Russian sportsmen: world athletics wants to reassess anti-doping sanctions first
The boss of world athletics Sebastian Coe stressed on Friday that his body would first study the status of the Russians from the angle of anti-doping sanctions, before examining those linked to the war in Ukraine, the subject of international tension. In athletics, the Russian Federation has indeed been suspended since the end of 2015 for having set up an institutionalized doping system, and its athletes forced to compete in major world competitions under a neutral banner.
Ukrainian authorities say they eliminated 800 Russian soldiers in 24 hours
In the daily report of the Ukrainian government on Thursday, it is pointed out that the Ukrainian army eliminated 800 soldiers on the Russian side in the last 24 hours. In all, 141,260 soldiers have been killed on the Russian side since the start of the conflict.
These figures should be taken with caution because it is difficult to know the actual number of deaths from this war for the moment. Russia only very rarely gives figures on its losses, like Ukraine on its own.
Zelensky against any territorial “deal” with Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a published interview by BBC Thursday that he refuses any agreement to share the east of his country with his Russian counterpart in exchange for a ceasefire.
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The war in Ukraine on the menu of the Munich Security Conference
THE Ukrainian file is on the menu of the Munich Security Conference which brings together more than 150 government representatives on Friday, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, and to which Russia has not been invited this year. Influential Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, in an interview with AFP, said it was “possible” that an agreement would be reached in Munich on the delivery of combat aircraft to kyiv.
“A new big package of sanctions” coming against Russia
The United States and its allies are preparing the adoption of new sanctions against Russia for the first anniversary of the offensive, Victoria Nuland told reporters on ThursdayAssistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs.
“You will see around the 24th a new big package of sanctions from the United States and all our G7 partner allies,” she said. “These sanctions will deepen and broaden in some categories the measures we have already taken, most notably to limit the flow of technology to the Russian defense industry.”
At the opening of the Berlinale, Zelensky calls on art and cinema to engage
Cinema (…) can inspire and influence people who can change the world”, said Volodymyr Zelensky at the opening of the Berlinale, which decided to shine its spotlight on Ukraine. “Culture and cinema cannot be outside of politics, when it comes to a policy of aggression, mass crimes, murders, terror (…) a policy of total war like is that of Russia,” continued the Ukrainian president, speaking by video.
Wagner criticizes the Russian army and sees Bakhmout resisting until spring
The boss of the Russian paramilitaries of Wagner judged that Bakhmout, epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, would not fall before “March or April”. Because “to take Bakhmout, you have to cut all the Ukrainian supply routes”, said Evguéni Prigojine in a video posted on the internet.
“I think we would have taken Bakhmout if it weren’t for this monstrous military bureaucracy and if we weren’t being put in the way every day,” he continued in another video, spreading in the public arena his differences with the military hierarchy.
Intense fighting continues in eastern Ukraine
An intensification of fighting in eastern Ukraine has been observed for several days, as the anniversary of the start of the conflict approaches. And while Russia is suspected of preparing a new major assault.
But the Ukrainians are still resisting in the Donbass, notably in Bakhmout, but also in other towns in the East. “The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces repelled Russian ground attacks near Bilohorivka and in the Serebrianska forest area,” reports the Institute for the Study of War.
