The President of France, Macron, and that of Russia, Putin, have coincided in “the need for a despaired” in Ukraine during the video call of an hour who have maintained this Friday.
That coincidence that highlights the French Presidency does not hide that, according to other sources, the virtual meeting has also served to verify that they maintain “important disagreements”.
In parallel, the EU and the United States try to anticipate a possible increase in tension.
This Friday they have announced that they reinforce their cooperation to seek additional natural gas supplies so that Europe raises its dependence on Russian gas in case a spiral of sanctions and reprisals are disregarded.
From Kiev, the President of Ukraine has demanded clarity to NATO and has asked the Atlantic Alliance to “say openly” if your country is going to enter.
A possibility that in its response in writing to the Russian security demands Washington did not discard explicitly.
The Minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, Ione Belarra, has warned this Friday the PSOE that “a progressive government, a decent government, is due to the mandate of its people, and Spain said high and clear ‘not to war'”
, because, as he posed, “it is the spirit of our people and we owe ourselves.”
He has done it in his intervention at the first rally of the Electoral Campaign of Castilla y León.
The Minister and General Secretary of We can warned that in the coming weeks and months he will hear the media “that work for the party of war”, supposedly the PP, “grandilocuent” words such as democracy and human rights to justify a
Eventual military intervention in Ukraine.
To the way of seeing it, on the other hand, “behind all wars are the lords of war, Russian gas, the arms industry and the interests created.”
Faced with these criticisms from United Can, Yolanda Díaz, second vice president of the government, who entered the executive for indication of that training, on Thursday, he said that the voice in this matter corresponds to President Sánchez.
The White House has affirmed that it still does not see “signs” that Russia is in the process of lowering tensions around Ukraine and insists that diplomacy can only occur in the context of a lack of course on the ground.
This has said it one of the spokespersons of the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, in statements to the press within the presidential plane, since the American president, Joe Biden, travels this Friday to the city of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania).
“We have been very clear when we want diplomacy to work because diplomacy is the only reasonable way to resolve the crisis in Ukraine,” Jean-Pierre said.
The spokesman insisted that diplomacy can only work in the context of a desired and recalled that there are still 100,000 Russian military on the border with Ukraine, some of them in neighboring Belarus.
The KLM Dutch airline has said this Friday that members of their crews no longer spend the night in Kiev due to tensions between Russia and Western countries around Ukraine.
However, the company’s flights to Ukraine are not suspended, said KLM in a statement.
Flights in Ukraine is a particularly delicate issue in the Netherlands since Amsterdam Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight to Kuala Lumpur was knocked on the east of the country.
The 283 passengers were killed, including 196 Dutch citizens, and the 15 members of the crew.
Moscow has always denied any involvement.
But four men, three Russians and a Ukrainian, face life imprisonment in a trial in the Netherlands.
They are accused of knocking down the MH17 flight with a Missile Earth-Air Buk.
The United States hopes that the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine who has convened for Monday serves the international community to press Russia with a “clear message” against a possible military intervention and for Moscow explanations of
Your behavior and confirm your willingness to dialogue.
This ensures this Friday a senior US official who spoke with journalists under anonymity and that defended the importance of involving the highest decision-making body of the United Nations in the current crisis.
“The situation on the ground requires that we do preventive diplomacy to avoid a crisis before we have it on it,” he has underlined.
According to this source, Washington considers that the meeting will be “a very important opportunity” so that all global powers can support diplomacy against a possible conflict and so that Russia can listen first hand those messages.
The Pentagon has warned Russia this Friday to take a step back in the Ukrainian crisis and has affirmed that the US will continue to support the independence of this country.
The head of the United States Senior Staff, General Mark Milley, has urged a press conference at the Pentagon to Russia to seek a diplomatic solution, affirming that the use of “the armed force should always be the last resort”
.
General Milley has warned that a large-scale attack from Moscow in Ukraine would have “frightening” consequences.
“You can imagine how it would look in dense urban areas,” he added, predicting “a significant number of casualties” in case of offensive.
“It would be frightful, it would be terrible,” he said at a press conference.
Milley has expressed the US concern at the concentration of some 100,000 Russian military at the border with Ukraine, among which there are terrestrial, aerial, naval, special and cybernetic forces, among others.
“This has a larger scale and scope than anything we have seen in recent memory, and I think you have to go back to the days of the cold war to see something of this magnitude,” she said.
The Pentagon has insisted this Friday that the conflict with Russia is not inevitable and has noticed that Washington will support its NATO allies in case of a Russian attack against Ukraine.
The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said at a press conference in the Pentagon that the country of him has offered to Moscow “a way to get out of the crisis and towards greater security.”
