Live blog: Kiev working to organise visit by Hungary's Orban – deputy PM

Thursday, January 25, 2024

1735 GMT –– Ukraine is working to organise a visit by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said, the first visit since Russia's military operation by a figure widely seen as the most sympathetic to Moscow of all leaders of NATO states.

Stefanishyna confirmed the plans in remarks to Reuters news agency, related by her aide.

The Hungarian and Ukrainian foreign ministers are due to meet on Monday, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff has said a visit by Orban could be discussed.

Relations between Budapest and Kiev have been strained by Hungary's opposition to providing aid to Ukraine from the EU budget and scepticism about Ukraine's NATO and EU membership aspirations.

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1741 GMT –– US Senate border talks reach 'critical moment,' could imperil Ukraine aid

Bipartisan border talks in the US Senate have reached a critical juncture that could force lawmakers to adopt a "Plan B" for moving legislation with aid to US allies including Ukraine and Israel, a top Senate Republican said.

A small bipartisan group of senators has spent months trying to iron out an agreement to address the flow of migrants across the US-Mexico border. But the effort has recently encountered growing opposition among Republicans aligned with Donald Trump, the frontrunner for their party's presidential nomination.

"We're at a critical moment, and we've got to drive hard to get this done. And if we can't get there, then we'll go to Plan B," Senator John Thune, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, told reporters in the US Capitol. "For now, at least, there are still attempts being made to try and reach a conclusion that would satisfy a lot of Republicans."

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and other top party members, including Thune, want a border deal that can win support from most Senate Republicans, in hopes of prompting the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to take up the measure combining border security with aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

1739 GMT –– Ukraine, Russia trade accusations over fatal plane crash

Russia and Ukraine traded accusations over the crash of a military transport plane that Moscow said was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war and was shot down by Kiev's forces, another heated episode in the information war that has been a feature of the conflict.

Though investigators reportedly found the flight recorders a day after Wednesday's crash, there was little hope that the circumstances would be clarified in a war where both sides have often used accusations to sway opinion at home and abroad.

The Il-76 crashed in a huge ball of fire in a rural area of Russia, and authorities there said all 74 people on board, including 65 POWs, six crew members and three Russian servicemen, were killed.

The crash triggered a spate of claims and counterclaims, but neither side offered evidence for their accusations, and The Associated Press news agency could not independently confirm who was aboard or how the plane was downed.

1557 GMT –– ICJ to rule next week on Ukraine case against Russia on MH17

Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hand down a judgment in a case in which Ukraine accused Russia of violating an anti-terrorism treaty by funding pro-Russian forces, including militias who shot down a passenger jet, and discrimination.

In the case before the ICJ, the UN's top court, which was launched in 2017 and predates the 2022 Russian offensive on Ukraine, Kiev says Russia equipped and funded pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, including militias involved in shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, killing all 298 passengers and crew, in July 2014.

Ukraine also says Russia breached a UN anti-discrimination treaty by trying to erase the culture of ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Russia denies systematic human rights abuses in Ukrainian territory that it occupies. It also says it has met its obligations under the UN treaty against financing terrorism.

Judgments of the ICJ, also known as the World Court, are final and without appeal but the court has no way to enforce its rulings.

There is a separate case of Ukraine versus Russia at the ICJ which deals with alleged violations by Moscow of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

That case is waiting on a decision on the challenges to the court's jurisdiction by Russia before it can move forward.

1543 GMT –– Germany, Britain in talks over cruise missile swap for Ukraine: report

Germany is in discussions with Britain about a possible cruise missile swap arrangement for Ukraine, German media reported.

The idea stemmed from London, which according to business daily Handelsblatt had offered several weeks ago to send its Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine if Germany provided Britain with the Taurus in return.

The German chancellery declined to comment.

1500 GMT –– Russian woman jailed for record 27 years for killing anti-Ukraine blogger

A Russian court sentenced a woman to a record 27 years in prison for blowing up an anti-Ukraine military blogger in what prosecutors say was a brazen killing ordered by Kiev.

Hardline military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky died when a miniature statue handed to him as a gift by Darya Trepova exploded in a Saint Petersburg cafe where he was giving a speech in April 2023.

A Saint Petersburg court found Trepova guilty of terrorism and other charges over the attack, sentencing her to an unprecedented almost three decades in a prison colony, the court service said in a statement posted on social media.

It is the longest sentence Russia has handed to a woman since the collapse of the Soviet Union, state media and rights groups said.

Trepova, 26, denied purposefully killing Tatarsky.

She said she was set-up by contacts in Ukraine and thought she was handing Tatarsky a secret listening device, not a bomb.

She was arrested less than 24 hours after the blast.

Prosecutors say she knew the device had been rigged with explosives when she gave it to Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin.

0959 GMT — Ukraine to start building four new nuclear reactors this year

Ukraine expects to start construction work on four new nuclear power reactors this summer or autumn, Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Reuters, as the country seeks to compensate for lost energy capacity due to the war with Russia.

Two of the units - which include reactors and related equipment - will be based on Russian-made equipment that Ukraine wants to import from Bulgaria, while the other two will use Western technology from power equipment maker Westinghouse.

All four reactors w ill be built at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in the west of Ukraine, Galushchenko added.

The timeline is more aggressive than previously outlined by Kiev, which has spoken of starting work in some time in 2024 and without specifying that all four reactors could be developed simultaneously.

"I think (we'll start construction) in summer-autumn," Galushchenko said in an interview. "We need vessels," he added, referring to the reactor pressure vessels that will have to be imported. We want to do the third and fourth units right away."

Construction of the 3rd and 4th reactors at Khmelnytskyi began in the 1980s but was frozen.

