Ukraine has been promised longer-range Western weapons, military aid that its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, relies on to end “Russia’s brutal aggression.”
The new US military aid, amounting to 2.2 billion dollars, includes in this regard rockets which could almost double the range of the Ukrainian strike force, according to the Pentagon.
These are in particular GLSDB (Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb) bombs, small-diameter devices fired from the ground that can reach a target 150 km away and therefore threaten Russian positions behind the front lines.
“The handover of the GLSDBs will not take place for several months,” however, said a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Garron Garn, citing production and delivery schedules. He was also unable to specify the number for “security reasons”.
“If the delivery of weapons accelerates, especially long-range weapons, not only will we not withdraw from Bakhmout, [mais] we will begin to put an end to the occupation of Donbass”, an eastern region partly in the hands of the Russians, affirmed the Ukrainian president.
The army will defend “as long as it can” this key eastern city which Russian soldiers have been trying to seize for months, “no one will abandon” this “fortress”, hammered Mr. Zelensky .
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. .
Paris has announced that France and Italy will provide a MAMBA medium-range surface-to-air defense system in the spring to help Ukraine “defend against attacks by Russian drones, missiles and aircraft”.
And Portugal said on Saturday it is willing to send German-made Leopard 2 heavy tanks to Ukraine, but said it must first work with Berlin to restore some of its armor to working order.
In addition, the US Justice Minister announced on Friday the first transfer of confiscated Russian funds from an oligarch in the amount of $5.4 million, with the aim of helping Ukraine, according to CNN.
Russian bombings
Journalists from Agence France-Presse noted on Friday the violence of the clashes which reduced certain neighborhoods on the outskirts of Bakhmout to ruins.
According to the authorities, this town now has around 6,500 inhabitants compared to around 70,000 before the war.
Shelling also continued in Kherson, a major southern city taken and then abandoned by the Russians, where one person was killed and another injured on Friday, authorities said.
On Saturday, the major port city of Odessa suffered major power cuts following a technical incident at an electricity station, which has been the constant target of Russian bombardments in recent times, Prime Minister Denys Chmygal announced.
“The situation is complex, the scale of the accident is significant, it is impossible to quickly restore the power supply, in particular to critical infrastructure,” admitted the head of government.
In addition, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Yermak, announced on Saturday “a new large exchange of prisoners” which enabled kyiv to recover 116 people. He did not comment on the Russian prisoners involved in this exchange.
“Considerable efforts”
On Friday in Kyiv, European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior European officials met with Zelensky.
The latter affirmed that his country would not lose “a single day” in moving towards entry into the European Union and deemed it “possible” to initiate discussions on this subject as early as this year.
European leaders hailed “the progress” in the creation of “independent and effective” institutions responsible for fighting the corruption that plagues this country.
Ukraine has officially been a candidate for membership of the European Union since June 2022, an arduous process requiring many reforms that could last for years.
Oil products
Ms. von der Leyen said she was working on new sanctions against Russia for February 24, the first anniversary of the invasion, judging that she should “pay for the destruction it caused”.
She said the punitive measures taken over the past year have already set back the Russian economy by “a generation”, noting that capping the price of Russian oil exports at $60 a barrel costs Moscow 160 million euros a year. day.
It will be superimposed on a cap on the price of refined petroleum products, which the ambassadors of the EU member states approved on Friday, before final adoption by the European Council.
A European embargo on these same petroleum products sent abroad by sea must already come into force on Sunday, the Kremlin having castigated a “negative” measure which will “further unbalance” the markets.
European leaders have also said they want to “intensify” their efforts “to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and for reparations purposes. »