Defence Secretary John Healey has warned that Russian forces seized more than 550 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory last month, “an area greater than the size of Greater Manchester”, as Moscow intensifies pressure along the frontline in its war against Ukraine.
Delivering a statement to the House of Commons on 17 July, Healey said the British Government remained committed to Ukraine and outlined new details of UK contributions to the war effort. He also confirmed that plans are now complete for a future ‘Multinational Force Ukraine’, with the UK and France leading on the establishment of its command structure.
Despite heavy fighting and continuing Russian advances, Healey stressed that Ukrainian forces were continuing to strike deep into Russian territory, citing the recent ‘Spider Web’ drone attack. “One year of meticulous planning, resulting in the damage of 41 long-range bombers—planes which threaten not only Ukraine, but also NATO as well,” he said.
Healey described the losses suffered by Russia as “catastrophic”, stating that more than a million Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. “This year alone, Russia has sustained 240,000 casualties,” he told MPs.
He also confirmed that in July alone, more than 3,200 one-way drones had been launched at Ukrainian targets, following 5,000 in June and 4,000 in May. “On 9 July, a week ago today, the largest aerial strike of the war was recorded when Russia launched more than 700 attack drones in a single night,” he said.
As part of a renewed Western push to accelerate aid, the UK will commit further funds and equipment through the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG), which Healey will co-chair on Monday alongside German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
“Britain is providing more than £4.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine this year—more than ever before,” he said, adding that two-thirds of the UK’s £2.26 billion ‘Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration’ pledge had already been disbursed.
In coordination with Germany, the UK will also provide additional air defence missiles and has delivered nearly 50,000 drones since March. A further £40 million will be given through NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package.
Healey emphasised that NATO planning for post-war Ukraine is also progressing, with over 200 military planners from 30 nations now concluding the first phase of work on future support.
“The military command and control structures have now been agreed for a future Multinational Force Ukraine,” he said. This will include a three-star headquarters in Paris, rotating to London after 12 months, and a coordination hub in Kyiv led by a British two-star officer.
The force will focus on regeneration of Ukrainian land forces, support for air policing, and contributions to Black Sea maritime security. “When peace comes, we will be ready,” Healey told the House. “When peace comes, we will play our part in securing it for the long term.”
At what cost to Russia was this ground seized?
Exactly. The attrition which Russia is suffering is mind boggling
This is completely unsustainable for Russia. Just leave.
It’s crazy to think that the Russian military which was supposed to be the 2nd most powerful military on earth has taken 3 years to get to this point it doesn’t seem to do combined actions it seems that over the whole front line it’s just lots of little battles there seems to be no joined up thinking at all
The Russian military is far from the second most powerful on earth. The U.S. is first and china is second and they are both a long way ahead of anyone else.
China is a completely open question. We have no idea whether theyre are a coherent, organised force or a Potemkin military rampant with corruption and incompetence as per Russia
No it’s not an open question, the PLAN is a competent force with modern ships, it’s entirely crewed by volunteers and it’s captains actual get far more command experience than there western counterparts. Look at the US navel war college assessment.. they have not questions about the professional capabilities of the PLAN officer corps or the ships, their only real open question is how will party control impact on warfighting.. you simply cannot compare the PLAN and Russian armed forces that is a very very bad move.
Why is everyone obsessed with navels on here?
Well navels are key to ensuring your top half and bottom half stay attached..
New Me, most pics of Eve show her with either,
A- Belly Button or
B- More ships than the RN.
It sort of fits.
I’m not saying they are the 2nd most powerful I’m saying they were classed as and I don’t rate China it’s a paper tiger that doesn’t really have a blue water navy and there UN deployments have been embarrassing
You really need to look at the plan it has a hell of a blue water navy.
Horrible take. Blue water? Strong resupply fleet? No. International network of bases? No. Sufficient number of nuclear submarines for longer range deployments? No. Capable carrier groups and air wings? No. And no allies that really fill in any of these gaps.
