Viktor Orbán’s alliance made a strong statement – Zelensky spoke

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• Viktor Orbán’s ally made a harsh statement. Robert Fico, the Slovak Prime Minister, who has traditionally maintained good relations with the Hungarian Prime Minister, started Monday with a sharp statement: several NATO and EU member states are reportedly thinking about stationing soldiers in Ukraine on a bilateral basis. The statement of Fico, traditionally considered to be more pro-Russian, was denied by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, saying that the Czech Republic has no plans to do anything similar.
• According to the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement on Monday, Russian forces occupied the village of Lastotskine in the Donetsk region, while they repelled 22 Ukrainian counterattacks and attacks on seven fronts over the past day. Ukraine did not recognize the loss of the settlement, but the army announced that its troops had withdrawn in order to be better able to block the Russian advance.
• The Russian army destroyed the first American Abrams tank in the war in Ukraine, in the battles around Avgyijivka, Jan Gagin, adviser to the leader of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, told the RIA Novostyi news agency on Wednesday. According to Gagin, the American tanks have so far been spared from the Ukrainian side. Gagin’s statement was not confirmed by independent and international sources.
• Ukraine and its international partners must continue the fight for the recapture of Crimea, Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Monday, on the tenth anniversary of the Russian occupation of the Black Sea peninsula. In his message, Zelensky called on Ukraine’s partners to fight for the full restoration of international law. “We can end this war on Ukrainian terms. We can return our land and our people from the occupation,” he said.

Zelensky spoke about Crimea. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

• Preparations for the release of Alexei Navalny and two American citizens were underway before the politician’s death, Marija Pevchik, a close ally of the opposition leader, revealed in a video. According to Pevcsik, in exchange for the release of the three prisoners, Germany would have released Vadim Krazikov, an assassin of the Russian Security Service (FSB), who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a former Chechen separatist in Berlin. Pevchik emphasized that Navalny was killed because the Russian president could not bear the thought of being free. He claimed Putin had decided to “get rid of the bargain” by killing Navalny.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it unimaginable in the preview of his interview with CNN, which will be broadcast Monday night local time, that former American President Donald Trump would be on the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin. As he said, although he knows that they met, he does not believe that Trump really knows Putin, in his opinion, the former president does not understand that Putin will never stop.

(The Guardian, , MTI)