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According to a report by Russian News Agency on July 14, cited by Reference News on the 15th, Mariana Bezuglaya, a member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament), said on the social platform:Ukrainian Army Commander-in-Chief Alexander Sersky agreed with the Ukrainian army's surrender.

According to reports, Bezuglaya wrote on the social platform: "Several sources have confirmed to me two extremely important points about the position of Serski and his cronies: he agrees to sign a ceasefire agreement and various plans on the theme of surrender and forced peace; he does not believe in victory and frankly believes that we cannot defeat the Russians on our own land."

Bezuglaya called Serski a "criminal" and said he was weakening the Ukrainian army's combat effectiveness every day during his tenure.

Bezuglaya said that Serski decided to rotate individual units despite the opposition of commanders directly involved in the battle. As a result, the Russian army broke through the Ukrainian defense line in Dzerzhinsk and other places.

On February 25, 2024, local time, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Alexander Sersky (right) and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov (left) inspected the front-line positions. Image source: Visual China

According to reports, Bezuglaya has repeatedly criticized the Ukrainian military leadership, including the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military, Zaluzhny, who was dismissed in February this year. After the Ukrainian military replaced the commander-in-chief, she quickly said that there had been no changes in the Ukrainian military. She also accused Ukrainian Defense Minister Umerov of having no leadership.

According to CCTV News, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a battle report on the 14th local time, saying that the Russian army controlled a settlement in the Donetsk region. In addition, the Russian army occupied more advantageous positions on multiple fronts such as Kharkov and Zaporizhia. The Russian army shot down 33 drones and 10 HIMARS rockets.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces released a battle report on the 14th, saying that 66 battles took place on the front line that day. The Pokrovsk direction was still the most tense area, with more than one-third of the battles taking place in that direction. In the Kharkov direction, the Russian army's three offensives were all repelled.

According to CNN on the 10th, Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó said in an interview that the strategies of the EU and NATO are ineffective in resolving the Ukrainian conflict, and if the conflict is not ended, more people will be killed.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó was interviewed. Image source: Video screenshot

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto: The strategy that the EU and NATO have been pursuing for nearly two and a half years has not achieved any results at all, because the situation is getting worse. You can see the strong offensive, you can see the risk of escalation, you can see the cruelty on the battlefield, and I think it will get worse. If we can't stop the war, thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people will die.

In addition, Hungarian Defense Minister Kristof said in Washington, the United States on the 10th that many NATO member states have confirmed their commitment to provide armed support to Ukraine, but Hungary is not included. Hungary will not send troops, will not transport weapons, and will not provide aid funds to Ukraine.

Daily Economic News Comprehensive Reference News, CCTV News

Further reading

The delivery of F16 to Ukraine is considered the most important thing for Ukrainian defense.

Ukraine's long-awaited F-16 fighter jets have finally arrived. This is the important news announced by US Secretary of State Blinken at the NATO summit held in Washington on the 10th - the first batch of F-16 fighter jets have begun to be shipped from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine.

Screenshot of report from the U.S. Defense News website

The U.S. Defense News website said on the 11th that a joint statement issued by the leaders of the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands stated that the handover process of the F-16 fighter jets provided to Ukraine is underway. "These jet fighters will fly in the Ukrainian skies this summer to ensure that Ukraine can continue to effectively defend against Russian aggression."

According to reports, the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands first agreed to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine last year, followed by other countries such as Norway and Belgium. Norway previously said it would provide six F-16s to Ukraine, Belgium would provide 30, and the Netherlands would provide 24.

According to reports from various sources, the biggest obstacle for Ukraine to receive F-16s is not the aircraft itself - after all, these second-hand fighters have basically just been retired from active service and can be put into combat directly without any modification; the trouble is concentrated on the training of pilots and the construction of supporting facilities. Defense News said that one of the most difficult challenges is the language barrier, because the terminology used by pilots and crew members is very technical, and it is difficult for Ukrainian personnel receiving training to master it in a short period of time. The Pentagon revealed that more than 12 Ukrainian pilots have received training in Denmark and the United States, and some of them have completed training in late May.

But Ukraine still complains that the number of pilots receiving training is too small, and demands that Western countries speed up and expand the scale of pilot training.

Biden's speech at the NATO summit

US media admitted that obtaining F-16 fighter jets has long been a priority for Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian media, this type of American fighter jet is one of the few "Russian-destroying artifacts" that has not been exposed in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Therefore, receiving the F-16 will help boost Ukraine's morale.

Mark Cancian, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. think tank, said, "Symbolically, this is extremely important. This is indeed the last thing that Ukrainian President Zelensky considers to be the most important thing for Ukraine's national defense."

But Kancian believes that "this will help Ukraine's air defense, but it will not be a miracle solution. Because the reason is simple, there are not enough F-16s." In mid-May, Zelensky said that Ukraine needed 120 to 130 F-16s to end Russia's air superiority, but the total number of F-16s promised by the West would not exceed 100, and the delivery time was very long.

Justin Bronk, an air force analyst at a British think tank, said the latest statement may only imply that the ownership of these F-16 fighters has been transferred to Ukraine, but it does not really enter combat readiness. He believes that Ukraine faces many severe challenges in operating and using F-16 fighters. For example, Russia has recently used ballistic missiles to attack Ukrainian airports many times. It is generally believed that the Russian air strikes are intended to show that it has the ability to directly destroy Ukrainian airports where F-16 fighters are parked. Bronk said that these Russian attacks reminded Ukraine: If there is no sufficient air defense system, the Ukrainian army should not expect the F-16 fighters to fully exert their combat power.

Screenshot of foreign media reports

I have introduced these second-hand F-16 fighters that Ukraine is about to acquire many times before. They are early models that have been modernized and have the ability to launch AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles and various ground attack weapons, but there may be major problems in terms of fire control radar performance and airframe life. In general, they cannot confront the main fighters of the Russian Su-30SM and Su-35 head-on. In addition, the F-16 has high requirements for airport runways and supporting facilities, and the existing airports in Ukraine are generally in poor condition. This is also the reason why Western experts have doubts about whether the Ukrainian Air Force has the ability to maintain and operate these American fighters.

But on the other hand, these F-16s are all NATO standard equipment and can be directly integrated into NATO's integrated command and intelligence system through data links. As we all know, the Russian army is actually facing the Ukrainian army under the unified command of NATO, but because the Ukrainian army's previous old Soviet-era fighters cannot directly connect to the NATO combat system, the combat efficiency is not ideal. With the service of the F-16, the combat efficiency of the Ukrainian Air Force will be greatly improved in the future. At the same time, the F-16 can mount almost all NATO weapons, so the Ukrainian army may use these fighters to carry long-range ground attack weapons to directly threaten the Russian army's rear targets.

Defense News also mentioned that in the future these F-16s can also work together with the two early warning aircraft that Sweden promised to provide to Ukraine. However, Bronk said that Ukraine may not be able to find personnel who can operate these early warning aircraft skillfully, let alone command complex air operations.