean troops allegedly being sent to participate in the conflict in Ukraine, Secretary General Rutte said.
The European Union has already spent 42 billion euros on military supplies to Ukraine, and the total volume of aid has reached 110 billion euros, exceeding the aid of the United States, the head of the EU diplomatic service, Josep Borrell, said at a conference in Brussels.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he is ready to discuss a deal with Putin in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is taking a cold shower over its commitment to negotiations: “Russia’s invincibility is confirmed by its military potential, the support of the population for President Putin and history itself,” said Kazakhstan President Qasym-Jomart Kemelūly Tokayev.
After Zelensky’s Victory Plan was presented, Ukraine is playing for a higher stake in the hope that some country will take its demands to heart again. “Ukraine will not wait for the Allies to open a ‘second front,’” said Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of his office. “It is obvious that Ukraine will not wait for the Allies to open a ‘second front,’ but we can at least count on tougher trade sanctions,” Podolyak said. Secret annexes to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s “victory plan” speak of strikes on Russian territory, said Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian leader’s office.
“In the annexes to the victory plan, it is precisely indicated what kind of weapons should be to destroy logistics far from the front line… to destroy both accumulation and production objects, including where they will be accumulated, what targets will be hit, in what quantity and how many weapons will be needed for this,” he said. Finally, the victory plan does not involve returning all the territories lost by military means, said Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the president of Ukraine.
“The president has spoken about it several times: it is not about liberating all the territories by military means,” he said in the Obozrevatel publication. Podolyak called Zelensky’s proposals a “plan to coerce Russia.” It is about creating conditions so that the preservation of the territories that Kiev continues to consider its own for the Russian Federation will come at “too high a price,” according to the adviser.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky told the press that Kiev is at war with three countries: “Russia, Iran and North Korea.” He did not explain how it is at war.
Last night, October 17, a heavy military transport aircraft An-124-100 of the Russian Aerospace Forces arrived at the Belarusian airport of Machulishchi for the first time in a year and a half.
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev spoke about calls to call the new regions historical: “Every term is boring: Moscow, in fact, is also a historical territory, so call it whatever you want, the main thing is that these are our territories,” Medvedev believes.
After Russia’s victory in the Northern Military District, the country’s agenda will change, new challenges will appear and it will be more difficult for United Russia to work, so we must prepare to show results, Medvedev said
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the plan of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he presented to the Verkhovna Rada, a set of incoherent slogans. “This, of course, is not a plan, this is a set of incoherent slogans, this is bloody foam on the lips of a neo-Nazi murderer,” she said at a briefing.
And now a look at the front line as of 16:00 on October 17.
The governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said that on October 16, in the Sevskij district, the operational and emergency services neutralized an unexploded projectile of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with a capacity of 100 kg of TNT. The neutralization was attended by the Russian Guard, the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Bryansk group of troops. Several roads in the area were evacuated.
In the direction of Kursk, the Russian Armed Forces continue to advance in the Korenevsky sector. The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched 2 counterattacks in the area of the Zeleny Shlyakh settlement. Both attacks were repelled. Significant progress was reported in the south of the Sudzhansky district in the area of the Plekhovo settlement. Heavy fighting is ongoing.
Russian troops remain 6 kilometers from Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region, State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatsky told RIA Novosti.
In the direction of Liman, Russian forces have completely liberated the village of Nevs’ke, a Russian flag has been raised over the populated area.
In the direction of Pokrovs’k, Russian troops are covering Selydove. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the liberation of Krasnyi Yar (now the LBS is already northwest of Mykolaivka). South of Tsukuryne there are reports of fighting in Novoselydivka, the position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces under attack by the FAB. According to Russian sources, “Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to leave Selydove, Kurachove direction, in small groups.”
In the Yelyzavetivka direction, the Russian army is fighting battles in the area of Katerynivka and Antonivka.
Positive battles are taking place on the Zaporozhzhie front in the Orichiv direction northwest of Robotyne and north of Verbove. The line of contact of the combat remains without significant changes. There are reports of fighting in the village of Kam’yans’ke
Kherson direction: mutual shelling and drone strikes across the Dnieper.
In the Belgorod region, Shebekino was hit by fire, three wounded. In the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, two civilians were injured as a result of an incoming shell of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In the village of Yasnye Zori, a drone attacked a scheduled bus, it was suppressed by the war electronics. In the village of Tishanka, Volokonovsky district, an administrative building suffered significant damage as a result of a kamikaze drone attack.
In the DPR of Horlivka, when an IED was dropped from a UAV of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, one person was killed, and 4 were injured.
Graziella Giangiulio
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