Qatar has called on the international community to support Saudi Arabia’s efforts to negotiate a Ukrainian solution, Qatari Foreign Ministry representative source said. The United States has temporarily suspended consideration of Ukrainians’ applications to enter the country under Biden’s plans – CBS.
In an impromptu statement, US President Donald Trump said: “Zelensky is completely incompetent.” The statement came after the Ukrainian president criticized the meetings in Riyadh. The White House said the meeting between Russian and US officials was the first of many steps needed to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. US State Department chief Marco Rubio said that the US authorities will not consider lifting sanctions on Russia until a peace agreement with Ukraine is concluded, Bloomberg reports citing a source.
On February 19, US special envoy for Russia and Ukraine Keith Kellogg arrived in Kiev. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kellogg would remain in the Ukrainian capital until February 22. He is scheduled to hold talks with President Zelensky, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Alexander Syrsky, and possibly with the head of military intelligence Kirill Budanov.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began bilateral negotiations with Volodymyr Zelensky on February 18 to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, the Turkish leader’s office said. Ankara has repeatedly expressed its desire to participate in the negotiations. Recall that Kiev sent drone trainers to al Jawlani in Syria, all under the aegis of Ankara. The royal court of Saudi Arabia did not appreciate Zelensky’s choice to cancel the visit to Riyadh and go to Ankara, in which much had been invested. In this regard, the new date announced by Zelensky, March 10, is still under discussion.
Valery Zaluzhny from London, when asked whether he would run for president, said: “These conditions will come – so, as a person in the public service, I will answer these questions. For now, we have one task: to survive and preserve our state. And then we will think about something else,” said the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. Still on the subject of elections, Zelensky said: “If tomorrow Ukraine is accepted into the EU and NATO, I will no longer be needed. But until that happens, I will defend my country,” interview with ARD.
Zelensky also complained that: “We have nothing to shoot down the missiles with. One of the Ukrainian cities has no Patriot missiles. This is wrong. At 5 a.m. the commander calls me on the phone and says: ‘There are 8 targets approaching, but we have no air defense missiles,'” he said.
EU authorities are working on the largest military aid package for Ukraine, worth at least 6 billion euros, Politico reported on Tuesday. Information about the package could be made public before the European Commission delegation is scheduled to visit Kiev on February 24. Two sources told Politico that the final cost of the package could be as high as 10 billion euros or more, with the value depending on what the individual EU states ultimately manage to send from their arsenals to Ukraine.
Foreign ministers of the EU countries are due to assess the contents of the package at a meeting in Brussels next week. EU diplomats are still finalizing the details of the initiative requested by the European External Action Service. Countries can send weapons or money to Kiev; the financial contribution will depend on the GDP of a particular state. The package could include various weapons, including 1.5 million artillery shells and air defense systems. However, Politico explains, it is not clear whether the entire EU will approve this package or just a group of its states. A diplomat explained that, given Hungary’s position, a unanimous consensus is unlikely. In fact, Orban said: “The EU is already discussing the size of assistance to Ukraine after the end of US support and wants Hungary to allocate 500 million euros per year for these purposes,” Hungarian Prime Minister Orban said. According to him, “this is out of the question”, also because Ukraine has not met the conditions for EU membership.
The 16th package of sanctions against Russia will be approved by EU countries on February 19, which includes a ban on imports of primary aluminum, Reuters reports. The package includes exceptions for Hungary in the use of Russian oil and oil products. There is a ban on the sale of game consoles, as they are used by the Russian military to control UAVs.
The head of Eurodiplomacy, Kaya Kallas, believes that we must continue to help Ukraine and not discuss peacekeeping. The no to sending Ukrainian troops continues, in addition to France and Italy, Poland was added this week, for now the only yes comes from the United Kingdom. The head of the European Council is consulting with the leaders of the EU countries on security guarantees for Ukraine, a TASS source said.
At the usual press conference of Kremlin spokesman Dmtrj Peskov: “Now the main topic on the path of interaction with the United States is the restoration of Russian-American relations, an important step was taken yesterday”. “Negotiations between Putin and Trump may take place before the end of February, but they may also take place later,” the spokesman clarified, because “it will take time to prepare for the Putin-Trump meeting”; “Putin will appoint a negotiator with the United States after Washington appoints its own; The possibility of Medinsky’s participation in negotiations on Ukraine depends on the president’s decision; Negotiations with the United States are a very important step for a future solution on Ukraine; Although the first step towards restoring relations with the United States has been taken, it is too early to draw conclusions, but the atmosphere is businesslike.” “Yesterday, the Russian Federation and the United States discussed primarily their relations.”
