Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The US has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $2.175bn (£2.2bn). The package will include precision-guided rockets and HAWK air defence firing units, as well as other munitions and weapons, the US state department said. Significantly, it includes the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) for the first time, which will double Ukraine’s strike range and allow Ukraine’s military to strike deep behind the frontlines of the war.
France and Italy have finalised technical talks for the joint delivery of the SAMP/T air defence system to Ukraine in spring 2023, the French defence ministry has announced. It comes after Italy foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said on Thursday that the SAMP/T system would be operational in Ukraine “within seven to eight weeks”. The system can track dozens of targets and intercept 10 at once. It is the only European-made system that can intercept ballistic missiles.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine will continue to fight for Bakhmut as long as it can, vowing that “nobody will give away” the eastern “fortress” city. Speaking at a press conference following a summit in Kyiv with EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the Ukrainian leader said Ukrainians would be able to begin to liberate occupied Donbas if weapons supplies are “quickened, specifically long range weapons”.
EU member countries have agreed on a European Commission proposal to set price caps on Russian oil products, the Swedish presidency of the EU said. Ambassadors of the 27 EU states agreed at a meeting on Friday to impose a $100-per-barrel cap on premium products such as diesel and a $45 cap on low-end products, according to diplomats. The price cap comes into effect on Sunday, as does the EU’s ban on Russian oil product imports.
The EU has promised a tenth package of sanctions against Russia will be in place by 24 February, the first anniversary of the war. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the package would cover trade worth €10bn and “hit the trade and technology that supports [Russia’s] war against Ukraine”. The next round of EU sanctions, however, is not expected to include nuclear power, which Hungary has already threatened to block.
President Zelenskiy appealed to the EU to impose sanctions on Russia’s state-run nuclear monopoly Rosatom and its top managers. Zelenskiy said during talks with EU leaders that they had discussed “the extension of the energy sanctions to cover the nuclear sphere”. He argued sanctions should target Rosatom and its managers, who he accused of the seizure and forced nationality change of staff at Ukrainian nuclear power facilities and their children.
Air raid sirens twice sounded across Ukraine on Friday as President Zelenskiy hosted EU leaders in Kyiv. The first air alert in Kyiv was on Friday morning. The second, hours later, followed a joint news conference involving Zelenskiy, von der Leyen and Charles Michel. There were no immediate reports of any Russian airstrikes on Kyiv throughout the day.
EU leaders offered strong support for Ukraine but set “no rigid timelines” for its accession to the bloc. President Zelenskiy had hoped the EU would put Ukraine on a rapid track to membership, but western EU member states are concerned that Kyiv’s expectations on speedy membership talks are unrealistic. “There are no rigid timelines, but there are goals that you have to reach,” von der Leyen told the news conference.
The EU will launch a humanitarian de-mining programme in Ukraine worth €25m, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has confirmed. De-mining is “crucial to save the lives of civilian population”, Borrell said. The EU will also supply Ukraine with 35m LED lightbulbs, 2,400 generators on top of 3,000 already delivered and promised funding for solar panels to power Ukraine’s public buildings.
New tanks supplied by Nato allies will serve as an “iron fist” in a counteroffensive by Kyiv to break through Russian defensive lines, Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has said. Western supplies of 155-mm artillery will be vital for Ukraine to deter Russian attacks in the south and in the east, Reznikov said at a joint news conference with his Polish counterpart, Mariusz Błaszczak.
Germany has approved the export of older Leopard 1 battle tanks, which would add to the raft of fighting vehicles Berlin promised last week it would send to Ukraine. A spokesperson said Olaf Scholz’s government had granted an export licence for the German-made tanks first produced in the 1960s and replaced within Germany’s own military by Leopard 2 tanks in 2003.
Germany is also understood to be in the process of preparing a joint weapons package with Sweden in which Stockholm would provide air defence missiles and launching platforms for Germany’s Iris-T systems. Robert Habeck, the German deputy chancellor and economic minister, discussed this joint package in a meeting with the Swedish minister for foreign trade, Johan Forssell, during a state visit on Thursday, one government official said.
Germany will not play a “key” role in the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv because “it is American technology”, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said. In an interview with BBC News Ukraine, Kuleba said he had “no doubt” that the decision to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets would be made, adding that Kyiv was “open to communication with all partners” on aircraft such as the Swedish Gripens, French Mirages and Rafales.
Ukraine has unveiled a criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group of mercenaries fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine. Prigozhin has been charged with encroaching on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine and of waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said Wagner fighters of all ranks would be held responsible, including those who fled abroad.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Joe Biden for the new US military aid package, which includes a new rocket that will double Ukraine’s strike range for the first time in its war with Russia.
The greater Ukraine’s long-range weapons capacity, and the more mobile its troops, the sooner Russia’s brutal aggression will end, Zelenskiy posted to Twitter.
Thank you @POTUS for the new $2.2 billion defense aid package. It's important to strengthen the 🇺🇦 Defense Forces. Together with 🇺🇸 we stand against terror! The more long-range our weapons are and the more mobile our troops are the sooner Russia's brutal aggression will end.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 3, 2023
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