Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Thursday that the two nations need to work closely to defend security and oppose foreign interference.

The US Senate signalled support for war aid to Ukraine and Israel in a test vote on Thursday, as Republicans dropped a four-month blockade on the security assistance package.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of the dangers of a Russian victory if Ukraine’s allies don’t increase military support and financial aid, ahead of a meeting with US President Joe Biden.

The European Union has proposed sanctioning about 55 companies and more than 60 individuals as part of a new package of measures to mark two years since Russia invaded Ukraine.

A politician campaigning to end Russia’s war in Ukraine has been barred from running against Putin in the March presidential elections. 

Ukraine’s army chief leaves after rift with Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top general departed as the nation’s army chief, ending weeks of speculation over a deepening rift in the country’s leadership and stoking uncertainty over the direction of the war.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Valeriy Zaluzhnyi stepped down or was dismissed, but the move was prompted by mounting acrimony between the president and his top general, a source said on condition of anonymity. Zelensky said in a social media post that he was pushing for “renewed leadership” after meeting with Zaluzhnyi.  

“The time for such a renewal is now,” Zelensky said on X, saying that Zaluzhnyi would remain “part of the team”. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who commands the country’s land forces, will replace him, the president announced on his Telegram channel.  

The departure of the commander-in-chief, a figure widely revered among soldiers as well as the Ukrainian people, comes at a fraught moment for the war-battered nation, which is increasingly outgunned by Russia’s war machine and running short of Western aid. 

As more than $60-billion in US funding for Ukraine is snarled in the US Congress, President Joe Biden’s administration has pressed Zelensky to sharpen the military plan to force back Russia’s invasion. That was partly out of concern among officials in Washington over the split between the Ukrainian leader and his top military official. 

The friction between Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi spilled into the open in November, when the army chief told The Economist in a blunt interview that the war had settled into a stalemate — a characterisation that irked his boss. 

At least part of the split — the tensions date to the first months of the war — is Zelensky’s preference for a bolder military plan colliding with a more cautious Zaluzhnyi, according to people familiar with the military leadership. 

The president’s plan for a reshuffle hasn’t gone smoothly. The general refused to step down from his post at a meeting with Zelensky last week, according to people familiar with the discussion. The public reaction of Zaluzhnyi’s backers to the move added to the intrigue in Kyiv. 

Zaluzhnyi, a 50-year-old officer who is the first army chief to graduate from a military academy in independent Ukraine rather than the Soviet Union, has been credited with scrapping conventional Soviet military tactics as he sought to modernise the Ukrainian fighting forces. 

He’s widely credited with masterminding a strategy that surprised most observers by forcing out the Russian forces from a swathe of territory seized by the Kremlin in the first year of the full-scale invasion. 

Xi tells Putin both nations need to oppose foreign meddling

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Putin in a phone call on Thursday that the two nations need to work closely to defend security and oppose foreign interference.

Xi said China and Russia needed to have close strategic cooperation, adding that they should work together to safeguard their sovereignty, security and development interests, state broadcaster China Central Television reported.

The two leaders have been growing their relationship in the nearly two years since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Just weeks before the war began, Xi agreed to a “no-limits” friendship with Putin during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and signed a series of long-term energy supply deals.

Since then, both men have made diplomatic trips to each other’s capitals. Xi went to Moscow in March last year, where Putin told him that Russia was ready to discuss China’s proposal for ending the war. Then in October, Putin met with Xi in Beijing where the Russian president attended China’s Belt and Road Forum — a “project of the century” for Xi intended to expand Chinese soft power via a web of infrastructure investment.

During Thursday’s phone call, Xi also told Putin that China is willing to strengthen international multilateral cooperation with Russia. 

US Senate backs Ukraine aid in test vote, but House is obstacle

The US Senate signalled support for war aid to Ukraine and Israel in a test vote on Thursday, as Republicans dropped a four-month blockade on the security assistance package.

But the funding still faces an uphill battle in the House, where Republican leaders have insisted the US first adopt stricter border enforcement policies.

