Ukraine is working “intensively” with partners to restore air travel which has been suspended for nearly two years, with the main focus on Boryspil international airport outside the capital, Kyiv, and perhaps Lviv, presidential official Rostyslav Shurma has said. “We need to get approvals from the Iata [International Air Transport Association] and FAA (the US aviation administration) which is not an easy case. And it depends more on the bold decisions of international partners that we believe we’ll get.”
A Ukrainian drone attack hit an oil terminal in St Petersburg on Thursday as part of a “new phase” of strikes on the region, a Ukrainian military source told news agency Reuters. Reuters could not independently verify the statement but the Kyiv Independent also reported the news.
Russian forces took control of Vesele, a settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry told Reuters on Thursday. The ministry provided no details and Reuters was unable to verify.
Russia winning in Ukraine would not end well for Europe, Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, has said at the Davos summit in Switzerland. “There’s a chance that Russia might not be contained in Ukraine,” he said. “[We need] common procurement, we could procure things that are needed to defend Europe … it’s Europe’s war.”
Ukraine has warned that its army faces a “very real and pressing” ammunition shortage as a new 23-nation effort to supply it with artillery was agreed at a meeting in Paris. The “artillery coalition” sits within the wider Ramstein contact group, which gathers more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine.
Ukraine has bought six more Caesar howitzers, said France’s defence minister, Sebastien Lecornu.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, repeated his demand that EU support to Ukraine be reviewed annually. Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas said Hungary was in talks with the EU about Ukraine aid but it was not certain an agreement would be reached. Failing that, he said, the EU’s other 26 members could reach a solution without Hungary.
Russia has blamed separatist “traitors” from abroad who want to start a “partisan war” for the protests that took place on Wednesday in the small town of Baymak in Bashkortostan after local activist Fail Aslynov was jailed for four years.
Nuclear envoys of South Korea, the US and Japan meeting in Seoul have condemned North Korea for its arms trade with Russia, recent missile tests, and increasingly hostile rhetoric at a meeting in Seoul.
Schools in western Ukraine are rolling out rifle and pistol shooting practice using interactive software, a regional official said. The governor of the western Ivano-Frankivsk region Svitlana Onyshchuk said: “Prykarpattia high school students will learn shooting on safe interactive systems at Defence of Ukraine classes.” She says the training will be introduced in three dozen schools in the western region.
Russia has filed charges against 68 foreign mercenaries for allegedly fighting for Ukraine, according to the Russian state-run Tass news agency, which cited a statement from Russia’s investigative committee.
Russian state prosecutors asked a Moscow court on Thursday to sentence prominent nationalist Igor Girkin to five years in prison for inciting extremism. Regarded in the west as a war criminal, Girkin has publicly accused Putin and top army officials of not pursuing the war in Ukraine harshly or effectively enough.
The US and its allies are looking for a way to unfreeze $300bn in Russian central bank funds sitting mostly in Europe and use them for the benefit of Ukraine.
Romanian farmers blocked a crossing on the Romanian-Ukrainian border on Thursday, Ukraine’s state customs service said. Truckers in several EU countries bordering Ukraine have protested about Ukrainian drivers gaining concessional entry and undercutting their business.
The Russian city of Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border, had to cancel its traditional Orthodox Epiphany festivities on Friday due to the threat of attacks by Ukraine. Belgorod has been targeted by Ukraine because it is a key Russian military staging point.
