- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister emphasized the importance of gaining control over its skies.
- The United Nations has warned about a significant increase in civilian casualties in Kyiv.
- Ukraine reported that the overnight Russian attack involved 20 Iranian-designed drones.
In Davos at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba declared that gaining control over its skies is the country’s top priority for 2024, as Russia’s full-scale assault enters its third year.
His statement followed overnight Russian drone and missile attacks that injured 20 people across Ukraine. The barrage inflicted massive craters in the southern city of Odesa, where AFP journalists observed charred residential buildings in the aftermath of the assault. Emergency services footage revealed rescue workers evacuating vulnerable residents on stretchers from housing blocs that had their windows blown out.
“In 2024, of course, the priority is to throw Russia from the skies,” Kuleba said in an address to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Because the one who controls the skies will define when and how the war will end,” he added.
Kyiv has persistently urged the West to supply advanced fighter jets to aid its troops stationed in the south and east of the country.
President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement:
In response to these appeals, President Emmanuel Macron announced this week that France would deliver a new batch of approximately 40 SCALP long-range cruise missiles and hundreds of bombs to support Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion. However, this commitment remains limited compared to the array of munitions recently deployed by Russian forces across Ukraine.
The United Nations has issued a warning about a significant increase in civilian casualties in Kyiv since December, as Moscow escalates air attacks, reversing a previous decline observed in 2023. In the southern region of Kherson, officials reported one person killed and another injured by Russian shelling.
Kyiv reported that the overnight Russian attack involved 20 Iranian-designed drones targeting southern Ukraine but claimed that its air defense systems had successfully destroyed all but one. The conflict has reached a stalemate following Ukraine’s long-anticipated counter-offensive last year, which failed to break through Russian positions.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for patience among Ukraine’s key Western backers, emphasizing that with the right support, Ukraine could achieve victory.
“We are fighting a powerful enemy, a very big enemy that doesn’t sleep,” said Kuleba. “It takes time.
“We defeated them on the land in 2022. We defeated them in the sea in 2023 and we are completely focused on defeating them in the air in 2024,” he told a discussion panel at the forum in Switzerland.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statements on Tuesday, emphasizing the need for Ukraine to “gain air superiority” to facilitate “progress on the ground,” echo the sentiments expressed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who announced on Wednesday that he would travel to New York next week for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
Various NATO countries are currently instructing Ukrainian pilots on American-made F-16 fighter jets, with Denmark confirming earlier this month that it would transfer 19 F-16s in the second quarter of this year.
Washington, previously reluctant to permit the transfer of jets due to concerns about being perceived as a direct belligerent in the Ukraine war by Moscow, has now relented. Meanwhile, Russia is grappling with increased fatal strikes from Ukraine, particularly in border regions where officials and residents are reinforcing defenses.
On January 23, during the Security Council debate on the Middle East, Lavrov is expected to attend in person, as confirmed by foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday, according to TASS.
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