Day 709 of the Invasion of Ukraine: After Securing Aid From EU, Kyiv Waits For Decision From The US

Day 709 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• Zelensky: We expect decisions from America as well
• Ukrainian air defense has shot down 11 of 24 Iranian kamikaze drones
• Ukrinform: The EU told the OSCE that Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities prove that Moscow does not want peace
• "I did everything possible," Orbán said after accepting the agreement on financial aid for Ukraine
• Moscow condemned Ecuador's decision to hand over Russian military equipment to the US for Ukraine
• Armenia can no longer rely on Russia for its military and defense needs, Prime Minister Pashinyan said

Zelensky: We expect decisions from America as well

The approval of the European Union for the allocation of key financial aid to Ukraine is a "clear signal" for Moscow, we expect decisions from America, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last night in his evening video address.

At an emergency summit of European leaders, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said yesterday that he was satisfied with the initial reactions of other member states to his initiative for greater arms supplies to Ukraine.

Scholz called for quick action and declared that the other EU partners were too cautious in their commitments.

This mainly applies to economically strong countries such as France, Italy and Spain. Germany is the largest supplier of arms to Ukraine after the United States.

This year, the German federal budget has earmarked more than 7 billion euros for arms supplies to Kyiv.

And the Russian State Duma unanimously voted to call on the United States Congress to stop support for Ukraine.

"Europe has shown exactly what it needs - unity. 27 countries - together. European institutions in full cooperation. This is a clear signal to Moscow that Europe will be firm and cannot be broken by any destructive waves created by the Kremlin", the Ukrainian president said.

Ukrainian air defense has shot down 11 of 24 Iranian kamikaze drones

The decision of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations in the case of Ukraine against Russia for violations by Moscow of the Genocide Convention is expected today. Against this background, Russia continues to carry out airstrikes against Ukrainian infrastructure and settlements.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague is to rule on Kyiv's claim against Moscow for abuse of the UN Genocide Convention. Kyiv filed the case shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine with allegations of acts of genocide against Russians in Luhansk and Donetsk regions. According to Ukraine, these claims are false and the opposite is true - Moscow planned genocidal acts with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv wants the court to order Russia to end its invasion and pay reparations. Moscow categorically rejects the accusations and wants the case to be dropped.

At the same time, Ukrainian air defenses said they had shot down 11 of 24 Iranian kamikaze drones fired by Russia at targets in southeastern Ukraine. Due to the attack, electricity was cut off in the city of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region and 40,000 citizens were without electricity.

Two French volunteers were killed in Russian shelling in the Kherson region, local authorities announced. Three more foreigners were slightly injured in the shelling of the town of Beryslav, which is located on the Dnieper River near the front line.

Ukrinform: The EU told the OSCE that Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities prove that Moscow does not want peace

Russia's ongoing attacks on infrastructure across Ukraine constitute a war crime, but also demonstrate Moscow's lack of commitment to peace, a statement on Russian aggression against Ukraine made by the European Union mission to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), reported a correspondent of Ukrinform.

"Deliberate and targeted attacks against citizens and civilian objects constitute a war crime and all those responsible must and will be held accountable. The persistence of these attacks, their intensification and the increasing number of victims are clear signs of the Kremlin's complete lack of commitment to the achievement of peace, as well as its disregard for international law, which underpins the rules-based order," EU diplomats said, condemning Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

In addition, the EU expressed its concern about the situation in the Ukrainian territories, which are temporarily and illegally occupied by Russia. The situation there "continues to deteriorate as we approach the end of the second year since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

The EU also called on Moscow to "immediately end the systematic ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages in the temporarily and illegally occupied territory of Ukraine, as well as in Russia".

European diplomats also drew attention to the fact that at the beginning of this year, Russia made legislative changes "which rekindle our fears for the fate of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children deported from their homes."

"President Putin's decree of January 4, which allows the granting of Russian citizenship to orphans and children deprived of parental care, shows Russia's intention to legalize their deportation or forced transfer," the statement said.

