Ukraine’s Western allies confer as counteroffensive struggles to gain ground against formidable Russian defenses
Jamie McIntyre
‘OUR PEOPLE WAIT FOR VICTORIES’: This morning’s meeting of the 50-plus member Ukraine Defense Contact Group comes as Ukraine’s ambitious counteroffensive plans have been largely stymied by Russia’s miles of minefields.
Ukraine’s top general overseeing the offensive in the east in and around Bakhmut admitted as much in an interview with the BBC. “We’d like to get very fast results, but in reality it’s practically impossible,” Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said, citing the extensive minefields and defensive barriers faced by his troops. “Our advances are really not going as fast as we would like,” he said. “Our people wait for victories. They need small victories.”
In the first two weeks of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, as much as 20% of the weaponry it received from the West was damaged or destroyed, according to a report over the weekend from the New York Times.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley will conduct the latest meeting of nations contributing weapons and other military assistance to Ukraine virtually from the Pentagon beginning at 8 a.m. Austin is scheduled to provide opening remarks, and then around 12:30 p.m., Milley will join him for a post-meeting news conference.
DEFENSE LEADERS TO MEET TUESDAY TO DISCUSS UKRAINIAN COUNTEROFFENSIVE
RUSSIA STRIKES BACK: A day after Ukraine severely damaged the 12-mile bridge over the Kerch Strait that links Russia with the occupied Crimean peninsula, Russia targeted the port city of Odesa and other areas of the south with more than three dozen missiles and drones. “Six Calibers, 31 Shahed attack drones and one reconnaissance [drone] were destroyed by the forces and resources of the Air Force,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on its Facebook page.
Some port facilities and residential buildings in Odesa were damaged, but there were no reported casualties.
The strike came after Russian President Vladimir Putin received a sober assessment of the damage to the Kerch Bridge, which was hit by sea drones just before dawn yesterday.
“After a visual inspection of the span supports, we have established that as a result of this terrorist act, one span structure of the highway section on the Taman side has been completely destroyed and is beyond repair. Another span, on the other side towards Kerch, has been damaged,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin told Putin, according to a transcript of a video conference call posted on the Kremlin website. “The railway section is functioning normally, and trains are running on schedule. One track has some minor damages that do not affect train movement.”
The damage to the bridge sparked a panicked exodus from Crimea, a popular summertime seaside resort, with vacationers attempting to return to Russia via treacherous overland routes. “The most important thing is to stock up on the necessary amount of water,” one tourist posted on social media. “Local ‘entrepreneurs’ decided to take advantage of this situation and in order to enrich themselves increased the price by 8-10 times!”
PUTIN FUMES AT UNDERLINGS ABOUT ‘SECOND’ CRIMEA BRIDGE ATTACK
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HAPPENING TODAY: President Joe Biden meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House at 1:15 p.m., one day before Herzog is scheduled to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
And yesterday, Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and extended an invitation for him to visit the U.S. before the end of the year.
“They obviously talked about a broad range of global and regional issues of mutual concern. The president underscored his ironclad, unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” said NSC spokesman John Kirby at a White House briefing. “President Biden reiterated, in the context of the current debate in Israel about judicial reform, the need for the broadest possible consensus and that shared democratic values have always been and must remain a hallmark of the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
WHITE HOUSE WELCOMES JAYAPAL ISRAEL APOLOGY: ‘RIGHT THING TO DO’
ALSO TODAY: Federal Judge Aileen Cannon will preside over a preliminary hearing in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. The hearing in a Florida courtroom is primarily about the rules and procedures governing how classified evidence is used in the case, but Cannon has also told prosecutors and defense attorneys to be ready to discuss a trial date.
Prosecutors have proposed Dec. 11 for the start of the trials, while Trump’s lawyers are pushing to postpone the proceeding until after next year’s presidential election.
JUDGE AILEEN CANNON COULD SET TRIAL DATE AS EARLY AS TUESDAY
RUSSIA ‘WEAPONIZING FOOD’: Secretary of State Antony Blinken is accusing Russia of “weaponizing food” with its announcement yesterday that it will no longer allow grain to be shipped from Ukrainian ports to be sold on the world food market.
