Dwindling aid, total mobilization, and economic collapse: Ukraine 2024.
Quote:
Ukraine is heading towards 2024 with mounting battlefield casualties, a lack of tangible military progress, the now-official failure of its counteroffensive efforts, its ever-widening conscription drive, as well as a shrinking flow of financial and military aid from its Western backers.
The country's prospects for the next year now look rather grim, with what were once the most ardent supporters of Kiev now apparently unsure whether aid to the country locked in a nearly two-year conflict with Russia should continue.
Tough winter to come?
Multiple officials have voiced fears that Moscow may opt to launch a new campaign against Ukraine's critical infrastructure similar to the one it conducted during the previous winter season.
Ukrainian officials have provided conflicting accounts of the extent of damage to infrastructure and of progress in fixing it. Nearly 60% of the country's power generation and some 43% of the entire high-voltage network ended up damaged last year, according to state-owned operator Ukrenergo. Ukraine's Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, however, said 40% of the "electricity infrastructure, including generation and power grid," was destroyed, with "most of this damage" fixed.
So far the Russian military has seemingly abstained, however, from staging a concentrated campaign against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, apparently focusing its long-range attacks on rear facilities such as ammo dumps, airfields and anti-aircraft defenses.
Western support on the wane?
Ukraine's top donor, the US, was unable to adopt a new lavish aid package for the country, with Congress shelving the issue after its holiday break. Despite acknowledging the fact that Kiev was now "almost totally reliant on Western assistance for artillery and rocket artillery systems and ammunition," the legislators failed to agree on it after weeks of back-and-forth, with the Republican opposition insisting Washington should focus on domestic issues instead. Now the US has effectively run out of cash for Ukraine, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller admitting last week that no "magic pot" of funding existed.
Record gas exports to China from Russia:
Quote:
Russia's exports of natural gas to China are expected to see a year-on-year increase of as much as 50% in 2023, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Gas supplies to the South Asian nation this year will exceed contract obligations and reach 23.2 billion cubic meters, according to Miller, who added that in 2022 the exports had totalled 15.5 billion cubic meters.
Gazprom set a new record last week for daily gas supplies to China through the Power of Siberia mega pipeline, according to Miller. The energy giant has reported records for daily exports nine times since the beginning of 2023.
Miller also said that gas supplies to Russia's leading trading partner will further grow and are forecast to hit 38 billion cubic meters in 2025.
Gazprom supplies natural gas to China under a long-term contract sealed with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The Power of Siberia is part of a $400 billion, 30-year agreement between Gazprom and CNPC clinched in 2014.
I wonder if Putin, like China, is funneling money to Democrats for 2024 campaigns.