Ukraine's victory "depends on you."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this at a press conference, addressing the West.
Zelensky says Ukraine has "no alternative" to winning the war and when asked whether the time has come to negotiate with Vladimir Putin given the shortage of ammunition in Ukraine, he replies: "Can you talk to a deaf person? Can you talk to a man who kills his opponents?".
"We will put forward a platform where (Putin) can accept that he lost this war and that it was a huge mistake and a tragedy for us and for the democratic world," he adds.
Ukraine cannot accept losing the war, he says.
"What would it mean if Ukraine lost? Ukraine wouldn't exist."
At the press conference on the occasion of the second anniversary of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, answering a question about support for Kiev, Zelensky stressed that the country cannot lose the "diplomatic initiative" and hopes that it will be held in Switzerland in the spring a peace summit, in view of which a peace plan will be prepared with Ukraine's partners which will then be delivered to Russia.
“I don't want to talk about it in detail,” but “we have been working on long-range weapons for a long time and to give a general answer, I have a positive mood from the recent responses of our partners regarding these weapons,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky also stated that 31 thousand Ukrainians have been killed in the war to date.
Responding at the press conference, he explained that he did not want to provide figures on the wounded, stating that in that case "Russia would understand how many people left the battlefield".
Then he added that 180 thousand Russians died in the conflict.
Half of the weapons promised by the West to Ukraine are delivered late
.
This was stated by the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Rustem Umerov.
“Currently, a commitment is not synonymous with delivery, 50% of commitments are not delivered on time,” he said at a forum on the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.
Ukraine expects to receive up to $12 billion in financial aid from the United States this year.
This was stated by the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, as reported by Rbc Ukraine.
"We expect $11.8 billion in aid from the US for 2024. This is what we have agreed. We expect a decision from Congress after a two-week pause in proceedings," the prime minister said.
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry, Kirilo Budanov, said that Russian opponent Alexei Navalny died of natural causes, due to a blood clot.
"I may disappoint you, but what we know is that he really died of a blood clot. And this is more or less confirmed. This was not taken from the internet, but, unfortunately" it is a natural death, Budanov said as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda.
"In the night, the Russian army attempted, with the help of the Black Sea tactical aviation, to destroy our anti-aircraft defense using Kh-31P missiles, which were shot down over the sea. Then followed waves of drones
initially
in direction of the southern Mykolaiv region, then to the central and western regions".
This was reported by the head of the press center of the Southern Forces of the Ukrainian Army, Colonel Nataliya Humenyuk, quoted by the media.
Ukrainian anti-aircraft went into action in the Poltava, Kiev, Khmelnytsky, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytsky, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire destroyed 16 of the 18 Shahed drones launched by the Russian army
, reports the Kiev Air Force, cited by Ukrainska Pravda.
The drones were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk in the Russian Federation and from Cape Chauda in Crimea.
For further information Agenzia ANSA The Pope: 'Humanity and a just peace may be found in Ukraine' - News - Ansa.it "I beg that that bit of humanity may be found which allows us to create the conditions for a diplomatic solution, in search of a peace just and lasting".
The Pope said this at the Angelus, recalling the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
(HANDLE)
The Russian army attacked ten settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region
in south-eastern Ukraine 263 times in 24 hours, one civilian was killed and two others wounded, governor Ivan Fedorov reported on Telegram.
Ukrinform reports it.
"On February 24, an enemy grenade caused the death of a 61-year-old in Huliaypole. Two people were injured," Fedorov said.
Russian troops hit Robotyne, Vilnyansk, Huliaypole, Novoandriivka, Novodanylivka, Malynivka, Mala Tokmachka with 60 drones and 14 MLRS.
Over the past week, the Russian army has attacked 3,200 towns and villages in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Two apartment buildings, private homes and educational institutions were damaged by Russian shelling yesterday in the Kherson region of
southern Ukraine, where one civilian was killed and six others injured.
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported this on Facebook, quoted by Ukrinform.
Kremlin army missiles targeted Bilozerka, Shliakhove, Novoberyslav, Havrylivka, Sadove, Stanislav, Osokorivka and the city of Kherson.
"The Russian army struck residential areas, in particular two residential buildings and seven private houses were damaged. One person was killed and 6 others were injured," he said.
Nyt, 'bases and training, this is how the CIA helps Ukraine'
A network of CIA-backed spy bases, including 12 near the Russian border, have been built over the past eight years in Ukraine.
Bases which - reports the New York Times - are part of the close collaboration between the American agency and Kiev.
A crucial partnership in the battle against Russia, which dates back more than ten years, and which also includes the CIA's training of an elite Ukrainian commando unit - Unit 2245 - to capture Russian drones and communications equipment for allow the US intelligence agency to study and encode Moscow's encrypted systems.
The war in Ukraine enters its third year and the collaboration between the CIA and Kiev is one of the cornerstones that allow Ukraine to defend itself.
The partnership - which also includes bases entirely financed by the CIA on Ukrainian territory - did not begin with the war but has its roots back at least 10 years ago and has been able to transform Ukraine into one of Washington's most important partners against the Russia.
The New York Times writes.
In the last eight years - underlines the American newspaper - the CIA has built 12 secret locations in the Ukrainian forest on the border with Russia.
In 2016, the CIA began training an elite Ukrainian commando unit, Unit 2245, to capture Russian drones and communications equipment to allow the U.S. intelligence agency to study and code Moscow's encrypted systems.
The CIA has also helped train a new generation of Ukrainian spies who operate in Russia, Europe, Cuba and other areas where there is a strong Russian presence.
These intelligence networks are more important than ever right now with Ukraine struggling on the battlefield, the New York Times continues, but on the horizon there is the risk of a lack of funding to continue operating at current levels in the should Republicans in Congress stop or end aid to Kiev.
To reassure Ukrainian leaders, CIA director Williams Burns secretly flew to Kiev in recent days, in what was his tenth visit since the start of the invasion, the newspaper notes.
007 Kiev, 'Russians expect new surprises in Crimea'
The head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov announced on Telegram new "surprises for the Russian occupiers in Crimea" and recommended the civilian population not to use the so-called Kerch bridge connecting Russia to the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2024." Russia's war against Ukraine began not two years ago, but ten years ago, with the occupation of Ukrainian Crimea. However, neither the Ukrainian state nor Ukrainians agreed to recognize the aggressor's right to Crimean land ", he said, emphasizing that "the resistance of the local Ukrainian population against the occupiers has not diminished even for a moment, despite the repressions."
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