Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this Sunday that Ukraine could regain the initiative and advance again on the front if it received small amounts of additional weapons material such as the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.

“If today or in the coming months Ukraine received ten Patriot systems for the key industrial centers of Ukraine, and we could use these systems closer to the front line, (Russian planes) would not approach us, they would retreat, we would break their lines defense and we would advance,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian head of state added that the situation on the entire front would change radically if Ukraine received similar quantities of these and “two or three” other types of Western weapons.

Zelensky anticipated some “difficult” months of March and April for Ukraine, both on the battlefield and on the “political and financial” fronts.

“Russia will prepare counteroffensive actions at the beginning of summer or at the end of May, if it can,” added the Ukrainian head of state, whose Army is giving ground in the east to the push of Russian forces that take advantage of their numerical superiority in soldiers and ammunition.

Donald Trump continues on his path to return to the White House and he does it as he only knows how: attacking left and right. On this occasion, the target of their anger has been Prince Harry of England.

In statements reported by the Express, the controversial magnate and Republican politician threatened to deport the youngest son of King Charles III of England, who lives in Montecito, California, with his wife, former actress Meghan Markle.

“I wouldn't protect him. betrayed the queen. That's unforgivable. “I would be alone if it were up to me,” Trump said. The tycoon's words come after Prince Harry appeared in court to answer questions about whether he had lied about his experience with drugs, as he had admitted in his autobiographical book Spare in his immigration documents to the United States. .

The Heritage Foundation has filed a lawsuit against Biden's Department of Homeland Security. They maintain that under U.S. immigration law, evidence of prior drug use can be used to deny a visa application.

Donald Trump expressed his anger at Joe Biden's administration for keeping Harry's immigration application private to “protect” the British prince.

According to the magnate, the royal family itself has been “too kind” to Harry after “what he has done.”

Israel has decided to continue negotiations for a truce with the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, which according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could delay “to some extent” a ground offensive on Rafah, at the southern end of the Palestinian enclave and where more than 1.4 million people live overcrowded.

Israel's war cabinet decided last night to send a delegation to Qatar in the coming days to indirectly negotiate with Hamas a truce and a new exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli officials have been “cautiously optimistic” about the possibilities of reaching a new hostage agreement, according to Hebrew media, after the heads of the intelligence services of Israel, the United States and Egypt, as well as Qatari officials held a meeting this Saturday in Paris where they defined the terms of a new agreement.

The document must now be presented to Hamas for consideration, which until last night said it had no knowledge of the new terms. According to the media, the new draft contemplates a six-week truce and the release of some 40 hostages in exchange for the release of between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners.

After Hamas declined another draft agreement reached in Paris in early February, Israeli sources point out that the dialogue has resumed because the Islamist group renounced some of its “unacceptable” demands for Israel, such as a complete cessation of hostilities and the departure of its troops from the Strip.

However, the Hamas leadership says it has not given up on those “fundamental” demands. Netanyahu warns that truce will delay but not prevent an offensive against Rafah. In an interview with the American network CBS, the Israeli prime minister offered details this Sunday about his plans for Rafah. Specifically, Netanyahu acknowledged that the offensive on Rafah could be delayed if an agreement is reached for a ceasefire in the Strip.

“If we reach an agreement, (the Rafah offensive) will be delayed a little, but it will happen. If we don't have an agreement, we will do it anyway. It has to be done. Because our goal is total victory, and total victory is within our reach. “Not in a few months, but within a few weeks once we start the operation,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli prime minister also referred to requests from the White House, which has made clear that it will not support a large-scale Rafah offensive and has urged Israel to present a “credible plan” to protect civilians.

Specifically, Netanyahu said that this Sunday he planned to hold a meeting with his team to draw up a “double plan” for Rafah that includes the elimination of Hamas militants and the evacuation of civilians.

Although Netanyahu reiterated that these plans are progressing, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan stated this Sunday that US President Joe Biden has not yet been informed about these plans.

Israel and the UN exchange accusations again

The commissioner of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, accused Israel this Sunday, without naming him, of leading to famine for the 300,000 Palestinians who continue to live in the north of the Gaza Strip, where “humanitarian aid has not entered since January 23.”

“This is a man-made disaster,” Lazzarini said on his X account, in a clear allusion to Israel, which blocks the entry of aid to the north of the Palestinian enclave.

For his part, Israel's representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, once again attacked the United Nations institutions by proclaiming that “in Gaza, Hamas is the UN, and the UN is Hamas.”

During a new session of the Security Council in which the US again vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, Erdan criticized the recent words of the UN humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths, that Hamas is not a terrorist group, but a political movement

The United States, Israel, Egypt and Qatar have already reached an agreement on “the basic lines” to facilitate a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, the White House said this Sunday.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said this Sunday in an interview on CNN that the final agreement is still in the process of negotiation and indicated that Qatar and Egypt, main mediators in the Gaza war, plan to maintain ” indirect discussions” with the Palestinian group Hamas.

“The work is underway. And we hope that in the next few days, we can get to a point where there is a firm and definitive agreement on this issue, but we will have to wait and see,” Sullivan said.

According to Egyptian state television Al Qahera News, very close to Egyptian Intelligence, delegations from Egypt, Qatar, the United States, Israel and Hamas resumed their negotiations in Doha this Sunday.

Just yesterday, Saturday, Israel's war cabinet approved the sending of a delegation to Qatar to negotiate indirectly with Hamas.

These talks in Doha come after the round of consultations held on Friday and Saturday in Paris between Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar to define the terms of a new agreement.

According to Israeli media, the new draft contemplates a six-week truce and the release of some 40 hostages in exchange for the release of between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners.

Since the war began, Israel and Hamas only reached a one-week truce agreement in late November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

More than 29,600 Gazans have been killed and more than 69,700 have been injured in more than four months of war in the Strip, which began on October 7, 2023 following a brutal Hamas attack on Israeli soil, which left some 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped.

The Minister of Culture of Colombia, Juan David Correa, has announced the start of an operation between April and June to begin removing pieces of the Spanish galleon 'San José', sunk off the coast of Cartagena de Indias, using a robotic arm.

“We will go with the boat in April, May or June, depending on the sea conditions. What we have is to put a robotic arm 600 meters deep,” Correa explained during an event at the Cartagena Naval Museum, reported by the Caracol Radio station.

“This is a kind of exploration, as if we were going to space to be able to recover two, three, four materials to be able to understand what happens to those objects when they appear on the surface, in the atmosphere after having been submerged for three centuries down there” , he has reported.

In this sense, Correa has ruled out that Colombia is going to recover the galleon's treasure this year.. The next investigation will be led by the General Maritime Directorate (Dimar) and the National Navy. The goal is to “extract some units from the archaeological wreck to investigate its cultural and technical dimensions.”

“For us this has historical, symbolic, cultural value, it does not have a price,” Correa highlighted in statements to Semana magazine.

The Government will spend 18,000 million pesos (4.2 million euros) on the project in 2024 alone and the idea is to work on a CONPES document (National Council for Economic and Social Policy) so that resources are assured for the next ten years. .

Litigation with a treasure hunting company

Meanwhile, the director in charge of the National Legal Defense Agency of the State, Paula Robledo, has highlighted that the State of Colombia has formally entered into international arbitration litigation with the company Search Armada before the Permanent Court of Arbitration for the economic rights over the galleon. .

The American treasure hunting company claims the rights to the discovery of the ship, as set out in an arbitration notice submitted on December 19, 2022.

“The message is very clear and transparent: the arbitration dispute with Search Armada for the economic rights of the galleon San José has just formally begun,” he noted during his speech at the international symposium Perspectives and challenges of the research project on the galleon 'San José' that is celebrated in Cartagena.

“This generates an alert that as a State we have to address in a coordinated manner [from] the culture, justice, defense sector and all of us who are part of this working group for the defense of our cultural heritage,” Robledo added.

For Robledo, “the path of our defense of the galleon 'San José' will not be an easy path”, since “Sea Search armada claims 10,000 million dollars, corresponding to what they call 50% of the galleon San José.”

Furthermore, he has indicated that the State's National Legal Defense Agency has “repelled the threats and claims of these treasure hunters in the courts of the District of Washington, including in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.”

Spanish ambassador

The Spanish ambassador to Colombia, Joaquín de Arístegui, participated in the event in Cartagena, and raised the possibility of reaching a bilateral agreement that would facilitate this research project.

“I have instructions from my Government to offer Colombia the possibility of working on a bilateral agreement to create a new paradigm in terms of protection of underwater heritage,” he noted.

The galleon 'San José' was a Spanish-flagged warship that sank in 1708 during a naval battle with 600 sailors on board.. The wreck is more than 600 meters deep.

Spain maintains that it is a state ship and, as such, its remains are considered an underwater grave and cannot be subject to commercial exploitation.

This was not just any Saturday in Ukraine. The streets of kyiv had been decorated with military and police personnel for the visit of world leaders, who came to show their commitment on the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.. All of them have posed next to the mural that commemorates the Ukrainian dead in the conflict with Russia, thus supporting President Zelensky, who has expressed satisfaction with the support. Just five hundred meters away, and in a square that could be seen with the naked eye from the mural, another concentration was taking place at the same time.. On the esplanade in front of the Saint Sophia Cathedral, hundreds of people gathered with banners, flags and yellow and blue flares.. They were the relatives of Ukrainian hostages who demanded their release.

This is the case of María, whose husband was captured by Russia when he was fighting in the east of the country.. “They have taken him to a colony in Russia, I don't know where it is,” he said in statements to 20minutos.. This protester also maintains that the Ukrainian Government has not given her any information and does not understand why she is not part of any prisoner exchange.. “No one gives me information, neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian Government. I have also gone to the Red Cross, but no one tells me where my husband is, I don't understand why no one tells me anything,” she added excitedly while holding a banner in the middle of the square.

Alexandre's entire family also wanted to come to the rally with his image on a flag.. Vicka assures that both she and her children do not forget Alexandre for a single day, who was in a mechanized battalion when he disappeared more than a year ago.. Neither does Natalia, her 21-year-old son has been imprisoned by Russia for 22 months after taking over the Azovstal steel mill.. He says that he has even gone to Rome, to visit Pope Francis, and there he gave him a heart that symbolizes the city of Mariupol.. “For now I have no more information, for a time he was imprisoned in an area in the east of the country, where there were more than 150 Ukrainian prisoners in the hands of Russia.. A few months ago, a Russian bombing fell on that place and killed several Ukrainian prisoners.. I have the knowledge that my son was saved, but I don't know anything else about the subject,” he explained to this medium.

A group of Spaniards from the NGO Help To Ukraine have also come to support the cause, which has been helping to evacuate people and bringing humanitarian aid since the beginning of the Russian invasion.. One of the volunteers, Miguel Gutiérrez, assures that this organization “transmits the solidarity of the Spanish people” in what he describes as “an absolutely unjust and cruel war in a state attached to the European Union and, therefore, a neighbor.”. Help to Ukraine's work is with civil society, says Gutiérrez, in areas on the front lines of the war. “We are going to the east, to the complicated areas, where people live who have nothing, and who subsist on humanitarian aid,” he adds.. Food, warm clothing, medicines or equipment for hospitals are some of the contributions that this NGO has been making daily for two years now.

Ukraine's partners announce new aid

At the same time this was happening, the institutional offering took place in commemoration of the fallen. Among the guests was the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, who a few hours earlier had arrived by train in the Ukrainian capital.. Von del Leyen led the ceremony and took the opportunity to announce that the EU will donate more than 50 vehicles to improve the Police and Prosecutor's fleet and contribute to “stabilizing” the “liberated” territories.

“This delivery comes shortly after the EU gave a modern machine to detect mines,” recalled Von der Leyen, who, taking advantage of an official visit to Ukraine, has emphasized the need for the areas that are once again under Ukrainian control to return. to be “safe”. Von der Leyen has also confirmed that the EU will pay Ukraine this March a first payment of 4.5 billion euros that are part of the latest macro-financial aid package they approved.

Another of the leaders present in the Ukrainian capital was the Canadian Justin Trudeau. “Today, together with our allies and partners, Canada is committed to providing more assistance to Ukraine, including military and humanitarian support,” said Trudeau, who has announced a new $3 billion aid package.. This includes $320 million in military aid, which will be delivered before the end of the year, and $2.4 billion in loans for Ukraine that will be administered through the International Monetary Fund.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was also present. She signed a security agreement with Ukraine today and recalled her country's support in the war against Russia.. As has been done by the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, whose country holds the temporary presidency of the Council of the EU.. The one who was not in Kiev this February 24 but did want to send a message of support was the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, who conveyed the message to the “heroic” Ukrainian people that the The EU will do “whatever it takes” to win the war against Russia, while urging the Twenty-Seven to provide “additional” military support.

Once again, Ukrainians remember a macabre anniversary in the streets. The open wound of many families still translates into anger to continue fighting. And, of course, in the pride of asking that the war end as soon as possible.

The high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, conveyed this Saturday the message to the “heroic” Ukrainian people that the EU will do “whatever is necessary” for them to win the war against Russia, while urging the Twenty-seven to provide “additional” military support.

“To the heroic people of Ukraine: We will do whatever it takes to help you win the war. For your freedom, for our freedom. For our common future. “Slava (long live) Ukraine!” Borrell wrote on his official Twitter account coinciding with the second anniversary of the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of this country.

Borrell, who held a telephone conversation this Saturday with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dimitro Kuleba, urged member states to provide “additional military support.”

“The EU has supported Ukraine from day one and we will continue to do so with one key priority: I urge Member States to provide additional military support,” Borrell said.

And, in a video, in which the G7 Foreign Ministers appear, Borrell pointed out that the seven most industrialized countries in the world will defend “respect for sovereignty, independence, international law, global security, freedom and peace” of Ukraine.

“For two years, Europe has been living the grim reality of the biggest war of aggression since World War II.. There must be no return to the dark past of military aggression and imperialism. For Europe and the world to be safe, Ukraine must prevail,” added the head of European diplomacy.

This is the thesis that Borrell and Kuleba maintain in a joint article published this Saturday on Project Syndicate, a website that presents exclusive comments from academics, policymakers, professionals and civic activists.

“All Europeans are interested in Ukraine winning this war” and Russian President Vladimir Putin “should not impose the application of the law of the strongest,” Borrell and Kuleba maintain in their article.

The head of European diplomacy drew attention to the fact that “Russia has found ways to circumvent Western sanctions by diversifying its trade routes, and exports by European companies to third countries for subsequent transfer to Russia have increased exponentially.”

Precisely for that reason, Borrell said, the EU has intensified actions to tackle circumvention in its 13th sanctions package, with stricter export controls to reduce Russia's supply networks and a commitment to partners in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Coinciding with the second anniversary of the war, the European Union approved this Friday the thirteenth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes the largest group of measures in a single batch and also against Chinese companies.

In total, 194 names will join the sanctioned list, according to the Council of the EU in a statement, so that it will have more than 2,000 members, including the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Foreign Minister, Sergei. Lavrov, sanctioned since the beginning of the war.

In the thirteenth package of sanctions, the EU mainly included people related to the Russian military network, some involved with the supply of weapons from North Korea to Moscow; to judges, authorities of occupied areas, especially linked to the deportation of children, and companies that have participated in the supply of weapons.

It has been decided to add 27 new entities to the regulation that prohibits the export of dual-use goods (civil and military). Up to 17 are from Russia and ten from other countries: four from China, one from Turkey, one from Thailand, one from Kazakhstan, one from Serbia, one from Sri Lanka and one from India.

The Russian authorities have finally handed over the body of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalny to his mother. The Russian politician died on February 16 in a prison colony in Siberia.

“Alexei's body has been handed over to his mother. Thank you very much to everyone who had requested it with us,” Navalni's spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, published in a message posted on Twitter.

“Liudmila Ivanovna is still in Salekhard. The funeral is still pending. We do not know if the authorities are going to interfere or if it will be done as the family wants and Alexei deserves.. We will inform you as soon as there is news,” he added.

Navalny's mother has been in the Salekhard mortuary for a week, the city closest to the Siberian prison of Polar Wolf where her son died, waiting for the body to be handed over.

Yarmish had previously reported that Liudmila has received a death certificate specifying that Navalny died of natural causes and that she was given three hours to agree to hold a “secret” funeral for her son.. She did not accept it because it would mean burying him in the prison where he died, according to Yarmish, who quotes the opponent's mother.

Putin holds the body “hostage”

This same Saturday, Navalni's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has accused the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of keeping the body “hostage” and of engaging in numerous blackmail to try to carry out a “secret funeral”, which apparently His trial demonstrates that it is “false” for the president to comply with the Christian premises that he boasts about in public events.

More than a week after Navalni's death, “his death has not been enough for Putin,” his widow lamented, in a video in which she assured that the authorities are now “mocking” and “blackmailing” the mother. threatening to bury the body in prison where she lost her life.

Navalnaya has stressed that “Putin is the only one responsible” for the current situation, the one who gives the orders, “the same one who likes to show that he is a devout Christian.”. The video shows, in fact, the president in several public events linked to the Orthodox Church.

“We already knew that Putin's faith was false, but now it has been seen more clearly than ever,” said the widow, who believes that “no true Christian would do what Putin is doing with Alexei's body.”. He considers that he even falls into “satanism.” For this reason, he has demanded that the family be able to recover the body “without conditions”: “You tortured him in life and now you continue to torture him in death.”

Navalnaya has also taken the opportunity to link this supposed false religiosity of Putin with the invasion that began on Ukraine, of which this Saturday marks precisely two years. “You say you fight the Western evil that interferes with our traditional values, but you only kill. You bomb civilians at night, with missiles consecrated in churches,” he criticized in his speech.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have shot down a Russian A-50 long-range radar aircraft, the third since the start of the war. The plane was hit by a projectile from the S-200 anti-aircraft system.

“The entire crew of the Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft has been killed,” said an official from the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate quoted by the Ukrinform news agency.

This would be the third A-50 shot down since the beginning of the conflict, after the one hit by hostile forces in Ukrainian territory.. On January 14, the Air Force shot down an A-50 and an Il-22.

On February 23, a second A-50 aircraft was disabled at the Russian military base in Machulishchi by Belarusian partisans.

Two years of war in Ukraine

These events occur exactly on the same day that the second anniversary of the start of the war between Ukraine and Russia takes place.. This Saturday, kyiv's Maidan Square was filled with Ukrainian flags in memory of the soldiers killed in the war and relatives came to the place to light candles in memory of the deceased.

For their part, in Russia, the security forces have made several arrests during an event held alongside the Kremlin by wives of soldiers fighting in Ukraine and who demand the return home of their spouses.

However, the end of the conflict will still take time to come.. This same Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that its troops have occupied more advantageous positions on the Avdivka front, where the Russian advance has continued since the conquest of the Ukrainian bastion of the same name on February 17.

The Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Ecuador confirmed this Friday the escape of three prisoners from the Latacunga prison, which occurred this Thursday, a few hours before this prison under military control was shown to journalists as a successful example of its intervention in the prison system to wrest control of prisons from criminal gangs. The escape occurred during the early hours of February 22, as confirmed by the Joint Command in a statement issued this Friday.

On the morning of this same Thursday, the Government and the Armed Forces allowed the entry of a group of journalists from national and international media, including EFE, to show “the resounding change” that had occurred inside the prison since the The military entered it in mid-January within the framework of the “internal armed conflict” decreed against organized crime.

During the visit to the Cotopaxi Number 1 Deprivation of Liberty Center, as this prison located about 70 kilometers south of Quito is officially known, the military explained that they have broken the extortion and coercion scheme carried out by the criminal structures they controlled. the pavilions.

According to the Armed Forces, prisoners in the Latacunga prison now have free access to three meals a day, water and a place to sleep, and they do not have to pay exorbitant amounts to the criminal leaders who controlled the prison internally.

Likewise, the military showed the disciplines and routines imposed on the prisoners to have physical activity and carry out the cleaning and maintenance of the prison. However, upon seeing the journalists, some prisoners demanded to leave since they claimed to have served their sentence and others demanded that they also be provided with water and toilet paper.

Some parts of the prison exhibited traces of the violence that has been experienced inside, since the Latacunga prison, in the Andean province of Cotopaxi, has been one of the scenes of prison massacres between rival gangs that where more than 450 prisoners have been killed since 2020.

In one of these massacres that occurred in 2022, the alleged drug trafficker and money launderer Leandro Norero was murdered, whose analysis of his telephone conversations led to the Metastasis case, which uncovered an alleged plot of judicial, police and prison corruption to benefit the criminal structure of Norero.

The Latacunga prison is the third largest in Ecuador and currently houses more than 4,300 inmates, in maximum, medium and minimum security pavilions, as well as another reserved for women.

After learning of the escape of these three prisoners, the Joint Command of the Armed Forces indicated that in coordination with the National Police and the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the State penitentiary agency, it activated the protocols. investigation and search for escaped prisoners.

Since the beginning of the “internal armed conflict” declared against organized crime, prisons have become one of the main focuses of action of the Armed Forces to disarm criminal gangs, which housed large arsenals of weapons such as rifles, grenades and guns in all kinds of hiding places.

The state of emergency was declared by the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, following a wave of violence by organized crime where an armed group took over a television channel during a live broadcast and simultaneous riots in several prisons, including the Latacunga prison.

In those riots there were 200 hostages, including police and prison guards, who managed to be freed, while at least 90 prisoners managed to escape, most of them from the Esmeraldas and Riobamba prisons.

Fabricio Colón Pico, alleged leader of the criminal gang Los Lobos, escaped from the Riobamba prison, while before the outbreak of violence José Adolfo Macías Villamar ('Fito'), the leader of the Guayaquil Regional Prison, did the same. Los Choneros gang, who was serving a 34-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, homicide and organized crime.