The main European bags closed red on Friday after a week marked by a great volatility due to the tightening of the US Federal Reserve Monetary Policy (Fed) and tensions between Moscow and Washington by Ukraine.
In Frankfurt, the DAX index fell by 1.32% while Paris CAC 40 retreated 0.82%.
In London, the FTSE index decreased by 1.17%.
In Spain, the IBEX35 also closed with a drop of 1.10% and very close, the FTSE MIB index of Milan fell by 1.18%.
China has revealed this Friday the list of leaders who will come on February 4 to the inauguration of the Winter Olympic Games, marked by the presence of leaders close to Beijing and the scarce representation of Western leaders.
Several Western countries, headed by the United States, have decided not to send leaders to the event, which will be held from February 4 to 20, to denounce the violation of human rights in China, especially in the Xinjiang region (Northwest) where he lives
The Muslim minority Uigur.
Given the absence of Westerners, the Chinese regime has invited friends leaders, some of which also maintain differences with the West and face problems regarding human rights.
Among them, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin stands out, who was in September the first leader in confirming the presence of him in the Olympic Games.
The strong man of the Kremlin, who frequently praises the relationship of his country with China, maintains close ties with President Xi Jinping, who refers as “dear friend”, although the two allies have not been seen in person from the
Start of the pandemic.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has asked Russia Friday, who has concentrated troops on the border with his country, who makes a gesture that shows that he will not attack Ukraine.
If Russia says that “it will not attack Ukraine, it could take steps to prove it,” said Zelensky at a press conference for foreign media in Kiev.
Russia has loaded this Friday against the United States’ decision to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council to address the crisis in Ukraine and has called other countries to stop their celebration.
The appointment, scheduled for next Monday, would be the first time that the highest decision organ of the United Nations addresses the current escalation of tension in the area and the accumulation of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.
The Ambassador Deputy from Russia before the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, has given to understand on Twitter that his country will try to stop the celebration of the meeting.
“I can not remember another time when a member of the Security Council has proposed to discuss its own allegations and assumptions without foundation as a threat to the international order by another,” Polyanskiy said.
The diplomat said to trust that the rest of the Member States “will not support this clear trick of public relations, embarrassing for the reputation of the UN Security Council.”
Although in this case Russia can not use its VETO power, the rules of the Security Council establish that any member may request a procedural vote at the last minute to block the celebration of a meeting.
For the meeting to come forward, nine votes would be necessary among the 15 members of the organ and the United States and their allies, right now, consider that they have sufficient support, according to a diplomatic source.
Russia has announced this Friday the prohibition of entering its territory of several officials of the European Union (EU), in what has submitted as a response to the “absurd unilateral restrictions” imposed by Brussels, at a time of international tension growing by
The conflict in Ukraine.
Moscow accuses these officials to be “personally responsible for the spread of antirrusa politics”.
The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, has admitted this Friday that there are “some differences” among the countries of the Alliance on the support that can be provided to Ukraine, which is not part of the transatlantic organization, if Russia returns to attack
The former Soviet Republic.
“When it comes to what kind of support we should give to a partner, Ukraine, yes, there are some differences, some allies are not prepared to provide a little support or military equipment,” the politician has declared during an online interview organized by
The Atlantic Council Studies Center.
Stoltenberg has ensured that NATO grants Kiev, as an alliance, “Creating Capacity”, Ciberdefense, Help to Modernize Safety Institutions or Information Sharing.
“Afterwards, some other allies, especially the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, are also providing coaches, defensive arms systems and others to Ukraine,” he said.
Stoltenberg has underlined that Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but “an important partner”, and has repeated that there are “some differences between allies”, a situation that has said, “does not try to hide.”
For the time being, the NATO country that has maintained a more cautious position with respect to support for Kiev in the current crisis has been Germany, which even blocked the delivery of weapons from Estonia to Ukraine.
In the same appearance before foreign journalists, the President of Ukraine, Volodígir Zelenski, has asked NATO Friday to say “openly” if the former Soviet Republic will enter the military bloc despite Russia’s refusal.
“We want something concrete, we have to count on something,” said the Ukrainian president during a press conference with foreign media representatives in Kiev.
“Let us tell us openly that we will never be there, some can say it and others do not. They come here and say they support Ukraine’s income in NATO. But we do not need to talk about the future, we have many
Challenges in the present “, said.
A possibility that in the response of it in writing to the Russian security lawsuits Washington did not explicitly rule out.
ZELENSKI said that the country fully trusts its army, which is at the level of the armed forces of other member countries of the Atlantic Alliance.
“It is a serious army, and if we talk about the NATO level, of course, we are not weaker than that,” he said and added that the Ukrainians “unfortunately” have combat experience, in allusion to the armed conflict in eastern country
, which exploded in 2014. In this sense, he added, the Ukrainian military have had to “fight, bury their friends, to defend their country, shoot and kill.”
