12.06.2024
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 02:19 Media report: USA delivers another Patriot system to Ukraine +++
US President Biden reportedly wants to provide Ukraine with another Patriot air defense system to strengthen its defense against Russian air attacks. According to the New York Times, Biden made the decision last week after a series of high-ranking meetings. There has been no confirmation of this from the White House so far. The US’s new Patriot system is currently in Poland, the New York Times continued. It could be deployed on the Ukrainian front in the coming days. It would be the second Patriot air defense system that the US has given to Ukraine.
+++ 01:01 Ukraine: Attacks on Kharkiv have decreased since US permission to use weapons +++
According to information from Ukraine, the permission of the US and other allies to use supplied weapons to a limited extent for strikes on Russian territory is having an effect. “That helped. Maybe that’s why Kharkiv has been so quiet in recent weeks […] the attacks were less intense than in May, for example,” said the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Teherov, in an interview with Reuters. For almost two weeks, Ukraine has been able to use US weapons to repel attacks on the Kharkiv region on Russian territory.
+++ 23:38 Study by Kremlin critics: EU could weaken Kremlin by accepting Russian skilled workers +++
A group of Kremlin critics who fled Russia is calling on EU states to take in more Russian opposition figures. This is also in Europe’s interest, as the mass exodus of skilled workers would weaken the Russian economy and military capability, the group explained when presenting a study on Russian exiles in Paris. According to the study’s authors, 80 percent of the 3,200 respondents fled abroad after 2014, the year of the annexation of Crimea. Almost half of these 80 percent only left the country after the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022. Most of the refugees are well educated and support Western values, it continues. That is why a broad-based campaign for “economic immigration” from Russia makes sense. The “exodus of qualified specialists” and their wealth could weaken the Kremlin more effectively than the sanctions already in place.
+++ 22:16 Russia reports capture of two more towns in eastern Ukraine +++
The Russian army says it has captured two more towns in eastern Ukraine. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian troops entered the hamlet of Timkovka, near the city of Kupiansk in the north-eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, and Miasozharivka in the north of the eastern Luhansk region.
+++ 21:56 Latvia calls on NATO’s eastern flank to show unity +++
Latvia is calling on the countries of NATO’s eastern flank to be united in supporting Ukraine. “The most important thing is that we have a coordinated approach to the NATO summit in Washington,” said President Edgars Rinkevics immediately before a meeting of representatives of the “Bucharest Nine”. Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok had cancelled his participation in the Riga summit of nine Eastern European NATO states. Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova also cancelled her trip “at the last minute,” the Latvian President’s office said. Hungary rejects military aid for Ukraine. Slovakia stopped its aid after Prime Minister Robert Fico’s election victory last year.
+++ 21:25 Scholz “disturbed, but not surprised” about AfD and BSW boycott +++
Chancellor Scholz criticizes the AfD and BSW’s absence from Ukrainian President Selenskyj’s speech to the Bundestag. This behavior is “disrespectful,” a government spokesman told the ARD capital studio. Scholz was “very upset, but not surprised” by this. Selenskyj’s speech was boycotted by large parts of the AfD parliamentary group and the entire BSW group.
+++ 20:47 Estonia delivers Mistral missile systems to Ukraine +++
Estonia will provide Ukraine with further military aid in the fight against Russia. According to Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, the Baltic EU and NATO country is supplying Kyiv with missiles and launchers for the Mistral short-range air defense system. “Ukraine urgently needs air defense to ward off Russia’s ongoing brutal attack, and it is also in Estonia’s direct security interest to contribute to this together with its allies,” says Pevkur. He did not provide any further details on the scope of the arms delivery. “We have put together the aid package in such a way that Ukraine benefits as much as possible without compromising the combat readiness of the Estonian armed forces,” says Pevkur.
+++ 20:11 USA lifts sanctions against Ukrainian Azov Brigade +++
The USA has lifted its arms embargo against the Ukrainian Azov Brigade. The decision opens a “new page in the history of our brigade,” the military unit explains on Telegram. The brigade can now receive military aid from the USA. The US State Department says that it has found no evidence of human rights violations during a “thorough review.” In the early days of the volunteer battalion, founded shortly after the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, its fighters caused a stir with neo-Nazi symbols such as the wolfsangel. One of the founders of the battalion was the well-known right-wing extremist Andriy Biletsky. However, Washington now says that today’s brigade, which has long been part of the Ukrainian National Guard, is different from the militia of the early days.
You can read all previous developments here.