The Human Rights Council of the United Nations is meeting in Geneva from today until April 4th. He will cover a wide range of topics, ranging from the war in Ukraine to China’s treatment of Muslim minorities. Many of the participating states will push to extend the mandate of a UN investigative body set up to investigate atrocities in Ukraine. In total, more than 100 top politicians from all over the world are to take part in the coming weeks, including Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her Iranian colleague Hossein Amirabdollahian. A speech by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov is scheduled for Thursday. It would be the first time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine a year ago that an official representative of Moscow’s leadership has appeared in person at the Human Rights Council. Russia’s membership was suspended last April, but it can continue to participate as an observer.
+++ 07:31 Pistorius is pushing for higher defense spending in the long term +++
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is calling for permanently higher defense spending. “One thing is clear, you have to emphasize that again, the 100 billion special funds are one thing, they will take another three years until they are spent. And then it will be clear that we need more. By the way, already for ongoing operations,” the SPD politician told ARD. Almost 30 billion euros of the special fund are already contractually bound. Pistorius also expects the first contracts for the delivery of new self-propelled howitzers to be signed by the end of March.
+++ 06:58 Union accuses Scholz of broken promises after the “turn of the era” speech +++
One year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s “Zeitenwende” speech, the Union accuses the federal government of not keeping its promises to modernize the Bundeswehr. “The chancellor is breaking his promises,” said parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn of the “Neue Westfälische”. So far, “virtually nothing” has been planned for the special fund of 100 billion euros announced at the time for the Bundeswehr. “Even urgently needed ammunition was not ordered,” complained Spahn. He emphasizes that the Chancellor’s speech after the Russian invasion of Ukraine was fundamentally “right”. “I thought that day: Wow, that can shape this chancellorship.” However, the federal government “was no longer able to maintain the flight altitude the following day”. The CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter also complained that the right words in Scholz’s speech “were not translated into a political program”. Kiesewetter told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” that the federal government had fallen far short of the expectations raised by Scholz in terms of both supporting Ukraine and equipping the Bundeswehr.
+++ 06:25 Ukrainian deputy head of the secret service expects further wave of mobilization by Russia +++
The deputy head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR, Vadym Skibitsky, expects another large wave of Russian mobilization. “If Russia has huge losses, there will be another big wave of mobilization,” Skibitsky told the newspapers of the Funke media group. In September 2022, 315,000 reservists were mobilized in Russia. “A similar wave of mobilization may happen again. It depends on the success or failure of Russian troops on the battlefield,” Skibitsky said. A total of almost 520,000 Russian soldiers are currently involved in the war against Ukraine. “They are stationed either in Ukraine or near the border with Ukraine – be it in Belarus or in the far west of Russia,” explains the deputy intelligence chief.
+++ 05:42 Belarusian partisans responsible for drone attack on Russian military aircraft +++
Belarusian partisans and members of the exile opposition claim responsibility for the drone attack on a Russian military aircraft A-50 that was damaged at an airfield near the capital Minsk (entry 7:26 p.m.). “They were drones. The participants in the operation are Belarusians,” the Polish broadcaster “Belsat” quoted a statement by the head of the Belarusian anti-government organization Bypol, Aliaksandr Azarau. “You are safe now, out of the country.” The front and center sections of the aircraft and the radar antenna were destroyed by two explosions during the attack on the Makhulishchi airbase. An advisor to opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who fled into exile, describes the attack on Twitter as the most successful act of sabotage since early 2022.
+++ 5:01 a.m. White House: Biden actually did not want to deliver Abrams tanks +++
The White House surprises with a statement on the delivery of US Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine: US President Joe Biden approved this due to pressure from Germany, Biden’s security adviser Jake Sullivan makes it clear. The Germans have told Biden that they are not prepared to send German Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine until the US president agrees to also send US main battle tanks, Sullivan said. The White House thus contradicts both its own statements from the past and those of the federal government. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected in the White House on Friday.