During his press conference to foreign journalists, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has shown his concern about an internal “destabilization”.
According to Zelensky, “the greatest risk for Ukraine” is “the destabilization of the situation within the country”, rather than the threat of a Russian invasion, which is a possibility that do not rule out the Western countries after the deployment of more than 100,000
Russian military on the border with this former Soviet Republic.
The President of Ukraine, voloduly Zelensky, has asked Western countries this Friday that do not cause panic for tensions with Russia.
“We do not need this panic” because “we need to stabilize the economy,” said the president of the former Soviet Republic at a press conference for foreign media.
This message that there is balanced information about the current tension at the border also moved it on Thursday to the president of the US, Joe Biden.
“Do we have tanks in the streets? No. But the feeling is that if you’re not here,” he said.
“The image that creates the media that we have troops on the roads, we have mobilization, people leave, it is not like that, we do not need this panic,” Zelensky emphasized.
The French presidents Emmanuel Macron and Russian Vladimir Putin have coincided in his conversation from this Friday in the “need to reduce climbing” and continue the “dialogue” in the Ukrainian crisis, as announced by the Elysee.
The telephone conversation between the two leaders “allowed himself to agree on the need for desired,” says the French Presidency.
“President Putin did not express any offensive intention (…). He made it very clear that he was not looking for confrontation,” he adds.
However, Sources of the Presidency cited by EFE indicate that both important kept “important” disagreements about tension in Ukraine, although they committed to continue the dialogue to try to look for a solution.
“We have very important disagreements” with Russia, it has pointed out a source of the Elysee after the videoconference that both presidents maintained.
In the conversation, that something more than an hour was extended, Putin “reiterated” the reasons “by which we are in this situation” and repeated “His requirement that NATO from Russia guarantees” on their safety, adds this source.
Four Danish f-16 combat aircraft have arrived on Friday to the Zokniai air base in Lithuania, after that country asked for a reinforcement of the presence of NATO allies in its territory before Russian-Ukrainian tensions.
“This decision comes at the right time,” said Lithuanian president, Gypsy Nauseda, greeting the Danish army, “especially taking into account the situation along the border with Ukraine.”
The four Danish fighters will patrol the Baltic airspace until April 1, 2022 with the four F-16 Polish present in Lithuania from December 1.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, has committed this Friday to intensify energy cooperation between both parties to guarantee the security of supply in full conflict against Russia due to Ukraine.
“We are committed to intensifying our strategic energy cooperation for security and supply and we will work together so that citizens and companies of the EU and their neighbors have reliable and affordable energy supplies”, emphasize both leaders in a common statement.
In the text, Von Der Limen and Biden affirm that his goal is to “achieve a continuous, sufficient and timely supply of natural gas to the EU from several sources around the world to avoid supply crisis, including those that could result from a new
Russian invasion of Ukraine “.
“The United States is already the main supplier of liquefied natural gas to the EU. We collaborate with governments and market operators to achieve the provisioning of additional volumes of natural gas to Europe from various sources around the world,” adds the text.
Both parties try to avoid the threat of a reduction in Russian supply if Moscow is sanctioned by an attack on Ukraine.
Washington has raised the idea of personally sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin, which would place him in the category of sanctioned Heads as Syrian Bashar Al-Assad or the late Libyan Muammar Gaddafi.
US President Joe Biden did not specify the nature of these possible sanctions, but in general it is an asset freezing or a prohibition of transactions.
This symbolic measure would complicate bilateral cooperation.
The Kremlin has described it as “destructive”.
Much more serious in consequences would be to prohibit Russian transactions in dollars, the main currency of international exchanges, or the exclusion of Moscow from SWIFT, an essential system of international banking exchanges.
Another profitable sector that could target and that has also been cited are hydrocarbons.
On the first line, with the blockade of the submarine gas pipeline between Russia and Germany Nord Stream 2, which cost billions in Moscow, but also to several European countries.
Finally, there is talk of prohibiting the export of technology to Russia.
Ukraine has requested this Friday calm before tensions with Russia on the border that provoke more and more concern in the West and has ensured that the situation is comparable to military escalation starring Moscow in April 2021.
“The amount (of the military) then and now it is similar. What changes is the reaction (on escalation),” said Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov, as an Ukrainian Rada Supreme (Parliament) to analyze
The situation on the border with Russia.
Reznikov denied that Moscow is taking steps other than those who already held last April and assured that the main difference between what happened almost a year ago and now is “the intensity of hybrid measures” around the crisis, “mainly,
The informative “and their impact on the macroeconomic situation.
“So far we do not observe events or military actions that are significantly different from what happened last spring,” he insisted.
