DAVOS: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday said his country’s priority for 2024 was to gain control over its skies, as Russia’s full-scale assault enters its third year.
His comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos came just hours after Russian drone and missile attacks overnight wounded 20 people across Ukraine.
The barrage left massive craters in the southern city of Odesa where AFP journalists saw residential buildings charred in the wake of the assault.
Rescue workers hauled out vulnerable residents on stretchers from housing blocs that had had their windows blown out, footage from emergency services showed.
“In 2024, of course the priority is to throw Russia from the skies,” Kuleba said in an address to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Because the one who controls the skies will define when and how the war will end,” he added.
Kyiv has long called on the West to deliver advanced fighter jets to support its troops entrenched in the south and east of the country.
Responding to those calls, President Emmanuel Macron announced this week that France would deliver a new batch of around 40 SCALP long-range cruise missiles as well as hundreds of bombs as Kyiv fights the Russian invasion.
But even that pledge is limited compared to the range of munitions that Russian forces have recently been raining down across Ukraine.
Officials in Kyiv have seen a steep rise in civilian casualties since December, as Moscow intensifies air attacks, reversing a downward trend seen earlier in 2023, the United Nations has warned.
And officials in the southern region of Kherson said one person had been killed and another injured by Russian shelling.
Kyiv said the overnight Russian attack consisted of 20 Iranian-designed drones targeting southern Ukraine, but said its air defense systems had destroyed all but one.
The conflict has ground to a stalemate after Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive last year failed to punch through Russian positions.
Kuleba called for patience among Ukraine’s key Western backers, insisting that with the right support, Ukraine could be victorious.
“We are fighting a powerful enemy, a very big enemy that doesn’t sleep,” said Kuleba. “It takes time.
“We defeated them on the land in 2022. We defeated them in the sea in 2023 and we are completely focused on defeating them in the air in 2024,” he told a discussion panel at the forum in Switzerland.
His comments echo remarks by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who on Tuesday said that Ukraine “must gain air superiority” to enable “progress on the ground.”
Various NATO countries are currently training Ukrainian pilots on American-made F-16 fighter jets. Denmark said earlier this month it would transfer 19 F-16s in the second quarter of this year.
Washington had previously resisted allowing the jet transfers for fear of being deemed by Moscow a direct belligerent in the Ukraine war.
Russia meanwhile on Wednesday announced that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to New York next week for a meeting of the United Nations’ Security Council.
Asked whether Lavrov would attend the 23 January Security Council debate on the Middle East in person, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said “yes,” TASS reported on Wednesday.
Russia has also been weathering increased fatal Ukrainian strikes, particularly in border regions where officials and residents are bolstering defenses.
“The situation is, of course, difficult at the moment,” a member of a volunteer defense group, Oleg Gerasimov told AFP in the border city of Belgorod.
“But we are hoping, believing, that the threat to our city and the whole country will end in the very near future,” he added.
Late last year, more than two dozen people were killed in a series of strikes on the city — the deadliest attack on Russian soil so far.
Ukraine says 2024 priority is to gain control of the skies
https://arab.news/5yngv
Ukraine says 2024 priority is to gain control of the skies
- “In 2024, of course the priority is to throw Russia from the skies,” Kuleba said
- “Because the one who controls the skies will define when and how the war will end”
Tarique Rahman-led BNP set to form Bangladesh’s next government after major election win
- Jamaat-e-Islami, banned during Hasina’s government, won 68 seats
- Majority of Bangladeshis endorsed sweeping reforms in national referendum
DHAKA: The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Tarique Rahman, is set to form the country’s next government after securing a more than two-thirds majority in the first elections since a student-led uprising in 2024 ousted ex-prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.
The BNP has won at least 209 seats out of the 299 contested, according to the latest election results released by the Election Commission on Friday, paving the way for Rahman to become the country’s next prime minister.
Jamaat-e-Islami, banned during Hasina’s 15 years in power, has registered its best performance yet, winning at least 68 seats and emerging as the main opposition party.
The National Citizen Party, which was born out of the 2024 protests, was in third place with six seats, including for its leader Nahid Islam, while Hasina’s Awami League was barred from participating in the elections.
The majority of Bangladeshis also reportedly voted “yes” in a national referendum on the “July National Charter” that was held alongside the general vote on Thursday.
Named after the month when the uprising that toppled Hasina began, the charter is aimed at achieving sweeping democratic reforms to prevent authoritarian administrations, including term limits for premiers, stronger presidential powers and greater judicial independence, while also proposing increased representation of women in parliament.
The BNP-led government is likely to follow the commitments made under the charter, said Prof. A.S.M. Amanullah, vice chancellor of the National University in Dhaka, adding that the implementation of the July charter was also included in the party’s election manifesto that covers reform of the state and rebuilding of the economy.
“Mr. Tarique Rahman is a highly trained politician, highly sensitive politician, and he takes decisions based on facts. I believe he prepared himself to run this country locally and play a role internationally,” Amanullah told Arab News.
Rahman is the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and former President Ziaur Rahman. He returned to Bangladesh late last year after nearly two decades of self-imposed exile in the UK, and assumed BNP’s leadership days later, following his mother’s death from a prolonged illness.
In an interview with Arab News earlier this week, the 60-year-old pledged to pursue accountability for the former leadership and meet the political and economic expectations of the youth movement that brought about the change.
The new government is likely to be a mix of young and old politicians, Amanullah said, with Jemaat-e-Islami set to balance out the BNP’s rule.
“This is a very good size of opposition to press the issues or to challenge the government on different issues, different policies and decisions of the government. I’m hopeful about Jemaat,” he said.
“The way the people voted for these major two parties, the BNP and Jemaat, I think if they could work jointly, Bangladesh should see a stable political situation in the near future.”
Mohiuddin Ahmad, a political analyst and researcher, described Jemaat-e-Islami as “the most organized party” in Bangladesh and that it would therefore play an “instrumental” role as the opposition party.
Voter turnout averaged 59.44 percent, the EC said, with many Bangladeshis considering this week’s vote as their first “free and fair” election after more than 17 years.
“Such a result of an election we haven’t actually experienced before,” Muhiuddin Iqbal, a history student at Dhaka University, told Arab News.
“The festive feeling has not gone yet, so we’re very much excited about it and hopeful for the future.”
