FDP foreign policy expert Alexander Graf Lambsdorff is calling on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to give up his blockade of Finland and Sweden joining NATO. “Finland and Sweden are just as important as Turkey in terms of NATO’s strategic importance,” Lambsdorff told “Bild am Sonntag”. He also called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim “a lie” that he felt threatened by NATO expansion. Lambsdorff emphasizes that NATO is purely a defense alliance, Finland and Sweden are already in the EU. “Now there must be a quick and smooth admission process to NATO, then Europe will be safer overall.”
+++ 06:35 Ukrainian military: “Situation is difficult, but under control” +++
Ukrainian forces continue to fight fiercely in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. As the Ukrainian military announced in an update on Facebook, the situation remains difficult but is under control. By late Saturday evening, soldiers had repulsed twelve attacks in the Donbass region, destroying eight tanks, five artillery systems, nine armored fighting vehicles and six drones.
+++ 05:56 Pro-Russian parties are banned in Ukraine +++
Parties that support the Russian war of aggression should soon be able to be banned in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is signing a law that was passed in early May, according to the Ukrainian parliament on its website. The law will come into effect one day after its official publication. For example, the ban is intended to hit parties that justify or deny Russia’s war against Ukraine.
+++ 05:32 Russian diplomats are allegedly being threatened in the USA +++
According to the Russian ambassador to the US, Russian diplomats in the US are threatened with violence. “Our embassy is in a hostile environment. Embassy staff are receiving threats, including threats of physical violence,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency TASS. US security agents would hand out CIA and FBI contact numbers outside the Russian embassy. The CIA and FBI have so far declined to comment, and the US State Department could not be reached for comment on the matter.
+++ 04:55 Kuleba calls on the German population to make deprivations +++
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is calling on the people of Germany to accept the consequences of the sanctions against Russia. “Sometimes it’s better to help someone else and endure a short period of deprivation rather than sitting at home watching TV and doing nothing, just allowing the problem to eventually knock on your door,” says Kuleba at ” Picture TV”. He emphasizes that Ukraine has proposed a fair deal: “Give us everything we need and we will contain Russia and defeat it in Ukraine so that they never knock on your door.”
+++ 04:27 Inspector General warns of training deficit in the Bundeswehr +++
The Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Eberhard Zorn, warns of a serious training deficit in the Bundeswehr after the corona pandemic. “During the Corona crisis, we provided pandemic aid for two years. Everyone thought it was great, but it meant that, especially in the army, we were only able to train to a limited extent outside of the units that are registered for NATO obligations,” he says. picture on Sunday”. The soldiers had not been adequately trained in tactical cooperation. “It will take a year and a half to make up for this deficit.”
+++ 03:43 convoy with hundreds of refugees from Mariupol reaches Zaporizhia +++
A large convoy of cars and vans has safely arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhia with refugees from Mariupol. The refugees had to leave Mariupol on their own beforehand and make their own way to Berdyansk, about 80 kilometers further west. From there they were taken to safety in the rescue vehicles 200 kilometers away in Zaporizhia. An aide to the Mariupol mayor had previously said the convoy included between 500 and 1,000 cars, making it the largest evacuation operation in the city since the Russians invaded on February 24.
+++ 03:10 Norway supports Finland and Sweden’s plans to join NATO +++
Despite criticism from Turkey, Norway supports Finland’s and Sweden’s plans for NATO membership. Norway is one hundred percent behind Finland and Sweden should the two countries apply for membership of the defense alliance, said Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeld after her arrival at the informal NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Berlin. Such a move would strengthen Nordic cooperation. This is a historic moment. Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra makes a similar statement. It is important that all NATO members demonstrate unity here, says Hoekstra.
+++ 02:41 Selenskyj sure: ESC will take place in Ukraine in 2023 +++
After Ukraine’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is overjoyed and wants to hold the competition in his country next year. “Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe! Next year Ukraine will host Eurovision! For the third time in our history,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram news channel on Sunday morning. He believes that this will not be the last victory. Zelenskyj also referred to the call by the Kalush Orchestra band at the ESC to save the port city of Mariupol, which was besieged by Russian troops. “We are doing everything so that one day the Ukrainian Mariupol will welcome the participants and guests of the Eurovision. A free, peaceful, rebuilt!” Zelenskyy writes.
+++ 01:48 Russia contradicts the shooting down of its transport ship +++
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, one of their transport ships in the Black Sea was not damaged by Ukrainian forces. As evidence, the ministry published photos of the ship in an online post, said to have been taken on Saturday at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea. The Ukrainian military authorities in Odessa said on Thursday that they had attacked and set fire to a Russian transport ship. The information could not be independently verified.