“We are prepared for political solutions, but also to answer if Russia decides to use force against Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, at a press conference.
NATO Secretary General has made it clear that the predilect route is that of dialogue, but who are “prepared” to respond to an attack.
“Ukrainian troops are better equipped and better trained now than in 2014 before a possible invasion of Russia,” he said.
“We have the necessary forces where they are necessary to defend any member country,” Stoltenberg warned, and has warned Russia that, in case of attack, “you will have to pay a high price.”
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has complained this French counterpart on Friday, Emmanuel Macron, on the West rejection of his demands for a reduction in Russian-Western conflict over Ukraine and NATO.
“The responses of the United States and NATO have not taken into account the fundamental concerns of Russia,” the Kremlin has indicated in a press release dedicated to the meeting between both leaders, considering that the key concern of Moscow “has been ignored”
.
Informa AFP.
Missiles, Lanzagranates, Ammunition … United States has increased the shipment of military material to Ukraine before a possible attack by Russia, in a scenario that evokes the cold war and where US and Russian soldiers are unlikely to be seen.
The tension has been triggered between the two powers by the concentration of Russian soldiers, about 100,000, on the border with Ukraine.
Faced with this situation, Washington’s military aid has not stopped flowing: In December, President Joe Biden authorized the delivery of 200 million dollars to respond to “immediate security needs”.
Lieutenant Colonel of Marines Anton T. Semelroth, one of the spokesmen from the US Department of Defense, has detailed EFE that package includes Javelin, Lanzagranate and ammunition missiles, as well as “non-lethal essential equipment for the first line of
Defense of Ukraine “.
In recent days, the US Embassy has realized on Twitter of the arrival of these provisions: only on January 25, USA delivered a third batch of military aid to Ukraine, 90 tons and 300 projectiles
Javelin;
That will not be the last one.
Informa Efe.
The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has expressed this Friday that the diplomacy arises effect before the crisis between Russia and Ukraine and has highlighted that at the moment the gas supply in Spain is guaranteed “thanks to the diplomatic actions of the
Government of Spain with other countries, including Algeria. ”
This has been highlighted by the minister to questions from journalists in Ayamonte (Huelva), where he has referred to the complicated situation between Russia and Ukraine and has been affected that he wants to trust that “Diplomacy, Dialogue, Unity and Unity Maneuver
Convidence “end up” dissuading Russia from any question on the Ukrainian border. ”
Informa Europa Press
The German Foreign Ministry has confirmed this Friday that it has forbidden a former diplomat to hold a position in the Board of Directors in the German Subsidiary of the Nord Stream 2 operator, controversial in the context of tensions by the situation in Ukraine
.
As explained by the Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Ministry Christopher Burger during a press conference in Berlin, the retired diplomat, Dieter Haller, had raised his intention to undertake a new work activity, as provided for the Law of Officer.
However, exteriors has decided not to authorize this occupation after “an internal examination” when considering it contrary to the “service interest”, according to Burger.
The former diplomat retired in 2018 and had occupied, among others, the charge of Ambassador of Germany in Saudi Arabia, according to information from the weekly Der Spiegel.
Informa Efe.
“Confrontation or agreement, it depends on Vladimir Putin,” said the head of French diplomacy on Friday, when President Emmanuel Macron has spoken with his Russian counterpart on the crisis in Ukraine and pending speaking with the Ukrainian president.
“Now the ball is on the Putin side,” has launched Jean-Yves Le Drian on RTL radio, two days after the United States and NATO presented their responses to Russian requests from strategic guarantees, in particular the non-entry of
Ukraine in the Atlantic Alliance.
Emmanuel Macron has spoken by phone at the end of the morning with Vladimir Putin for more than an hour and will speak with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, at 7:00 pm from Paris, he has reported the Elysee.
Informa AFP.
The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, has insisted this Friday that “it is the moment of diplomacy” to lower the tension between Russia and Ukraine and avoid a possible Russian invasion.
“At the moment we are investing all our skills in diplomatic contacts,” Borrell has pointed out during a press conference in Nairobi next to the Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raychelle Omame.
Asked if the EU shares the United States vision, which maintains that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is imminent, the High Representative has responded: “This is the moment of diplomacy”.
“This is the time to seek dialogue or something that can avoid a military conflict,” has reiterated the External External Extension.
“But in these cases, you know: you expect the best and get ready for the worst,” the head of European diplomacy warned.
Informa Efe.
The telephone conversation between the presidents of France and Russia, Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin, has concluded, reporting the Elysee sources, which will later explain the content of the discussion.
They add that Macron plans to speak on the phone with the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, at 7:00 pm, Spanish time.
