Signs of air strikes rang out across Ukraine on Friday as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hosted European Union leaders to discuss further sanctions on Russia and Ukraine’s prospects for joining the European bloc.
The head of the EU executive commission and the head of the 27 national leaders of the European Union traveled to Kyiv to demonstrate their support for Ukraine on the first anniversary of Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion of the neighborhood.
“There will be no stopping us in our determination. We will also support you every step of the way on your journey to the EU,” wrote EU chairman Charles Michel on Twitter on Friday morning under a picture of him in a central Kyiv square.
There were no immediate reports of new missile strikes following the airstrike warning.
Zelenskiy called for more punitive measures against Russia by the European Union, although new sanctions prepared by the bloc for the anniversary will fall short of his government’s demands.
Kyiv applied to join the bloc days after Russia invaded last year. The EU has accepted the application, although it has rejected Ukraine’s call to fast-track membership while the country is at war.
“The EU will support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people against Russia’s ongoing war of aggression for a long time,” Michel, Zelenskiy and the head of the EU executive commission Ursula von der Leyen are expected to say in a joint statement, the draft showed. by Reuters in advance.
EU officials have listed a number of entry requirements, from political and economic stability to the use of various EU laws. The process will take years.
“Some may want to speculate about the endgame but the reality is that we are not there yet,” the EU official said.
ANTI-CORRUPTION CLAIMS
EU officials said the subjects discussed on Thursday included more arms, money and energy support for Ukraine, better access for its products to the EU market, tougher sanctions on Moscow, and efforts to prosecute Russian war crimes.
The EU will ban Russian refined oil products from Sunday, and EU envoys in Brussels on Friday aimed to agree to cap prices of the product worldwide while Western insurance and shipping companies step in, to limit Moscow’s ability to finance the war. The same price cap for crude oil came into effect in December.
The Kremlin says the ban will unbalance global energy markets but Moscow is taking steps to reduce its impact.
The German government has approved the delivery of Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine from stock and is in talks to buy back 15 Gepard tanks from Qatar to be sent there, Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Friday, citing government sources.
The Leopard 1 is not as advanced as the Leopard 2 that Germany and other countries promised last week, but it could be delivered sooner.
The European Union is demanding more anti-corruption measures from Ukraine, which it considers to have endemic state corruption. Zelenskiy has announced the dismissal and investigation of several officials in the past two weeks, clearly saying that the defense ministry must be clean.
Authorities are investigating senior military officials in two cases of suspected corruption, officials said Thursday. Separately, a criminal group suspected of embezzling state funds by selling high-priced eggs and other food to defense officials has been arrested, the State Bureau of Investigation said.
This week, authorities raided the homes of one of Ukraine’s most prominent billionaires and a former interior minister, and announced an investigation into what they called a billion-dollar fraud at the country’s biggest oil and refinery companies.
THE EASTERN WAR
Russia is increasing pressure on Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv says Moscow is sending thousands of soldiers and mercenaries to die for small gains.
“They brought people from their plans and systematically tried to find places to break our defenses,” Serhiy Cherevatiy, a spokesman for Ukraine’s armed forces in the east, told Ukrainian radio NV. “The goal is to fulfill the leadership’s goal of controlling the entire Donetsk region. But this plan has been disrupted now for months.”
Moscow says its main goal in Ukraine is to secure the rest of Donetsk province, one of four it unilaterally annexed in September. The forces claimed to have made additional gains over the past week around the town of Bakhumt, the main focus.
Belarusian volunteers fighting for Ukraine inside the city said there were no signs yet that Ukrainian forces were about to withdraw. “For the moment it is the opposite, the position is being strengthened where Russia is trying to cut us off. But it all depends on how the situation develops. We are holding it for now.”
Reuters could not independently verify the situation there.
The Russian assault force in Bakhmut has relied on fighters from Wagner, a mercenary company that recruits thousands of Russian prisoners from prisons with promises of amnesty. Britain’s defense ministry said the number may have fallen, citing figures showing a drop in the number of prisoners reported to have left Russian prisons. There was no immediate response from the Kremlin to the report.
Russian forces launched two attacks on the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, destroying buildings and causing several civilian casualties, Ukraine’s military said late Thursday.
Russia has denied targeting civilians in what Putin has called a “special military operation” to protect the security of Russia and Ukraine and what its allies say is an unprovoked land grab.
Source: Reuters
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