All the latest developments from the Ukraine war.
Orban claims Ukraine ‘cannot win on the battlefield’
ADVERTISEMENTHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said Kyiv can’t defeat Russia, claiming this means the EU should prepare a plan B.
In an interview with Hungarian state radio, the nationalist leader said the EU’s strategy towards the Ukraine war had “failed.”
“Today everyone knows, but does not dare to say it out loud, that this strategy has failed. Obviously, this won’t work. The Ukrainians will not win on the battlefield,” he said, adding that it is necessary to develop a “Plan B.”
In the meantime, Orban claimed there was no reason to spend Hungarian taxpayers’ money on helping Ukraine.
Aid from the West is widely seen as having been crucial to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against the Russian invasion, though some politicians in Europe and the US are growing weary of providing more support.
Hungary’s Oxford-educated leader is considered an ally of Putin. He has blocked the release of EU funds to Ukraine, after Kyiv put the Hungarian OTP Bank on its list of international sponsors of war.
Earlier today, Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda said Orban needed to stop “flirting” with Russia, following his meeting with Putin in mid-October.
“It’s really more than strange to see that we start to flirt with the regime which is committing […] very cruel atrocities in the territory of Ukraine,” he said in Brussels.
“It sends a very wrong message to everybody, first to the international community and also to Ukraine.”
Russia suffering ‘significant losses’ in Ukraine, White House says
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday Moscow has suffered “significant losses” in the new offensive in Ukraine.
Kirby added that Russia’s army had lost at least 125 armoured vehicles around the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region and more than a battalion’s worth of equipment.
“It is unsurprising that Russian forces are suffering from poor morale,” he said in a press briefing at the White House.
Moscow has recently stepped up its attacks on the battlefield in a bid to move to frontline forward before winter.
Yet, the US official warned Putin’s troops still maintain some offensive capability, with more Russian attacks predicted to come. They may be able to achieve some tactical gains in the coming months, he added.
On Thursday lawmakers in Russia also adopted their draft budget for 2024-2026 in which the State Duma decided to increase military spending by 68 per cent.
According to the government’s proposal, military expenses in 2024 will exceed all social expenses for the first time in Russian history, by more than 25 per cent.
To take effect, the draft law must now be adopted in the second and the third reading by the Duma, before passing to the Russian parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, and then must be signed by President Vladimir Putin.
Belarus calls for talks on ‘land and peace’ in Ukraine
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called to immediately stop the hostilities in Ukraine and to hold negotiations “about land and about peace.”
ADVERTISEMENT“I believe that there are enough smart people in Ukraine. It is necessary to sit down at a negotiation table and negotiate,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency.
“As I said once: no preconditions are necessary. The most important thing is to give a stop command. To say: let’s stop at midnight, no forces shall move, no one shall shoot, no one shall pull reserves, no communications to be restored. We stop and we negotiate. About land and about peace.”
Belarus’s number one said negotiations needed to begin because Washington has hinted that US aid for Kyiv is “not limitless.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently signed a decree ruling out talks with Putin, though left the door open to talks with Russia.
After 18 months of grinding conflict, Ukrainians remain deeply committed to winning the war with Russia.
ADVERTISEMENTA Gallup poll from October shows three in five want to keep fighting until they win, though 31% want the war to end as soon as possible.