These conversations, as well as the meeting in Paris on last Wednesday of advisers from the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, are part of an attempt to despair tension around Ukraine, as Macron explained on Tuesday in Berlin next to Chancellor
German, Olaf Scholz.
Informa Efe.
The Russian border with Ukraine, a scenario of a major geopolitical crisis, is practically two steps, but tensions have not dissuaded Artiom Ivanov to get up at dawn to go fishing, as it has always done.
“A war?” He commented surprised by this 34-year-old worker, heated in a blue parka, spinning the sedal over a small open hole in the frozen waters of Seversky Donets, a cross-border river, in the village of Maslova Pristan, in
The southwest of Russia.
“If you were truly preparing a war, I would be burning my automatic rifle and not fishing,” he says, smiling, while one of the two perches that has fish (“for my cat”) twists at his feet.
Like him, most of the inhabitants of this border area with whom AFP spoke affirm that they do not believe that a new conflict will explode, despite the escalation of tensions between Moscow and Kiev, whom Westerners support.
According to them, the deployment of tens of thousands of soldiers and Russian tanks at the Ukrainian border is no indication that Russia wants to invade its neighbor, as it fears the United States.
Informa AFP.
Ukrainian defense minister has affirmed this Friday that his country is monitoring the movement of six Russian boats that could be directed towards the Black Sea.
Oleksii Reznikov has explained to Parliament that Ukraine is aware of which units are on board the boats and that “the United States Marina and the Aviation Groups know it even better”.
Russia has launched a series of military exercises that involve motorized infantry and artillery units in southwestern Russia, Kaliningrad Aircraft in the Baltic Sea, dozens of warships in the Black Sea and the Arctic.
The Russian army has also transferred troops to Belarus, which limits with Ukraine, to make joint drills, which increases the fears of the West that Moscow can organize an attack from the north.
Reznikov assures that Ukraine has modern anti-tank missiles ready at the border to counteract the armored divisions of Russia if you plan to invade.
Informa AP.
Up to 8,500 troops of the United States have been put on alert for a possible deployment in Eastern Europe while continuing Russian military movements on the border with Ukraine, as the spokesman for Pentagon, John Kirby, at the beginning of the week.
The order comes from above, from a President Joe Biden who has not hidden his warrior and belligerent spirit since he began the threat of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to unleash a large-scale diplomatic crisis on the old continent.
Read the full information of Pablo Scarpellini
The PSOE has considered that there are currently other priorities in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that are of greater importance than the appearance at this time of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in the Congress of the Members to give explanations on that issue.
The spokesman for the Socialist Group in the Congress of the Deputies, Héctor Gómez, recalled that this week the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and gave information “with all luxury of details about the Ukraine crisis after meeting before
The Foreign Ministers of the EU and with the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken.
Therefore, although the Government President is “open to the appearances” in the Baja Gómez House has opined that “rightly the important one is the unit” in the field of the European Union and NATO.
In his view, “The Communication and Leadership” of the President of the Government in that conflict is “unquestionable”, since Pedro Sánchez is “permanent contact” with the Secretary General of NATO, the Presidents of the Council and the European Commission and the European Commission and
The main leaders of Europe.
Informa Efe.
The Government of Ukraine has reminded Hungary that without security in Ukraine will not have it either for the neighboring country or in Europe in general after Budapest’s statements that will not support Ukraine with the current conflict with Russia while Kiev continues to deprived his rights
to the minority Magiar in its territory.
“Without security in Ukraine, there will be no security in Hungary or in Europe in general. Only together we can strengthen security in the Central Europe region,” the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko.
Last Wednesday the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szjjartó, said that the ethnic Hungarians of Ukraine live “in deprivation of rights and, in some cases, even have to suffer physical harassment.”
“If the Ukrainians do not abandon these policies, the possibilities of the Hungarian government support Ukraine, also in the current conflict, will be very limited,” explained the Minister to the Magyarnemzet Progernamental Digital Diary.
Informa Efe.
The European External Action Service (SEAE) has alerted this Friday that “in recent weeks” has detected “an increase” of misinformation campaigns that actors favorable to Russia have carried out in relation to Ukraine.
“Ukraine is not an infrequent goal of misinformation favorable to Kremlin,” says EuvSdisinfo’s team in charge of detecting informative manipulation.
Of the 13,500 articles he has analyzed since its inception in 2015, more than 5,200, almost 40%, refer to Ukraine and according to a European source, “In recent weeks” there has been “an increase in activity related to Ukraine
“.
The same source explained that these campaigns do not come “from Russia as a country, but of misinformation actors favorable to Kremlin.”
Specifically, the EEAE team has identified two types of narratives.
The first, that “Ukraine is a tool of Western powers to influence and destabilize Russia,” and the second, that West “is about to perform a false operation to trigger a direct confrontation with Russian forces concentrated next to the border
With Ukraine. ”
Informa Efe.