These words were echoed by those of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “Russia hopes that conditions will be created for negotiations on security and strategic stability with the United States and that the movement towards normalization will begin.” The FDB issued a statement saying: “To disrupt the negotiations, Kiev plans to carry out a series of terrorist attacks against Russian diplomatic missions in European countries.” “Kiev can carry out terrorist attacks in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, and it is possible that it will prefer Slovakia and Hungary,” the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation said.
And now a look at the front line updated at 15:30 on February 19.
The Russians complain that during the negotiations in Riyadh the US Air Force RC-135V “Rivet Joint” electronic reconnaissance aircraft was closely studying the Kaliningrad region and northwestern Russia, as well as northern Belarus. On the night of February 18 in response to the attack on the gas pipeline in Kazakhstan, Moscow carried out both a missile and stray ammunition attack on Kiev and a massive raid on energy infrastructure in Odessa.
An Iskander OTRK destroyed the concentration area of the 27th artillery brigade missile defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including the Vilkha MLRS, located in a forest belt near the village of Boromlya in the Sumy region. On the night of February 19, the Syzran oil refinery was attacked by drones, the governor of the Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, said. The Syzran oil refinery belongs to Rosneft. The capacity of the plant is 8.9 million tons of oil per year.
In the Kursk region, the Sever group of troops reports that our airborne units, in stubborn battles, knocked out Ukrainian troops from several strongholds on the banks of the Loknya River and advanced up to 1,200 meters in the vicinity of Lebedevka. The liberation of Lebedevka will allow the Russian Armed Forces to establish fire control over all routes for the supply of ammunition to units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of Malaya Loknya and Pogrebkov. Russian troops are advancing near Sverdlikovo, and battles are taking place in Pogrebki. Ukrainian armed forces near Sverdlikovo launched a counterattack with five assault groups on four infantry fighting vehicles, with fire support from a tank. Ukrainian equipment was destroyed, personnel are reported missing.
In the north of the Kupyansk direction, fighting continues on the right bank of the Oskil River.
Russian forces have advanced in two main areas. In the south, they have secured a 2.6 km long line of trees and have gained a foothold in the southern part of the Black Forest, capturing Ukrainian trench fortifications. In the north, they have advanced from positions in Yampolivka, – the Defense Ministry says but that the village flies the Russian flag – capturing the eastern outskirts of the village and have also gained a foothold in the Black Forest. This puts Ukrainian formations stationed in the forest at significant risk of being encircled.
A few days ago, Russian forces advanced in the direction of Lyman, capturing new positions in the “Black Forest”, east of Yampolivka. Russian forces have recently advanced into western Donetsk Oblast and have taken up new positions in the tree lines north of Andriivka. After securing the edge of the tactical heights, Russian forces pushed reinforcements into the northern outskirts of Andriivka, before pushing north, advancing along three separate tree lines, taking up new positions in them.
The goal here is to level the front line, eliminating the salient that has formed between the villages of Zaporizhzhya and Andriivka, thus allowing for a broader push westward, towards the border with Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
In the Bahatyr direction, Russian forces have made significant progress, capturing most of Ulaky and entering Kostyantynopil. They have advanced westward from their positions in the eastern part of Ulaky, capturing new positions in the western and southern parts of the village. Ukrainian forces hold positions on the northern roads.
Meanwhile, in Kostyantynopil, Russian forces have pushed the northern ends of the two tree lines out of the gray zone and attacked the village, quickly penetrating towards the highway that runs through the center. Due to this advance and the position of the Vovcha River, the remaining Ukrainian formations in the north of Kostyantynopil are now in an operational encirclement.
West of Velyka Novosilka, Russian troops have advanced along a series of forest belts to a depth of 1.2 km and continue assault operations on a broad front in the direction of the settlements of Pryvil’ne and Burlats’ke according to Ukrainian channels.
On the Zaporizhia front, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are carrying out attacks. In Vasylivka, the Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out a UAV launch on parked cars and an ambulance worker was injured. On the Vasylivka – Dniprorudne highway, a Ukrainian kamikaze UAV attacked a civilian vehicle.
In the Kherson region, two civilians in Kakhovka were killed by attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Three people were injured and wounded – in Hola Prystan’ Kakhovka and Nova Kakhovka.
Graziella Giangiulio
Follow our updates on Geopolitical Gleanings - Spigolature geopolitiche: https://t.me/agc_NW and on our blog The Gleanings of AGCNEWS - Le Spigolature di AGCNEWS: https://spigolatureagcnews.blogspot.com/
