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🔴 Live: Ukraine will need arms from West ‘until we have won’, says FM Kuleba
Ukraine will need arms from the West “until we have won”, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday. His words came after air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said Wednesday that Ukraine will not be able to operate US-built F-16 fighter jets this coming autumn and winter. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
Issued on: 17/08/2023 – 07:12
Modified: 17/08/2023 – 10:35
6 min
Ukrainian service members of the 128th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade attend military exercises at a training ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine on August 16, 2023.
Ukrainian service members of the 128th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade attend military exercises at a training ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine on August 16, 2023. © Viacheslav Ratynskyi, Reuters
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10:32am: Ukraine says ‘long-term work’ needed to deepen ties with African countries
Kyiv intends to invest significant political capital to deepen ties with African countries to counter Moscow’s influence on the continent, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told AFP in an interview on Wednesday.
“We are starting from scratch in Africa. This continent needs systematic and long-term work. It’s not something that happens overnight,” he said, while comparing the push to a diplomatic “counteroffensive” against Russian efforts to cement ties with African leaders.
10:27am: Kyiv ‘not feeling’ pressure from West to speed up counteroffensive, Kuleba says
Ukraine is not under pressure from its Western allies to speed up its counteroffensive against entrenched Russian positions, despite growing consternation over the pace of gains posted by Kyiv’s forces, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told AFP.
“We’re not feeling this,” Kuleba said during an interview in Kyiv on Wednesday, in which he acknowledged “an increase in the voices of commentators and experts in the public space” discussing the pace of Ukraine’s frontline gains in the east and south of the country.
10:03am: Ukraine will need Western arms until its forces have retaken all occupied territory, FM says
Ukraine will need a steady supply of Western arms and ammunition until its military has routed Russian forces from all occupied Ukrainian territory, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told AFP this week.
“The truth is that until we have won, we need more, we need to move forward, because war is a reality, and in this reality, we need to win. There is no other way,” he said.
“Our goal is victory, victory in the form of the liberation of our territories within (Ukraine’s) borders of 1991. And we don’t care how long it takes,” Kuleba said during an interview on Wednesday.
“As long as the Ukrainian people share this goal, the Ukrainian government will move hand in hand with its own people.”
9:20am: Container ship departs Ukraine’s Odesa despite threat from Russian navy, mines
The container ship Joseph Schulte departed Ukraine’s Odesa on Wednesday despite the threat from Russia’s navy and mines in the Black Sea. Today, images have emerged of the liberated Donetsk village of Urozhaine, which Kyiv said its forces recaptured. FRANCE 24’s Emmanuel Chaze reports from Kyiv.
02:14
9:03am: Container ship that left Ukraine’s Odesa set to reach Istanbul tonight, says co-owner
The Joseph Schulte container ship is in Romanian waters and set to reach Istanbul this evening, said a spokesperson for Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which owns the ship jointly with a Chinese bank, on Thursday.
The Hong-Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte had on Wednesday departed from Odesa, where it had been trapped since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year.
Ukraine said the ship was using what it has described as a new temporary corridor in the Black Sea for merchant ships to and from its ports, which are blockaded by Russia.
Moscow had not indicated whether it would respect the corridor, and shipping and insurance sources had expressed concerns about safety.
8:56am: Russia thwarted Ukrainian drone attack over Russian territory, RIA reports
Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday said its forces had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian territory, the RIA news agency reported.
Interfax said a drone had been downed over Russia’s southern Belgorod region, citing the defence ministry.
8:44am: US sanctions entities tied to Russia-North Korea arms deals
The United States on Wednesday sanctioned three entities accused of seeking to facilitate arms deals between North Korea and Russia as Washington tightened its restrictions on support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement that Russia was continuing to use up munitions and lose heavy equipment in Ukraine, forcing it to turn to its small pool of allies, including North Korea, for support.
The department said it had “imposed sanctions on three entities tied to a sanctions evasion network attempting to support arms deals between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.
The entities targeted are Limited Liability Company Verus, Defence Engineering Limited Liability Partnership and Versor S.R.O.
“The United States continues to root out illicit financial networks that seek to channel support from North Korea to Russia’s war machine,” Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.
8:26am: EU transfers €135 million allocated for Russia, Belarus programmes to Ukraine and Moldova effort
The EU transferred €135 million initially allocated for programmes with Russia and Belarus towards strengthening the cooperation with Ukraine and Moldova, it said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
“The decision … is the result of the brutal war of Russia against Ukraine”, EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira said.
The EU also decided that regions in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Poland that were supposed to participate in cooperation programmes with Russia and Belarus may participate in other existing programmes.
8:15am: Ukrainian forces claim success on its southeastern front
Ukrainian forces on Thursday claimed success on the southeastern front, where Kyiv’s deputy defence minister said they had liberated the Donetsk region village of Urozhaine.
“In the direction south of Urozhaine they (Ukrainian troops) had success,” military spokesman Andriy Kovaliov told national television. He gave no more details.
Ukraine’s forces had entrenched themselves on the outskirts of Urozhaine after recapturing the village from Russian forces, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said in a social media post earlier this week.
Urozhaine, on the edge of Donetsk region, is the first village Kyiv said it has retaken since July 27, a sign of the challenge Ukraine faces advancing through heavily mined Russian defensive lines without powerful air support.
12:51am: Ukraine will not be able to operate F-16s this year, says its air force
Ukraine will not be able to operate US-built F-16 fighter jets this coming autumn and winter, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television late on Wednesday.
“It’s already obvious we won’t be able to defend Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets during this autumn and winter,” Ihnat told a joint telethon broadcast by Ukrainian channels.
Ukraine has repeatedly called its Western allies to supply the country with F-16s, which President Volodymyr Zelensky said would be a signal that Russia’s invasion would end in defeat.
US President Joe Biden endorsed training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in May but no timing for the supply of the jets has been given so far.
Key developments from Wednesday, August 16:
Ukraine says a container ship left the Black Sea port of Odesa using what it has described as a new temporary corridor for merchant ships to and from its ports, which are blockaded by Russia.
Kyiv last week announced a “humanitarian corridor” in the Black Sea to release cargo ships that have been trapped in its ports since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
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Russian air strikes on southern Ukraine overnight damaged grain silos and warehouses at one of the Danube river ports, a key facility for grain shipments, the governor of the Odesa region said.
“Russian terrorists attacked Odesa region twice last night with attack drones,” Governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app. “The main target is port and grain infrastructure in the south of the region.”
The presidential office said in a separate statement that there were no casualties.
Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
