The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced this morning that 199 clashes with Russian forces were recorded in the past 24 hours, and that almost a quarter of them were on the Mikhail Pokrovsky direction. At the same time, Ukrainian officials are urging the US administration to remove restrictions on the use of long-range weapons for strikes on Russian territory.
According to reliable sources Ukrainian forces repelled 52 Russian attacks in the direction of Pokrovsky.
It added that Ukrainian troops continue to deplete the combat potential of Russian forces, especially in the Kursk region of Russia, where they entered on August 6.
Rustem Umerov: The US administration is considering Kyiv’s request for strikes deep into Russian territory
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that the administration of US President Joe Biden is still considering Kyiv’s request to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory, and confirmed that on Friday, in meetings with senior officials in Washington, he presented a list of goals.
“We have explained what kind of capabilities we need to protect the citizens against the Russian terror that Russians are causing us, so I hope we were heard,” Umerov said in an interview with CNN’s Alex Marquardt on “The Situation Room.”
Despite repeated requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the US is not expected to ease restrictions on Ukraine’s ability to use ATACMS.
– You heard us say that the Ukrainians can use American security assistance to defend against cross-border attacks, in other words, for counter strikes. But as far as long-range strikes, deep inside Russian territory, our policy has not changed – Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said last Tuesday.
According to one US official, Ukraine has a limited stockpile of US long-range missiles, and the US has made it clear that Kyiv should not expect a new, significant delivery of ATACMS due to the limited number of those missiles in the US military reserves and the long time it takes to produce those weapons.
Speaking before a meeting between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Umerov, the US official said many of the Ukrainian targets in Russia were beyond the range of the ATACMS missile systems.
