In the Kyiv region, an elderly woman is said to have stolen ammunition from Russian units while they were sleeping. She then hid her “booty” in the rabbit hutch and later handed it over to Ukrainian soldiers, reports the Ukrainian news agency Unian, citing an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Anton Herashchenko. In a Telegram video, he says that the woman decided to “disarm” the Russian troops. When Ukrainian troops recently came to her village, she handed over the ammunition.
+++ 05:42 Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister: Scholz should travel to Kyiv +++
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski is calling on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to make a solidarity visit to Ukraine. “If he really wants to do something, he should go to Kyiv rather than call the Russian president,” Szynkowski said during a visit to Berlin. The calls to Vladimir Putin would have made no sense and have not brought anything so far. “If you look at this genocide now, you shouldn’t negotiate with the perpetrator, you should rather help the victim.” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday that she would travel to Kyiv with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
+++ 05:15 New Zealand imposes punitive tariffs on Russian imports +++
New Zealand’s government extends sanctions against Russia. Among other things, import duties of 35 percent would be levied on all Russian imports, said Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. In addition, the existing export bans are to be extended to products that are closely linked to strategic Russian industries. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had already imposed the first sanctions shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine, which were later tightened.
+++ 04:52 USA support Ukraine with 100 million dollars for security systems +++
The US is providing Ukraine with additional military aid of up to 100 million. This should “meet an urgent Ukrainian need for additional Javelin anti-tank systems,” explains Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. The man-portable missiles “proved themselves” in defense against the Russian invasion. According to Kirby, since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the US has provided Ukraine’s military with “more than $1.7 billion.”
+++ 04:10 New York Times shows video of alleged war crimes +++
In the dispute over the interpretation of the atrocities committed by Bucha in the Ukraine war, the “New York Times” publishes a video, which is intended to prove war crimes by Russian troops. The video shows a civilian pushing his bicycle through Bucha and being killed on a street corner by shots fired from the turrets of two Russian armored personnel carriers. The video from late February came from the Ukrainian military and was independently verified by the newspaper. After the Russian troops withdrew, the man’s body was finally found in the exact spot that can also be seen in the video.
+++ 03:21 Importers: Russian coal replaceable – but higher prices +++
German coal importers consider it possible to stop using Russian coal altogether by the end of the year. “Russian hard coal can be replaced by coal from other countries such as the USA, South Africa, Australia, Colombia, Mozambique and Indonesia,” says Alexander Bethe, chairman of the coal importers’ association, to the newspapers of the Funke media group. The complete renunciation of Russian coal should therefore be possible until next winter. However, higher prices threatened.
+++ 02:40 whereabouts of around 400 people from Hostomel unclear +++
After 35 days of Russian occupation in the Kiev suburb of Hostomel, around 400 residents are missing, according to Ukrainian sources. This is reported by the online newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda, citing an interview given by the head of the local military administration, Taras Dumenko, to a local radio station. There is no trace of the husband and son of a local doctor who were taken away twelve days ago. It is also said that the bodies of people who are known to have been killed cannot be found. Not that many bodies were found in Hostomel itself, but a little further away from the place, Dumenko said. Several residents of Hostomel were also found in Bucha.
+++ 02:00 Zelenskyj calls for further sanctions against Russia +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls for tightening sanctions against Russia after the Bucha atrocities. Punitive measures should be imposed against the Russian Federation that are proportionate to the severity of the “war crimes” committed by the Russian military in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. He also explains that preparations are already being made in Kyiv for the visit of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. From Brussels it is said that a meeting in Kyiv should take place before the donor conference planned for Saturday in Warsaw, at which money is to be collected for the millions of refugees and people displaced by the war.
+++ 01:36 Finland is planning massive armament investments +++
In view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Finland wants to massively expand its own arms spending. “The war in Europe has fundamentally changed our security environment,” said Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen. “For this reason, we have decided to significantly increase the budget for the Defense Forces.” In the next four years, Russia’s neighbor wants to invest an additional 2.2 billion euros in armaments. The Russian aggression has also reignited the debate about joining NATO in the EU member state. Traditionally, most Finns are skeptical about joining NATO – but the most recent polls showed a majority in favor for the first time.
