On 26 January, Ukrainian officials held a new round of talks with France regarding security guarantees in line with the Group of Seven (G7) Framework Declaration adopted at the NATO summit in July 2023, and work has begun on drafting the bilateral agreement.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for shooting down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian POWs, but Ukraine says there's no evidence to support Russia's version of events.
Senior Russian lawmaker Andrey Kartopolov claimed on Jan. 25 that Ukraine was given a 15-minute-warning ahead of the flight of the Il-76 plane that crashed in Belgorod Oblast on Jan. 24, though Ukrainian officials deny receiving any such notification.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis arrived in Ukraine on Thursday, 25 January, to meet with Ukrainian officials. Source: LRT, reported by European Pravda Details: This is Landsbergis' eighth visit to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Photos and videos from the site of the Russian Il-76 plane crash, in which Russia claims 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed, do not indicate "any signs that there were such a large number of people on the plane," Chief Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on air on Jan. 25.