Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged allies to “speed up” weapon supplies, adding that the situation in his country remained “tough.”
“The situation is very tough. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other sectors in Donetsk region there are constant Russian attacks. There are constant attempts to break through our defenses,” Zelenskyy said in his regular address late Sunday.
“Russia wants the war to drag on and exhaust our forces,” he said. “So we have to make time our weapon.”
“We have to speed up events, speed up supplies and open up new weapons options for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy stressed.
Kyiv requested fighter jets after Germany agreed to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.
Zelenskyy’s remarks came following a missile hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Officials said at least one person was killed in the attack.
Here are other updates on the war in Ukraine on Monday, January 30:
Zelenskyy urges exclusion of Russia from Paris Olympics
The Ukrainian president called for Russian athletes to be excluded from the 2024 Paris Games.
“Attempts by the International Olympic Committee to bring Russian athletes back into the Olympic Games are attempts to tell the whole world that terror is somehow acceptable,” Zelenskiy said.
“As if you could shut your eyes to what Russia is doing in Kherson, Kharkiv, Bakhmut and Avdiivka,” he said.
UK ex-PM Johnson claims Putin threatened him with missile
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile attack shortly before the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
“He sort of threatened me at one point and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that,” Johnson said in a BBC documentary to be aired Monday.
“I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate,” the former prime minister said.
Johnson said that he stressed to Putin that NATO did not plan to enlarge to Ukraine in the foreseeable future.
“He said, ‘Boris, you say that Ukraine is not going to join NATO any time soon. What is any time soon?’ And I said, ‘well it’s not going to join NATO for the foreseeable future. You know that perfectly well’,” he said of talks with Putin.
German diplomat Heusgen: Scholz made ‘no friends’ in Washington
Christoph Heusgen, chairman of the Munich Security Conference, said that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hadn’t made “any friends” in Washington over Berlin’s hesitancy to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv.
“The Chancellor didn’t make any friends in Washington this way,” Heusgen said.
He said that Germany and Europe must do more to become self-reliant in the security sphere, given that “the US as the leading power of NATO is more strongly oriented toward the Indo-Pacific area.”
“Leadership can’t mean always being the last one… to do what’s necessary,” he argued, referring to Berlin’s decision to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine following pressure from allies.
Germany’s Scholz urges ‘serious’ debate over jet deliveries
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called criticized the debate around Kyiv’s demand that it be supplied with fighter jets.
“It is unusual that this debate is being held,” Scholz said.
The chancellor called for a “serious” debate rather than an “a bidding war… in which perhaps domestic political motives are the primary concerns rather than supporting Ukraine.”
sdi/fb (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
