Ukraine Update…318 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine…Biden still no Tanks…..

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was confident Ukraine would win its war against Russia in 2023, as long as it continues to be “united and strong” and receives the military and financial support needed from key allies like the United States and European leaders he said in a meeting with students at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Sunday. Zelensky said the speed of victory depends on “the help of partners,” and added “we must not allow the processes to slow down either outside or inside, as it will prolong the war.”
• Former British prime minister Boris Johnson visited two war-torn cities outside of Kyiv: Bucha and Borodyanka this weekend. Johnson, who is popular among Ukrainians for the support he gave the country when he was in office, met with Zelensky at the Taras Shevchenko National University and said Ukraine’s allies should provide the country with “all the necessary weapons as soon as possible.”
• Zelensky said Ukraine needs support to protect the nation’s energy infrastructure to avoid the blackout that Russia is aiming to cause with targeted attacks on power stations across the country. “And we have to make sure that people stay in the cities, because this is about jobs, about taxes,” he said. “We have to protect them economically to make sure that the businesses are operating,” he said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that aired Sunday.
• Representatives from France and Germany were meeting in Paris on Sunday for talks on Europe’s security and energy. The meeting is the first in-person meeting between the two governments since 2019. Lawmakers were also expected to discuss military support for Ukraine, the Associated Press reported, citing French and German officials.
• New German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will travel to Ukraine soon, he said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild, probably within the next month. Asked when a decision on Leopard tanks will be made, he said only that Germany is in close dialogue with its international partners about it.

• Russian forces launched a missile strike on “critical infrastructure” in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and carried out more than 20 attacks from rocket launcher systems, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Sunday.
• The Russian Defense Ministry also reported making advances in the Zaporizhzhia region and continued offensive operations around the city of Bakhmut in Donbas, as a chorus of Western allies urged Germany to approve the delivery of battle tanks that Kyiv says are crucial to fighting entrenched Russian forces.
• Russia is planning to expand its armed forces over the next several years — but will probably “struggle to staff and equip the planned expansion,” the British Defense Ministry said Sunday. The ministry’s warning comes after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced plans for the military expansion last week, saying that Moscow wants to increase troops to about 1.5 million.
• Russia’s Wagner Group is becoming “a rival power center” to the Russian military, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing Friday. Wagner Group founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin “is trying to advance his own interests in Ukraine, and Wagner is making military decisions based largely — largely — on what they will generate for Prigozhin, in terms of positive publicity,” Kirby said. He added that the mercenary group will face sanctions this week, after the U.S. Treasury Department designates Wagner a “transnational criminal organization.”
• Russian troops shelled the town of Oleshky in the southern Kherson region– which has been largely retaken by Ukraine in November after months of Russian occupation, and continues to endure heavy artillery- damaging a school and shattering windows of nearby buildings according to mayor Yevhen Ryshchuk. No casualties were reported….

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