WAR IN UKRAINE: February 17, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 359
Russian forces fire dozens of missiles in latest attack: Russia launched a total of 36 air and sea-based cruise missiles, guided air-to-surface missiles and anti-ship missiles targeting Ukrainian infrastructure facilities, of which 16 were shot down, according to the Ukrainian military's chief of staff. A 79-year-old woman died and eight people were injured in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and a "critical infrastructure facility" was hit in the Lviv region, but there were no casualties. Meanwhile, power generation across Ukraine is meeting demand despite a barrage of Russian airstrikes on critical infrastructure overnight, the country's Energy Ministry said Thursday. Ukraine's national power company Ukrenergo confirmed that the latest Russian attacks won't lead to limited energy consumption. "Power plants generate enough electricity to cover the existing consumption," Ukrenergo said in a statement Thursday - CNN
The Institute for the Study of War think tank noted that U.S. officials have "privately signaled to Ukraine that Western security aid to Ukraine is finite." At the moment, bipartisan support for the U.S. financially backing Ukraine "remains fairly robust," according to Rob Singh, professor of politics at Birkbeck, University of London. Lawmakers are also likely to continue with their approval for Ukraine support packages if an anticipated Russian offensive "inflicts even more death and destruction," he said. Yet there is also a growth in how many Republicans believe the U.S. is giving Ukraine too much help, Singh told Newsweek. Many Republican congressmen still back sending aid, but a "small but important group of populist nationalists are much more skeptical."
The United Nations said on February 15 that $5.6 billion was needed to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine and to the millions who have fled the war-ravaged country. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army has announced the award of contracts worth $522 million to manufacture artillery ammunition for Ukraine amid worries it's fast depleting its stockpiles - RFE/RL
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged the alliance's 30 member countries to commit to spending at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by a set date.
Two days after the US published a report claiming Russia has abducted at least 6,000 Ukrainian children, children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova tells Putin she "adopted" a 15-year-old from Mariupol herself. “All thanks to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich,” she wrote. Russian forced deportations of Ukrainian children have been described as a war crime.
Required reading…
Russia’s new offensive will test the morale of Putin’s mobilized masses
As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches the one-year mark, speculation is mounting that Moscow will soon launch a major new offensive. Indeed, some commentators believe this offensive may already have begun, with reports emerging in recent days of Russian troops attempting to advance at numerous points along a frontline stretching hundreds of kilometers across southern and eastern Ukraine.
This widely anticipated offensive is an attempt by Moscow to regain the initiative following months of battlefield defeats and humiliating retreats in Ukraine that have undermined Russia’s reputation as a military superpower. Vladimir Putin is now desperate to demonstrate that his invasion is back on track and has reportedly made huge reserves for a new push to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses. However, after a year of catastrophic losses that has left many of Russia’s most prestigious military units seriously depleted, doubts remain over the ability of untested replacement troops to carry out large-scale offensive operations.
Read the full Atlantic Council Ukraine Alert analysis here