Explainer
Ukraine
war briefing: Putin refuses direct talks with Zelenskyy
Russian
president calls Ukrainian counterpart ‘illegitimate’; Zelenskyy says government
will try to replace suspended US aid. What we know on 1,071
Warren
Murray and agencies
Wed 29 Jan
2025 01.21 GMT
Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said Vladimir Putin was “afraid” of negotiations on ending the war
after the Russian president ruled out direct talks with his Ukrainian
counterpart. “Today, Putin once again confirmed that he is afraid of
negotiations, afraid of strong leaders, and does everything possible to prolong
the war,” Zelenskyy said. Putin on Tuesday ruled out speaking directly with
Zelenskyy, whom he called “illegitimate” because elections have not been held
since Russia started the war. Because of the war, Ukraine is under martial law,
during which the Ukrainian constitution does not allow elections. Ukraine has
warned against it being excluded from any peace talks between Russia and the
US, accusing Putin of wanting to “manipulate” Donald Trump, the US president.
Ukrainian
drones targeted oil and power facilities in western parts of Russia, officials
and media outlets reported on Wednesday. Baza, a Russian social media channel
close to Russia’s security services, reported that an oil refinery was on fire
at Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow. In the western region of
Smolensk, which borders Belarus, there was a “massive” drone attack and air
defence systems destroyed a drone threatening a nuclear power facility, said
the governor, Vasily Anokhin. Dozens more drones targeted the Bryansk region
that borders Ukraine, and the Tver region that borders the Moscow region to its
south, regional governors said. Flights were halted for safety at the Kazan
airport in the Republic of Tatarstan, 830km (516 miles) east of Moscow,
officials said.
The US
transferred about 90 Patriot air defence interceptors from Israel to Poland
this week to then deliver them to Ukraine, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing
three sources with knowledge of the operation. “We have seen the reports but
have nothing to provide at this time,” a Pentagon spokesperson said in
response. A spokesperson for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office
confirmed to Axios that a Patriot system had been returned to US hands, adding:
“It is not known to us whether it was delivered to Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy
said multiple humanitarian projects in Ukraine had suspended operations due to
Donald Trump’ freeze on foreign aid and that Kyiv would replace funding where
possible. “Today I instructed government officials to report on those US
support programmes that are currently suspended. These are humanitarian
programmes. There are many projects. We will determine which of them are
critical and need solutions now. We can provide part of this funding through
our public finances. We will definitely support the priority items, those that
concern Ukrainian children, our veterans, and programmes to protect our
infrastructure.”
Donald
Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja
Kallas, have discussed the Ukraine war in their first phone call since the
Trump administration took office. An EU official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said: “They agreed on the necessity of maintaining maximum pressure
on Moscow to move towards a just and sustainable peace in Ukraine.”
A row
over arms procurement has erupted in Ukraine’s government after the defence
minister, Rustem Umerov, criticised the system as having failed to deliver
results for frontline troops. Umerov sacked a deputy defence minister, Dmytro
Klimenkov, and levelled criticism at the Defence Procurement Agency, which was
set up to coordinate weapons purchases and is meant to guard against
corruption. Umerov said the agency had “inexplicably transformed into an
‘Amazon’”, its purchases were too publicly visible and he was replacing its
chief – which the agency denied. On Tuesday, the National Anti-Corruption
Bureau of Ukraine said it had opened a probe into Umerov after a public appeal.
In a statement on Monday, G7 diplomats in Ukraine urged officials to quickly
resolve the dispute, calling for “consistency with good governance principles
and Nato recommendations”.
The
European Commission on Tuesday proposed further tariffs on additional farm
imports from Russia and its ally Belarus. “Once adopted by the council, all
agricultural imports from Russia would be the subject of EU tariffs,” a
statement said. Currently, 15% of Russian farm goods are not affected by
sweeping EU tariffs that came into force last July. The new tariffs would
continue to spare Russian agricultural goods and fertiliser transiting to
non-EU countries, to ensure that food supplies for elsewhere, notably Africa
and Asia, were not affected. In addition to denting Russia’s war coffers, the
commission said the proposal aimed to reduce dependencies on imports from
Russia and Belarus, particularly of fertilisers, that “make the EU vulnerable
to potential coercive actions by Russia and thus present a risk to EU food
security”.
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