Ukraine asking Nato to shoot down Russian rockets is ratcheting up risk of direct conflict with West

Ukraine asking Nato to shoot down Russian rockets is ratcheting up risk of direct conflict with West

Ukraine is asking NATO to shoot down Russian missiles ratcheting up the risk of a direct confrontation as Moscow says American weapons have already crossed a Kremlin red line which it previously said would trigger direct reprisals my name is Jerome starky I’m the defense editor at the Sun newspaper and this is Frontline your weekly Roundup of the most important news from the war in Ukraine we’re starting today with Western weapons and what they’re used for in Ukraine because that is the topic that has got both keev and the Kremlin animated and we can see why because those weapons have made such a difference throughout the course of this war there is some really dramatic footage at the moment of American aams weapons one of the newest missiles delivered by America to Ukraine taking out a Russian S4 100 battery and the S400 battery is one of Russia’s most sophisticated rather is it is Russia’s most sophisticated air defense battery and what we can see is that a battery is being surveilled by a Ukrainian drone so a drone is in the sky seemingly undetected watching this battery fire uh it appears to exhaust its missiles it is then struck by a volley of aams missiles fitted it would appear with cluster munition Warheads that at least two possibly three S400 launchers are destroyed as well as the radar it uses to detect uh incoming missiles and a command and control center now this is just one vignette of the conflict shown to us through this drone feed but nonetheless a Salient reminder of how powerful uh these atacam missiles can be those same atacam missiles were used just last week in an attack ATT on Sebastapol the capital of Crimea uh sinking we understand a Russian Corvette the Russian Black Sea fleet has been hammered by Ukraine by Ukraine often using some of its own uh developed sea drones like the seab baby and the mura 4 but also with Western weapons we’ve seen just recently with those atacam and before that with the British supplied storm shadows and the French scalp cruise missiles now the discussion at the moment continues to be around whether these weapons are being allowed to hit Targets on Sovereign Russian soil Ukraine has been attacking Russian soil it wants to use Western weapons to attack Targets on Russian soil now Britain has signaled it has no objections America has been more reticent but actually the latest messaging from Secretary of State Anthony blinken is that while America does does not support attacks with its weapons on Russian soil he said that is a decision for Ukraine so creating some ambiguity there what Ukraine is asking for what we understand president zalinski is asking for as well as wanting to be able to use these weapons to hit Targets on Russian soil is he wants NATO to shoot down Russian missiles so for NATO to use its air defense capabilities to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory now these are two slightly separate things the reason Ukraine wants to be able to hit Targets in Russia particularly in areas like harv is because you cannot only fight your enemy on the front line both sides are engaged in a conflict where they fight at the front line where it’s awful where it’s bloody where it’s trenches it’s horrific but also much deeper where they try and strike each other’s Logistics to degrade their ability to bring uh men and Munitions uh armor and material to the front and in harv Province where Russia has launched its most recent offensive the Border it harv shares a border with Russia hkv City Ukraine’s second largest city the outskirts of that City are just 15 miles from the Russian border so if Ukraine is only allowed to strike up to that border then it is fighting with one arm tied behind its back and that is Ukraine has been striking targets inside Russia particularly with its own artillery particularly with its own rocket artillery uh it’s also been using drones we’ve seen them against the Kremlin against airfields but it wants to use Western weapons and you might imagine that it want to use things like for example the haar’s multiple launch rocket systems with a range of about 70 miles capable of hitting a Target uh no bigger than a car so accurate uh with a long range Moscow has made it very clear that it would see the use of Us weapons and indeed British weapons on against Targets on its soil as a direct escalation and when we saw Britain’s foreign secretary uh David Cameron signaling that Britain did not have an objection to this and defense secretary echoing that message Moscow announced nuclear drills now that was its attempt to send a clear warning what we’ve heard today uh surprisingly perhaps is a message from Sergey lavro Russia’s foreign minister saying that American weapons he believes American weapons have already been used against Targets in Russia now he did not explicitly link that to the previous threats the Kremlin had made but we have heard the Kremlin threat suggesting that were Western weapons used against Russian Targets in Russia then that would trigger reprisal strikes and when they were talking about the UK they said reprisal strikes against British bases in Ukraine there are no British bases declared in Ukraine and British bases outside Ukraine as well so this is once again a fraud situation where Ukraine is asking for seeking a capability which many would say is entirely Justified because remember Russia is using weapons from Iran weapons from North Korea and we understand weapons from China to Blitz targets right across Ukrainian territory so why should Ukraine not be allowed to use weapons from its allies to strike back at its enemy uh that is certainly the Ukrainian position there remains a degree of ambiguity over exactly how Ukraine is using those weapons how it’s going to be allowed to use those weapons and as ever like before we will continue to keep you updated on that subject on the question of China Britain’s defense secretary Grant shaps said this week that he believed uh he had seen he said he was declassifying Military Intelligence uh that from both the UK and the US suggesting lethal Aid was flowing from China to Russia he considered it a significant uh development and he said it sort of blew out of the water beijing’s previous claims to be a handbreak on Russia’s Invasion Beijing has before tried to present itself as a moderating influence on Moscow but what we’ve seen over the course of this conflict is ever closer ties between Vladimir Putin and president Xi Jinping Beijing responded to those claims by denying them interestingly America uh was also slightly reticent suggesting that it was not aware that its intelligence had corroborated Grant Chap’s claims if we’re looking for reasons as to why Ukraine wants more help shooting down missiles and we need look no further than harv uh we’ve had our reporter Paul Sims has been in