No it does not it doesn’t have the ability to supply its ships on the other side of the world due to a lack of overseas bases which means it would have to refit and supply at sea making it a easy target it couldn’t provide carrier operations for any length of time and its subs are not quiet enough it does not have a true blue water navy
Ok no replenishment fleet
Type 901 fast replenishment ship 45,000 tons, 2 in commission, 1 launched, 1 building
Type 903 replenishment ship 23,000 tons, 9 in active service
Type 904 general stores ships 15,000 tons 4 active
Type 908 fleet replenishment ship 37,000 tons 1 in commission
As for overseas bases
It has Djibouti, a base able to service a 100,000 carrier.
And it’s building 2 others in the Indian occean.
Can it be described as a blue water navy with negligible aircraft carrier capability (currently) and still very dated SSN’s.
I’m sure it will one day be a blue water navy but they have never deployed much beyond a small destroyer lead task force past the first island chain.
They are great at knocking out escorts in numbers but how useful are such ships in a shooting war especially in blue water environments. CSG 21 highlighted all their SSN issues.
@ Jim
In regards to carriers, they have 2, the air wing is not great but it’s adequate, and well so what we considered the RN a blue water navy between the decommissioning of the sea harrier in 2006 and the first operational f35 squadron on Elizabeth in 2020 and in all that time the RN had no real meaningfull fixed wing aviation. Finally they have their new 100,000 carrier that will be commissioned sometime soon.. they also have a dedicated drone carrier building and have started on the next super carrier. As for SSN the present class in service type 93A is around as quite and effective as a victor 3 ( the worse SSN in Russian service) .. but they have just build 6 Type93Bs which will sit probably around a flight 1 LA class SSN.. so they have an SSN fleet and with the first 2 type93Bs now commissioned have a usable SSN globally that has a bank of vertical launch silos for a 1500km range accurate cruise missiles.
They are probably on the verge of launching another batch of 6 type 93Bs before moving to the type 95 which essentially is going to be at western standards and will sit close enough to western subs, because they are past the last issue and that was getting a reactor with the energy density needed to move to a single reactor.. so the type 95 is a single reactor design. The scary thing is they have their old 4 nuclear slip facility running.. which gave then about the industrial capacity of the US for SSN building.. but they now have a new 20 slip factory with the slips supported by small and large fabrication facilities and even a separate painting and tilling hall.. essentially it’s estimated that China has now moved to a 8 SSN/SSBN a year production capacity..
As for deployments China will at most times have 2-3 surface groups in the Indian Ocean.. so there are usually 6-8 major PLAN vessels in the Indian Ocean. Would we be judging the RN as being only a regional navy if it had 6-8 major vessels in the Indian Ocean?
Finally because we are all Eurocentric we forget how big the pacific actually is.. when China sent its carrier battle group to play around Guam.. most people just went “ well it’s only in the pacific “ but that’s an 8000 km round trip and on that deployment I believe the PLAN carrier battle group did around 10,000kms. playing in the mid pacific is not regional for anyone. So a navy that can have a carrier group mid pacific, have a surface action group in the western Indian Ocean, another in the eastern Indian Ocean as well as keeping up pressure all over the China seas is by definition a blue water navy.
So even in your reply u accept that China has next to zero overseas bases it doesn’t have true global reach it’s getting there but its not there yet and that’s putting aside the fact that its only operated carriers for a short time and it takes decades to hone them skills China only had a combined HQ in the last 10 years and there is no way China can compete against the USA in naval combat
Tim..not having the global reach of the USN navy does not mean you’re not a blue water navy, that’s a ridiculous level ans wouls essentially mean there is only one blue water navy.
The USN defines a blue water navy as “ a maritime force capable of sustained operation across the deep waters of open oceans. A blue-water navy allows a country to project power far from the home country and usually includes one or more aircraft carriers. Smaller blue-water navies are able to dispatch fewer vessels abroad for shorter periods of time.”
