July 13, 2023
1. Putin: foreign tanks “burn better” than the Soviet-made ones
Speaking about Western missiles and tanks supplied to Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin noted that they cause damage but do not pose a critical threat in the combat zone.
“As for the supply of weapons, various weapons, we see how many hopes were placed on the supply of missiles with a sufficiently long range. Well, yes, they cause damage, but nothing critical happens in the combat zone with the use of missiles. The same goes for foreign-made tanks, infantry fighting vehicles,” Putin said on air at the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
The president added that 311 pieces of military equipment used by Ukraine and at least one third of those were Western-made has been destroyed since June 4 when abortive Ukrainian “offensive” turned to be a disaster for Kiev junta.
“I can tell you that Ukrainian servicemen often refuse to even get into these tanks, because they are a priority target for our guys,” Putin said, adding that foreign tanks “burn better” than the Soviet-made ones.
2. Lavrov: Russia will treat DCA F-16s in Ukraine as a nuclear threat
In an interview on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 12, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said “there will be the transfer of F-16s [to Ukraine], likely from European countries that have excess F-16 supplies.”
The reaction of Moscow was rather tough.
Moscow can’t ignore the nuclear capability of US-designed F-16 fighter jets that may be supplied to Ukraine by its Western backers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Some modifications of the US F-16 are de facto dual-capable aircraft or DCA. They are already stationed in NATO countries located very close to Russia.
They can carry different types of nuclear bombs with 0.3 kt to 300 kt nuclear yield warheads.
By continuing to provide more sophisticated arms to Kiev, “the US and its NATO satellites create the risk of a direct armed confrontation with Russia, and this may lead to catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov warned in his interview with Lenta.ru on July 12.
The plans to supply F-16s to Kiev is yet another example of an escalatory move by the West and in itself is “an extremely dangerous development,” he stated.
“We have informed the nuclear powers – the USA, the UK and France – that Russia can’t ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons,” Lavrov stressed.
“No assurances [by the West] will help here,” he warned. In the midst of fighting, the Russian military isn’t going to investigate whether any specific jet is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not, he added.
“The very fact of the appearance of such systems within the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be considered by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear domain,” Lavrov underlined.
3. Ben Wallace: “We’re not Amazon” [in response to Ukraine’s weapons demands]
Ukraine should adopt a less demanding tone when speaking to nations that are arming it to fight against Russia, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has suggested. “We are not Amazon,” he said.
The remarks, which were quoted by the British media, were made during the NATO summit in Lithuania on July 12. Wallace, who is normally a vocal supporter of Kiev, said it would help Ukraine’s cause if they displayed some gratitude.
The UK is the second-largest donor to Kiev with $6 billion worth of materials, while the US has committed over $46 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany, which runs the Ukraine Support Tracker.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also said some of Kiev's criticism was “entirely unfounded and unjustified,” noting that Washington has provided “an enormous amount of capacity” to the Ukrainian military. “I think the American people do deserve a degree of gratitude from the United States Government [sic] for their willingness to step up, and from the rest of the world as well,” Sullivan said, shortly before the meeting between Zelensky and US President Joe Biden in Lithuanian capital.
Zelensky and his staff decided to send the “provocative” tweet in an attempt to shift the debate within NATO to their favor, Bloomberg reported on July 12, citing “more than a dozen diplomats and officials,” all speaking on condition of anonymity. The move proved “counterproductive,” according to the outlet.
Several NATO leaders told Zelensky over dinner on July 11 that he should “cool down” and look at what NATO was actually offering.
They have been irritated that Zelensky is frequently spreading a long list of irrational demands for more and more NATO arms to be delivered the Armed Forces of Ukraine that are spending them without any rationality.
At the same time NATO believes its priority is to supply Kiev with advanced weapons systems and a huge amount of ammunition and spare parts for them, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on July 12.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
After Russian resistance to Ukrainian-NATO aggression, since February 24, 2022 in total, the aggressors’ 455 airplanes; 242 helicopters; 4,981 unmanned aerial vehicles; 426 air defence missile systems; 10,668 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles;1,137 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS; 5,421 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 11,626 special military motor vehicles have been destroyed during the Special Military Operation.
Source: Russian MoD, July 12, 2023
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
