07/02/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 02:00 Kuleba sees three main problems with counter-offensive +++
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sees Russian air sovereignty as one of the three main problems in his country’s counter-offensive. The area, which was heavily mined by the Russians, and the heavily fortified Russian defense lines were difficult to overcome, he said in an interview with the media outlets Bild, Welt, and Politico, which belong to the Axel Springer publishing house. “And third, our armed forces suffer greatly from the lack of anti-air, anti-helicopter, and anti-aircraft weapons on the ground.” Western allies’ decision to deliver fighter jets could have been made earlier, but he is now asking partners to speed up deliveries.
+++ 00:30 Authorities: Church in Nikopol shot at +++
There are reports from the south of Ukraine of renewed artillery attacks on Nikopol. The Russian troops fired ten shells at the city, the administration of the Dnipropetrovsk region said on Telegram. No one was injured, but several buildings, including a church, were damaged.
+++ 22:51 Ukraine’s military reports progress on the southern front +++
Ukrainian forces are making progress and advancing along the southern front, reports General Tarnavski, commander of Ukraine’s military struggles in Donetsk and Zaporizhia oblasts. Artillery and missile units have completed 1,201 fire sorties in the past 24 hours. The number of Russian forces killed or wounded during this period amounts to almost two companies. A company can consist of more than 200 soldiers. In addition, fourteen units of Russian military equipment were destroyed, including armored personnel carriers, drones, self-propelled artillery systems and Grad multiple rocket launcher systems, as well as four Russian ammunition depots. Tarnawski’s claims cannot be independently verified.
+++ 22:29 US government: President Biden receives Sweden’s head of government because of NATO membership +++
About a week before the start of the NATO summit in Lithuania, US President Joe Biden wants to receive Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Washington. The government in Washington announced that he is expected to speak at the White House on Wednesday. It will also be about Sweden’s accession to the transatlantic defense alliance. After the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine since February 2022, Sweden applied for membership in May 2022, as did Finland. Finland is already a member. Sweden lacks the consent of Türkiye and Hungary.
+++ 22:01 Selenskyj confident about the future of Ukraine in “Haus Europa” +++
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed confidence in his country’s European future. It has always been impossible to imagine a “common European home” without Ukraine, but now Kiev has achieved that, even at the political level, European affairs are no longer thought of without Ukraine, he says in his daily video speech. The visit of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on the first day of Spain’s EU Council Presidency was an important gesture in this respect, he adds. The Ukrainian head of state is giving his speech in the north-west of the country at the Rivne nuclear power plant, where he also held a briefing on the safety of nuclear power plants, says Zelensky.
+++ 21:33 CIA boss announces recruitment of new spies in Russia +++
According to CIA chief William Burns, Russia’s dissatisfaction with the war in Ukraine is a unique opportunity to recruit spies. At a lecture in England, Burns said his agency would not let this opportunity pass by.
+++ 20:57 experts: Prigozhin’s troll factory works against its founder +++
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s troll factory turned against its founder in early May, experts say, according to the Ukrainian exile medium Meduza. According to this, around 15,000 bots previously worked for the head of the Wagner mercenary company, now there are around 1,400. The bot network tries to influence public opinion with (semi-)automatic publications on social networks, especially on Twitter and the Russian VKontakte. Prigozhin’s Patriot Media Group, which owned the troll factory, has been dissolved, the Russian news agency TASS reported on Friday.
+++ 20:23 Lukashenko signs media law against “unfriendly” actions by other countries +++
Belarus’ ruler Alexander Lukashenko passes a law in force, which allows to ban media activities from other countries in case of so-called “unfriendly” actions of these countries towards Belarusian media. In addition, the new regulation expands the options for banning media and restricting access to the Internet.
You can read about the developments from the previous day here.