KYIV, UKRAINE: Western allies pledged precision rockets and missile techniques to Ukraine on Friday, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy known as for stylish weapons to assist retain management of the embattled japanese metropolis of Bakhmut.
The European Union agreed to introduce value caps on Russian petroleum merchandise to attempt to additional restrict Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s warfare chest by concentrating on his key exports.
The bulletins got here shortly after Zelenskyy advised a summit with EU leaders in Kyiv: “No one will surrender Bakhmut. We will fight as long as we can.
“If weapon (deliveries) are accelerated — particularly long-range weapons — we won’t solely not withdraw from Bakhmut, we are going to start to de-occupy Donbas,” he said of the eastern region of Ukraine.
The United States on Friday announced a new $2.2-billion package of arms and munitions, which the Pentagon said included a new rocket-propelled precision bomb that could nearly double Kyiv’s strike range against Russian forces.
The ground-launched small-diameter bombs, which can fly up to 150 kilometres (93 miles), could threaten key Russian supply lines, arms depots and air bases far behind the front lines.
They potentially give Kyiv’s forces the ability to strike anywhere in the Russian-occupied Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as well as the northern part of occupied Crimea.
France and Italy will deliver mobile surface-to-air missile systems, the French defence ministry said, in response to an urgent request from Kyiv to help protect “civilian populations and infrastructure from Russian air assaults”.
The systems, called MAMBA or SAMP, are a vehicle-mounted battery of medium-range missiles designed to offer protection from airborne threats such as missiles and manned or unmanned aircraft.
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who had requested the weapons, tweeted his gratitude, saying the systems would “assist us save hundreds of lives” from Russian attacks.
Kyiv is also asking for fighter jets.
It has already secured promises from the West for deliveries of modern battle tanks and, after months of hesitation, Germany authorised the delivery of Leopard 1 tanks.
In Brussels, the EU, the Group of Seven industrialised countries and Australia agreed to cap the price of Russian refined oil products to accompany an embargo on ship deliveries of the products that comes into force on Sunday.
Already in December, the EU imposed an embargo on Russian crude oil coming into the bloc by sea and — with its G7 partners — imposed a $60-per-barrel cap on Russian crude exports to other parts of the world.
The new embargo and price caps starting Sunday will target Russian refined oil products such as petrol, diesel and heating fuel arriving on ships.
The Kremlin warned that the measures would destabilise world markets.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen estimated this week that the crude oil price cap costs Moscow around 160 million euros ($170 million) daily.
At the Kyiv summit, the EU praised Ukraine’s “appreciable efforts” to start the reforms needed for joining the bloc, but urged it to go further.
Corruption is a key European concern. Ukraine has widened efforts to tackle it, with raids this week on an oligarch with political connections and a former interior minister.
Zelenskyy, who is pressing for speedy EU accession, suggested Friday that talks could begin this year.
“What precisely did we agree upon in the present day?” Zelensky said in his regular evening address. “There’s an understanding that it’s attainable to begin negotiations on Ukraine’s membership within the European Union this 12 months.”
But the path to joining the EU could take years.
Von der Leyen cautioned that the process was merit-based and there could be “no inflexible timelines” on either negotiations or membership.
For now, the EU says it will do more to divert Russia’s frozen assets for use compensating Ukraine for damage inflicted since the invasion.
Brussels also plans to roll out a new package of sanctions on the first anniversary of the invasion, February 24.
There was no let-up in fighting in Bakhmut, the front line of a prolonged battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Throughout Friday morning, AFP journalists heard a steady exchange of small-arms fire and the pounding of mortar shells to and from Russian positions.
An American humanitarian medic was killed in the city when his evacuation vehicle was hit by a missile, according to Global Outreach Doctors, with whom he was working.
The 33-year-old victim, Pete Reed, was a former US Marine Corps rifleman who also worked as a paramedic, according to the organisation’s founder, Andrew Lustig.
Several others were reportedly hurt in the strike.
Local man Oleksandr Tkachenko, 65, said it was “clear” the automobile, which was destroyed, was not a army goal.