“The result of Russia’s action today — weaponizing food, using it as a tool, as a weapon in its war against Ukraine — will be to make food harder to come by in places that desperately need it, and have prices rise,” Blinken said. “The bottom line is it’s unconscionable. It should not happen. This should be restored as quickly as possible.”
“No one has the right to destroy the food security of any nation,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video address. “If a bunch of people somewhere in the Kremlin think that they supposedly have the right to decide whether food will be on the table in different countries: Egypt or Sudan, Yemen or Bangladesh, China or India, [Turkey] or Indonesia, then the world has an opportunity to show that blackmail is not allowed to anyone.”
RUNNING THE BLOCKADE ‘NOT AN OPTION’: The United States has rejected the option of using U.S. warships to escort Ukrainian ships out of the Black Sea and past the Russian navy.
“We’ll look to see what else can be done to find other ways to get Ukrainian food products on the world market, including, again, what, as Ukraine has already been doing, moving things out through rail and by road,” Blinken said. “But in terms of the volumes necessary, it’s really hard to replace what’s now being lost as a result of Russia weaponizing food.”
“Is there any thought being given to a plan of just taking the grain out by sea with some kind of escort and, you know, more or less daring the Russians to stop it?” a reporter asked at yesterday’s White House briefing.
“Basically, you’re suggesting that we should just try to run a blockade — an effective military blockade in the Black Sea because that’s what’s happening here,” replied Kirby. “That’s not an option that’s being actively pursued.”
UKRAINE WANTS TO DARE PUTIN TO SINK GRAIN SHIPS
IT’S NOT JUST THE GENERALS: Blinken opened his press briefing yesterday with a broadcast aimed at Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), whose hold on ambassadorial nominations is having a similar effect as Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) hold on military nominations.
“At present, the State Department has more than 60 nominees with the Senate. Thirty-eight have completed all the other steps and are on the Senate floor awaiting confirmation. Of those 38, 35 are career Foreign Service officers,” Blinken said, “During the current Congress, only five nominees have been confirmed.”
Paul has been blocking all State Department nominees while demanding the department release additional information about the origins of COVID and related government-funded research.
“We have been working extensively with Senator Paul. We’ve provided documents and other information that he’s requested. But unfortunately, he continues to block all of our nominees,” Blinken said. “It’s irresponsible. And it’s doing harm to our national security.”
“By the end of the summer, we expect Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon will all be without confirmed U.S. ambassadors,” Blinken said. “Eight nominees are awaiting confirmation for posts in African countries. And it’s not just the Middle East and Africa where we’ve got this problem: Ambassadorships are open in Asia, in Europe, in Latin America, as nominees await confirmation.”
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The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Pentagon deploys additional firepower to the Middle East to deter Iran
Washington Examiner: Putin fumes at underlings about ‘second’ Crimea bridge attack
Washington Examiner: Two killed in Ukrainian attack on key Crimean bridge, Russia says
Washington Examiner: Why Ukraine’s Crimea bridge strike is a problem for Russia
Washington Examiner: Ukraine wants to dare Putin to sink grain ships
Washington Examiner: Defense leaders to meet Tuesday to discuss Ukrainian counteroffensive
Washington Examiner: Pentagon Blasted For Failing Five Audits And Missing 61% Of Assets: ‘All Gone To Zelensky!’
Washington Examiner: Millions of emails intended for US military members sent to accounts in Mali
Washington Examiner: DeSantis plans to overhaul military and ditch ‘wokeness’ amid recruitment woes
Washington Examiner: Trump plays good cop, bad cop in promise to end Ukraine war
Washington Examiner: Donald Trump arrested: Judge Aileen Cannon could set trial date as early as Tuesday
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Politicize defense? Never!
