Developments in Ukraine Zelensky’s concern about the reduction of Western support for Kyiv/ the ineffectiveness of the US and European strategy regarding Ukraine

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with the agency The Japanese news “Kyodo” once again expressed concern that the situation in Ukraine is no longer in the focus of the international community. According to him, this happened due to the worsening of the situation in the Middle East. Zelensky said: Considering the situation in Palestine, the international community has lost its focus on the military conflict in Ukraine. And now the war between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip has attracted the world’s attention.

He emphasized that he agreed to negotiations and a ceasefire until the Russian army leaves Ukraine. will not He also said about the cease-fire proposals that have become popular in the West: it is like cutting off one hand and giving it to another hand. At the same time, Zelensky said that he expects the fourth conference on the plan. to hold his peace proposal in Switzerland and also expressed hope that an international conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine would be held in Tokyo in February 2024. A new possibility from Russia has called for accelerating the creation of defense structures on the front line of the war.

A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that some Western officials are worried that Kiev will be in conflict this winter. Military failure. According to this publication, the armed forces of Ukraine are facing a shortage of manpower due to heavy casualties, and the lack of ammunition means that Kiev is unlikely to be able to resist for a long time.

Previously, the Czech Ministry of Defense announced that the country has almost completely exhausted its means of providing military aid to Ukraine by providing it with state reserves. Some experts have pointed to the fact that most Western countries have already exhausted their resources to support Ukraine, and Hungary and Slovakia may be the first to withdraw military support.

In the following, you can follow the developments related to the 646th day of the war in Ukraine:

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White House: Aid to Ukraine without allocation The budget in 2024 will be difficult for the United States

John Kirby, the coordinator of strategic communications in the White House National Security Council, admitted this morning, Friday, that the provision of financial and military aid to Ukraine from The beginning of 2024 and without new funding, it will be really difficult for the US government.

“We have more work to do in order to provide aid to Ukraine and we have to Congress,” he told a news conference. “Take the necessary steps to secure additional funding so that we can continue to provide Ukraine with an air defense system, other capabilities and additional equipment.”

Kirby stressed that additional funding is needed “as soon as possible” by the US government because “time is running out”. He emphasized: “We think we will reach the end of the year before it becomes really difficult to continue supporting Ukraine, and the end of the year is very close.” According to some American media, the United States even at the beginning In 2024, he will not approve aid to Kiev apart from Israel. According to this information, the review of the request for more financial aid to Ukraine independent of the aid to Israel and the tightening of control over the US borders in the Congress carries the threat that it will not be approved until the end of this year and even in early 2024.

World Bank approves $1.2 billion aid package to Ukraine under Japanese guarantee

The World Bank (WB) has approved a new package of social assistance programs for Ukraine Is. This is stated in a press release published on the organization’s official website on Friday.

The document states: “The new project of the World Bank is investing in social protection for inclusion, resilience and effectiveness. Approved today, it provides additional support to 29 social assistance programs that target the most vulnerable people in Ukraine. Almost 10 million Ukrainians are designed. This will strengthen the Ukrainian government’s ability to provide social support to the poor and vulnerable at this critical time when winter is approaching and millions of Ukrainians need more support to pay bills and heat their homes.

It is also mentioned that this package will be realized with the support of the loan supported by the Japanese government for Ukraine.

Simultaneous visit of prisoners of war in Russia and Ukraine

Tatiana Maskalkova, the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian president on human rights affairs, announced last night that inspectors from the Russian Federation and Ukraine visited 119 captured military personnel of the two countries simultaneously.

Maskalkova wrote on her Telegram channel: “According to the agreement with the human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament, D. V. Lubinets, in a countermeasure and with the help of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, 119 Ukrainian military personnel stationed in Russia were visited, and at the same time, 119 Russian military forces were also visited in captivity on the territory of Ukraine. It noted that Russian military personnel, according to Ukraine’s inspector general, “are kept in conditions that comply with international law, provided with medical assistance if necessary,” and that they can record video messages to relatives and inspectors. He promised that these messages would be sent.

According to Maskalkova, she, in turn, personally spoke with each of the Ukrainian prisoners, all of whom were satisfied with the conditions of their detention and medical care in accordance with international standards. “Many of them reported that competent Russian authorities gave them the opportunity to contact their relatives by phone. And many Ukrainian servicemen sent letters and video messages to their relatives,” the Russian official said.

Declaring Hungary’s readiness to become a mediator in resolving the Ukraine conflict

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó told Russian journalists that Budapest can still act as a mediator for negotiations. operate between Moscow and Kyiv. According to him, immediately after the start of the military conflict, he called Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the chief of staff of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, and raised this issue.

Scijarto added: “I told both of them that if they want to negotiate and contact each other, Hungary is ready to provide equal conditions and a fair and safe environment for this. My offer is still valid, but it all depends on the parties themselves whether they accept the offer or not. There is nothing we can do except offer our help. We stick to what we have proposed.” The Hungarian Foreign Minister also confirmed that the country has no plans to supply weapons to Kiev at the same time. He said: “This is a principled position. We want peace, we want to save human lives, not to send weapons to continue the war.”

Hungary’s opposition to restrictions on the movement of Russian diplomats to the European Union

Peter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, also announced that the Czech Republic’s initiative to limit the movement of Russian diplomats to EU member states is unreasonable and Budapest is against this approach.

