Ukraine war latest updates: Ukraine foreign minister muses about ‘punching’ Russia’s

The Kremlin declined to comment on Tuesday on a Bloomberg report that Chinese state-owned banks are tightening curbs on funding to Russian clients for fear of U.S. secondary sanctions, describing it as a highly sensitive topic.

Asked about the report, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a matter for the companies and departments involved, and not for the Kremlin.

“This is a very, very sensitive area and it is unlikely that anyone will undertake to talk about it – you shouldn’t expect that,” he said.

“We continue to develop relations with China; it’s our very important strategic partner.”

Peskov said this was reflected in the higher-than-expected volume of bilateral trade with China, adding “we have confidently surpassed 200 billion (dollars) and continue to grow.”

— Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Zelenskyy said on Telegram that “many important issues were discussed” during his meeting with the NATO chief.

“The situation on the battlefield, the defence needs of our country, the further strengthening of the Ukrainian air defence system, the preparation of the next NATO summit in Washington, work with partners on bilateral security agreements within the framework of the G7 declaration, which will be in effect until Ukraine joins NATO,” he said, thanking the military alliance for its “steady support.”

Ukraine is pressing NATO to speed up its accession to the organization, although the chances of membership in the near term are vanishingly slim given the active war in Ukraine and reservations of countries such as Turkey and Hungary.

Russia predicated its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine partly on its opposition to Ukraine’s future NATO membership and the bloc’s expansion, even though Ukraine’s accession was, even then, a remote possibility. NATO refused to bow to Russia’s pre-war demands for guarantees that Ukraine would not join the alliance.

Zelenskyy will address delegates in Davos on Tuesday and is expected to use the opportunity to plead Ukraine’s case for continuing military and humanitarian aid at a time when ongoing support for Kyiv looks shaky, given increasing war fatigue and forthcoming elections in Europe and the U.S.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in an interview made public on Monday, said there had been times when he had felt the urge to “punch in the face” his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov in talks during the early stage of Moscow’s invasion.

Kuleba’s brief remarks were part of an hour-long informal interview with a Ukrainian video blogger focusing on topics ranging from cooking to hobbies and Ukrainian soccer.

When asked, as part of a series of rapid-fire questions, about his most difficult set of negotiations, Kuleba said: “The most difficult talks are those in which you feel simply that you want to go and punch your opposite number in the nose, but you really can’t do that.

“And I can say that this occurred two or three times. One occasion was with Lavrov in (the Turkish resort of) Antalya in spring of 2022.”

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met for several rounds of talks in the early weeks after the February 2022 invasion — first near Ukraine’s border with Belarus and later in Turkey.

Kuleba said at the time that the talks in Turkey had been difficult and dealt with a ceasefire and arranging humanitarian corridors. No agreement was clinched in those talks and there have been no negotiations since.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejects talks with Moscow until Russian troops are withdrawn from the slightly less than 20% of Ukraine they now hold. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin says Russia is ready for talks but has vowed to pursue what Moscow calls its “special military operation”.

In Moscow, Russia Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Kuleba’s latest remarks underscored the incompetence of Ukraine’s leadership.

“And that is the problem: uneducated, aggressive people were recruited under the guise of serving as ministers to ruin Ukraine for American money,” Zakharova told the daily Izvestia.

“Perhaps he belongs in a no-holds-barred bout rather than the foreign ministry?”

— Reuters

The Russian city of Voronezh introduced a state of emergency Tuesday morning after an alleged Ukrainian drone attack injured a 13-year-old girl and damaged apartment buildings.

The city’s mayor Vadim Kstenin said on Telegram that a “night raid” damaged four residential buildings, breaking dozens of windows. He said a state of emergency had been introduced in the city to allow an assessment of the damage and repairs to be made.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense stated on Telegram that five drones (UAVS) were shot down over the Voronezh region overnight.

“Tonight, attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist attacks using aircraft-type UAVs against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were stopped,” the ministry said.

“Duty air defense systems destroyed five and intercepted three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory of the Voronezh region, four UAVs were intercepted over the territory of the Belgorod region,” it noted.

Earlier, the governor of the wider Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said Russian air defense systems had “repelled an attack by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles,” or drones.

Gusev noted on Telegram that the Ministry of Emergency Situations had stated that debris from one of the UAVs fell into an apartment and a 13-year-old girl had been injured as a result.

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information and Ukraine has not commented on the attack. Ukraine and Russia both deny targeting civilians in the war. Ukraine increased drone attacks against Russian territory, with the border city Belgorod coming under repeated attack around the New Year, causing Russia to retaliate.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.

The address offers Zelenskyy an opportunity to plead Ukraine’s case for continuing military and humanitarian aid in front of dozens of heads of state and government, as well as business leaders. The forum comes at a time when ongoing support for Kyiv looks shaky, given increasing war fatigue and forthcoming elections in the European Parliament and the U.S. that could change the dial on military aid.

