These are the primary developments on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Right here is the scenario on Saturday, February 24, 2024.
Second anniversary of the battle
- On at the present time two years in the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, triggering a brutal battle with no sign of ending.
- To mark the anniversary, the United States issued sanctions towards greater than 500 Russian-linked targets and imposed new export restrictions on practically 100 entities for offering help to Russia within the largest single tranche of penalties because the begin of the battle.
- The European Union introduced its 13th package of sanctions towards Russia, banning practically 200 further entities and people accused of involvement within the two-year battle.
- The UK additionally imposed sanctions on six officers overseeing the penal colony the place Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny died in mysterious circumstances final week.
- The prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium, Giorgia Meloni, Justin Trudeau and Alexander De Croo, and the president of the European Fee, Ursula von der Leyen, travelled to the Ukrainian capital collectively by practice from neighbouring Poland in a present of solidarity.
- Von der Leyen has praised Ukraine’s “extraordinary resistance” as she arrived in Kyiv.
- Meloni and Trudeau are anticipated to signal safety pacts with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to offers just lately agreed to with France and Germany which are price billions of {dollars}.
US President Joe Biden is due to participate in a video convention name of fellow leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) main democracies, which can be chaired by Meloni, with Zelenskyy invited to hitch the dialogue. Italy holds the rotating G7 presidency and organised the decision. - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has known as for Germany and Europe to make a much bigger effort in terms of defence. “Russia will not be solely attacking Ukraine, it’s also destroying peace in Europe,” Scholz mentioned, including that Ukraine could be supported in its self-defence “for so long as mandatory”.
- In the course of the two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 14 million people – practically one-third of Ukraine’s inhabitants – have fled their houses, in keeping with the Worldwide Group for Migration.
- The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says not less than 10,582 civilians have been killed and practically 20,000 have been wounded because the begin of the battle.
- Switzerland has informed the United Nations that it intends to organise a high-level Ukraine peace convention “by the summer time”.
Combating, weapons
- Putin has claimed that 95 % of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces had been modernised and that the Air Pressure had simply taken supply of 4 new supersonic nuclear-capable bombers.
- The Ukrainian Air Pressure says it downed a uncommon Russian spy airplane, an A-50, over the Azov Sea, its chief Mykola Oleshchuk mentioned.
- Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Moscow’s forces in occupied Ukraine the place he was briefed that Russian forces had been on the offensive after taking full control of the industrial hub of Avdiivka, in keeping with a military assertion.
- Russian forces launched 28 assaults on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy province focusing on 5 communities, the Kyiv Unbiased newspaper has reported citing native authorities.
- At the very least one man was killed in a Russian drone assault within the southern metropolis of Odesa, regional governor Oleh Kiper wrote on social media, including that three different individuals had been wounded.
- Russian strikes additionally killed one civilian within the city of Myrnohrad, within the Donetsk province, and two others within the southeastern metropolis of Dnipro, native officers say.
- Biden has renewed requires lawmakers within the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives to unblock a $60bn support package deal for Ukraine, warning that “historical past is ready” and “failure to help Ukraine at this vital second won’t be forgotten”.