Here is the situation on Tuesday, January 30, 2024.
Fighting
- In the northeastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine, a small village called Tabaivka is on the front lines. Russia claims to have taken control of it. Ukraine refuted the assertion, stating that hostilities persisted.
- The mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Alexei Kulemzin, blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that left three people dead and three injured.
Politics and diplomacy
- Hungary indicated that it was willing to make concessions on a proposed aid package for Ukraine worth 50 billion euros ($54 billion). A top aide to Prime Minister Victor Orban, Balazs Orban, said that Budapest had sent a proposal to Brussels on Saturday indicating that it was willing to finance the aid package with common EU debt if additional “caveats” were added. On Thursday, the EU is scheduled to hold an emergency summit regarding the budget.
- During negotiations in western Ukraine, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced that they had agreed to collaborate on the contentious subject of Hungarian minority rights in Ukraine as well as set the stage for a meeting of their leaders.
- All progress made in Ukraine would be “in jeopardy,” according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken if Congress did not authorize additional funding for Kyiv. Republicans want a $61 billion aid package tied to stricter immigration laws, which is why they are blocking it.
- Top US officials, including Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, were met by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. Stoltenberg is expected to meet with Congressmen involved in the aid debate on Tuesday while in Washington, DC, rallying support for a Ukraine deal.
- David Cameron, the foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, demanded that Moscow disclose Vladimir Kara-Murza’s whereabouts after his spouse claimed he had been transferred from a Siberian prison colony to an undisclosed location. Kara-Murza, a citizen of both Russia and the UK, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April of last year for treason and disseminating “false information” regarding Russia’s complete invasion of Ukraine.
- Russian rock band Bi-2 members who have denounced the conflict in Ukraine could be deported back to their home country after being detained in Thailand for performing without a license. Following his online criticism of President Vladimir Putin, Igor Bortnick, the band’s lead singer, was designated as a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities.
- A 72-year-old woman was sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a Russian court after she shared two posts on social media regarding Russian military casualties in Ukraine. Yevgeniya Maiboroda, a resident of the southern Rostov region, is accused by rights organizations of disseminating “false information” about the armed forces.
Weapons
- According to the US State Department, sales of US military hardware to foreign governments increased by 16 percent in 2023 to a record $238 billion as nations looked to restock arsenals sent to Ukraine and get ready for significant conflicts. Weapons for Poland and Germany as well as National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to Ukraine were sold during the year.
