Ukraine and Russia

 

 The visits by the NATO secretary general and the French and British defense ministers come ahead of a planned forum in Kyiv billed as a place to discuss weapons technology and how to increase production inside Ukraine.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• NATO’s top official, visiting Kyiv, calls for boosting Ukraine’s arms production.

• Russia launched a large drone attack overnight, Ukrainian officials say.

• Domestic production deals with Western countries could help Ukraine’s economy and be lucrative for military contractors.

• Europe made a bold pledge of ammunition for Ukraine. Now comes the hard part.

• Ukraine and Russia clash at an international court at The Hague.

• The U.S. announces sanctions targeting a global network supporting Iranian drones used in Russia.

NATO’s top official, visiting Kyiv, calls for boosting Ukraine’s arms production.

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine during a news conference in Kyiv, on Thursday.Credit...Sergei Supinsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, stressed the need to help Ukraine boost its domestic weapons production, speaking Thursday on an unannounced trip to Kyiv as at least two other Western defense officials said they had visited the city in shows of support.

Despite an influx of sophisticated weapons provided by Western allies, progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been slow. The front line has barely shifted over the past year, and a prolonged stalemate could weaken Western support for Ukraine. As its troops burn through ammunition, Ukraine has been drumming up pledges of new arms while simultaneously looking to ramp up its domestic arms industry.

Mr. Stoltenberg spoke in Kyiv just a day before Ukraine plans to hold a forum with international military contractors, an event billed as an opportunity to discuss weapons technology and how to increase production inside Ukraine. The State of the War

• Black Sea Fleet Admiral: Ukraine’s military claimed that it had killed Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, in a strike on Crimea. But the celebration in Kyiv may turn out to be short-lived.
• Grain Exports: Ukraine has stepped up its use of a new shipping route that has allowed it to begin reviving grain exports to circumvent a de facto Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports.
• Abram Tanks: The first American-made Abrams tanks have been delivered to Ukraine, months ahead of initial estimates and in time to be used in Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces.
• Depleted Uranium Shells: The United States announced an aid package for Ukraine that for the first time included ammunition made with depleted uranium, raising concerns over the material’s potential health and environmental effects.

Russia launched a large drone attack overnight, Ukrainian officials say.

Ukraine’s military said on Thursday that Russia had launched a large drone attack overnight targeting southern and central parts of the country, the latest barrage in a campaign intended partly to destroy military and energy infrastructure, but also apparently aimed at terrorizing and demoralizing civilians.

Ukraine’s Air Force said 34 of the 44 drones had been shot down. The fate of the other 10 drones was unclear, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damaged buildings. The claims had not been independently verified.

“The attack was massive, but the work of the air defense was also quite effective,” Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian southern command, told national television on Thursday.   

Western allies have rushed more than $90 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war last year. Now the race is on to ramp up military manufacturing inside Ukraine.

On Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said he had sealed a “long-term agreement” with the United States for joint weapons production during his meeting with President Biden in Washington the previous day.

A White House statement issued after the two presidents met last week was more circumspect than Mr. Zelensky’s declaration. It said the Biden administration would host a conference in the coming months “to explore options for joint ventures and co-production.”

Regardless, joint production would be potentially important for Ukraine’s economy and lucrative for defense industry contractors.

The United States would be one among a pool of allies and foreign manufacturers that are looking to gain a financial foothold on Ukraine’s battlefield. Britain, Germany and others also are moving to bolster Ukraine’s defense industry, including by building joint manufacturing facilities in the country.

One of the first out of the gate was Rheinmetall, the German-based weapons production giant, which announced in May that it was teaming up with Ukraine’s state-owned Ukroboronprom to build armored vehicles and tanks inside Ukraine.

In late August, Britain-based BAE Systems said it had signed an agreement to explore manufacturing 105-millimeter light guns in Ukraine, though it did not make clear when that would start.

U.S. officials see the efforts as a step toward weaning Ukraine off the shipments of Western weapons it receives on a near-weekly basis, especially as political support in Washington and other world capitals for continuing the costly donations threatens to wane.

