This Friday, members of the European Commission were in Kiec to support Ukraine’s application for membership of the European Union.
LUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured on Friday that his country would defend the key city of Bakhmout (east) “as long as it could”, by receiving European leaders in kyiv who came to support Ukraine’s candidacy for the Union European.
Almost a year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bakhmut has become the epicenter of the fighting and Moscow’s forces have in recent weeks secured small territorial gains in the region at the cost of heavy losses. . “No one will abandon Bakhmout (…) We will fight as long as we can,” said Mr. Zelensky after a summit with senior European officials, calling this city a “fortress”.
“If (Western to kyiv) arms deliveries are accelerated, especially long-range weapons, not only are we not going to withdraw from Bakhmout, (but) we are going to start ending the occupation of the Donbass,” an eastern region partly in Russian hands, he added.
Charles Michel promises to “support” Ukraine’s accession to the European Union
fields of ruins
AFP reporters noted on Friday the violence of the clashes which reduced certain neighborhoods on the outskirts of Bakhmout to ruins, with the incessant dull percussions of the artillery and the exchange of heavy fire with small arms.
Smoke billowed from the city center as Ukrainian military helicopters hovered low over frozen plains to avoid being spotted and shot down. According to the authorities, some 6,500 inhabitants are still in this city which had around 70,000 before the war.
On Thursday, one person was killed and seven were injured in an attack on a vehicle carrying volunteer rescue workers, according to local authorities. Oleksandre Tkatchenko, 65, said he rushed with other neighbors to extricate a woman from the wreckage of the vehicle. It was “clearly” not a military target, because the car “was red”, he denounces.
Shelling also continued in Kherson, a major southern city captured and then abandoned by the Russians, where one person was killed and one injured on Friday, authorities said.
New US military aid
The same day, in Washington, the United States announced new military aid, of more than two billion dollars, to Ukraine including “crucial air defense capabilities”, as well as “armored infantry vehicles” and ammunition for the Himars rocket launcher system
Meanwhile, in Kyiv, European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior EU officials met with Zelensky. The Ukrainian head of state affirmed that kyiv would not lose “a single day” to move towards entry into the European Union, adding that he wanted to start negotiations on this subject as early as “this year”.
European leaders hailed in a statement the “considerable efforts” made by Ukraine despite the war, stressing “the progress” in the creation of “independent and effective” institutions responsible for fighting against the corruption that plagues this country. “We repeated that the implementation of deep and coherent judicial reforms (…) remained essential” to allow the integration process to move forward, they nevertheless added, without mentioning a precise timetable. “Ukraine is the EU, the EU is Ukraine,” said Charles Michel after the summit in kyiv, where warning sirens sounded twice during the day.
Ukraine has been an official candidate for membership of the European Union since June 2022, an arduous process requiring many reforms that could last for years.
Use Russian assets?
Ursula von der Leyen said she was working on new sanctions against Russia by February 24, the first anniversary of the invasion. She did not give details of her intentions for this tenth package, but felt that this country should “pay for the destruction it has caused”.
She said the punitive measures taken over the past year had already set back the Russian economy by “a generation”, noting that capping the price of Russian oil exports at $60 a barrel was costing Moscow 160 million euros a year. day.
A European embargo on Russian refined petroleum products sent abroad by sea must already come into force on Sunday, the Kremlin having meanwhile castigated a “negative” measure on Friday which will “further unbalance” the markets.
Zelensky’s security adviser: “We are prepared for a new offensive, but the war will not last”
In their joint statement after the summit, EU leaders also said they wanted to “intensify” efforts “to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and for reparations purposes, in accordance with European and international law”. Ukraine and some of its allies have been calling for such a measure for several months, but it would pose several legal problems.