Republican senators on Wednesday blocked a broader aid package including a bipartisan deal on border enforcement after GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and the party’s House leaders denounced the compromise.

Read more: Senate vote ends border deal prospects, setting election fight

The Senate voted 67-32 to start considering the standalone war aid package with the backing of Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has made assistance for Ukraine a top priority since Putin ordered the Russian invasion two years ago. Opposition from hardline Republicans like Rand Paul of Kentucky, however, could delay final passage into the weekend or later. 

Hardline conservatives in the House have warned Speaker Mike Johnson against a vote on aid to Ukraine without imposing new US immigration restrictions.

Kyiv has been waiting for more than $60-billion in assistance from the US, while European officials, who last week approved a more than $50-billion aid package for Ukraine, have been increasingly concerned by the delays in Washington.  

Poland’s Tusk evokes Reagan to shame Republicans over aid vote 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk hit out at Republican senators for blocking a compromise Bill that would have unlocked badly needed funding for Ukraine, invoking the 40th US president to make a blunt point. 

“Ronald Reagan, who helped millions of us to win back our freedom and independence, must be turning in his grave today,” Poland’s premier said in a statement on social platform X. “Shame on you.”  

The unvarnished volley from eastern Europe came hours after Senate Republicans torpedoed legislation based on a compromise pairing new provisions for US border security with assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The Republicans turned against the deal, one they had previously pushed for, after former president Donald Trump and House Republican leaders denounced it. 

Tusk’s reaction laid bare how the increasingly toxic politics in Washington is being viewed across the Atlantic. The premier is a staunch ally of Ukraine, which has warned that its financial coffers and military stores are running low, raising the prospect of losing the war with Russia. Kyiv stands to lose $60-billion in assistance if the US legislation falls through. 

Poland’s prime minister, who returned to office in December after defeating the country’s nationalist ruling party, made a point of invoking Reagan. An icon within the Republican party, his policies are also credited in Poland with precipitating the demise of the Soviet Union and bringing an end to communism in eastern Europe. 

Reagan was president during the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, one of the stiffest forms of resistance to communist rule.  

Scholz warns US of growing risk of Putin victory in Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of the dangers of a Russian victory if Ukraine’s allies don’t increase military support and financial aid, ahead of a meeting with Biden.

“Make no mistake: A Russian victory in Ukraine would not only be the end of Ukraine as a free, democratic and independent state, it would also dramatically change the face of Europe,” Scholz wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. 

“President Biden’s leadership has been critical to ensure that Vladimir Putin’s aggression is met with a united and successful response,” Scholz said. “Our message is clear: We have to do our utmost to prevent Russia  

Scholz was to meet members of Congress after his arrival in Washington later on Thursday in an attempt to help the US president overcome the blockade.  

Both Biden and Scholz have warned in recent weeks that Ukraine is at a critical point in the war with the country’s supplies of ammunition and weapons dwindling and fighting expected to intensify this spring. Scholz has urged other European countries to do more to help Kyiv. 

EU sanctions set to target Russian military and tech firms

The European Union has proposed sanctioning about 55 companies and more than 60 individuals as part of a new package of measures to mark two years since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The restrictions would target individuals and firms involved in producing weapons and supplying key technologies and electronics used by Russian defence firms to build the armaments, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.

The proposals, which need the backing of all member states before they’re adopted, would also target shipping companies that have provided transportation and logistics to transfer ammunition from North Korea to Russia. North Korea has provided Russia with hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds.

Read more: EU to propose limited sanctions for two-year mark of Russian war

The sanctions package, which would be the 13th since the invasion, is expected to be limited in scope, Bloomberg previously reported. A group of member states has been urging the bloc to be more ambitious and add new economic sanctions to the mix. 

Biden says Putin on ‘balls of his heels’ as Ukraine aid dries up

Biden expressed concern to donors that Ukraine’s allies were stepping back from their support for the country at a critical time in its war to repel Russia’s invasion.

