During the speech in London, the army chief said the UK needed to broadly follow Stockholm’s example and take “preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing”. Speaking at a military conference, Sanders starkly described the British people as part of a “prewar generation” who may have to prepare themselves to fight in a war against an increasingly aggressive Russia. https://euronewstop.co.uk/how-many-troops-does-ukraine-have.html of general staff highlighted the example of Sweden, which has just reintroduced a form of national service as it closes in on joining Nato. The government says it wants to spend 2.5% of national income on defence - but has still not said when.
The Biden administration already has sent Ukraine $111bn in weapons, humanitarian assistance and other aid. Earlier today, a Russian official said air defences had thwarted a drone attack on the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl. Moscow has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region. All the expeditionary wars involved victories that came, generally, in a matter of weeks, sometimes days. As a result, recent military planners assumed the amount of ammunition required and preparation needed would be limited.
Putin registers as presidential candidate
Turkey will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the state department said in a news release. One person was killed and another injured in Russian drone strikes in Beryslav, said Oleksandr Prokudin, regional governor of Kherson oblast. They engaged Ukrainian troops in 98 combat engagements, and carried out four air strikes and 78 shellings with reactive bullets.
Nato has said it will listen to Russia’s concerns about wanting Ukraine not to join the organisation but its core values, of allowing each nation to choose its own path and defending all allies, will not be compromised. Around 350 Royal Marines from 45 Commando were sent to Poland this week – taking the total numbers of military personnel there up to 500 – as the two countries continue to work together to try and de-escalate the tensions around Ukraine. Ukraine wants the opposite – it aspires to be part of the EU and Nato (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) rather than under Russia’s control and so is firmly resisting Putin’s threats. The Russian president said his goal was the “demilitarisation” of Ukraine, warning that if the West were to interfere they would endure “consequences they had never seen”. He said he was launching a “special military operation” in the east of the country. The rest is made up of imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported to the UK by sea from countries such as Qatar and the US.
Ukraine conflict: What we know about the invasion
Moscow and Kyiv traded fresh accusations over the plane that Russia says Ukraine’s forces shot down near the rivals’ border, killing 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. “This represents a continuation of Russia’s minor incremental gains whilst Ukraine focuses on active defence,” the report reads. “As the main supply route remains intact, and Ukrainian forces make local counter-attacks, Avdiivka is likely to remain in Ukrainian control over the coming weeks,” the report said.
A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane crashed on Wednesday in Russia's Belgorod region, Reuters reports, citing the state news agency RIA who quoted the defence ministry. Ukraine’s military has released a statement in which it accused the Russian army of using military transport aircraft to deliver missiles to the Belgorod region in order to perform cross-border attacks in recent weeks. Russia’s defence ministry said earlier that 74 people had been onboard the Il-76 transport plane, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be exchanged for Russian captives. Ukrainian officials say Russia has provided no credible evidence to back its claims that their own forces shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be swapped for Russian POWs. Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied that its forces downed a Russian military transport plane that day, but Ukrainian officials earlier this week confirmed that a prisoner swap was due to happen on Wednesday. Russia's defence ministry has denied attacking Ukrainian cities - saying it was targeting military infrastructure, air defence and air forces with "high-precision weapons".
The only airlines still flying from the UK, Wizz Air and Ryanair, have suspended all flights to the country. It followed the Kremlin ordering troops into the rebel-held Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk on recognising them as independent. In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky early on Thursday morning, Mr Johnson vowed the West "would not stand by as President Putin waged his campaign against the Ukrainian people". Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a "catastrophe for our continent", Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said. UK nationals were advised two weeks ago to leave Ukraine while commercial flights were still available.
- The conflict in Ukraine offers a glimpse of how Britain might prepare for self-defence.
- Around half of the embassy’s personnel are understood to still be in the country.
- Turkey will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the state department said in a news release.
- The UK government is providing a range of economic, humanitarian and defensive military assistance to Ukraine, and is imposing additional sanctions on Russia and Belarus.
Ukraine has said its goal for the talks is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. Because there will be thousands of families across this country tonight, who have soldier relatives in Russia as prisoners of war, who are now waiting - and worrying. If there were Ukrainian soldiers on board the transport plane, then Russia will eventually have to provide the proof. We don't know how much more officials here in Kyiv may already know and not be saying.
Ukraine had feared ahead of the winter that Russia was stockpiling weapons for large-scale attacks. "They're always trying to find a better way to break our air defence systems and make their attack more efficient," Oleksandr Musiyenko at Ukraine's Center for Military Legal Research told the BBC. Storm Shadow is a long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed by British Aerospace and a French company, which carries a 450kg conventional warhead to a range of up to 200 miles (300km). In response to reports the deal had been done, Moscow said the move would require an "adequate response from our military". On 24 January Nato announced it was putting forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to Nato deployments in eastern Europe, “reinforcing Allied deterrence and defence”. The Prime Minister also suggested Britain could provide more military support to Ukraine as legislation to allow for tougher UK sanctions against Russia were expected to come into force today.
- The Foreign Office has warned against all travel to Crimea and two areas of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk oblast and Luhansk oblast.
- Russia's defence ministry has denied attacking Ukrainian cities - saying it was targeting military infrastructure, air defence and air forces with "high-precision weapons".
- In 1994, the UK - along with the US - signed a memorandum at an international conference in Budapest promising "to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine".
- Those standing against Mr Putin in the upcoming election, including anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin, have until Wednesday to gather the required number of supporters' signatures to back their campaigns.
Finland, Nato's newest member and a country which has an 800-mile border with Russia, has wider conscription. Refusal can mean a jail sentence, though there is the option of civilian service out of uniform too. But it boosts the strength of the professional armed forces, which is often relatively small. Conscription requires young men and women to serve for a limited time in uniform. It means that some of the population will have had some military training - and can then be assigned to reserve units should war break out. Many analysts say Beijing in particular is looking on as it formulates its own plans to reunify Taiwan with mainland China.