The new head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Séjourné, “is on his way to kyiv” where he is to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to demonstrate French support for Ukraine, at war against Russia, his office said this Friday, January 12. surroundings. The meeting was initially arranged with outgoing minister Catherine Colonna. “Helping Ukraine means guaranteeing the victory of democracy,” Stéphane Séjourné declared this Friday morning during his handover of power. He also announced that he would travel “in the coming days to Berlin and Warsaw.” After kyiv, Stéphane Séjourné could continue his trip to Poland and Germany. The details were to be communicated later, said the minister’s entourage.
Information to remember
⇒ In kyiv, Sunak and Zelensky announce an “unprecedented” security agreement
⇒ Zelensky at the Davos Forum
⇒ The Pentagon recognizes “failures” in the control of military aid
Zelensky hails ‘unprecedented’ security deal with UK
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed a “new unprecedented security agreement” between his country and the United Kingdom, whose Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is visiting Kiev, highlighting a “turning point”. “This is not a simple declaration. It is a reality that will come to fruition thanks to our cooperation,” he added.
Earlier, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured that he wanted to send “a strong signal” of British support for Ukraine with an increase in military aid and an unprecedented delivery of thousands of drones. UK military aid for the year 2024/2025 will amount to £2.5 billion, an increase of £200 million on the previous two years.
This envelope must be used to provide long-range missiles, air defense, artillery ammunition and maritime security. At least £200 million is part of a move to “rapidly supply and produce thousands of military drones”, including “surveillance, long-range strike and maritime drones”, according to Downing Street. According to London, this will be “the largest delivery of drones to Ukraine of any country”.
Ukraine: two dead during a Russian strike in Kherson, in the south
Russian bombings have left two dead in Kherson, a large city in southern Ukraine targeted almost daily, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Friday. “The occupiers lined the city streets with artillery,” he wrote on Telegram, sharing images of burned cars and bodies on the ground. “A woman died at the scene” and a “burned body” was found in one of the vehicles, he said.
Across the front line in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, local authorities said two people, including a healthcare worker, were killed and six others injured in a drone strike on Friday. Ukrainian. “A drone from the Ukrainian armed forces hit an ambulance,” Ivan Prikhodko, the mayor of Gorlivka, a town controlled by Russia since 2014 and located about forty kilometers from Donetsk, said on Telegram.
Russia says it has arrested a spy working for Poland
Russia announced on Friday the arrest of a man, accusing him of wanting to transmit information to Poland on a factory in the Russian military-industrial complex, in order to facilitate potential strikes, information considered to be ” infox” by Warsaw. According to a statement from the Russian Security Services (FSB), this Russian citizen cooperated “proactively with a representative of the secret services of the Republic of Poland” to “transmit information about this company in exchange for asylum.”
Warsaw immediately disputed this information. “Russia is the aggressor state and Putin is being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. Therefore, any information provided by the Russian side, at a time when we are making all possible efforts to support Ukraine economically, socially or militarily, must be considered as fake news”, declared to the portal Onet.pl Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna.
Zelensky at the Davos Forum
Gaza, Ukraine, trade and the Red Sea: geopolitics should dominate the annual meeting of world political and economic elites which opens Monday in Davos. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has only addressed leaders via video message in the past, will come in person this year. He will also participate on Sunday, ahead of the WEF, in a meeting of national security advisers from several countries.
The Pentagon recognizes “failures” in the control of military aid
The US Department of Defense did not fully comply with vetting requirements for approximately $1 billion in military aid provided to Ukraine, an independent body within the Pentagon said Thursday. The announcement comes as Republican opponents of President Joe Biden continue to oppose additional aid to kyiv.
“As of June 2, 2023, serial number inventories for more than $1.005 billion (59%) of the total $1.699 billion in defense equipment covered by the EEUM were deficient,” the office of the Inspector General of the Pentagon, in a press release.
Ukrainian MPs postpone consideration of draft law on mobilization
Ukrainian deputies on Thursday postponed the examination of a controversial bill on military mobilization, the army being faced with the problem of replenishing its ranks after almost two years of war with Russia.
A debate on mobilization has raged for weeks in Ukraine. The Ukrainian army has suffered losses, the extent of which is kept secret, and is struggling today, unlike at the start of the conflict, to find volunteers for the front.