direct. War in Ukraine: the Westerners promised Kyiv “a total of 321 heavy tanks”

In the early morning there were new bombings in the Sumy area. 120 mm shells were fired at the village of Bachivsk. According to Ukrainian officials, while infrastructure was affected, no one was injured.

According to data from central banks, money transfers from Russia to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Georgia have reached record levels of around 300-500% over the past year.

Former Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group who took refuge in Norway and have just been released by the Norwegian police would have given very serious testimony. According to Reuters, he said he saw some of his comrades being shot as they tried to flee from the Ukrainian front. In addition, 26-year-old Andrei Medvedev says he feared for his life after Russian prisoners listed by the Wagner group were killed or abused.

According to energy supplier in Ukraine difficulties on power supply especially in the regions of Odessa and Donetsk. Some facilities were bombed. On the other hand, the situation in Kyiv and the Dnepropetrovsk region has stabilized.

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine will summon the Hungarian ambassador to Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolaenko called the comments made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban about Ukraine “completely unacceptable”. Orban said Ukraine was a no man’s land and compared it to Afghanistan. According to him, Budapest is taking a deliberate step aimed at “destroying Hungarian-Ukrainian relations”.

The Foreign Ministry has announced that it wants to buy generators for one million euros for schools and hospitals without electricity after several bombings.

In his latest video intervention, Ukrainian President Zelensky denounced the “hypocrisy” of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and invited its leader Thomas Bach to visit Bakhmut, one of the hottest points of the war with Russia.

“I invite Mr. Bach to Bakhmut so that he can see with his own eyes that neutrality does not exist”, he said, adding, “It is clear that any neutral flag of the Russian players is stained with blood”. The IOC said on Wednesday it is “studying” the possibility of allowing them to participate under a neutral banner, despite Ukraine’s repeated calls to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

In its daily statement, the British Ministry of Defense returned to the shelling of Russian barracks in Makievka, near the city of Donetsk, on January 1, 2023. According to intelligence, the Russians likely suffered over 300 casualties during this bombardment. “We estimate that most were probably killed or missing rather than injured.” The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the losses, reporting 89 casualties.

“The difference between the number of victims acknowledged by Russia and the likely actual total highlights the widespread presence of misinformation in Russian public announcements”, underlines the ministry: “This usually results from deliberate lies authorized by senior leaders.” combination” and erroneous reporting by more junior officers, eager to downplay their failures in the Russian culture of “blame and dismissal”.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles has announced that Leopard tanks to be sent by Spain to Ukraine will arrive in Ukraine at the earliest this spring, once the development process is completed, under a decision taken by Western allies. According to him, these tanks are currently located in Zaragoza.

Mstyslav Chernov’s documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” depicting the first weeks of the Russian invasion won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States. The production team stated, “The film depicts the start of the Russian invasion, the bombing of the maternity ward, and the rescue of the author and his Associated Press colleagues from a city besieged by Russian troops.” The film also involved photographer Evgeny Maloletka and field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko.

North Korea has condemned the US decision to send tanks to Ukraine. Washington has “further crossed the red line” in accusing the United States of being responsible for the war in Ukraine, according to Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. “Behind this decision is the sinister desire of the United States to achieve its goal of hegemony” by waging a “proxy war to destroy Russia”, he continued. He assured that Pyongyang would “always” stand by the Russians.

A 100 billion euro fund to modernize the German military, announced by Olaf Scholz after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “will not be enough”, warned Boris Pistorius on Friday. Germany, which announced the delivery of heavy tanks to Kyiv on Wednesday, was thus, according to the minister, faced with new procurement expenses that were not planned at the start of the Russian offensive.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday, “Latvian ambassador, (Maris) Reiksteins has been ordered to leave the Russian Federation within two weeks.” In recent days, there has been high diplomatic tension between the two countries over the war in Ukraine.

“I want to say, after reading some of the statements from Moscow, how appalling, shocking they are,” said Catherine Colonna, the head of French diplomacy on Friday, referring to Vladimir Putin’s remarks against “neo-Nazis in Ukraine”. “It’s an unqualified provocation as of today.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to France, Vadim Omelchenko, underlined on Friday evening that heavy tanks promised by several countries needed to be received as quickly as possible to counter the Russian army.

When asked about BFMTV, the ambassador announced that “several countries have officially confirmed their agreement to deliver 321 heavy tanks to Ukraine”. According to him, Kyiv needs this help “as soon as possible”. “If it waits until August or September, it will be too late,” he warned.

And welcome to this direct dedicated to the war in Ukraine.