No escape for hundreds of Russian troops as Ukrainians encircle them in devastated city

No escape for hundreds of Russian troops as Ukrainians encircle them in devastated city

hundreds of Russian soldiers are reportedly surrounded in Ukraine as both sides Blitz each other’s energy infrastructure and in good news for keev America has said it is fast tracking Patriot missiles to Ukraine this we’re in again my name is Jerome Starkey 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’ll start with what’s happening in V Chans that is the town at the epicenter of Russia’s harv offensive the offensive in northeastern Ukraine uh where they opened a new front by invading from neighboring belgorod there are reports that Ukraine has managed to isolate a group of about 400 Russian soldiers in a chemical plant on the edge of that town and dozens of them have surrendered these reports have been emerging slowly I should say and it’s not exactly clear how many of those soldiers remain fighting how many of those soldiers have been captured but nonetheless footage showing Devastation invol Chans footage showing small numbers of Russian soldiers surrendering uh some seen surrendering in the field others seen as prisoners of war in footage released by Ukraine’s Armed Forces it is nonetheless clear evidence that that assault in harv has become bogged down Ukraine today said There Will will be longer rolling electricity blackouts after the most recent wave of overnight Russian missile attacks Russia launched at least nine cruise missiles Ukraine said five of them were shot down as well as all 27 shyed oneway attack drones those the Iranian drones all shot down but nonetheless the missiles that got through reportedly causing substantial damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure which has been taking uh hits on a very regular basis from Russia Ukraine at the same time hitting back with what appear to be drone strikes on at least two possibly three oil depos deep inside Russia one in tambov so Northeast of Ukraine in the direction sort of in the direction of Moscow another in Kadar much closer to Ukrainian hell territory Kadar just east of C so east of the easternmost tip of occupied Ukraine these attacks continue to be one of the most sort of fiercely fought fronts in this campaign both sides attempting to do too slightly different things Russia it would seem trying to break the will of Ukraine to fight by plunging people into cold and darkness in the coming winter but by crippling Ukraine’s energy and hot water infrastructure we saw that really from the first winter of the war we’re now 2 and a half years in and this campaign has been sustained across this summer previous viously Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure were focused in the Autumn leading up to the winter those winter months it would also have and perhaps likely a likely ambition of Russia this would also have an impact on Ukraine’s manufacturing capability uh if Russia can limit the electricity Supply effectively forcing factories to close potentially Munitions factories which are as Ukraine tries to rebuild its Sovereign its domestic arms capability Ukraine’s ambition is slightly different it is it has been targeting refineries and depos oil depos to degrade Russia’s ability to wage war by hitting two things one simply by removing the fuel that you that Russia needs to uh fuel its Armed Forces to keep its vehicles in the fight but crucially on a sort of more uh bigger scale degrading uh the Russian economy crippling its ability to refine oil oil being oil and gas being a huge source of income to the Russian economy and at its peak there were suggestions that Ukraine had damaged about 10% of R Russia’s oil refining capabilities those strikes continue an interesting report out today from the British Ministry of Defense looking at what Russia has been doing with its uh Air Force strike suggesting that it has changed its focus uh in a window between the 12th and the 18th of June uh from instead of hitting Frontline Russian positions with its Air Force hitting Ukrainian Airfield so uh moving from hitting sort of uh military Frontline military positions to hitting Ukrainian airfields further behind the front line for a uh sixday window from the 12th to the 18th of June important for two reasons the British defense intelligence says this is likely a response to successful Ukrainian attacks against Russian air defense batteries in occupied crime Ukraine has hit several including key parts of the s300 and S400 air defense systems Russia’s most sophisticated air defense systems of course when they are degraded that leaves other assets vulnerable but also this focus on airfields May well be a sign of Russian concern about the imminent arrival of the US made F-16 fighter jets for countries have said that they will provide Ukraine with f-16s and the first of those We Believe from Denmark are due to arrive any day and they will rely on upgraded Ukrainian airfields to operate finally today we couldn’t do this update with talking about where Vladimir Putin has been strutting around pyang the capital of North Korea alongside its dictator Kim Yong un Vladimir Putin has made his first visit to North Korea for 204 years where he said that he had signed an agreement a strategic agreement with North Korea which in his own words was a deliberate attempt to upend the US Le World Order now we understand that this uh this agreement while full details have not been released includes a mutual defense pact president Kim Yong un suggesting that this was the strongest treaty these two countries have ever signed and it would cement friendly relations between Russia and North Korea for 100 years now what does this mean for the war in Ukraine now the theoretically a mutual defense pact could mean that if Russia faces aggression from as it is it’s facing you know it’s facing uh it’s in a war with Ukraine that Ukraine is being aided by its Western Partners in theory that