UKRAINE WAR
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BIDEN
Biden announces additional $500 million in aid to Ukraine in Kyiv
Kyiv. US President Joe Biden announced on Monday during his surprise visit to Kiev $500 million in additional aid to Ukraine and announced that he would announce new sanctions against Russia this week. Biden made the announcement in a statement with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelensky, at the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv. The US president explained that the new aid package will include more military equipment, in addition to artillery ammunition, howitzers and Javelin missiles, a portable weapon designed to destroy tanks and other heavy vehicles. However, he did not announce the shipment to Ukraine of new military equipment, such as F-16 fighter jets, which Zelensky claims is repelling Russia.
EE. UU.
US warns China that if it arms Russia it will have problems with many countries
Ankara. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China on Monday that if it delivered lethal weapons to Russia, it would have “a real problem in its relations with many other countries, not just the United States”. “We are concerned that China is planning to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine with lethal aid, something we are watching very, very closely,” the US Foreign Minister told a conference. press in Ankara. “I’m not going to lay out what the consequences would be,” added Blinken, who said he forwarded the content in Munich, on the sidelines of a security conference, to the director of the Communist Party’s Foreign Affairs Committee office. of China (CCP). ), Wang Yi.
CHINA
China: “It’s Washington that sends weapons to the battlefield, not Beijing”
Beijing. China responded today that it is the United States that ‘keeps supplying weapons to the battlefield’ and ‘not China’, after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that he had evidence that the Asian country was planning to send weapons to Russia. “The United States is not qualified to give orders to China, and we will never accept that the United States dictates or imposes what should be the Sino-Russian relationship,” the spokesman said Thursday. Foreign Affairs Wang Wenbin at a press conference. Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, China has maintained an ambiguous stance in which it has called for respect for “territorial integrity of all countries”, including Ukraine, and attention to “legitimate concerns of all countries”, in reference to Russia.
BORRELL
Borrell: If China gives arms to Russia, it will cross a red line in its relations with the EU
Brussels. The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, warned on Monday that if China supplied arms to Russia as part of the invasion of Ukraine, it would cross a “red line in relations with the EU. Borrell claimed to have expressed himself thus during a meeting with the director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Wang Yi, with whom he had a “long conversation” within the framework of the Munich Security Conference held this weekend in this German city. “He told me they weren’t going to do it, they weren’t planning on doing it. But we will remain vigilant,” Borrell added.
ESTONIA
Estonia puts joint EU purchase to give arms to kyiv at 4,000 million
Brussels. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu on Monday estimated the cost of ammunition Ukraine currently needs at 4 billion euros, which Tallinn has offered the European Union (EU) to jointly purchase. “This year will be the end of this war if Ukraine receives enough ammunition and conventional weapons without any kind of political concessions. Those who say that fighters and long-range missiles will aggravate (the conflict) are wrong, because Russia is already using all of these conventional weapons on the menu,” the Estonian minister said.
ZELENSKY
Zelenski reiterates that the situation is difficult in the East but “they are fighting”
Kyiv. The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, reiterated that the situation in the east of the country, especially in the Donetsk region, is difficult for his army, but he clarified: “We are fighting. We finish off the invader and inflict tangible losses on Russia”. In his daily message to the people broadcast last night and published this Monday on his official website, Zelensky explained that he had held a meeting with the military leadership and received reports both “from the commander-in-chief, as well as from the commanders from the different directions of the front and even from the front line itself.” “We are leveling the situation, doing everything we can to prepare our actions for the future, for the nearest future,” he said. he adds.
RUSSIA
NATO countries sent 440 Soviet tanks to Ukraine, Russia says
Moscow. Since December 2021, NATO countries have supplied Ukraine with 440 Soviet tanks, in addition to other types of heavy weapons, the Russian Foreign Spy Service (SVR) reported today. “Since December 2021, NATO countries have sent to the Armed Forces of Ukraine 1,170 anti-aircraft systems, 440 tanks, 1,510 armored infantry vehicles and 650 artillery systems,” the SVR said in a statement released by the Russian agencies. Ukraine, which has used T-72 tanks for decades, has received hundreds of modernized Soviet tanks from Poland and the Czech Republic, and is waiting to receive the first Abrams, Challenger 2 and Leopard 2 tanks from the West.
WANG
The Kremlin confirms an upcoming visit by Wang Yi to Moscow
Moscow. The Kremlin confirmed today that the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, will visit Moscow on a date to be announced soon, and that it is not excluded that he will be received by Russian President Vladimir Putin . Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in his daily press conference call added that Russian-Chinese relations are allied and multifaceted. “The agenda is clear and it’s very broad, so there’s something to discuss,” Peskov said. Wang is the director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, a post that ranks above the foreign minister.
JAPAN
Japan to convene G7 telematics summit on Friday with guest Zelenski
Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced today that a telematics summit of G7 leaders will be held on Friday, a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and to which Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky was invited. guest. Kishida confirmed the call for this virtual summit for the 24th during a meeting of his party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (PLD). Japan, which this year holds the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven most developed countries (G7), hopes that Friday’s meeting will serve to reaffirm their unity in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Kishida said during of his speech at the meeting, collected by local news agency Kyodo.
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KOREAN CONFLICT
Pyongyang launches more missiles and threats and the horizon in the region gets complicated
seoul. North Korea maintained its defiance today by responding with missiles to air drills from the South and the United States and pledged to respond to every maneuver by allies with equivalent action, which threatens to worsen the historic escalation of tension that was unfolding. lives on the peninsula The warning paints an ominous horizon as Seoul and Washington prepare for their big spring maneuvers, Freedom Shield, which will take place next month. The South Korean military assured that it was ready to “respond massively to any North Korean provocation” and pledged to maintain “a firm defense posture based on security cooperation between the Republic of Korea (official name of the South), the United States and Japan”.
IRAN NUCLEAR
Iran denies enriching 84% uranium
Tehran. Iran denied on Monday that it is enriching uranium to 84% purity, a level close to that needed to produce nuclear weapons, as reported by US media. Financial news agency Bloomberg reported yesterday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found traces of 84% enriched uranium and is investigating whether it was intentionally produced. Iran has categorically denied that it enriches uranium to levels so close to the 90% needed to power an atomic bomb.
PAPUA AUSTRALIA
Australian academic and three students abducted in Papua New Guinea
Sydney, Australia). An Australian academic and three students have been abducted by an armed group in a remote region of Papua New Guinea that has been the scene of frequent violent incidents, official sources confirmed on Monday. About 20 gunmen abducted the anthropologist and three students from the University of Papua New Guinea while conducting research in the country’s central Highlands region, along with four local guides , released soon after, Australian network ABC reported. . . The kidnappers demand that the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea pay 3.5 million kina (about 970,000 US dollars or 910,000 euros) in the next 24 hours to free the four captives, publishes the agency of Australian press AAP.
EFE
int/jac