The Russian army resumes an offensive posture in Ukraine. The objective: to get ahead of kyiv, which will soon receive an influx of armored vehicles and Western battle tanks. On the ground, weeks of intense fighting continued to rage around the town of Bakhmut and the neighboring towns of Soledar and Vuhledar, the Ukrainian presidential office said. Ukraine said on Monday (February 6th) that Russian forces had used tank, mortar and artillery fire in Bakhmut over the past 24 hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced personnel changes at the border and at the front will bolster Ukraine’s military efforts amid uncertainty over the future of its defense minister. While kyiv is expecting a new massive campaign of Russian mobilization, the head of state has been invited to Brussels to meet his European allies.
The EU is preparing for a possible visit by Volodymyr Zelensky to Brussels on Thursday to meet bloc leaders and address parliament. The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has invited him to take part in a “future summit” of the 27 EU countries, his spokesman said on Monday. The Ukrainian president was invited “to participate in person”, the spokesperson said, adding that for security reasons “no further information will be provided”.
The Senate, with a right-wing majority, is expected to vote on a motion for a resolution on Tuesday reaffirming its support for Ukraine and calling on the government to strengthen the aid provided, “in particular arms deliveries”. This non-binding text, proposed by the president of the Les Indépendants group Claude Malhuret, was placed on the agenda at the request of the president LR of the Senate Gérard Larcher. It is co-signed in particular by the presidents of the groups LR Bruno Retailleau, centrist Hervé Marseille, RDPI with a majority Renaissance François Patriat and RDSE with a radical majority Jean-Claude Requier.
The Senate will vote on this motion for a resolution, after each of the political groups has spoken. Through this text, the Senate intends to reaffirm “its full support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its borders recognized at the international level by the Budapest memorandum of 1994, confirmed by the Russian Federation in 2009”.
The text “invites” in particular the government “to continue and significantly strengthen its political, economic, military, technical and humanitarian support in order to help Ukraine defend itself against the war of Russian aggression […]” and “in conjunction with its European partners, to continue and strengthen in particular the supply of arms to Ukraine, in the areas identified as most necessary by the Ukrainian authorities”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Mali early Tuesday, in the midst of a security and political idyll between Moscow and the ruling junta in Bamako, an AFP correspondent noted. Sergei Lavrov, who was in Iraq on Monday, was greeted when he got off the plane around 1:30 a.m. (local and GMT) by his counterpart Abdoulaye Diop. The two men did not make a statement to reporters. Sergei Lavrov will be received on Tuesday by the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta. Discussions with Abdoulaye Diop and a press conference are also scheduled.
Sergei Lavrov’s visit to this country plagued by jihadist violence and a deep multidimensional crisis must last less than 24 hours and concretizes the rapprochement operated by the Malian colonels since 2021, at the same time as they broke the military alliance with France and its partners. Although Malian ministers have visited Moscow several times since, the arrival of Sergei Lavrov is presented by the Malian authorities as the “first of its kind”.
Emmanuel Macron posted on Monday his agreement with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on military support for Ukraine, despite rather tense relations between the two leaders, particularly on the issue of migrants. The French president and the head of the Italian government spoke by telephone and “welcomed the joint action of France and Italy to support Ukraine on the military level, with in particular the decision taken jointly at the end of the week last to provide a SAMP / T – MAMBA anti-aircraft defense system, which will fully meet the priority needs expressed by kyiv,” reported the Elysée.
Before the European summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, “the two leaders expressed their determination to continue this support over the long term”, added the French presidency. Giorgia Meloni’s services confirmed that she had underlined “the priority of seeing the European Council give a concrete signal of full support for Ukraine at 360 degrees”. This theme was also at the heart of his telephone conversations with his Dutch counterparts Mark Rutte, Austrian Karl Nehammer and Greek Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The Czech Olympic Committee and government took a stand on Monday against the idea of participation under a neutral banner for Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Paris-2024 Olympic Games. “Russian and Belarusian athletes cannot participate in the Olympics,” the Czech Olympic Committee (COV) said in a statement.
He added that he saw “no reason” to reconsider their ban from most sports competitions decided after the entry of Russian forces into Ukrainian territory on February 24, 2022. However, the COV specifies that it will not push Czech athletes to boycott the Games if the path of reintegration under neutral banner of Russian and Belarusian athletes is chosen by the Olympic movement. “We will naturally respect the wishes of each athlete if he decides not to participate,” he added in a press release.