“For all of the armored vehicles, for all of the Bradleys, Strykers, all of the arms that Ukraine needs, their national defense production act really has to be implemented more aggressively,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview last month.

Otherwise, “our stockpiles and Ukraine’s supplies are going to be diminished dramatically and potentially exhausted,” Senator Blumenthal said. He noted that production sites would need to be protected, including with adequate air defenses, but “we’re going to be building those factories in Ukraine so that they have a much more dependable source.”

Last year, Ukraine was the world’s largest arms importer — a direct result of the military aid it has received since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks weapons transfers.

— Lara Jakes

Europe made a bold pledge of ammunition for Ukraine. Now comes the hard part.

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155mm shells inside an M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, on the western outskirts of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, in April.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

The pledge last March sounded as catchy as it was ambitious: European Union states would deliver a million rounds of 155-millimeter ammunition to Ukraine within a year.

Now, at a critical moment in the war and with Ukraine running short of artillery shells to drive its counteroffensive, experts, weapons manufacturers and even some government officials are expressing growing doubts. Europe’s shrunken military sector, they say, may simply be unable to ramp up production fast enough to achieve the million-shell goal.

Since March, governments across Europe have become more aggressive about assessing — and replenishing — ammunition needs, not just for Ukraine, but also for their own military stockpiles.  

international court at The Hague.

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The home of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, this month.Credit...Peter Dejong/Associated Press

Ukraine and Russia repeatedly clashed during hearings this week over whether the United Nations’ highest court has jurisdiction to hear a complaint that Moscow abused the 1948 Genocide Convention to justify its invasion of Ukraine last year.

Kyiv is asking the court to order Russia to halt its attacks, even though it is unlikely Moscow would comply.

Ukraine brought its complaint to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the United Nations’ highest legal body, shortly after the invasion. The complaint said that Russia had falsely accused the Ukrainian government of carrying out a genocide against Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine and then had used the accusation as the pretext for launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. 

A Ukrainian military spokesman says Wagner fighters are returning to the eastern front.

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At the grave of Yevgeny V. Prigozhin at the Porohovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia, last month. Mr. Prigozhin’s death left the future of the Wagner mercenary group up in the air.Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

A spokesman for Ukraine’s Army said on Wednesday that some Wagner mercenaries had returned to the front lines in eastern Ukraine after relocating to Belarus for the past three months in the wake of the group’s unsuccessful mutiny against the Kremlin.

The Wagner founder, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash in August. Though the cause of the crash has not yet been determined, many Western officials have suggested that it served as payback for the brief, late June uprising Mr. Prigozhin led against Russia’s military leadership. His death raised questions about what would become of his mercenary forces, which played a crucial role in taking the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and in furthering Russian objectives in Africa.

On Wednesday, Ilya Yevlash, the spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Grouping of Forces, told the Ukrainian broadcaster RBC-Ukrainethat about 500 Wagner mercenaries had arrived in Ukraine from Belarus and were being deployed to the front lines. He said the returning fighters had renegotiated contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. 

The U.S. announces sanctions targeting a global network supporting Iranian drones used in Russia.

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A drone seen seconds before it struck buildings in Kyiv on Oct. 17 last year. U.S. officials said that Russia received its first shipment of Iranian-made military drones last August.Credit...Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press

The U.S. Treasury Department issued sanctions on Wednesday targeting what officials described as a global network involved in supplying parts for Iranian drones, the latest round of U.S. penalties aimed at choking Russia’s access to military supply chains and equipment.

The Treasury placed sanctions on five companies and two people based in Iran, China, Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates for their roles in enabling Iran to acquire servo motors, sometimes spelled servomotors — which assist in steering — for Iran’s Shahed drones. Iran supplies Russia with the drones, which U.S. officials often refer to as unmanned aerial vehicles, or U.A.V.s.

The drones are “a key tool” for Russian attacks in Ukraine, including those that target Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure, Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. 

Reported by The New York Times