|
By Padmashree Anandhan
WAR ON THE GROUND
On 11 July, in the last day of the NATO summit in the Washington, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s President urged the NATO allies to withdraw all limits on Kyiv on usage of long-range targets in Russia. He said: “If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations.” During the summit, Zelenskyy called for unity among Ukraine allied and stated on Ukraine’s expectations for more delivery of air defence supplies. On the sidelines of the NATO Summit, Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister announced a military package of CAD 500 million.
On 11 July, Ukraine’s presidential office announced on signing a security agreement with Romania. The deal becomes the 23rd agreement signed till now on the long-term bilateral defence agreements the UK, Germany, France, and the US. According to the office: “A special feature of this agreement is specific points of cooperation to strengthen security in the Black Sea region.” As per the deal, Romania will aid Ukraine in clearing the mine in Black Sea. This includes Romania’s contribution to train Ukrainian pilots for F-16 fighter jets.
On 11 July, Ukrainian government reported on several attacks by Russia across oblasts. This includes Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Kherson. As a result close to five were killed and 18 injured.
THE MOSCOW VIEW
Claims by Russia
On 11 July, Russia’s security service claimed to have intercepted Ukrainian intelligence services efforts to induce a crew member on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in Murmansk to sabotage the ship.
On 11 July, in response to Keir Starmer, UK’s Prime Minister statement on offering support to Ukraine. Russian government criticised for allowing Ukraine to use UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles against targets inside Russia.
On 11 July, in the NATO summit, the US and Germany confirmed ongoing preparations for "episodic deployments" of longer-term stationing. This includes SM-6, Tomahawk and developmental hypersonic weapons with longer range capabilities. On the same day, Russia's Foreign Ministry stated that it would issue its response soon on the US decision to deploy long-range missiles in Germany. According to Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister: "These actions are aimed primarily at damaging the security of our country, regardless of whether the chances of some future arms control negotiations will increase as a result or whether they will come to naught and go into the negative."
THE WEST VIEW
Responses of the US and Europe
On 11 July, NATO allies at the Washington summit assured Ukraine’s “future is in Nato” and its membership path to be “irreversible.” Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said Ukraine’s membership to NATO as not a “question of if, but when.” Starmer on the same day urged the other NATO allies to increase their defence spending to guard the alliance in "a new and dangerous era." He highlighted, 23 members out of the 32 to be spending two per cent of GDP on defence. He added: "…but in light of the grave threats to our security, we must go further." He reiterated that his administration would plan to reach 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence spending. Emmanuel Macron, French President reassured to the NATO allies on France’s commitment towards Ukraine. He said, France will continue to support Ukraine "as long as necessary.”
On 11 July, the US announced additional USD225 million of military aid, including Patriot and NASAMS air defence systems, HIMARS rocket launchers, and 155mm and 105mm artillery shells. This comes after a meeting between Joe Biden, US President and Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit, where other allies have pledged a joint USD 40 billion as aid to Kyiv. In the summit the alliance also discussed its common security interests with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
On 11 July, Starmer pledged to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” At the summit, he warned over the frontline defence of the Euro-Atlantic region to be the Ukrainian trenches. John Healey, UKs defence secretary visited Ukraine promising artillery guns and shells and 90 Brimstone missiles. The UK government has also confirmed to give GBP 40m to NATO’s comprehensive assistance package for Ukraine and the UK-administered international fund for Ukraine worth GBP 300m, for 120,000 rounds of 152mm artillery ammunition.
References
"NATO Secretary General concludes landmark 75th Anniversary Washington Summit," nato.int, 11 July 2024
"NATO Secretary General welcomes President Zelenskyy to the Washington Summit, saying “Ukraine’s future is in NATO”," nato.int, 11 July 2024
"Biden says not in the race 'for my legacy' at NATO event," Deutsche Welle, 11 July 2024
"NATO allies pledge Ukraine support as US reveals aid package," Deutsche Welle, 11 July 2024
"Ukraine war briefing: Path to Nato membership ‘irreversible’," The Guardian, 11 July 2024
|
