Explaining complex things in simple words: Ramstein meeting, Kursk raid, Russian elections

RAMSTEIN

On September 6, the 24th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, also known as the Ramstein format, will take place at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

 The Ukraine Defense Contact Group has been operating since 2022 and unites defense ministers and heads of defense departments from more than 50 countries.

 This will be the first Ramstein meeting after the summer break. The previous meeting was held on June 13, 2024.

 The President of Ukraine will personally take part in this Ramstein meeting. The President will also meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

 At the Ramstein meeting, the need to strengthen the air defense of Ukraine will be discussed regarding the increase in Russian terrorist attacks on civil infrastructure.

 One of the main topics is the discussion of providing Ukraine with long[1]range missiles and permission to use them to hit military targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.

KURSK RAID

The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, gave an interview to CNN.

 Kursk operation is successful. In a short time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine established control over a significant border territory of the Russian Federation and significantly replenished the exchange fund of Ukraine with prisoners of war.

 The Russians planned to launch a new attack from the Kursk oblast, but Ukraine got ahead of the enemy offensive and thwarted it.

 Russia committed its reserves to contain the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk oblast, including some of its best airborne assault units. This eased the situation in other directions, in particular in the Donetsk region.

 Russian artillery shelling of the border territory decreased. The territories of the Kursk oblast, controlled by Ukraine, have become a buffer zone.

 The Kursk operation raised the fighting spirit of Ukrainians, demonstrated the vulnerability of the Russian border defence, and proved the illusory nature of the so-called “red lines” of the Russian Federation.

RUSSIAN ELECTIONS

On September 8, as part of the Unified Voting Day, Russia is holding elections at various levels in its own regions and the so-called “elections” in the Ukrainian temporary occupied territories.

 Regardless of the results of local elections, regional authorities in the Russian Federation do not decide anything on their own because Russia is a totalitarian dictatorship in which the constitution and democratic procedures are just a screen to cover “vertical power”.

 We strongly condemn the involvement of Ukrainian citizens in illegal so-called “elections” in the occupation “State Council of the Republic of Crimea” and “Legislative Assembly of the City of Sevastopol”. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol are temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

 By organizing election procedures in the border regions with Ukraine and in the occupied territories, which are a zone of military operations, the Russian authorities deliberately expose people to danger in order to use their suffering for propaganda purposes.

 Kursk oblast governor elections are taking place in conditions of “territorial uncertainty” because Russia does not control large areas of this oblast. Their results are notoriously questionable.