Washington Examiner: Opinion: US technology giants bat for the People’s Liberation Army at the White House
Defense News: UK Defense Plan Zeroes in on Replenishing Weapons Stockpiles
BBC: Ukraine war: Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the man behind Kyiv’s renewed offensive
19fortyfive.com: Putin’s War of Aggression Is Turning Ukraine Into a Giant Minefield
AP: Russian Fighter Jet Flies Dangerously Close To U.S. Warplane Over Syria
AP: Bilateral South Korea-US consulting group meets in response to North Korean nuclear threat
Reuters: U.S. national in North Korea custody after crossing inter-Korean border
CNN: Taiwan’s Vice President Expected To Transit U.S. As Biden Administration Works To Regularize Diplomacy With China
New York Times: China’s Foreign Minister Falls Off Radar for Weeks, And Beijing Isn’t Talking
Bloomberg: Lockheed Risks $400 Million Payment Delay Until It Shows New F-35 Software Works
The War Zone: Air Force C-32 Jets Are Going Incognito Under New Security Policy
Military.com: Court-Martial Convictions Would Need Unanimous Jury Verdicts Under Measure Added to Defense Bill
Breaking Defense: US Risks ‘Weakness and Dependence’ As It Falls Behind China in Tech Race: Report
Air & Space Forces Magazine: A Cyber Force? Senate Proposes Study With Lessons Learned from Space Force
Breaking Defense: Space Force Should Offer European Allies Protection from Anti-Satellite Attacks: Saltzman
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Future of the F-15E and More In the Balance as Senate Starts NDAA Debate
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Data-Rights Fight May Delay Training on Air Force’s New F-35 Simulator
Washington Post: An Arctic ‘Great Game’ as NATO Allies and Russia Face Off in Far North
19fortyfive.com: How We Discovered the Russian Navy Is Useless
19fortyfive.com: Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate: Putin’s Stealth Fighter Failure
The Hill: Opinion: What we will fail to learn from the Ukrainian War
Calendar
TUESDAY | JULY 18
8 a.m. 7920 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, Virginia — Potomac Officers Club 2023 Air Force Summit with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall; and Andrew Hunter, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, delivering morning keynote remarks https://potomacofficersclub.com/events/poc-2023-air-force-summit
9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Maryland — National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program 30th Anniversary Conference with Romanian Chief of Defense Gen. Daniel Petrescu; Navy Vice Adm. Stephen “Web” Koehler, director for strategy, plans and policy at the Joint Staff; Madeline Mortelmans, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities; Army Maj. Gen. William Zana, director for strategy, plans, and policy, and international affairs at the National Guard Bureau; Wisconsin Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp; Ethan Rosenzweig, deputy assistant secretary of state for academic programs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; Deputy Undersecretary for International Trade Diane Farrell; and North Carolina Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Todd Hunt; Navy Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, director of plans and policy at the U.S. Cyber Command; JeeYoung Oh, director for threat management and operational coordination at the State Department; Army Maj. Gen. W. Joe Hartman, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force; Illinois Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Richard Neely; Sharon Burke, former assistant defense secretary for operational energy plans and programs; Iris Ferguson, deputy assistant defense secretary for Arctic and global resilience; Kenyan Air Force Maj. Gen. Bernard Waliaula, director of Kenyan Defence National Security Industries; Virginia Adjutant General Brig. Gen. Jim Ring; and Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau. Livestream at https://vimeo.com/event/3563169
9 a.m. 5000 Seminary Rd,, Alexandria, Virginia -— National Defense Industrial Association JADC2 All Domain Warfare Symposium, with Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI); Rep. Robert Wittman (R-VA); Pentagon Comptroller Kathleen Miller; former Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist; Royal Air Force Air Vice Marshall David Arthurton director of military digitisation, for Defense Digital at the U.K. Defence Ministry; and retired Navy Vice Adm. Dave Johnson, vice president of L3Harris Technologies. RSVP: [email protected]
10 a.m. HVC-210, U.S. Capitol — House Foreign Affairs Indo-Pacific Subcommittee hearing: “Achieving Peace through Strength in the Indo-Pacific: Examining the FY24 Budget Priorities,” with Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and Michael Ronning, acting deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Asia Bureau https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing
