Volunteers and residents clear debris of an apartment building destroyed after Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 3, 2024
Meanwhile, Poland strips Zelensky of its highest honour over naming of military unit after WWII far-right paramilitaries
NATO will help buy 1,000 US-built Patriot missiles to equip European member states and allow them to hand more of their existing weaponry to Ukraine, the alliance said yesterday.
Its Support & Procurement Agency will give support to Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain to buy the missiles, with the cost of the contract estimated at $5.5 billion (£4.3bn).
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said that “Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians, cities and towns show how important modern air defences are. Scaling up ammunition production is key for Ukraine’s security and for ours.”
MARK HAZELDEN criticises the Western narrative that the incident was an escalation of Russia’s confrontation with the West, given that Belarus, a Russian ally, warned Poland of off-course drones, and the drones were unarmed, cheap wooden decoys
While 69 per cent of Ukrainians want negotiated peace, Western leaders are cynically prolonging the war for their own strategic and economic goals, to the immense detriment of Ukraine and Europe, write BOB ORAM and MAGGIE SIMPSON
