Earlier today, a Russian official said air defences had thwarted a drone attack on the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl. The UK government is providing a range of economic, humanitarian and defensive military assistance to Ukraine, and is imposing additional sanctions on Russia and Belarus. 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. It killed at least 41 civilians, including a 15-year-old boy, wounded hundreds, and caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure, including a maternity hospital.
After 2,000 anti-tank weapons were delivered last week and 30 British troops arrived to teach Ukrainian forces how to use them, the phrase "God Save the Queen" began trending on Twitter in Ukraine. Some bars and restaurants in Kyiv were offering free drinks to anyone who had a UK passport. We will continue to work with Ukraine and our international partners for a just and sustainable peace. Ambassador Neil Holland condemns Russia's air attacks this week on Kyiv and Kharkiv, as well as the spate of attacks on Ukraine over the past month. While the president did not mention anything about Russia’s place on the international stage, the speech came just days after he visited his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Azerbaijan.
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“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. One Whitehall source told the Times that the training of Ukrainian civilians on UK soil could act as a rehearsal for rapid Army expansion. But he was making the point that if war broke out troop numbers would be too small. Conscription requires young men and women to serve for a limited time in uniform. It means that some of the population will have had some military training - and can then be assigned to reserve units should war break out.
A little earlier, we told you about a report in the Financial Times that the EU was proposing to sabotage Hungary's economy if Budapest blocks further aid for Ukraine this week. A spate of Ukraine-linked attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure have reportedly led Moscow's energy ministry to propose restricting flights over energy facilities. Meanwhile, Indian thinktank Observer Research Foundation's Russia expert, Nandan Unnikrishnan, said India was unlikely to sign "any major military deal" with Russia because it would cross a red line with the US. Unnamed Indian government sources have suggested India wants to distance itself from Russia, according to Reuters news agency. "A frank and constructive dialogue is expected to improve relations between states," the Ukrainian president's office said on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photo of Mr Szijjarto, Mr Kuleba and Mr Yermak.
Opposition to Russia's demands
Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too. In Sweden and Norway, conscription is partial - not everyone gets drafted. But it boosts the strength of the professional armed forces, which is often relatively small.
- Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak.
- Russia has seen more success in eastern Ukraine, by pounding their opposing forces and holding them back with an onslaught.
- Ambassador Neil Holland condemns Russia's air attacks this week on Kyiv and Kharkiv, as well as the spate of attacks on Ukraine over the past month.
- Foreign Secretary Liz Truss summoned Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, for the second time this week to ask him to explain the "illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded with Western nations for these types of missiles for months - but the requests have been denied, especially by the US. Storm Shadow is a long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed by British Aerospace and a French company, which carries a 450kg conventional warhead to a range of up to 200 miles (300km). Ukraine has long been calling for long-range missiles, but the US and other countries have been unwilling to supply them in case strikes inside Russia lead to escalation. The others are Serhiy Arbuzov and Andriy Kluyev, who both served as deputy prime minister under Mr Yanukovych. Also named is https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-a-vacuum-bomb-ukraine.html , the former deputy head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, who was this week made the subject of US sanctions for allegedly working with Russian intelligence.
This may lead Putin to conclude that he can still emerge victorious in his confrontation with the West, which is bound to encourage further provocations in future. Russia wants assurances that Ukraine will never be allowed to join Nato; that Nato members will have no permanent forces or infrastructure based in Ukraine; and for a halt to military exercises near Russia's border. While the official said it was hard to say these were all strategically related, it showed that there was an issue on Eastern Europe's eastern flank. Western intelligence estimates that Russia already has up to 100,000 troops positioned near to the border with Ukraine, along with tanks and artillery. Washington has suggested that force could rise to 175,000 by the end of January.
Colleagues, two years ago, Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Cuts have already seen the size of the British Army fall from more than 100,000 in 2010 to around 73,000 now. Gen Sanders said that within the next three years the British Army needed to be 120,000 strong with the addition of reserves. But he said even that is not enough - so the Army should be designed to expand rapidly "to enable the first echelon, resource the second echelon, and train and equip the citizen army that must follow".
- "We divided our systems for different types of threats," he says, though of course this means relying on the West for ammunition and maintenance.
- While Covid was a useful exercise in Armageddon planning, 21st-century Britain is arguably less ready for actual warfare than it was even 30 years ago.
- The UK's Ministry of Defence said Russian forces based in Belarus were advancing towards Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
“This represents a continuation of Russia’s minor incremental gains whilst Ukraine focuses on active defence,” the report reads. “As the main supply route remains intact, and Ukrainian forces make local counter-attacks, Avdiivka is likely to remain in Ukrainian control over the coming weeks,” the report said. “The two leaders will reaffirm their resolute support for Ukraine’s defence of its land and its people against Russia’s war of aggression,” the White House said in a statement Saturday. The UK's defence secretary has also warned that we need to be prepared for a war. In his first major speech on defence, Grant Shapps said the country was moving from a "post war to a pre-war world". Mr Johnson was among leaders of the G7 group of wealthy nations who met to discuss the situation.
If Ukraine was part of Nato, the military alliance which is made up of 30 member states, including the US and UK, every Nato nation would have to launch an armed attack against Russia. Fighting could spread into Belarus where Russian forces are already stationed. Nato powers are already promising to build up their own forces in the alliance's eastern flank.
- Here, according to former Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) head Professor Michael Clarke and retired Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell, are a few of the lessons the MoD will be taking on board.
- NATO believed the main threat to Western Europe came from advancing Soviet tanks and developed equipment to use against them on the battlefield.
- Unfortunately for the Russians, it was clear they hadn't planned sufficiently well to undertake an effective invasion, and the forces operating their equipment were not well enough trained to adapt when things went wrong.
- They include Mykola Azarov, who served as prime minister under the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for an international investigation into the crash.
But the official noted there had been a combination of sharp bellicose rhetoric from Moscow, accusations of being provoked by Ukraine and Nato, a lack of transparency, and a worrying track record, including the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The intelligence official described the build-up as a "slow drip" and a "slow ratcheting up of pressure". In response to reports the deal had been done, Moscow said the move would require an "adequate response from our military". The Ukrainian ambassador to the UK said his country was "prepared to fight" but that it was "not that well equipped" for a prolonged conflict with Russia.