Ukraine Update. Day 7. Part I.
Fighting on the outskirts of Mariupol.
No change to report overnight.
Fighting on the outskirts of Kharkiv.
Unconfirmed rumours of Russian reinforcements have been reported. Unknown if airborne landing or arrived by land. The city was violently shelled throughout the night.
Kherson under control, the Russians have crossed the Dnieper in several places and are racing toward Mykolaiv. They may have taken Baahtanka in the process and are fighting around Snihuvirka. Russian operations ongoing to mop up Ukrainian resistance South of Kherson along the litoral.
Reports of two Russian convoy attacked from the air. One in the North near Sumy and one in the South near Mykolaiv. Both unconfirmed.
Summary.
Russian VKS is now more active in the strike role but still lacking in SEAD, Air Interdiction and CAP. Therefore, Ukrainian pilots are still free to generate sorties and inflict casualties on the Russians.
The Russians seem to have reverted to the old tried and tested "reconnaissance by artillery" methods.
A couple of days ago, the EU promised deliveries of up to 70 MiG-29 and Su-25 to Ukraine. This was a beautiful show of solidarity that went viral.
Unfortunately, it seems Brussels forgot to liaise with its member states prior to issue this statement. Since then, the three countries concerned (Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria) have all issued statements of their own confirming that they will not give/sell any of their planes to Kiev.
The Ukrainian Air Force will have to make do with what it has got at the moment, although they are receiving ammunition for those from NATO.
Finally, Brussels has agreed to give Ukraine official EU candidate status. A diplomatic victory for Kiev.
Now Ukraine has a decade of jumping through official hoops ahead of itself to complete the journey. Many administrative checks to reach and many reforms ticks to tick. The process is not straightforward, some of the reforms needed will be painful. Others will be resisted by the country's oligarchs. Some reforms won't be able to be implemented while Kiev is at war.
Defensionem