06/26/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 06:14 explosions shake the center of Kyiv +++
The Ukrainian capital Kyiv was rocked by several explosions in the morning. According to AFP journalists, a residential complex in the city center was hit and fire broke out. Information on possible victims is not yet available.
More on that shortly.
+++ 05:59 Bas wants to save energy in the Bundestag +++
Because of the energy shortage as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, according to a report in the “Bild” newspaper, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas is planning to cut energy consumption in the Reichstag building. “In the current situation, we all have to reduce our energy consumption,” says the SPD politician to the newspaper. That also applies to the Bundestag. She asked the administration to present her with a concept at short notice “with which measures we will make our contribution”. The plenary hall in the Reichstag building has so far been cooled down to 22 degrees by air conditioning.
+++ 04:36 Selenskyj: Ukraine in an emotionally difficult war phase +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sees Ukraine in an emotionally difficult phase of the war. “We have no sense of how long it will take, how many more blows, losses and efforts will be needed before we see that victory is in sight,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. The relentless rocket attacks confirmed that sanctions against Russia were not enough to help Ukraine. “The air defense systems – the modern systems that our partners have – should not be on training grounds or in storage, but in Ukraine, where they are needed now, more than anywhere else in the world,” says Zelenskyy.
+++ 04:09 evacuation of chemical plant suspended due to shelling +++
According to the Russian news agency Tass, the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Sieverodonetsk has been suspended because of Ukrainian shelling. The agency relies on the local police in the city that had been captured by Russian troops a few hours earlier. According to a high-ranking adviser to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Sievjerodonetsk, special forces are still in the city directing artillery fire on the Russian troops.
+++ 03:11 EPP chief urges the G7 to stay patient +++
Before the G7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria, the head of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, calls for long-term support for Ukraine. What is needed is “the message to the warmonger Putin that he will not win this war,” Weber told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “There must be no doubt that Western democracies have staying power and are ready to help Ukraine in the long term.” At the same time, Weber calls on the G7 to find new partners in Asia, Africa and South America. It must be possible to “build a kind of free trade zone in the free world, in which people support each other,” demanded the EPP boss. China should not be the beneficiary of new conflicts and “Western naivety”.
+++ 01:38 Nouripour warns of “war fatigue” +++
Ahead of their meeting in Elmau, Bavaria, Green Party co-chairman Omid Nouripour called on the G7 to give more support to Ukraine and the countries of the Global South. “It is the task of the economically strongest democratic industrial nations to stand up together and in a coordinated manner to protect freedom, democracy and human rights,” says Nouripour to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “A strong signal of support must go out from the G7 summit, both for Ukraine and for the countries of the Global South.” “War fatigue” should not set in. “Military and financial support for Ukraine must continue in the next phase of the conflict. In addition, further financial aid is needed for the countries of the Global South, which have been hard hit by the consequences of the war.” The G7 countries would have to agree on how the consequences of the war on the world food situation could be mitigated.
+++ 00:57 Great Britain accepts further loan guarantees +++
Britain is ready to guarantee another $525 million in World Bank loans to Ukraine later this year. This means that financial support will total 1.5 billion dollars this year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said before the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, Bavaria. “Ukraine can win and they will win, but they need our support to do so,” said Johnson. “Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine.”
+++ 23:29 Ischinger sees West on the defensive +++
The longstanding chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, sees the West on the defensive ahead of the G7 summit in Elmau. “I see the real purpose of this summit in the reaffirmation of Western determination to defend a rules-based international order against massive violations of international law like that of Putin,” the former top diplomat told the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”: “It is a defensive meeting to defend our values and Rules.” The Iraq war and the Afghanistan war have shaken the West’s credibility, says the current head of the Foundation Council of the Security Conference. “That’s why the West doesn’t have a particularly good hand in the struggle with Russia and China,” he says. “We’re in a very unfavorable starting position there.”
You can read earlier developments of the Ukraine war here.