Ukraine fires American missiles at Kerch Bridge and is winning argument to use US weapons on Russia

Ukraine fires American missiles at Kerch Bridge and is winning argument to use US weapons on Russia

Ukraine has launched American atacam missiles at Vladimir Putin’s prized Kirch Bridge as keev appears to be winning the argument over using Us weapons to hit Sovereign Russian soil we’re in my name is Jerome starky I’m the defense editor at the Sun newspaper and this is Frontline your weekly Roundup of the most important news from the war in Ukraine we’re going to start with those strikes Over the Sea of azov and at Vladimir Putin’s prized Kirch Bridge the bridge that links occupied Crimea to Sovereign Russian territory Russian news agencies reported overnight that their air defenses shot down what they said was a volley of eight aams missiles Over the Sea of azov as well as Ukrainian drones targeting the bridge now this would be significant because these are some of the newest missiles given from uh America to Ukraine long range Precision missiles which keev had been asking for for a long time the footage of those strikes so far not especially definitive it’s glowing dots in a dark sky but nonetheless we understand we’ve been led to believe that these are the strikes against that bridge and it comes at the same time as Ukraine’s G Military Intelligence service has released footage of another strike against Russian Assets in Crimea this time against Patrol ships the group 13 of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence using their mura V5 drones and those drones capturing extraordinary footage again of Russian helicopters patrolling in the sky above them trying to shoot them out of the water as they approach their targets indeed there’s also what appears to be Drone footage showing those Russian helicopters patrolling over the Black Sea trying to shoot those gura SE drones now that’s significant because that shows us that Ukraine appears to have a surveillance capability of keeping a drone in the sky with eyes on those drones the sea drones eyes on the Russian helicopters as an attack is unfolded presumably undetected by Russia at least the surveillance drone undetected by Russia because there’s no attempt either uh to interfere to block its Transmissions or indeed to shoot it down so two attacks on Crimea one on the Eastern tip one by those sea drones on the western tip uh the one on the Eastern tip the one on on kch or around kch more significant potentially because of the use of those American weapons and that brings us to once again the real topic of debate and that is the continuing argument over the use of Western weapons and particularly American weapons to hit Targets in inside Russia now we’ll just recap where we are the United Kingdom was out on the front foot on this some weeks ago with foreign secretary Lord Cameron insisting Ukraine absolutely has the right to use Western weapons to hit Targets in Russian soil Britain’s defense secretary Grant shap said it would be absurd to try and tell Ukraine that it cannot use those weapons to defend itself uh by hitting military targets inside Russia since then we’ve also heard from uh French president Emanuel macron echoing that sentiment that you can’t give weapons to Ukraine but then tell it that it cannot use those weapons to defend itself and we’ve also heard from Danish Prime Minister meta Frederickson saying very similar things these weapons are for Ukraine to defend themselves it’s interesting the response that we’ve seen from Russia that gives us an indication of how worried they are the idea that actually this could make a difference first of all uh we saw the British Ambassador summoned to Moscow subsequently we saw uh Moscow announcing non strategic or rather tactical nuclear weapons drills rehearsals more recently we’ve heard from the Russian ambassador to Copenhagen in Denmark suggesting that were Denmark to allow its missiles or its weapons to be used to strike those Targets in Russia it would have devastating consequences he said the conflict would spiral out of control and that Russian Ambassador also signaled or singled out rather Denmark’s promise to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets he pointed out the Russian Ambassador that those f-16s are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and he said Russia would see the arrival of those aircraft as a potentially nuclear threat now we’ve heard a lot of Russian saber rattling over this but it does give us an indication of how Moscow is feel they appear to be feeling nervous that these weapons could make a significant difference on the battlefield and all of their posturing over the last few weeks has been to try and deter NATO and Ukraine’s allies from making those authorizations now we understand that many allies have already tacitly given Ukraine permission for those strikes on Russian saw but of course the Game Changer in this equation is going to be the United States and thus far Washington has maintained a discret ban on using its weapons to hit Targets on Russian soil that appears to be changing and I’m going to cite two examples the first is a report in the New York Times which says President Joe Biden appears to be edging ever closer towards giving Ukraine that authorization indeed his secretary of state Anthony blinken saying that America has adapted its policies as the requirements of the war have evolved over the last two plus years so both of those signals suggesting the American position could be about to change and of course that comes as there is a minute a meeting of NATO defense ministers as we speak the other uh development in the US press comes in the Washington Post and this is a uh report elucidating some of the US concerns I think for the first time uh we’ve heard a specific reason why America is concerned that these strikes on Russia might trigger an escalation us officials unnamed us officials have said they’re particularly concerned about Ukraine’s strikes deep strikes in Russian soil against Russia’s long range strategic uh surveillance Radars These Are Over the Horizon early Warning Systems now Ukraine has maintained that these strikes are attempts to degrade the Russian radars which it is using to support its invasion of Ukraine American officials are concerned that actually these are strategic early Warning Systems these are the warning early warning systems that Russia uses to detect a potential Nuclear Strike by America or other nuclear powers in the world and if these early warning systems are degraded or destroyed then clearly that is going to leave Moscow feeling vulnerable to the the threat of a doomsday nuclear attack now there’s no suggestion that that doomsday nuclear attack is coming