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August 9, 2023 at 10:17 a.m. EDT

Music has always been an important part of Maria Kvitkas life. Before the war, she worked as a costume designer in Ukraines film industry, traveling frequently across the country to gather inspiration for her designs. Along the way, she collected traditional songs and sounds from Ukraines disparate regions.

After Russias full-scale invasion of the country last year, Kvitka, in shock and out of a job, sought refuge in the folk songs she had compiled.

It was like therapy for me, said Kvitka, 30. Listening to them, you got the sense that Ukrainians were doing exactly the same thing for hundreds of years they were always under attack from Russia. And you realize that if they can survive it, we can too.

Last year, Kvitka won Ukraines version of The Voice talent competition, which, for safety reasons, was held in an underground metro station. She released her first album, Give the Heart Freedom, in May. Her songs are a haunting mix of lullabies, Ukrainian poetry, white voice a Slavic singing style and her own compositions.

With the war, everything suddenly was under assault. Now people want to save their roots and traditions. Before, no one cared about this, she said.

Kvitka is one of scores of new Ukrainian artists who have risen to prominence since the invasion. Together, they are on a mission to revive Ukraines folk traditions, fire up troops on the front lines and uplift a war-weary nation. They hope also to reclaim the nations showbiz scene, long dominated by Russian-language music and artists.

Russian music is now banned on local radio stations. Ukrainian artists who previously toured and were popular in Russia publicly cut ties with the invader nation. Bands and singers who had performed in Russian began translating and rereleasing their music in Ukrainian.

During the Soviet Union, Ukrainian music was depreciated. They made it seem uncool and ugly, Kvitka said. I want to see its rebirth.

Anna Sviridova, the program director at Ukraines Avto Radio, said that a divorce from Russias showbiz industry is well underway. Ukrainian showbiz is starting to breathe freely and live its own life, she said.

This cultural renaissance is happening even as Ukraines music business has come to a standstill. The industry has stopped; theres not even a word you can use to describe us right now, said Yevhen Filatov, 40, a Ukrainian music producer.

Many artists canceled their tours and concerts to focus on the war effort. Musicians have given free concerts on the front lines, in metro stations and in underground bunkers, raising the morale of exhausted soldiers and citizens. Others donated their album profits to the army.

Ukrainian artists have now united as one front to help the country, said Tymofii Muzychuk, a member of the Kalush Orchestra, the Ukrainian band that electrified the nation by winning the Eurovision Song Contest last year. Everyone is trying to do something useful.

Sviridova describes it as a time of opportunity for new artists. There has been an intense surge in the popularity of Ukrainian musicians, she said, especially those who consolidated their creative achievements alongside their moral and patriotic ones.

We have since realized the status of artist no longer matters. What matters is the song, the content and the mood it creates, she said. They have brought to the fore a lot of interesting music that was very inspiring for wartime Ukrainian society.

Ukraines airwaves are filled with stirring songs dedicated to the siege of Mariupol and the battle for Bakhmut, the heroics of Ukrainian brigades and the havoc wreaked on Russias forces by newly acquired Western weaponry. Many of these tracks have spawned and been inspired by viral internet sensations, what Sviridova calls musical memes.

The Ukrainian songwriter Taras Borovok, 50, is at the heart of this propaganda machine. A lieutenant colonel, he headed not to the front lines when the war broke out but to a studio on the outskirts of Kyiv. He holed up there for three months sleeping on a leather couch with a Kalashnikov and military fatigues next to him.

He and his team of producers churned out music videos encouraging Ukrainian men to join the army, songs commemorating fallen soldiers and tracks that have been played on loudspeakers across the front lines urging Russian soldiers to surrender.

We are engaged in military propaganda, Borovok said. We monitor society, what are the hot topics, what is getting the maximum viewership.

If societys mood has slipped a bit and if people are getting depressed, then I write something fun and encouraging, he continued. If we see that people are starting to forget the situation are always going to bars and nightclubs we write something to make everyone remember we are at war.

On the fourth day of the war, Borovok received a phone call from his superior Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. A huge column of Russian tanks was approaching Kyiv and people feared the capital would soon be encircled.

Instead, Ukraine used Turkish Bayraktar drones to bomb the head and tail of the column, while Ukrainian artillery battered the rest of the convoy.

What can we do [that is] interesting about Bayraktar? How can we glorify it? Borovok recalls Cherevaty asking. Twenty minutes later, Borovok had written Bayraktar, layering a catchy refrain over an infectious beat, accompanied by drums and an electric piano. The song went viral, being played millions of times online in a matter of days.

