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Russia Ukraine War

Russia Invasion: Ukraine Gets Multiple-launch Rocket Systems Support From Norway

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Russia Invasion: Ukraine Gets Multiple-launch Rocket Systems Support From Norway
File Photo: Multiple-Launch Rocket System
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Ukraine’s armoury has increased again as Norway announced its readiness to send three multiple-launch rocket systems to the country in defence against Russia.

Naija News recalls on 24 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014.

The unfriendly announcement by Putin has caused Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, with more than eight million Ukrainians fleeing the country and a third of the population reportedly displaced.

Naija News understands that the war which has now lasted over four months also caused global food shortages.

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Despite efforts by major stakeholders, the war still has not ended.

On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez declared that NATO and other countries are ready to step up their support for Ukraine should Russia refuse to back down from the invasion.

More countries of the world have now violated Russia’s earlier warning on supplying weapons to Ukraine. This comes following the G7 meeting and NATO summit in Madrid where leaders berated the genesis of the war.

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However, the Norwegian Defence Minister, Bjorn Arild Gram, said the donation of weapons to Ukraine is made possible by close cooperation between his country and the United Kingdom.

“We must continue our support so the Ukrainians can continue their fight for freedom and independence,” the minister was quoted as saying in a report.

A top U.S intelligence officer on Wednesday told the media that while President Putin still wants to seize most of Ukraine, his forces are so degraded by combat that they likely can only achieve incremental gains in the near term.

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Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, outlining the current U.S. intelligence assessment of the more than four-month war, said that the consensus of U.S. spy agencies is that it will grind on “for an extended period of time.”

“In short, the picture remains pretty grim and Russia’s attitude toward the West is hardening,” Haines told a Commerce Department conference.

Earlier in the week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy reportedly told U.S. President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders that he wants the war over by the end of the year.

But Haines’ comments suggested that the billions of dollars in modern arms being supplied by the United States and other countries to Zelinskiy’s forces may not give them the ability to turn the tide against Russia any time soon.

She said that Putin remains intent on overrunning most of Ukraine even though Ukrainian forces beat back Russia’s attempt to capture the capital Kyiv in February, forcing Moscow to reduce its target to seizing the entire eastern Donbas region, Naija News understands.

“We think he has effectively the same political goals that we had previously, which is to say that he wants to take most of Ukraine,” Haines said.

Russian forces, however, have been so degraded by more than four months of combat that it is unlikely they can achieve Putin’s goal any time soon, Haines said in her first public assessment of the war since May.

“We perceive a disconnect between Putin’s near-term military objectives in this area and his military’s capacity, a kind of mismatch between his ambitions and what the military is able to accomplish,” she said.

According to her, U.S. intelligence agencies see three possible scenarios, the most likely being a grinding conflict in which Russian forces “make incremental gains, with no breakthrough.”