Ukrainian War, Day 747 – 2024-03-12 12:52:03

Zelenskyi: Russia’s advance in Ukraine has stopped

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced on Monday that the advance of Russian forces in the country has stopped and that the situation for Ukrainian forces is now “much better” than in recent months, reports news agency AFP.

– I can tell you this information: The situation is much better now than in the last three months, Zelenskyi stated in an interview with the French BFM TV.

In recent months, Ukraine has experienced increasing pressure on the front line of the war.

Zelenskyi said that Ukraine is also building fortresses for a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers.

Orbán: Trump would not give Ukraine a penny

Donald Trump will cut off all aid to Ukraine if he returns to the White House.

This is what Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says, who met Trump on Friday. Orbán commented on his meeting to the Hungarian M1 television channel.

According to Orbán, Trump has “quite detailed plans” to end the war in Ukraine, and these plans are in Hungary’s interests.

– (Trump) has a clear vision, which is difficult to disagree with. First, he doesn’t give a dime to the war. That is why the war ends, because it is self-evident that Ukraine cannot stand on its own two feet, Orbán explains.

– If the Americans don’t give money and weapons with the Europeans, the war will end. If the Americans don’t give money, the Europeans can’t afford to finance the war alone. The war ends.

Orbán adds that no one is as “determined or strong” to end the war as Trump.

According to Orbán, Trump also talked about the fact that he has no intention of funding European security. According to the Prime Minister, Trump was “direct and clear” in this matter as well.

– If Europeans are afraid of Russia or want to raise security to a higher level, they have to pay for it, he says.

According to Orbán, Europe must assemble its own armed forces and produce its own weapons, unless they want to pay the United States for this.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Donald Trump on Friday in Florida. EPA/AOP

The Polish president urges NATO members to increase their defense spending

President of Poland Andrzej Duda said on Monday that in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, NATO member states should increase their defense spending to three percent of their gross national product, reports news agency AFP.

NATO’s goal for its member states’ defense spending is two percent of gross domestic product.

Poland currently spends almost four percent of its GDP on defense.

– I would like to propose that in the near future the members of NATO decide together that the alliance’s demand is not two percent, but three percent of GDP for defense, Duda said.

– It is a limit that is not recommended to be crossed under any circumstances, the president added.

On Tuesday, March 12, it will be 25 years since Poland joined NATO. In honor of the anniversary, Duda will meet together with the Prime Minister of Poland Donald Hardly with the President of the United States Joe Bidenin.

Media: Russian Navy commander fired

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Jevmenov has been dismissed, the Russian media Fontanka reports citing its sources. According to the publication, the commander of the Northern Fleet has been appointed as acting commander Alexander Moiseyev.

According to Fontanka, the staff has already been informed about Moiseyev’s appointment. No official announcement has been made about the change of the general manager.

– Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov is still listed as commander-in-chief on the website of the Ministry of Defense, but the navy’s staff has a clear view: he will not return to his post, Fontanka’s sources say.

The Izvestija newspaper has also reported on Yevmenov’s firing.

Yevmenov has served as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy since May 2019. Many Western countries have imposed sanctions against him since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin did not comment on the matter on Monday.

NOW: Ukraine can deploy F-16 fighters in the summer

Ukraine may be able to deploy US F-16 fighter jets in July, the New York Times says based on its sources.

At that time, 12 Ukrainian pilots are expected to be ready to fly F-16 fighters. They have been trained in Denmark, Great Britain and the United States for ten months.

The problem, however, is that the West has only delivered six F-16 fighters to Ukraine. Holland, Norway, Denmark and Belgium promised Ukraine a total of 45 fighter jets.

The background to the slowdown in fighter deliveries is uncertainty about the continuation of the training of Ukrainian pilots and mechanics. In turn, the Ukrainian pilots’ language skills and previous experience only with Soviet-era planes have slowed down their training.

According to NYT, the training of the next eight Ukrainian pilots will begin at the end of the summer in Denmark.

The training should also continue in Romania, where the importance of the established training center was highlighted last year. According to NYT, it is still unclear when it can be put into use.

Italian minister opposes sending troops to Ukraine

Italian Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto opposes the idea of ​​sending Western troops to Ukraine, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported on Sunday. Crosetto says sending troops would prevent diplomatic negotiations.

Crosetto told the Italian parliament that Ukraine’s counteroffensive last year did not produce the desired result.

– From this point of view, it seems that the time has come for sharp diplomacy alongside military support, Crosetto said according to Reuters.

Crosetto added to La Stampa on Sunday that sending troops would mean “unilateral escalation”.

President of France Emmanuel Macron and the Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski have over the weekend hinted at the possibility of deploying NATO forces in Ukraine.

UN human rights expert: Russia responsible for Navalny’s death

The Reuters news agency reports that UN human rights expert Mariana Katzarova confirmed that Russia was responsible for the death of the country’s opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.

Navalnyi died on February 16 while incarcerated in a Russian prison. According to Katzarova, he was either killed or died in conditions similar to torture.

– Thus, the Russian administration is responsible for his death in one way or another, Katzarova told Reuters.

A human rights expert tells Reuters that he is also “very concerned” about other opposition politicians imprisoned in Russia.

– Not a day goes by that I don’t ask myself who will be the next Navalnyi, Katzarova stated.

Russian intelligence officials have said that Navalny’s death was due to natural causes.

Russia intends to annul the annexation of Crimea to Ukraine

Russian legislators have submitted a bill to the Russian State Duma that would annul the 1954 decree to annex Crimea into Ukraine, reports news agency Reuters.

The State Duma is the lower house of the Russian bicameral parliament.

In the bill, the handover is characterized as arbitrary and illegal, because there was no referendum on the matter in 1954, and thus the Soviet authorities had the right to transfer territory from one republic to another without consent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also characterized the handover as against the laws of the Soviet Union at the time.

According to Reuters, the action appears to be intended to create a legal basis for Russia to claim that Crimea has never been part of Ukraine.

According to the news agency, the date for the legislators’ discussion on the topic has not yet been announced.

Already the third deputy defense minister to change in Russia

The revolving door is once again at the Russian Ministry of Defense, when the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, changes his deputy defense minister for logistics for the third time during the war.

Colonel-General Aleksei Kuzmenkov only had time to hold office until April of last year.

However, he lasted a little longer as Deputy Minister of Defense than his predecessor Mihail Mizintsev, who was found other positions only eight months after taking office. Mizintsev had taken over the position from Dmitri Bulgakov, who had held the post for 14 years.

Lieutenant General Andrei Bulyga, formerly responsible for the logistics of Russia’s Western Military Province, will become the new Deputy Minister of Defense for Logistics.

The appointment was reported by the Russian-language news website Meduza.

Great Britain: Russia may deport people from the territories it occupies to “remote parts” of the country

According to the British Ministry of Defence, there is a realistic possibility that Russia will deport or even imprison people from the territories it occupies if they do not have a Russian passport.

In April of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin drew up a decree in which people staying in the territories it seized from Ukraine without a Russian passport will in the future be counted as foreign citizens or “stateless” persons.

They have the right to live in the conquered areas until the beginning of next July.

The British Foreign Office says that the recent rhetoric of Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia and the current deputy chairman of the country’s security council, suggests that those without passports might even be deported to “remote parts” of Russia.

Russia has issued national passports to the residents of the conquered territories. According to the Russian Ministry of the Interior, they have currently been issued to approximately 2.8 million people living in the regions.