Residents making an attempt to rescue the occupants had additionally come underneath assault, he added.
The European Union agreed to introduce value caps on Russian petroleum merchandise to attempt to additional restrict Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s warfare chest by concentrating on his key exports.
The bulletins got here shortly after Zelenskyy advised a summit with EU leaders in Kyiv: “No one will surrender Bakhmut. We will fight as long as we can.
“If weapon (deliveries) are accelerated — particularly long-range weapons — we won’t solely not withdraw from Bakhmut, we are going to start to de-occupy Donbas,” he said of the eastern region of Ukraine.
The United States on Friday announced a new $2.2-billion package of arms and munitions, which the Pentagon said included a new rocket-propelled precision bomb that could nearly double Kyiv’s strike range against Russian forces.
The ground-launched small-diameter bombs, which can fly up to 150 kilometres (93 miles), could threaten key Russian supply lines, arms depots and air bases far behind the front lines.
They potentially give Kyiv’s forces the ability to strike anywhere in the Russian-occupied Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as well as the northern part of occupied Crimea.
France and Italy will deliver mobile surface-to-air missile systems, the French defence ministry said, in response to an urgent request from Kyiv to help protect “civilian populations and infrastructure from Russian air assaults”.
The systems, called MAMBA or SAMP, are a vehicle-mounted battery of medium-range missiles designed to offer protection from airborne threats such as missiles and manned or unmanned aircraft.
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who had requested the weapons, tweeted his gratitude, saying the systems would “assist us save hundreds of lives” from Russian attacks.
Kyiv is also asking for fighter jets.
It has already secured promises from the West for deliveries of modern battle tanks and, after months of hesitation, Germany authorised the delivery of Leopard 1 tanks.
In Brussels, the EU, the Group of Seven industrialised countries and Australia agreed to cap the price of Russian refined oil products to accompany an embargo on ship deliveries of the products that comes into force on Sunday.
Already in December, the EU imposed an embargo on Russian crude oil coming into the bloc by sea and — with its G7 partners — imposed a $60-per-barrel cap on Russian crude exports to other parts of the world.
The new embargo and price caps starting Sunday will target Russian refined oil products such as petrol, diesel and heating fuel arriving on ships.
The Kremlin warned that the measures would destabilise world markets.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen estimated this week that the crude oil price cap costs Moscow around 160 million euros ($170 million) daily.
At the Kyiv summit, the EU praised Ukraine’s “appreciable efforts” to start the reforms needed for joining the bloc, but urged it to go further.
Corruption is a key European concern. Ukraine has widened efforts to tackle it, with raids this week on an oligarch with political connections and a former interior minister.
Zelenskyy, who is pressing for speedy EU accession, suggested Friday that talks could begin this year.
“What precisely did we agree upon in the present day?” Zelensky said in his regular evening address. “There’s an understanding that it’s attainable to begin negotiations on Ukraine’s membership within the European Union this 12 months.”
But the path to joining the EU could take years.
Von der Leyen cautioned that the process was merit-based and there could be “no inflexible timelines” on either negotiations or membership.
For now, the EU says it will do more to divert Russia’s frozen assets for use compensating Ukraine for damage inflicted since the invasion.
Brussels also plans to roll out a new package of sanctions on the first anniversary of the invasion, February 24.
There was no let-up in fighting in Bakhmut, the front line of a prolonged battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Throughout Friday morning, AFP journalists heard a steady exchange of small-arms fire and the pounding of mortar shells to and from Russian positions.
An American humanitarian medic was killed in the city when his evacuation vehicle was hit by a missile, according to Global Outreach Doctors, with whom he was working.
The 33-year-old victim, Pete Reed, was a former US Marine Corps rifleman who also worked as a paramedic, according to the organisation’s founder, Andrew Lustig.
Several others were reportedly hurt in the strike.
Local man Oleksandr Tkachenko, 65, said it was “clear” the automobile, which was destroyed, was not a army goal.
Residents making an attempt to rescue the occupants had additionally come underneath assault, he added.
#worldnews