No one could have thought that a simple song would pull the whole society out of depression and give it a healing slap in the face. People were like, Its okay. Now were winning, Borovok said.

Eighteen months into the war, Sviridova says the publics demand for military content has waned, although she insists it is still relevant.

We all understand that society is getting tired, but we still shouldnt forget that there is a war in our country, she said. Therefore, such content has the right to exist.

Increasingly, however, Ukrainian artists are trying to draw their compatriots away from the relentless grind of the conflict, singing songs about love and joy, but also wrestling with more more-complex feelings about the war.

One band with such a focus is the electro-folk group Onuka, created by the musician Nata Zhyzhchenko, and Filatov, the producer, who also are a couple. When The Washington Post interviewed the duo last month, Zhyzhchenko, 38, was one day away from giving birth to their second child and two weeks away from the release of their new album, ROOM.

Each song on the album is dedicated to a different kind of internal struggle, and the tracks touch on experiences including women fleeing Ukraine with their children and people enduring the upending of their lives inside the country. Room refers to the space that we lost our ordinary surroundings, as well as our homes, said Zhyzhchenko.

Zhyzhchenko, whose song VICTORY has become one of the most popular anthems of the war, says she thinks artists have a responsibility not just to write patriotic songs, but also to turn out songs from the heart.

I think that people now need not only songs about grief and victory, they also need an outlet to share their feelings about, for example, their solitude between indifferent foreigners, or about losing your destiny, your business or your home, Zhyzhchenko said.

Kvitka does not write directly about the war, but she still draws inspiration from it. Kokhala, her most well-known song which she wrote about someone she lost has resonated widely, with people often writing to her saying it has helped them work through their own pain.

Music helps you to fight, but it also helps you cry, she said. A lot of Ukrainians do not cry; they dont have the time, or they are trying to be strong all the time. Music opens you up.

Understanding the Russia-Ukraine conflict

More:
Ukraine war songs: The musicians merging art and propaganda in the fight against Russia - The Washington Post

His thatched-roof shack on the bank of the Danube River just 200 yards from Ukraine has no running water, and getting to it involves waiting for a ferry and a bumpy ride on dirt roads.

Last week, however, the farmyard home of Gheorge Puflea, 71, became a piece of attention-grabbing real estate thanks to its unwanted status as the first property in NATO territory damaged in a Russian attack aimed at Ukraine.

The drone missile assault, carried out before dawn last Wednesday, hit a Ukrainian cargo port across the river, but it was so close that shock waves from the explosions shattered windows in Plauru, a tiny hamlet with just a dozen tumbledown homes on the Romanian side of the Danube.

The sound of the blasts and breaking glass woke Mr. Puflea from his sleep and sent him rushing outside in a panic to see what was going on.

At first I thought it was a thunderstorm, he said, recalling how he had taken shelter under a pear tree in his yard and then watched in horror as what looked like a war movie played out right on my doorstep.

The night sky crackled with Ukrainian antiaircraft fire and huge fireballs rose from three Ukrainian port buildings blasted by Russian drones. A week earlier Russia had attacked Reni, another Ukrainian port across the Danube from Romania.

The Russian attacks were aimed at severing what has been a shipping lifeline provided to Ukraine by river ports, ever since the collapse last month of a deal that had allowed Ukraine to export its grain through the Black Sea despite a naval blockade by Russia. With Ukraines seaports too dangerous for grain-carrying vessels bound for the Middle East and Africa, its ports on the Danube have become the last shipping outlet for millions of tons of grain.

Its main Danube ports Izmail and Reni have also become a potentially perilous tripwire, as they lie so close to Romania, a member of NATO, and therefore to territory covered by the alliances commitment to collective security. A Russian drone or missile flying a few yards off course would risk dragging the United States and its allies into a direct military confrontation with Moscow.

The last time fears spiked that NATO was under Russian attack was in November when a missile that Ukraine insisted was Russian landed in a Polish village a few miles from the Ukrainian border and killed two Poles. But it turned out to be a Ukrainian air defense missile, so fears of a wider war quickly dissipated.

The Romanian episodes, however, still have nerves on edge. On Saturday, three days after the drone attack on Izmail, air raid sirens again wailed on the Ukrainian side of the river. No attack came, but the din of the sirens, clearly audible across the Danube in Plauru, convinced some Romanian villagers they were living in a war zone.

Daniela Tanase, 44, who lives with her son and husband at the end of the village, said the sirens had woken her family at 6 a.m. The village is indisputably part of Romania, she said, but the drone attack left her feeling as if we are over there in Ukraine.

