Overnight News Digest on March 12

Highlights:

• Zelensky: “We need to further limit Putin’s access… to resources.”
• Zelensky: Three defense lines across 2,000 kilometers created
• Hungary Prime Minister Orban tells of Trump’s version to end war after talks
• CNN: Russia produces three times more artillery than Kyiv’s partners altogether
• Pentagon: $10 billion required to replace materiel sent to Ukraine
• CIA chief Burns says it would be “massive and historic mistake” to stop funding Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation that Kyiv’s allies must “further limit” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “access to resources,” implying the quantity of Western components that are still found in Russian weaponry.

He emphasized the “need for more weapons for our independence” from partners, namely “drones, artillery and transportation vehicles.”

Three defense lines are being fortified along 2,000 kilometers “to meet the threats” of advancing Russian forces, Zelensky said in his nightly address. British defense intelligence said on March 10 that Kyiv “has almost certainly accelerated the construction of defensive positions on several areas of the front line.”

After losing the Donetsk regional industrial town of Avdiivka, Ukraine’s second wartime president said that “everything is being done for the interests of the lives of soldiers who are holding the front line.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told local media that he believes that US Republican presidential candidate front-runner Donald Trump would cut off all aid to Ukraine to end the war, implying that Russia would win without Washington’s support, which has supplied the vast bulk of security assistance. In an interview on March 11 following his meeting in the US, Orban said “Trump has a clear vision that is hard to disagree with… He will not give a single penny for the Russo-Ukrainian war. That’s why the war will end.”

Other Topics of Interest

Zelensky Meets CIA Director William Burns in Ukraine

Zelensky said he had met Burns on multiple occasions throughout the war, but their meetings had been undisclosed.

Author and historian Anne Applebaum said on X (formerly Twitter) that “Americans don’t seem to realize that Trump’s policy” of letting Russia win “is slowly becoming America’s policy. For more than six months at his bidding, a minority in the House [of Representatives] has blocked aid to Ukraine.”

Pentagon and NATO sources reportedly told CNN that despite war-related sanctions, Russia is slated to produce three times more “artillery munitions” than the US and Europe combined. As Moscow could muster 3 million artillery materiel per year, “collectively,” Kyiv’s allies have the capacity to generate “1.2 million munitions annually,” the Atlanta-based news source said.

The quadrennial presidential election is taking place in November most likely between incumbent Joe Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, who has been twice impeached and faces 91 counts of criminal charges and civil penalties in four lawsuits, two of which are federal. During any election, Biden discloses his income tax statements, whereas Trump has refused to replicate the traditional practice, although it is not required by law.

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters in Washington that there is a shortfall in funding of about $10 billion for the country’s own weapons to replace those that have been sent to Ukraine amid a genocidal war that is entering its 11th year.

Speaking of a deadlock in the lower legislature of the US Congress for future aid to Ukraine, Hicks told reporters that “we don't foresee a likely alternative outside of the supplemental funding [bill] or having that money added into an appropriations bill in order to achieve the replenishment that we need.”

CIA head William Burns warned the Senate Select Committee on March 11 that it would be “a massive and historic mistake” for Washington to slash funding to Kyiv that Biden wants to continue. More than $60 billion is stalling in the House of Representative after the Senate’s approval by a minority cohort of lawmakers who are loyal to Trump. Without further US security assistance, upon which Kyiv has been mostly reliant, Ukraine is likely to lose “significant ground” this year to Russia, Burns said. He added that the momentum in the Russo-Ukrainian war has shifted in Moscow’s favor after it captured the Donetsk regional town of Avdiivka. In January, according to reporting in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Burns wrote an essay that Putin’s grip on power is “eroding” and has stoked an “undercurrent of disaffection” with the populace.