A Major Prisoner Swap As Iran Helps develop Drones For Russia
Ukraine approaches the sponsors of the Olympic Games for support to prevent Russians and Belarusians from competing
Day 346 (4 February)
There was another prisoner swap, where 116 PoW and the bodies of foreign volunteers were returned to Ukraine. The bodies of aid workers, Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry from the UK were returned and it is believed they had died in Soledar trying to help evacuate an elderly lady. While tragic, this is why people who refuse to evacuate when the government asked them create risks for aid workers and soldiers by being stubborn. Surely living as a refugee is better than dying and taking other lives with you out of stubbornness?
The Russians received 63 soldiers back in an Arab mediated and complex prisoner swap, as those returned included personnel from Mariupol, and some from the Special Operations Forces.
The price cap on Russian oil products came into effect today, where G7 countries, the EU and Australia have agreed on a price cap where they will only purchase products at a capped price. The aim is to hurt Russia financially, but arguably, the price cap should have been much lower to make any sort of impact. The agreed prices are $45 a barrel for discounted products (fuel) and $100 for premium products (diesel).
The deputy head of the Migration Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine, has been detained for covering up the activities of ‘panderers’ as part of a ring that organised brothels and recruited prostitutes. In total 15 people have been detained so far after an operation was launched to expose their activities.
Odesa has been a target since the start of the invasion and continues to be attacked. The situation is so dire that the Prime Minister has ordered all generators to be sent to Odesa within 24 hours. It is hard for those of us who are not in Ukraine to understand the situation, and that the promise of tanks coming as and when isn’t helping the situation right now. We can say it is still better late than never, but it is too late for those who have died. There were air raid alerts across the whole of Ukraine.
Bakhmut remains the main battle ground where the Wagner group are determined to occupy the area. Even Zelenskyy says it is bad there, and morale among the soldiers is understandably low. They are asking why the allies have hesitated in sending weapons to help them, and we can ask the same when they hold numerous summits where we knew Germany would have to agree to allow the re-exportation of the Leopard 2 tanks, but has taken months to agree.
The US Attorney General has permitted the confiscated assets of sanctioned Konstatin Malofeyev to be transferred to Ukraine.
A story that touched me is an eye witness account of a woman leaving Mariupol. She said there was a tree on the side of Mariupol on the border where people hung their keys, because they knew they could not come back to Mariupol. The keys were to their homes, and cars that they had to leave behind as they said goodbye to the life they had known in order to save their lives.
The Chinese surveillance balloon that had been driving over US territory was shot down on the orders of Biden as a security risk. China claims that it was a weather ship that had drifted into the location by accident, but as a result Blinker’s visit to China was postponed. The US are recovering the debris and will analyse it after it was shot down near the coast near South Carolina. Airports in the vicinity were closed down as a security precaution. The opposition party have claimed Biden took too long to act (3 days) and that hesitating may have compromised national security.
Day 347 (5 February)
The Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, will face scrutiny by the Parliament as to whether he should be dismissed or not. This is over the corruption discovered when a reporter revealed that the Ministry was purchasing food 2-3 times higher in price than that found in Kyiv shops. Reports claim he will be dismissed this week, while others claim it will not be this week but is scheduled to be a topic of discussion.
A former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett claims that he spoke to Putin in March 2022 in Moscow, while trying to act as a mediator for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Allegedly, he asked Putin to promise not to assassinate Zelenskyy. I’m unsure why anyone of sound mind would ask Putin to promise something and to keep that promise, as Putin doesn’t even abide by Russian laws.
Iranian officials apparently flew to Russia in January 2023, to visit a factory that would build 6,000 advanced drones that Russia would use to attack Ukraine. The visit took place in Yelabuga, and the party included Brig. Gen. Abdollah Mehrabi, head of the IRGC Aerospace Force Research and self-sufficiency Jihad organisation. Not only is Iran assisting Russia, but they are developing a Shahed-136 which would be advanced technology. It’s time for other countries to finally impose sanctions against Iran.
Lithuania raised €6 million in the space of a week in order for Ukraine to buy an air defence system. Many of the Balkan countries have shown incredible support towards Ukraine and have not hesitated like France and Germany to offer what they have and can give.
Ukraine has imposed sanctions against Russia’s nuclear industry and this will last for 50 years. This will affect 200 Russian entities operating in Ukraine.
Day 348 (6 February)
The first Leopard 2 tanks from Canada arrived in Poland. The trickle of tanks can’t come in fast enough as soldiers are getting trained.
In Poland, the construction of an electric fence with the Russian border will begin in March 2023. The Polish Border Guard service has said the fence will include sensors and cameras.
The Munich Security conference will take place 17-19 of February, where Poland has stated they would like a decision on whether fighter jets could be transferred to Ukraine. The Polish ambassador in Germany, Darius Pawlos said he believed that the conference would be the right place to make such a decision.
Another summit — the Brussels summit will be held 9 - 10 February, and reports claim that Zelenskyy may attend, but there are obvious security concerns. There seem to be summits every week, but is there any action? It is almost predictable that Zelenskyy will thank allies for their support and ask for more weapons and fighter jets, while reminding them that Russia will not stop and their country could be next.
Ukraine approaches the sponsors of the Olympic Games by letter, asking then if they wished to support the games that may end up being used for war propaganda, and reminding them that their reputation might be damaged.
Two Russian agents have been detained by the SBU, who assisted the Russians by collecting information on the Ukrainian army, and details of the locations of infrastructure in Odesa, and Kherson, in particular railway, junctions and energy grids that were targeted by missiles and damaged or destroyed.
Reports claim that a temporary office of prosecutors that would investigate the war in Ukraine may be based in The Hague this year. The UN General Assembly has a draft resolution for a special tribunal aimed at addressing the alleged war crimes committed by the Russians.
It's heart wrenching to read that people were hanging keys to all they possessed on a tree, because they knew they wouldn't be coming back.