The diminishing prospects for a deal leave congressional leaders with no clear way to approve a White House request for $110bn in emergency funding for Ukraine, Israel, immigration enforcement and national security needs. However, Russian forces have suffered heavy personnel and armoured vehicle losses, frequently caused by Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicle munitions. If, contrary to what is reflected in futures prices, energy prices stay at current levels beyond the middle of next year, the UK would face a larger and more persistent increase in the price level and fall in real household incomes.
“We currently don’t have evidence that there could have been that many people onboard the aircraft,” Budanov said. The Biden administration has announced the approval of a $23bn deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said. The German government has brought forward its target for 100% renewable electricity by five years to 2035. In response to the current crisis, the EU is proposing expedite plans to link Ukrainian's electricity system to the EU's, which would boost Ukraine's independence from Russia's grid, with which it is currently tied. Germany has said it might need to use coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, for longer than expected, in order to free itself from gas. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-did-ukraine-look-like-before-the-war.html could push up British energy bills to £3,000 in October 2022, potentially a £600 increase from previously expected levels, according to ECIU.
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The intensity, regularity and indiscriminate nature of Russia’s attacks may violate international humanitarian law, is extremely concerning and must stop. Unfortunately, the attacks on Tuesday morning were just the latest of a series of acts of wanton destruction by Russia in Ukraine since we last gathered for a Permanent Council in December. Over the Christmas period, Russia launched hundreds of missile and drone strikes across cities in Ukraine including Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Lviv. This culminated on 29 December, when Russian unleashed its largest aerial assault against Ukraine since the war began.
- Leaders including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have both called for an accelerated roll-out of clean energy.
- Russia has begun a large-scale military attack on Ukraine, its southern neighbour, on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says Nato will “continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all allies”.
- This comes as the US president has been pressing Congress to embrace a bipartisan Senate deal to pair border enforcement measures with aid for Ukraine.
- It's promising to deploy British forces to eastern European members of the Nato military alliance if Russian troops cross Ukraine's borders.
The latest repatriation of bodies appears unrelated to the downing of the plane, which crashed in Russia’s western Belgorod region on Wednesday. Turkey’s parliament ratified Sweden’s Nato membership on Tuesday after more than a year of delays that upset western efforts to show resolve over Russia’s war in Ukraine. The US did not green light the transaction until Turkey’s instruments of ratification of Sweden’s membership had arrived in Washington, a US official said, highlighting the highly sensitive nature of the negotiations, AFP reports. Turkey will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the state department said in a news release. They engaged Ukrainian troops in 98 combat engagements, and carried out four air strikes and 78 shellings with reactive bullets. Russian forces struck the settlement of Maly Burluk on 17 January with an aerial bomb, Synegubov said.
Defence fears if Trump wins
Finland, Nato's newest member and a country which has an 800-mile border with Russia, has wider conscription. Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too. Conscription requires young men and women to serve for a limited time in uniform.
- Cuts have already seen the size of the British Army fall from more than 100,000 in 2010 to around 73,000 now.
- She has advised Estonians to stay calm and says there is no threat currently on Estonian borders.
- The number of regular troops in the Army stands at 75,983, although defence sources insisted applications for the Army were at the highest they had been in six years.
- Unnamed Indian government sources have suggested India wants to distance itself from Russia, according to Reuters news agency.
EU leaders are expected to meet again on 1 February to suss out the financial package. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for an international investigation into the crash. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has pledged to make the findings of Moscow’s crash investigation public. They said Moscow did not ask for any specific stretch of airspace to be kept safe for a certain length of time, as it has for past prisoner exchanges.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, British Petroleum (BP) ditched its 19.75% shareholding in Russian oil giant Rosneft. Several other fossil fuel companies including TotalEnergies, Shell, Equinor, ExxonMobil are also ceasing ventures with Russian majors. For decades the European Union has heavily relied on Russia's oil and gas, generating money and cash for Russia. But Russia is also reliant on revenues from fossil fuel sales, which make up around two fifths of government revenue. With a grave humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine, some fear the war will distract from climate action. As a result of the conflict, oil prices have surged past $100 (£75) a barrel to hit their highest level for more than seven years, which will impact already-rising petrol prices in the UK.
Ukraine wants the opposite – it aspires to be part of the EU and Nato (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) rather than under Russia’s control and so is firmly resisting Putin’s threats. Some autocratic leaders are looking to see how robustly the West resists attempts to undermine the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation. Western powers are acutely aware this crisis is being closely watched by the rest of the world. "We will not reopen that divide by agreeing to overturn the European security order because Russia has placed a gun to Ukraine's head." But both of these demands would break key Nato principles, namely that the alliance should be open to any European country that wants to join and that all Nato members should be sovereign nations.
- Earlier, No 10 said there were no plans to send British combat troops to defend Ukraine, however.
- Moscow has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region.
- Russia has seen more success in eastern Ukraine, by pounding their opposing forces and holding them back with an onslaught.
- Talk of wider war in Europe and the potential need for mass mobilisation or a "citizen army" may sound alarming.
Earlier this week, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing head of the British army, said its 74,000-strong ranks need to be bolstered by at least 45,000 reservists and citizens in order to be better readied for possible conflict. Last month, the European Union paid the final instalment of a multibillion-euro support package to Ukraine to help keep its economy afloat. The European Commission has proposed to provide Ukraine with €50bn ($55bn), with 26 of the 27 nation bloc’s leaders endorsing this plan at a summit before that last payout. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is considered to be Putin’s closest ally in the EU. All the expeditionary wars involved victories that came, generally, in a matter of weeks, sometimes days. As a result, recent military planners assumed the amount of ammunition required and preparation needed would be limited.
- In addition to capturing these impacts on the UK economy forecast, there is a smaller, though significant, impact on the fiscal forecast from lower UK equity prices, which have fallen in the wake of the Russian invasion.
- Meanwhile, the US is struggling to pass a $100 billion military aid package for Ukraine amid Republican opposition, with defence sources warning that if Donald Trump wins the presidential race, it will hand Russia victory.
- Around 350 Royal Marines from 45 Commando were sent to Poland this week – taking the total numbers of military personnel there up to 500 – as the two countries continue to work together to try and de-escalate the tensions around Ukraine.
- It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries.
Russia wants Nato to make a legally binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member. It also wants Nato to withdraw its forces from most Eastern European countries. It is called self-determination, and perhaps the most important aspect of this principle is that borders cannot be changed by invading armies.
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at Please include your name, age and location with any submission. The Foreign Office has warned against all travel to Crimea and two areas of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk oblast and Luhansk oblast. On Sunday, the UK Foreign Office accused Mr Putin of planning to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government, naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a possible candidate. There was a major separatist conflict in Chechnya in the 1990s, with a decade of ultimately unsuccessful fighting for its independence. Earlier, No 10 said there were no plans to send British combat troops to defend Ukraine, however. US President Joe Biden held a video conference with EU leaders, the Nato secretary general and Mr Johnson on Monday evening.