“We must win the winter battle against terror,” says Zelensky – L’Express

The Ukrainian president was welcomed by the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, who immediately wanted to reassure him about the commitment of the Allies which some fear will see weaken after a little less than 600 days of war. “International attention risks turning away from Ukraine, and that will have consequences,” the Ukrainian leader warned the day before on France 2. Volodymyr Zelensky also called on Westerners to show the Israelis that they are not were not “alone”, encouraging them to go to Israel “to support people, just to support people who suffered terrorist attacks”.

“Dear friends, we must win the winter battle against terror,” he declared in front of the member countries of the Ramstein group, which takes its name from that of the American base in Germany where these countries are located. found for the first time in order to coordinate their military support for Ukraine.

He also indicated that he wanted to communicate to his allies what Ukraine needs for its counter-offensive. “How we are going to survive this winter is essential for us,” he stressed. He mentioned anti-aircraft defense systems to protect his country’s infrastructure. “Air defense is essential to protect the economy, residents and infrastructure,” acknowledged Jens Stoltenberg. Last winter, Russia shelled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, repeatedly depriving the population of electricity or heat. A situation that kyiv and its allies do not want to see happen again. The emphasis will be placed on an anti-aircraft “winter shield”, to learn the lessons of last year, a diplomat stationed at NATO summarized this week.

But the Alliance countries nonetheless fear a erosion of American support. The United States alone accounts for half of the military aid provided to Ukraine, with the rest coming mainly from other NATO member countries. However, concern is growing on this subject. American aid promised to Ukraine has paid the price for a compromise in Congress to avoid the country’s budgetary paralysis and there is nothing to indicate that an agreement will be quickly reached on this point. The American presidency estimates that the increase needed to continue supporting the Ukrainian war effort will be $24 billion. “On the question of whether or not American support for Israel can affect American support for Ukraine, we do not anticipate any problem on this subject,” the American ambassador to NATO told the press on Tuesday. , Julianne Smith.

Ukrainian intelligence services (SBU) said on Wednesday they had identified two suspects, on the run, accused of having informed the Russian army of the gathering for a funeral in the village of Groza targeted by a Russian strike which killed 53 people. According to Kiev, the Russian army launched an Iskander missile on October 5 which hit a funeral reception for a soldier killed in Groza, a small village in the Kharkiv region (North-East) decimated by this carnage.

According to an SBU press release, “two local residents: Volodymyr Mamon, 30, and his younger brother, Dmytro Mamon, 23” collected and gave the Russians the information necessary for this strike. The two men “fled to Russia” in September 2022 after the region was liberated by the Ukrainian army. From there, they “formed their own network of informants” in order to inform the Russian army about operations in areas controlled by kyiv, according to the same source. In October 2022, the Ukrainian press had already identified Volodymyr Mamon and two of his brothers, Dmytro and Oleksandr, all three police officers, as “collaborators” of the Russians.

Kiev will benefit from new support, worth more than 100 million pounds sterling, or 115 million euros, including mine clearance systems, the British Defense Minister announced on Wednesday. This additional aid in the face of the Russian invasion comes from the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU, administered by the United Kingdom) and must be officially announced during a new meeting to coordinate military support for Ukraine organized under the auspices of the United States this Wednesday in Brussels.

London wants to help Kiev “clear minefields”, “maintain its vehicles and consolidate its defensive fortifications to protect essential national infrastructure”, according to a press release from the British Ministry of Defense. “Ukraine is now the most mined country on Earth”, which constitutes the “main obstacle” to the counter-offensive, he argues.

Russian forces launched a major attack on the town of Avdiïvka, in eastern Ukraine, the belligerents said on Tuesday, a Russian assault which comes after months of a sluggish Ukrainian counter-offensive. At the end of the day, however, the Ukrainian army assured that it had succeeded in repelling this assault. Avdiïvka is an industrial city in Ukrainian Donbass that Moscow and its separatist allies have been trying to conquer since 2014.

This new attempt seems to worry the Ukrainian authorities. “The Russians are striking massively with their artillery, since 8 a.m., without interruption until now […] The enemy is trying to encircle the city,” the head of the local military administration, Vitaly Barabas, told AFP early this afternoon. “For more than a year, the risk that the occupied city exists, but today the situation has rapidly worsened,” he added. According to him, some 1,600 residents still live in Avdiivka, compared to 30,000 before the Russian invasion.