A senior Russian official threatened on Tuesday to respond if Washington sent Patriot missiles to Ukraine, and while battles raged around the city of Bakhmut in the Donbass region (east), European energy ministers failed to agree on setting a ceiling for the price of gas.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's National Security Council, said that if NATO, as hinted by its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, supplied what he described as fanatics in Kiev with Patriot systems with elements of the alliance's forces, they would immediately become a "legitimate target" for the forces. Russian.
Medvedev's threat comes after US officials said Washington was finalizing plans to supply Patriot missiles to Ukraine.
US officials added that Washington may announce the sending of Patriot missiles to Ukraine this week, noting that the missiles are expected to be shipped quickly in the coming days, so that the Ukrainians will be trained to use them at a US army base in Germany.
The officials explained that the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) plan to send Patriot missiles still needs the approval of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before it is sent to President Joe Biden for signature.
Sending the Patriot system to Ukraine bolsters the defense systems that the West is sending to help it fend off Russian air strikes, and could represent an escalation, according to the Associated Press.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called, during a virtual summit of G7 leaders, to provide his country with more advanced weapons to help his country in its war with Russia.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for more Western weapons, including air defense systems, artillery, armored vehicles and ammunition, saying that his country would have to fight throughout the winter.
A day after the EU foreign ministers agreed to allocate two billion euros ($2.1 billion) in military support to Ukraine, Britain announced a support of 50 million pounds sterling to strengthen Ukrainian air defenses. The package includes 125 anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter Iranian marches.
aid to Ukraine
In the same context, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced on Tuesday that the participants in the Paris Conference of Solidarity with Ukraine pledged to provide more than one billion euros to Kiev as financial and in-kind support during the current winter, after the Russian strikes destroyed many Ukrainian energy facilities, depriving millions of people of energy. Electricity and heating.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the conference, in which his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky (European) participated via videoconference.
At the conclusion of the conference, in which 46 countries and 24 international organizations, including the United Nations, participated, Colonna revealed the development of a new mechanism called the "Paris Mechanism" to organize and coordinate international support and aid to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the opening of the conference that his country needs 800 million euros in emergency aid.
Battle of Bakhmut
On the ground, fighting is raging on the outskirts of the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine).
Russian forces have been seeking for weeks to seize Bakhmut, which was inhabited by 80,000 people before the war, and they are also seeking to control the city of Avdiivka.
Bakhmut overlooks a road leading to other important towns.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the continuous Russian bombardment of the front line in Donetsk completely destroyed the city of Bakhmut and caused great damage to the city of Avdiivka.
In parallel with the battles taking place around Bakhmut and other cities in the Donetsk region, clashes continue between the Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Kherson region (south) across the banks of the Dnipro River.
Gas prices
On the other hand, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the European energy ministers failed on Tuesday evening during a meeting in Brussels to agree on a ceiling for the gas price and postponed resolving the debate until next Monday.
The fifth meeting of its kind since last summer revealed the depth of differences between the EU countries regarding the nature of dealing with a set of repercussions of the Russian war on Ukraine, after months of disagreements over whether the measure would alleviate the energy crisis in Europe.
The European Commission proposed last month to set a ceiling for gas prices in the latest response from the European Union to the economic turmoil caused by Russia by cutting gas supplies to Europe this year, which led to higher energy prices.
Countries, including Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, have warned against setting a ceiling for gas prices, which countries fear may divert much-needed gas shipments to other than Europe and disrupt the work of energy markets, while other countries, including Greece, Belgium, Italy and Poland, called for setting A price cap, which it says would protect its economies from rising energy prices.