The co-sportavoz of we can and candidate for the elections of Castilla y León, Pablo Fernández, has valued the “variation” of the PSOE in the Ukrainian crisis, passing from “Bellicistas Aspavance” to “Reconduct the situation” by the path of “Dialogue
and diplomacy “, the” only way “possible in this conflict.
“I think that in the Government we are maintaining the dialogue, diplomacy and desdecale, is what a government and progressive government has to do in the country of ‘not war’, has indicated in an interview with Europe Press
.
UK companies must be prepared to respond to possible cyber attacks in the context of the crisis in Ukraine, the National Cyber Safety Center (NCSC) was warned on Friday.
Although “no current threat has been identified for the United Kingdom,” the NCHC, which belongs to British intelligence services, “urges organizations” to strengthen their preparation to protect against potential threats as a result of “malicious cyber incidents in
Ukraine and its surroundings “.
In mid-January, several sites of the Ukrainian government were the subject of a massive cyber attack.
Kiev blames Moscow, while tensions have increased in recent months around Ukraine, which Westerners believe is under the threat of a Russian invasion.
“We have observed for several years a Russian pattern of malicious behavior in cyberspace. The incidents of last week in Ukraine carry the mark of a Russian activity similar to that we have observed before,” said Paul Chichester, Director of Operations of the NCSC
.
Informa AFP.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, have contacted the last hours with the EMIR of Casta, Tamim Bin Hamad al Zani, to facilitate the diversification of gas supply and reduce
Russia’s dependence in full crisis in Ukraine.
“The reliability of serving as an energy supplier is important for EU energy security and gas supplies,” Michel written on his Twitter account after talking to Emir Catari.
Hours earlier, the head of the Community executive maintained an “excellent” call with the ZANI and highlighted the need to “improve” the EU Association with Qatar, particularly in energy matters.
“It is important to strengthen Europe’s energy security with reliable partners,” Germany remarked in the same social network.
Both calls with few hours of difference took place in full escalation of tensions between the EU and Russia, the main gas supplier to the European Club, on account of Ukraine.
Informa Efe.
The President of Belarus, Alexandr Lukashenko, has held this Friday today that only the possibility of a war is possible if there is a direct aggression against Belarus or his narrow ally Russia.
“Will there be a war or not? Yes, there will be, but only in two cases: if there is a direct aggression against Belarus, if a hot war is unleashed against our Belarus,” he said during his annual discourse before the National Assembly, according to the
Official Belta agency.
“And secondly (…) If our ally, the Russian Federation, is attacked directly,” has pointed out, in which case “Belarus will participate in the same” in defense of Russia and allied agreements, Lukashenko has stressed.
At the same time, the president wanted to make clear to the West who, in case of an attack “there will be hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers” in Belarus.
“I want to respond to the West about whether there will be troops in the territory of Belarus, for them, this issue is very important, if our country is attacked, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops will be here, who will defend this sacred land with hundreds of thousands of belarus
“Lukashenko said.
At the same time, the boss of Belarusian state has emphasized that the Belarusians do not accept wars and they will never begin them.
Informa Efe.
The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, has insured this Friday in relation to the crisis of Ukraine that the EU notice to Russia on economic sanctions if finally comes into conflict with Ukraine “is working” to wean the
conflict.
“It seems that the dialogue is functioning and also to put on the table a package of economic measures that has an important deterrent effect,” said Escrivá in an interview in ‘Antena 3’, collected by Europe Press.
Specifically, these economic measures referred to by the Minister refer to the warning that president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, did Russia on Wednesday that if an invasion of Ukraine is finally produced there will be “important sanctions” by the EU
Against Moscow.
The Prime Minister of Hungary, the Ultranationalist Viktor Orbán, has assured this Friday that before responding next Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he will consult with his allies of the European Union (EU) and NATO.
“Hungary is a member of the EU and NATO. Before these meetings I always coordinate with our western allies,” said Orbán in his Friday chat on the Kossuth public radio and explained that he has already consulted and consult in the next
Days with several politicians, although without specifying who he was referring.
“I will go to Moscow after consulting with politicians who are part of the EU and NATO address,” the Prime Minister has emphasized before traveling to Madrid, where he will participate today and tomorrow in a conclave organized by Vox.
The delegation of the European Parliament that will travel next Sunday to Ukraine to lower the tension with Russia urged Orbán did not break the European Unit at his appointment with Putin.
Informa Efe.
The Russian Foreign Minister says that Russia does not want the war with Ukraine.
Serguei Lavrov spoke this morning about the answer to the security proposals he has received from the United States.
