Latest Developments in Ukraine: Feb. 1

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EST. 12:55 a.m.: The Slovak parliament approved on Tuesday plans to shorten its four-year term by five months and to hold an early election on September 30 after the center-right Cabinet lost a no-confidence vote and parties failed to form a new majority administration, Reuters reported.  The government of Prime Minister Eduard Heger lost the no-confidence vote in December after a former coalition party joined the opposition, which accuses the Cabinet of not doing enough to help people with the rising cost of living.  The election will see a clash between pro-Western liberal and conservative parties and two leftist formations including the Smer party of ex-prime minister Robert Fico who opposes sending weapons to neighboring Ukraine and has adopted a skeptical stance on Western sanctions against Russia similar to that of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban.  Slovakia, a NATO and EU member, has so far been a strong backer of Ukraine, supplying infantry vehicles, artillery and a battery of the S-300 air defense system.  12:40 a.m.: The United States is readying more than $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The weapons aid is expected to be announced as soon as this week, the officials said. It is also expected to include support equipment for Patriot air defense systems, precision guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons, they added. One of the officials said a portion of the package, expected to be $1.725 billion, would come from a fund known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows President Joe Biden's administration to get weapons from industry rather than from existing U.S. weapons stocks. The USAI funds would go toward the purchase of a new weapon, the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb made by Boeing, which have a range of 150 km. The United States has rebuffed Ukraine's requests for the 297 kilometers range ATACMS missile. The longer range of the GLSDB glide bomb could allow Ukraine to hit targets that have been out of reach and help it continue pressing its counterattacks by disrupting Russia further behind its lines. 12:20 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said he was not finished shuffling the ranks of senior officials and that anyone failing to perform according to strict standards faced dismissal, Reuters reported. Last week Zelenskyy responded to reports of official corruption, 11 months into the war, by firing more than a dozen functionaries. He vowed there would be zero tolerance for wrongdoing or mismanagement. Zelenskyy was elected by a landslide in 2019 on pledges to change the way Ukraine was run and eliminate corruption, an endemic problem in post-Soviet society. In his latest remarks, the president said his administration was planning to introduce changes as part of attempts to proceed with unusually rapid and complex negotiations to secure European Union membership. "What is very important is that we are preparing new reforms in Ukraine," he said. "These are reforms which in many aspects will change the social, legal and political realities by making them more humane, more transparent and more effective." 12:01 a.m.: The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation has launched an initiative to mobilize $250 million to boost access to capital for Ukrainian small- and medium-sized enterprises during the war, CEO Scott Nathan said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Ukrainian SMEs have struggled to get access to finance because of security risks that have deterred private investment in Ukraine since Russia's invasion almost a year ago. Ukraine's economy shrank by about one third last year. Nathan said DFC would provide financing to Ukrainian commercial banks for lending to SMEs. "I am here in Kyiv today because we are investing now to help keep Ukrainian businesses moving forward despite difficult circumstances. I am convinced that new DFC investments here will mobilize well over $1 billion in private sector capital to support the economy of Ukraine," Nathan said during his second visit to Ukraine in two months. Some information in this report came from Reuters.

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