We’re pausing our live policy today, but if we just access, here are all the key developments from the last 24 hours.
NATO preparing for war: A leading NATO official said the alliance was preparing for conflict with Russia, and that civilians in the West should do the same. Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of the NATO military committee, said “it’s not a given that we are in peace”.
Germany warns of attack: Russia could attack NATO countries in less than a decade, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned, adding that this is “for now. “
Radar plane explosion: A key Russian early warning plane “exploded” and crashed into the Sea of Azov as a result of a Ukrainian attack, which will most likely reduce its replacement’s appetite for threat, according to British intelligence.
North Korea risk: North Korea’s risk to the region could increase “dramatically” due to unprecedented degrees of cooperation with Russia, the White House senior weapons director warned.
Oil stockpile fire: A fire broke out at an oil storage facility in the western Russian city of Klintsy following a Ukrainian drone strike. You can see the photographs below.
US President Joe Biden has today signed a short-term spending bill that keeps the federal government operating until early March.
However, while the bill avoids what would have been a partial government shutdown starting tomorrow, it does provide more aid to Ukraine.
Efforts to divert more budget from Kyiv now remain in limbo as more sensible lawmakers continue to reject a border security measure that would go hand in hand with a larger one for Ukraine.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov made a number of notable comments during a news conference on Thursday, some of which have prompted speculation among prominent analysts.
Among the comments was the claim that the war had unified the Russian people and strengthened Russian identity, while contributing to the “cleansing of other people who do not feel involved” in Russian ethnic history and culture and in history and Russian culture. .
Mr Lavrov also claimed that some of these people left Russia at the beginning of the war, but that an “overwhelming part of [Russian] society came together in an unprecedented way.”
The Institute for the Study of War thinktank said such statements were intended to frame Russian society as unified around the war, despite heavy Kremlin efforts to crack down on any dissent and disproportionately amplify factions who support the war.
But the analysts said the comments also indicate the Kremlin continues to lack a unified position about the return to Russia of those citizens who previously left.
“Some Kremlin officials, including Putin, praised the tendency of Russians to return from abroad, while others publicly threatened them,” the organization said at a news conference.
Last December, the spokesman for the Argentine presidency, Manuel Adorni, announced that Buenos Aires had officially informed the BRICS of its intention not to join the group.
The alliance is central to Russia’s attempts to push the notion of a “multipolar” world in which the US is no longer the dominant international force.
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that while Moscow applauded Argentina’s decision, it disappointed.
“Of course it’s unfortunate, but it’s a sovereign right of Argentina and we respect any resolution that is taken through Buenos Aires,” he said.
“Argentines elected their leaders and felt it was not the time to participate in this format,” the Kremlin official said.
He went on to say that the list of countries that want to join the BRICS is long.
“It is gratifying and means that many countries, on the contrary, consider the decision to join the BRICS to be in the national interest,” he added.
Two Ukrainian tennis players refused to shake hands with their Russian and Belarusian rivals at the Australian Open.
Another player said she didn’t perceive what the Russian and Belarusian players were “doing here. “
Lesia Tsurenko, who refused to shake hands with Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, said: “I’m doing this for Ukraine and I think it’s the right thing to do. “
There was also no handshake between Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk and Russian Elina Avanesyan, although both Ukrainians did acknowledge their opponents.
Speaking about the war last week, Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska told reporters: “The worst thing is that you get too used to it.
“This is very bad, because most of the people are forgetting what is going on there.
“We know everything because we get the news, we read, we are in it, (but) the words don’t hit as hard as they did at the beginning of the war.
“I think it’s vital to do that and do everything. “
He added: “People are still dying every day.
“I still don’t understand what all those players (Russians and Belarusians) are doing here. “
A Russian court in Siberia reportedly sentenced a man to 19 years in prison for shooting a military enlistment officer, while prosecutors in St Petersburg have asked for a 28-year sentence for a woman charged in the bombing of a cafe which killed a prominent military blogger.
Friday’s developments underscore the authorities’ determination to seriously punish those who oppose Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — that is, those who commit acts of violence — on the eve of the March presidential election, in which the Russian president will almost certainly win.
However, even non-violent protesters have been sentenced to long criminal sentences as the Kremlin cracks down on dissent following its invasion of Ukraine, in an attempt to criminalize and silence Putin’s critics.