11 a.m. — Carnegie Endowment for International Peace virtual discussion: “The Biden Administration and the Middle East,” with Brett McGurk, White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/07/18/carnegie-connects
11 a.m. — SETA Foundation at Washington D.C. virtual discussion: “July 15 Coup Attempt’s Impact on Turkish Foreign Policy,” with Michael Reynolds, associate professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University; Rich Outzen, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Turkey; Kilic Kanat, SETA research director; and Kadir Ustun, SETA executive director https://setadc.org/events/july-15-coup-attempts-impact
12 p.m. — Association of the U.S. Army “p.m. Report” virtual discussion: “The state of the Army,” with chief of staff Gen. James McConville; and Retired Gen. Robert Brown, AUSA president and CEO https://www.bigmarker.com/ausaorg/AUSA-p.m.-Report
12 p.m. 1957 E St. NW — George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs discussion: “Building Taiwan’s Soft Power: Media, Democracy, and Global Image,” with Shu-ling Ko, visiting fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy; Ryan Hass, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; Tiffany Ma, senior director at BowerGroupAsia; and Deepa Ollapally, associate director of GWU’s Sigur Center for Asian Studies https://calendar.gwu.edu/event/taiwan_roundtable
1 p.m. 2154 Rayburn — House Oversight and Accountability Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee hearing: “Getting Nowhere: DoD’s Failure to Replace the Defense Travel System,” with testimony from Jeff Register, director of the Special Operations Division, Defense Human Resources Activity in the Office of the Defense Undersecretary for Personnel & Readiness; and Elizabeth Field, director of defense capabilities and management at the Government Accountability Office https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/getting-nowhere-dods-failure-to-replace-the-defense-travel-system/
1 p.m. G-50 Dirksen — Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe hearing: “Russia’s Alpine Assets: Money Laundering and Sanctions Evasion in Switzerland,” with Bill Browder, head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign; Drew Sullivan, co-founder of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project; and Olena Tregub, secretary general of the Independent Defense Anti-Corruption Committee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxX98XQmGvQ
2 p.m. HVC-210 — House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe hearing: “Stability and Security in the Western Balkans: Assessing U.S. Policy,” with testimony from Gabriel Escobar, deputy assistant secretary, State Department Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/stability-and-security-in-the-western-balkans
2 p.m. — Foundation for Defense of Democracies virtual and in-person discussion: “Iran’s Terror Proxies on Israel’s Borders,” with retired Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, former international spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces; Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research, FDD; Joe Truzman, research analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal; and moderated by Enia Krivine, senior director, FDD Israel Program https://www.fdd.org/events/2023/07/18/irans-terror-proxies-on-israels-borders
3 p.m. — Center for a New American Security virtual book discussion: By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy, with author Michael Vickers, former defense undersecretary for intelligence; and former Defense Undersecretary for Policy Michele Flournoy, chairwoman of the CNAS board of directors https://www.cnas.org/events/virtual-book-launch
7 p.m. Aspen, Colorado — Aspen Security Forum Fireside Chat with Adm. John Aquilino, commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; and Courtney Kube, NBC Pentagon correspondent https://aspeninstitute.wufoo.com/forms
WEDNESDAY | JULY 19
8:55 a.m. 400 Courthouse Sq., Alexandria, Virginia — Institute for Defense and Government Advancement Veterans Affairs Healthcare Summit with Angela Billups, executive director of the Veterans Affairs Office of Acquisition and Logistics https://www.idga.org/events-veteransaffairshealthcare
9 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW — Atlantic Council discussion: “How can the U.S. counter normalization with Assad in the Middle East,” with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC); and Mohammad Alaa Ghanem, policy chief of the Syrian American Council https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event
9 a.m. London, U.K. — International Institute for Strategic Studies virtual discussion: “Russia and the Arctic maritime challenge,” with Michael Petersen, founding director of the U.S. Naval War College’s Russia Maritime Studies Institute; and Rebecca Pincus, director of the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute https://www.iiss.org/events/2023/07/russia-and-the-arctic