The residents do not think Russia has any designs on their isolated patch of Romania, not least because the village has so little for Russia to covet. It is like the Middle Ages here no clean water, no shops and no roads, said Marin Stoian, a retiree who moved to Plauru for the summer to be with his partner, a 71-year-old local. There is nothing here for Russia or for NATO, he said.

Whatever either sides intentions, however, the risk of miscalculation is terrifying.

Preparing for possible trouble on the Danube has long been part of annual NATO military exercises in Romania. Their most recent iteration in June featured U.S. and Romanian troops crossing a section of the river to test what the alliance described as their ability to move rapidly through difficult terrain during military operations.

We are part of NATO and should not be in any danger from Russia, but there could easily be an accident at any moment. Our bank of the river is just a few meters from Ukraine, said Teodosie Gabriel Marinov, governor of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority, a government agency responsible for the Romanian portion of a vast wetland area straddling the border between Romania and Ukraine.

We can all now see that anything could happen, Mr. Marinov said last week in an interview in his office in Tulcea, the regional capital. His window offered a jolting view of pleasure boats packed with tourists heading into the delta, huge cargo ships heading upstream to pick up Ukrainian grain and, in the distance, thick plumes of black smoke rising from port facilities in Izmail set alight by Russian drones.

Unfortunately priorities at the moment are not related to environmental protection, said Mr. Marinov, the biosphere governor, adding that he had not met with his Ukrainian counterpart for months because Ukraines part of the delta is no longer managed by officials concerned about protecting birds and fish, but by the military.

For a few tense hours last Wednesday it seemed as if Russia had crossed a previously inviolable red line between Ukrainian and NATO territory. Ms. Tanases son Marius, a fisherman, told the mayor of a cluster of Danube delta villages that he had seen at least one Russian drone fly directly over the family house before veering out of Romanian airspace to strike Izmail. One drone, another villager reported, had landed in a forest in Romania.

The mayor, Tudor Cernega, passed on the fishermans story to a Romanian television station, which promptly reported that Russian drones had entered Romania. By afternoon, media pundits and experts were anxiously discussing whether Romania and therefore NATO were under attack.

Mr. Cernega said the state of alarm was so intense that the local Orthodox priest fled with his family by ferry to the nearest town.

It is amusing now but at the time it was terrifying, he said. We all had the impression we had been abandoned.

The Romanian air force rushed a team of experts to Plauru to investigate. The defense ministry, in a statement, reported that it found no sign of any Russian drone landing in the forest or any violations of Romanian airspace.

That and the knowledge that NATO has a big air base just 50 miles away near the Black Sea port of Constanta has mostly calmed worries in Plauru and other villages that Russia might risk a deliberate strike.

Petrut Pascu, 36, a truck driver who spends much of his time away from home working in Ireland and Britain, said he and his wife recently bought a house in a village near Plauru and, since the attack on Izmail port, had talked about selling it. His wife, he said, wants to move away, but he sees no real risk. I think we are safe, he said. But we never expected to be so close to this war in Ukraine.

The fisherman, Mr. Tanase, is sticking to his story, insisting that he heard a drone buzzing directly over his familys home in Plauru. His mother, Daniela, also questions the official version of events. She said the deafening noise of drones panicked the family cow, which broke its rope tether and ran away, along with her pet cat.

The Defense Ministry said the drones were not on our territory but I dont believe them, she said. Ukraine, she added, is just 200 meters away.

In some places along the Danube, the distance is even less but is difficult to calculate because the border has shifted as the river has changed its course.

On his office computer, Mr. Cernega, the district head, downloaded an official map that identified forest and farmland he always considered part of his district as lying inside Ukraine.

I need to know where the border really is, he said. The defense ministry should tell me. Otherwise, 2 + 2 is not 4 but 6. It is very dangerous if we dont know which country we are in.

Delia Marinescu contributed reporting.

Continued here:
After Russian Attack in Ukraine, Broken Glass and Rattled Nerves in Romania - The New York Times

Russian warships patrol the surface of the Black Sea, launching missiles at Ukrainian towns while creating a de facto blockade, threatening any vessel that might try to breach it.

Skimming the waters surface, Ukrainian sea drones carry explosives stealthily toward Russian ports and vessels, a growing threat in Kyivs arsenal. In the airspace above, NATO and allied surveillance planes and drones fly over international waters, gathering intelligence used to blunt Moscows invasion, even as Russia fills the skies with its own aircraft.

Bordered by Ukraine, Russia and three NATO countries, but sometimes overlooked in the war, the Black Sea has become an increasingly dangerous cauldron of military and geopolitical tensions, following Moscows decision last month to end a deal ensuring the safe passage of Ukrainian grain.