Biden said during a fundraiser in New York City on Wednesday that Putin “is on the balls of his heels”.

“And what are we doing? Stepping back?” Biden added. 

The president’s comments came hours after the Senate voted to block a bipartisan deal on border security and immigration that would have unlocked over $60-billion in US assistance for Ukraine.  

Russia bars anti-war critic from challenging Putin at election

A politician campaigning to end Russia’s war in Ukraine has been barred from running against Vladimir Putin in the March presidential elections.

Russia’s Central Election Commission ruled on Thursday that Boris Nadezhdin, a member of the Civic Initiative party, hadn’t met the conditions for registration as a candidate, the state-run Tass news service reported. Officials said almost 10,000 of some 105,000 signatures from Russians in support of Nadezhdin weren’t verified. 

Nadezhdin said in a post on Telegram that he’d appeal to Russia’s Supreme Court to overturn the ban, saying he’d collected more than 200,000 signatures from all over the country from Russians who often braved freezing temperatures to add their names to the petitions.

“We conducted the collection openly and honestly,” he said. “I’m not backing down.”

Read more: Russian anti-war candidate gathers signatures to challenge Putin

Nadezhdin (60) said in a campaign manifesto that he’d entered the election race “as a principled opponent of the current president’s policies”, saying that Putin had “made a fatal mistake” in starting the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Already the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin, Putin is seeking a new six-year term in the March 17 elections as Russia’s war in Ukraine approaches its third year. The result is widely expected to be a formality.

Finland keeps Russian border shut to counter security risks

Finland renewed its decision to keep the border with Russia sealed as it sees continued risks that an assisted flow of migrants could resume at the checkpoints, endangering its national security. 

The Nordic country will keep all eight border stations along its border with Russia closed until 14 April, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said on Thursday. The earlier decision on a four-week border closure was set to expire on Sunday. 

“The information we have received confirms our assessment that Russia is continuing its hybrid operation,” Rantanen said. “There are hundreds if not thousands of migrants who are currently staying close to the border on the Russian side and who are waiting for the chance to cross into Finland.”

The Nordic country initially closed some of the border crossings in mid-November to curb the flow of Russian-assisted asylum seekers to the checkpoints. The border was then sealed off completely on 30 November and has remained shut since then, except for a brief period in December.  

Canada’s political unity on Ukraine is starting to crack

Canada’s political consensus on supporting Ukraine is beginning to fray, with polls showing increased opposition among Conservative voters for using money and manpower to aid the country’s battle against Russia. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has begun hammering his chief rival, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, accusing him of “abandoning” the cause. Trudeau’s Liberal Party is running ads and social media posts saying the Tories are “following far-right American politicians and turning their backs on Ukraine”. 

Poilievre and other senior members of his party say they still support Ukraine in its fight, and Poilievre himself has called Putin “an evil dictator who is invading an innocent country.”

But Conservative members of the House of Commons have voted en masse against a modernised Canada-Ukraine trade agreement due to a clause on carbon pricing, an environmental policy Poilievre opposes. The Conservatives have stuck to their position even after the Ukrainian government said the clause was innocuous. After Conservatives voted against the trade legislation again this week, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said it was “disappointed that the vote in favour of the bill was not unanimous”. 

The measure still passed with the support of every other party in parliament.

Canada has a massive Ukrainian diaspora, probably the second-largest in the world after Russia, and it’s generally seen as good politics to support the country as those voters can help swing some electoral districts — particularly in Toronto and in western cities. 

Trudeau has tried to position Canada as one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies, at least in terms of political rhetoric. Its influence is blunted by its small defence budget, but it has still contributed C$2.4-billion ($1.8-billion) in military assistance and helped train Ukrainian soldiers. Signs of division within Canada add to fears that support for Ukraine is waning among Western democracies, especially as some US Republicans block military aid. 

Polling shows that Canadian support is declining. An Angus Reid Institute survey found that 25% of Canadians now say Canada is offering “too much support” to Ukraine, up from 13% in May 2022. DM