The Biden Administration on July 29 announced a new arms package for Ukraine. It consists of a further $200 million draw-down of various munitions from Pentagon stock plus $1.5 billion in contracting authority under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). “This package includes capabilities to augment Ukraine’s air defenses, fires, and anti-tank weapons, as well as funding to sustain equipment previously committed by the United States,” the DOD statement said. This is the Biden Administration’s 20th USAI package and 62nd tranche of equipment to be provided from DOD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. And yet, Ukraine is still losing the war, and there’s little chance that these new supplies of weapons will reverse the tide.
In the last two days, the Russian military announced the liberation of two villages, Volchye and Leninskoye, both in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The Ukrainians confirmed not only the loss of Volchye but also another village called Prohres, reported AP. “They pressed non-stop” to capture Volchye and Prohres, the chief sergeant of Ukraine’s 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, Oleh Chaus, told Radio Svaboda. “They sent in a large number of troops, which had not previously been used.” Russian troops are also intensifying their weeks-long drive to breach Ukrainian defenses around Pokrovsk, a town of around 60,000 people before the war, the Ukrainian General Staff said July 29. Pokrovsk is about 24 km west of Volchye.
Major General Apty Alaudinov, deputy chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ military and political department and commander of the Akhmat special forces unit, told Russian Channel 1 TV that Ukrainian troops have lost their first line of fortifications near Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, farther to the north. “When the entire frontline stands firm, with no opportunity to either outflank or circumvent it, it is always difficult to breach it. In this case, the Russian Defense Ministry’s units are advancing along the entire engagement line. They [Ukrainian troops] have completely lost their first line of fortifications; our forces have room to maneuver in various directions, dividing the enemy and pushing it from positions it has held for some time now,” TASS quoted him as saying.
According to Alaudinov, Russian forces will not be storming fortifications in these settlements. “Everything will be done so that the enemy either is surrounded or abandons these positions and flees,” he said.
