LIVE – More than 60 US Bradley armored vehicles en route to Ukraine

Still richer thanks to a surge in gas revenues from the conflict in Ukraine, Norway is not a “war profiteer,” its prime minister defended in an interview with AFP on Wednesday, days before a new project aid in Kyiv.

Jonas Kahr Storr brushes aside accusations made by those who want Oslo to do more for Ukrainians and suggests his country could soon become one of the first donors.

“Norway is a lucky country,” he said after visiting a gas liquefaction plant in Melkøya, near Hammerfest in the Arctic. “We have the means to make a difference and I know this responsibility”.

Since last year, the Scandinavian kingdom has been working hard to make up for a decline in Russian gas supplies to Europe, of which it has become a key supplier, helping it stay warm through the winter.

Incidentally, Norway is filling its coffers significantly, taking advantage of runaway gas prices that are still high today after hitting historic highs last year as a result of the war.

This year, the government plans a budget surplus of 1.127 billion crowns (104 billion euros) to support the country’s sovereign wealth fund, which is already the world’s largest with assets of more than 13.400 billion crowns.

Inside and outside the borders, voices were raised for the Nordic kingdom to redistribute at least a portion of this air to the Ukrainians under penalty of being considered “war profits.” “It’s a notion I categorically reject,” says Jonas Care Store. “For 50 years, Norway has explored and produced energy resources, oil and gas at its own risk,” he explains. “It is not Norway that sets the prices.”

US Army Command declared More than 60 Bradley tanks were on their way to Ukraine on Wednesday. On the way but by sea: because the engines were loaded onto the Ark Integrity barge, which had been loaded a week earlier in North Charleston, South Carolina. The delivery – the first contract under the $2.85 billion aid package – is due to be called in the UK tomorrow.

According to the trust created by the Americans, the Ukrainians should be given “additional offensive and defensive capabilities”.

As Westerners promised to bring new weapons and vehicles to Ukraine, the Kremlin was pounding its chest on Wednesday.

The Russian president assures that providing long-range missiles to a country it invaded will not deter a Russian attack.

The Kremlin on Wednesday assessed that the delivery of long-range missiles by the US to Ukraine “will not change the course of events” and that Russia will continue its offensive at all costs.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the missile deliveries, which have a range of up to 150 km, “will lead to an increase in tensions and an increase in escalation. This will involve additional efforts for us, but it will not change the course of events, in particular. Military action will continue.”

Russian journalist and former MP Alexander Nevsorov was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday, accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine.

Since the first weeks of its invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, Russia has implemented harsh sanctions to stifle any criticism of its offensive and military.

“Alexander Nevzorov was sentenced to eight years in prison to serve in a penal colony,” said judge Evkuniya Nikolaeva of the Basmanny court in Moscow, according to Russian agencies.

The prosecution sought a nine-year prison sentence, while his lawyer sought the release of his client, who runs a YouTube channel with nearly two million subscribers, in exile abroad.

At the end of March 2022, Russia’s Prosecution Service announced that it was opening an investigation against 64-year-old Alexander Nevzoro, “accused of knowingly spreading false information about the deliberate bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol (south-eastern Ukraine, editor’s note) by the Russian military.” .

Russia has consistently denied bombings of civilian sites in Ukraine and blamed it on Ukraine.

Japan, which has held the presidency of the G7 since January, plans to hold a virtual summit of the Group of Seven industrialized powers on February 24, the day the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Kyodo Institute said on Wednesday. Official sources..

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he was considering military aid to Ukraine, while also offering to mediate in the conflict between Kiev and Moscow. “Well, I certainly see it,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview. On the American channel CNN, Who asked if Israel planned to provide Ukraine with any aid, such as its Iron Dome air defense system?

Benjamin Netanyahu has so far avoided taking a strong side with Ukraine, keen to spare Russia, which controls Syria’s neighboring Israel’s airspace, and generally turning a blind eye to the Jewish state’s actions against Iran.

He confirmed that the United States had transferred artillery munitions previously stored in Israel to Ukraine, and suggested that the Jewish state was acting on its side to prevent Iran from making weapons for Russia.

“The U.S. has just taken to sending most of Israel’s munitions to Ukraine. Israel is also working in ways that I will not describe here against Iran’s production of weapons to be used against Ukraine,” the prime minister said. said.

Ukrainian and Western officials accuse Iran of supplying drones to Russia in response to its aggression in Ukraine, which Tehran denies.

Benjamin Netanyahu said he was asked to act as an unofficial mediator after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, but did not follow through because he was then in the opposition.

He also said he was ready to intervene as a mediator if the belligerents and the US asked him. “I’ve been around for a long time that the time is right and the situation is right. If they come, I’ll definitely consider it,” he said.

Marine Le Pen does not believe in a military victory Ukraine. At least not in his own way. He created three dream scenarios that depict the absence of a negotiated peace:

“If Russia wins it will be a disaster, or if Ukraine wins but it means that NATO intervened, otherwise it will not be possible, it will be the third world war, otherwise we will deliver the attack drop by drop, create a hundred years war. “.

“Ukraine has lost half of its men and cannot face a power like Russia,” he said. Returning to his desire to see France take the “lead” in the call for peace, he appealed, “I ask Emmanuel Macron to organize a big conference for peace, even if Ukraine is openly attacked.”

He was asked on franceinfo about his opposition to the delivery of offensive weapons to Ukraine the day after the French announcement of sending 12. Canons Caesar Further to the front, Marine Le Pen maintained her position.

“I keep saying that for assault weapons,” he said. “We are disengaging to deliver our weapons to Ukraine. Our army, which is already on the bones, is looking for equipment to go abroad,” he lamented. “We will no longer talk about peace. France must be at the forefront of demanding peace,” he added.

Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on Friday, with the Ukrainian government welcoming the “strong signal” sent to Moscow nearly a year after the Russian invasion began.

For its part, the Russian military, which has been on the offensive in recent days, captured a village on Tuesday near Bakhmoud, a hot spot for fighting in eastern Ukraine. The summit with the twenty-seven is an important step, months after Kyiv received official candidate status for EU membership.

In a speech on Tuesday evening, he hoped the summit would reflect “a high level of cooperation and progress” with the EU. “We are waiting for news from Ukraine,” he said.

“The holding of this summit in Kiev is a strong signal to our partners and adversaries,” welcomed Prime Minister Denis Simikel earlier, adding that “a positive mid-term assessment of our efforts for European integration can be expected from the summit.” .

He stressed that these two days should allow “Europe to believe in the victory of Ukraine”. They will take place after a long delay, days after the Westerners gave the green light to deliver heavy tanks taken from the Ukrainian army’s arsenal.