The Russian-Ukrainian conflict increasingly looks like a war of attrition with the United States in the midst of an election campaign and ready to say yes to those things that are “effective for the election campaign”. On the other side, European and Eastern countries are calling for a discussion to start a peace process that would lead to a freeze in the conflict.
Based on the results of negotiations between Biden and the British Prime Minister, the United States is not ready to announce the lifting of restrictions on attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces in the long term to bring weapons deep into Russia, the US State Department says.
Since the beginning of hostilities, the EU has provided Ukraine with aid worth 118 billion euros, of which 43.5 billion euros are for military needs, according to Deputy Head of the European Commission Dombrovskis
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes that after his peace initiative on Ukraine, a debate on peace has begun in Europe and that more and more EU countries are considering moving “to the peace camp”, including Germany, as evidenced by statements by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“Due to the position of EU leaders, Europe has become bellicose. We need to get out of this situation if we seriously start talking about the fact that it is time to get out of the trenches and understand that; this is not our war… There is no solution to the conflict on the battlefield. This idea was launched by our peacekeeping mission, so we have started a huge debate in Europe,” Orbán told Kossuth radio.
According to Germany’s Bild: “Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan to end the war, which he will present in the United States, includes a ceasefire in some sectors of the front.” According to the Germans, Kiev’s strategy includes both a request to allow the use of Western long-range weapons inside Russia, and Ukraine’s willingness to accept a local ceasefire in some sectors of the front. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he considers it a problem for the Ukrainian armed forces to launch attacks deep into the Russian Federation and assured that he will not allow it.
Refuting the words of Bild, which quotes Chancellor Scholz, Volodymyr Zelensky’s communications adviser Dmitry Lytvyn denied the claims that Ukraine’s so-called “victory plan,” which Kiev intends to hand over to the representatives of the United States, would contain a clause on the readiness of the Ukrainian armed forces for a ceasefire in certain sections. of the combat contact line.
“Bild has spread a fake. Bild has not seen the “Victory Plan” and of the few people currently involved in the preparation of the “Victory Plan” by Zelensky, no one has spoken to Bild,” Lytvyn said in a commentary to Ukrayinska Pravda.
Lytvyn also said that Ukraine continues to oppose any freezing of the conflict, and recalled that the “victory plan” must first be submitted to the United States, on which, according to Lytvyn, “the realization of its completion” depends.
Ukraine is against any freezing of the war, the Office of the President of Ukraine said.
Late in the evening of September 17, it was learned that the MP Mariana Bezuhla, People’s Deputy of Ukraine, resigned. Bezhula has been a prominent critic of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief. On September 18, Syrian sources confirmed that 250 Ukrainian military experts arrived in Idlib, Syria, to train anti-Assad rebels, most likely referring to the Timur unit of the Ukrainian GUR.
And now a look at the front line updated at 16:00 on September 18.
In the Kursk region, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, “units of the Northern Group of Forces continued to conduct offensive operations, during which they defeated the formations of the 22nd, 4th and 115th mechanized, 17th tank brigades, 82nd air assault brigade and 1st National Guard brigade, as well as the 129th Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Lyubimovka, Darino, Nikolo-Daryino, Tolsty Lug and Plekhovo. Over the past 24 hours, the group’s units repelled four enemy counterattacks in the direction of the settlements of Bolshaya Obukhovka, Malaya Loknya and Lyubimovka, and also thwarted enemy attack attempts in the direction of the settlements of Olgovka and Borki”.
With the support of army aviation and artillery fire, four attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break through the border of the Russian Federation in the direction of the settlements of Veseloe and Medvezhye were repelled.
Aviation strikes, artillery fire and troop actions defeated the concentrations of servicemen and equipment of the 22nd, 41st and 115th mechanized, 17th tank, 80th, 82nd and 95th air assault and 1004th security brigades, as well as the 112th and 129th territorial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Guevo, Darino, Kurilovka, Kruglenkoye, Lyubimovka, Mirny, Martynovka, Malaya Loknya, Nikolo-Daryino, Novy Put, Novaya Sorochina, Novoivanovka , Orlovka, Plekhovo, Russkoye Porechnoye, Serdlikovo, Tolsty Lug and Yuzhny.
Russian operational-tactical air and missile forces attacked Ukrainian military assembly areas in the Sumy region and reserves of the 21st, 22nd, 41st and 115th mechanized brigades, 82nd air assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 1st National Guard brigade, as well as 103rd, 106th, 107th and 129th territorial defense brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of Belovody, Glukhov, Kondratovka, Katerynovka, Malushino, Mogritsa, Mazevka, Novoivanovka, Obody, Pavlovka, Rechki, Rudnevo, Sumy, Stepnoe, Shalygino, Khoten and Yunakovka.
At night, Ukrainian formations launched a massive UAV strike on various targets on Russian territory. Air defense operated in Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol and Smolensk regions. One of the targets was the arsenal in the city of Toropets, Tver region. Ukrainians may have hit a missile storage warehouse.
Russian forces captured an area of 6.2 km2, advancing towards the Terni – Liman direction.
Russian forces closed the Ukrainian resistance pocket between Pishchane and Kyslivka – Kupyansk direction. A major defeat for Ukrainian troops in this sector, as Russian forces captured both trench lines north of Pishchane, taking an area of 16.6 km2.
Russian forces have been controlling the Ukrainsk – Kurachove direction since September 18. Ukrainian sources confirm the withdrawal from the city to their fortifications just to the west.
Other Ukrainian sources report that footage from a Ukrainian UAV confirms Russian presence at the center of Zhelanne Pershe, 48.07826, 37.42594. Ukrainian forces have captured the aggregation facility in the direction of Volchans’k – Volchans’k-Kharkiv. The fighting for the only facility in the city lasted 3 months. But they are unlikely to be able to keep control of it.
Graziella Giangiulio
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