The address will take place at 14:15-15:00 CET, or 13:15 London time.

Ukrainian officials presented Kyiv’s 10-point peace plan on the eve of WEF. But with Russia and its ally China absent from the event, little tangible progress was made toward actual peace talks.

Presenting the “peace formula” to delegates from 83 countries, Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Sunday that China needs to be involved in future talks to end the war with Russia. Moscow said peace plan talks were useless without its presence.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine posted a trade deficit of $24.35 billion in the first 11 months of 2023, the statistics service said on Monday.

Exports of goods totaled $32.98 billion from January to November while imports reached $57,33 billion in the same period, the service said in a statement.

-Reuters

The European Union’s eastern states are demanding the EU impose import duties on Ukraine grains, citing unfair competition, Hungary’s agricultural ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said the farm ministers from Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia had sent a letter to the European Commission requesting the measures, saying cheaper agricultural products from Ukraine are eating into their export markets.

The five signatories are among six EU member states that produce significantly more wheat and maize than they need, which is key for European food safety and the EU’s strategic sovereignty, the ministers said.

“This is why Brussels needs to introduce measures that protect the markets of member states bordering Ukraine while helping them make use of their full export potential,” the letter signed by the ministers including Hungary’s Farm Minister Istvan Nagy, said.

“One of these [measures] could be introducing import duties on the most sensitive agricultural products.”

Ukraine’s larger farm sizes make the country’s grain exports cheaper and that is pushing EU farmers out of their traditional export markets, the ministers said. Farmers in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia “have suffered significant damages” since the EU suspended import quotas and customs on grain from Ukraine last year, they said.

The ministers are also calling on the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, to examine in a report whether Ukraine’s production guidelines are in line with EU standards.

The complaints were addressed to EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and Farm Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.

Grain exports have been a rare source of tension between Kyiv and its EU neighbours as Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia became alternative transit routes for Ukrainian grain to help offset slower exports via Ukraine’s Black Sea ports after the Russian invasion in 2022.

— Reuters

The Kremlin said Monday it has no information about two Russian war planes that Ukraine claimed to have shot down.

Ukraine said on Monday it had destroyed a Russian Beriev A-50 spy plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post in the Sea of Azov area. If the information is verified, the destruction of costly air force assets would be a blow to Russia.

The Kremlin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on the incident, however.

“No, there is no information,” Peskov said when asked about the alleged strikes, news agency TASS reported.

“Then, after all, this is a topic that concerns the progress of a special military operation.” Russia’s Ministry of Defense has not commented on Ukraine’s claims.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian and Iranian foreign and defense ministers held telephone calls and are due to sign a major agreement, Russian state news agency RIA reported.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke to their Iranian counterparts and the defense ministry later announced Moscow and Tehran would sign “a major interstate agreement.”

“The parties emphasized their commitment to the fundamental principles of Russian-Iranian relations, including unconditional respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which will be confirmed in the major interstate agreement being prepared for signing between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the statement said, RIA reported.

It’s unclear what the agreement pertains to. Russia and Iran have grown closer in recent years, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine and started procuring Iranian-made drones. Russia has not commented on its drone supply, while Tehran has admitted to supplying drones but said it did so before the war.

Russia and Iran have also become more aligned over Middle Eastern affairs, criticizing Israel for its attacks on Palestinian territory and Iran-backed militant group Hamas.

Shoigu noted that Moscow and Tehran are increasing joint efforts “to create an equal multipolar world,” the RIA news agency added, saying that both parties had discussed “issues of military and military-technical cooperation and exchanged views on regional security issues.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine said on Monday it had destroyed a Russian Beriev A-50 spy plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post in the Sea of Azov area, dealing a blow to Russian military operations in occupied southern Ukraine.

“Ukraine’s Air Force destroyed an enemy A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and an enemy IL-22 air control centre,” army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“I am grateful to the Air Force for the perfectly planned and executed operation in the Azov Sea region!”

Reuters was unable to verify the statement independently. The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.

The Ukrainian defence ministry valued the A-50 aircraft at $330 million. Kyiv’s statements did not say how the planes had been destroyed.

The A-50, which first came into service near the end of the Soviet era, is a large Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft that can scan an area several hundred kilometres across for enemy aircraft, ships and missiles.

Some Russian military bloggers said the downing of the aircraft would be a huge loss for Russia’s air force, since there was a limited number of the planes in service.

“It will be another dark day for the Russian Aerospace Forces and Air Defense,” wrote Rybar, a blogger with nearly 1.2 million subscribers that supports and provides running commentary on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“There are not many A-50s. And the specialists operating them are generally rare. If an aircraft of this type is hit, the crew will not be able to escape.” It was not clear how many A-50s Russia has in service.

— Reuters