Day 493 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Head of the CIA has Secretly Visited Ukraine

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Day 493 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• Russian bloggers destroy the Russian military command with criticism for its failures at the bridge "Antonovsky”
• The head of the CIA on a secret visit to Ukraine
• The Spanish prime minister arrived in Kyiv on the day his country assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU
• Valerii Zaluzhnyi to The Washington Post: Fighting without planes is like opposing weapons with bows and arrows

Russian bloggers destroy the Russian military command with criticism for its failures at the bridge "Antonovsky”

The Russian military command is under heavy criticism from Russian bloggers that Russian troops have failed to dislodge a small group of Ukrainian armed forces from their bridgehead under the eastern overpass of the Antonovsky Bridge in the Kherson region.

This is stated in another report of the American Institute for the Study of War, cited by the BBC.

According to bloggers, the command "blindly" ordered the military to storm the area, which led to significant losses of people and armored vehicles. Instead, pro-war commentators called for strikes on the bridge.

On June 30, the Russian military did indeed strike the Antonovsky Bridge with an Iskander ballistic missile, but the extent of the damage could not yet be assessed, ISW noted. Given the alleged lack of such missiles in Russia, the decision to use one of them against a light infantry unit of about 70 people on the approaches to the already destroyed bridge seems strange, the analysts wrote.

The sharp reaction of bloggers to the decisions of the military command shows that even after the rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the "patriots" did not unite around the Ministry of Defense.

Meanwhile, British military intelligence confirmed on Twitter the conclusion that Ukrainian armed forces have taken and are holding a beachhead near the destroyed Antonovsky Bridge on the left bank of the Dnieper River opposite Kherson.

"From around June 23," according to British intelligence, "Ukrainian forces almost certainly resumed the deployment of personnel" on the east bank of the Dnieper River near the Antonovsky Bridge in the Kherson region. The fighting has been getting more intense since June 27. Among the defending forces are units of the Russian 7th Guards Airborne Assault Division, part of the Dnieper Group of Forces.

In recent weeks, it is highly likely that the Russian command has moved part of the forces of the Dnieper Army Group from the banks of the Dnieper to reinforce the Zaporizhzhia sector of the front, British intelligence has announced.

The fighting near the foundations of the bridge was almost certainly complicated by the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam on June 6 and its consequences: flooding, destruction and mudslides.

The head of the CIA on a secret visit to Ukraine

The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, recently visited Ukraine, where he met with intelligence officials and President Volodymyr Zelensky, a representative of the US government said, quoted by AFP.

The agency notes that the secret visit was carried out against the backdrop of the counteroffensive launched by the Ukrainian armed forces in the eastern and southern parts of the country at the beginning of this month.

During his visit, Burns reaffirmed "the commitment of the United States to share intelligence to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression," the US official in question told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Washington Post, which first reported the visit, claimed that Ukrainian leaders presented the CIA chief with plans to recapture Russian-occupied territories and begin ceasefire negotiations by the end of this year. The American daily did not specify the exact dates of the visit, limiting itself to saying that Burns was in Ukraine this month.

In an interview published yesterday for the "Washington Post", the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zaluzhnyi, stated that the lack of certain weapons, specifically fighter jets, limits the counteroffensive.

On Tuesday, the United States pledged another tranche of arms aid to Kyiv, this time to the tune of half a billion dollars. The new package will specifically include ammunition for anti-aircraft systems and armored vehicles.

Earlier, the media in the US informed about another activity of Burns. He called the head of Russia's foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, to assure the Kremlin that the United States had nothing to do with PMC Wagner's rebellion, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported, citing from Reuters.

The conversation between Burns and Naryshkin took place this week and was the highest-level contact between the US and Russian governments since Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenaries began their march on Moscow.

On Monday, President Joe Biden defined the actions of "Wagner" as part of internal struggles in Russia, to which the United States and its allies have no sympathy, writes BTA.

The Spanish prime minister arrived in Kyiv on the day his country assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived in Kyiv today - the day his country took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council until the end of the year, the Associated Press reported.

The purpose of the visit is to emphasize the European Union's support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.

Sanchez arrived in the Ukrainian capital by train from Poland. The Spanish Prime Minister will address the Verkhovna Rada (the unicameral parliament of Ukraine), and then he will be received by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

This is Sanchez's third visit to Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion of the country on February 24 last year, AP notes.

Zelensky announced the upcoming visit in a video address Thursday to European Union leaders meeting in Brussels. Sanchez said yesterday in the Belgian capital that "the war in Ukraine will be one of the main priorities of the (Spanish rotating) presidency (of the EU Council), with an emphasis on ensuring the unity of all member states (on this issue)".

Valerii Zaluzhnyi to The Washington Post: Fighting without planes is like opposing weapons with bows and arrows

In order for Ukraine's counteroffensive to advance more quickly, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, says it needs a larger quantity of all kinds of weapons. He says to anyone who can hear it, incl. his American colleague Gen. Mark Milley (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) that he needs them now.

In a rare, wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post, Zaluzhnyi expressed frustration that while their biggest Western backers would never launch an offensive without air superiority, Ukraine has yet to receive modern fighter jets and is expected to quickly regain the occupied Russian territories.

American F-16s, promised only recently, probably won't arrive until the fall at best.

The Ukrainian army should fire at least as many artillery shells as the enemy, says Zaluzhnyi, and specifies that sometimes they are outnumbered tenfold due to limited resources.

"It infuriates me," Zaluzhnyi said on hearing that Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive in the east and south of the country had started more slowly than expected, a view echoed publicly by military analysts and Western officials, as well as Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky, although the general does not refer to him.

