Vladimir Putin swore, this Thursday, February 2, to have something to “respond” to Westerners delivering weapons to Ukraine, a threat that comes amid speculation about a new Russian military escalation. Speaking during the ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in Stalingrad, the Russian president drew a new parallel between Russia’s offensive against its neighbor and the Second World War.
For Vladimir Putin, the conflict in Ukraine is part of the legacy of the USSR’s triumph over Hitler. He accused Ukrainian officials of being “neo-Nazis” orchestrating the “genocide” of Russian-speaking populations. He thus felt that history was repeating itself, with the supply of German tanks to Ukraine to fight Russia. “It’s incredible, but German Leopard tanks are threatening us again,” insisted Vladimir Putin, who was speaking from Volgograd (ex-Stalingrad, south-west), before adding: “we have something to answer and it will not be limited to armored vehicles”.
Russian forces recently scored their first success in months by taking Soledar, a town in eastern Ukraine. And many observers believe that Moscow is preparing a new major offensive around February 24.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assured Ukraine of the full support of the European Union, arriving in kyiv on Thursday accompanied by her commissioners for a meeting on the eve of an EU-Ukraine summit.
“By February 24, exactly one year after the start of the invasion, we aim to put in place the tenth sanctions package,” she announced during a joint press conference with the Ukrainian president. Volodymyr Zelensky. Existing sanctions “erode the Russian economy”, said Ursula von der Leyen, estimating that the Russian oil price cap was costing Moscow “around 160 million euros a day”.
“I am reassured to see the anti-corruption bodies on alert and quickly detecting cases of corruption,” she also added alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose “rapid reaction at the political level” she praised for that this fight has “tangible results”.
“We see today that the pace of sanctions in Europe has slowed down a bit,” said President Zelensky. “The faster and more qualitatively this task will be done, the closer we will be to defeating Russian aggression,” he said.
For his part, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov accused, on Thursday, the West of supporting Ukraine to put an end to “the Russian question”, accusing the head of the European Commission by name. Ursula von der Leyen “said that the result of the war must be the defeat of Russia, and such a defeat that it will not recover for decades,” Sergei Lavrov said in a television interview.
Rescuers were active this Thursday at dawn to try to find survivors in the rubble of an apartment building in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, destroyed by a Russian strike. The strike took place on Wednesday February 1 around 9:45 p.m. against eight buildings in the center of Kramatorsk, one of which completely collapsed, Donetsk police said on their Facebook account. About 100 police were deployed to search the rubble.
At least three people were killed and around 20 injured in the Russian missile launch, police said. “Three people were killed and twenty others injured” and “at least eight apartment buildings were damaged, including one completely destroyed. People could be under the rubble,” Donetsk police said. “More than a hundred police officers are at work at the scene of the attack,” she said.
“Peaceful people are dead and lie under the rubble,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote after the rocket fire. “It’s the daily reality of life in our country. A country bordering on absolute evil,” he said. The city of Kramatorsk is located in the eastern region of Donetsk.
Poland would be willing to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if there is a consensus within NATO, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday. “If there was a decision by all (member states) of NATO, I would be in favor of sending these fighter planes,” said Mateusz Morawiecki in an interview with the German daily. Picture.
“My assessment depends on what the member countries of NATO decide together,” he added, stressing the need for “strategic reflection from the whole of NATO” for such a decision.
Last week, the West reached a plateau in military aid to Ukraine when Germany and the United States finally announced the shipment of heavy tanks. But Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for even more extensive assistance, including the delivery of long-range missiles and combat aircraft.
On Thursday, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace did not rule out supplying Ukraine with fighter jets, while warning that it was not a “magic wand” given the training time necessary. The Typhoon and F-35 aircraft are “extremely sophisticated and it takes months to learn how to fly them”, “we believe it is not practical to send these planes to Ukraine”, the carrier said on Tuesday. word of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The UK said last month it planned to send tanks to Ukraine at the end of March, after becoming the first country to pledge heavy armour, in this case 14 Challenger 2 tanks.
Parliamentarians from 20 countries want to ban the Russian delegation from an OSCE meeting scheduled for the end of the month in Vienna. Such participation on such a symbolic date (the start of the invasion in Ukraine) would send “the wrong signal” to the international community and “could even be perceived as a provocation”, they write in a letter to the Austrian authorities consulted on Thursday. by AFP.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has 57 member states, is holding its parliamentary assembly on 23rd and 24th February in the Austrian capital. The OSCE, established in 1975, at the heart of the Cold War, to promote East-West exchanges, should not be “an unconditional forum for dialogue”, write the deputies of fifteen countries of the European Union (EU), including French and Germans, as well as the UK, Ukraine, Georgia, Iceland and Canada.
Moscow would be happy to use the opportunity “to sow disinformation” and “to transmit its propaganda”, they add, fearing “indirect legitimation”, “as if things were returning to normal”. At the previous two meetings in the UK and Poland in 2022, no visas were granted to Russian members who are under EU sanctions, according to Kyiv. But Austria, a neutral country hosting many international organizations including the OSCE, says it is “obligated to grant access to representatives of all OSCE participating States under international law”.
A high-ranking Russian lieutenant who fled after serving in Ukraine described to Guardian how his country’s troops tortured prisoners of war and threatened some of them with rape. Konstantin Yefremov left Russia in December after spending three months in areas of Zaporizhia Oblast that were occupied during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “I personally saw our troops torturing Ukrainian soldiers. During the interrogations, they were beaten for a whole week, every day, sometimes even at night,” he told the British newspaper during a call. phone call from Mexico, where he is now. “I feel relieved to finally be able to talk about the things I saw.”
Yefremov is one of a growing number of soldiers who fled Russia and spoke out against the war. He was previously based in Chechnya in the Russian army’s 42nd Motorized Rifle Division, where he was involved in mine clearance. In early February last year, two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, he said he was sent with his unit to Crimea to take part in what he was told were military exercises . He says he tried to flee as soon as he realized he would be sent to fight in Ukraine. But he was reportedly threatened with 10 years in prison for desertion by his superiors and finally decided to return to his unit. “It was a mistake, I should have tried harder to leave,” he told the Guardian.
Russia warned Israel on Wednesday against possible arms deliveries to Ukraine, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “looking into the matter”. “When it comes to arms deliveries (to Ukraine), we do not classify countries according to geography. We are saying that all countries that deliver arms must understand that we will consider (these arms) as legitimate targets for Russian armed forces,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of the possibility of Israeli supplies.
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine last February, Israel has sought to remain neutral in this conflict, for example not supplying arms to kyiv despite repeated requests from Volodymyr Zelensky. Israel has also asserted privileged ties with Moscow, the Jewish state having more than a million citizens from the former Soviet Union and Russia having troops in Syria, a neighboring country of Israel. On Wednesday, however, Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was considering military aid for Ukraine, while offering to mediate in the Ukrainian conflict.
A US defense company said on Wednesday it wanted to supply two sophisticated combat drones to Ukraine for just a token dollar and called on the US government to approve the deal.
General Atomic Aeronautical Systems, a subsidiary of General Atomics, said it had been urging Washington for months to deliver to Ukraine its powerful Gray Eagle and Reaper drones (also called “killer drones”), used by the American armed forces during surveillance and targeted attack operations in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and other conflict areas. These drones, which can travel long distances at medium altitude, are among the technologies that would strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities in the war between it and Russia, according to the manufacturer.
The United States has provided Ukraine with several small combat and surveillance drones, but none have the advanced technologies and long-range capabilities of General Atomics’ devices.