In the Siberian city of Irkutsk, Ruslan Zinin, a 26-year-old logging truck driver, sentenced to 19 years in prison for opening fire in September 2022 at the military enlistment office in Ust-Ilimsk, a town located 1,000 km north of Irkutsk, the public framework said. News firm Tass reported.
The shooting came a few days after Mr Putin ordered a partial military mobilisation to boost his forces fighting in Ukraine, sparking rare protests across Russia that were shut down, sometimes brutally.
Men with no military experience or exemptions from previous service were called up and enlisted.
Police rounded up men on the streets of Moscow and other cities or raided hostels and warehouses to find men of fighting age.
Mr. Zinin allegedly entered the enlistment signaling that “no one will stop by to fight” and opened fire, seriously wounding a r. The independent Telegram messaging channel, Solidarity Zone, said it was seeking to save its younger brother from being drafted. .
In St. Petersburg, Tass said prosecutors today sought a 28-year criminal sentence for 26-year-old Darya Trepova for the café bombing that killed Vladlen Tatarsky, a pro-war army blogger reporting from the front lines in Ukraine.
Ms. Trepova was arrested after she saw in a video featuring Mr. Tatarsky a bust of himself, moments before the explosion at a riverside café where he was leading an argument. The blast killed him and injured 50 others.
She later claimed in court that she did not know the bust contained a bomb, according to reports in Russian media, and said she was acting upon instructions from two men who told her there was a listening and tracking device inside.
The war in Ukraine has become a “strategic stalemate” and 2024 will be “probably a very difficult year for Ukrainians,” Sky News military analyst Simon Diggins said.
It is clear that the Ukrainian counteroffensive “has not been successful,” he added.
However, it is “not clear” that Russia intends to launch its own offensive.
Diggins also responded to comments from a senior NATO official, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, who said civilians in the West should prepare for conflict with Russia.
“Putin didn’t give up,” Diggins said.
“Putin has a vision of the world that is that of the former Soviet Union and that of the former Warsaw Pact.
“Remember that he served as an officer of the KGB in the old East Germany.
“He considers this to be Russia’s natural position: to have a bulwark of states within it. “
Diggins added: “I think the NATO official is right to warn us about Russia and Putin’s ambitions: they haven’t gone away.
“The attitude we have had so far, in which many European countries have invested slightly money in defence, wants to change.
“I think that will be the view of a large number of army officers. “
The French ambassador in Moscow has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russia has said it will speak with Pierre Levy about allegations that French mercenaries are operating in Ukraine.
Earlier (05. 08) we reported that Russian officials were making plans to ask French politicians if they knew that French mercenaries had fought for Ukraine.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, known as the State Duma, said on Telegram that “it is important for us to know whether they [French politicians] are aware that someone, violating the law, sends fighters to fight. “in Russia, Ukraine. “
France rejected the accusation: the “mercenary trade” is “prohibited by law” in its country.
The European Union has reportedly started negotiations on a new sanctions circular on Russia.
They could be accompanied by more industrial restrictions and a crackdown on Moscow’s ability to evade restrictions through third countries and corporations within the EU, Bloomberg News said.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has reportedly vowed to end the crackdown on Russia in the UK.
He said world leaders were exploring tactics to tighten sanctions at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
There are fears that Vladimir Putin is using countries including the UAE to dodge Western restrictions, The Telegraph reported.
Up to 95% of foreign-produced parts discovered in Russian weapons destroyed in Ukraine came from Western countries, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
These are “not necessarily military goods” and can simply be “civilian or dual-use items and even household appliances,” Kuleba said.
He added: “Whatever they are, they end up flying into Ukraine to commit war crimes, kill people, and destroy critical infrastructure.”
Ukraine “would want less aid and lose fewer lives” if “all hard-to-understand projects and loopholes to circumvent sanctions were conscientiously tracked down and shut down completely,” Kuleba said.
In a lengthy article on X, he said the West “must take seriously the possibility of strangling Russia’s ability” to manufacture munitions.
“These are not government moves but personal enterprises.
“The West has the monetary intelligence, the experts and the specialized agencies that can stumble and thwart such plans.
“Most of the duty falls on the corporations themselves: they want to control the end users of the products they sell and make sure their leftover portions don’t end up in weapons that kill people. “