Removed from the fierce fighting on the front, the Black Sea nevertheless puts Russia and NATO countries in the kind of proximity that does not exist in other theaters of the war, like the defense of Kyiv or the battle for Bakhmut increasing the risk of confrontation.

The Black Sea is now a zone of conflict a war zone as relevant to NATO as western Ukraine, said Ivo Daalder, a former American ambassador to NATO who runs the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

After withdrawing from the grain deal, Russia pulverized Ukrainian Black Sea ports to stymie grain shipments key to Ukraines economy, and even struck sites on the Danube River a few hundred yards from Romania, a NATO member; the attack escalated fears that the military alliance would get drawn into the conflict.

Ukraine retaliated last week with two strikes on Russian ships on consecutive days demonstrating its new reach with sea drones that can hit Russian ports hundreds of miles from its coast. And it issued a warning that six Russian Black Sea ports and the approaches to them would be considered areas of war risk until further notice.

We must defend our own coast starting from the coast of the enemy, the commander of the Ukrainian navy, Rear Adm. Oleksiy Neizhpapa, said in May as he made the case for a more robust response to what he called Russias tyranny on the international waters of the Black Sea.

The battle for control of the sea could have implications for global energy markets and world food supplies. And it will also almost certainly raise new challenges for NATO as it seeks to uphold a central tenet of international law free navigation of the sea without drawing the alliance directly into conflict with Russian forces.

In Washington, Biden administration officials had expressed reservations early in the war about Ukraine striking targets or conducting sabotage inside Russia, including its Black Sea ports, fearing that such attacks would only escalate tensions with President Vladimir V. Putin. Those concerns have lessened, though not disappeared.

The United States has prohibited the use of American weapons in any attack against Russian territory, and American officials say they do not pick targets for Ukraine. But the United States and Western allies have long provided intelligence to Ukraine that, along with its own extensive intelligence-gathering networks, Kyiv uses to select targets.

For centuries, the Black Sea has been at the center of Russias efforts to extend its geopolitical and economic influence, leading to clashes with other world powers, including multiple wars with the Ottoman Empire.

The ports along the warm waters facilitated trade year round. The location a geopolitical crossroads has offered Russia a place to project political power into Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

For years, Mr. Putin has sought to increase Moscows influence around the Black Sea, pouring government money into developing seaside ports and vacation cities and building up Russian military power at naval installations in the area for Moscows southern fleet.

The sea is equally important to NATO, which Mr. Putin insists is trying to destroy Russia. Three member nations Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria border the Black Sea itself, with four important ports. Five NATO partner countries are also in the region Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Control over the Black Sea is an obvious war aim for Russia and one of the reasons in 2014 it annexed Crimea, a large peninsula on the northern coast of the sea, when a pro-Russian president of Ukraine was ousted in a rebellion.

Only hours after launching its full-scale invasion last year, Russian forces fired a missile that hit the commercial ship Yasa Jupiter, which flew the flag of the Marshall Islands; at least two other civilian ships were struck during attacks on Ukrainian ports up and down the coast.

Since then, Moscow has occupied three major Ukrainian ports. It has heavily mined the waters, neutralized the Ukrainian Navy and imposed a de facto blockade of civilian shipping to and from all Ukrainian-held ports.

Despite NATOs expressed desire to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, the risks of an inadvertent incident spiraling out of control have been growing for some time.

NATO and its member states are flying air surveillance and air policing missions over NATO territory, territorial waters and international waters over the Black Sea, but are careful not to stray into the war zone.

In March, in the only known physical contact between the Russian and American militaries during this war, a Russian warplane struck a U.S. surveillance drone, causing its operators to bring it down in international waters.

But recently NATO has increased the number of such surveillance flights and air policing, the alliance announced after the second NATO-Ukraine Council meeting on July 26.

Ukraine and some shipping industry leaders have called for Western allies to provide naval escorts to ships willing to defy Russian threats and carry grain from ports in Ukraine, but there are numerous problems with that.

For one, Turkey has been firm in trying to keep its NATO allies from escalating tensions with Russia in the Black Sea. Turkey has also been trying to convince Mr. Putin to return to the grain deal it helped broker, even if hopes are dimming, said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and director of EDAM, a Turkish research institution.

Turkey has been very adverse to any NATO mission in the Black Sea, feeling that a higher NATO presence there would increase the risk of conflict with Russia, Mr. Ulgen said.

Since the Russian invasion, Turkey, which controls passage in and out of the Black Sea through the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits under a 1936 convention, has banned Russian and Ukrainian warships from using the Straits, an act praised by Ukraine and NATO.

But Turkey has also asked allies not to send in their own warships.

