It is just after two o’clock in Italy when The Wall Street Journal predicts that the Pentagon is considering sending American troops to Kyiv in Ukraine to protect the American embassy. The eventual presence of US troops in the war zone would mark an escalation of Biden’s initial promise that no American soldier would set foot in Ukraine.
06.27 From New Zealand more trainers for soldiers in Kyiv
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her country would send another 30 members of its defense forces to Britain to help train Ukraine’s army. “The soldiers will remain stationed in the UK until the end of July,” Ardern said, quoted by CNN. They will train the Ukrainian military on how to use the L-119 light pistol, the New Zealand PM added.
05:15 Russian frigate Makarov towards the Black Sea
The Russian frigate Admiral Makarov has left Sevastopol and is heading for positions in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian army said, citing the Kyiv Independent. Task Force South believes that this delay increases the likelihood of missile attacks on Ukraine.
03.02 Borrell: The time to implement EU defense is now
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has fueled the urgency to increase our defense spending. The time to implement European defense is now.” This was stated by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. The war unleashed by Moscow “was a wake-up call for the security and defense of the European Union – writes Borrell in his blog -. Due to insufficient investments, the defense capabilities we have do not match those we need to face the threats reports of the European Defense Agency ( EDA) have already warned us, but before the war started there was no shared sense of the urgency to increase defense spending. Now the problem is not just spending more, but spending together, because that’s the only way to spend better.” .
???? – Ivanka Trump, Hija of ex-President of Estados Unidos Donald Trump, reunió con refugiados ucranianos during a visit to Poland. pic.twitter.com/7AcKFkpSn8
– El Republican (@elrepublican_) May 22, 2022
02:49 Ivanka Trump from refugees in Poland
Ivanka Trump traveled to Poland to meet Ukrainian refugees and shared photos on her social media accounts from her mission hugging mothers and children or serving food to families fleeing the war. The daughter of the former US president, The Washington Post reports, traveled to Poland with the non-profit organization CityServe and met religious leaders helping refugees in Kraków and Warsaw. Taking to Twitter and Instagram, she said she was grateful “for the opportunity to witness the love, strength and resilience of these families.”
02:24 Pentagon is considering sending troops to the US Embassy
The Pentagon and the US State Department are considering the possibility of sending special forces to protect the US embassy in Kyiv. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby told The Washington Post, confirming the Wall Street Journal’s progress. “We are examining the security conditions” of the diplomatic office in Ukraine, “but no decision has been made yet,” Kirby said.
The proposal has not yet been presented to US President Joe Biden, the sources point out. Should the decision be made, the presence of US troops in Ukraine would escalate from Biden’s initial promise that no American troops would set foot in Ukraine.
02.19 UN, with Ukraine has exceeded the threshold of 100 million displaced persons in the world
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed the number of displaced people worldwide to over 100 million for the first time.
“The figure of 100 million people is alarming and worrying. It’s a number that should never have been reached,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
According to the UN agency, there were about 90 million displaced people worldwide at the end of 2021, mostly due to violence in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burma, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the case of Ukraine, which was occupied by Russian troops on February 24, more than 8 million people have had to flee to other parts of the country and more than six million refugees have crossed borders.
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01.08 Zelenskyy: Finally sincere relations with Poland
Ukrainian-Polish relations are “finally resting on completely clear and honest foundations, without disputes or old conflicts,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his recent video address after receiving his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in Kyiv yesterday.
Acknowledging a law in Poland that gives Ukrainians the same opportunities as Poles, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is preparing a similar law for Poles. “May Polish citizens never have to apply such a law – said the President of Ukraine.
But we show our gratitude and respect in this way. And I want it to be part of our new neighborhood policy too. We must settle disputes and remove the burden of the past from our current relations with all of Ukraine’s neighbors who respect us and are not occupiers of our state.
Zelenskyy also said that the new decision to introduce joint customs controls with Poland “revolutionizes” the countries’ borders and is a step towards Ukraine’s EU accession. “This will significantly speed up border procedures. It will eliminate most corruption risks. But it is also the beginning of our integration into the common customs area of the European Union. This is a truly historic process.”
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00:36 Kyiv: No territorial concessions to Russia
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, in an interview with Reuters conducted by Ukrinform, reiterated that Kyiv is not ready to make territorial concessions.
“The war will not stop (after any concessions). He will only be sidelined for a while. After a while, the Russians will build their weapons with renewed intensity, increase the manpower and work on their mistakes, modernize a little, fire many generals. And they will launch a new offensive, even bloodier and on a large scale,” he said. “Russian armed forces must leave the country and after that it will be possible to resume the peace process,” he stressed. According to Podolyak, an immediate ceasefire demanded by some Western countries that would keep Russian forces in the occupied territories after February 24 would only play the Kremlin’s game.