Battle | Ukrainian pilots are reportedly training on F-16 fighter jets in Romania

Day 483 from the start of the war: An explosion at a Russian gun factory kills many. Casualties are increasing after the dam burst. All information on news blog.

2:34 am: The US Department of Defense has placed a bulk order for radar-guided air-to-air missiles, which are also to be delivered to Ukraine. Almost one billion Euros has been made available for this purpose. They are also fired from fighter jets, and the Bundeswehr has equipped them with phantom fighters. However, the order for AIM-120 models should not have any impact on the current situation on the front line of the war in Ukraine. Manufacturer Raytheon has until 2027 to complete the order.

12:01 am: Two weeks after Ukraine’s offensive began, President Volodymyr Zelensky promised progress on the front lines. “We are making progress in the south,” he said in his daily video address on Wednesday. He acknowledged the fierce fighting, but everywhere — including in the east, where Ukrainian troops are on the defensive — the enemy is being destroyed, he said. A short time ago, the Ukrainian head of state played down public expectations of a Ukrainian offensive. Russian and Ukrainian data on the course of the front cannot be independently verified.

11:01 PM: Training of Ukrainian pilots on American F-16 fighter jets is to take place in Romania. According to the American newspaper Politico, the agreement is currently being prepared. It also refers to information from NATO sources. But there are other options. Training should be provided directly by the Lockheed-Martin manufacturer. Its CEO had previously expressed interest in helping with the exercise. A training location from the EU has not been confirmed to Politico.

However, the paper says it has learned from Dutch sources that Eastern European countries are being considered. So far, the West has said it will train pilots on the jets Kiev urgently wants, but no decision has been made on delivery.

10:03 PM: Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR has confirmed reports of a Russian missile attack on its headquarters. The attacks took place at the end of May, but “did not reach the intended or declared target,” Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the authority, told Ukrainian television on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and others have said about this rocket attack.

The Russian leadership has repeatedly threatened to strike Ukraine’s “decision centers.” The first reports of an attack on the HUR headquarters appeared on May 29. At the time, eyewitnesses reported explosions on Kyiv’s Rybalsky Island (actually a peninsula) in the Dnipro. There was no official statement from Kiev at the time. Jasso declined to comment on the aftermath of the attack. He said he would do it only after the war.

Some Russian media reported that the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, Kyrillo Budano, was also wounded in the shelling. After weeks of silence, Budanov reappeared on Ukrainian television for the first time on Tuesday. No external injury was observed.

8:15 PM: According to a presidential adviser at a NATO summit in July, Ukraine should receive an invitation to join the military alliance in the near future without a specific date. “That could be a signal,” Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a webinar for the Atlantic Council think tank. If the alliance does not make a “strong” decision in this direction at the meeting of heads of state and government in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11 and 12, it could demoralize Ukrainians.

Ukraine has shown on the battlefield that it is ready to join. Zelenskyy campaigned for annexation, but acknowledged that it was impossible during the war. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently announced that there would be no formal invitation to join the summit. But they wanted to talk about how to bring Ukraine closer to NATO.