Ukraine hosts European leaders as air raid sirens sound over Kyiv – National | 24CA News

Air raid alerts sounded throughout Ukraine on Friday as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hosted European Union leaders to debate additional sanctions on Russia and Ukraine’s prospects of becoming a member of the European bloc.

The head of the EU’s government fee and the chairman of the 27 EU nationwide leaders travelled to Kyiv to display assist for Ukraine as the primary anniversary of Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of its neighbour approaches.

“There will be no let up in our resolve. We will also support you every step of the way on your journey to the EU,” EU chairman Charles Michel wrote on Twitter on Friday morning below an image of himself on a central Kyiv sq..

There have been no speedy experiences of contemporary missile strikes following the air raid warning.

Zelenskyy is looking for extra punitive measures in opposition to Russia by the European Union, although new sanctions the bloc is getting ready for the anniversary are set to fall wanting his authorities’s calls for.

Kyiv utilized to hitch the bloc days after Russia invaded final yr. The EU has embraced the applying, though it has rebuffed Ukraine’s calls for a quick observe to membership whereas the nation is at conflict.

“The EU will support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people against Russia’s ongoing war of aggression for as long as it takes,” Michel, Zelenskyy and EU government fee head Ursula von der Leyen have been anticipated to say a joint assertion, a draft of which was seen by Reuters prematurely.

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EU officers have listed a number of entry necessities, from political and financial stability to adopting numerous EU legal guidelines. The course of is prone to take years.

“Some may want to speculate about the endgame but the simple truth is that we are not there yet,” an EU official stated.

EU officers stated topics mentioned on Thursday included extra arms, cash and power assist for Ukraine, higher entry for its merchandise within the EU market, tightened sanctions on Moscow, and efforts to prosecute Russian conflict crimes.

The EU will ban Russian refined oil merchandise from Sunday, and EU envoys in Brussels on Friday aimed to conform to cap costs of the merchandise worldwide when Western insurance coverage and delivery corporations are concerned, to restrict Moscow’s capacity to fund the conflict. An analogous value cap on crude oil took impact in December.

The Kremlin stated the ban would unbalance world power markets however Moscow was appearing to mitigate its influence.

The German authorities has accepted the supply of Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine from shares and is in talks on shopping for again 15 Gepard tanks from Qatar to ship there, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Friday, citing authorities sources.

The Leopard 1s usually are not as superior as Leopard 2s that Germany and different nations pledged final week, however could possibly be delivered sooner.

The EU has demanded extra anti-corruption measures from Ukraine, which is perceived as having endemic state graft. Zelenskiy has introduced dismissals and investigations of some officers the previous two weeks, pointedly saying that the defence ministry must be clear.

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Authorities have been investigating senior army officers in two circumstances of suspected corruption, officers stated on Thursday. Separately, a prison group suspected of embezzling state funds by promoting overpriced eggs and different foodstuffs to defence officers had been arrested, the State Bureau of Investigation stated.

This week, the authorities raided the houses of one in every of Ukraine’s most distinguished billionaires and a former inside minister, and introduced an investigation into what they referred to as a billion greenback fraud on the largest oil firm and refinery.

Russia is intensifying strain on Ukrainian forces in jap Ukraine, the place Kyiv says Moscow is sending hundreds of troopers and mercenaries to their deaths for small good points.

“They bring in men from their draft and try systematically to find places to break through our defences,” Serhiy Cherevatiy, a spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces jap entrance, instructed Ukrainian radio NV. “The aim is to fulfil the goal of the leadership to take control of all of Donetsk region. But this plan has been disrupted now for several months running.”

Moscow says a serious goal in Ukraine is securing the remainder of Donetsk province, one in every of 4 it unilaterally annexed in September. Its forces have claimed incremental good points over the previous week across the metropolis of Bakhumt, its important focus.

A Belarusian volunteer preventing for Ukraine inside town stated there was no signal but that Ukrainian forces have been planning to tug out. “For the moment it’s the opposite, the positions are being reinforced where the Russians are trying to cut us off. But everything hinges on how the situation develops. We’re holding for now.”

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the scenario there.

Russia’s assault power in Bakhmut has relied on fighters from Wagner, a mercenary firm which recruited hundreds of Russian convicts from prisons with guarantees of pardons. Britain’s defence ministry stated their numbers have been most likely falling, citing figures that confirmed a pointy drop within the variety of prisoners reported to have left Russian jails. There was no speedy response from the Kremlin to the report.

Russian forces made two strikes in town of Kramatorsk within the Donetsk area, damaging buildings and inflicting some civilian casualties, the Ukrainian army stated late on Thursday.

Russia denies concentrating on civilians in what Putin calls a “special military operation” to guard Russian safety and Ukraine and its allies say is an unprovoked land seize.