+++ 00:59 German butcher sends Melnyk Palatinate liver sausage +++
The “liver sausage” statements made by the Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk about Chancellor Olaf Scholz have a whimsical aftermath. The Palatinate butcher Walter Adam from Herxheim near Landau sends a gift basket with Palatinate liver sausage to Melnyk – and also announces this in interviews with several media. The Ukrainian ambassador in Germany now explains via Twitter that he is looking forward to the sausage and invites the butcher to Berlin and Ukraine. “If he really invited me to Berlin, then I would go,” says Adam. At the beginning of May, Melnyk criticized Scholz’s preliminary no to a trip to Kyiv with the words: “Playing an offended liver sausage doesn’t sound very statesmanlike.” The newspaper “Die Rheinpfalz” took the diplomatic complications as an opportunity to conduct an interview with butcher Adam on the subject of liver sausages, among other things.
+++ 00:13 Ukraine: Russians continue attacks in Donbass without success +++
According to Ukrainian information, the Russian armed forces are continuing their attacks in the east of the country without gaining any significant ground. “The occupiers are maintaining the greatest activity in the Slobozhanske and Donetsk areas,” said the General Staff in its evening situation report. Accordingly, the Russian troops are preparing attacks on the cities of Sieverodonetsk, Soledar and Bakhmut and are moving two more tactical battalions to the front. With the help of artillery and air support, the enemy would storm Ukrainian positions. “He has had partial success in Avdiivka,” it says. The city is considered a Ukrainian fortress and has been stormed by the Russians since the beginning of the war without success. In the Kharkiv region in north-eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops were recently able to partially advance to the border, the Russians are now concentrating their efforts on maintaining their own defensive positions and controlling the most important communication routes, it is said. In the south of the country, on the other hand, Russian troops are trying to establish themselves on the strategically important snake island.
+++ 23:41 Finland despite criticism of Turkey confident about joining NATO +++
Ahead of a meeting with NATO foreign ministers, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto expressed confidence that he would be able to persuade critical Turkey that Finland and Sweden should join NATO. Haavisto says in Berlin that he is “confident that we will eventually find a solution and that Finland and Sweden will become members of NATO.” The Finnish head of state announced on Thursday that Finland wanted to apply for NATO membership “immediately” in view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Sweden also wants to decide soon whether to join the western military alliance. On Friday, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan objected to the two countries joining NATO. He accused Finland and Sweden of acting as “guest houses for terrorist organizations”. Turkey has long accused the Nordic countries, particularly Sweden, where many Turkish immigrants live, of harboring extremist Kurdish groups as well as supporters of US-based preacher Fethullah Gülen.
+++ 23:13 Film about war in eastern Ukraine awarded at Munich Film Festival +++
A film about the war in eastern Ukraine wins the main prize at the renowned Dok.fest in Munich. For the documentary “Trenches”, the French director Loup Bureau accompanied Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbass region in the fight against Russian-backed separatists, the film festival announced. He shows how they tried to lead a reasonably normal everyday life between explosions and enemy attacks. According to the jury’s justification, Loup Bureau’s commitment alone is worthy of an award. But “Trenches” is also a wonderful film that documents everyday life in the trenches with a lot of respect and without gimmickry. According to the organizers, the main prize of the festival is endowed with 10,000 euros.
+++ 22:43 G7 countries are looking for alternative transport routes for Ukrainian grain +++
The Group of Leading Democratic Industrialized Nations (G7) is considering alternatives to shipping grain from Ukraine to break the Russian blockade in the area. After there were problems with rail transport via Romania due to the different track widths of the railways, they were examining exports via the Baltic ports, said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the end of a G7 meeting near Weißenhäuser Strand on the Baltic Sea. But even when traveling via the Baltic States, the prerequisites would first have to be clarified as to how the ports there could be reached. Normally, five to six million tons of grain per month could be shipped from Ukraine, says Baerbock. However, this can only be achieved by sea. With a delivery by rail, it is clear that you get significantly less grain. But the following applies: “Every ton that is delivered can help a little to get this hunger crisis under control.”
+++ 22:12 Zelenskyj: Russian armed forces present themselves as winners in the Donbass +++
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the situation in the Donbass region remains very difficult. Russian forces continued to try to demonstrate that they had achieved some kind of victory there, Zelenskyy said in his late night video message.
You can read earlier developments in the Ukraine conflict here.