Zelenskiy may dismiss Zaluzhnyi after top general refuses to resign; new 100-mile glide bombs on way to Ukraine from Boeing
Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked his most senior military commander, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, to step down but the popular general refused, triggering speculation that he might be dismissed by the president amid tensions between them. Oleksii Goncharenko, a Ukrainian opposition MP and ally of the general, told the Guardian that he understood that “yesterday the president asked Zaluzhnyi to resign but he declined to do so”.
Ukraine will soon receive the first big batch of long-range missiles made by Boeing and Saab that promise to extend its range deep into Russian-held territory, according to reports. Ukraine needs the ground launched small diameter bomb (GLSDB) to supplement its 100-mile Atacms rockets from the US.
EU nations have decided to approve an outline deal that would deliver Ukraine the taxes and profits from hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian central bank assets that have been frozen outside Russia because of its war against Ukraine. It is seen as a first step towards using the Russian assets – there are also calls to seize the entire sum outright for Ukraine’s benefit.
Peers have criticised the UK government for failing to agree a deal with the former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to spend £2.5bn from his sale of the London football club.
EU leaders will meet on Thursday hoping to approve €50bn in support for Ukraine over the solitary opposition of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who is an ally of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
Russian attack drones hit Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, on Tuesday, slightly injuring three people, triggering a fire and causing damage to apartment blocks and infrastructure, local officials said.
Ukraine said it had carried out a successful cyber-attack that knocked out a server used by Russia’s defence ministry, temporarily disrupting communications for military units.
Ukraine is likely to face a tough year fighting Russia in 2024, the CIA director, Bill Burns, has written in Foreign Policy, arguing that to cut off US aid would be an error of “historic proportions”.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Tuesday that European countries must get ready to help Ukraine keep fighting “over the long term”, with or without American help. “If the United States were to make a sovereign choice to stop or reduce this aid, it should have no impact on the ground.”
The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, has said he expects Russia’s offensive on the eastern frontline to fizzle out by early spring. He credited them with only “a few advances across some fields” and near Avdiivka. “Now it’s the enemy’s move. It will end, and I think ours will start.”
A Ukrainian military spy official said on Tuesday that Russia was showing no willingness to return the bodies of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war that it said died in a military plane crash in the Belgorod region last week. Russia has produced no proof there were Ukrainian prisoners on the plane.
The Ukrainian government submitted to parliament on Tuesday an amended version of its bill to tighten army mobilisation rules. The parliament rejected the previous draft amid public outcry. A key provision in the legislation is a lowering to 25 from 27 the minimum age for the draft. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the army needs 450,000-500,000 more personnel.
