Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more European military support for his country and said to the European Parliament (Thursday): “The forces of his country that are fighting the Russian army are protecting you.” on the battlefield, with you. The European Parliament greeted Zelensky with a standing ovation upon his arrival to address MPs on his first visit to Brussels since Russia’s invasion of his country, and Speaker of Parliament Roberta Metsula said in her speech: Ukraine is Europe. the future of your country lies in the European Union.”
Zelensky’s visit to Brussels is part of a tour of European capitals that he is seeking to push European leaders to provide his country with jets and long-range weapons to bolster Kyiv’s defenses against Russian invasion.
On the other hand, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Pryugin, said: The group has stopped recruiting prisoners for the war in Ukraine who work for them today.
Wagner began recruiting Russian prisoners in the summer of 2022, when Prigozhin offered the convicts an amnesty if they lived in Ukraine for six months. Wagner did not provide information on the number of convicts joining its ranks, but data from the Russian criminal service released in November showed that between August and November the country’s prison population fell by more than 20,000, the most the biggest decline in over a decade. The decline largely halted in January, and in December, according to Reuters, the US intelligence community said Wagner had 40,000 convicted militants stationed in Ukraine, the vast majority of the group’s personnel in the country.
