Live blog
Status: 12/14/2022 4:53 a.m
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has dissolved a court over corruption. He is also asking for international help to clear Russian mines. All developments in the live blog.
4:53 a.m
Media: USA wants to give Ukraine Patriot air defense system after all
According to media reports, after much hesitation, the United States now wants to provide Ukraine with a Patriot air defense system. A final decision on this could be announced as early as this week, the television channel CNN reported, citing US government officials. By providing Patriots, Washington would respond to urgings from Kiev, which had requested the weapon system in the face of increasing Russian airstrikes. At the end of November, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said before a meeting with his NATO colleagues in Bucharest that patriots were “one of the most urgent” given the Russian attacks on his country’s infrastructure. With this, Kyiv surprised its allies, who had previously been hesitant about supplying this weapon system.
4:02 a.m
Selenskyj asks for international help to clear Russian mines
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked for international help to clear Russian mines in his country. In a video address to the New Zealand parliament, he said: “No child can really live in peace as long as they can be killed by a hidden Russian mine.” In Ukraine, 174,000 square kilometers of land are “contaminated with mines or unexploded warheads,” said Zelenskyy. Countless mines belonging to the Russian army, which has been waging a war of aggression in Ukraine since February, are also floating in the Black Sea. Zelenskyy called on New Zealand, whose armed forces are said to be particularly experienced in this area, to lead international mine clearance efforts in his country.
4:02 a.m
Zelenskyj dissolves court for corruption
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced the dissolution of a Kiev court over corruption. “This story is over,” he said as he signed a law dissolving the district administrative court that Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities had likened to a criminal organization. “But the history of reform goes on – it goes on, even in times of such a war.” One of the prerequisites for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union (EU) is extensive reforms to meet a large number of standards in the judiciary, financial services and food safety.