Russia-Ukraine war updates: Ukraine hails EU deal on $54bn aid package

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We will be closing the live page soon. Here is a recap of the day’s main events:

• All 27 European Union countries agreed on an additional 50-billion-euro ($54bn) aid package for Ukraine, despite threats from Hungary to veto the move.
• Ukraine expects to receive the first payment from the EU in the amount of 4.5 billion euros ($4.9bn) in March, according to Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and economy minister.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed that its forces killed 50 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed two US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar stations in Kherson in the past 24 hours.
• Russia has carried out 626 chemical attacks against Ukraine, Nataliia Kostenko, Ukraine’s deputy ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, told the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation.
• All those killed in the Il-76 crash in the Belgorod region, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, have been identified, according to the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

The computers have been affected by the DirtyMoe (Purple Fox) malware, which provides remote access to devices, according to Ukraine’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection.

Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian parliament’s committee on foreign affairs and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, made the remarks in reaction to the EU’s approval of Ukraine aid.

He claimed that the establishment of peace in Ukraine does not suit “the collective West”.

Over the past day, we’ve published several new pieces covering various aspects of the conflict.

Here are a few highlights:

Wider context: Is South Africa’s foreign policy contradictory or a balancing act?

In-depth: Ukraine, Russia fight from the skies as Kyiv’s EU aid hangs in the balance

Video: Why does the IMF predict strong Russian growth despite sanctions?

And there’s plenty more here.

The fact that EU countries had an uncompromising and united stance in talks with Orban helped persuade the Hungarian prime minister to agree to a 50-billion-euro ($54bn) aid package for Ukraine, Poland’s prime minister says.

“We have been working … towards a clear position which can be briefly described as follows: We want to support Ukraine in its war effort against Russia. There will be 27 of us, the entire community, and no one will pay anyone any reward for it,” Donald Tusk told reporters in Brussels. “No one will look for rotten compromises.”

The accident happened near the village of Yevhenivka in southern Ukraine.

The injured have been transported to the Snihurivka city hospital, according to the head of the Snihurivka city military administration, Ivan Kukhta.

“In many capitals, the question has to be asked: Are we actually doing enough? And the answer in most cases can only be no,” Olaf Scholz said following an EU summit in Brussels where additional aid for Ukraine was agreed upon.

Scholz added that Germany cannot manage military support alone.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that workers from Ukraine’s atomic energy operator Energoatom have been barred from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

IAEA head Rafael Grossi is to visit the site next week, according to an IAEA statement, and will request further information about the plant’s “new announcement” on staffing.

All those killed in the Il-76 crash in the Belgorod region, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, have been identified, according to the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

“The results of genetic examinations allowed us to make an unambiguous conclusion about the belonging of the seized body fragments to six crew members, three military police officers and 65 Ukrainian military personnel who died in a plane crash as a result of an attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on January 24, 2024,” the statement said.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, says on Telegram that the power supply was partially disrupted after the Ukrainian shelling.

“The village of Mokraya Orlovka, Grayvoronsky urban district, came under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. There were no casualties. The power line was damaged, and subscribers on several streets were cut off,” he wrote.

Later, Gladkov said the village of Terebreno in Krasnoyaruzhsky district also came under fire from Ukraine.

“There were no casualties. The fence on the territory of the Terebren school was damaged. Operational services are working on the spot. Door-to-door visits continue,” he said.

Hungary accepted an EU deal to extend 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in new aid to Ukraine after receiving an offer for a control mechanism that guarantees reasonable use of the money, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

Hungary accepted the deal with conditions that withheld EU funds from Hungary will not end up in Ukraine and that Ukrainian aid will be used sensibly, Orban said in a video on Facebook, adding he was pleased that markets reacted positively to the agreement.

Latvia’s parliament has voted to ban the country’s national teams from playing any national teams from Russia or Belarus, regardless of what flag they compete under, as a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine.

The Latvian Olympic Committee said the move would not impact the country’s participation at the Olympics in Paris as the International Olympic Committee only allows individual Russian or Belarusian athletes – not teams – to take part as neutrals without flags.

It’s just after 4pm (14:00 GMT) in Kyiv, Ukraine, on the 708th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Here’s a recap of some of the latest developments:

• Russia has allegedly carried out 626 chemical attacks against Ukraine, Nataliia Kostenko, Ukraine’s deputy ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, told the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation.
• Ukraine’s special forces have carried out a series of direct strikes to the hull of an Ivanovets warship, causing it to roll the stern and sink, according to Ukraine’s Defence Ministry.
• China has warned Ukraine against its designating more than a dozen Chinese companies as “international sponsors of war”, according to a Reuters news agency report quoting two senior Ukrainian sources with knowledge of the matter.
• All 27 members of the European Union have agreed on an additional 50 billion euro ($54bn) support package for Ukraine.

Roberta Metzola, the president of the European Parliament, has said that the EU legislature will vote on the decision of the European Council to provide Ukraine with 50 billion euros ($54bn) in financial aid at the second plenary session, which will take place from February 26 to 29.

Before that, the negotiation process will take place in a tripartite format, the so-called trialogue, with the participation of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council.

The Council will then have to make an official decision, and time will also be needed for the legal proofreading of the documents.

At the same time, the European Commission will ensure the availability of financial allocation for Ukraine.

Ukraine expects to receive the first payment from the EU in the amount of 4.5 billion euros ($4.9bn) in March, according to Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and economy minister.

She wrote on Facebook that Ukraine has “come one step closer to economic stability for the next four years”.

Ukraine expects to receive 18 billion euros ($19.5bn) from the EU to finance the 2024 state budget deficit, and another 39 billion euros ($42.2bn) was set to be used for budget deficit purposes over the next three years.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov says Moscow has no plans to deploy nuclear weapons in other countries except in Belarus, Reuters news agency reported.

Russian ally Belarus said in June that it had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons that Russia deployed in the neighbouring country in the first such deployment outside Russia since the Soviet era.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that “US citizens should know where their money is going”.

She made the remarks on Telegram after a Russian investigation of the Il-76 plane crash in Belgorod claimed a US Patriot anti-aircraft missile system shot it down.

Western countries are refusing to take part in an international investigation into last week’s crash of a Russian Il-76 military plane, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says.

Answering a question from Russia’s TASS news agency, he said: “They are afraid of their involvement being revealed.”

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said the plane had been shot down over Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, with a US Patriot missile system. All 74 people on board were killed, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, Russia said.

“The president openly, publicly stated yesterday that we are ready for an international investigation of this horrific act and we are interested in it,” Peskov said.

“Now we are hearing voices from Europeans saying, ‘Let’s get some paper. We can’t consider anything without paper.'”