In the United States, the Senate reached an agreement on Sunday, February 4 between Democrats and Republicans to release new aid to Ukraine, a text that President Joe Biden called for “quickly adopting”, but which clashes with the Republican opposition in the House of Representatives. On the front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops in the village of Robotyne, in the south of the country.
Information to remember:
⇒ The Russian ambassador to France summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
⇒ United States: the agreement on Ukraine rejected by the Republican President of the House
⇒ Turkey confirms imminent visit by Putin
Russian ambassador to France summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Russian ambassador to France, Alexey Meshkov, “will be summoned” on Monday to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to reiterate the condemnation of the Russian strikes which killed two French humanitarian workers in Ukraine last week, a diplomatic source announced to AFP .
Paris “will also denounce the resurgence of disinformation targeting France”, added the same source, a few days after the Ministry of the Armed Forces identified a “coordinated maneuver by Russia” to disseminate false information involving France. Tensions between France and Russia have risen a notch recently over Ukraine, with Moscow castigating the French “militarist frenzy” after announcements of new arms deliveries to kyiv.
Bakery bombed in occupied eastern Ukraine: Kremlin denounces “monstrous” act
The Kremlin on Monday described as a “monstrous terrorist act” the bombing attributed to the Ukrainian army of a bakery in the occupied city of Lysychansk, in eastern Ukraine, which left at least 28 dead on Saturday according to Russian relief. “The strikes against a bakery are a monstrous terrorist act,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov told the press, accusing kyiv of “continuing strikes against civilian infrastructure.”
Ukraine deal rejected by Republican House Speaker
The Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, rejected the bill unveiled Sunday by the Senate on immigration and aid to Ukraine. “This law is even worse than we expected and is very far from ending the disaster at the border created by President” Joe Biden, declared Mike Johnson, in a message posted on X, assuring that the text “will be dead on arrival” if it were to pass the House.
American senators reached an agreement this Sunday on immigration and aid to Ukraine, after months of bitter debate. The deal, totaling $118.3 billion in funding, includes $60 billion in aid for Kiev’s war effort against Russia’s invasion and $14.1 billion for Israel. It also provides an envelope of 20.2 billion dollars for reforms of migration policy, but above all more severe restrictions in the system for processing asylum applications with a brake when crossings exceed 5,000 people per person. week.
Turkey confirms imminent visit by Putin
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed on Sunday evening an imminent visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin, without specifying the date. “Vladimir Putin’s visit was planned. It should have happened earlier. This visit will give us the opportunity to address many issues” declared the minister on the public channel TRT Haber.
The media mentioned the date of February 12, but the Turkish presidency, questioned several times by AFP, refused to confirm or specify where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to receive his Russian counterpart. Turkey, which will be the first NATO member country to which Vladimir Putin will visit since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, approved last month, after twenty months of suspense, the entry of Sweden into the Atlantic Alliance.
Zelensky visited the village of Robotyne, on the southern front line
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he had visited troops in the village of Robotyne, on the southern front line, which kyiv liberated this summer, raising hopes, since dashed, of a breakthrough. “Zaporizhia region. Robotyne. Location of the 65th mechanized brigade. I spoke with the defenders, thanked them and presented state awards,” Zelensky said on social media. “It’s an honor to be here today.”
The Ukrainian president posted a video on Facebook showing him in uniform going to meet soldiers in a dark room that resembles a cellar. “I have the great honor to be here today to reward you, because you have a difficult and decisive mission on your shoulders to repel the enemy and win this war,” Zelensky told the fighters.