Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that overnight attacks from Russia included 20 drones and three ballistic missiles targeting multiple parts of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian air force said the country’s air defenses destroyed 14 of the drones, with intercepts taking place over the Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russian forces had launched 600 combat drones and more than 330 missiles at Ukraine since the start of the year.
Zelenskyy reiterated his calls for Ukraine to have an adequate “air shield” to protect his country.
“We must ensure Ukraine's control over its skies, which is also critical to ensuring security on the ground — from frontline positions to hospitals and schools in the rear,” he said.
With more aid for Ukraine stalled in the U.S. Congress, U.S. spy chief William Burns said in a new assessment that it would be a self-inflicted mistake of “historic proportions” for the United States to walk away from its support for Kyiv in its nearly two-year war with Russia.
A congressional vote on $60 billion in new aid for Ukraine has been linked with legislation to tighten immigration controls at the U.S. border with Mexico. But details of the new immigration law have yet to be resolved and the overall legislation has been caught up in the politics of the 2024 presidential campaign, leaving more Ukraine aid in doubt.
But Burns, in an essay published Tuesday in Foreign Affairs magazine, said, “Keeping the arms flowing will put Ukraine in a stronger position if an opportunity for serious negotiations emerges" to end the war.
"It offers a chance to ensure a long-term win for Ukraine and a strategic loss for Russia," the Central Intelligence Agency director said.
“At less than 5% of the U.S. defense budget, it is a relatively modest investment with significant geopolitical returns,” he said.
He characterized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine as "Putin's folly.”
"At least 315,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, two-thirds of Russia’s prewar tank inventory has been destroyed, and Putin’s vaunted decades-long military modernization program has been hollowed out,” Burns said.
Yet, Burns said Putin is unlikely to pull back from the attack on neighboring Ukraine.
"It is always a mistake to underestimate his fixation on controlling Ukraine,” Burns said. “Without that control, he believes it is impossible for Russia to be a great power or for him to be a great Russian leader."
Burns said the war "is quietly corroding his power at home,” but said that "he continues to bet that time is on his side, that he can grind down Ukraine and wear down its Western supporters."
He called on Ukraine to strike deeper into Russian-controlled territory.
"Ukraine’s challenge is to puncture Putin’s arrogance and demonstrate the high cost for Russia ... not just by making progress on the frontlines but also by launching deeper strikes behind them," Burns said.
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
