The current date is February 2, 2023, and more news about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine appears. 

Poland has become open to sending fighter jets to Ukraine. One day ago, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, stated that he is open to the idea of supplying F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if the decision was to be taken together with NATO allies.

He said to the German newspaper, Bild, “If this was a decision of the whole of Nato, I would be for sending these fighter jets.”

He also stated that this is a very important conflict and this would support Ukraine in their efforts to stop the invading Russian forces.

The United States, Great Britain and Germany have ruled out sending fighter jets in the past days, however the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, said that their supply was not taboo as long as it is not used to target “Russian soil” and would not cause more escalation.

The next story is of a senior Russian lieutenant, Konstantin Yefremov,  who fled the army after serving in Ukraine in December. He describes how Russian troops tortured prisoners of war and threatened some of them with rape. He spent three months in parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia oblast, saying, “I have personally seen our troops torture Ukrainian soldiers…I feel relieved that I can finally speak out about the things I have seen.” He is currently in Mexico and has joined the rising number of Russian soldiers who have fled Russia and spoken out against the war in Ukraine. Earlier interviews were conducted with Pavel Filatyev and Nikita Chibrin who are two Russian contract soldiers who have similarly denounced the war.

Yefremov, at the start of the war, was stationed in Chechnya in the Russian army’s 42nd Motorised Rifle Division. At the beginning of February of 2022, two weeks before Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, he said he was sent with his unit to Crimea to participate in what he was told were military exercises. He tried to get out of the area and army as soon as he learned what was really happening. In the interview he also stated, “I left my gun, found the first taxi and drove off. I wanted to return to my base in Chechnya and hand in my resignation papers because I was against this horrible war.” After he tried to abandon the army, he was threatened with 10 years in prison for desertion. 

Another noteworthy topic is the upcoming EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv that will happen on the 3rd of February. MEPs voted on a resolution setting out expectations for the discussion, which received 489 votes in favor, 36 against and 49 MEPs abstained. The MEPs further demanded an “immediate and complete” embargo on the import of fossil fuels as well as uranium from Russia into the EU, and the complete abandonment of the Nord Stream gas pipelines so that Russia is not supported in any way. Finally, some minor topics that are important are that the EU international center for prosecution of crimes in Ukraine will be set up in The Hague, Norway increased spending to fund civil and military aid to Ukraine and Austria expels four Russian diplomats.