“Meloni is on our side and I am very grateful to your Prime Minister and happy with the agreement we signed yesterday, but there are many pro-Putin in Italy and, first of all, you should cancel their visas. This also applies to “a weapon” to help us. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this at a press conference in response to a question on the subject. “You see what happens when Russians are in a country, you see the War in Ukraine, that's why I think you should send them away,” he added. “We are preparing a list of Russian propagandists, but not only in relation to Italy. It is a long list and we want it to the European Commission, to the European Parliament, the leaders of the EU and the United States. They are propagandists and companies close to Russia are trying to circumvent sanctions.”
In Italy there are “different types of weapons with which they could help us, but not everything depends on Italy, we are also talking about the G7 countries and the EU countries, they have a lot that they can give, maybe not similar things like the Patriots, but there is the Sampdoria. T, Iris-T and other weapons in different countries. I can't say they would be enough, but they would be good. Ukraine's victory “depends on you,” Zelensky said to the West.
Zelensky said 2024 would be a “watershed year” for Ukraine. He stressed that 2022 is “the year of survival” and 2023 is a “year of resilience.” He then added: “This year we need all of these things, courage and resilience to survive.”
According to Zelensky, the Kremlin had the plans for the counteroffensive in its hands last year and therefore knew Kiev's moves in advance before they began. “The plans for our counteroffensive were already on the table before the counteroffensive began in the Kremlin” because “news leaked,” he said at the press conference marking the invasion’s two-year anniversary. Zelensky added that his generals are preparing several alternative plans for this year's war strategy. And that Ukraine has a “clear” plan for a new counteroffensive. He stressed that he could not reveal details, but also stressed that the rotation of troops on the front lines was fundamental to the war effort and that Ukraine needed to better prepare its reserve forces.
For Zelensky, Ukraine has “no alternative” to winning the war and when asked whether it is time to negotiate with Vladimir Putin given the shortage of ammunition in Ukraine, he replies: “Can you talk to a deaf person? Can you talk to him?” a deaf person? Man who kills his opponents?” “We will propose a platform on which (Putin) can accept that he lost this war and that it was a big mistake and a tragedy for us and the democratic world,” he adds . Ukraine cannot accept losing the war, he says. “What would it mean if Ukraine lost? Ukraine would not exist.” “Putin doesn't have a cell phone, what will he call me?” Zelensky says this to those who ask him whether he would answer if Putin called, having previously stated that he would not speak to the Russian one President will negotiate. “I don't use a 1917 telegraph. He won't call me, he doesn't want to end this war. That is a fact today,” he emphasized.
The Ukrainian president said 31,000 Ukrainians had been killed in the war so far. Responding at a press conference, he said he did not want to give figures on the wounded, saying that in this case “Russia would understand how many people left the battlefield.” He then added that 180,000 Russians died in the conflict. “31,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, as Putin and his circle of liars say. But each of these losses is a great loss for us.”
At the press conference marking the second anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky, in response to a question about Kiev's support, stressed that the country should not lose the “diplomatic initiative” and hoped that a peace summit would take place in Switzerland in the spring in which a peace plan is drawn up with Ukraine's partners, which is then handed over to Russia.
“I don't want to go into detail,” but “we have been working on long-range weapons for a long time, and to give a general answer: I have a positive mood based on the recent reactions of our partners in this regard.” Zelensky said.
Half of the weapons promised by the West to Ukraine are delivered late. This was stated by Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. “Currently, a commitment does not equal fulfillment, 50% of commitments are not delivered on time,” he said at a forum marking the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.
Ukraine expects up to $12 billion in financial aid from the United States this year. This was stated by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, as reported by Rbc Ukraine. “We expect $11.8 billion in aid from the United States in 2024. We agreed on that. We are awaiting a decision from Congress after a two-week break in proceedings,” the Prime Minister said.
The head of the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, Kirilo Budanov, said that Russian opponent Alexei Navalny died of natural causes due to a blood clot. “I may disappoint you, but what we know is that he actually died of a blood clot. And that is more or less confirmed. This was not taken from the Internet, but unfortunately it is a natural death,” Budanov said as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda.
