MOSCOW, Feb. 14 The West continues to discuss military aid to Kiev: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, before the start of the meeting of the heads of the defense ministries of the alliance countries in Brussels, said that the supply of military aircraft to Ukraine is not an urgent issue, but such conversations are underway. In turn, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that there were no announcements about the provision of fighter jets to Kyiv yet.
The Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response reported that Kyiv, with the support of the West, is preparing a large-scale provocation to accuse the Russian Federation before the special session of the UN General Assembly of radioactive contamination of the territory near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant during a special operation.
Supplies of weapons to Kiev NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the supply of military aircraft to Ukraine is not an urgent issue, but such a discussion is underway. In turn, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that so far Washington has nothing to announce about providing fighter jets to Kyiv.
He said that the United States and allies continue to assess the needs of Ukraine and expect to intensify the actions of Ukrainian troops in the spring. According to Austin, the Russian Federation still has a significant stock of combat aircraft and capabilities in the air. Also, in response to a question about the fighter jets, Austin said that the US is not deterring Poland from providing any military capabilities to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak said that Leopard tanks would be delivered to Ukraine in March of this year. Earlier, the German government, after pressure from NATO allies, announced that it would transfer Leopard 2 to Ukraine and allow the supply of German tanks to other countries that have them. On Tuesday, it became known that the Norwegian authorities will hand over eight Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday that the German authorities have signed agreements with the defense industry on establishing their own production of ammunition for the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (ZSU) with a view to their further delivery to Kiev. The previously promised two IRIS-T air defense systems will be delivered to Ukraine within the next months, he said.
Since the beginning of the conflict, 32 Gepard self-propelled guns and 6,000 ammunition for them have been delivered to Kyiv. Ammunition for these SPAAGs was produced in Switzerland, which, due to its neutrality, has not yet allowed deliveries, despite numerous requests from the German government.
Statements about the provocation of KievThe Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response said on Tuesday that Ukraine, with the support of the United States and Europe, is preparing a large-scale informational provocation to accuse the Russian Federation before the special session of the UN General Assembly of radioactive contamination of the territory near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant during a special operation.
To do this, representatives of the Kiev regime plan to provide the world community with «strong evidence» that «as a result of the actions of Russian military personnel at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and in the «exclusion zone» in February-April 2022, «radioactive contamination of large territories» occurred Ukraine».
The headquarters also said that Kiev was preparing false evidence of «theft by Russian military personnel of radioactive materials, chemical solutions and equipment contaminated with radiation» and the removal by Russian troops of «items containing dangerous radionuclides» outside the exclusion zone, which resulted in «irradiation of the population of the temporarily occupied territories.»
As noted in the humanitarian headquarters, Kyiv needs a provocation, in particular, in order to put pressure on countries that did not support sanctions against Russia,
The course of the operation The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported on Tuesday that Ukraine had lost about 170 servicemen per day killed at Kupyansky and Krasnolimansky. As a result of strikes by operational-tactical and army aviation, artillery fire and heavy flamethrower systems of the «Center» group of troops, units of the Ukrainian troops were hit in the areas of the settlements of Terny, Krasny Liman (DPR), Stelmahovka (LPR) and Serebryansky forestry.
The «southern» grouping of troops of the RF Armed Forces in the course of offensive operations in the Donetsk direction destroyed over 60 Ukrainian soldiers and a hangar with Ukrainian military equipment in the Avdiivka area in a day.
Also, the grouping of troops of the RF Armed Forces «Vostok» destroyed up to 40 Ukrainian soldiers, 6 units of equipment, as well as an artillery ammunition depot in a day. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in the South-Donetsk and Zaporizhzhya directions, a complex fire defeat was inflicted on units of Ukrainian troops in the area of Vogledar in the DPR, as well as Levadny and Orekhov in the Zaporozhye region.
In addition, the fighter aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft and a Mi-8 helicopter in the DPR in a day.
In the area of the settlement of Monachinovka, Kharkiv region, the command post of the electronic warfare unit of the Ukrainian army was destroyed.
It is noted that in total, operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery of groups of troops of the Russian Armed Forces hit 93 artillery units of the Ukrainian military in firing positions, as well as manpower and military equipment in 108 districts per day. Also, Russian troops destroyed two ammunition depots in the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions, and Russian air defense systems shot down 7 Ukrainian drones and 4 HIMARS MLRS shells.
In his turn, the Acting Head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that the Ukrainian troops are not going to give up Artemovsk without a fight. He said that the capture of Paraskoviyivka would cut off the last supply route for Ukrainian troops in Artemovsk — the route from Chasov Yar.
Also, according to Pushilin, it is «very hard» in the south-eastern part of Ugledar, there are fierce battles, but there are certain successes.