In February 2024, many events took place in Ukraine that were important for its population and the international community. In particular, on February 6, 2024, martial law was extended in the country for 90 days, almost until June 2024.
Personnel changes took place in the country’s military leadership, the situation with Polish carriers worsened daily, and the EU finally decided on financial aid for Ukraine. Read more in The Ukrainian Review’s monthly digest.
Our guys are back home: Ukrainian prisoners of war were exchanged
On January 31, 2024, a total number of 207 people who were in Russian captivity were returned to Ukraine. Among those who were exchanged were Armed Forces soldiers, the National Guard, border guards, and police officers.
Many of the released are defenders of “Azovstal”, Snake Island, and Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Kherson and Sumy directions.
On February 8, 2024, another 100 Ukrainians returned home. The National Guard, border guards, and Armed Forces service members are among them. The majority are defenders of Mariupol. The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported that 82 were Azovstal defenders.
A total of 307 Ukrainians were freed from captivity.
The EU and the USA: have they allocated money for Ukraine?
Already on February 1, 2024, all 27 EU countries agreed to help Ukraine in the amount of €50 billion for 2024-2027. And on February 27, the decision was finally made.
“This ensures permanent, long-term, predictable funding for Ukraine. The EU takes leadership and responsibility in supporting Ukraine. We know what is at stake,” — said Charles Michel.
The agreement on providing €50 billion in aid to Ukraine provides an annual discussion of the package and the possibility of revising it after two years “if necessary.” Hungary will not have the right of veto during the review process.
Instead, the US House of Representatives is still arguing about providing Ukraine with the necessary $60 billion in funding. The US Senate released a compromise bill on financing Ukraine, Israel and border security for $118.28 billion:
- $60.06 billion — to support Ukraine;
- $14.1 billion — to support Israel;
- $20.2 billion — for border protection.
In the Senate, the meeting regarding this decision was constantly postponed, and the Speaker of the Chamber, Johnson, managed to declare that the document “will die on arrival” in the Chamber because, according to him, the draft law “does not bring the border catastrophe closer to completion.”
At the same time, Biden called on Congress to unite and immediately pass a bipartisan agreement, which was previously blocked.
Already on February 8, 2024, the draft law on funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan without reference to measures at the border received the necessary 60 votes in the US Senate. It was later passed to the House of Representatives.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Johnson announced an early adjournment without bringing the aid package to Ukraine to a vote. Members of Congress will return from vacation on February 28, 2024.
We asked Oleksandra Reshmedilova, a political scientist and the United Center for Political Forecasting expert, what she thinks about why the US is delaying aid.
“The EU provides us with 50 billion euros, but this is the Ukraine Facility – a 4-year program that should reach us already at the border of March-April. The first tranche is 4.6 billion for the first year. And let’s hope that the decision will not be revised or adjusted in any way. Also, we expect money from the US. Congress is currently on vacation, and we are in pre-election turbulence. But this does not mean that help from the United States should not be expected. The White House quite often personally points out that a certain responsibility lies with Speaker Johnson and his political opponents. But there are common threats of common importance. America cannot be outside the context of the Ukrainian war because it is a global challenge,” — she said.
Worse than it was: Poles resumed protests on the Ukrainian border
On February 9, 2024, Polish farmers began a blockade of the “Medyka – Sheghini” checkpoint. And already on February 11, the first incident occurred when the Poles opened three Ukrainian trucks in front of the “Yagodin-Dorogusk” checkpoint, spilling part of the grain on the roadway.
“Three trucks driven by citizens of Ukraine entered Poland after registration. The protestors did not let the transport go any further, and at one point, they opened the trailers, due to which part of the grain spilled out onto the road. The drivers turned back in the direction of Ukraine,” — Eva Chyzh, the police commissioner in Helma, said.
The Minister of Agriculture of Poland apologised for the incident with spilled Ukrainian grain. Meanwhile, The District Prosecutor’s Office in the Polish city of Chelmstarted an investigation.
“In my opinion, this is not the right form of protest, but farmers in different countries often use it. The farmers did not hold back their emotions, but it is worth remembering that they are in a very difficult economic situation. On behalf of Polish farmers, I apologize for such an act of desperation, and I ask you to understand their extremely difficult situation,” — he said.
In response to this, Ukrainian carriers announced a protest action on February 15 at the “Yagodin-Dorogusk” checkpoint. Also, farmers from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France, who will take part in a large-scale action, were on their way to the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Already on February 20, 2024, Polish protesters blocked the railway near the “Medyka-Sheghini” point and began to dump grain from a freight car, which is already the second incident of spoilage of Ukrainian products. On the same day, but in the evening, the Poles slightly relaxed the blockade at three checkpoints. At the point “Zosin — Ustylug”, they are ready to allow five cars every hour.
