Developments in the war in Ukraine are racing ahead, both on the operational front and in the ratification or cancellation of agreements for Kiev to receive military aid from allied countries.
Tactical retreat of the Russian army from Rabotino
With regard to the development of operations, according to Russian media with information from his country's Ministry of Defense, "the Russian army has regularly left the settlement of Rabotino" , which notes:
"Acting governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, during his speech on the Soloviev LIVE program, announced the tactical decision of the Russian Armed Forces to abandon the Rabotino settlement. This decision is due to the complexity of security in this area.
"The Russian military regularly abandoned Rabotino. We saw no reason to stay there since no security was provided for our forces," Balitsky said.
At the moment, the Russian Armed Forces hold high ground of tactical importance , maintaining control in key areas.
At the same time, enemy forces remain in the lowlands, occupying our earlier defensive positions. This gives the Russian army a tactical advantage.
To date, the battles in the Zaporozhye direction of the front line are hard fought. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to achieve an advance through the defensive line built earlier by Russia, however, according to objective data, so far the Ukrainian army has not managed to reach it, which is due, among other things, to heavy losses of Ukrainian troops, as well as active counterattacks of the Russian army."
Belgium cancels supply of F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine
At the same time the same Russian media reports that "Belgium refuses to transfer F-16 fighters to Ukraine", specifying that the Belgian government decided to refuse the transfer of F-16 fighters to Ukraine, citing their unsatisfactory technical condition.
It states that "as reported by La Libre Belgique, the Belgian military department maintains that the F-16 aircraft are in such a condition that they can be given as military aid.
In addition to the problems with the aircraft, Belgium was faced with the need to replenish its ammunition stocks, which were significantly depleted after several donations to Ukraine.
According to the figures, at least EUR 7 billion will be required for this purpose.
Lieutenant General Frédéric Goetink, head of the Belgian army's Commissariat of the Commissariat, commented on the situation:
"We have reached the limit of what we can give Ukraine. The supply of ammunition is a nightmare. It takes years to replenish them."
This decision may put additional pressure on NATO and other countries in the alliance, as the issues of military support for Ukraine remain topical for the West. "
Military cooperation between Ukraine and Swedish SAAB
Despite the above problems, International media in an article announces ,the signing of a cooperation agreement between Ukraine and Swedish Saab, stating:
"Saab is a Swedish defense giant that manufactures Gripen fighter aircraft and weapon systems and instruments such as NLAW, Carl Gustaf ,RBS 70, GlobalEye the Giraffe radar and many others.
Already former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, in his testimony to the Verkhovna Rada before the vote to accept his resignation, said that during his tenure "agreements were concluded that paved the way for cooperation" with a number of defense companies.
Baykar Makina, BAE Systems and Rheinmetall were mentioned among such companies, which have already been made public. But Swedish Saab was also mentioned in the list of companies with which agreements have been concluded.
So far there has been no public information about the cooperation of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence with Saab.
Only in July this year, Oleksii Reznikov announced the signing of a global agreement on cooperation in the field of defense procurement between Ukraine and Sweden.
According to the minister, "this document opens up great opportunities both for our Armed Forces of Ukraine and for Swedish companies such as Saab and others."
So some agreement has been reached with Saab, but of course the question remains what exactly it is about.
Because the Swedish defence giant is responsible for several areas at once.
The first thing that comes to mind is of course the JAS 39 Gripen multi-purpose fighter aircraft. which the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is seriously aiming to acquire.
An airborne long-range early warning and control system, such as GlobalEye, is an objectively very necessary contribution to any type of fighter aircraft, and in the past there was an offer for co-production based on Antonov aircraft.
But Saab is the manufacturer of , another weapon system,which even at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion received a huge number of positive reviews, which is the NLAW anti-tank.
In the "vault" of truly exceptional types of weapons of the Swedish defense company, it is fair to include the AT4 grenade launcher, which is generally a bestseller in the arms market, as well as the Carl Gustaf.
The RBS 70, MANPADS ,has already opened its combat account with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The latter, by the way, works perfectly in combination with the Giraffe radar, as well as with any other air defence system of a much higher level, such as, for example, the German IRIS-T SLS SAM system.
Consequently, the list of weapons that Saab develops and produces is truly impressive.
In addition, the company's cooperation with Ukrainian defence companies may involve new co-productions of weapon systems."
Conclusion
From the above it can be seen that the Ukrainians achieved a victory at Rabotino against the Russian Armed Forces, but with heavy losses and without significant territorial gains, leading to the next line of defence of the Russians, which they are called upon to attempt to break through with new bloody battles.
The above development confirms our assessment, which we have reflected in a number of our previous articles, regarding the meagre expected results of the Ukrainian offensive in relation to the liberation of territories occupied by the Russians, but also the heavy losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Our view is that we are very close in time to the implementation of the second part of the Russian plan, according to which the first part of the plan provided for the maintenance of a strong defensive posture in the south in order to absorb the offensive power of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and inflict significant losses on them, and then, as the second part, it foresees the gathering of powerful reserves to launch a large-scale attack on the weakened Ukrainian army in order to crush it.
The failure to finally send F-16s from Belgium to Ukraine is a major negative development for Kiev, while Ukraine's deal with Swedish defence giant SAAB is not expected to bear fruit any time soon.