China has shown the ability to permanently have a multi ship taskforce in the western Indian Ocean, a multi ship taskforce in the eastern Indian Ocean, a carrier battle group in the mid pacific and multiple smaller task groups in the western pacific all at the same time that is multiple task groups spread across 13,000km of deep oceans, that’s that is the very nature of a large blue water navy to say otherwise is to deny the facts on the ground.. China has the largest number of large modern surface combatant of any navy, it has the largest modern surface combatants, by numbers it is the largest navy in the world, its has every type of capacity, from large fast fleet sustainment vessels, large amphibious vessels, large deck carriers, SSNs, SSBN, electric boats, AIP boats, modern ASW frigates modern AAW Destroyers..if china really wanted to drive a carrier battle group up the channel it could.
Unless you have really read all the uptodate analysis of the PLAN from the US navel war college and the analysis out of India your generally out of date in regards to what the PLAN is. Infact if you read something five year old your out of date on what the PLAN is ( as an example in the last 3 year the PLAN have launched about 6 new SSNs..and they have just built another 20 SSN,SSBN slips, supported by a whole module production factory network.. with an estimated output of 4-6 SSNs per year, read an article 3 years old on PLAN SSNs your out of date).
What most people don’t realise is that china is not moving to become a peer naval power to the US, it’s moving to become the preeminent maritime power in the world.. this is different and broader and its aim and trajectory is to become the pre eminent maritime power by 2049.. its a long way along that road as it now has the largest navy by numbers ( and in naval warfare its almost alway the nation with the numbers that wins naval wars), it already has over 50% of the worlds shipbuilding capabilities ( that’s 260% larger than the U.S. shipbuilding capacity).. because china get maritime power more than any other nation, its leader Xia understands and is fixated on maritime power.
It’s core policy policy and very bit of its nations resources are resolve are focused on four key areas
Defend the mainland from an attack by sea by the US;
Secure its seaborne international trade and maritime communication lines;
Pursue global political, economic, and security interests; and,
‘Recover’ sovereignty over claimed maritime territories, especially Taiwan.
China’s technological development and competence has been exponential in line with its armed forces growth. They are definitely a super power up there with the USA. There’s nothing paper about them.
China is not as advanced as the west that is just nonsense much of its equipment have been shown to be rubbish copy’s of Russian technology be that jet engines that last a fraction of the time of 1980s western ones or artillery and rocket systems that are dangerously inaccurate
Tim, I think you need to swat up on the Chinese Military advances since the 1980’s.
WIKI has some handy reference points.
Well they are getting some combat experience fighting alongside the orcs in Ukraine. Chinese “volunteers” later found to have been Chinese special forces have been killed, wounded and captured inside Ukraine.
I don’t think the West can categorically say how the Chinese military will perform with regards a regional or global conflict Vs a peer opponent.
What we do know is 2027 is coming around fast and it’s only a matter of time until the west must face the prospects of a Chinese-Russian axis attack
President Xi has already declared by the end of 2027 Taiwan will be reunified with China.
So to half wit im aware of what China has and how its advanced I also am aware of it’s limitations it is not as advanced as the west much of it’s equipment is copy’s of Russian stuff its jet engines are copy’s that have less life hours than the Russian ones which is saying something countrys that have bought Chinese stuff report on how bad it is from artillery systems that are inaccurate to the level that there dangerous to jet engines lasting half the claimed time to radars not working or interfering with other systems on ships and aircraft
It has a huge bluewater navy. Sent a task force to circumnavigate & conduct exercises off Australia recently. Everything required for a blue water navy exists, surpassing the USN soon if not already.
Jonathan, the Chinese armed forces have little to no combat experience and have never worked with allies. How can you rate them so highly?
It’s about their Navy and maritime capabilities .. across history there is one guiding factor to navy’s that become pre eminent and win war and above everything that is numbers of combatants, backed up by political leadership that believes in the sea and massive shipbuilding industrial capability…it’s a triad to victory on the sea.. across history there are lots of examples of smaller armies beating larger armies, but with navies if you track naval conflict the winner is amost always the navy with the larger number of combatants, the greatest industrial capacity and polical leaders who get the sea.
With navies the term quantity has a quality all of its own has a different meaning.. because the more combatants you have the more sea time you have which mean that high quality you become.. that’s a summary of a very high level USN Admiral on why the present trajectories of the USN and PLAN is a worry. Quantity and quality are interlinked.. big navies are better than small navies… because big navies get more practice.. large armies on the other hand can be really poor quality.
