March 15, 2024
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 03:59 Lower Saxony: Concerns about Russian entry into nuclear factory +++
Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Christian Meyer reacts with dismay to the planned cooperation between a Russian nuclear energy company and the fuel element factory in Lingen. “I am actually very shocked that the whole thing is supposed to happen in close cooperation with Russian nuclear companies, which are very closely linked to Putin. Employees of Russian nuclear companies are even supposed to have access to the fuel element factory in Lingen. All of this has significant consequences on internal and external security,” says the Green politician in an interview with the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ). “One thing is clear to me: there must be no threat to the security of Germany and Europe from Russian involvement,” adds Meyer. The project must be approved by Lower Saxony.
+++ 02:31 Moscow’s ambassador in Washington complains about threats +++
The Russian ambassador to the USA reports threats against his embassy in connection with the Russian presidential election. “We receive a lot of provocative calls and threats,” Russian news agencies quoted Ambassador Anatoly Antonov as saying on state television. “We know that there are plans for anti-Russian actions around our embassies and consulates and that there will be attempts to break into our embassy,” Antonov said. Apparently it wouldn’t be so much about disrupting the election, because that wouldn’t work. Rather, they want to make things more difficult and spoil the mood, said the ambassador.
+++ 01:40 USA worried after attack on Navalny confidant Volkov +++
The US has expressed deep concern over the “terrible, brutal” attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says he cannot confirm Lithuanian statements that Russian intelligence services were involved in the attack. The attack is a reminder of the “very real dangers that members of civil society in Russia are exposed to every day.”
+++ 00:50 Selenskyj thanks Scholz despite Taurus no +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj thanks Chancellor Olaf Scholz for Germany’s military aid despite the rejected delivery of Taurus cruise missiles. It is a matter of diverse support, says Zelenskyj after a telephone conversation with Scholz in his evening video message broadcast in Kiev. A reconstruction conference for Ukraine is also planned in Berlin in June, as was already the case in London, among others.
+++ 00:08 Kühnert warns Union about new Taurus application +++
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert warns the Union faction against trying to force the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine again through a vote in the Bundestag. “Any further vote on this matter will not harm the traffic light coalition or Olaf Scholz, but only the invaded Ukraine and its fight for freedom,” Kühnert told “Stern”. “I appeal to the CDU and CSU: finally respect the decision made by the Chancellor and confirmed twice by the German Bundestag not to deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.”
+++ 23:09 First polling stations in Russia open +++
The first polling stations for the three-day presidential election have opened in the Russian Far East. Voting began on Friday at 8 a.m. (local time, 9 p.m. CET) on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Chukotka. People in the country are called upon to cast their votes until the last polling stations in Kaliningrad close on Sunday evening. Incumbent Vladimir Putin is competing with three minor candidates who oppose neither the offensive in Ukraine nor the increasing repression in the country. With all of the Kremlin leader’s major critics either dead, imprisoned or in exile, re-election is all but certain.
+++ 22:34 Kuleba: Elections in occupied territories illegal and invalid +++
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba declares the planned election of the Russian president in the Russian-occupied territories illegal and invalid. He calls on international partners not to recognize the results. The election campaign in the occupied territories showed that the leadership in Moscow had shown a “continued blatant disregard for the norms and principles of international law.” The new President of Russia will be elected from Friday to Sunday, and the re-election of incumbent Vladimir Putin is considered certain. Putin has declared that voting should also take place in the annexed Ukrainian territories. Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. This was followed in September 2022 by the oblasts of Luhansk, Donetsk in the east and Zaporizhia and Kherson in the south of Ukraine, which are at least partially under the control of Russian troops.
+++ 22:11 Pro-Ukrainian militias announce “massive attack” on Russian border regions +++
Pro-Ukrainian militias announce renewed attacks on the Russian border regions of Kursk and Belgorod. On social media The paramilitary organizations “Legion Freedom of Russia”, “Russian Volunteer Corps” and “Siberian Battalion” are calling on the population to leave certain areas. They say that a humanitarian corridor will be granted from this evening until 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. The militias claim they would then launch a “massive attack” on Russian military forces in the area. These are mainly made up of volunteer Russian fighters who are against the Kremlin. Russia reported fighting between Russian forces and pro-Ukrainian groups in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine this Thursday. The Russian National Guard said it was repelling the attack from Ukrainian territory. The militias had already claimed on Tuesday that they had invaded Russia and attacked a village. This can hardly be verified independently so far.
You can read all previous developments here.