but it is an insight into why Moscow would see these attacks as potentially such an escalation now I know from your comments that many of you find it outrageous that on the one hand Russia continues to use weapons from Iran North Korea uh dual use parts from China to prosecute its bloodbath war in Ukraine while at the same time saying it would be an escalation for Ukraine to use Western weapons uh against Targets in Russian so and I have to say I’m minded uh to agree with you on that principle this report in the Washington Post is perhaps the first um coherent argument I’ve seen of why certain targets inside Russia uh might be off limits or at least of more concern to policy makers in Washington so far what we’ve seen is Ukraine hitting a range of Targets in Russia including those early warning systems one of them the most recent one some 1100 miles inside Russian territory gives you an idea of what Ukraine is managing to achieve we understand with its own Sovereign capabilities its own homemade drones but we know Ukraine has also hit railway lines it’s also hit airfields and most recently it’s been targeting Russia’s oil refineries trying to degrade that ability for Russia to sustain both its economy and to sustain uh its soldiers on the front lines across Ukraine final thing I want to mention before we get on to questions just for a bit of a change of Paces reports that potentially thousands of dolphins whales and cations have been killed in the Black Sea now this uh comes from uh Wildlife National Parks officials uh in Ukraine suggestions that uh dozens of uh dolphins and whales have washed up on beaches particularly in and around the Eastern Black Sea as a result of the uh sonar the underwater uh detection systems the noises being pumped into the sea by both sides in the conflict to detect each other’s vessels uh whilst uh relatively small numbers have uh been washing up officials suggesting that’s probably only about 5% of the total number that have been affected so just a small reminder of the impact that this conflict is having not just of course the devastating human uh impact but also the impact on the natural environment as well on to questions if you do have any please ask them in the comments uh below first question is suggestions that Vladimir Putin would accept a peace deal if Ukraine were to seed all the territory it has currently lost would that be a realistic scenario well the first thing to say is that any peace deal uh the West has maintained and Ukraine’s allies have maintained would have to be on Ukraine’s terms it doesn’t seem feasible at the moment M uh that Ukraine that President zelinski could feasibly reach a deal on those terms seeding all of that territory as it would not be uh politically acceptable inside Ukraine and even if it were and even if Ukraine were to seede some territory in exchange for a lasting peace The crucial thing would be what guarantees would it have that it isn’t simply giving Russia breathing space to rebuild its Armed Forces and then launching another another Invasion down the line of course we just need to look back to 2014 because that’s basically what happened Moscow annexed Crimea uh it supported effectively LED supported these uprisings in the eastern dbass and partially Annex that territory although not totally officially uh waited another eight years and then launched this fullscale Invasion that we’re seeing now so it would all depend on what guarantees any such peace deal uh came with uh question number two do I think that the drills the Chinese drills around Taiwan were linked to Vladimir Putin’s visit and indeed link to uh what Russia has been doing on the ground in Ukraine now certainly those drills those massive Chinese drills around Taiwan effectively encircling the island of Taiwan uh did broadly coincide with uh Russia uh launching its offensive in uh Northeastern harv uh in Ukraine China has said that its drills were in fact a response to comments by uh taiwan’s leader uh suggesting sort of reasserting taiwan’s Independence uh Taiwan uh China regularly carries out these sorts of large scale drills hard to say conclusively whether or not they were linked but clearly uh from the West’s point of view having a hot War raging on uh on Europe’s doorstep uh makes the possibility of a second conf ICT uh in the Pacific far more challenging uh because the West were it to go to taiwan’s Aid were America to go to taiwan’s Aid uh would find itself more stretched and finally a question about the reports that actually came out about a month ago that America had allegedly bought 81 Soviet era Jets from Kazakhstan it’s worth pointing out this this these reports emerged in a Ukrainian newspaper uh the keev post and the planes that were allegedly bought through proxies and third parties but funded by America were a variety of suho and Mig Fighters and bombers aging aircraft none of which we understand were uh serviceable these reports are unconfirmed but were that to have been the case uh you know were America to have done this question would be why these planes can’t be used two reasons uh it would seem one is uh for spare parts to take them to perhaps to to get the parts uh to keep Ukraine’s Air Force flying uh the second reason would be to remove them from circulation to avoid Russia getting its hands on these aircrafts as I said those reports are unconfirmed but those would appear to me to be the two most sensible uh reasons for buying those aircraft as ever if you do have any questions please ask them in the comments below we’re really grateful we got a fantastic response from you on the you on YouTube in the comments and we will endeavor to answer some of them next week

Ukraine has launched American Atacms missiles at Putin’s beloved Kerch Bridge as Kyiv appears to be winning the argument over using US weapons to hit sovereign Russian soil.

The Sun delivers breaking news, latest gossip and incredible exclusives around the world with hubs in London, New York, Scotland and Ireland.
Covering topics from news, money and sport along with our famous Fabulous Magazine, The Sun is the biggest news brand in the UK and one of the fastest growing news sites in the US.

Stay tuned for video clips across the biggest news stories and segments from The Sun’s expert journalists.

Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know.

Read The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sunyoutubesitelink
Like The Sun on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesun/
Follow The Sun on X: https://twitter.com/TheSun
Follow The Sun on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesun
Subscribe to The Sun on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/The_Sun/1633225139
#TheSun #ukraine #Russia #frontline