The thing is my view is coming from papers from the US naval war college etc, these organisations in their studies of the PLAN do not consider them a joke, they consider them a significant threat ( as in a peer we may not be able to handle it threat). Some of the very senior people who are experts on the balance of power in that pacific do honestly think the PLAN can win and even if they don’t and the USN win the consensus’s is that essentially the USN will be gutted as a fighting force.. with the U.S. not having the industrial capacity to rebuild it ( as the British empire won WW2 it still lost, so will the USN WW3).
Don’t get me wrong 1 to 1 the USN wins.. the issue in the western pacific is it’s not going to be a 1-1 fight.. the USN is in a shitty geo strategic position in the western pacific and will be out numbered.
The final killer point is simply the Chinese ability to build a navy and put it in the sea.. China has been essentially launching and commissioning a navy the size of the RN every few year.. just consider that for a second. China can now build around 6-8 SSNs/SSNBs, 1 large warships and 8ish major surface combatants/ escorts every year including crewing them. The U.S. is managing 1.5 major surface combatants, 1.2 SSNs and 1 large warship every 5 years or so…. For true context china has 260 times the shipbuilding capacity of the US… if china losses 100 ships.. it’s back to full strength in a less than a decade.. the USN losses 100 ships and its not rebuilding in a lifetime.
It’s not just about hull numbers and capacity to rebuild after a bloodbath, it’s people even the US navel war college is open about the fact that the average PLAN major warship captain will have more experience of command than a U.S. Captain, as they run through more command slots in their career and the PLAN naval college is laser focused on producing experiences ship drivers… not very senior officers.
China is literally putting trillions of dollars into becoming the worlds maritime power.. so yep it’s army is probably a bit shit..but quite frankly the British army at the hight of the power of the British empire was not all that, for much of the Cold War the US army was considered it bit of a drug addled joke… what drove them to pre eminence was alway Maritime power.. because everything that matters is still transported via the sea.
If there was a war today.. it’s probably a mutual bloodbath and both the PLAN and USN are gutted as naval powers.. but in a decade china will have rebuilt the PLAN the US does not have the industrial capacity to even maintain the USN let alone rebuild it, If there is a war in a decade.. the PLAN on present trajectory would likely overwhelm the USN. The west is sleepwalking into the rise of a new maritime power.. and it’s the pre eminent maritime power that always dictates what the world looks like.
The Russians will get most of what they want. Putin won’t stop until he does.
We will see
We shall see.
The stumbling block is the brave Ukrainian people won’t let him.
You can’t subjegate a freedom loving people that won’t be cowled and won’t quietly go away into the nightmare of occupation under a tyrannical state.
Except you can and Ukraine was subjugated for hundreds of years by the Russians. You just call it integration and anyone who resists is a terrorist. It’s been done loads of times. When I last checked it was 20% of Ukrainian territory now occupied. They won’t ever get it back.
At the rate they’re going Putin will die of natural causes before they take all of Ukraine, even if he lived to 150!
Russia might take Ukraine, at the cost of a billion Russian lives and succeeding shortly before the heat-death of the universe.
Hi Steve, got any dates for the “Heat-death of the Universe” please, I’m planning to retire to New Zealand later this year, just wanted to know when best to book a flight.
Thanks in anticipation.
I don’t want to appear pedantic, but the universe will not end in a ‘heat death’. It will continue to expand to the point where its total energy will be spread so thin the temperature everywhere will be virtually -273*C; ie a ‘cold death’.
Just saying.
Oh, I’ll head to North Island then. Thanks for the heads up, not a fan of the cold personally.
As in the death of all heat in the universe not the universes death will be hot
The British and French troops will be about as much use as the UN troops “protecting” the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
“Multinational Force Ukraine”
Good news! I’m eager to see this MFUkr go to work.
While I do not wish to upset the narrative we all enjoy, all this multi nation force will need is more tanks, artillery, manpower and of course the balls as you will do nothing without the Americans holding your hand.