For the head of Russian diplomacy, the US response to security proposals made by Moscow does not contain a “positive reaction” to the main issue: the non-expansion of NATO to the East and the non-deployment by the Alliance of
Missiles who can threaten Russia.
Minister Lavrov stressed that “if it depends on Moscow, there will be no war.”
“We do not want the war, but we will not allow our interests to be ignored,” he said.
“We have received Western, Blurry-style answers,” he added, referring to the answers received this NATO Wednesday and the Russian proposals of security guarantees.
Read the full information of Xavier Collas
The Foreign Minister of Romania, Bogdan Aurescu, has expressed its availability that Russia would inspect the anti-missile shield that NATO has installed in Devesel, in Southwest Romania, provided that Moscow allows allies to visit their missile infrastructures in Russian territory
.
“I do not see any problem in which the Russian Federation or whoever comes to visit the Deveseu base and is personally convinced that there is no more than what we have already said that there is,” Aurescu said on Thursday at night in a
Interview with the Romanian news channel Digi24.
The minister adds that Romania and the rest of NATO Member States expect from Russia “reciprocity”: “If the Russian Federation has an interest in verifying that the base represents no threat, also us, the allies, including Romania, we have right
To ask for a visit to “Russian” missile bases.
Funded and operated by the United States, the Deveseu anti-sight shield is active since 2015 and is designed to protect the NATO territory in Europe from Iranian ballistic missiles.
Informa Efe.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, has affirmed this Friday that the situation on the border with Russia is practically the same as in April 2021, when Moscow also concentrated more than 100,000 troops near the territory of the neighboring country.
“The amount (troops) then and now it is similar. What changes is the reaction,” said Reznikov when it appears in the Supreme Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, to analyze tensions with Russia.
The minister has added that the main difference between what happened almost a year ago and now it is “the intensity of hybrid measures” around the crisis, “mainly, the informative” and its impact on the macroeconomic situation.
Informa Efe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated this Friday that “if it depends on Russia there will be no war,” in an interview with local media transmitted live.
The head of Russian diplomacy thus answered a direct question of whether there will be war due to the tensions with the West and around Ukraine.
According to the Minister, the responses of the United States to the demands of security guarantees presented by Russia are “quite confusing” but contain rational elements in “secondary issues”, as in the relative site of short and medium reaching missiles.
He adds that the debate on these missiles was rejected by the US in recent years and “now propose to address it”.
The security guarantees required by Russia include curbing a greater expansion of the Alliance, in particular Ukraine and Georgia, the cessation of all military cooperation with the former Soviet republics and the withdrawal of the NATO troops and arms to positions
They occupied before 1997.
As for the threats of new US sanctions against Russia, which include its leaders and the disconnection of the country of international financial systems, Lavrov has indicated that this “would be equivalent to the rupture of relationships”.
Informa Efe.
The deputy of Eh Bilduoskar Matute has considered “incomprehensible” the position of the central government in the Ukrainian crisis, and has accused the executive of behaving as a Government of the PP, being “more servile than anyone” with the US.
In statements to Popular Radio, collected by Europe Press, Matute has referred to the situation generated in Ukraine and the sending of Spanish ships to join the NATO deployment in the area.
In this sense, the member of the Sovereign Coalition has affirmed that it is before a “Species of Remake ‘of the Cold War” and has considered “incomprehensible” the position of the central executive on this subject.
“Send to the Blas of Lezo and the Meteor Ship when it is not even obligatory requirement … it was not essential and someone will have to explain it,” he has sustained.
Pesimist, but not furious.
The Kremlin yesterday showed a first reaction to the US responses to his requests.
Moscow believes that there is a basis for continuing the dialogue with Washington, although it finds that Americans have not taken into account the main Russian security demands: especially the veto at the entrance of Ukraine in NATO.
Russia’s response served to cage ukrainian optimism a little more.
It is likely that Moscow will continue to work on the diplomatic way with Kiev and the West for at least two weeks, although it will continue its efforts to destabilize Ukraine, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dimitro Kuleba.
In the same line, the group of experts from the Ukrainian Defense Strategies Center, for whom the main Russian threat is “a hybrid invasion”, which includes more cyber attacks, misinformation and pump threats in schools, metro networks, offices
Administrative and other places.
Several schools in Kiev and other cities organize these days simulacros of attack.
Read the full report of Xavier Collasts
Despite a relative calm in the area of conflict in East Ukraine, the soldiers who have been defending against the Russian invasion for years are prepared for an escalation.
In a military post covered with snow in Novooloksandrivka, in the Lugansk region, the small garrison is cautious as it monitors the landscape.
“We have hopes of a better future, but if necessary, we will fight,” says a soldier, called Volodymyr.