VSU wins a little bit every day, even if it's 500 meters.

"This is not a show for the world to watch and make bets. Every day, every meter of territory is being won back with blood. Without being fully equipped, these plans (for the offensive) are not at all feasible, but they are being implemented. Yes, maybe not as fast as the show's watchers would like, but that's their problem," commented Zaluzhnyi.

For the past 16 months, Zaluzhnyi, 49, has faced the enormous challenge of leading Ukraine's military against more numerous and better-armed Russian forces that still occupy a fifth of his homeland, even after successful counteroffensives last fall.

He is doing so in part by transforming his army into a modern, fast-moving, operational one trained in NATO tactics, while shedding an overly centralized Soviet-style command structure. The same one that was valid when he first crossed the threshold of his military career, the newspaper commented.

The questions that plague him daily are when will Ukraine's Western partners provide the weapons it needs, especially the much-needed ammunition and F-16s? And how can he be expected to do his job without them?

Zaluzhnyi says he is relaying his concerns to Gen. Mark Milley, whom he considers a friend, in conversations several times a week that can last for hours.

"He absolutely shares my worries. And I think he helps me get rid of them," Zaluzhnyi said, adding that he told Milley on Wednesday exactly how many shells he would need for a month.

In these conversations, Zaluzhnyi is frank about the consequences.

"We have an agreement, we're in touch 24/7. I can call him and say, 'If I don't get 100,000 shells in a week, 1,000 people will die. Put yourself in my place!’ However, it is not Milley who decides whether we get airplanes or not," commented Zaluzhnyi.

"While we wait for that decision to be made, many people are dying every day, many. Simply because this decision has not been made yet."

While the F-16s eventually arrive, following US President Joe Biden's decision in May to provide international support for Ukrainian pilot training and the deployment of aircraft, Ukraine's limited supply of ammunition is a serious challenge.

In February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that "Ukraine's current rate of spending on ammunition is many times higher than the current rate of its production." That means the longer the war drags on, the more scarce the munitions could become.

Even before the long-planned counteroffensive, Ukraine for the first time received Western battle tanks, incl. and made in Germany "Leopard", and combat vehicles for the infantry.

Moscow's troops have established a land corridor between mainland Russia and the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, where the Russians have a number of military installations. Severing this link would therefore deal a significant blow to Russia's supply capabilities.

Tanks and military vehicles made their battlefield debut in the counteroffensive that began earlier this month. Several of them have already been destroyed, Zaluzhnyi admits and adds: "We don't show them in parades, we don't make politicians or celebrities take pictures with them. They are here because of the war. And a Leopard on the battlefield is not just a Leopard - it’s a target".

Ukraine has not yet begun the main phase of its counteroffensive, analysts say. Not all military units are engaged on the front lines, and those that still appear to be probing the weak spots in Russia's defenses.

In total, about 50 square meters have been liberated, Ukrainian officials claim. However, Zaluzhnyi cited NATO's own force doctrine, which is similar to Russia's and calls for air superiority before any full-scale ground operations begin.

"And Ukraine, moving to a counteroffensive, which doctrine should it follow? NATO's? The Russian Federation's? Or is that not my job?", he asks rhetorically.

In his command post, he has a screen that shows everything that is happening in the air at any given moment - the combat aviation of NATO countries on the western border of Ukraine, his own planes and the Russian ones on the eastern edges.

"Let's just say that the number of allied aircraft patrolling our western borders is twice the number of Russians ravaging our positions. Why can't we take at least a third of them from there and transfer them here?", Zaluzhnyi asks.

Since Russia's more advanced air force includes the Su-35s, which have better radar and missile range, Ukraine's older fighters are no match for them. As a result, ground combat units are highly vulnerable.

"No one is saying that tomorrow we need to rearm and get 120 planes. Why would I need them? I don't need 120 planes. I'm not going to threaten the whole world. A much smaller number is enough. They are needed. There is no other way, because the enemy’s new generation of aviation uses it against us," the general explains.

"It's like going on the offensive with bows and arrows and everyone is going to ask, 'Are you crazy?'"

"We are not!", he himself answers.

Even if one thinks Ukraine's counteroffensive got a boost last weekend, when Wagner PMC head Yevgeny Prigozhin led a several-hour rebellion of his mercenaries into Moscow, Zaluzhnyi isn't so sure.

"Prigozhin's forces had already left the front line after taking Bakhmut last month, so there was no visible change on the battlefield. We didn't feel any weakening of Russian positions or anything like that," he explained.

Wagner mercenaries who do not wish to remain in Russia and sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense will be able to join Prigozhin in Belarus. But while some of the mercenaries leave the battlefield in Ukraine, where their commanders praise their effective and often brutal tactics, Zaluzhnyi will have to consider the new additional threat from the north (where Ukraine borders Belarus), the newspaper commented.

"I have many fears, and Wagner is among them, but they are not the only ones. If we start talking, I will feel dizzy... our task is to prepare for the worst possible scenarios, as well as try to reduce to a minimum the possible consequences of what could happen," says Zaluzhnyi.

One of the worst-case scenarios he has to consider is the threat of Putin deploying nuclear weapons. Last week, Zelensky warned that Ukrainian intelligence had information that Russian forces were preparing a "terrorist act with the release of radiation" at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

Does this prompt Zaluzhnyi to stop trying to regain control of the plant as part of Ukraine's counteroffensive?

"It doesn't stop me at all. We're doing our job. All these signals are coming for a reason – to fear a nuclear strike! Well, and? Does that mean we should give up?"

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