EU leaders on Thursday agreed a 50 billion euro ($54 billion) aid package for Ukraine, European Council President Charles Michel said on social media, overcoming weeks of opposition from Hungary.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the deal included a “control mechanism,” which guaranteed that funds from Budapest would not end up in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi is expected be dismissed from his post “within days,” CNN reported Wednesday, citing sources.
Zaluzhnyi, popular with the public but more problematic for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid a rift between the leaders, was widely reported to have been called to a meeting at the president’s office on Monday and was asked to step down. He reportedly refused, and a source told CNN that a presidential decree could be issued by the end of the week to dismiss the military commander.
The move came after months of tension between the officials, particularly after Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces since July 2021, gave an interview last November in which he described the war with Russia as being at a “stalemate,” a characterization Zelenskyy denied.
In other news, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Ukraine used a U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense system to down a military transport plane in the Belgorod region last week. The plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war and nine Russians. Putin called for an international investigation into the incident.
Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it downed the plane, and has demanded proof of who was on board. Kyiv has also called for an international investigation into the crash.
