The International Monetary Fund has announced that its executive body has approved a four-year, $15.6 billion loan program for Ukraine, part of a $115 billion global package to support the country’s economy.

The latest on the war in Ukraine, day 402, LIVETEXT:

08:54 A new video appeared on social networks, which shows how several Wagner soldiers are eliminated by a Ukrainian sniper on the Bakhmut Front:

08:47 Briefly, what the Institute for the Study of War says about the latest events at the front in the last day:

• Russian troops continued ground offensives on the Svatove-Kreminna line.
• Russian forces advanced to Bakhmut, and Ukrainian forces restored positions in the Bakhmut area.
• Moscow troops continued offensive operations on the Avdiyivka-Donetsk front line.
• Ukrainian strikes on areas of concentration of Russians in the south of the country are likely to force the Russian group in the area to change tactics to avoid the risk of strikes.

Von der Leyen may become the new head of NATO

08:36Germany’s armed forces will not be able to fully cover existing gaps by 2030, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said, as Berlin seeks to modernize its armed forces.

“We all know that existing gaps cannot be fully closed by 2030… It will take years. Everyone knows that,” Pistorius said in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper published on Saturday.

Experts say the Bundeswehr, already suffering from decades of underinvestment since the end of the Cold War, is in even weaker shape than it was a year ago, as weapons and ammunition transferred to Ukraine have largely not been replaced. (Reuters)

08:05 Ukraine hit 2 Russian air defense systems, Russia fired ballistic missiles

06:18 ​Ursula von der Leyen in the fight for the post of NATO chairman

01:07 Zelensky: The day will come when the world will hear that justice has been restored for Ukraine. This will be the new Nuremberg for the Nazis

A brief summary of recent events:

• A $2.6 billion U.S. military aid package, which could include aerial surveillance radars, anti-tank missiles and fuel trucks for Ukraine, is expected to be announced as early as Monday, three U.S. officials said.
• A senior Ukrainian official has ruled out any ceasefire that would keep Russian forces in the territory they currently occupy in Ukraine.
• Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said while presenting the updated foreign policy doctrine to Vladimir Putin that Russia faced “existential threats” to its security and development from “unfriendly states.”
• The President of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko said that Russia, which has decided to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, can also deploy intercontinental nuclear missiles there if necessary. He stated that the West is “preparing an invasion” of Belarus from Poland.
• The advance of the Russian military on the approaches to Bakhmut has been “stopped – or almost stopped,” said the director of the Ukrainian defense publication Defense Express.
• Russia said on Friday that if the United States threatens Moscow over the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkovich, it will “(sow the wind and) reap the storm,” the state news agency RIA reported.
• The Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund approved a new extended agreement for Ukraine for 48 months in the amount of about 15.6 billion dollars.
• Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat confirmed that Ukraine already uses satellite-guided bombs with American JDAM-ER technology.
• A Russian soldier who took part in the Russian military aggression against Ukraine and was on his way to Tiraspol was stopped at Chisinau International Airport.
• Taxes on the import of Ukrainian agricultural products may have to be re-imposed if the fall in prices caused by the influx of products from Ukraine to the EU markets cannot be stopped by other means, the prime ministers of five Eastern European countries said on Friday, including Romania.
• A new video released by the Ukrainian Armed Forces shows marines ambushing a column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles
• Jens Stoltenberg announced on Friday that Finland will officially join NATO in the coming days after the Turkish parliament ratified the Scandinavian country’s entry into the North Atlantic alliance on Thursday.
• A bipartisan group of American senators introduced a bill to Congress to strengthen security in the Black Sea region starting this year.

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• Friday’s events were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro