03/23/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 01:16 Ukraine reports heavy fighting near Kharkiv and difficult situation in Izyum +++
According to their own account, Ukrainian units have fended off an attack by Russian troops in new fighting for Kharkiv in the east of the country. Ka-52 attack helicopters were also used by the Russian side on Tuesday evening, reports Ukrajinska Pravda. “Our troops are holding their positions,” says commander Oleg Sinegubow accordingly. The situation in the besieged Izjum, about 100 kilometers away, is difficult. There is no longer any connection to the city. All efforts to create a humanitarian corridor have so far been rejected by the Russian side.
+++ 01:03 SPD parliamentary group leader rejects allegations by the Union about escape management +++
SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese rejects the Union’s criticism of the federal government’s crisis management when it comes to taking in refugees. The care, accommodation and distribution of the more than 232,000 war refugees who have now been registered is a major challenge that “is mastered every day with great energy at all levels,” says Wiese. The federal government gave the states and municipalities enormous support in coping with this task right from the start – not least through help with registration, with helpers from the THW and through the federal police, who are on duty non-stop.
+++ 00:34 Özdemir on food prices: “Noticeable relief” is coming +++
Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir is appealing to citizens not to build up unnecessary stocks because of the Ukraine war. “Please do not buy hamsters, there is no reason for that. We have ensured the supply,” says the Green politician on “RTL Direkt”. He just spoke to representatives of the trade. “And they also said very clearly, we have the situation under control, the supply is guaranteed!” In order to compensate for rising food prices, it will be a “noticeable relief” for people in need, Özdemir promises. “It’s important that we don’t do it with the cornucopia, but that the help reaches those who are particularly needy.”
+++ 00:10 Russia reports rocket attacks on military installations in Rivne +++
The Russian military has fired rockets at unspecified military installations around the city of Rivne in north-western Ukraine. “During an alarm in the evening, the enemy fired three times at an object of military infrastructure,” says regional military chief Vitali Kowalj of the Unian agency. “A commission is on site and the casualties are being determined.” The day before, the Russian military had reported attacks in the region. According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, more than 80 fighters from the Ukrainian side were killed in a rocket attack at the Nowa Ljubomyrka military training area in the Rivne region. The information could not be independently verified.
+++ 23:47 US military has indications of Ukrainian offensives +++
According to the US military, there are indications of Ukrainian offensives. According to the Ministry of Defense, this is particularly the case in the south of the country. Reports that Ukrainian forces had recaptured a suburb of the capital Kyiv from Russian troops could not be confirmed.
+++ 23:18 neutrality comes first: Selenskyj will probably not speak before Austria’s parliament +++
The Ukrainian President Selenskyj will probably not get the opportunity to address Austria’s National Council. A corresponding proposal by the Neos is rejected by the SPD and FPÖ with reference to Austria’s foreign policy neutrality laid down in the constitution. “We wouldn’t want that for Putin or any other war party,” says FPÖ chairman Herbert Kickl, explaining his party’s position. According to the “Standard”, the vice club chairman of the Neos Nikolaus Scherak attests the opposition factions SPÖ and FPÖ “misunderstood neutrality”. In such a situation one must “take a clear position”. Selenskyj had already spoken via video link in front of the Bundestag, the Israeli Knesset, the US Congress and the European Parliament.
+++ 22:51 Ukraine currently considers Belarus’ entry into the war to be unlikely +++
The Ukrainian leadership does not currently expect the Belarusian military to join the war on Russia’s side. The probability that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will make the decision to participate in the war is “15 to 20 percent,” says Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich, according to the Unian agency. Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite Russian military forces using Belarusian territory as a stepping stone to invade Ukraine, Belarus is not taking an active part in the war, despite repeated urging from Moscow.
+++ 22:13 White House: Putin has not yet achieved a fundamental war goal +++
According to the US government, Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far not been able to achieve any of the three basic goals in his war of aggression. “First, Ukraine should be subdued, second, Russian power and prestige should be strengthened, and third, the West should be divided and weakened,” US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in the White House. Russia has “so far achieved the opposite”. However, before Biden’s trip to Europe, Sullivan also warns that the war will continue. “Hard days will come to Ukraine, hardest for the Ukrainian troops on the front lines and for the civilian population under Russian fire,” says the security adviser. “This war will end neither easily nor quickly.”
+++ 21:52 Biden wants to visit US troops stationed in Poland +++
US President Joe Biden also wants to visit US troops stationed in the country during his trip to Poland. “From Brussels, President Biden will travel to Poland, where he will meet with US troops currently helping to defend NATO territory,” announced National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. According to US figures, around 100,000 US soldiers are stationed or deployed in Europe. In the past few months, Biden had relocated thousands of additional soldiers from the USA to Europe in view of the conflict with Russia.
+++ 21:33 Kyiv: Pro-Russian separatists arrest aid convoy near Mariupol +++
According to information from Kyiv, pro-Russian separatists have arrested an aid convoy not far from the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol. Fighters from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have taken several Ukrainian civil defense workers “hostage” in Manhush, ten kilometers west of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk said on Ukrainian television. The information cannot be independently verified. The arrested people drove buses in which civilians were to be evacuated from Mariupol, says Vereshchuk. The escape route had been agreed with the International Red Cross.
+++ 21:16 Russian judiciary is investigating well-known journalists because of the Ukraine report +++
The Russian judiciary is launching a criminal investigation into a well-known journalist for spreading “false” information about Russian forces in Ukraine. The Russian Investigative Committee responsible for prosecuting serious crimes said Alexander Nezorov “knowingly published false information about a deliberate shelling by Russian forces at a maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol”. “Untrustworthy” photos of affected civilians were also published. The Russian Defense Ministry has already officially stated “that this information was wrong”.
You can read about previous developments here.