Russia has intensified its attack on Ukraine.
Moscow is targeting energy infrastructure as the Russian troops advance
in eastern Ukraine.
According to Russia, its troops have attacked Ukraines railways to
disrupt military supplies.
They attacked Ukrainian military trains,
anti artillery radars and unmanned aerial vehicle vehicle control points,
among other targets. Russia also pounded energy infrastructure in western
and central Ukraine,
seen its troops have taken control of more favorable positions
in several directions,
while also repelling multiple attacks by the Ukrainian army.
Moscow says its air defence forces shot down around 200
Ukrainian drones,
multiple rocket missiles and aerial bombs.
Now, with fears of more Russian strikes on Ukraine,
officials in Kiev and now have announced the evacuation of
two hospitals,
including a Children's Hospital. Moreover,
due to the escalation of Russian strikes,
Poland and its allies have issued an advisory which states
that the aircrafts have been deployed to combat ready,
due to which the residents in the southeastern part of
the country could experience high noise levels.
On the other hand, as Ukraine awaits aid from its
ally the US,
the Pentagon has announced that America will provide Ukraine with
additional Patriot missiles for its air defense systems.
This will be as part of a massive $6 billion
additional aid package.
This additional aid package is different from the earlier aid
of $95 billion
that the legislation provides aid to Ukraine,
Israel and the Indo Pacific countries.
And to know more on this,
we are now being joined by Sagej Samleni,
who is a defense expert and director of European Resilience
Initiative Center,
and he's joining us live from Copenhagen.
My first question to you is,
are there definitive signals of Russia stepping up the offensive
in Ukraine as the US clears more aid?
Hello and thank you for having invited me today.
Well, the sedation on the front line is very dire
since months as the
support for Ukraine in the form of artillery,
ammunition and anti air missiles for air defence systems has
practically stopped from the US since months and from Europe.
The deliveries could not compensate that lack of the ammunition
and arms,
and Russia used this advantage on the front line.
Since a month Russian missiles,
practically without any resistance from the Ukrainian air defence,
plundered to Ukrainian Ukrainian power plants in Kharkiv,
close to Kiev and in other regions.
A million inhabitants city of Kharkiv remained without electricity and
heat.
And of course, on the front line,
Russia used this advantage of bombing Ukrainian defensive position.
Now the situation can change of course,
and the Ukrainians are waiting
for the delivery of new ammunition.
But even after President Joe Biden has signed that deal,
it takes time to not only to deliver this ammunition,
but also to deliver it to the troops.
And before we start filling this effect of this delivery,
it's days and weeks will come.
Sergei, how soon can the military aid promised by the
US reach Ukraine?
And what formalities and hurdles does it need to go
through?
Well the radically after the President Biden has signed this
decree,
nothing stays in front of the deliveries like only you
need to to take the ammunition load it onto the
plane or cargo vessel and send it to you to
Ukraine. We know that the ammunition which should be sad
to Ukraine is already selected.
In fact the problem is that when like we speak
about look $6 billion
for direct help in form of arms for Ukraine,
like 6 out of this
61 billion that's amazing. But if you look closer into
these details of
how this ammunition
right, you see that a huge part of this money
is not the ammunition which will be sent to Ukraine
right now,
but is
set to be produced first in the US and sent
to Ukraine within the next years.
I do not, I'm not mistaken here,
not months, years. So all the
61 billion is a huge sum and a part of
this
ammunition will be delivered immediately and that's good.
But we should not think that this
61 billion will be sent to Ukraine within like 1
short one package.
It is being spread over a longer time.
And that is not a good news for those soldiers
in Ukraine and for those civilians who leave
either under Russia's occupation and are being subject of tortures
and executions.
We have constantly this report of what happens
to to Ukrainian civilians on the Russian occupation and of
course to Ukrainian civilians who suffer on the Russian missile
strikes,
like a hospital in Kharkip today,
which has been hit by Russian missile.
OK. Thank you so much,
Sergei Samleni, for joining us on the broadcast.
The key take away from this being that these funds
are going to be used very judiciously because they are
going to be spread over the course of time.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you so much for invitation for all the latest
news.
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