+++ 00:57 Ukraine: 2200 people evacuated from Mariupol and Berdyansk +++
The evacuations from contested areas made progress on Tuesday. Around 2,200 people from Mariupol and nearby Berdyansk were brought to Zaporizhia, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk announced via Telegram. More than 1,000 other people were brought to safety from the Luhansk region. Moscow said that within 24 hours more than 18,600 people had been evacuated from “dangerous districts” in Ukraine, the Luhansk region and Donetsk.
+++ 00:20 Doctors Without Borders witness Russian attack on hospital +++
Doctors Without Borders workers have witnessed Russian attacks on a hospital in Mykolaiv, according to the aid organization. On Monday there were several explosions in the immediate vicinity of the team within ten minutes, explains the head of the Ukraine mission, Michel-Olivier Lacharite. The facility was a cancer clinic that also treats war wounded. The information cannot be independently verified. Russia denies accusations of attacking civilian targets.
+++ 23:56 governor reports of explosions in the Lviv area +++
In the evening there were several explosions in the Lviv region in western Ukraine. “Everyone has to stay in the shelters,” Governor Maksym Kosytsky wrote on Telegram, referring to explosions near Radechiv, a city about 70 kilometers northeast of Lviv. So far there have been no reports of casualties. Lviv is a place of refuge and transit station for hundreds of thousands of refugees from other parts of the Ukraine. So far, the city has been largely spared from fighting.
+++ 23:28 White House suspects further atrocities in occupied areas +++
According to the White House, the alleged war crimes in the Ukrainian Bucha could possibly only be “the tip of the iceberg” in the Russian war of aggression. US President Joe Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Russian forces “probably also committed atrocities” in those parts of Ukraine that are not yet accessible. The US had previously warned that it was the “intent” of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the military to commit atrocities in Ukraine.
+++ 22:47 Security Conference boss Heusgen: Putin belongs in court +++
According to the chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin should have to answer to an international court. “Like Milosevic, he belongs before an international court,” says Heusgen on ZDF’s “heute journal,” referring to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and against the background of the atrocities involving dead civilians in Bucha, Ukraine. Heusgen called it “difficult to imagine” that one could sit down at a table with Putin again. “Putin has lost all credibility,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s former adviser.
+++ 22:27 Lavrov rejects central demands from Kiev for a peace agreement +++
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned the Ukrainian government against sabotaging talks between Moscow and Kyiv to end the fighting in Ukraine. Russia will not engage in a “cat-and-mouse game” like in previous years with the peace plan for eastern Ukraine, Lavrov said in a video distributed by the ministry. Russia does not want a referendum on a possible agreement between Moscow and Kyiv to resolve the conflict. There is “a very high probability” that the negotiation process will start all over again in the event of a “negative result” in the referendum, Lavrov warned. The Ukrainian negotiators recently agreed to negotiate a neutral status for the country, including renunciation of NATO membership. In return, Kyiv is demanding security guarantees from third countries. Lavrov openly rejected this for the first time.
+++ 22:07 Klingbeil for more arms deliveries to Ukraine, but against gas boycott +++
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil announces in the program “RTL Direkt” that the federal government is examining further arms deliveries to Ukraine. “We have just seen in the past few days what a terrible war criminal Putin is, and that must not remain without consequences,” said Klingbeil in the evening. Germany is now one of the largest arms suppliers to Ukraine. “Now we have to check every day at great speed what we can still deliver. We always have to check whether it’s necessary and whether it makes sense,” said Klingbeil. “But Germany has to deliver, the Ukrainians have to be strengthened.” He hopes that a coal embargo will be part of the EU’s fifth package of sanctions. Dependence on Russian fossil fuels is being turned back every day. However, an immediate gas embargo would not only have serious economic consequences: “We are also losing social support. That’s something we have to consider: Can we stick to these sanctions? That has to be checked every day.”
+++ 21:54 Russia announces new attacks on Mariupol +++
The Russian Defense Ministry has announced new clashes against Ukrainian troops in the port city of Mariupol. The “regime” in Kyiv is constantly ignoring requests to stop fighting, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow in the evening. The troops were to lay down their arms and withdraw from the city through the agreed corridors. However, Kyiv has no interest in protecting the lives of its soldiers or the people in the city, according to two statements by the ministry. “Mariupol is being liberated from the nationalists by units of the Russian armed forces and the Donetsk People’s Republic,” Major General Konashenkov said. His colleague Mikhail Mizintsev said the humanitarian corridors were barely functioning. The Russian and Ukrainian sides repeatedly accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.
You can read about previous developments here.