+++ 04:18 Medvedev fuels fears of a nuclear attack +++
Russia’s top politician Dmitry Medvedev is trying to fuel fears of a nuclear catastrophe over arms deliveries to Ukraine. “Of course, the pumping in of weapons…can continue and prevent any possibility of resuming negotiations,” the deputy chairman of the National Security Council told the pro-government daily Izvestia. “Our enemies are doing just that, ignoring the fact that their goals will surely lead to a total fiasco. A loss for all. A collapse. Apocalypse. Where for centuries one forgets one’s past life, until the debris ceases to radiate.” Unlike Russia, Ukraine no longer has nuclear weapons.
+++ 02:35 Ukrainian ground forces commander in Bakhmut +++
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, visited embattled Bakhmut. “He listened to the unit commanders about urgent problems, helped to solve them and supported the soldiers,” the ground forces said on Telegram. The experienced commander is considered the architect of the defeat of Russian forces at the beginning of the war before Kiev and in September in the Kharkiv region. The battle for Bakhmut, which has been going on for months, is one of the most difficult battles of attrition in the war in Ukraine that has been going on for a year.
+++ 00:39 Zelenskyy dismisses commander in Donbass +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired a high-ranking military commander who has been fighting Russian troops in the east of the country. In a one-line decree, Zelenskyi announced the dismissal of Eduard Moskalyov, commander of the combined forces of Ukraine. Moskalyov has been at his post in Donbass since March 2022 – shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Selenskyj does not give a reason for the dismissal.
+++ 23:31 Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister visits Ukraine +++
Ukraine is receiving a state visit from the Gulf state for the first time since diplomatic relations were established with Saudi Arabia 32 years ago. “We see interaction with Saudi Arabia not only bilaterally, not only multilaterally within the framework of the UN and other international organizations, but also regionally, and we will coordinate our efforts,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at a meeting with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, who in turn points to “common challenges and experiences in dealing with them” – meaning Iranian drones used by the Houthis in the war in Yemen.
+++ 21:28 Pistorius confirms considerations for NATO maneuvers in Poland +++
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius confirms plans to hold joint maneuvers by American, German and Polish soldiers in Poland. That would be a clear signal in the direction of both NATO and Putin, says the SPD politician on ARD. “This NATO is not nearly as weak as he thought. It is much stronger. Much more united than before.” It is important for the countries in the Eastern European part of Europe and the countries in the Baltic States to see that Germany and the USA stand by their commitment to the defense of the alliance.
+++ 20:45 Ukraine needs more help with anti-aircraft defense +++
Despite high numbers of shots against incoming Russian missiles and combat drones, Ukraine still needs more weapons for air defense, according to its air force chief. “Since September alone, over 650 Russian cruise missiles and 610 Iranian-made kamikaze drones have been shot down,” Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk tells a Ukrainian online portal for military issues. It is true that Ukraine has been actively supported by the West in terms of air defense with various weapons. But that’s not enough: “We need more technologically advanced weapons that will help us quickly restore order to the sky and rid it of the terrorist presence.”
+++ 20:06 Ukraine: Fronts unchanged despite Russian attacks +++
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the front sections in eastern Ukraine have remained unchanged. Although Russian troops attacked at several points with air and artillery support, they were unable to break through, the General Staff reports in its daily situation report. As on the previous days, the heaviest fighting was fought at Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Limansk, Avdiivka and Shakhtarsk.
The absolute focus was once again the city of Bachmut, which had been fought over for weeks. A number of Russian attacks against smaller suburbs were repulsed there. At Bachmut, members of the notorious Wagner mercenary troupe are fighting on the Russian side.
+++ 19:26 explosions at the military airfield near Minsk +++
According to reports from Belarusian opposition activists, several explosions occur at a military airfield near Minsk. A Russian A-50 reconnaissance aircraft was said to have been damaged. According to the BYPOL initiative, two explosions damaged the front and middle parts of the aircraft, as well as the onboard electronics and the radar antenna. “The damage is serious, the plane will definitely not fly anymore,” the activists’ report said.
“Belaruski Hayun”, an independent Belarusian military monitoring medium, writes on Telegram that the plane may have been “damaged by dropping an unidentified object from a high altitude”. According to Russian propaganda military bloggers Yuri Kotenok and Semyon Pegov, the airfield was attacked by drones. Local residents had previously reported loud explosions on social media. The explosions have not yet been officially confirmed.
You can read earlier developments in the Ukraine war here.