12/27/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 02:44 Kretschmer recommends Ukraine “temporarily” give up territories +++
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer suggests that the Ukrainian government temporarily give up territory in the war against the Russian attackers. “It may be that, in the event of a ceasefire, Ukraine will first have to accept that certain territories are temporarily inaccessible to Ukraine,” the deputy federal chairman of the CDU told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Not a square meter of Ukrainian territory has become Russian,” emphasizes Kretschmer. “But as in other major conflicts, it will take time for a final solution.” The federal government is once again calling on Kretschmer not only to deliver weapons to Ukraine, but also to take diplomatic initiatives.
+++ 23:38 EU wants to enable Ukraine aid even without Hungary +++
According to a report in the Financial Times, the European Union is preparing an aid program of up to 20 billion euros for Ukraine. The debt-financed plan would bypass Hungary if President Orban maintains his veto against new aid at the planned summit on February 1. According to the newspaper, the model envisages participating member states providing guarantees for the EU budget, which will allow the European Commission to borrow up to 20 billion euros on the capital markets for Kiev next year.
+++ 22:00 Russia and India discuss the war in Ukraine +++
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar plan to discuss the situation in Ukraine at talks on December 27 in Moscow. This is reported by the Russian state news agency TASS, citing Moscow’s Foreign Ministry.
+++ 20:36 Zelenskyj: Russia shells train station before departure of evacuation train +++
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia attacked the Kherson train station shortly before the scheduled departure of an evacuation train. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko added that a police officer was killed and four other people were injured in the shelling. The police brought around 140 civilians waiting at the train station to safety.
+++ 19:36 Ukrainian army chief “currently dissatisfied” with military posts +++
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zalushny is “currently not satisfied” with the work of the military departments responsible for mobilizing troops in his country to maintain the war effort against Russia. Saluzhny said this at a news conference – a day after the Ukrainian parliament released the text of a draft law that proposes reforms to the army conscription program, including lowering the age of men who can be mobilized from 27 to 25 years.
+++ 18:50 Putin receives heads of state and government of post-Soviet countries +++
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed representatives of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to an informal meeting in St. Petersburg. The heads of state and government of Belarus and those of the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, among others, took part in an excursion to the magnificent Peterhof Palace and other sights on Tuesday. The two feuding South Caucasus states Armenia and Azerbaijan were also represented at the meeting, which traditionally takes place at the end of the year.
You can read all previous developments here.