the city with photographer Peter Jordan and a Ukrainian colleague there this week uh they were there when a a bomb a massive Russian bombardment killed at least seven people when it hit a uh printing facility bodies being pulled out of the rubble horrific scenes really that City continues to be uh under constant bombardment and of course fighting raging in the countryside just a few miles uh 15 to 30 miles outside the city where Russia has launched that offensive from the north today president zi is in the city the fact that he’s there is a sign that things appear to be stabilizing and indeed the head of Ukraine’s Armed Forces has said that Russia’s offensive appears to have got bogged down it appears to have stalled Russia claiming it wanted a buffer zone other mil military analysts uh who I would agree with suggesting that this was partly a diversion an attempt to stretch Ukraine’s forces because Russia continues to attack heavily and ferociously in the Eastern donbas region around places like bahmut which you’ll remember from earlier on in the war and chazar the next town in the line which Ukraine is holding quickly we’ll look at what’s going on in Moscow the purges of the ministry of Defense continue after President Vladimir Putin secured his most recent term in office he sacked his defense minister Sergey Shu a longtime political Ally someone who was seen as very close to Putin so his uh his removal suggesting that the FSB is winning a battle so the intelligence service is winning a battle for control and influence uh in the Kremlin against the ministry of defense and since shyu was removed another five senior officials from the ministry of Defense have been arrested or charged uh including uh the deputy defense minister Timor ianov the most senior uh and most recently a leftenant general uh Vadim shagaron that appears to be perhaps an attempt to uh clear out or at least pin the blame for the way the conflict in Ukraine has gone on those officials within the ministry of Defense officially the Kremlin says this is just an attempt to root out corruption uh it appears to be broader than that it appears to be evidence of a uh of a cremin power struggle which the ministry of defense and serge shu’s acolytes are losing a few questions from last week one is uh will Ukraine be able to raise enough men and uh financial support to win well it’s a really good question because ultimately whether Ukraine can uh endure and roll back the Russian invasion will all come down to exactly those two things financial resources and human resources and both sides Russia and Ukraine are locked in this conflict of attrition and the winner will be the one that can sustain uh that supply of men and material for the longest and because Ukraine is relying on its Western allies for the military material ultimately one of the greatest uh risks for Ukraine is the resolve of its Western allies and we have seen that resolve stretched we’re seeing Hungary expressing uh its reluctance to be involved in long-term NATO planning to support Ukraine but at the the same time we’re seeing NATO deliberately trying to take steps to cement its support for the long term and that is a way of NATO trying to Future proof itself against political upheavals that may or may not take place across its member states and part of that is trying to Future proof itself against a possible Donald Trump presidency in America because he has said he would end the war in a day uh but there is fear that the way he would do that is by forcing ukra Ukraine to capitulate the second part of that question is just as difficult it’s whether or not Ukraine can generate the Manpower men and women are fighting across the front line but uh whether it can generate enough trained and equipped soldiers to keep fighting Russia both sides have suffered spectacularly heavy losses Uh Russian losses would appear to be significantly higher but they’re bad on both sides this has been a very bloody and brutal conflict Russia has shown historically and is showing now its ability to endure pain to soak up casualties uh somebody this week described the the Russian attitude to enduring that suffering as almost Bine uh Ukraine has tried harder to Shield its armed forces from those sorts of losses by not using the same sort of human wave tactics of just throwing men into the meat grinders uh up against machine guns but nonetheless there is growing chorus calls among Ukraine supporters a sense of urgency that it needs to find a way of replacing the soldiers it is losing on the battlefield its allies Britain are trying to train uh civilians uh through operation interflex there are similar organizations similar initiatives inside Ukraine uh but there are suggestions indeed Ukraine’s Parliament and ziny have talked about New Waves of mobilization and cons description it’s controversial uh it’s very difficult for Ukraine but nonetheless it is going to have to raise more soldiers if it’s going to continue uh to hold off or to stall uh and if it has the Russian invasion and if it’s to have any hope of rolling it back final questions today why haven’t there been more attempts on President Putin’s life it’s a good question we know that there have been attempts on President zelinsky’s life because he he’s told us about them anded that’s one of the things he spoke to me about when I interviewed him at the end of last year we asked him whether or not given the chance he would make an attempt on President Putin’s life and interestingly it was the only question uh in in our hourong interview where actually he gave a sort of politicians answer he didn’t uh answer it directly but he just said that Ukraine had the right to defend itself in any way possible I think signaling that if they did have the chance it is an opportunity they would try to take we don’t know whether they have been attempts on President Putin’s life uh we know that he is surrounded by incredibly tight security it’s worth remembering though the attempted coup by the Vagner mercenary when yevi progan drove his uh mercenary Army towards mosco spreading Panic that uh the Kremlin that Putin could be toppled by force now that fizzled out but it was a sign it gave us an insight into perhaps uh some of the anger within Russia sort of even within Russia Russia’s uh highly nationalist quarters who support the war in Ukraine uh that they may want to they may have wanted to replace Putin by force clearly a man like Vladimir Putin surrounded by the security that he has would be an incredibly difficult man to kill thank you for listening as ever if you’ve got any questions and you’re watching on YouTube please do an ask them in the comments below and we will do our best to uh answer some of them next week

Ukraine is asking NATO to shoot down Russian missiles ratcheting up the risk of a direct confrontation as Moscow says American weapons have already crossed a Kremlin red line it previously said would trigger a direct response.

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