05/13/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 01:45 Foreign Affairs Committee chief Roth calls for Ukraine to join NATO +++
The chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, Michael Roth, advocates the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO. “The next NATO summit in Vilnius in July must send out a clear signal about Ukraine’s path towards reliable security guarantees with the goal of NATO membership,” the SPD politician told the Tagesspiegel. “Our goal must be that Russia never again threatens or challenges the security, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” Selenskyj demands a corresponding invitation from NATO to join. For the federal government, such a step is not yet on the agenda.
+++ 00:11 Selenskyj: Kremlin is already preparing for defeat +++
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia’s leadership is secretly preparing for defeat in the war against his country. “In their minds, they have already lost this war,” says Zelenskyj in his evening video address. “We have to put pressure on them every day so that their sense of defeat turns into flight, mistakes and losses.” Recently, Russia has given some gloomy assessments of its own situation at the front. For example, the Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin spoke of an “escape” by the army northwest of the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow, on the other hand, emphasized that there had only been strategic regroupings.
+++ 23:07 Hungary wants to block new EU sanctions +++
Hungary threatens to block new EU sanctions on Russia. As long as Hungary’s largest bank OTP is on a Ukrainian list of supporters of the Russian war of aggression, the Hungarian government will hardly be able to negotiate new sanctions that require further victims, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter said on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Sweden. The fact that Ukraine put the bank on the list is scandalous. This did not violate any laws. Last Friday, the EU Commission submitted proposals for an eleventh package of sanctions against Russia to the governments of the member states.
+++ 21:57 report: EU estimates number of dead Ukrainian soldiers at 13,000 +++
According to an internal EU note, Ukraine has lost 13,000 soldiers since the start of the Russian invasion, reports “EuractivAccording to the memo, another 35,000 Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in combat. US information is quoted as estimating the number of Ukrainian casualties at 17,500 soldiers killed and between 124,000 and 131,000 people “as a result of injuries, death or disappearance or disabled for “other reasons”, writes Euractiv. Neither Ukraine nor Russia have given exact figures for the casualties of their troops.
+++ 21:28 report: ex-police chief of Moldova is said to have planned a coup attempt with Moscow +++
A group of Moldovan and British lawyers have accused a former Moldovan police chief living in Britain of leading a plot to overthrow the current Moldovan government, like the “time” reported. According to the newspaper, the lawyers have submitted a report to the British Foreign Office detailing the allegations. The Moldovan government backed the claims and requested the extradition of former police chief Gheorghe Cavcaliuc. A Moldovan government spokesman claimed that Cavcaliuc allegedly worked with Moscow to “recruit ex-police officers for a paramilitary group that ‘protects’ fake demonstrations against the (Sandu) government”.
+++ 20:59 head of the nuclear supervisory authority wants to present an agreement on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant +++
The head of the nuclear regulatory authority, Rafael Grossi, intends to present an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on the protection of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to the UN Security Council later this month. This indicates that an agreement is within reach, as four diplomats explain to Reuters. Grossi has been seeking a deal for months to reduce the risk of a catastrophic nuclear accident from military activities such as the shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which is in Ukraine and has been occupied by Russia for more than a year. As Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive in the area, there is a risk that fighting near the power plant and its six reactors will intensify. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the shelling that repeatedly damaged power lines vital to cooling the reactors and preventing a meltdown.
You can read all previous developments here.