Ukraine wants buffer zone in Russia – Selenskyj asks for help

For the first time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has named a concrete goal for the advance of his troops in the western Russian region of Kursk. “The creation of a buffer zone on the territory of the aggressor,” Zelensky said in his evening video address. In view of the heavy fighting there and in eastern Ukraine, he asked his western partners for a rapid supply of weapons and ammunition. “War knows no holidays,” Zelensky said, addressing the USA, Great Britain and France in particular.

The Ukrainian soldiers are doing “excellent work,” said Zelensky. “But we need to speed up the supply from our partners, we are asking for that.” Ukraine needs solutions, and is especially dependent on the timely arrival of the promised aid packages.

Ukrainians in the East under pressure

Especially in the areas around Donbass, the Ukrainian units seemed to be under severe pressure. They had already had to withdraw from some places. The area around Toretsk in particular is “more than just defense for Ukraine, the main goal of our defense measures in general is now to destroy as much of Russia’s potential as possible, the potential for war, and to carry out a maximum of counterattack work,” stressed Zelensky.

Ukrainian military officials acknowledged the difficulties around Pokrovsk. “We can retreat, abandon a small settlement or lose a small battle,” said Serhiy Tsekhozky, an officer of the brigade deployed there, on television. “But the main task is to win the war.”

The Russian soldiers are currently advancing near Mykolaivka to cut off the supply route between Pokrovsk and Karlovka. “They are trying to achieve something here,” said Zekhozkyj. But it is precisely at this point that the Russian military is expecting “something unexpected.” The officer did not provide any details.

Situation report of the General Staff in Kyiv

Toretsk and Pokrovsk have been the constant hotspots of the past few weeks. The Ukrainian General Staff also reported heavy fighting around the towns. In Pokrovsk alone, 24 Russian assaults were registered during the day, some with the support of fighter aircraft. A total of 15 Russian attacks were repelled in Toretsk. The information could not be independently verified.

The Ukrainian generals in Kiev did not provide any information on the fighting in the western Russian region of Kursk. The situation report simply states that Russian artillery and fighter planes attacked Ukrainian positions around Sumy in the east of the country. Sumy is considered a supply center for the Ukrainian troops fighting in the Kursk region.

“Forbes”: High material losses at Kursk

The Ukrainian military suffered unusually high losses of valuable technology during its advance at Kursk, concluded the business magazine Forbes. The losses of tanks, armored vehicles and heavy weapons were extremely high and were disproportionate to the simultaneous losses on the Russian side.

When advancing across open terrain, the vehicles were frequently exposed to air and artillery attacks, and the losses were “twice as high as usual,” the paper quoted analysts as saying. However, if Ukraine could hold onto the conquered territory, it would be worth the losses. Zelenskyy had repeatedly complained about Russian missile and artillery attacks from the Kursk region against targets in eastern Ukraine.

Lukashenko speaks of troop build-up at border

Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko says he has moved large troop units to his country’s border with Ukraine. He cited large troop concentrations on the Ukrainian side as the reason for this. Kiev has stationed up to 120,000 soldiers there, he claimed in an interview with the Russian television channel “Rossija”, which the state agency Belta quoted. “And in view of this aggressive policy, we have stationed our military along the entire border, as would be the case in the event of war.” Lukashenko, who is also referred to as Europe’s last dictator, cooperates closely with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

According to the Ukrainian border guards, Lukashenko is making “aggressive statements that do not correspond to reality.” There is also no sign of reinforcements on the Belarusian side, said Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the border guards.

Minsk is not actively involved in the war against Ukraine. However, in February 2022, Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to advance from Belarus into Ukraine. After severe setbacks and losses during the attempted advance to Kyiv, these Russian units were forced to withdraw.

Debate about Ukraine aid in Germany

Meanwhile, the approach of the traffic light coalition to further finance aid to Ukraine is also being criticized internally. The chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, the Social Democrat Michael Roth, told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “It is a fatal signal from the federal government to Ukraine if no further funds for new military aid are planned in the future federal budgets.”

There are some indications that this will actually happen, but it remained unclear at the weekend. Finance Minister Christian Lindner wrote in a letter to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock that “new measures” should only be taken if “funding is secured” in the budget plans for this and the coming years.

The letter was made available to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” and the dpa. According to corresponding reports, however, the Finance Ministry stated on Saturday that it was still willing to talk. However, needs must be reported specifically and verifiable – so far no report has been received. In principle, the Federal Government is counting on Ukraine being able to receive greater support in the future with the help of interest from frozen Russian state assets.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Roth said: “The Ukrainian army is on the offensive for the first time in months, and the country now needs the full support of its most important military ally in Europe, Germany. Instead, the debate about the future financing of military aid seems like a disguised retreat from responsibility by Germany. We cannot make our security dependent on budgetary constraints.” The 50 billion dollars from a G7 aid fund, which is also to be filled with interest from frozen assets, is “far from enough.”