So the underlying tension here is about how the U.S. and Turkey look at the Black Sea and how they frame it within the security umbrella of NATO, Mr. Ulgen said. But so far, since Turkey closed the straits to Russian warships, the U.S. has not tried to corner Turkey.

For months, Ukraine could do relatively little to combat Russias control of the water, but it never stopped working to develop a threat to challenge Russias vastly more powerful naval forces.

Ukraine used maritime drones to attack the Russian naval fleet in October. At the time, it was unclear if it would become a consistent, effective part of its arsenal. But then last week it struck with stealth and surprise at two Russian ships, hitting both.

Our vision is based on the need to substitute Soviet principles of mass and power with Western principles of quality and necessary capabilities, Admiral Neizhpapa, the Ukrainian naval commander, wrote for the U.S. Naval Institute.

P.W. Singer, a specialist on 21st century warfare at the New America think tank in Washington, said that Ukraine is benefiting from a much-improved new generation of its seaborne drone fleet.

In less than a year, Mr. Singer said on Sunday, the drone boats have evolved into larger, faster, stealthier sea craft that can carry more explosives.

The makers of the drone say it is designed for an array of missions, from surveillance to combat; can travel at about 48 miles per hour; and has a range of up to 450 nautical miles. At that range, a drone fired from Ukraines Black Sea port of Odesa could reach Novorossiysk, which Ukraine struck on Friday though it is not known how or from where the drone was launched.

Mr. Singer said Ukraines rapid progress in building drones was almost Silicon Valley-like.

While Russias invasion has spurred widespread outrage in the West, it has also escalated concerns about surging oil prices that could shock the global economy.

More than 3 percent of global oil and oil products move through the Black Sea. Historically, about 750,000 barrels of Russian crude oil, or 20 percent of its crude exports, leave from the Black Sea, though the country has reduced such shipments to between 400,000 and 575,000 barrels a day, according to tanker tracker companies, as Russia sought to support prices with its producing partner Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian officials have made it clear that they hope by expanding the war to Russias ports, they can inflict some economic pain on Moscow.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, said that as long as the Kremlin refuses to comply with international law, it can expect a sharp reduction in Russian commercial potential.

Nevertheless Russia has proved to be a resilient oil supplier.

After major oil traders and major international oil companies refused to sell Russian oil following its invasion of Ukraine, newly incorporated trading firms and shipping companies based in the United Arab Emirates, Greece and Hong Kong have taken up the slack.

David Goldwyn, a former State Department official with responsibility for energy issues, said oil prices could rise $10 to $15 a barrel if Russian exports from the Black Sea are displaced.

Oil is now trading at about $85 a barrel, holding steady even after Ukraine struck the Russian tanker over the weekend.

The question now, said Sarah Emerson, president of Energy Security Analysis, a consulting firm, is whether the Ukrainians can do this over and over again. This would tighten energy markets that are already tightening.

Marc Santora reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Steven Erlanger from Berlin. Reporting was contributed by Clifford Krauss, Lara Jakes, Eric Schmitt, Paul Sonne and Matthew Mpoke Bigg .

More here:
Turbulent Waters: How the Black Sea Became a Hot Spot in the War - The New York Times

Diplomats from countries including China attending talks in Saudi Arabia, in a handout photo from the Saudi Press Agency.Credit...Saudi Press Agency

Top officials from more than 40 countries, including some with strong links to Russia like China and India, gathered in Saudi Arabia this weekend to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

For Ukraine, the talks were part of a bid to win the support of dozens of countries that have remained on the sidelines of the war, further isolating Russia. The discussion did not have Russian participation and did not yield a formal declaration or statement.

And yet there was a glimmer of progress. China, which did not attend previous talks in June, was an active participant this time and signaled that it was willing to attend a third round of talks one that could be a precursor to a meeting of heads of state, according to a European Union official.

Nearly 18 months after Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have produced few concrete results. One of the few tangible agreements was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. But that deal, which allowed Ukraine to transport grain across the Black Sea, now lies in tatters, another sign that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is digging in for an extended conflict.

Part of the reason that peace talks have failed so far is that both Ukraine and Russia are focused on grinding out territorial gains on the battlefield. And as the war has stretched on, the fighting is spreading, with Ukraine openly taking credit for attacks deep behind Russian lines. Attack drones are becoming an increasingly frequent sight in Moscow.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has proposed a 10-point plan that would hold Russia accountable for war atrocities, and require it to surrender all captured Ukrainian territory and pay what could be hundreds of billions in reparations for war damage, demands the Kremlin flatly rejects.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russias foreign ministry, said in a statement on Monday that Russia would discuss the results of the talks with other BRICS nations an acronym encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that participated in the meeting. She described Mr. Zelenskys proposal as a senseless ultimatum to Russia, aimed at prolonging hostilities.

