The day of the war at a glance
Kharkiv counts his torture victims – Scholz remains firm on the tank issue
09/16/2022, 9:18 p.m
More than 1,000 people are said to have become victims of war crimes in eastern Ukraine. Russian President Putin announces further attacks on the neighboring country and threatens even more harshness. Chancellor Scholz also remains firm: there will be no tank deliveries for Kyiv for the time being. Berlin is sending the requested martens to Greece. The 205th day of the war at a glance.
Izyum: Corpses with their hands tied behind their backs
In the areas in the north-east of the country recaptured by the Ukrainian army, there are growing indications of war crimes being committed by the Russian occupiers. Bodies with their hands tied behind their backs were found in a grave in the city of Izyum, Kharkov region governor Oleh Synyehubov said. “According to our information, all those buried show signs of a violent death.”
More than 1000 people tortured and killed
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said whole families and people with signs of torture had been buried in several places. The human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian parliament, Dmytro Lubinets, gave a number of more than 1,000 people who had been tortured and killed in the Russian-occupied areas of the Kharkiv region. According to police chief Ihor Klymenko, the more than 440 bodies in the mass grave in Izyum are mostly civilians. The human remains would be exhumed. The Human Rights Office of the United Nations (UN) wants to send observers to Izyum.
After defeat: Putin threatens new attacks
Despite the heavy defeat of his army in the Kharkiv region, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced further attacks on eastern Ukrainian areas. “Our offensive operations in Donbass are not suspended, they are progressing at a slow pace,” Putin said at a press conference concluding a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in central Asian Uzbekistan. “The Russian army is always taking over new territories,” Putin claimed.
“Answer will be harder”
The Kremlin chief also accused Ukraine of attempting to attack Russian nuclear power plants – and threatened: “If they ultimately don’t understand that such methods are unacceptable, there will be an answer.” So far there have been counterattacks as a warning. If the situation does not change, the answer will be “tougher”.
Russian state television speaks of “war”
Russian politicians and military experts told Russian state television that this is not a “special military operation” in Ukraine, but a real war. Accordingly, the Russian armed forces should react to the defeat in Ukraine with more brutal tactics. First of all, “attacks on critical infrastructure” must be expanded, demanded Russian military expert Igor Korotchenko. In this way, Ukraine should be “plunged into darkness”. By December, “20 million Ukrainians” are to be expelled to the West.
London sees prisoner army out of desperation
The Russian military appears to continue to lack combat infantry and junior leaders. This was reported by the British secret service in its latest intelligence report and refers to the recruitment of Russian prisoners by the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. This emphasizes that he is only looking for “fighters for stormtroopers”.
According to London, the Wagner group has been trying to recruit prisoners for service in Ukraine since July. Prigozhin had already hired 10,000 criminals, including a cannibal, according to Russian prisoner organizations. In addition, the training times at Russian military academies are being shortened in order to be able to deploy officer candidates in Ukraine as quickly as possible. “The effects of Russia’s staff shortages are becoming increasingly serious,” it said in London.
Scholz remains against tank deliveries
Despite increasingly urgent demands from the traffic light coalition, Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not want to fulfill Ukraine’s request for delivery of German battle tanks for the time being. “No change” in the chancellor’s position is to be expected in the foreseeable future, according to government circles. Scholz has repeatedly argued in the past few days that Germany will not go it alone on the issue of supplying infantry fighting vehicles and battle tanks to Ukraine. Such war equipment could at best be delivered together with allies. “He remains very true to his line,” it said in Berlin. At the same time, it was emphasized that the German refusal to such deliveries does not have to apply forever: “We will continue to see what we can do to help in a way that suits the situation,” said the circles.
Union wants Bundestag vote
The CDU and CSU want to submit an application for an expansion of arms aid to Ukraine in the Bundestag next week. In it, the Union calls on the federal government, according to AFP information, “to immediately grant approval for the export of combat, infantry and armored personnel carriers from industrial stocks to Ukraine.” In addition, “heavy weapons, especially armored combat vehicles and more long-range artillery, also from the stocks of the Bundeswehr should be delivered to Ukraine”.
Proposal for European initiative
The SPD foreign expert Michael Roth suggested a European initiative for the delivery of battle tanks. In this way, the national solo effort rejected by Scholz could be avoided, said Roth on MDR Aktuell. Greens leader Omid Nouripour pushed for the delivery of more heavy weapons: Ukraine must be helped “to liberate as much as possible of its own country,” he told the Funke newspapers.
Kyiv disappointed with Dingo delivery
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba criticized the federal government for continuing to not supply his country with battle tanks and armored personnel carriers. The Dingo troop transporters recently promised by Berlin are “not what we need most,” Kuleba told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. It is a mystery to him why Germany is supplying Dingoes while Kyiv is asking for Leopard and Marder tanks.
Ring exchange with Greece starts
Germany is now sending the Marder tanks requested by Ukraine to Greece. Athens will deliver 40 Soviet-designed BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles to the Ukraine, and Athens will receive 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany in return, the Federal Ministry of Defense announced. Implementation will begin immediately.
German US ambassador admits: “Communication not ideal”
In the debate about the German contribution to arms deliveries to Ukraine, the German Ambassador to the USA, Emily Haber, admitted that the German government had failed in its communications. “Our communication could be better,” Haber wrote on Twitter, referring to criticism of Germany for not doing enough to provide military support to Kiev. But Haber emphasized that Germany had delivered highly efficient heavy weapons such as howitzers, Gepard tanks, Mars multiple rocket launchers and much more.
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