War in Ukraine: sanctions against Russia, attack on energy installations, need for 200,000 men… update on the situation

Sanctions against Russia

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would likely impose sanctions on Russia if his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, refused to negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

Donald Trump did not provide details on these possible sanctions. The United States has already imposed significant sanctions on Russia over the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The US president said his administration was examining the issue of sending weapons to Ukraine, adding that he believed the European Union should do more to support Kyiv.

“We are talking to (Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky), we will talk to President (Vladimir) Putin very soon”he said. Donald Trump said he pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to intervene to end the war in Ukraine when he spoke with him.

Energy installations

Russia has attacked Ukraine’s energy facilities 1,200 times since its large-scale invasion of its neighbor began in February 2022, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Wednesday.

Speaking in Davos, Yulia Svyrydenko said that more than 800 attacks had targeted substations and power lines, more than 250 on power plants and more than 30 on gas sites.

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200 00 troupes

President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that at least 200,000 European troops should be deployed to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the event of a truce with Russia and avoid a new invasion, according to a video released by kyiv on Wednesday.

“200,000 is a minimum. It’s a minimum. Otherwise, it’s nothing”declared the Ukrainian president on Tuesday during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), in an interview shared on the presidency’s website the next day. This is the first time that a senior Ukrainian official has publicly mentioned the number of such a contingent, although this project has been discussed behind the scenes for several months between kyiv and its Western allies.

French President Emmanuel Macron had put forward the idea of ​​stationing Western troops in Ukraine to supervise a possible ceasefire agreement with Russia, which launched the invasion of its Ukrainian neighbor three years ago and occupies today about 20% of its territories in the East and South. For weeks, speculation about possible talks to end the conflict has been increasing, against a backdrop of questions about the position that the new American president Donald Trump will adopt, while the United States is the main provider of aid military and financial in kyiv. Trump ruled Tuesday “probable” new sanctions against Russia if Moscow does not negotiate an end to the war against Ukraine. He further indicated that the United States would “lean” on the continuation of military aid to kyiv.

For his part, from Davos, Mr. Zelensky estimated that the American president could apply “total sanctions” against Russia, in particular its energy sector and “give Ukraine all the weapons it asks for” to threaten Vladimir Putin.

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“Very difficult” for Trump

“Except of course nuclear weapons, we are sane people”added the Ukrainian president. Even before his inauguration on Monday, Donald Trump claimed that he was preparing a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to “to end it” with this conflict. “So I’m not surprised that the United States has contacts with Putin“but Ukraine must be “a priority” for the American president, said Mr. Zelensky. “Because we are allies of the United States. We are the victim. Putin is the occupier. And we did not start the war, he started it“, he argued.

Ending the war which has left tens of thousands dead on each side and ravaged Ukraine “will be very difficult for President Trump”, warned Volodymyr Zelensky. “We must all understand that Putin does not want to end the war” for lack of having reached “its essential target: the independence of Ukraine”and launched by M. Zelensky. “Destroying it is his dream.”

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L’Ukraine “will not recognize” not occupied territories like Russian, “even if all allies unite” to demand it, he insisted, while suggesting that she could concede to them for a time in order to stop the hostilities. “There will be no pardon, no legal recognition, but we must do everything to end the hot phase of the war”a dit M. Zelensky.