Here’s what you need to remember from yesterday:
◾ Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that he refused to “enter into further logic” after his controversial comments on the option of sending Western troops to Ukraine in the future. “In response to a question I was asked about sending troops, I answered that nothing is excluded,” the French president recalled in an interview with the Czech daily Pravo.
◾ In addition, the French head of state is traveling to Prague today where he is expected to make clear his support for a Czech initiative to buy non-European arms for Ukraine.
◾ France has delivered a total of 2.6 billion euros worth of military equipment to Ukraine since 2022, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on X yesterday, detailing the equipment, while Paris is regularly accused of ‘doing less than Kiev’s other allies’.
◾ Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR) confirmed yesterday that it damaged a railway bridge in the Russian region of Samara (Volga), more than 750 km from the Ukrainian border, indicating that the action slowed the transport of military equipment.
◾ Fortifications against Russian forces on the front line are being built “24 hours a day”, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Chmygal assured yesterday, after criticism of the effectiveness of Ukrainian defense lines.
◾ The European Commission confirmed yesterday that it will present to member states a framework for negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU in March.
◾ Faced with the Russian threat, the European Commission wants to strengthen defense capabilities on the continent. Brussels is proposing to finance part of the arms purchases jointly decided by the 27, as has already been done for ammunition.
◾ On the other hand, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Chmygal claimed that his country did not receive more than 16 billion euros in aid collected by Poland and the European Commission during two donor conferences in Warsaw in 2022, in the wake of the Russian invasion.
◾ A young American soldier arrested in 2023 for leaking classified defense documents, specifically on the war in Ukraine, pleaded guilty Monday, sealing a deal for a 16-year prison sentence against desertion in the most serious prosecution for espionage.
