Western Powers Promise Ukraine Longer-Range Weapons to Fight Russia

Western powers on Friday promised longer-range weapons Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion, while the European Union (EU) backed the former Soviet republic’s candidacy to join the bloc at the Kyiv summit.

The United States has announced a new $2.2 billion aid package in the form of weapons, including missiles, that could almost double the range of Ukrainian artillery.

“The United States will continue to work with its allies and partners to ensure Ukraine ability to respond to immediate battlefield needs and long-term security needs,” the Pentagon said.

France and Italy will donate MAMBA medium-range anti-aircraft missile system to help Ukraine to “protect against attacks by drones, missiles and Russian aircraft,” the French defense ministry said.

Bakhmut, “fortress”

Almost a year after the start of the Russian invasion, the fighting is concentrated in the east of the country, especially in Bakhmut, which has been under siege and bombardment for several weeks.

“No one will hand over Bakhmut […]. We will fight as long as we can” to protect this “fortress,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.

journalists from AFP confirmed on Friday the severity of the clashes, which left some of the city’s suburbs in ruins.

Smoke billowed from the city center, and Ukrainian military helicopters hovered low over the icy plains to avoid detection.

According to the authorities, there are only 6.5 thousand inhabitants in Bakhmut out of 70 thousand who were before the war.

Alexander Tkachenko, 65, said that he, along with other neighbors, ran to pull a woman out from under the wreckage of her car after the shelling. “Obviously” it was not a military facility, as his car “was red,” he said.

Kherson, a large southern city that was in Russian hands before Ukrainian forces recaptured it, also saw shelling that killed one and wounded another, authorities said.

“Ukraine is the EU, the EU is Ukraine”

President of the European Council (formed by the governments of 27 EU countries) Charles Michel and President of the European Commission (EU executive body) Ursula von der Leyen met with Zelensky and expressed their support. block

“Ukraine is the EU, the EU is Ukraine”, launched by Charles Michel at the end of the summit in Kyiv, where anti-aircraft sirens sounded twice during the day.

Ukraine he has been a candidate member since June 2022, a process that requires numerous reforms and could take years.

The President of Ukraine has assured that his country will not lose “a day” to fulfill the integration requirements and considers it “possible” to start negotiations this year.

European leaders in their statement stressed Ukraine’s “progress” in building “independent and effective” anti-corruption institutions.

Use Russian assets?

Von der Leyen announced that the EU is preparing new sanctions against Russia February 24, the first anniversary of the invasion.

He did not give details of this tenth package of measures, but said that Moscow must “pay for the destruction it has caused.”

The chairman of the commission said that limiting the export price of Russian oil to $60 a barrel, in place since December, is costing Moscow 160 million euros ($174 million) a day.

This Sunday, the European embargo on Russian oil products exported by sea will also come into force. This measure, according to Moscow, will have a “negative” impact, as it will “unbalance” the markets even more.

In a joint statement following the Kyiv summit, European leaders said that “the EU will intensify its efforts to use the frozen assets from Russia to support the reconstruction of Ukraine and in order to make reparations in accordance with European law and international law.”

For its part, Russia announced the “nationalization” of about 500 goods and assets owned primarily by Ukrainian oligarchs in Crimea, a peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.

(AFP)