Live blog: ++ Högl promotes further arms deliveries ++

The Bundestag’s defense commissioner, the SPD politician Högl, is promoting further arms deliveries to Ukraine. French President Macron has announced arms deliveries to Ukraine. All developments in the live blog.

Ukraine’s main goal for this year, according to its Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, is to gain control of its airspace. “In 2024, of course, the priority is to get Russia out of the sky,” Kuleba said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. “For whoever controls the heavens will determine when and how the war ends.”

“We are fighting a powerful enemy, a very big enemy that doesn’t sleep. That takes time,” Kuleba said. In 2022, Ukraine defeated Russia “on land” and in 2023 “on sea”. “We are fully focused on defeating them in the air in 2024,” he said at a panel discussion.

Several thousand people demonstrated in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan on the Volga against the condemnation of local eco-activist Fail Alsynov. According to media reports, Alsynow was sentenced to four years in prison today for allegedly making racist statements. According to the independent Internet portal Wjorstka, more than 3,000 people gathered in front of the courthouse in the small town of Baimak to support Alsynov. Observers speak of one of the largest protests in Russia since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine.

Alsynov had already been sentenced to a fine at the end of 2022 after he described the war of aggression against Ukraine as a “genocide of the Bashkir people”. “This is not our war,” he criticized the invasion. According to media reports, the Bashkortostan region north of Kazakhstan is one of the Russian regions with above-average losses in the Ukrainian war.

The chairman of the NATO Military Committee, the Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, is calling on the transatlantic alliance to transform itself towards greater war capability. This is reported by the Reuters news agency. There must be a change in the way public and private actors think, said Bauer at the start of a meeting of the committee in Brussels.

NATO is moving in an era “in which anything can happen at any time, an era in which we have to expect the unexpected,” said Bauer, apparently with a view to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In the past, however, the public lived in a time when everything was plentiful, predictable and controllable.

According to Ukrainian information, Russia attacked the port city of Odessa last night. In addition to Odessa, other regions in southern Ukraine were also targets of the attacks, which lasted at least three hours, the Ukrainian military said. 19 of the 20 Shahed drones used by Russia were shot down.

However, the interior ministry said the rubble hit homes and around a dozen cars. Three people were injured. Around 130 were brought to safety. A gas pipe was also damaged.

The Bundestag’s defense commissioner, Eva Högl, has called for further arms deliveries to Ukraine. “Of course Ukraine must be supported with everything it needs,” said the SPD politician rbb24 info radio. Germany has so far made seven billion euros available for materials. “We are second only to the USA in terms of supporters of Ukraine, but there is always more.” Ukraine is fighting the battle for freedom and peace, said Högl, “that’s why we from the Western world have to continue to provide massive support so that Ukraine wins against Russia.”

The United Nations has complained about a massive increase in civilian casualties in Ukraine due to heavy Russian missile and drone attacks in recent weeks. In December alone, more than 100 people were killed and almost 500 others were injured, according to a new report from the UN mission monitoring the human rights situation in Ukraine.

This recorded a 26.5 percent increase in civilian casualties in December compared to the previous month. While there were 468 victims in November, there were 592 in the following month. Confirmation of several reports of fatal attacks is still pending, which is why the increase in the number of victims may be even higher, it said. Reports are still being examined that 86 civilians were killed and 416 others were killed in a wave of Russian attacks with missiles and drones that hit residential areas throughout Ukraine from December 29th to the beginning of January.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda reached an agreement with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Davos about a visit by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to Kiev. Duda assured Zelenskyj his country’s continued support, wrote the Polish presidential office on the X platform (formerly Twitter). The Ukrainian president could discuss details with Tusk “in a few days in Kiev.” There had recently been tensions between the two neighboring countries. Polish hauliers blocked several border crossings for more than two months to protest against cheaper competition from Ukraine. There was also a dispute between Warsaw and Kiev over the approval of Ukrainian agricultural products.

US President Joe Biden welcomes the leaders of Democrats and Republicans in Congress to discuss further military aid for Ukraine. Biden will emphasize how “important” it is to get new aid in place for the country attacked by Russia, said his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.

In October, Biden asked Congress for new aid for Kiev amounting to around $61 billion (almost €56 billion). However, this is met with rejection by parts of the opposition Republicans. The conservatives argue, among other things, that the money should be invested in protecting the US border with Mexico.

Russia claims to have once again fended off several Ukrainian projectiles over the Belgorod border region during the night. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced on Telegram that there were seven missiles and four drones. The information could not be independently verified. Initially nothing was known about the damage or injuries. On Tuesday night, the Russian Air Force had already repelled several missiles over Belgorod and the Voronezh region.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the delivery of missiles and bombs to Ukraine. “We cannot let Russia win,” Macron said at a press conference in Paris. Kiev is to receive dozens of rockets and hundreds of bombs for its defensive campaign against Russian forces. Macron wants to travel to Ukraine next month, he said. He said a Russian victory in Ukraine would undermine the international order. France plans to deliver about 40 long-range missiles and several hundred bombs, which the Ukrainian friends are waiting for, the president said.

At least 17 people were injured in a Russian rocket attack on Kharkiv. “Two women are seriously injured,” said the military governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, on his Telegram channel. Twelve other people were taken to hospital.

Accordingly, two repurposed S-300 anti-aircraft missiles hit the city center of the city with over a million inhabitants. The rockets hit a place where there was no military infrastructure, but instead many residential buildings, complained Mayor Ihor Terekhov. The authorities also speak of damage to civil infrastructure.

Kharkiv is regularly bombarded with rockets by the Russian military. Despite the civilian casualties caused by the constant shelling, the Russian Defense Ministry always says that only military targets are attacked.

Chancellor Scholz spoke about supporting Ukraine in a telephone conversation with US President Biden. The Union demands that Taurus cruise missiles be delivered to Ukraine. All developments from Tuesday to read.