Zelenskyy: Ukraine needs promised Western help to begin offensive
∙ Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said his country will contribute $1 billion to aid Ukraine's neighboring countries accepting Ukrainian refugees and to promote investment by Japanese companies. ∙ Zelenskyy might make a quick stop in Rome to meet with Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and Pope Francis this weekend, when he's also visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, the Italian news agency Ansa reported. "Convict Navalny is not amenable to correctional work and does not draw the proper conclusions for himself," his tweet said. ∙ Jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny tweeted that he has been sent back to solitary confinement - where he has spent 165 days - after a reprieve of less than 14 hours. ∙ The Pentagon confirmed that Ukrainian forces used the Patriot missile defense system to shoot down a Russian missile for the first time. has balked at providing similar missiles amid concerns of expanding the war. is sending long-range Storm Shadow missiles with a range of almost 200 miles to Ukraine, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed Thursday. "Pervasive issues" with Russian combat capability, exacerbated by continued attrition in the Bakhmut area, appear to be limiting the ability of the invading forces to defend against localized Ukrainian counterattacks, the institute's assessment said. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine's forces gained modest ground around Bakhmut in recent days. Prigozhin has repeatedly criticized the Russian military for failing to provide enough ammunition and for lacking resolve in battle.
The Ukrainian military said 165 Russians were killed, 216 were wounded and one was taken prisoner. Multiple Russian bloggers also said some regular Russian soldiers had "left their positions" in or near Bakhmut, an eastern city that has been the primary focus of fighting for several months. He dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's talk of delaying Ukraine's counteroffensive, saying it had already begun and was proving to be "unfortunately, partially successful." "The situation on the flanks is developing according to the worst predicted scenario," Yevgeny Prigozhin said. Russia's Wagner mercenary group was under pressure Thursday in war-battered Bakhmut after some Russian regulars fled their positions and had "thrown away" valuable ground to Ukrainian forces, the private militia's leader said.
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