1:18 p.m .: Ukraine laments “indecision that kills our fellow citizens even more” after Westerners refuse to deliver heavy tanks
Ukraine deplored the "general indecision" of its Western allies who refused the day before to provide it with heavy tanks, a decision "which kills our fellow citizens even more", according to an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency.
"The indecision of these days kills even more of our fellow citizens", regretted Mykhaïlo Podoliak on Twitter, calling on kyiv's allies to "think faster".
"You will help Ukraine with the necessary weapons anyway and realize that there is no other option to end the war," he pleaded.
01:17
12:16 p.m .: Baltic states call on Berlin to deliver Leopard tanks to kyiv “immediately”
The foreign ministers of the three Baltic countries have called on Germany to deliver Leopard heavy tanks to Ukraine "immediately" to help it stop Russian aggression.
“We, the Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian foreign ministers, ask Germany to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine now,” Latvian Minister Edgars Rinkevics said on Twitter.
We, 🇱🇻 🇪🇪 🇱🇹 Foreign Ministers, call on Germany to provide Leopard tanks to Ukraine now.
This is needed to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and restore peace in Europe quickly.
Germany as the leading European power has special responsibility in this regard.
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) January 21, 2023
"This is necessary to stop Russian aggression, help Ukraine and quickly restore peace in Europe," he added, stressing that "Germany, as Europe's leading power, has a special responsibility in this regard." .
Meeting in Ramstein, Germany, Ukraine's allies announced on Friday substantial new arms deliveries to that country.
However, they did not manage to agree on the delivery of heavy tanks, dampening the hopes of kyiv, which is insistently demanding them, but will now have to wait for further discussions, and a green light from Germany.
11:40 a.m.: Zelensky adviser urges Westerners to speed up thinking about military aid
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged kyiv's allies to "think faster" about stepping up their military support as no deal on supplying Ukraine with tanks could be reached on Friday. Ramstein, Germany.
"You will help Ukraine anyway with the necessary weapons and you are aware that there is no other option to end the war than the defeat of Russia", wrote on Twitter Mikhaïlo Podoliak.
"But today's indecision is killing our people more and more. Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians. Think faster," he added.
Ukraine's partners this week pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in additional military aid, but could not agree in Ramstein on Friday on the delivery of the German-designed Leopard 2 tanks that kyiv has been asking for ever since. long time.
10:27 am: Moscow promises retaliatory measures against French media in Russia after freezing of RT France assets
Moscow has vowed to retaliate against French media in Russia after the bank accounts of RT France, the French branch of Russian channel RT which is suspended in the EU, were frozen.
Questioned by AFP, the French Ministry of the Economy had specified that the assets of the chain had been frozen in application of the most recent European sanctions and not at the initiative of the French State.
"With this sanction, nearly 100 employees and around fifty journalists will probably fall into unemployment", were moved in a press release by the FO (Force Ouvrière) and SNJ (Journalists' Union) sections of RT France, according to which the accounts "are frozen by decision of the French State".
A source at the ministry told AFP that this measure stemmed from the "latest European sanctions package" last December.
Unlike the initial sanctions decided after the Russian military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022, those taken in December provide for an "asset freeze" of the targeted entities, said this source.
Among these entities is "ANO TV Novosti, parent company holding 100% RT France", which therefore explains the freezing of "the assets of RT France", continued the same source.
Accused of being instruments of "disinformation" by the Kremlin, the media Sputnik and RT (including its French-language version RT France) were banned from broadcasting in the EU from March 2, on television and on the Internet, at following an agreement of the Twenty-Seven shortly after the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
6:30 am: West must do more to pass peace plan, says Olena Zelenska
Ukraine's Western allies could speed up the implementation of a ten-point peace plan presented by Kyiv if each of them took on one of its components, said the wife of the Ukrainian president in a interview published on Saturday.
Olena Zelenska, speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, told the Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung that the West's failure to quickly provide the weapons needed for Ukraine to repel Russian forces had cost lives and caused the destruction of many infrastructures.
"The plan goes further," she said.
"It includes a judicial component, which notably calls for the creation of an international tribunal to judge war crimes, as well as the return of prisoners of war to Ukraine."
In a ten-point peace plan presented last November, Volodimir Zelensky set out demands for food and energy security and the establishment of mechanisms to avoid an escalation of conflict in the Euro-Atlantic area.
6 a.m.: Ex-US serviceman killed in Ukraine
A former US soldier, a member of an elite commando unit and who had deserted in 2019, was killed in Ukraine this week, the US Navy announced.
“The Navy can confirm that a former sailor was killed in Dnipro on January 18,” one of its spokespersons said in a statement, adding that he could not add anything “on the reasons for which this former sailor was in Ukraine".
The soldier, Daniel Whitney Swift, had belonged to the prestigious elite unit of the Navy Seals, attached to the US Navy.
The United States dissuades its citizens from going to fight in Ukraine, but several of them have already been killed since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
With AFP
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