Russia Claims to Foil Ukraine Drones   10/04 06:11

   

   (AP) -- Russian air defenses shot down 31 Ukrainian drones during a 
concerted nighttime attack by Kyiv's forces on border regions, the Russian 
Defense Ministry said Wednesday, even as uncertainty grew over Ukraine's future 
access to weapons and ammunition from its Western allies.

   The drone attack appeared to be Kyiv's largest single cross-border drone 
assault reported by Moscow since it launched its invasion 20 months ago.

   Ukraine is pressing on with a slow-moving counteroffensive it launched three 
months ago, though mounting concerns about replenishing its military stocks 
cast a cloud over its efforts

   Adm. Rob Bauer, the head of NATO's Military Committee, sounded the alarm 
about depleted stockpiles.

   With the war of attrition likely continuing through winter into next year, 
Bauer said of weapons systems and ammunition supplies: "The bottom of the 
barrel is now visible."

   He urged the defense industry to boost production "at a much higher tempo. 
And we need large volumes," he told the Warsaw Security Forum, an annual 
two-day conference that continued Wednesday.

   The Russian Defense Ministry didn't provide any evidence for its claims 
about intercepting Ukrainian drones nor any details about whether there were 
any damage or casualties.

   It also said Russian aircraft thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to deploy a group 
of soldiers by sea to the western side of Russian-annexed Crimea.

   The force attempted to land on Cape Tarkhankut, on Crimea's western end, 
using a high-speed boat and three jet skis, the ministry said.

   Moscow's claims could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials 
made no immediate comment.

   The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, 
has been a frequent target of Ukrainian attacks. The region has been the key 
hub supporting the invasion.

   Fears over the resupply of Ukraine's armed forces have deepened in recent 
weeks.

   The Pentagon has warned Congress that it is running low on money to replace 
weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine.

   Concern about the commitment of Kyiv's allies has also grown amid political 
turmoil in the United States amid the unprecedented and dramatic ouster Tuesday 
of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

   Some in the House Republican majority, and many GOP voters, oppose sending 
more military aid to Ukraine. The U.S. is by far Ukraine's largest military 
supplier.

   Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 
publicly questioned the motives of what he called "Western conservative elites."

   "Why are you so insistently against ... destroying the Russian army, which 
has been terrifying," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

   The funding concerns prompted U.S. President Joe Biden to hold a phone call 
Tuesday with key allies in Europe, as well as the leaders of Canada and Japan, 
to coordinate support for Ukraine.

   The call came three days after Biden signed legislation hastily sent to him 
by Congress that kept the federal government funded but left off billions in 
funding for Ukraine's war effort that the White House had vigorously backed.