Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi began his European tour in London on Wednesday, where he secured a promise from British Prime Minister Risha Sunak to train Ukrainian pilots on NATO’s advanced fighter jets, and Macron told him that France wants to lead Ukraine to victory over Russia. The Kyiv leader is set to lobby European leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday for more weapons to fight Russia and a quick start to his country’s EU accession talks.

The latest on the war in Ukraine, day 351, LIVETEXT:

07:30 Australia on Thursday condemned Russia’s obstruction of the international investigation into Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, reaffirming its determination to hold Moscow accountable.

A brief summary of recent events:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his visit to Paris to call on Europe to deliver fighter jets and heavy weapons to Ukraine as soon as possible. “The sooner Ukraine gets long-range heavy weapons, the sooner our pilots get planes, the sooner this Russian aggression will end and we will be able to return to peace in Europe,” the Kyiv leader said on Wednesday after arriving at the Elysee Palace.
• Macron told Zelensky that France is determined to lead Ukraine to victory / Scholz: Russia must not win. French President Emmanuel Macron told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who is visiting Paris, that France is “determined” to lead Ukraine to victory in the war against Russia, CNN reports.
• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday that Ukraine had no plans to send planes to fight Russia, adding that training Ukrainian pilots was the first step for them to be able to use such planes. At the other extreme, Russia has warned London that if it sends fighter jets to Kyiv, it will have “consequences for the whole world,” according to Reuters.
• Ukraine will “strengthen its diplomacy” regarding the request for Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before his trip to Paris, CNN reports.
• The Ukrainian military reports an increase in Russian shelling in several regions in the north of the country. According to CNN, Russian shelling is intensifying in parts of the Kharkiv region, recaptured by Ukrainian forces last September, as well as in other areas in northern Ukraine.
• The head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, said that there are no signs that Russia is preparing for peace. “On the contrary, Moscow is preparing for new military offensives,” he said during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
• During the press conference of the Prime Minister of Great Britain Risha Sunak and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, a journalist of the Ukrainian BBC stood up and said that she wanted to hug him. – “Thank you for coming. I would like to hug you and thank you, but I can’t,” says the journalist. -Why? Come on, hug me, Zelenskyy replies.
• Western partners may deliver the first battalion of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine in March-April, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday during a trip to Warsaw.
• Russian state censorship will monitor Putin’s online jokes with the help of artificial intelligence. Russia’s federal communications monitoring and censorship agency Roskomnadzor plans to use artificial intelligence to try to track online posts, comments and jokes (memes) critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a report by Russian investigative publication iStories.
• Armand Gauchu: The Moscow authorities put me on the list of “foreign agents”. “They put me on the roster the same day as Reserve General Ben Hodges. I am in a very honorable company together with politicians of different generations (former Prime Minister Kasyanov, Khodorkovsky, Ilya Azar, Ilya Yasin, Oleg Kasin, etc.), leading Russian journalists, teachers or commentators…” – writes Goshu.
• Sweden approved new military aid to Ukraine worth 400 million dollars. On February 8, the Swedish Parliament approved the tenth round of military aid to Ukraine in the amount of 4.3 billion kroner (about 406 million dollars), Kyiv Independent reports.
• Portugal is repairing some of its Leopard 2 tanks and will send three such tanks to Ukraine next month, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
• Russia’s ambassador to Bucharest, Valery Kuzmin, claims that the statements of his boss, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, regarding the Republic of Moldova were misinterpreted, and blames Poland. Lavrov claims that Moscow would not want to threaten Chisinau, but on the contrary, would like to draw attention to the fact that the West is using the Republic of Moldova, as it would use Ukraine. “You can see for yourself what the fate of Ukraine is,” said Ambassador Valery Kuzmin.
• Dramatic footage of combat operations on the front line from a drone. The footage shows a Ukrainian BTR-4 armored personnel carrier firing a 30mm cannon, probably at Russian soldiers hiding in nearby houses. At the same time, the Ukrainian infantry is advancing past the buildings, behind the line of fire of the armored vehicles.

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Wednesday’s events related to Russian aggression were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro