04/04/2024
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 02:59 Drone attack on Kharkiv: three rescuers killed +++
According to authorities in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Russian drones attacked homes in Ukraine’s second-largest city early this morning. The region’s governor, Oleh Sinehubow, said on Telegram that three rescue workers were killed in one of the four waves of attacks. The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekov, reports that an attack caused a fire. Parts of a building collapsed.
+++ 01:59 Zelensky warns the West about Russian offensive plans +++
In view of fears of new Russian offensives, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is once again emphatically asking his Western allies to help the country win. “We must win this war. This is a historic opportunity for Ukraine to thwart Russian revanchism, and we must seize it,” Zelensky said in his evening video message. The president says it is clear to Ukraine what Russia is planning and why the country is recruiting soldiers, without giving details. Experts expect that Russia could be planning a new major attack in order to bring the previously partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson completely under Moscow’s control. The Russian army may also try to annex the Kharkiv and Odessa regions. The power apparatus in Moscow has recently repeatedly referred to these regions as historical Russian territories.
+++ 00:44 Union is pushing for fundamental restructuring of the Bundeswehr +++
The Union is calling on Defense Minister Boris Pistorius not to be content with small steps in the Bundeswehr’s structural reform. “Clear and far-reaching measures are necessary to turn the Bundeswehr peace army, which was fully occupied by sending relatively small troop contingents into foreign missions, into a fully operational army for national and alliance defense,” says deputy Union parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul to the editorial network Germany (RND). The SPD politician “set the bar of expectations very high.” He now has to fulfill this and not just provide marginalia. Pistorius wants to present the plans for structural reform this Thursday.
+++ 23:41 Paris denies “dialogue” about Ukraine with Moscow +++
After the first telephone conversation between the defense ministers of France and Russia since 2022, Moscow and Paris gave contradictory information about the content of the conversation. The Russian Defense Ministry said after the phone call that Minister Sergei Shoigu and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu had “declared willingness to engage in dialogue on Ukraine.” The French Ministry of Defense denied this a little later. “France has not accepted or proposed anything of the sort,” says people close to Lecornu. The minister “unreservedly condemned the war of aggression that Russia has launched in Ukraine.”
+++ 22:58 Moscow: “Dialogue” about Ukraine with Paris +++
In their first telephone conversation since 2022, the defense ministers of France and Russia noted a “willingness for dialogue on Ukraine,” according to Russian information. This emerged from the telephone conversation between Russian Minister Sergei Shoigu and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu, the Russian Defense Ministry explained in the evening. “The starting point could be the Istanbul peace initiative,” explains the Defense Ministry in Moscow. In March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to host peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine during a visit by Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky.
+++ 21:55 Steinmeier: “Stand by Ukraine as long as it is necessary” +++
On its 75th birthday, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier assures NATO of Germany’s full support in the future. “We will continue to invest in our military, spend a reliable and permanent two percent on defense, strengthen the European pillar in NATO and stand by Ukraine for as long as it is necessary,” promises Steinmeier in a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. There are many good reasons for this – even beyond possible election results in Europe or the USA. “The main reason is: Never before have the strength and unity of NATO been so important. Never before have we in Europe, have we in Germany, felt so directly that we need NATO for our own security, for the protection of our freedom and democracy “
You can read all previous developments here.