allows North Korea to send potentially its troops or certainly its resources to assist Russia North Korea has already been doing that it’s well at least it’s already been sending missiles it’s been sending vast quantities of dumb Munitions Heavy Artillery shells and these have been vital for Russian forces what is North Korea getting in exchange well that is not quite as clear but there are concerns that what pyang wants uh is food energy and crucially access to Advanced Russian rocket technology uh to advance Kim yong’s nuclear Ambitions and space Ambitions uh there have been a series of failed missile launches by North Korea uh many experts believe that what North Korea really wants is access to some of Russia’s knowhow Vladimir Putin was fated by extraordinary scenes in pongyang thousands of people turned out to greet him as the two presidents drove through the capital in uh standing through the sunroof of a Mercedes limousine many of them waving flowers and flags in sort of coordinated uh ritual dancing uh his portrait and Kim’s portrait past uh portraits hanging of buildings festooned in banners in the country in the colors of the two countries uh Flags reminiscent very reminiscent of sort of the stalinist era communist uh parades of Times Gone by one amusing anecdote that does appear to have emerged though today uh was of a scene where a number of Russian ministers including um the new defense minister including Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Shu were ejected from a meeting room by North Korean officials because they appear to have breached protocol by going into that room ahead of uh presidents Kim and Putin and North Korean officials unhappy unhappy about that the meeting was being broadcast live uh and as reported by the Moscow times uh they were ushered out much to the charrin of those Russian officials today Vladimir Putin is continuing his diplomatic tour with a visit to Vietnam uh that likely to be less significant in terms of what Vietnam might provide Russia in terms of the the resources it needs the weapons the uh chips and equipment that it needs to continue Prosecuting its war in Ukraine but nonetheless this is part of a broader and deliberate Russian strategy to try and coales an international block of Nations which are pro- Russian anti-western and to try and challenge uh what the West describes as the rule based order what Vladimir Putin describes as uh us hemony as ever if you’ve got any questions please do ask them in the comments below and we will do our best to uh answer them next week the questions from last week really focused around Russia’s nuclear threats you remember we were talking about Putin’s nuclear saber rattling and tactical Nuclear drills the question that occurred most was should we take these threats seriously the short answer is we have to Russia is a nuclear power it is waging a war against its neighbor and Vladimir Putin and many of his senior left tenants and AIDS continue to make a number of nuclear threats they range from the explicit uh to the oblique uh but nonetheless given the consequences the potential Devastation catastrophic consequences of a nuclear strike it is impossible not to take them seriously but at the same time it is impossible not to grow slightly fatigued slightly weary uh as these threats continue to be made they’ve been made over the course of the last two and a half years uh fairly frequently um but they have not been acted upon much to uh the relief clearly of the rest of the world question number two is what would happen What would the West do if Russia did launch a tactical nuclear weapon now uh certainly in the United Kingdom there is a deliberate policy of nuclear ambiguity in terms of how and when the United Kingdom would launch its nuclear weapons and more widely uh this policy of ambiguity across the West is is a deliberate policy so as not to uh bind countries including the United States and NATO into a set course of action in order to leave its opponents like Russia uncertain of how it might respond so that is to say if Russia launched a tactical nuclear weapon in or near Ukraine there is no guarantee that that would necessarily elicit a nuclear response from a nuclear power or NATO what we do know is that and this was reported by the Sun at the time and reported more recently by the financial times that the closest we understand that the world has come to a nuclear confrontation during this war in Ukraine was one we weekend in October 2022 when Russian forces were collapsing both in the northeastern hariv front and uh in southern Kon we understand that well at the time we knew that Britain’s then defense secretary Ben Wallace flew to America for Urgent talks with his us counterparts uh subsequently it has emerged in reporting in the financial times that what this crisis Point led to was a clearer understanding of the mechanism Ms of escalation and also the mechanisms of deescalation uh How the West should respond and part of that response involved communicating very clearly and urgently with other uh powers in the world with China and with India uh persuading them to exert pressure on Putin to step back from the brink my understanding was that a western response would likely involve or Western messaging to Russia suggested that a response would involve a huge escalation from the West in their support for Ukraine so were Putin to use a tactile nuclear weapon uh Ukraine’s Partners would spectacularly ramp up their support and involvement in the war in order to defeat Russia but that is not to say that there would be a nuclear response thank you for watching if you do have any questions please ask them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer some of them next week

Hundreds of Russian soldiers are reportedly surrounded in Ukraine as both sides blitz each others energy infrastructure and good news for Kyiv the US is fast-tracking Patriot missiles to Ukraine.

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