05/21/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 03:38 ex-ambassador of Germany: Putin wants to cause hunger crises +++
The long-standing German ambassador to Russia, Rüdiger von Fritsch, accuses Moscow of using the global supply crisis caused by the Ukraine war and the resulting threat of refugee movements as a means of warfare. “Vladimir Putin is specifically trying to create hunger crises in the Middle East and North Africa,” said von Fritsch in Berlin’s “Tagesspiegel” about the Russian head of state. That is why Russia is preventing Ukraine from exporting grain and even bombing grain silos. He compared this “new hybrid warfare” with Moscow’s actions in Syria.
+++ 02:51 Kubicki: Do not humiliate former Chancellor Schröder +++
FDP Federal Vice Wolfgang Kubicki rejects demands that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) should give up more jobs at Russian companies. “No further action is required, neither by the ex-chancellor nor by the German Bundestag,” said Kubicki, who is also Bundestag Vice President, to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Consequences are understandable and understandable, but the line of humiliation should not be crossed,” he said. Among other things, he contradicts Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). He had asked Schröder to stop further activities for companies from the country after resigning from the supervisory board post at the Russian energy company Rosneft.
+++ 01:45 Merkel’s ex-advisor: 100 billion for the Bundeswehr is not enough +++
The former military policy advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, Erich Vad, considers the announced special fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr to be insufficient. “The widely heard opinion that the resolution on the Bundeswehr special fund of 100 billion euros has taken care of the German security and defense industry for the next few years falls short,” he told the editorial network Germany: “In return, the Industry as a partner of the Bundeswehr is in high demand.” He explained that the industry is expected to increase its capacities in a wide range of areas as quickly as possible, to deliver the required quality and to serve the Bundeswehr in the best possible way at all times. “This will only be possible if a correspondingly high level of defense spending of two percent of the respective gross domestic product is maintained even after the special fund of 100 billion euros expires,” said Vad.
+++ 00:38 Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of dead civilians +++
Ukraine blames Russia for the deaths of seven civilians in the government-held part of the Donetsk region in the east of the country. This is what the governor of the region Pavlo Kirilenko writes in the Telegram news channel. Three people were killed in Lyman alone. The governor initially does not comment on the exact circumstances. In addition, a total of seven people were injured. This information cannot be independently verified. “Every war criminal is punished,” says Kirilenko. In the Russian-held region of Kherson in southern Ukraine, the local administration has again accused Ukraine of killing three civilians and injuring ten in the town of Biloserka. That too cannot be checked. The administration did not tell Telegram exactly what had happened.
+++ 23:43 Russia wants to consider replacing Azov fighters with oligarch Medvedchuk +++
According to statements by the prominent Russian foreign politician Leonid Slutsky, discussions are under way to exchange the Ukrainian fighters captured in Mariupol for the pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. “We will examine the possibility of replacing Medvedchuk with the Azov fighters,” Slutsky said, according to the Interfax agency. Over the past few days, more than 2,400 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered in Mariupol. For weeks they had holed up in the bunkers of the Azov steelworks and defended the port city against the Russian occupiers. The politician and oligarch Medvedchuk was arrested in mid-April. He is considered the closest ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. He is accused of high treason and embezzlement in Kyiv.
+++ 23:04 Selenskyj calls for tougher sanctions against Russia +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is insisting on expanding sanctions against Russia. After a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, he stressed the need to lift the blockade of Ukrainian seaports. In a tweet, he thanks Draghi for unconditionally supporting the desire to become a member of the European Union.
+++ 22:25 Separatists: Also women among captured Azov fighters +++
Among the militants captured at the Azovstal Steel Plant in the port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, 78 are women, according to pro-Russian separatists. According to the Russian state agency TASS, the head of the Donetsk separatists, Denis Puschilin, says that foreigners have also been taken into Russian captivity. He doesn’t name a number. On Friday evening, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the complete capture of the steel works on the Azov Sea, which had been under siege for weeks.
+++ 22:05 Russian resistance: series of attacks on recruitment offices +++
Unknown persons threw a Molotov cocktail at a recruitment station in Russia’s Udmurtia region. As a result of the fire, part of the office burned down. This is reported by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, citing the Telegram channel Baza. The attack took place in the city of Igra on the night of May 20-21. A few days earlier, according to the newspaper, three more military registration and recruitment offices were set on fire – in the village of Pronsk in the Ryazan region and in Volgograd. Since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine, more than ten military registration and recruitment offices, including Omsk, Nizhnevartovsk and Balashikha near Moscow, have been attacked, the report said.
You can read earlier developments in the Ukraine conflict here.