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general, Geoană does not see a problem with money but in the industrial capacity of Western countries, because Europe did not anticipate a conflict of this scale after the end of the Cold War.
Ukraine 'test site' for North Korean nuclear missiles. UN delegates spoke out against Russia's use of North Korean ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine at a Security Council meeting on Jan. 10.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and its commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi have continued their indirect struggle over which of them should assume prime responsibility for the unpopular decision1 to conscript up to 500,000 Ukrainians.
The tussle began on Dec. 19 when Zelensky claimed that the Ukrainian army chiefs had requested the conscription of up to 500,000 men, according to a column by Ben Hall in FT, entitled “Blame game breaks out over Ukraine’s need for more troops.”
Speaking one day after a conscription bill was published on the Ukrainian parliament’s (Rada’s) website on Dec. 25 to propose lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25 among other things, Zaluzhnyi emphasized that he hadn't said anything about a “need for 500,000 or 400,000” soldiers—only a “general need.”
That there is a need to conscript more young soldiers is clear from the fact that the average age of soldiers already serving in the Ukrainian army has exceeded 40. Whether, however, Ukrainian recruitment offices will succeed in conscripting half a million in a country whose population during the course of the war has shrunk from 43.8 million to 28.5 million will remain an open question, even if the Rada bill does become a law.2“While in 2022 part of the population was running away from an enemy state, a wrong decision made in 2024 would create a risk that Ukrainians will start running away from their own” state, chairman of Rada’s economy committee Dmytro Natalukha told Forbes.ua in reference to the mobilisation bill.
In December, Russian forces have gained 47 square miles of Ukrainian territory, while Ukrainian forces have re-gained 1 square mile, according to the Jan. 2, 2024, issue of the Russia-Ukraine War Report Card. Russia’s recent gains in eastern Ukraine include a confirmed advance near the city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region, according to ISW. They also include the capture of the Donetsk region settlement of Marinka, which the Russian defence ministry claimed to have completed on Dec. 25 and which the Ukrainian military indirectly confirmed on Dec. 26 and on Jan. 4. The capture of Marinka represents a limited tactical gain but not a significant operational advance, unless Russian forces improved their "ability to conduct rapid mechanized forward movement,” according to ISW. In the south, Russia has recaptured land hard won by Ukrainian troops at the peak of their summer counteroffensive in the south, making progress around the southern village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, NYT reported.
230 Ukrainians freed from Russian captivity in large-scale prisoner exchange. Ukraine returned home 230 POWs and civilians, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the Prisoners of War reported on Jan. 3. It marks Ukraine's largest prisoner exchange since the start of the full-scale war.
Turkey blocks passage of British minehunter ships destined for Ukraine.
25 UKRAINE Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com