Sciarto said: “This initiative, with all due respect to our Czech counterpart, is completely against diplomatic principles. I have a good relationship with him. But I don’t think that this approach is reasonable.” According to him, Hungary will not support any plan that restricts diplomatic activity. Previously, the Czech Republic He had presented a proposal for discussion to the European Union to limit the movement of Russian diplomats in the countries that have joined the Schengen Agreement. Support for Kiev

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Thursday at the annual conference of the European Defense Agency, expressed the opinion that the defeats of the Ukrainian armed forces on the battlefield are a reason to stop supporting It is not Kiev, but on the contrary, it should be a reason to increase it.

Von der Leyen also emphasized the need for EU countries to strengthen their defenses and prepare for “every scenario from classic to hybrid”. At the same time, the head of the European Commission recalled that Ukraine should also participate in the industrial strategy consultation process. Von der Leyen said: “With the agreement of the European Parliament and the Council, Ukraine will be integrated into some of our defense programs.” The bullet will be operational in 2023, but assured that in 2024 the EU will definitely increase production to one million per year.

Lavrov called Moldova the next victim of the West’s combined war against Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in his speech at the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday, expressed his opinion that Moldova will be the next country after Ukraine. Lavrov warned: Moldova is going to be the next victim of the combined war that the West has launched against Russia. Every country in which Western representatives, foundations and non-governmental organizations are currently active should think about it. European Security and Cooperation refused to sign the 2003 Kozak Memorandum, which was supposed to resolve the conflict in the Transnistrian region. This document could have resolved the situation in Moldova with certainty 20 years ago, but NATO and the Union prevented it. Lavrov’s conversation with his Hungarian counterpart about the situation in Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the situation in Ukraine and a number of other international problems in a meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijártó. Their meeting was held on Thursday in the framework of the 30th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Skopje. The sides exchanged views on the key issues of the activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and some international problems, including the situation in Ukraine. In addition, Lavrov and Siyarto discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral cooperation, on the implementation The agreements were confirmed on October 17, 2023 during the recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Beijing. After this meeting, Lavrov described his talks with Szijártou as excellent. did The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary also spoke and greeted the Russian delegation in Russian before the talks with Sergey Lavrov.

Lavrov mentioned the ways to overcome the crisis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, on the sidelines of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Skopje, in his meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia and the current head of this organization – Bujar Osmani, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta, the future head Organization – Ian Borg emphasized the need to revive equal dialogue between the member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help overcome its internal crisis. European security and cooperation were discussed by the parties, and Sergey Lavrov emphasized that in order for the organization to get out of the current deep crisis and return to normal activities, it is necessary to resume respectful and equal dialogues between the participating countries and to respect The interests of all countries are essential.

Slovak Prime Minister: The EU-US strategy towards Ukraine is clearly not working

Robert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Yesterday, he emphasized that the strategy of the European Union and the United States, which is being implemented in relation to Ukraine, has clearly not been efficient and effective. Fico received the ambassadors of the United States and Russia on Thursday. He told reporters after the meeting: “I explained to the new ambassadors the internal priorities of Slovakia, as well as my view on the conflict in Ukraine, where the strategy of the European Union and the United States has so far clearly not worked.” He noted the fact that Slovakia should prepare for the period when the military conflict in Ukraine ends, as well as the “re-normalization of Slovakian-Russian relations”. It will be much more difficult than Crimea

Vladimir Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine yesterday, at a meeting with students in the city of Nikolaev, raised the issue that returning the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine is much easier than It will be the Donbass region, because there has been no military conflict on the peninsula.

He admitted: “Work in Donbass will be more difficult. I believe that the lands will return with their people, and if the people don’t want it, it will be very, very hard. I think mentally it is more difficult to return to Donbas, because there has been continuous military conflict for 10 years. This means that not all members of this or that family will return to Donbass.”

Zelensky also referred to the words of some of his foreign partners who told him that Ukraine is not capable of returning Crimea. At the same time, he emphasized that most of these areas were militarized to the maximum extent possible, which makes their return significantly more complicated.

Zelensky is not sure that Ukraine can join NATO /strong>

The President of Ukraine also expressed doubts that Ukraine will ever have a chance to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Vladimir Zelenskyi said in a meeting with students during his visit to the city of Nikolaev: “We don’t know exactly how it will be, because this is our life and we are dealing with Russia.” And no one can tell you with certainty whether we will end up in NATO or not?”

Ukraine’s president, in response to a question about strengthening national security, said that this is currently in Priority is placed. Zelensky recalled on his Telegram channel that his meeting with the students “was very warm and he had a promising conversation with them”. Medvedev: The election will be an unpleasant end for Zelensky.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, believes that holding the final election will be a tragic end for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On his Telegram channel, he wrote about the cancellation of the presidential elections in Ukraine: “In this way, the conflict will continue until the last person standing in Ukraine, and there will be no elections, and Zelensky will exist until then.” Will have. Because the election will be a very unpleasant end for him.

Medovev explained that the election could be dangerous for Zelensky with the emergence of serious rivals due to his failed “counterattack” and the revelation of numerous cases of outrageous theft. In addition, in his opinion, Western countries may also start “putting their eggs in different baskets”, while Zelensky wants to manage all of Ukraine’s finances on his own as much as possible.

Medvedev said in the end, in the end, the result is that “Ukraine” will no longer have “such a president” and such a “president” will not have “Ukraine”.

It should be noted On Thursday, Ukrainian parliamentarians signed a statement on the inadmissibility of holding elections during wartime. According to this document, presidential elections cannot be held earlier than six months after the abolition of martial law in this country.

Since the beginning of this year, the Russian military police has identified more than 220 accomplices of the Ukrainian army /p>