Diplomats are circulating a draft resolution, voting on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, highlighting the need to achieve a peace that guarantees the “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity” of the country under attack. Meanwhile, the head of the Wagner mercenary group said Russia needed another two years to completely take Donbass and another 12 months if it wanted to extend its conquests to the city of Dnipro, west of Donetsk.
The first anniversary of the launch of a full-scale war in Ukraine is fast approaching – the 24th – and each protagonist is preparing the date. The Ukrainian MFA indicated that Zelensky intends to be present at UN headquarters at that time, which will depend on security conditions. A draft resolution is circulating at the United Nations. vote by the General Assembly on the 23rd, which is more general than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ten-point plan.
According to the Associated Press, which had access to the document, this is the result of a deliberate decision by Kiev and allies to try to gain as much support as possible. The most recent resolution, in November, to hold Russia responsible for the invasion, including the payment of compensation, was passed but received only 94 votes.
If the person responsible for the “special military operation” is going to give a speech about the state of Russia on the eve, the president of the country that has spent the most on military aid, the US, will go to Poland, the state that has taken in most of the refugees and which, along with the Baltic countries, has been aligned with the ardent defense of Kiev.
Yet the limits of that solidarity are being tested with Zelensky’s fighter jet order. Speaking to the BBC, Polish President Andrzej Duda acknowledged that there is “a serious problem”: on the one hand because the country does not have enough fighter jets to donate, and on the other because he doubts Ukraine’s capacity to maintain the F-16.
Spanish and Belgian leaders refused to supply planes, claiming they didn’t have enough. The ones who don’t seem to hesitate are the Slovaks, who are preparing to supply the Ukrainians with the 11 Mig-29s they have in stock.
But it is Western fighters that Ukraine needs to drive out Russian troops, which could happen by the end of the year, former commander of US forces in Europe Ben Hodges defended. Otherwise, it could take “three to five years,” he told Deutsche Welle.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man who went into battle with the Russian army with his mercenaries and prisoners, admitted in an interview that it takes two years to gain control of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Source: DN
