after the promulgation of the American aid plan, Volodymyr Zelensky is pleased to receive the support that kyiv “needs”

Two years after the start of the large-scale war, the dynamic of Western support for kyiv is losing momentum: newly committed aid is down over the period from August 2023 to January 2024 compared to the same period of the the previous year, according to the latest report from the Kiel Institute, published in February 2024. And this trend could continue, with the American Senate struggling to pass aid, and the European Union (EU) having had every difficulty in have aid of 50 billion adopted on 1^is February 2024, due to the Hungarian blockade. Please note, these two aid packages are not yet taken into account in the latest assessment made by the Kiel Institute, which ends in January 2024.

Data from the German institute show that the number of donors is decreasing and is concentrated around a core of countries: the United States, Germany, the countries of northern and eastern Europe, which promise both high financial aid and advanced weaponry. In total, since February 2022, the countries which support kyiv have committed at least 276 billion euros on the military, financial or humanitarian level.

In absolute terms, the richest countries have been the most generous. The United States is by far the leading donors, with more than 75 billion euros in aid announced, including 46.3 billion in military aid. European Union countries announced both bilateral aid (64.86 billion euros) and joint aid from European Union funds (93.25 billion euros), for a total of 158.1 billion euros.

When we relate these contributions to the gross domestic product (GDP) of each donor country, the ranking changes. The United States has fallen to twentieth place (0.32% of its GDP), well behind countries neighboring Ukraine or former friendly Soviet republics. Estonia takes the lead in aid relative to GDP with 3.55%, followed by Denmark (2.41%) and Norway (1.72%). The rest of the top 5 is completed by Lithuania (1.54%) and Latvia (1.15%). The three Baltic states, which all share borders with Russia or its ally Belarus, have been among the most generous donors since the start of the conflict.

In the ranking of the percentage of GDP, France is twenty-seventh, having committed with 0.07% of its GDP, just behind Greece (0.09%). The aid provided by Paris has been in constant decline since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – France was twenty-fourth in April 2023, and thirteenth in the summer of 2022.

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Did a citizen of Saint-Raymond take out a firearm fearing the presence of a stranger on his land or did he attack without reason a fisherman who was simply in the river which borders his ground? This is the question that a judge will have to decide after a trial that resembles a fishing story which was held on Wednesday in Quebec.

Christian Couillard, 66, faces four counts of pointing a firearm, in addition to another of criminal harassment.

According to the Crown’s theory, the resident of Saint-Raymond, in Portneuf, would have pointed his weapon in the direction of a man who was fishing in the river which borders his house on June 1, 2021.

The complainant in this case, originally from Saguenay, told Judge Julie Roy that he had rented a chalet near the accused’s residence with work colleagues for the duration of a construction contract. One evening, after work, he went to the Mauvaise River to fish for trout, but instead found himself “sighted by a rifle”.

Provided by the Court

“He was aiming at me”

“He came out blazing naked, shouting at me that I had no right to be there,” said Anthony Larouche about the accused, claiming to have noticed that he was naked despite the distance of “200 to 300 meters” because of the size of his penis.

“It was pretty impressive,” the witness said, adding that it was “over 12 inches, easy.”

In the following moments, Couillard returned with his weapon, pointing it directly at the fisherman. A rifle “about three feet long,” said the witness, mimicking the size with his hands as he would have done for a good shot.

“The barrel was pointed forward, the weapon resting on his shoulder. He was aiming at me,” assured the 27-year-old man, who explained that he fled through the grounds of a chalet on the other side of the river before going to alert the owner of the residence he was renting. It was the latter who then contacted the police.

Fears

Christian Couillard’s version of events is very different.

The 66-year-old accused admits to having stopped the man in the river while he was naked on his balcony, having come out “to urinate”. The fisherman then violently insulted him before leaving the river in the other direction to return via a nearby bridge. He would have presented himself on his land, “about 150 feet away”, with “an aggressive gait”.

Provided by the court

“When I saw it, I did nothing, I took the weapon,” the accused testified about the non-functional sawed-off rifle that a police officer described Wednesday as “having more than “looks more like a handgun than a rifle.”

Couillard then raised the weapon, but towards the sky, he assures. Out of fear, to protect oneself.

“I’m not saying it was the smartest move of my life, but I didn’t point it at him.”

And as for the length of his penis, his lawyer, Richard-Philippe Guay, had to ask him, given the testimony of the complainant: “Five or six inches,” confided the accused, visibly uncomfortable.

“It’s not 12 inches anyway,” he added, stifling a nervous laugh.

Versions divergentes

So who’s telling the truth? This is the question that Judge Julie Roy will have to decide by assessing the credibility of the witnesses in this story.

For the defense, the testimony of the complainant who says he saw the length of the accused’s penis at “200, 300 meters”, but who misunderstands the type of weapon that was pointed at him “does not hold water” .

While during the prosecution, contradictions were raised between the testimonies of Christian Couillard and that of his partner, particularly regarding the sequence of events. Manon Audy, among other things, recounted having brought underwear to her partner who shouted to her that a man wanted to tear off his head, while the accused explained having put on the underwear brought by his wife even before the no one comes to his house.

Furthermore, the complainant says he has never set foot on Christian Couillard’s land, which is consistent with “common sense”, according to the pursuer.

“The defense, as a whole, contradicts itself. Why would the complainant have taken the long way around by a bridge when he could have crossed the river on foot and settled his scores directly?” questioned the Crown prosecutor Me Fabien Villemaire, considering that the alleged victim had a very good could have been mistaken about elements such as the distance of the man who was pointing a weapon at him, the length of the latter or that of his penis.

“We have to ask ourselves what struck the complainant the most that day. He tells you: “He pulled a gun on me.” That’s what marked him.”

Judge Julie Roy took the case under advisement and will deliver her verdict next August. It is already accepted that the Crown has discharged its burden on the charge of possession of a prohibited weapon, but the defense still hopes to have Christian Couillard acquitted on the other four counts.

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Ukraine’s drone strike causes fire at Russian fuel facility A fire broke out at fuel facilities in the country’s Smolensk region on Wednesday (April 24). The British news agency Reuters reported this news about the governor of the western region, Vasily Anokhin.

On the Telegram messaging app, Anokhin said, ‘Ukraine has again attacked our territory with drones. Enemy attacks on military fuel and power facilities spread fires in Smolensk and Yartsevo districts.’

However, it was not immediately known whether there was a fire in any of the factories in those districts.

Separately on Telegram, the governor of Russia’s southwestern Lipetsk region, Igor Artamanov, said a drone had hit an industrial area there. There were no casualties. However, he did not give any details about whether there was any damage in this attack or what was the target of the attack.

Reuters could not independently verify this information. The agency said that there was no immediate comment from the side of Ukraine in this regard.

Ukraine has rarely commented on attacks inside Russia.