The Russian army announced its control of a village located north of the strategic town of Bakhmut (eastern Ukraine), while Kyiv announced the number of tanks it expects to receive from its Western backers, as part of a down payment to enhance its combat capabilities.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said today, Tuesday, that "successful offensive measures" enabled its forces to "liberate the village of Blagodny, located in the Donetsk People's Republic," referring to Donetsk Province, one of the four Ukrainian provinces that Russia announced its annexation last September.

Blagodny village is located near Solidar;

The town known for its salt mines, which was recently captured by Russian forces, and on a highway that leads to Bakhmut.

Russia has been seeking for months to control Bakhmut in the fiercest battles since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his forces to Ukraine in February 2022.

And at the end of last week, the Wagner Special Military Group - which is fighting alongside the Russian army - announced that its units control Blagodny.

But Kyiv denied this at the time and said that it had repelled Russian attacks on the village.


Tank Pact

On the other hand, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that his country would receive between 120 and 140 tanks in a "first batch" of shipments pledged to be sent by a coalition of 12 Western countries.

Kuleba said - during an online press briefing - that Ukraine continues to work towards "expanding the membership of the Tank Alliance and increasing the contributions of the parties currently participating."

Kyiv plans to launch a major counterattack to recover large swathes of territory that Russia controlled in the south and east of the country.


fighter file

Although the Western powers agreed to send modern tanks to support the Ukrainian army, they refrained from taking a similar position on Ukraine's request to obtain combat aircraft.

US President Joe Biden announced that he does not intend to send F-16 fighters to Ukraine.

Today, a spokesman for the British Prime Minister stated that sending fighter jets to Ukraine was not a "practical" option.

"British fighter planes are very complex and learning to fly them takes months," the spokesman told reporters.

"With that in mind, we believe that sending those planes to Ukraine is not practical (...) We will continue to discuss with our allies what we think is the right approach," he added.

At the same time, Poland's Deputy Defense Minister Wojciech Skorkiewicz said - in a statement to Agence France-Presse - that "there are no official talks about sending F-16 fighters (to Ukraine) at the present time."

Poland owns 48 of these American-made warplanes, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said yesterday, Monday, that his country will work in full coordination with its partners, indicating the possibility of sending fighters in consultation with NATO countries.