If the war comes, it is very likely that it is first hit in eastern Ukraine, where prorrouse separatists have had control since 2014. However, Soldier Viktor Beliekov believes that an attack could come from the sea to the south.
Tensions have skyrocketed in recent weeks, since the United States and its NATO allies feared that a concentration of about 100,000 Russian soldiers near Ukraine would mean that Moscow planned to invade its former Soviet neighbor.
Russia denies having such designs, and has presented a series of lawsuits that, according to the situation, will calm down.
Informa AP.
The tensions between the US and Russia by Ukraine have taken a new division into the Lord within the Republican Party, between a Belicist and Prodemocracy campus and an isolationist base close to Donald Trump asking: why should the United States intervene?
In recent weeks, members of the American Conservative Party have happened in television sets and on the press conference with the same message: President Joe Biden is being too LAXO before the Russian Strength Demonstrations, who has gathered A
100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin may be punished and prohibit the operation of the controversial Nord Stream 2 -Two threats already mentioned by the Democratic administration – they begged many Republican Senators by presenting Congress a series of texts to support their position.
But within the Republican Party it has begun to listen to a dissonant voice, influenced by former President Donald Trump.
He accuses the Washington Establishment of being more concerned about the Ukrainian crisis that is emerging on the US border, where a record number of migrants congregates.
Informa AFP.
The United States and Germany have warned Russia on Thursday that the important Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is at stake if it invades Ukraine, while Washington has expressed its hope for a diplomatic departure despite the cold statements of Moscow.
The fate of this controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, which Washington never wanted but who was completed with Berlin’s blessing, will surely be at the center of the German chancellor visit Olaf Scholz to Washington on February 7 to meet with US president
Joe Biden.
Informa AFP.
The president of Ukraine, voloduly Zelenski, has thanked the president of the United States, Joe Biden, his “firm and unwaking support” to Ukraine and the leadership of Washington in “The Mobilization of the World Community to prevent Russian aggression,” he has reported
This Friday the Ukrainian presidency.
In the second telephone conversation between Zelenski and Biden so far this year, the Ukrainian president has congratulated by the words of his counterpart on the importance of maintaining the US diplomatic presence in Ukraine and the stable functioning of his embassy in Kiev.
In addition, in its conversation with Biden, Zelenski has underlined the importance in the current conditions of supporting Ukraine’s economic and financial stability.
Informa Efe.
The United States has requested China on Thursday to intercede in the Ukrainian conflict “constructively” to lower tension with Russia, considering that there is a “clear possibility” that Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.
The spokesman of the State Department, Ned Price, has remembered at a press conference that China has a close relationship with Russia unlike Western countries, so it urges that it takes advantage of this “influence” to stop confrontation.
Informa AFP.
The United States has announced this Thursday that it has convened a public meeting of the UN Security Council for Monday to discuss the Ukrainian conflict.
“More than 100,000 Russian troops are deployed at the Ukrainian border and Russia is carrying out new destabilizing acts addressed to Ukraine, which account for a clear threat to international peace and security and for the UN Charter,” he says in a
Understanding the United States Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
“While we continue our incessant search for diplomacy to reduce tensions,” he adds, the 15-member security council “should honestly examine the facts and consider what is at stake for Ukraine, Russia, Europe.”
“This is not a time to wait and see, all the council’s attention is necessary now, and we expect a direct and determined discussion on Monday,” he warned.
Informa AFP.
The strong tensions between Russia and the USA by Ukraine increase the risk of a recourse to nuclear weapons and provoke a planetary disaster, as the ICAN agency, international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 has expressed.
“It does not matter that the conflict implies one or several countries that have nuclear weapons, it is extremely dangerous,” said Beatrice Finhn, who directs the international campaign for the abolition of these weapons.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, considers that there is a “clear possibility” that Russia invaded Ukraine in February and communicated it this Thursday to its Ukrainian counterpart, voloduly Zelenski, during a phone call.
“President Biden has said that there is a clear possibility that Russians can invade Ukraine in February,” the White House Safety Council spokesman Emily Horne was written on his official Twitter account.
The spokeswoman has pronounced itself after denying information published by the CNN chain, which cited an official Ukrainian source according to which Biden had said to Zelenski who was practically confirmed that Russia would invade Ukraine once the ground frozen, and that
It could “plunder” Kiev.
Horne has crossed that “completely false” version and has said that Biden had only communicated his impression that it was possible, but not sure, that Russia invaded the country in February.
In his call with Zelenski, Biden “has reaffirmed the preparation of the United States and its allies and partners to respond in a decisive way if Russia invades” Ukraine, according to a statement from the White House.
The US president has communicated to Zelenski who is evaluating the possibility of granting “additional macroeconomic support to help Ukraine’s economy, before the pressure that has resulted from the increase of Russian military forces” at the country’s borders.