The EU assured that it would continue to "support Ukraine and its brave and resilient people for as long as it takes for Ukraine to rightfully defend itself against Russia's brutal war of aggression and win the just and lasting peace it deserves."

"I did everything possible," Orbán said after accepting the agreement on financial aid for Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he had "done everything possible" before approving a financial aid deal for Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Yesterday, EU leaders unanimously approved the allocation of 50 billion euros in new aid to Ukraine, sending a message to the US, the agency recalls. The agreement was reached surprisingly quickly after weeks of resistance from Hungary, which has refused to send weapons to Ukraine since the war began and whose relations with Kyiv have been marred by tensions over the treatment of 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine.

In a regular interview on state radio, where he addresses his voters, Orbán described the agreement reached as a good one.

"I did my best," Orbán said. "If this agreement had not been reached and Hungary had continued to use its veto, then 26 member states would have agreed to send the money to Ukraine and would have taken the funds intended for Hungary and sent them to Ukraine as well... what would be the good in that?" added the Hungarian prime minister.

"We don't send weapons (to Ukraine), we get our money from Brussels and we will contribute to the civilian financing of Ukraine," Orbán emphasized.

In December, Brussels freed up access to some tranches of European funds for Budapest, but still withheld 20 billion euros earmarked for Budapest amid accusations that Orbán has weakened his country's democracy during his 13-year rule. His government denies these allegations.

Orban reiterated that peace talks between Ukraine and Russia should begin and said that "time is on the side of the Russians".

Moscow condemned Ecuador's decision to hand over Russian military equipment to the US for Ukraine

The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned Ecuador's decision to hand over Russian-made military equipment to the US for use in Ukraine, calling it a "reckless" violation of the treaty, Reuters reported.

Last month, the Ecuadorian government said it would accept Washington's offer to exchange what it called "Ukrainian and Russian scrap metal" for $200 million worth of advanced American equipment.

The US has indicated that the weapons it will receive from Ecuador will be sent to Ukraine to help bolster its forces on the battlefield against Russia.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the RIA news agency that Ecuador's decision was made under the pressure of external forces.

"This rash decision was taken by the Ecuadorian side under serious pressure from external stakeholders," she pointed out. "Our partners are well aware of the provisions of the contracts, which include the obligation to use the supplied equipment for the specified purposes and not to transfer it to a third party without obtaining Russia's consent."

Ecuadorian authorities said Moscow had advised them not to carry out the equipment exchange, but added that they still believed they had the right to carry it out.

RIA news agency also quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Russia had not received any requests from Kyiv to hand over the bodies of the prisoners of war who died in the Il-76 crash last week.

Ukraine said it made such a request, Reuters recalls.

Armenia can no longer rely on Russia for its military and defense needs, Prime Minister Pashinyan said

Armenia can no longer count on Russia to be its main partner in the military and defense sphere, because Moscow has repeatedly disappointed it, and Yerevan should think about building closer ties with the US and France, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, quoted from Reuters.

"We need to figure out who we can really have military-technical and defense ties with," Pashinyan told Armenian Public Radio in response to a question about reforming Armenia's armed forces.

"Before this problem was easy because there was no such question and it was not difficult to create a concept. Before 95%-97% of our defense ties were with the Russian Federation. Now this cannot be the case, both for objective reasons and subjective reasons," he added.

Pashinyan also said that Armenia should think about what security ties it should build with the US, France, India and Georgia.

The former Soviet republic of Armenia, which borders Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, has long relied on its ally Russia, but Pashinyan has angered the Kremlin by questioning the foundations of the alliance, Reuters noted. Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russia has been competing with the United States for influence in the former Soviet republics that were also part of the Russian Empire.

According to Pashinyan, Russia let Armenia down when Azerbaijan carried out its blitzkrieg military operation to recapture the separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and drive the ethnic Armenians living there to flee.

According to Russia, Pashinyan's own failures to deal with the complex political environment and rivalries in the South Caucasus are responsible for the defeat of the ethnic Armenian fighters in Karabakh.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan accuses France of sowing the seeds of a new war with its arms supplies to Armenia, with which the US is also trying to get closer, Reuters commented.

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