Could the uk even provide a serious brigade and support it for more than 5 minutes in combat? No need to reply, i already know the answer 🙂
We have some super dooper Serious people on here, not sure if there is enough for a Brigade but I’m sure a Platoon could easily be gathered together.
“They don’t like it up em!”.
Ah I knew the headlines would trigger the Russkie/Iranian bots logging in to ensure they post there required quota of chuff to get the extra 5kg of spuds!
OT.
Interesting that there is no article here on the Afghan names scandal where DSF released not only the names of afghans who want to come to the UK, many of which helped British forces, but names of SF personnel and intelligence officers as well.
HMG took out a super injunction.
Is the 7 reported 7 billion cost coming out of the defence budget as well?
Reportedly an Afghan who wanted asylum and was initially refused was granted access to the UK after effectively bribing HMG with threat to release the names.
Very poor if true.
Whatever, amazing how little safeguards there were in UKSF HQ that an officer can email such a list.
just a chain of emails probably, with the spreadsheet on one well down the list and then gets forwarded. Dont create huge spreadsheets is the answer. Who remembers the HMRC child benefit CDs “lost” in the post with millions of peoples details on them a while back. This kid of thing will keep happening in the digital age.
Not enough people have taken an interest in this subject! It’s an absolute disgrace, super injunction, air lifting 10s of thousands of Afghans into the UK due to a complete cluster fuck email chain, all the while telling the UK population if you are concerned about immigration you are a right wing fascist! This story however will grow bigger and bigger! There is of course a case for helping the Afghans who worked with the Brit forces, however how many will jump on the bandwagon and then add families and randoms! I also see quite a few have signed up with a legal firm to sue the Government (aka us) for the leak of data, while sat in their free house in a free country and all associated free handouts!
Spot on mate.
I’m sure the far left on here will be along shortly to say we’re racists too, while ignoring all thise points.
Standard.
It’s why Reform are doing so well.
Sick to the back teeth with it.
It’s only going to get worse sadly mate!
AB, one Afghan (ex-Terp?) in to UK under the scheme was allowed to bring 22 family members!
Putin will just keep going with an inexhaustible supply of bullet wasters and when he starts running out there are millions of expendable Nth Koreans to get through. The best hope of this ending is Putin diving pf old age and stupid nation sorting itself out but a very unlikely outcome. At some point there will be a DMZ until next time.
On the ground does Ukraine still not have a big enough masse of physical forces to substantially push back against Russia and flush them out of its territory? All these drones are great and necessary but are they really eating into Russia’s forces “inside” Ukraine? It would be good to hear that Ukrainian forces are going forward and reclaiming their own country! Easy to say from here. It must be bloody awful for them. Strength to Ukraine and its forces, its people and president 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 🇦🇺
The problem is maneuverer is almost impossible in the face of drones and artillery.
Exactly what happened in ww1 with planes and artillery.
The Ukrainians can’t waste hundreds of thousands of men to capture a few villages like the Russians.
UKR forces are too thinly spread.
Russia plays the size / attrition game, the strategy is to keep attacking on several fronts until the defending forces are overwhelmed or exhausted.
UKR has better tactics, but Russia seems to have the ability to absorb great losses, and replenish troops, equipment and ammo in large numbers.
I don’t think we will be seeing any more UKR counter-offensives.
I think the best we can hope for is that the war becomes so economically unviable for Russia, that they have to agree to a ceasefire.
Exactly, it should read Russia suffers 100,000 casualties to grab an area smaller than London.
This is the sum total of his summer offensive and his loss rate is double what it was last year.
This Russian’s will be done by next year and probably split by civil war by 2027.
Putin will simply keep going, but, I am sure the Russian Armed forces are getting increasingly pissed off about having the bulk of their modern armed forces smashed to pieces and their economists are probably getting pissed off about their tanking and isolationist economic policies.
The loss of lives?
Nobody (in power) in Russia gives the remotest toss, they are a resource to be used as required by the state.
But military and economic damage ‘ might’ make a difference, we might see a coup againt Putin to end the War before too long, it just depends how far putins control reaches.
