Ukraine war in the live ticker: +++ 01:23 UNHCR: Ukraine war worsens the situation of refugees worldwide +++

Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 01:23 UNHCR: Ukraine war worsens the situation of refugees worldwide +++

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is observing the effects of the war in Ukraine on the situation of refugees worldwide. “The conflict has further worsened the situation of many of the approximately 84 million displaced people on earth, after food has already become scarcer and significantly more expensive worldwide,” said the acting UNHCR office manager in Germany, Roland Bank, to the newspapers of the Funke media group . Millions of people would have lost their income and hardly the bare necessities of life because of the pandemic and the economic crises that often aggravated it. Now food prices have risen everywhere, sometimes drastically.

+++ 00:58 Russia apparently not ready for ceasefire over orthodox Easter days +++
Russia rejects proposal for ceasefire over Orthodox Easter holiday. That’s what Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. “But we will still keep hope. The hope for peace, the hope that life will triumph over death,” says Zelenskyj. On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, called for a ceasefire for the coming Easter weekend, and Pope Francis joined the appeal. Orthodox Christians are the largest religious group in Ukraine.

+++ 00:06 Green demand more clarity from Scholz about weapons deliveries +++
The security policy spokeswoman for the Greens in the Bundestag, Sara Nanni, calls on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to position himself more clearly on the issue of arms exports to Ukraine. “We need clarity from the Chancellor as to what the priorities are and how decisions are made,” Nanni told the editorial network Germany. It must be clear whether we are delivering everything or whether there are restrictions. “That would build a lot of trust.” According to Nanni’s account, the Greens would also agree to a delivery of tanks from Germany. “We must be willing to export anything we would use to defend ourselves.”

+++ 22:54 Ukraine war prevents IMF statement +++
For the first time there is no joint statement from the six-monthly ministerial meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “Russia’s war against Ukraine has made it impossible to find a consensus,” said the chair of the IMF Steering Committee, Spain’s Finance Minister Nadia Calviño. But she has the support of the “overwhelming majority” of the 189 members. The finance ministers and central bankers called for an end to the war in Ukraine and expressed concern about the global economic impact. The war and the numerous sanctions against Moscow are jeopardizing recovery from the economic consequences of the corona pandemic. The Russian attack on the neighboring country has sent food and energy prices skyrocketing around the world and fueled already rising inflation. As a result, the IMF significantly lowered its growth forecast for the global economy.

+++ 22:33 International defense ministers want to discuss war in Rhineland-Palatinate +++
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin plans to meet with colleagues from several countries on the war in Ukraine next week at the US Ramstein Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate. The meeting should take place next Tuesday, announced Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. Not only NATO countries would be invited, he said. One goal of the meeting is the lasting security and sovereignty of Ukraine. It should therefore be about Ukraine’s defense needs beyond the current war.

+++ 22:17 USA: Mariupol by no means conquered by Russia +++
Ukrainian forces continue to control parts of the besieged southern city of Mariupol, the US says. The “media show” put on by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his defense minister may just be another case of Russian disinformation, says US State Department spokesman Ned Price. Earlier, at a televised meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin congratulated the Russian military on a “successful conclusion of the fighting to liberate Mariupol.”

+++ 21:58 Selenskyj assumes hundreds of billions of dollars in damage +++
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, Ukraine needs around 6.5 billion euros a month to compensate for its economic losses because of the Russian war of aggression. In addition, Ukraine will need “hundreds of billions of dollars to later rebuild everything,” said Zelenskyj at an international donor conference of the World Bank in Washington. Russian forces destroyed infrastructure, schools, universities, hospitals and countless houses and apartments in Ukraine, he said. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) assumes that Ukraine will initially need aid of around five billion dollars each over the next two to three months in order to be able to guarantee the functioning of the government and important state institutions.

You can read about previous developments here.

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