Ukraine marks 1,000 days of war with Russia as US backs missile use

Tankers from the 33rd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces take part in a field training with a Leopard 2A4 tank at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on October 27, 2024, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. (Photo/AFP)

Ukraine is marking 1,000 days since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, with weary troops battling on numerous fronts, Kiev besieged by frequent drone and missile strikes, and officials preparing for Donald Trump to reclaim the White House in January.

In a boost for the beleaguered country, US President Joe Biden gave the green light for US missiles to be used against targets deeper inside Russia, potentially limiting its options to launch attacks and supply the front.

Biden's decision could be a "game changer" for Kiev, the country's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on Monday.

"It could be a game changer. The longer Ukraine can strike, the shorter the war will be," Sybiha told reporters ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to mark 1,000 days of war.

He argued that Kiev has the "full right to strike military targets on the territory of Russia." "It could have very positive impact on the situation on the battlefield," Sybiha added.

But the dramatic shift in US policy may be reversed when Trump returns to the White House in January, and military experts cautioned that it would not be enough on its own to change the course of the 33-month-old war.

Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have lost their lives, over 6 million live as refugees abroad, and the population has fallen by a quarter since the conflict began, marking Europe’s largest war since World War II.

Military losses have been catastrophic, although they remain closely guarded secrets. Public Western estimates based on intelligence reports vary widely, but most say hundreds of thousands have been killed or wounded on each side.

Tragedy has touched families in every corner of Ukraine, where military funerals are commonplace in major cities and far-flung villages, and people are exhausted by sleepless nights of air raid sirens and anguish.

Trump's arrival

Now the return of Trump, who has vowed to end the fighting quickly — without saying how — calls into question the future of US military aid and the united Western front against Russia, and raises the prospect of talks to end the war.

With Ukraine entering uncharted territory, a sense of escalation has been palpable as Moscow and Kiev push to improve their battlefield positions ahead of any negotiations.

Already boosted by Iranian attack drones and North Korean artillery shells and ballistic missiles, Russia has now deployed 11,000 North Korean troops, some of whom, according to Kiev, have clashed with Ukrainian forces who have seized a part of Russia's Kursk region.

One senior Kiev official said Pyongyang had the capacity to send 100,000 soldiers.

Ukraine meanwhile has some of its best troops trying to hold that small piece of Russian territory, captured in August as a bargaining chip.

Kiev says Russia has massed 50,000 troops there, while the Kremlin's forces have also been making their quickest gains in the east of Ukraine since 2022 — and stepping up pressure in the northeast and southeast too.

With winter setting in, Moscow on Sunday renewed its aerial assault on Ukraine's struggling power system, firing 120 missiles and 90 drones in the biggest aerial barrage since August.

Russian objectives

In addition to the US authorisation to strike military targets inside Russia with American-supplied weapons, external financial and arms aid also remain vital.

Despite two consecutive years of moderate growth, the Ukrainian economy is still only 78 percent of the size it was before the war, which saw GDP contract by a third in 2022. Ukraine's once-giant steel and grain industries have been hammered.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission has verified the deaths of 11,743 Ukrainian civilians, though some Kiev officials believe the number is much higher.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that Ukraine must do its best to end the war next year through diplomatic means. But he has emphatically shut down any talk of a ceasefire before proper security guarantees are provided to Ukraine.

The Kremlin has said its objectives remain unchanged since Putin said in June that Ukraine must drop its ambitions to join NATO, and must retreat from four Ukrainian regions that Russian forces partially control, all tantamount to capitulation for Kiev.

After German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Putin on Friday for the first time in nearly two years, Zelenskyy said the move reduced the Russian leader's isolation. He also spoke out against the idea of renewed Minsk-style talks.

"We want to warn everyone: there will be no 'Minsk 3'; what we need is real peace," he said.

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Source: TRT