Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy European Union foreign policy head Josep Borrell in Kyiv, December 1, 2023

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EA on Times Radio: Week in Review — Putin-Navalny; Ukraine; AI…and Beyoncé Goes Country

Sunday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy — “We Can Get Our Land Back”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 2011 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the frontline in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine.

UPDATE 1527 GMT:

Ukraine has downed two more Russian warplanes — a Su-34 fighter bomber and a Su-35 fighter — taking the total to six in the past three days.

Four attack drones, headed for Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, were also intercepted.

UPDATE 1517 GMT:

The independent Russian outlet Mediazona and BBC Russia have confirmed the identities of 44,654 Russian troops killed in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the past two weeks, Mediazona has added 1,194 names to the list, compiled from public sources such as obituaries, posts by relatives, news in regional media, and reports by local authorities. Among them are 15 personnel with the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and higher.

The journalists emphasize that the actual number of Russian casualties is likely to be far higher.

The Ukraine General Staff says Russia has lost 402,430 personnel. Senior US defense officials estimate 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured.

UPDATE 0927 GMT:

Russian authorities are continuing to withhold Alexei Navalny’s body from his family.

Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh has confirmed:

Navalny’s mother Lyudmila Navalnaya and his lawyer travelled on Saturday to the Polar Wolf IK-3 penal colony in the Arctic, where Navalny was transferred in December. They were given conflicting information and left without any sign of the body.

Navalnaya was told that her son suffered “sudden death syndrome” and the exact cause is being established.

UPDATE 0738 GMT:

Ukraine prosecutors are launching a pre-trial investigation into Russia’s alleged executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the east of the country.

On Sunday, a message circulated on Telegram channels about the execution of six Ukrainian POWs in Avdiivka, overrun by the Russians last week, in the Donetsk region. The defenders were seriously injured and were waiting for evacuation.

Kyiv’s military posted a video purportedly showing two Ukrainian troops running towards a Russian soldier in a trench. The Russian grabs the two and shoots them numerous times until they stop moving.

Ukrainian media reported the incident happened northeast of the village of Vesele, also in Donetsk.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: European Union foreign policy head Josep Borrell, while noting that the bloc is providing a “continuous flow” of aid to Ukraine, has acknowledged that more must be done to bolster the resistance of Russia’s two-year invasion.

In interviews on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Borrell cited €28 billion ($32 billion) in EU aid to Ukraine last year and the commitment so far of €20 billion ($21.6 billion) in 2024.

However, he emphasized, “We have to do more, I know. It is never enough when you fight a war. It is never enough.”

With the Kremlin encouraging a blockade by Trumpists and hard-right Republicans of US aid — and the unsuccessful effort of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to prevent €50 billion in EU funding through 2027 — Borrell said:

Don’t tell me that we are not doing [enough] every day. We do a lot, a continuous flow, a very intense flow of our ammunition going to Ukraine.

And we have my personal commitment and [the commitment of] the member states to continue the supply.

Still, the EU projects it will only meet 52% of its commitment of 1 million shells to Ukraine by March, a vital shortfall given Russia’s substantial advantage in munitions.

Borrell said bluntly, “Ukraine needs more. Ukraine needs more.” He assured:

It will come, it will come.

We are producing. We have increased by 40% the capacity of our production. We were on a very low level when the war started, and we are ramping up our production capacity.”

I know it is not enough, you will tell me 1.1 million [artillery shells] is not enough. But our industry is selling the weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces. And I have been calling every day [on] member states to go and ask for more orders from the European defense industries. So, we continue doing as much as we can.