Trump, House GOP leaders reject Senate border deal; Zelensky seeks leadership shakeup in war effort

5 Feb 2024

President Volodymyr Zelensky is considering broad changes in Ukraine’s leadership as he acknowledged the country’s effort to turn back Russia’s invasion had stagnated.

The Netherlands will provide six more F-16 fighter jets, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Monday in a post on platform X. This will bring the total number of these planes the country is preparing for delivery to Ukraine to 24.

Trump, House GOP leaders reject Senate border-Ukraine aid deal

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and House Republican leaders denounced a bipartisan Senate deal to impose new US border restrictions and unlock billions of dollars in Ukraine aid, endangering its prospects for passage.

Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders declared in a joint statement Monday that the Senate compromise was “a waste of time” and “dead on arrival” in the House.

Trump condemned the deal in a social media post on Monday as “a great gift for Democrats and a Death Wish for The Republican Party”. He also flatly rejected tying immigration to foreign aid.

Read more: Tougher enforcement, more visas: Inside the Senate border deal

In the Senate, deep divisions formed among Republicans.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a senior Republican from a border state, said on Monday he had “questions and concerns” about the border deal.

GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina demanded changes to the legislation, which would threaten to upset the hard-fought compromise. The head of the Senate GOP campaign arm Steve Daines of Montana, said he would vote “no.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell both back the $118.3-billion compromise, announced on Sunday night. Senate leaders are planning a first procedural vote on the measure on Wednesday.

The legislation would crack down on illegal border crossings, make it harder to apply for asylum and speed up deportations of undocumented migrants, but also open up more visas for legal immigration.

The deal, which includes $60-billion for Ukraine, was negotiated over several months by Democrat Chris Murphy, Republican James Lankford and Independent Kyrsten Sinema. It also includes $20-billion for the border, $6-billion more than the Biden administration requested.

Read more: Senators reach deal on Ukraine aid, US border

Under the proposal, the Department of Homeland Security could turn away most asylum-seeking migrants at the border whenever encounters reach 4,000 daily for a week. At 5,000 daily average encounters in a week — or 8,500 on any single day — the administration would be required to turn away migrants.

The threshold levels are far below current migration flows. US Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 302,000 total encounters along the US-Mexico border in December alone.

The bill would also make it harder to qualify for asylum in the US by tightening the criteria for a successful application based on a credible fear of persecution and would limit the release of migrants into the country, keeping more border-crossers in detention or on a fast track to deportation.

Johnson and many other Republicans have demanded more restrictive US immigration policies in exchange for approving the Ukraine aid.

President Joe Biden said he “strongly” supported the compromise, adding it would give him new authorities to “shut down” the border to stem migration. He said the deal would make the asylum process “fairer and more efficient” and expedite work permits for those who qualified.

Ultraconservatives are pressing for a House-passed wish list of immigration proposals, including the completion of a border wall.

Trump has urged Republicans to hold out for a “perfect” deal, an aggressive stance aimed at scuttling the effort.

Zelensky seeks to shake up Ukraine’s flagging war effort

President Volodymyr Zelensky is considering broad changes in Ukraine’s leadership as he acknowledged the country’s war effort to turn back Russia’s invasion had stagnated.

The remarks in an Italian television interview marked the first time Zelensky has publicly responded to questions about the fate of Ukraine’s army chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, since speculation about his imminent removal surfaced last week.

The turmoil comes after last year’s counteroffensive to regain Russian-occupied areas fizzled and US military aid stalled in Congress. Tension between Zelensky and his top general has built amid disputes over the conscription of new soldiers and battlefield strategy.

“I’m in this process of a reset,” Zelensky told broadcaster RAI in an interview on Sunday, adding that the change wasn’t about replacing one person. “It is a serious mechanism that depends on many processes and if we want to win, we all should be leaders of victory. We cannot lose hope and give up, we need to get energy.”

Zaluzhnyi sparked controversy in November when he told The Economist the war with Russia had reached a stalemate, irking Zelensky, who publicly challenged the assessment. The president told RAI that the ground operation had “stagnated”, but his remarks were translated from Ukrainian as “stalled,” prompting his press office to seek clarification.

Tensions between Zelensky and his top general burst into the open last week. The president offered Zaluzhnyi a new role on 29 January, which the army commander refused, according to people familiar with the matter.

The fate of Zaluzhnyi, the most popular Ukrainian general, unnerved many Ukrainians, who took to social media to show their support for the army chief. Zelensky has seen his popularity dip from an all-time peak after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Ukraine’s opposition also backs Zaluzhnyi, who has said he has no plans to enter politics.

Read more: The most popular man in Ukraine becomes a problem for Zelensky

“I hope the authorities understand the seriousness of steps they are taking and their responsibility,” Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Monday on Telegram. “Political intrigue and domestic fights must be stopped.”

Zelensky again said the delays in the delivery of Western military equipment were to blame for the ground offensive falling short of expectations.

Netherlands to provide six additional F-16 jets, says Ukraine

The Netherlands will provide six more F-16 fighter jets, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Monday in a post on platform X. This will bring the total number of these planes the country is preparing for delivery to Ukraine to 24.

No time frame for the delivery was provided. Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren said on X that Ukrainian aerial superiority was “essential for countering Russian aggression”.

Georgia says it seized explosives heading to Russia from Ukraine

Georgia’s authorities said they foiled an attempt to smuggle explosives into Russia in a vehicle that originated in Ukraine’s Black Sea city of Odesa.

A total of 12 people from Georgia, Ukraine and Armenia were involved in the plot, the state security service said on Monday. The suspects planned to move the C-4 explosives via Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, with the aim of sending some devices to the Russian city of Voronezh.

An investigation has been launched under laws dealing with the illegal acquisition and transit of firearms and explosives, but may be requalified as a terrorism probe, the service said. That would threaten prison terms of as long as 15 years.

Kremlin-backed minister killed in eastern Ukraine bakery blast

Russia-appointed authorities in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region said a high-ranking minister in the breakaway government had been killed in a Saturday blast that left 28 people dead.

Alexey Poteleshchenko, the Moscow-backed emergency situations minister, was among the victims of a Ukrainian attack on a bakery in the city of Lysychansk, Kremlin-backed leader Leonid Pasechnik said on Monday on Telegram.

Two members of the local parliament were also killed in the blast, Russia’s state-run Tass news service reported, citing the Luhansk authorities.

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said that Western weapons, potentially Himars rockets, were used in the strike. Ukrainian officials haven’t commented on the incident.

Luhansk is one of the four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia in 2022, along with Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia doesn’t have full control over the entire territory of the regions as fighting there continues.

Russian oil-refining drops after drone attacks halt two plants

Russia’s latest weekly oil-processing rates dropped to the lowest in almost two months following the halt of two major refineries that were struck by Ukrainian drones.

The nation processed 5.41 million barrels a day in the seven days up to 31 January, the first full week showing the impact of Ukraine’s attacks, a person with knowledge of industry data said. That is 135,000 barrels a day below the average for most of December, according to Bloomberg calculations.

As the war between the two countries enters a third year later this month, Ukraine has intensified its drone attacks and targeted an industry that is crucial to Russian coffers. Strikes on oil processing and export facilities have become increasingly disruptive in recent weeks, threatening Russia’s ability to supply fuel to foreign and domestic markets.

Two major export-focused refineries — Novatek’s condensate processing plant on the Baltic coast and Rosneft’s Tuapse refinery near the Black Sea — completely halted primary crude processing in the last week of January following drone attacks on 21 and 25 January. Combined, the two facilities accounted for almost 5% of the nation’s daily processing average in December. DM

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