Even so, the gathering in Jeddah, a Saudi port on the Red Sea, focused on some elements of Mr. Zelenskys plan. The participants, the E.U. official said, agreed to start working groups to address issues including global food security, nuclear safety, environmental security, humanitarian aid, the release of prisoners of war and the return of children separated from their families.

Over the last two days, Mr. Zelenskys chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, held bilateral meetings with representatives of more than 30 countries. On the messaging app Telegram, he listed many nations: the United States, Britain, Germany, Turkey, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. He did not say whether he met with representatives from China or India.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Mr. Zelensky, said Monday that the only basic foundation for negotiations was the Ukrainian presidents proposal. There can be no compromise positions, he added in a post on social media.

Matina Stevis-Gridneff contributed reporting.

See original here:
Ukraine Detains Woman Accused of Trying to Track Zelensky's ... - The New York Times

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 3rd Independent Tank Iron Brigade looks out of a tank hatch at a position near the front line in Kharkiv region, on June 15, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. | Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images

With help from Paul McLeary

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If Ukraines supporters were hoping for a breakthrough after Kyivs forces made a new push in the southeast of the country last week, they were sorely disappointed.

The latest attack, which saw Ukraine throw in thousands of Western-trained reinforcements to drive south from the town of Orikhiv, has not yet yielded significant results, U.S. Defense Department officials told NatSec Daily this week, with one noting that the gains are being measured in the hundreds of meters.

Ukraine now has 150,000 troops committed to the operation across three axes of attack, including multiple Western-trained brigades, said one of the DOD officials, who like others interviewed for this newsletter was granted anonymity to discuss operational details. But Kyiv is still keeping a number of forces in reserve, as soldiers continue probing heavily mined Russian defenses for weak spots.

They are making mostly small, incremental gains on all three axes, the official said. They are still facing stiff Russian resistance second and third layers of defenses.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. PATRICK RYDER referred questions about the counteroffensive to the Ukrainian military, but noted that it has and will continue to be a tough fight for them.

Even when Ukrainian forces manage to clear a minefield and advance, Russia will use artillery and helicopters to drop more mines behind them, trying to trap units between minefields, according to a person who advises the Ukrainian government.

The American-made Vampire counter-drone systems, a laser-guided missile launcher that can be quickly installed in a truck bed, are finally arriving, which will give the front lines a small, mobile air defense capability that could potentially help protect those units, the person said.

The Biden administrations latest package of military aid for Ukraine clocked in at $400 million for additional air defenses, artillery and other ammunition, as well as armored vehicles and anti-armor weapons. DOD expects another tranche to be announced as soon as early next week.

Ukrainian forces are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the U.S. Armys M1 Abrams main battle tank, which is expected as soon as early September and will help punch through Russias defensive lines. But as the operation grinds on, DOD officials expect the counteroffensive will last at least through the fall and possibly into the winter.

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STATES WATCHFUL EYE: The State Departments internal watchdog is scrutinizing the circumstances surrounding the suspension of a top diplomats security clearance, our own BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN reports.

In the letter sent on July 21, the acting head of the State Departments Office of Inspector General, DIANA SHAW, told a group of Republican senators that her office is looking into the suspension of ROB MALLEYs security clearance, taking a step that could lead to a formal investigation.

Until late April, Malley helmed the Biden administrations efforts to restart a nuclear deal with Iran. But his security clearance was suspended on April 22, according to a person with knowledge of the move, for reasons that remain unknown. Despite losing his access to classified information, Malley kept doing limited work at State for more than two months. But when CNN reported that the clearance had been suspended, he went on unpaid leave.

PENTAGON SUSPENDS TRAINING WITH NIGER: The U.S. military has suspended its mission of training and advising Nigers armed forces, a DOD official told Lara today, although the two countries continue to cooperate on logistics and maintenance support to keep base operations functioning.

The 1,100 U.S. forces in the country are mostly restricted to Agadez, the drone base built by the U.S. military in 2019 for counterterrorism operations, for force protection, said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive operations. However, there are some troops posted at outstations around the country and a few service members assigned to the embassy in the capital of Niamey as well.

Because weve suspended training for the most part, normally you would leave the base to go to a training area those types of activities arent occurring, the official said.

The Pentagon is continuing to monitor the situation and is in communication with the U.S. Embassy in Niger as well as the Nigerien armed forces, but the situation remains fluid, the official said. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. MARK MILLEY spoke with his Nigerien counterpart, Armed Forces Chief of Defense Lt. Gen. ISSA ABDOU SIDIKOU, by phone on Sunday to discuss the safety of Americans and the developing situation in the country, according to Milleys spokesperson Col. DAVID BUTLER.