0957 GMT — Kremlin says Putin's trip to Kaliningrad is not a message to NATO: TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin's Thursday's trip to Kaliningrad is not intended to send a message to the NATO military alliance, the TASS news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

The Kaliningrad region is an exclave sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

0920 GMT — Ukraine opens criminal probe into downing of Russian plane

Ukraine's SBU security service has opened a criminal probe into the downing of a Russian military plane that Moscow said killed 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

"The security service of Ukraine has opened a criminal investigation into the downing of an IL-76 Russian Air Force plane in the Belgorod region," the SBU press service said in a statement.

"The SBU is currently taking a range of measures to clarify all the circumstances of the downing," it said.

0900 GMT — Zelesnkyy: Ukraine will insist on international probe into plane crash

In a statement on Telegram, Zelenskyy said he summoned Ukraine's military and intelligence chiefs over the incident, adding that the security service of Ukraine is investigating all the circumstances

“It is obvious that the Russians are messing with the lives of Ukrainian captives, the feelings of their relatives, and the emotions of our society. All clear facts must be established … The aircraft crashed on Russian territory – beyond our control. 'Facts' is the key word now,” he stressed.

“I have instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to provide our partners with the information available to Ukraine. Our state will insist on an international investigation,” he said.

0837 GMT — Russia-Ukraine POW swaps to continue: Moscow

Russia and Ukraine will continue exchanging prisoners of war despite the downing of a Russian military plane, the Interfax news agency has cited Russian lawmaker Andrei Kartapolov as saying.

He also said Russia would talk with "even the devil" to bring back its captured soldiers, Interfax said.

0750 GMT — Black boxes recovered from crashed plane: RIA

Both black boxes have been recovered from a Russian military transport plane that crashed in the Belgorod region near the Ukraine border, the RIA news agency reported, citing rescue services.

0750 GMT — Russia: France rejects urgent UN Security Council meeting on plane crash

France chose the path of “abusing its powers as chairman of the Security Council in January and refuses to meet our demand for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council over the terrorist attack by the Kiev regime," Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, wrote on Telegram.

According to him, France is trying "to buy time" for Ukraine "to come up with at least some kind of plausible explanation” for the deadly crash.

0723 GMT — Kremlin calls plane crash with Ukrainian war prisoners ‘monstrous act’

The Kremlin has said Ukraine had shot a military transport plane carrying dozens of Ukrainian detainees headed for a prisoner exchange in a "monstrous act".

"Ukrainians killed their citizens, who were supposed to be home within a day, this is a monstrous act," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a press briefing in Moscow.

"No-one can say what impact this will have" on extending a prisoner exchange programme, he said.

He agreed that an international investigation is necessary to clarify what caused the Wednesday crash of the Il-76 military plane in Belgorod, Russia, near Ukraine’s border, which killed all 74 people on board.

0527 GMT — Ukraine shoots down 11 of over dozen of Russian drones: Kiev

Russia launched 14 attack drones and five missiles at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's air force has said, with air defence systems destroying 11 of the drones.

The air force said on its Telegram messaging channel that Russia targeted mainly southern Ukraine.

Odessa regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram that two people were injured during the attack on the Black Sea port city.

"Despite the effective and fruitful work of air defence to repel enemy attacks, unfortunately, an industrial facility was hit in Odesa, and residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were damaged," Kiper said.

0027 GMT — Borrell urges EU to adopt space power amid Russia-Ukraine war

Russia-Ukraine war has exposed the strategic importance of space, the European Union’s foreign policy chief has said.

Addressing the European Space Conference in Brussels, Josep Borrell said geopolitical competition in the world is not projected in space and urged the EU to enter the increasingly competitive and contested space environment.

“Space has become a key strategic domain. It is affecting not only all aspects of our life, but it is a key resource or a key battlefield for security and defence,” he noted.

More particularly on the use of satellites, Borrell drew attention to their importance for critical information security and defence.

2212 GMT — Oil refinery in southern Russia ablaze

A fire has broken out at a large oil refinery in the southern Russian town of Tuapse and emergency teams were battling the blaze, Russian news agencies quoted officials as saying.

"According to emergency services of Tuapse district, a fire broke out on the territory of the oil refinery in the town," the agencies quoted a statement by the Krasnodar, or Kuban, region emergencies service.

"The fire is being brought under control. According to initial information, there are no casualties."

Unofficial Telegram channels showed pictures of the blaze and said drones had been responsible.

2210 GMT — Zelenskyy says Russia 'playing' with lives of Ukraine POWs

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia was "playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners" after Moscow accused Kiev of downing a military plane carrying dozens of its own captured soldiers.

Moscow said 74 people died — 65 of them Ukrainian prisoners of war being flown to a scheduled exchange — when a military transport plane was shot down in the western Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine earlier on Wednesday.

"It is obvious that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, with the feelings of their relatives and with the emotions of our society," Zelenskyy said in a new address on the incident. He did not confirm or deny Russia's claims, but said it had been a "very difficult day."

But Kiev is yet to confirm whether Ukrainian POWs were killed in the crash or if the plane was downed by Ukrainian weapons. Zelenskyy said he had instructed various state agencies to investigate the crash.

2048 GMT — UN Security Council to discuss downed Russian plane

The UN Security Council is set to meet to discuss Moscow's charges that Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian transport military plane, killing everyone on board.

The French presidency of the Council said in a statement that "the meeting requested by Russia" will take place on Thursday at 5:00pm (2200 GMT).

Kiev has said it does not presently have reliable information on what happened to the plane.

For our live updates from Wednesday, January 24, click here.