Ukraine Briefly

February 16, 2024

Ukraine, Briefly

RussiaUkraine

Listen to Today's Edition

This week, the US Senate passed a $95 billion military aid package for its allies, including Ukraine and Israel, in a 70-29 vote. Kyiv said the funding was crucial as the war with Russia enters its third year. The aid package must still be approved by the House of Representatives, Reuters explained. Meanwhile, the aid package vote comes as analysts believe the war in Ukraine is starting to exhaust Kyiv’s allies. With drained arsenals and a European reaction to the war the New York Times described as “slow,” walking the talk may not be an easy task.

Meanwhile, the Estonian Intelligence Service warned on Tuesday that Russia is preparing for a military confrontation with the West within the next 10 years. They drew this conclusion after noticing that Moscow had plans to double the number of forces placed along the border with Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia – all NATO members. The Kremlin responded by placing Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and two other Baltic ministers on its wanted list, Al Jazeera reported.

Kallas joined a list that includes Meta Platforms spokesperson Andy Stone, whom a court in Moscow on Monday ordered in absentia to arrest on terrorism-related charges. Since the war began, Russia has banned Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Even so, it has used social media to carry a manipulation campaign in the West, French authorities noted on Monday. Paris revealed a network of “at least 193 websites” used by Moscow to “spread Russian disinformation” as the European Union prepares for June’s European elections, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, the US rejected a ceasefire proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Putin had offered to freeze the war at the current lines and preserve Ukrainian territory under Russian control. Though the US denied any backroom talks with Russia that did not involve Ukraine, the sources added that Moscow used intermediaries to communicate the proposal to Washington, such as Arab partners in the Middle East. The same day, Ukraine’s spy agency said Russia was buying Starlink satellite terminals, already used by Kyiv, from these very “Arab countries.”

In the absence of a ceasefire, Putin remained determined to “fight on.” And so he did. On Wednesday, Russia launched missile attacks in east Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Ukrainian authorities reported that three civilians, including one child, were killed. Following the airstrikes, Kyiv said they had sunk a Russian ship, the Caesar Kunikov, off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea. On Thursday, Ukrainian strikes on the Russian city of Belgorod, 19 miles from the border, killed five people, the BBC reported.

This story originally appeared in the February 16, 2024 newsletter, Seeding Fury.