Washington has no plans to evacuate its citizens from Niger even as France and Italy move forward with plans to get their people out, National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY told reporters today.

We dont have any indications of direct threats to U.S. citizens or to our facilities, and so we have not changed our posture, he said, adding that the U.S. is monitoring the situation in Niger literally by the hour.

As Western countries watch the chaos unfolding in Niger, the military junta detained members of ousted President MOHAMED BAZOUMs political party and Cabinet, possibly to use them as hostages in case of military intervention, a senior member of Bazoums party told the Wall Street Journals BENOIT FAUCON and GABRIELE STEINHAUSER on Monday.

The detentions are a setback to the Economic Community of West African States, which has been attempting to broker a deal with the military junta to return Niger to civilian rule and reclaim legitimacy after lagging responses to recent coups in West Africa. ECOWAS has given Niger an ultimatum to return to democracy or risk military intervention from the regional bloc.

FOOL ME TWICE: Russian officials blamed Ukraine after a drone hit the same building in central Moscow for the second time in two days, our own NICOLAS CAMUT reports.

The drone electronically jammed and lost control before crashing into a complex of nonresidential buildings in Moscow city, the Russias defense ministry said in a statement. The skyscraper houses the ministries of digital development, economy and industrial development, the New York Times VICTORIA KIM reports.

Two other drones were destroyed by air defenses over the Odintsovo and Narofominsk districts in the Moscow region, the ministry added. No one was injured in the attacks.

The strike comes after the Times reported that at least three different Ukrainian-made drones have been used to attack inside Russia, though Ukrainian officials have declined to claim or deny responsibility.

NO VISA, NO PROBLEM: U.S. observers are assessing the border conditions for Palestinian-Americans traveling through Israel as part of an emerging visa waiver deal between Washington and Jerusalem, four officials told Reuters NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and NUHA SHARAF.

The U.S. has tentatively agreed to allow Israelis to travel to the States without a visa, but in exchange, Washington demanded that all Americans, regardless of background, receive the same privilege in Israel. Such a measure would overhaul travel restrictions for tens of thousands of Palestinian-Americans in the West Bank.

In a six-week trial period that began in mid-July, Israel must demonstrate that its admitting citizens without differential treatment for admission to the U.S. visa waiver program.

Meanwhile, Hungarians werent so fortunate today, as Washington sharply limited their access to visa waivers over security concerns regarding new passports issued between 2011 and 2020, our own LILI BAYER reports.

ITS TUESDAY. Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at [emailprotected] and [emailprotected], and follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @mattberg33.

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TAKE IT AWAY, EUROPE: Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS said he would call on European partners to take the lead on supporting Ukraine and bringing the war to a sustainable conclusion if hes elected president.

Europeans need to do their fair share. I think the fact that we have drawn down our ammunition to crisis levels, some of our weapons stocks we have other contingencies we have to be worried about, DeSantis told Fox News Monday night. We need a sustainable peace in Europe without rewarding Putins aggression.

His remarks are similar to recent comments by 2024 GOP frontrunner DONALD TRUMP, albeit much more blunted. In late July, Trump said Europe needs to start matching Washingtons contribution and send another $100 billion in aid to Kyiv.

But competition with China would be DeSantis main priority, he said, allocating more resources to the Indo-Pacific region to counter Beijings influence. Hed also plan to focus on issues closer to home, such as the southern border crisis.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced today that its pulling 1,100 troops deployed to the southern border earlier this year from their mission on Aug. 8, the APs TARA COPP and REBECCA SANTANA report. Four hundred troops will remain there until Aug. 31, a defense official told the AP.

HACKING THE NATION: Around 8 million government IP addresses across all 50 states are ripe for adversaries to exploit, according to a report out today, our friends at Morning Cybersecurity (for Pros!) report.

Securins latest State of Cybersecurity study discovered 119,000 instances of high-risk services in their scan of government domains nationwide.

The findings come amid a steady barrage of ransomware attacks that have been costly to U.S. government organizations, with an estimated price tag of $70 billion in damages from 2018 to October 2022, according to a report last year from Comparitech.

SIGN ME UP: Our colleagues are launching a new daily tech podcast this Wednesday POLITICO Tech, a daily download on the disruption that new innovations are bringing to politics and policy.

From AI and the metaverse to disinformation and microchips, itll explore how such technology is shaping our world driving the policy decisions, global rivalries and industries that will matter tomorrow.

