04/23/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 01:09 Khodorkovsky: Ukraine could win with 300 western fighter jets +++
The Putin critic and Mikhail Khodorkovsky accuse the West of dragging out the war by providing half-hearted military support to Ukraine. “If the West doesn’t want Ukraine to lose the war and wants to stick to its current positions, then it should continue to supply weapons at the current level,” the former oligarch told the Funke newspapers. “According to this status quo scenario, Europe would have to live with a long, drawn-out war for the next five years. On the other hand, if Europe wants Ukraine to win, then the key to this is the air force.” In his estimation, 300 Western fighter planes would be a crucial contribution to Ukraine winning this war. According to Khodorkovsky, there are enough professional pilots and volunteers.
+++ 23:32 Zelenskyj urges the enforcement of Russia sanctions +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for tougher sanctions and enforcement of existing sanctions against Russia. “The tougher the sanctions against Russia and against the entire Russian war economy, the faster the war will end,” he says in his evening video message. Zelenskyj complains that Russia is circumventing the existing sanctions imposed by the West. It is a central task internationally to end this circumvention of the punitive measures imposed in the course of the war. Russia imports goods, for example, through parallel imports and via third countries.
+++ 22:00 Tensions in times of war: Russia advises its citizens not to travel to Canada +++
Russia advises its citizens not to travel to Canada. There have been numerous cases of discrimination against Russians and physical violence against them, the Foreign Ministry said. Anyone who is already in Canada should be vigilant, especially in public places. Canada is one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters in the war against Russia, and for the past year has advised its citizens to avoid all travel to Russia. Canada has also imposed sanctions on Russian officials and companies, as well as sweeping trade bans. Most recently, Russia had imposed sanctions on Canadian officials and celebrities, among others.
+++ 21:09 Portugal’s President speaks out for Ukraine’s rights to fight invasion +++
At a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Brazil’s head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva once again called on Ukraine to agree to peace negotiations with Moscow to end Russia’s war of aggression. However, his Portuguese colleague made it clear at the joint press conference that he took a different view. “President Lula suggests that the path to a just and lasting peace requires a priority for this negotiation path,” says Rebelo de Sousa. “Portugal’s stance is different: it assumes that any road to peace presupposes that Ukraine has the right to respond to the invasion.”
+++ 20:24 Melnyk: Ukraine needs tenfold military aid against Russia +++
The Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has called for a tenfold increase in Western military aid against the Russian war of aggression. “We are grateful to our allies for their military aid. But that’s not enough,” the former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany wrote on Twitter. “Ukraine needs ten times more to end Russian aggression this year.” So far, all allies have provided a total of 55 billion US dollars (50 billion euros). But it takes ten times as much, emphasizes the diplomat. Melnyk demands that Western partners should finally stop drawing artificial red lines and then spend one percent of their gross domestic product on arms deliveries to Ukraine.
You can read the developments of the previous day here.