The day of the war at a glance
Sievjerodonetsk is threatened with encirclement – Putin settles accounts with the West
06/17/2022, 9:18 p.m
Fierce fighting continues in eastern and southern Ukraine. The city of Seyerodonetsk remains a target of the Russian offensive. Meanwhile, Ukraine claims to have severely damaged a Russian warship. Russia’s president not only turns off the gas tap, but also verbally at the economic forum and railed against the West. At the diplomatic level, candidate status could soon beckon to Ukraine. The 114th day of the war at a glance.
Difficult situation in Sieverodonetsk
According to British intelligence experts, the eastern Ukrainian city of Sieverodonetsk is still threatened with encirclement. The Russian troops continued their efforts to close the ring around the strategically important city from the south. “In the past 24 hours, Russian forces have probably continued to try to gain the upper hand on the Popasna axis, from which they intend to encircle the Sievarodonetsk pocket from the south,” the British Ministry of Defense said. According to Ukrainian sources, the chemical plant, where soldiers and hundreds of civilians are said to be holding out, was almost completely destroyed by Russian artillery and rocket fire. “There are no surviving administrative buildings on the territory of the chemical giant,” Serhiy Hajday, the military governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, wrote on Telegram.
Dead and injured in rocket attack in southern Ukraine
At least two people were killed and 20 others injured in a Russian attack on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. As reported by the governor of the region Vitaly Kim in the online service Telegram, the rocket attack occurred in a residential area. Earlier in the morning, he had announced that four high-rise buildings and an infrastructure facility had been hit by Russian missiles, without specifying whether it was a military facility. A child is among the injured. The port and industrial city of Mykolaiv had almost half a million inhabitants before the war and is still in Ukrainian hands. However, it is not far from the city of Kherson, which has been under Russian control since shortly after the start of the crisis. As Mykolaiv is on the route to Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port, the city is an important strategic destination for Russia.
Russian ship probably badly damaged in attack
In the Black Sea, the Ukrainian military said it attacked a Russian tugboat with rockets and severely damaged it. Even the air defense system on board could not repel the attack by the Ukrainian naval forces, the Ukrainian Navy announced on social networks. The ship, which was put into service in 2017, was supposed to bring ammunition, weapons and soldiers to Snake Island, which has been occupied by Russia since the end of February. The military governor of Odessa, Maxym Marchenko, initially wrote about the use of Western “Harpoon” missiles. He later changed his entry to the Telegram news service. There was initially no confirmation from the Russian fleet. Anti-ship missiles of the “Harpoon” type (harpoon) have been supplied by Denmark.
Russian warship invades Danish territorial waters
Away from the war zone, a Russian Navy ship also caused a stir by twice invading Danish sovereign waters in the Baltic Sea. As the Danish armed forces announced, the Russian corvette first crossed Danish waters north of the island of Christianso, which is located in southern Sweden, at 2.30 a.m. in the morning. “A few hours later, the same corvette crossed the territorial waters line again, also north of Christianso,” the Danish military statement said. Accordingly, the ship immediately left Danish territory after being called by the Navy’s VHF radio. The Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen later said it had spoken to the Russian ambassador about the incident. At the end of April, a Russian military spy plane violated Danish airspace. “Russia is again ignoring international rules by not respecting borders. We made it very clear to the Russian ambassador that such an approach is completely unacceptable,” said Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod.
Putin settles accounts with the West
Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed US and EU economic policies for global inflation. “What is happening now is not the result of the last few months and certainly not the result of a military special operation that Russia is conducting in the Donbass,” Putin said at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. The reason for the price increases is “systematic errors in the economic policy of the current US government and the European bureaucracy”. The military operation in Ukraine merely gave Western countries an excuse. “It allows them to blame their own miscalculations on others, in this case Russia,” Putin said in his televised address at the event.
Putin on nuclear weapons: “Everyone should know what we have”
In the same speech, Putin also spoke about a threat of nuclear war emanating from Russia. As soon as one reacts to statements by foreign politicians, it is immediately said that Russia is threatening someone, Putin said. Then he added: “We are not threatening anything. But we want everyone to know what we have and what we may use to protect our sovereignty.” Because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, which has been going on for almost four months, many are concerned that, in the worst case, nuclear weapons could even be used. Moscow always rejects this intention. Instead, Russia repeatedly emphasizes that, unlike the United States, it has no right of first strike enshrined in its military doctrine.
EU Commission for candidate status of Ukraine
“The Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She presented a recommendation to the 27 EU member states on whether and how quickly Ukraine should be granted EU candidate status. “Ukraine deserves a European perspective,” she said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was pleased. “This is the first step towards EU membership,” he wrote on Twitter. Russia, on the other hand, reacted with reservations. This is not a military-political level, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Nevertheless, this development requires Russia’s increased attention, because they know about the “strengthening of the defense component of the European Union”. According to a new survey, more than half of the German citizens who are eligible to vote are in favor of Ukraine’s admission to the European Union within the next few years. According to a Forsa poll commissioned by ntv/RTL, 55 percent would support Ukraine becoming a member of the EU.
Putin: West’s “economic blitzkrieg” failed
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Western sanctions against his country have failed. “Right from the start, the economic blitzkrieg had no chance of success,” Putin said at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. He described the sanctions imposed by Western states in response to the Russian attack on Ukraine as “insane” and “thoughtless”. The punitive measures also hit the EU hard. He put the damage to Europe at $400 billion.
Strained gas supply situation in Germany
For the first time since the end of March, the Federal Network Agency described the gas supply situation in Germany as “tense”. She is “stable at the moment,” the authority wrote in a daily report. Security of supply in Germany is currently guaranteed. The Russian energy giant Gazprom had previously drastically reduced the maximum delivery volumes for Russian gas through the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline. Gazprom justified this with delays in the repair of compressor turbines. “Since the middle of the week, this reduction has also affected the transfer of gas to other European countries such as France, Austria and the Czech Republic,” the authority reported.
France, on the other hand, has completely renounced Russian gas supplies via a pipeline from Germany. The gas supply will not be affected by this, and the filling of the storage for the winter will continue, said the gas network operator GRTgaz. Even if Russia turned off the gas supply completely, there would be no problems in France in a normal winter. Natural gas from Russia plays a minor role for France. In addition to pipelines, Russian natural gas is also imported by ship.
Eurovision Song Contest not in Ukraine
The next Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) will not take place in this year’s winner, Ukraine, because of the Russian war of aggression. Instead, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced in Geneva that they wanted to hold talks with the BBC as to whether the ESC 2023 could be held in Great Britain. The Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won the 66th ESC in Turin in mid-May with the hip-hop song “Stefania”. According to ESC tradition, Ukraine would have been set to host the competition in the following year.
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