LIVE – War in Ukraine: Zelensky will participate in a meeting Thursday in Germany with his allies

The leadership of the United States in aiding Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion is of “critical” importance, as is the continuation of this aid, underlined this Wednesday the American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, on the eve of the announcement of a new tranche of military aid.

Lloyd Austin is due to attend a meeting of countries supporting Ukraine on Thursday, held as previously at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany. It was the last such meeting before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, who has consistently expressed skepticism about continued U.S. aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated Wednesday evening that he would participate in this meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated that he would participate on Thursday in a meeting in Germany in the “Ramstein format”, which brings together Ukraine’s main allies, to discuss the aid to be given to this country in the face of the Russian invasion. “Tomorrow (Thursday) I will participate in a meeting in the Ramstein format and I also plan talks with partners at the level of defense ministers and military commanders,” Volodymyr Zelensky said this Wednesday in his daily address broadcast on the networks social.

Ukrainian investigators announced on Wednesday that they had arrested a unit commander of the “Anne of kyiv” brigade. This brigade, partly trained by France, has been rocked by scandals since December 2024. It is in fact the subject of investigations by the Ukrainian Bureau of Investigation for a matter linked to abuse of power and desertions.

Ukrainian investigators announced this Wednesday that they had arrested a unit commander of the “Anne of kyiv” brigade, partly trained by France and shaken by scandals since last month. This brigade is the subject of investigations by the Ukrainian Bureau of Investigation (SBI) for a case linked to abuse of power and desertions.

The new death toll from the Russian air attack in broad daylight on the city of Zaporizhia is at least 13 dead. “Thirteen dead following the enemy strike on Zaporizhia,” regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram, revising upwards the previous toll which reported one dead and 30 wounded.

One person was killed and 30 others injured in a broad daylight Russian attack on the town of Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said. “Thirty wounded as a result of the enemy’s attack on Zaporizhia were taken to hospitals,” Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram, having previously announced the death of one person. He accompanied his message with photos of bodies lying in the street and burning cars.

Two firefighters died this Wednesday in the fire at an oil site in Engels, in the Saratov region (west), struck in the night by Ukrainian drones because, according to kyiv, they were supplying the Russian air force.

“Unfortunately, (the work of) liquidating (the fire) left two dead – men from the firefighting service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations,” said the governor of this region located some 500 km away. from the Ukrainian border. He also reported an “increase in the area of ​​the fire”.

Russian authorities in annexed Ukrainian Crimea said this Wednesday they fear a massive arrival of fuel oil on the coasts of the peninsula, affected by an oil spill caused by the sinking, more than three weeks ago, of two oil tankers. “There is a strong risk that the situation will worsen and that the scale of the crisis will become comparable to that in the Russian region of Krasnodar,” said the Russian leader of Crimea, Sergei Aksionov.

On December 15, two oil tankers ran aground during a storm in the Kerch Strait, between Russia and Crimea, causing massive pollution which, for the moment, has mainly affected the coasts of the Russian region of Krasnodar. But it then also reached Crimea, notably the large port city of Sevastopol, located around 250 km from the disaster site.

The Ukrainian army said on Wednesday that it had struck an oil site in Russia located 500 kilometers from the border during the night. A base supplying Russian military aircraft which bomb Ukrainian territory. “The Combinat Kristall oil depot in Engels, in the Saratov region, was attacked” during the night, the Ukrainian army general staff reported on its Telegram channel.

The Ukrainian army announced yesterday that it was carrying out “combat operations” in the Russian border region of Kursk, notably striking “a military command post”, after having deleted in its press release any mention of “new offensive operations” which it had spoken initially.

“This strike is an integral part of the combat operations of the units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, which carry out combat operations on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army simply indicated in this press release. published in English on Telegram.

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