Polish police opened a case against a protesting farmer because of “scandalous slogans”. One poster was: “Putin will restore order in Ukraine and Brussels.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda believes that the conflict on the Polish-Ukrainian border will be resolved through tripartite negotiations between Ukraine, Poland and Polish farmers. He added that such a situation would not have happened if it were not for the war.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, invited the Prime Minister, the President of Poland, and the European Commission to come to negotiations at the border to resolve the Ukrainian grain transit crisis. The Ukrainian delegation arrived at the border, but the meeting did not occur.
Oleksandra Reshmedilova commented as follows:
“We see that there are certain agreements regarding Polish grain. The Ukrainian and Polish governments must meet on March 28. This is for a month, but this month should be directed to minimising the amount of cargo that cannot pass through our borders. We need to resume our logistics cooperation. That case of spilling the grain is defiant, and it is provocative. It is being played specifically to drive a wedge between our states because Russia is also interested in this, and generally, strong Ukrainian-Polish relations may not be in the interests of other players.”
Michal Potocki, a journalist from the Polish legal and business daily newspaper ‘Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, also commented on this situation.
“Until February 24, this market was also quite regulated. Ukraine and Poland were mutually issuing permits for cross-border movements for our carriers. After February 24, the EU eliminated these permits, essentially opening the market for Ukrainian carriers. In this regard, Ukraine practically became a member of the EU, except that Ukrainian carriers did not have to adhere to all EU standards. As long as there was hope that the war would not be prolonged, Polish carriers said, ‘Okay.’
However, since the war has been lasting for quite a long time, they also started to feel the consequences, especially those who traded with Ukraine. Competition became quite noticeable for carriers. This does not apply to the entire carrier market; primarily, carriers from the eastern regions of Poland, who traded with Ukraine before the invasion, are involved in these blockades”.
By the way, on February 25, 2024, the Poles dumped 160 tons of Ukrainian grain on railway tracks, which is the largest case since the beginning of the protests. However, the first persons who scattered Ukrainian grain on the Polish-Ukrainian border have already appeared in court. They face up to five years in prison.
The Ukrainian hero Zaluzhny was dismissed as Commander-in-Chief
As early as February 4, 2024, information about the dismissal of Valery Zaluzhny from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was spread in the media. In particular, the Italian journalist spoke with Zelenskyy about the rumours in this regard.
“I’m thinking about rebooting. I’m in this process because you can’t say, “Here’s one person, substitute, and that’s it, let’s go.” No, this is a serious machine. It depends on many processes. And if we want to win, we must all be leaders of victory: not to lose hope, not to give up,” — he said.
Subsequently, the Head of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, assured that the changes in Ukraine’s leadership would not affect relations with allies.
On February 8, 2024, Zelenskyy and Zaluzhny discussed what kind of renewal the Armed Forces of Ukraine needed.
“We also discussed who can be in the updated leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The time for such an update is right now. I offered Valery Fedorovych to continue being in the team,” — Zelenskyy wrote.
And on the same day, Oleksandr Syrskyi became the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.
“The important issue is the release of Zaluzhny. Recently, the president gave a long interview for Fox News, where he explained that the management of the military has changed, but the course has not changed. And it must be understood that Syrskyi is also part of the team that worked with Zaluzhny for many years. Personnel changes do not turn Ukraine around, on the contrary, they continue the course, they simply make it somewhat more updated, perhaps faster to make decisions. It was necessary to draw conclusions during these 2 years and demonstrate readiness for a flexible policy. We hope that these personnel changes will not negatively impact in any way because Ramstein and consultations with NATO ministers have already passed, and there are still many different platforms ahead,” — Reshmedilova said.
19th Rammstein meeting: results
- The French Minister of Defense announced the creation of a coalition in support of Ukrainian air defense. 15 countries joined it;
- Also, the partner countries officially launched the work of the Drone Coalition, which includes eight countries;
- There are results in the context of joint production of artillery systems and shells;
- 20 countries have officially joined the demining issue.
According to Reshmedilova, Ukraine is preparing for NATO’s anniversary summit, which will be held in America.
“For now, we are seeing a demonstration of cooperation with Japan, Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Canada and many other countries. We are waiting for the signing of bilateral agreements with Italy. Security agreements have already been signed with Britain, Germany, and France. We hope that Italy will also join, which will be a bilateral arrangement. They are also supported by America, which in many moments actively says that it has consolidated more than 50 countries around Ukraine, enabling such a unifying moment, such an umbrella,” — she said.
These are not all events that took place in February 2024. For example, the EU adopted the 13th package of sanctions in which it was forbidden to export to Russia goods that contribute to the increase of the country’s industrial potential, such as electrical transformers. Also, the United Kingdom was added to the list of partner countries that apply restrictions on the import of iron and steel from Russia. Another significant event was Putin’s unsuccessful interview with the American propagandist Tucker Carlson, which we wrote about earlier. February 24 marks the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. This date marks a great tragedy in which the citizens of our Ukraine are still living and fighting. All our joint efforts are aimed at leading our country to victory and protecting Europe from the aggressor, and we will definitely do it.
Tetiana Stelmakh
