Russia military officials claimed a new success in an offensive in the eastern Donetsk region and said two Russian war ships repelled a Ukrainian sea drone in the Black Sea late on August 17 as Ukrainian forces liberated a village amid a slow-moving counteroffensive that has worried some of Kyiv’s Western backers.
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The reports came on August 17 as NATO’s secretary-general said it was up to Ukraine to decide when to join any peace negotiations following the Russian invasion. Jens Stoltenberg’s comments appeared aimed at tamping down a furor that erupted earlier in the week when a senior colleague at the alliance suggested that Kyiv ceding territory to Russia in exchange for membership in the military alliance could be a way to end the war.
Two months into their long-awaited counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces have struggled to break through formidable Russian defensive lines in the southern Zaporizhzhya region and in the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s Western backers have trained and supplied as many as nine new brigades, with the hope that Ukrainian forces could replicate earlier successes against Russian troops, such as the defense of Kyiv in the early weeks after the February 2022 invasion, or two successful advances in Kharkiv and Kherson in late 2022.
That hasn’t happened, and without substantial battlefield success in the coming months, Ukraine could face mounting pressure from the United States or other Western allies to open negotiations with Russia.
Ukrainian forces this week claimed capture of Urozhayne, a village on the edge of Donetsk region. The claim could not be independently confirmed, though a Russian military commander and military bloggers appeared to corroborate the withdrawal of Russian forces from the area.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its evening summary on August 17 that Russian forces made unsuccessful attempts to regain Urozhayne. If Ukraine holds Urozhayne, it would be the first settlement Kyiv has retaken since July 27, a sign of the challenge that Ukrainian troops faces in trying to break through Russian defensive lines.
Other unsuccessful offensive actions took place near Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, and Avdiyivka, according to the summary.
It also said Ukrainian forces continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk areas.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry on August 17 said Ukraine had lost four Stryker armored vehicles near Donetsk, as part of a Russian offensive push.
It’s first time Russia has claimed to hit the U.S.-supplied vehicles.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the thwarted attack by the sea drone occurred just before 11 p.m. local time on the Black Sea about 240 kilometers southwest of Sevastopol. The attack attempted to hit two Black Sea fleet warships tasked with overseeing navigation in the southwestern section of the Black Sea, the ministry said, according to TASS.
The unmanned boat was destroyed by fire from weapons mounted on the two ships -- one frigate and one patrol ship.
Russia controls nearly one-fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, most of the Luhansk region and large tracts of the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson.
Earlier in the week, Stoltenberg's chief of staff, Stian Jenssen, said Ukraine may have to give up territory to Russia as part of a deal to end the war. He subsequently walked back his comments.
"It is the Ukrainians, and only the Ukrainians, who can decide when there are conditions in place for negotiations, and who can decide at the negotiating table what is an acceptable solution," Stoltenberg said, speaking at a conference in Norway on August 17.
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As the war has ground on, Russia has regularly issued threats to use nuclear weaponry in Ukraine, something that has alarmed both Ukrainians and their Western allies.
"We haven't seen any changes in their nuclear forces that trigger us to change our forces and the way those are arranged," he said. "So far we haven't seen anything that demands that from our side."
At its summit last month, NATO said it would extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when "members agree and conditions are met”-- a decision that was met with some disappointment in Kyiv.
In a meeting with military commanders on August 16, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was ramping up production of aerial drones, which have played a major role in the conflict, for both Ukrainian and Russian forces.
He also suggested Kyiv’s Western backers needed to increase supplies of the devices.
"Drones are the 'eyes' and protection on the front line... Drones are a guarantee that people will not have to pay with their lives when drones can be used," he said in televised remarks.
"In each combat brigade, warriors first ask about drones, electronic warfare, and military air defense," he said.