LAW OF WAR UPDATE: Rep. SARA JACOBS (D-Calif.) applauded the Pentagon for clarifying its Law of War manual to better protect civilians in conflict, a measure she pushed for months ago alongside Sen. DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.).

So glad that the Pentagon has heeded my calls with @SenatorDurbin to update the Law of War manual the rules of the road for our military engagements to ensure that were doing everything we can to avoid civilian harm, she tweeted today.

Both lawmakers sent a letter to DODs General Counsel CAROLINE KRASS in February, urging the department to address areas of concern in the Law of War. The update further explains which people are protected, and includes a section outlining precautions military personnel can take to assure a civilian isnt harmed.

MIXED EMOTIONS: President JOE BIDEN made the call to keep Space Command in Colorado, and lawmakers whod lobbied for it to be moved to Alabama arent so happy.

Its clear that far-left politics, not national security, was the driving force behind this decision, House Armed Services Chair MIKE ROGERS (R-Ala.) said in a statement. The administrations shameful delay to finalize the decision warranted the opening of a Congressional investigation, he argued, adding that this fight is far from over.

It was irresponsible for the president to yank a military decision out of the Air Forces hands in the name of partisan politics, Sen. KATIE BRITT (R-Ala.) piled on in a statement.

Theres been intense speculation in the Senate that TOMMY TUBERVILLEs (R-Ala.) battle against the Pentagons abortion travel policy would drag down Alabamas bid. Sen. JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D-Colo.), however, said Tubervilles holds on military promotions, while very frustrating, did not affect the decision-making process at all.

On a bad day, it bugs the living daylights out of me. But its completely separate from Space Command, Hickenlooper said. In my opinion, I believe thats how the Defense Department looked at it. And I think thats how the White House looked at it.

DONT SAY THAT: A federal lawsuit claims an Indian-American engineer working with a missile defense contractor in Alabama was fired after he was heard speaking Hindi in a video call, the Associated Press reports.

ANIL VARSHNEY, who has worked at Parsons Corporation for over a decade, filed the civil rights suit against the company and Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN, whose department oversees the United States Missile Defense Agency. AL.com first reported the news.

This case arises out of Defendants intentional acts to end Mr. Varshneys highly distinguished engineering career because he is a 78-year-old Indian American, according to the lawsuit. Defendants abruptly terminated Mr. Varshney after one of his white colleagues overheard him speaking Hindi to his dying brother-in-law in India and falsely reported him for a violation of security regulations.

Varshney took the Facetime call in an empty cubicle, the lawsuit reads, and the company fired him for using the application at the classified work location. He claims there was no such company policy against such use. Parsons has denied wrongdoing and asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed.

RETIREMENT FUNDS FACE CHINA PROBE: The House Select Committee on China is investigating Blackrock and MSCI for facilitating investments in Chinese companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military and Chinas human rights abuses, WSJs KATE OKEEFFE and CORRIE DRIEBUSCH report.

In a letter first obtained by the Journal, Chair MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wisc.) and ranking member RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-Illi.) allege that in moving massive flows of American capital to entities flagged by the U.S. government, Blackrock and MSCI are exacerbating an already significant national-security threat and undermining American values. The committee said it was specifically looking at Americans retirement savings and how asset managers are investing them in Chinese firms.

Blackrock and MSCI are defending their investment practices. They also maintain they are engaging with the committees inquiry.

RICK WATERS, the State Departments former top China policy official, has joined Eurasia Group, Reuters MICHAEL MARTINA reports.

GIL CISNEROS, the Pentagons head of personnel and readiness, announced he is leaving his post in September. He is a Navy veteran and former member of Congress.

JOHN BOLTON, The Hill: Erratic, irrational and unconstrained: What a second Trump term would mean for Americas foreign policy

JAMIE DETTMER, POLITICO: Ukraines plan if Russia assassinates Zelenskyy

LIANA FIX and ZONGYUAN ZOE LIU, Foreign Affairs: Berlins delicate balance with Beijing

The Henry L. Stimson Center, 9 a.m.: Unraveling Chinas strategic re-engagement in Myanmar

The Hudson Institute, 11 a.m.: Securing American competitiveness: the importance of critical supply chains in strategic rivalry with China

The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, 11 a.m.: Utilizing data literacy in the military

Washington Post Live, 3 p.m.: Generative artificial intelligence and the future of technology

Thanks to our editor, Emma Anderson, who we wish we could overthrow and replace with Gregory.

We also thank our producer, Gregory Svirnovskiy, who would rule this newsletter democratically, for once.

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No breakthrough yet in Ukraine's counteroffensive - POLITICO - POLITICO