06/21/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 04:02 Ministry confirms death of a US citizen in Ukraine +++
A US citizen has died in Ukraine, according to the US State Department. The 52-year-old from New York was killed in fighting on May 15, according to an obituary published in The Recorder newspaper earlier this month. A State Department spokesman confirmed the death and said US citizens should not travel to Ukraine because of the war. Volunteers from the US and other countries have volunteered to fight alongside Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
+++ 03:04 For 103.5 million US dollars: Russian journalist auctions Nobel Prize medal +++
Russian journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov has auctioned off his Nobel Prize medal for $103.5 million (€98.4 million). The proceeds from the auction in New York will benefit refugee Ukrainian children. A previously anonymous bidder secured the award of the medal by telephone. According to the auction house Heritage Auctions, the proceeds of the auction will go to the aid program for refugee Ukrainian children of the UN children’s fund UNICEF. Muratov is the editor-in-chief of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. At the end of March, she had to stop appearing after being repeatedly warned by the authorities for her reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
+++ 02:24 Zelenskyj: Ukraine is already part of Europe’s value space +++
Shortly before the decision on the country’s EU candidate status, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that he believes Ukraine already belongs to Europe. The country attacked by Russia proves every day that it is already part of a united European space of values, says Zelenskyj in his video speech at night. Russia is very nervous about Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU. The only way to counter the shelling and “brutal” attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine is on the battlefield, Zelensky said.
+++ 01:38 Aiwanger calls for the gas emergency level to be declared +++
The Bavarian Economics and Energy Minister Hubert Aiwanger is calling on the federal government to declare the last escalation level of the gas emergency plan. “The principle of hope is no longer sufficient, we now need the emergency level of the Energy Security Act,” says the Free Voters politician, according to a statement from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs. “That would give the federal government significantly more opportunities to intervene politically in the critical supply situation.” The gas emergency plan, which has three stages, provides for the event of a Russian gas delivery stop. The first, the early warning level, has already been declared by the federal government. In the last, the emergency level, the state would have to intervene. It would then be possible to switch off industrial customers. Private households, on the other hand, are protected.
+++ 01:05 am More than 200,000 refugees in Germany looking for a job +++
Of the approximately 800,000 Ukrainians who fled to Germany before the war, more than 200,000 have so far registered in job centers. This is reported by the editorial network Germany from a request to the Federal Employment Agency (BA). According to this, Bavaria has the most registrations with a good 42,000 refugees. North Rhine-Westphalia (32,000) and Baden-Württemberg (27,000) followed. In Berlin, almost 13,000 Ukrainians have registered at a job center to find work. The data includes all persons aged 15 and over.
+++ 00:17 Ukraine reports more dead and injured in the east of the country +++
In the east of the country, Ukraine is mourning further civilian deaths. In the Donetsk region, three people were killed by Russian shelling, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram, two others were injured. The shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv also continues. Three people were also killed and two others injured there on Monday, Governor Oleh Synyehubov wrote on Telegram. According to the local governor, Dmytro Schywyzkyj, one civilian was killed and another injured in the Sumy region. In Odessa, too, there are said to have been several injuries after rocket attacks.
+++ 23:28 Russian Crimean authorities: Three injured after attack on oil platforms +++
According to the Russian authorities, three people were injured in the attacks by Ukrainian forces on three oil production platforms off the coast of the Crimean peninsula. Seven are still missing, explains Moscow’s governor, Sergey Aksyonov, in the online service Telegram. He had previously given the number of injuries on Russian television as five. According to Aksyonov, a total of 94 people were evacuated from the platforms. The search for the missing will continue.
+++ 22:39 tens of thousands of Georgians demonstrate for early EU membership +++
In the Georgian capital Tbilisi, tens of thousands of people demonstrate for the country’s early EU membership. Around 60,000 participants in the rally wave EU flags at the “March for Europe”. Last Friday, the European Commission recommended granting EU candidate status to Ukraine and neighboring Moldova. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen only recommended a “European perspective” for Georgia. The initiators of the demonstration in Tbilisi were the leading democratic groups. However, they are supported by all opposition parties in “demonstrating the commitment of the Georgian people to their European choice and their Western values”.
+++ 22:10 Several countries are pushing for the seventh EU sanctions package against Russia +++
Several EU states are calling for further sanctions against Russia and Belarus and for the Union to commit to more military aid to Ukraine. Diplomats reported on the fringes of the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg that the Nordic and Eastern European countries in particular were urging the EU Commission to start work on a seventh package of sanctions. About a third of the 27 Member States held this view. Germany and others, on the other hand, are of the opinion that the existing sanctions should initially be implemented completely and existing loopholes closed.
+++ 21:40 Stoltenberg is confident about Turkey’s attitude towards NATO membership +++
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described the consultations between Turkey, Sweden and Finland at the military alliance’s headquarters as “constructive”. Stoltenberg explained that talks about the planned NATO membership of the two Scandinavian countries would continue. NATO member Turkey has “legitimate security concerns about terrorism that we must respond to.” He is looking forward to “finding a solution as soon as possible”.
+++ 21:05 Melnyk: “The Ukrainians feel very comfortable in Germany” +++
At a solidarity concert for his country in Berlin, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, emphasized that his compatriots feel that they are in good hands in Germany. “The Ukrainians feel very comfortable in Germany,” quotes ntv.de reporter Philipp Sandmann via Twitter the politician, who had also attracted criticism about a week ago with contradictory statements. Melnyk himself shared pictures before the concert began and called for attending the concert and supporting his country in terms of its EU prospects.
+++ 20:50 Munz: Dispute over Kaliningrad “is a highly explosive moment” +++
Russia says Lithuania’s transit ban on certain goods to Kaliningrad is illegal. The dispute over the Russian enclave is highly explosive, as ntv Moscow correspondent Rainer Munz reports.
+++ 20:16 Russia does not want to apply the Geneva Conventions to captured US fighters +++
According to a media report, the Russian government has accused two US citizens captured in Ukraine of illegal activities. The two men are mercenaries and must take responsibility for their crimes, the RIA news agency quoted government spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. The Geneva Conventions are not applicable to them.
+++ 19:43 EU wants to review guidelines on sanctions after Russian criticism +++
After Russian criticism of restrictions on rail transit between the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, which belongs to Russia, and the Russian heartland, the EU has pledged to review guidelines on sanctions. As a precaution, the legal aspects of the guidelines on import and export restrictions for certain products will be reviewed again, announced EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. The Kremlin had previously criticized Lithuania’s rail transit restrictions between Kaliningrad and the Russian heartland as “illegal”.
You can read earlier developments of the Ukraine war here.