“During the night, the Russian army, with the help of Black Sea tactical aviation, tried to destroy our anti-aircraft defenses with Kh-31P missiles launched over the sea. Then followed.” Waves of drones first towards the southern Mykolaiv region, then to the central and western regions”. This was reported by the head of the press center of the Southern Armed Forces of the Ukrainian Army, Colonel Nataliya Humenyuk, quoted by the media. Ukrainian anti-aircraft were deployed in Poltava, Kiev, Khmelnytsky, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytsky, Dnipro, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles destroyed 16 of the 18 Shahed drones launched by the Russian army, reports the Kiev Air Force, quoted by Ukrainska Pravda. The drones were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk in the Russian Federation and from Cape Chauda in Crimea.
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ANSA Agency The Pope: “Humanity and a just peace can be found in Ukraine” – News – Ansa.it “I beg that the piece of humanity be found that allows us to create the conditions for a diplomatic solution , looking for a just and lasting”. The Pope said this during the Angelus prayer, commemorating the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine. (HANDLING)
The Russian army attacked ten settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region 263 times within 24 hoursOne civilian was killed and two others injured in southeastern Ukraine, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported on Telegram. Ukrinform reports about it. “On February 24, an enemy shell caused the death of a 61-year-old in Huljaypole. Two people were injured,” Fedorov said. Russian troops attacked Robotyne, Vilnyansk, Huliaypole, Novoandriivka, Novodanylivka, Malynivka, Mala Tokmachka with 60 drones and 14 MLRS. Last week, the Russian army attacked 3,200 towns and villages in Zaporizhia Oblast.
Two residential buildings, private houses and educational institutions were damaged by Russian shelling in the Kherson region yesterday, in southern Ukraine, where one civilian was killed and six others were injured. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported this on Facebook, quoted by Ukrinform. Kremlin Army rockets targeted Bilozerka, Shlyakhove, Novoberyslav, Havrylivka, Sadove, Stanislav, Osokorivka and the city of Kherson. “The Russian army attacked residential areas, in particular two residential buildings and seven private houses were damaged. One person was killed and six others were injured,” he said.
New: “Bases and training, this is how the CIA helps Ukraine”
Over the past eight years, a network of CIA-backed spy bases has been established in Ukraine, including 12 near the Russian border. Bases that – reports the New York Times – are part of the close cooperation between the American agency and Kiev. A crucial partnership in the fight against Russia that dates back more than a decade and includes the CIA's training of an elite Ukrainian commando unit – Unit 2245 – to capture Russian drones and communications equipment for U.S. intelligence to examine and investigate encrypt Moscow's encrypted systems.
The war in Ukraine is entering its third year and cooperation between the CIA and Kiev is one of the cornerstones that allows Ukraine to defend itself. The partnership – which includes fully CIA-funded bases on Ukrainian territory – did not begin with the war but has roots going back at least a decade and has been able to make Ukraine one of Washington's most important partners against Russia. The New York Times writes. In the last eight years – the American newspaper emphasizes – the CIA has set up twelve secret locations in the Ukrainian forest on the border with Russia. In 2016, the CIA began training an elite Ukrainian unit, Unit 2245, to capture Russian drones and communications equipment so that U.S. intelligence could examine and encode Moscow's encrypted systems. The CIA has also helped train a new generation of Ukrainian spies to operate in Russia, Europe, Cuba and other areas with a heavy Russian presence. These intelligence networks are more important now than ever as Ukraine struggles on the battlefield, the New York Times continues, but on the horizon there is a risk of a lack of funds to continue operating at current levels should they Republicans in Congress stop or end aid to Kiev. To reassure the Ukrainian leadership, CIA Director Williams Burns secretly flew to Kiev in recent days, making his 10th visit since the invasion began, the paper said.
007 Kiev, “Russians expect new surprises in Crimea”
The head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov announced via Telegram new “surprises for the Russian occupiers of Crimea” and recommended that the civilian population not use the so-called Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia with the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2024 “Ukraine began the occupation of the Ukrainian Crimea not two, but ten years ago. However, neither the Ukrainian state nor Ukrainians agreed to recognize the aggressor's right to land in Crimea,” he said, emphasizing that “the resistance of the local Ukrainians against the occupiers has not diminished for a moment, despite the repressions .”
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