Ukraine’s accession to NATO is only a “matter of time” declared Thursday September 28 Volodymyr Zelensky while receiving the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, in kyiv. “We are doing everything to bring this moment closer,” he added, while the allies refused to give Kiev a timetable for its accession during the last summit in July in Lithuania. Ukraine is indeed “now closer to NATO than ever”, nevertheless responded the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, during a surprise visit to the country.
The Ukrainian president subsequently demanded on Thursday from the alliance more anti-aircraft defense systems to counter the “Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure” expected in winter. “The Secretary General agreed to make efforts to help us”, to “mobilize the members of the Alliance”, affirmed Zelensky during a joint press conference. “We must get through this winter together, to protect our energy infrastructure and the lives of our citizens,” he added.
Jens Stoltenberg affirmed in front of the microphones that the counter-offensive against the Russian army “is gaining ground little by little”. “Ukrainians are fighting for their families” and “their freedom” and “Moscow is fighting for its imperialist delusions,” he added.
A former lieutenant of Prigozhin to train Russian volunteers
Vladimir Putin asked a former lieutenant of Yevgeny Prigojine, boss of the Wagner group who fell out of favor in the eyes of the Russian president and died in the crash of his plane at the end of August, to train volunteers to fight in Ukraine.
“At the last meeting, we discussed the fact that you will be involved in the training of volunteer units capable of carrying out various combat missions, mainly, of course, in the zone of the “special military operation” , in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin declared Thursday to Andreï Trochev, according to a Kremlin press release published Friday.
Russian army budget explodes by 70%
Russian military spending is expected to increase by 70% in 2024, according to a document from the Ministry of Finance published Thursday and consulted by AFP. A spectacular explosion deemed “necessary” by the Kremlin to continue its assault in Ukraine. Defense spending will thus increase by 68% in 2024 compared to the previous year and reach 10,800 billion rubles (106 billion euros at today’s rate).
Defense will represent 30% of total federal spending in 2024 and 6% of GDP, a first in the modern history of Russia. The internal security budget will increase to 3.4 trillion euros (33 billion euros), representing nearly 10% of annual federal spending. In total, federal spending will increase to 36,661 billion rubles (359 billion euros), a spectacular jump of more than 20% compared to 2023. “It is obvious that such an increase is necessary, absolutely necessary, because we are in a state of hybrid war,” said the Kremlin spokesperson. This surge thus illustrates Moscow’s determination to continue its military intervention in Ukraine despite the human and economic cost.
The priorities of this budget are clear, according to the document: “strengthening the country’s defense capacity” and “integration of the new Ukrainian regions” of which Moscow has claimed annexation, but also “social assistance to the categories of the most vulnerable citizens”, a few months before the presidential election scheduled for spring 2024. The government has not explained how it was going to finance this significant increase, at the same time when, according to Prime Minister Mikhail Michoustine last Friday, the Revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons will represent in 2024 “a third of the budget for next year”, compared to almost half before the offensive in Ukraine.
Germany completes purchase of Israeli Arrow-3 shield
Germany, in a phase of massive rearmament since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, approved on Thursday the purchase of the Arrow-3 anti-missile defense system from Israel. An agreement “without historical exaggeration” according to the German minister. Delivered in 2025, it “will prepare German air defense for the future,” the minister said. Israel had presented this contract, worth an estimated $3.5 billion, as “the largest ever signed” by Israel, of which the defense industry is a flagship sector. This agreement is “moving for every Jew”, coming “only 80 years after the end of the Second World War” and the “tragedy of the Holocaust”, declared the Israeli minister.
The Arrow system is developed and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in collaboration with American aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Intended to intercept vehicles above the atmosphere with a range of up to 2,400 km, Arrow-3 has a range significantly greater than that of the American Patriot air defense system and the IRIS-T system used until now. ‘now in Germany. Berlin plans to add the Arrow device to these two systems to form its European anti-missile shield project, launched by Olaf Scholz after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. This initiative has so far brought together 19 countries but not Poland, Italy or France, the latter advocating another strategic and industrial approach based on European equipment.
Ukraine damages Russian power station
A Ukrainian drone dropped explosives on a power station in a Russian village near the Ukrainian border on Friday, cutting off power to a hospital, the governor of the Kursk region said. “Five localities and one hospital were without power,” he said, adding that power would be “restored as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the neighboring Belgorod region. The Belgorod and Kursk regions border eastern Ukraine. Since Ukraine launched its counter-offensive in early June, Russia has suffered waves of drone attacks that have sporadically damaged buildings, including in Moscow.
Belarus accuses Poland of violating its border
Belarus, an ally of Moscow, accused a Polish helicopter on Thursday of having twice violated its border, the latest incident between the two neighboring countries, in the midst of a period of high tensions. “Around 3:20 p.m. the aircraft crossed the Belarusian border over a distance of one and a half kilometers. At 4:22 p.m. the helicopter again violated the state border, after having sunk 300 meters into the country, the Belarusian ministry said of Defense on Telegram.
The Polish army denied any crossing of the border, denouncing “an element of provocation and disinformation”. Minsk had previously assured that “the denial of an obvious fact would be frankly ridiculous on the part of the Polish leaders” and called for an “immediate objective investigation”. Since the start of the war, the authorities of Belarus, a country allied with Moscow, and Poland, a NATO member state, have regularly accused each other of preparing military provocations. Poland is particularly concerned about the presence of fighters from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner in Belarus, and accuses Minsk of helping migrants cross the border illegally in order to destabilize neighboring European countries.
Kazakhstan says it will not help Russia circumvent sanctions
Kazakhstan respects the regime of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow in reaction to the invasion of Ukraine, said Thursday in Berlin the head of state of the largest economy in Central Asia, suspected of helping its Russian ally to get around. “We have contacts with the competent organizations to comply with the sanctions regime”, and “there should be no concerns on the German side” declared President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev after an interview in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan), members of various alliances with Moscow, to find a balanced position. While they maintain close political, economic and military ties with Moscow, display their diplomatic neutrality and ensure good relations both with the former tutelary power Russia and with the West.
According to some European experts, it is because of sanctions evasion by third countries that Russia still does not collapse under the weight of the sanctions imposed on it by the West. In its eleventh package of sanctions, the European Union sought to crack down on re-exports of sensitive goods by third countries to Russia, with a measure allowing it to restrict certain exports to non-cooperating states.
In recent months, Kazakh citizens have been tried for pro-Russian separatism in Kazakhstan, mainly in the north of the country, while Russian propagandists and elected officials have repeatedly threatened Kazakhstan with being the next target of the Kremlin’s expansionist desires. .