Despite being mixed up in corruption scandals last month involving the Ukrainian government, it does not appear that Oleksii Reznikov will lose his position as Ukraine’s Defense Minister this week, according to a statement from President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday. However, Ukraine’s ruling party, Servant of the People, issued a statement on Sunday indicating that Reznikov will be replaced as Defense Minister at some point.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued a bleak warning Monday during a speech before the 193-member UN General Assembly in which he said that the world is headed toward a “wider war” in Ukraine due to continuous escalations.
Dömötör called the resolution “everything but a call for peace, more like a big step towards the escalation of the war. The 7th point of the resolution calls for deliveries of more armored vehicles and ammunition, to be followed by long-distance missile systems and fighter jets to the war-torn country.”
In a speech on Tuesday, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a message to the U.S. and its allies that the West cannot stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government has issued a warning that Russia is mustering troops along the border in preparation for a new large-scale assault that is likely to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the invasion on February 24. Multiple reports have also previously indicated that the Kremlin was planning a Spring offensive.
“If you send weapons, if you finance the entire annual budget of one of the belligerents,” the Hungarian Prime Minister pointed out, “if you promise more and more weapons, more and more modern weapons, then you can say whatever you want. No matter what you say, you are in the war.”
“Does the French president think that supplying the Kiev regime with arms, heavy weapons, and aircraft for combat operations will not escalate the situation? I refuse to believe that a grown man can have such logic,” the Russian diplomat added. “Such statements only increase the already insatiable appetite of Zelensky’s regime, which, by shelling hospitals and massacring civilians, has clearly demonstrated that injecting Western military equipment – how did Mr. Macron put it? – will not lead to an escalation of the conflict.
While the U.S. used the “domino theory” with success in order to gain support from the American public during the Vietnam War, former UK Defense Minister Sir Gerald Howarth is attempting to use the same argument to justify his reasoning for inserting NATO troops in Ukraine.
In addition to the Biden administration sending an additional $2.2 billion in military aid to Ukraine, this round will include longer-range rockets that Kyiv has been eager to receive. The donation of longer-range rockets comes a week after the U.S. and Germany announced that they would be sending M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
A Russian company is not happy that the U.S. and Germany have agreed to send M1 Abrams and the sophisticated Leopard tanks to Ukraine. The company is so disgruntled about it that it has issued a bounty for the destruction of the tanks.