European Council invites Volodymyr Zelensky to its extraordinary meeting
Ukrainian soldiers are preparing for a new Russian assault in eastern Ukraine ahead of February 24, the first anniversary since the invasion, while Russia wants to mobilise 200,000 more troops. Ukraine, on the other hand, is getting ready for a spring offensive to recapture territories occupied by the Russians, awaiting for longer-range missiles and Western battle tanks. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been invited to attend a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. At the same time, South Korea expressed its readiness to help Ukraine to reconstruct its energy sector.
In his traditional nightly message on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he was preparing to make appointments to the central and local administration, stressing that it is important that these positions be taken over by people who have military experience in the defence of Ukraine. Zelenski suggested that Ukraine was getting ready for a new offensive in eastern Ukraine. He added that Odesa has been experiencing a huge power outage since Saturday due to a fire at an electrical substation. The leader in Kyiv underlined that Ukrainian forces were countering the attacks of the occupiers in the Donetsk and Bakhmut regions, where heavy fighting was taking place.
"Today, we met the General Staff. There are many problems to be solved. The key to settling them lies in the actions on the front line, in the Donetsk region and in other directions. Huge attention is paid to Bahmut in terms of our defences and the attempts of the occupants to surround the city and break through the defences there. We are countering them," stated Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Ukrainian leader also spoke about the fact that there are still massive power outages in the Odessa region. He also talked about the five-year aid package worth 75 billion Norwegian kroner for the Ukrainian army, or almost 7 billion euros.
On the other hand, Russia is aiming at "unrealistic" targets under political pressure from the Kremlin, as Russian forces were hardly gaining only a few hundred metres of territory per week, according to the British Ministry of Defense. Some nationalist voices are sceptical of Russia's ability to launch a successful offensive in late February, the Institute for the Study of War reports.
At the same time, Volodymyr Zelenskiy was invited to attend the summit of the 27, announced on Twitter by a spokesperson of the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, without unveiling any other details. This can be the first visit of the Ukrainian president to the EU capital since the beginning of the Russian military offensive against the neighbouring country on February 24, 2022. An extraordinary summit of European leaders is going to take place on Thursday and Friday, having among other topics on the agenda the evolution of the war in Ukraine and the EU's solidarity with Kyiv. At the same time, the authorities in Seoul are ready to participate in the reconstruction of the energy sector of Ukraine, according to the press service of the Ministry of Energy in Kyiv.
