Imminent Ukrainian spring offensive
10:13 am | According to Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence of Ukraine Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine is preparing for a spring offensive, in which they will attempt to recapture all territory that the Russians have captured. “Our troops will not stop until our borders are the same as they were in 1991,” Skibitsky told a German newspaper.
To achieve this goal, Ukrainian troops want to drive a wedge between the Russian front in the south, between Crimea and Russian-occupied territory. “This is how we will liberate the Ukrainians, including in the Crimea.”
According to Reuters, Skibitsky is also considering attacking weapons and military equipment depots on Russian territory in the future, for example around Belgorod. Many attacks against Ukraine are launched from there.
Putin: Russia considers NATO nuclear power
08:40 | Russia must consider NATO’s nuclear capabilities as the US-led alliance seeks to liquidate Russia, President Vladimir Putin said in a speech to the Federation Council on Sunday. He said that the West is indirectly complicit in the crimes committed by the Kiev regime.
The West is determined to dismember Russia in order to dominate it, the Russian president said. He speaks in an almost annual address to the council, which is Russia’s upper house.
Finance ministers condemn Moscow
07:39 | Finance ministers of the world’s largest economies strongly condemned Moscow’s actions in the Ukraine war at a G20 summit in Bangalore, India. The countries – with the exception of China and Russia – have signed a joint statement condemning the Russians.
G20 chairman India was reluctant to bring war to the table, but Western countries insisted they would not support any outcome without condemning Russia.
Since no consensus could be reached among the G20 members, India has drawn up a list listing all texts and topics.
The CIA chief also warns that China wants to send weapons to Russia
02:35 | The US intelligence service CIA is certain that China is considering supplying weapons to Russia. However, a final decision has not yet been made, CIA Director Bill Burns said in an interview with CBS News. By disclosing this information, the US government wants to influence the Chinese decision. “That would be a very risky and reckless gamble,” Burns said of possible Chinese arms shipments.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also publicly expressed concern about China supplying weapons to Russia after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi last week. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell then warned that China will cross “a red line”.
China calls US suggestion false. The country has tried for the past year to take a neutral position in the war between Ukraine and Russia, to the frustration of the United States.
New Czech president: Putin behaves like Hitler
01:54 | Russian President Vladimir Putin acts like Adolf Hitler on the eve of World War II. The warning was given by the new Czech president Petr Pavel on Saturday evening at the end of a rally in support of Ukraine. Thousands of Czechs had come to the demonstration in Prague.
Pavel reminded the protesters that Putin justified the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the grounds that the Russian minority in that country was being suppressed. Similarly, at the time, Hitler used the German minority in what was then Czechoslovakia and tried to incite them to violence against the government, Pavel said.
In September 1938, Germany annexed the border region of the Sudetenland, where many Germans lived. Six months later, the German army occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Pavel, a former general who previously held a senior position in NATO, was elected president in January. He will be sworn in on March 9.
Zelensky praises new EU sanctions package against Russia
02-25-2023 – 22:31 | Volodimir Zelensky hailed the European Union’s tenth package of sanctions against aggressor Russia as an important step on Saturday evening. “It is powerful, against the military industry and the financial sector of the state of terror and against the propagandists who have drowned Russian society in lies and who are trying to spread their lies around the world,” the Ukrainian president said in his daily video message.
He added that the Kremlin’s plan is doomed to fail. Zelensky also insisted on even more punitive measures, for example against Moscow’s nuclear activities. Earlier in the day he announced via Twitter that he was awaiting concrete “decisive steps” against the state-owned company Rosatom and the Russian nuclear industry in general.
The EU decided on Friday evening, after lengthy negotiations, to impose sanctions against 87 other individuals and 34 organizations who contribute in one way or another to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Below that is Alfa Bank, which ranks as Russia’s largest privately owned financial institution.
Government officials and senior officials, among others, have been blacklisted for involvement in the deportation and forced adoption of Ukrainian children. All detainees are no longer allowed to enter EU countries and all assets there are frozen.