9 a.m. — German Marshall Fund of the U.S. virtual discussion: “The Impact of the War in Ukraine on the Political Situation in Belarus: Three Short-Term Scenarios,” with Wojciech Przybylski, editor-in-chief of the Visegrad Insight and president of the Res Publica Foundation; Maryna Rakhlei, senior program officer at the Fund for Belarus Democracy; Artyom Shraibman, founder of Sense Analytics; Katsiaryna Lozka, GMFUS fellow; and Nicolas Bouchet, GMFUS visiting fellow https://www.gmfus.org/event/impact-war-ukraine
9 a.m. 2118 Rayburn — House Armed Services Cyber, Information Technology, and Innovation Subcommittee hearing: “Man and Machine: Artificial Intelligence on the Battlefield,” with testimony from Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI; Klon Kitchen, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Haniyeh Mahmoudian, global AI ethicist for DataRobot https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings/citi-hearing
9 a.m. 5000 Seminary Rd., Alexandria, Virginia — National Defense Industrial Association 2023 JADC2 All Domain Warfare Symposium, with Young Bang, principal deputy assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology. RSVP: [email protected]
9:30 a.m. 2301 Constitution Ave. NW — U.S. Institute of Peace discussion: “Russia in Africa: The Wagner Group, Russia-Africa Summit and Beyond,” with Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies; Amaka Anku, director of the Eurasia Group’s Africa Practice; and Catrina Doxsee, associate director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’s Transnational Threats Project https://www.usip.org/events/russia-africa-wagner-group
11 a.m. House Chamber, U.S. Capitol — U.S. Congress hosts an address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog
11 a.m. Aspen, Colorado — Aspen Security Forum Fireside Chat with Gen. James Dickinson, commander, U.S. Space Command; and David Ignatius, columnist, Washington Post https://aspeninstitute.wufoo.com/forms
1 p.m. 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW — Cato Institute forum: “Thawing a Frozen Conflict: The Korean War Armistice at 70 Years,” with Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) https://www.cato.org/events/thawing-frozen-conflict
2 p.m. 2118 Rayburn — House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee hearing: “Admissions, Curriculum, and Diversity of Thought at the Military Service Academies,” with testimony from Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point; Vice Adm. Sean Buck, superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy; and Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings
2 p.m. 310 Cannon — House Homeland Security Committee hearing: “Biden and Mayorkas’ Open Border: Advancing Cartel Crime in America.” https://homeland.house.gov/media-advisory
THURSDAY | JULY 20
10 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “The Department of Justice’s Implementation of the Biden Administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy,” with Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite https://www.csis.org/events/department-justices
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE — Heritage Foundation discussion: “Renewing America’s Compacts in the Pacific,” with Joseph Yun, State Department special presidential envoy for compact negotiations https://www.heritage.org/asia/event/renewing-americas-compacts
FRIDAY | JULY 21
9 a.m. 201 Waterfront St., National Harbor, Maryland — Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance Intelligence and National Security Summit, with Julian Gewirtz, deputy coordinator for China global affairs at the State Department; Rear Adm. Thomas Henderschedt, intelligence director, J2, at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; Lt. Gen. Robert “Bob” Ashley Jr., CEO of Ashley Global Leadership and Security and former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, G2, at the Army; Aastha Verma, chief of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Division; Rachel Grunspan, AI lead for the intelligence community in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Lakshmi Raman, CIA director of artificial intelligence innovation; and Jason Wang, technical director of the National Security Agency’s Computer and Analytic Sciences Research Group; and Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser https://www.insaonline.org/detail-pages/event
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave NW — Center for Strategic and International Studies in-person and virtual event: “Acquisition for Decision Advantage: The Role of the CDAO in Scaling Software Solutions,” with Margie Palmieri, deputy chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, Department of Defense; and Cynthia Cook, director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, and senior fellow, International Security Program https://www.csis.org/events/acquisition-decision-advantage
QUOTE OF THE DAY “Our advances are really not going as fast as we would like … We’d like to get very fast results, but in reality it’s practically impossible.” Ukrainian Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, head of military operations in eastern Ukraine, telling the BBC that Russian minefields are slowing the summer counteroffensive.