08/13/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 06:20 Mayor: Russians use hospital grounds in Melitopol as a base +++
According to Ukrainian sources, Russian forces are using a hospital site in the occupied city as a military base. The base in the city center was set up on Friday, Mayor Igor Fedorov said Telegram With. Melitopol is the second largest city in the Zaporizhia Oblast and is located not far from the annexed Crimea peninsula in southern Ukraine. According to Russian ideas, a referendum on accession to Russia should be carried out in the occupied area in the near future. Several attacks on Russian facilities in the city have recently been reported.
+++ 05:44 Blinking worried about “trial” against foreigners +++
The United States is concerned by reports that British, Swedish and Croatian nationals have been indicted by “illegal authorities in eastern Ukraine,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter. “Russia and its proxies are obliged to respect international humanitarian law, including the rights and protection of prisoners of war,” the politician said.
+++ 05:15 Ukrainian army destroys bridge in Kakhovka +++
According to the Ukrainian army, the last functioning bridge near the hydroelectric power station in Kakhovka was destroyed. The city is located in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson. The Russian armed forces used them primarily to transport military equipment.
+++ 04:20 Russian oil is coming again via the Druzhba pipeline +++
After an interruption of more than a week, Russian oil is flowing back to the Czech Republic through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline via the Ukraine. “Supply resumed at 8 p.m.,” says a spokeswoman for the Czech transit company Mero. The Russian company that operates the pipeline, Transneft, announced on Tuesday that oil supplies through Ukraine had been suspended. The reason given by Transneft was that a bank transaction to pay transit fees to Ukraine was rejected at the end of July due to Western sanctions against Russia. In addition to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary were also affected.
+++ 03:00 Five foreign fighters face the death penalty in Donetsk +++
In Donetsk, the separatists have according to a media report set the trial of five foreign fighters who had joined the Ukrainian army to begin on August 15. They are accused of “being mercenaries and preparing and carrying out terrorist activities aimed at seizing power”. It is therefore the Swede Matias Gustavsson, the Croatian Vjekoslav Prebeg and the British John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy. If found guilty, they face the death penalty.
+++ 02:33 Russia threatens to break off diplomatic relations with the USA +++
According to a news agency, Russia is threatening the United States up to and including breaking off diplomatic relations if Russia is declared a “state sponsor of terrorism”. The passage of such a law would cause “heaviest collateral damage for bilateral diplomatic relations, up to and including a decline or even a termination,” the official Russian news agency TASS quoted the head of the North America department of the Russian foreign ministry, Alexander Darchiyev as saying. “The American side has been warned,” Darchiyev adds, according to Tass.
+++ 01:11 Zelenskyj: No EU visas for “Russian murderers” +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has reiterated his call for a travel ban on Russians. After everything the Russian occupation has done in Ukraine, there can only be one attitude towards Russia, and that is to regard it as a terrorist state, he says in his daily video address. He thanks the Czech Republic and the Baltic states for officially joining the EU raised the issue of tourist visas for Russian citizens. “There are people who really need protection, who are being persecuted in Russia,” said Zelenskyy. For them there are proven mechanisms such as asylum. But that has nothing to do with vacation or business trips by Russians to Europe. “It must be ensured that Russian murderers and supporters of state terror do not use Schengen visas.”
+++ 00:29 Rating agency S&P downgrades Ukraine’s creditworthiness +++
The US rating agency S&P has downgraded Ukraine’s credit rating to “selective default” – one level above full default. S&P justified the move with a deferral of payments on its external debt that Ukraine received on Wednesday. S&P considers this “tantamount to a default”. Economic output in Ukraine has plummeted since the Russian war of aggression began on February 24. Kyiv has obtained a two-year moratorium on its foreign debt, valued at $20 billion, from its international creditors.
+++ 23:40 Borrell: Zaporizhia nuclear power plant must become a demilitarized zone +++
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is calling for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The nuclear power plant should not be drawn into military conflicts, Borrell writes on Twitter. He supports calls for demilitarization of the area and urges experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit. “Russia must immediately return control to Ukraine as the rightful owner.”
+++ 22:56 Rosneft: import stop for Russian oil will drive up gasoline prices +++
The Russian oil company Rosneft paints the future of its Schwedt refinery in Brandenburg extremely black because of the upcoming ban on imports of oil from Russia. According to the Interfax agency, if the PCK refinery is no longer supplied via the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline, but via other routes, it will only be working at half capacity. This will lead to losses of up to 300 million euros per year with corresponding effects on tax payments to the German treasury. Rising petrol and fuel prices are also to be expected throughout Germany. Rosneft is testing alternative delivery routes. But the oil brought to Rostock by tanker from the USA is 30 percent more expensive than the pipeline oil, it said.
+++ 22:08 Washington: Explosions in Crimea not triggered by US weapons +++
According to the US Department of Defense, the explosions at a military base on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia were not triggered by weapons supplied by the United States. The United States has given Ukraine “nothing that would enable it to attack Crimea,” a senior Pentagon official told reporters. His ministry has no information on whether the explosions were rocket attacks or an act of sabotage. Several explosions occurred on Tuesday at the Russian air force base in Saki on the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. It is estimated that eight aircraft and a significant amount of ammunition were destroyed.
+++ 21:43 Ukraine is asking for billions in aid +++
Ukraine continues to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A $5 billion loan could help the country boost the confidence of other donors, says President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief economic adviser, Oleh Ustenko. Corresponding IMF aid for around 18 months could serve as the basis for a more extensive support package of 15 to 20 billion dollars.
You can read earlier developments of the Ukraine war here.