France and the UK have restarted production of Storm Shadow / SCALP. Ukraine has only a handful of SU24 which have been adapted to carry SS. Have we given them the limited range ‘export’ version? Why not give them a squadron of Tornados, which looks a significantly better plane than the SU24, and take the governor off the missile. This would enable Ukraine hit back deeper and harder.
We don’t have any Tornados left to give.
As soon as they left service in 2019 they’d have been scrapped for parts. Any left will have been stripped of engines, avionics, spare parts etc, and will be gate guards at best.
Ah! Germany or Italy?
I don’t think so Jim. I’d love it if you are right but I don’t think so. The Russians are now close to maximum war effort without a generalised full mobilisation and switching everyone onto war production or enlistment.
They have by RUSI estimates around 250-300k per annum men to conscript into their military. With additional expendable troops from North Korea, African volunteers as well as Russia’s eastern regions and nations like Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan having a few thousand volunteers per year willing to fight for Putin in exchange for the salaries offered the Russians can just about maintain this effort. It is a huge strain but they can keep this going a while longer. Economically not so sure, they are burning their currency reserves and have rescheduled peak production.
Around 100 MBT/ month = 1200 T90s, upto 3000 other armoured vehicles per annum. Tens of thousands of drones and around 100 cruise missiles or hypersonics per month. Kalibre is the main missile type with far fewer Zircon.
They are however not able to meet their ammunition expenditure. Have burnt through their strategic war reserves and are perilously dependent upon North Korean, Iranian and Chinese donations as well as overseas orders from India and some African nations.
Trump might, just might reduce these down if he slaps tariffs on nations exporting munitions to Russia, I’m actually surprised the European nations haven’t already done this.
Where Russia is in trouble and cannot replace destroyed assets are AWACS, tankers, long range bombers, attack helicopters and close air support/ high performance jets.
I am very very surprised upto now that China hasn’t sold Russia large numbers of aircraft. I’m guessing they will the minute Taiwan invasion kicks off. Suddenly China will be the war industrial heart of the axis.
The lessons for Europe are stark. We have to get to 3.5% PDQ. Our long lead items such as aircraft. Armoured vehicles and warships/ subs need to be ordered now. That’s what is so troubling with HMG/ MOD only wanting expensive Gucci kit. A latest version typhoon is still superior to majority of Russia’s air force, ditto for China. The Typhoon can launch ALL the UKs best weapons inventory. F35 can’t. Why we haven’t ordered another 3-4 type 26, 3-5 type 31s and more Apache I just don’t understand.
GBAD still not even remotely being addressed.
Seems like SDSR was all just hot words and there is still no sense of urgency even though the freight train is charging down the track and just about to hit us.
“Why we haven’t ordered another 3-4 type 26, 3-5 type 31s and more Apache I just don’t understand.”
You would still be waiting another 10 years, for most of them to be built! Industrial capacity is a problem for Britain.
I think Europe should stay clear of any conflict with China, we are simply not up to speed with rebuilding our atrophied forces, ammo stocks, or military industries.
And yet they are still attacking with no sign of slowing down, as well as sending large formations of troops to the borders of the Baltic countries and Finland.
Whatever you think about Russia, they have proved they can stay in a long-term/ large-scale fight regardless of their losses, they simply rebuild, recruit, replace, deploy, and carry on.
What these reports don’t make clear is that Ukraine doesn’t consider it worth wasting lives for ground that’s bombed out of any real practical value. They fall back and heavily attrition the advancing Russians with the long term strategy of bleeding them dry, economically, materially and in terms of man power. The main stream reporting of the war is woeful and lacks context.
#Day34
FYI, a snail would have made it all the way to Poland by now since the start of the war,.
Yet still a very long way to go for Russia to subjugate Ukraine and remove the “nazis” in power.
550 sq K is a meaningless number. It’s 55K x 10K or 550×1 or 23.452×23.452 or…
Given the size of Ukraine, it’s sweet f a what with maybe three months left before the weather precludes any further meaningful advance this year.
And so on to 2026.