Russian Military Goals Unaffected by Outcome of NATO Summit: Moscow
The outcome of this week’s NATO summit in Lithuania has not affected Russia’s military objectives as they pertain to Ukraine, according to Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council.
“The special military operation will continue with its goals unchanged,” Mr. Medvedev, who has previously served as both Russia’s president and prime minister, said on July 12.
He went on to assert that one of these goals was keeping Ukraine out of the Western NATO alliance.
“We have insisted on that from the outset,” Mr. Medvedev said.
Russia launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine early last year. Kyiv and its Western allies decry the move as an unprovoked act of aggression.
Moscow, for its part, says its “special military operation” aims to protect Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine and halt the further expansion of NATO to its doorstep.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced similar sentiments after the summit, saying Moscow’s position had “not changed dramatically.”
“We are open to dialogue,” he was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency on July 13.
“But we will be guided by our legitimate interests and will balance approaches to a possible settlement with the situation on the ground,” Mr. Lavrov said.
Letdown in Lithuania
At the landmark NATO summit, held on July 11 and 12, Ukraine had hoped to receive a formal invitation to join the military alliance.
But in this regard, it was disappointed, obtaining only vague promises of eventual membership—no timeline was offered—once a raft of conditions was met.
“Nobody knows when [Ukraine will join NATO] and on what conditions,” Medvedev crowed.
Kyiv did, however, get renewed assurances of support from NATO allies, along with fresh pledges of military assistance and “security guarantees” against Russian aggression.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who attended the summit, described the outcome as “good” but not “ideal.”
“For the first time since independence, we have formed a security foundation for Ukraine on its way to NATO,” he said.
Kyiv, he added, had also received “a good reinforcement with weapons.”
The summit also saw NATO member Turkey drop its objection to a months-long NATO bid by Sweden, paving the way for the Nordic country’s eventual accession to the alliance.
In April, Finland, which shares an 830-mile-long border with Russia, officially became NATO’s 31st member after Turkey greenlit the move.
Before joining NATO, applicants must be approved by all the alliance’s existing members. Turkey joined NATO in 1952.
Kyiv Claims Modest Gains
This week’s summit in Lithuania coincided with an ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive aimed at retaking territory captured earlier by Russia.
At the summit, Mr. Zelenskyy had hoped to highlight territorial gains registered by Ukrainian forces.
But even he has admitted that the counter-offensive, which began early last month, was progressing more slowly than initially hoped.
On July 11, the first day of the summit, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar pointed to limited gains on the southern front, which runs through Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
On the same day, Ukrainian General Oleksander Tarnavskyi claimed Russian forces had sustained hundreds of casualties over the previous 24 hours.
According to military officials in Kyiv, Ukrainian forces have so far retaken more than 100 square miles on the southern front, along with 15 square miles near the flashpoint city of Bakhmut.
A key transport hub in the eastern Donetsk region, Bakhmut (Artyomovsk in Russian) fell to Russian forces in May after nine months of fierce fighting.
General Oleksander Syrskyi, who commands Ukraine’s ground forces, has claimed that Russian troops were now “trapped” in Bakhmut.
“The city is under the fire control of [Ukrainian] defense forces … the enemy is being pushed out of their positions,” the general asserted on July 11.
Moscow: 26,000 Troops Killed
Moscow, however, disputes these claims, saying that Kyiv’s vaunted counter-offensive had entirely failed to penetrate Russian lines of defense.
“Battles are raging for the Artyomovsk [Bakhmut] flanks,” Yan Gagin, an official of the Moscow-recognized Donetsk People’s Republic, told TASS on July 13.
“All of them are under the control of our forces and artillery,” he added.
Earlier this week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed that more than 26,000 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed since the counter-offensive began five weeks ago.
Over the same period, Ukraine had lost over 3,000 pieces of military hardware, Mr. Shoigu told reporters on July 11.
According to the defense minister, the latter include aircraft, air-defense systems, and artillery pieces, along with Western-made tanks and armored vehicles.
The Epoch Times could not verify battlefield assessments made by either of the warring parties.
Reuters contributed to this report.
