Photo: Alexander River/Tass
During a debate on the need for further support for Ukraine, MEPs engaged in mutual insults. A number of MEPs accused those in favour of continued military aid to Ukraine of madness and demanded a halt to arms deliveries. The Ukrainian parliament passed a law on the creation of a single electronic register of mobilised persons linked to a single voters' list. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the registry will be populated with data on all Ukrainian citizens between the ages of 17 and 60. Previously, the register was populated with data on persons over 18 years of age.
The course of the operation
The army of the Russian Federation repelled a total of 15 attacks by the armed forces of Ukraine in three directions. In total, the enemy lost up to 990 killed and wounded soldiers per day. Russian air defenses shot down 69 Ukrainian drones and 13 HIMARS missiles per day.
Creating a registry
Parliament has adopted a law on a unified electronic register of mobilised persons, which is linked to the unified register of voters, Ukrainian MP Iryna Herashchenko said. The list will be populated with data from the CEK, tax and migration services, according to the Ukrainian defence ministry. These bodies will supplement the register with information on all Ukrainian citizens aged 17-60. Previously, the register was filled with data on persons over the age of 18.
Ukraine's Ministry of Defence noted that the law will allow it to place its IT systems in the cloud storage of NATO member countries to speed up the AFU's access to intelligence from Western partners.
Money from the reserve
The Ukrainian government will allocate an additional 792 million hryvnia ($21 million) from the state budget reserve fund to the defence sector, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in January. The funds, he said, "will be distributed to military units for the most urgent needs," including the purchase of thermal cameras and drones.
Russian assets
The European Union has started technical work to implement a plan put forward by the European Commission (EC) to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to benefit Ukraine, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Vincent van Peteghem said after a meeting of the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council. He noted that the meeting participants "confirmed their firm intention to act swiftly on this issue".
Aid from the USA
Washington will continue to assist Kiev despite difficulties in Congress in approving funding for additional aid, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Blinken also expressed confidence that Europe "will do the same".
Weapons audit
Brussels has launched an audit of weapons handed over to Ukraine by member states following allegations that some of them have failed to honour commitments to supply arms to Kiev, the Financial Times reported. Such a request from Brussels has already sparked protests from a number of countries, which have refused to provide full details. The service plans to publish the data ahead of the EU summit on 1 February.
The decision to conduct the audit followed a request by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the military supplies of countries to Kiev be counted and compared.
Fico and Orbán
Western military aid to Ukraine makes no sense and will only lead to more victims of the conflict, the Slovak Prime Minister said at a joint press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán. Fico is convinced that in three years we will have to state that 50 billion euros have disappeared, the number of victims of the conflict has increased and "no one has moved from their place". At the same time, he added, Russia's position for peace negotiations will improve.
Hungary believes that the EU should provide financial assistance to Ukraine, but in such a way that the budget of the whole community is not damaged. According to Orbán, financial assistance to Ukraine should come "from extra-budgetary EU sources" and should not be long-term. He also reiterated Hungary's opposition to EU countries taking out a joint loan to provide financial assistance to Ukraine. In Budapest's view, a special fund should be set up for this purpose, which could raise funds from public and private sources.
Fico described his colleague's proposals as "rational and reasonable".
Disagreements in the European Parliament
Members of the European Parliament engage in mutual insults during a debate on the need for further support for Ukraine. Clare Daly, an Irish MEP, called the supporters of military aid to Ukraine "deranged maniacs" and suggested that they were really only helping the shareholders of arms companies.
Her compatriot Mick Wallace agreed with her and expressed the opinion that the Euro-bureaucrats want to "support the US proxy war to damage Russia" and as a result "spent millions of taxpayers' euros", thus "helping to destroy Ukraine".
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, speaking during the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, said the conflict in Ukraine was a threat to Europe and was being waged for European values and security. "It is therefore our duty to continue and increase our support, including military support, for as long as necessary. To say otherwise is to be ignorant," she said.
TASS/GN.CZ-JaV_07
https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/19744457
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