01/04/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 08:29 Ukraine expects up to 70,000 Russian deaths in five months +++
Ukraine expects tens of thousands of dead Russian soldiers in the coming months. That says the spokesman for the Ukrainian secret service, Andrii Cherniak. The secret service is sure that Russia is still trying to capture the Donetsk region and hold the land corridor to Crimea. Cherniak estimates that up to 70,000 Russian soldiers could die in the process. But the Kremlin seems “ready for such losses,” Cherniak added. According to the Ukrainian media, Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar had stated that Russia could no longer attack with the same intensity as at the beginning of the war against Ukraine. But Moscow still has great resources when it comes to soldiers.
+++ 07:44 Putin orders propaganda films about “military special operations” +++
Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed his government that documentaries dedicated to his attack on Ukraine and the alleged fight against “neo-Nazi ideology” be shown in cinemas. A statement from the Kremlin said loudly “Kyiv Post”, the Ministry of Culture has until February 1 to implement the order. In addition, Putin is instructing the Defense Ministry to help Russian filmmakers produce documentaries “devoted to the heroism of the participants in the special military operation,” according to the Kremlin, which still uses the term to refer to the offensive. Since the start of the Moscow military operation, state television channels have stepped up their propaganda celebrating Russian troops fighting in Ukraine as heroes. Independent media outlets have been suspended or shut down in Russia, and many journalists have left the country.
+++ 06:50 Pregnant Russian women fly to Argentina +++
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Argentina has seen a veritable boom in Russian childbirth tourism. Hundreds of pregnant Russian women have traveled to the Latin American country to give birth and thus obtain citizenship for the child. President Vladimir Putin’s call to war may have reinforced this trend. Georgy Polin, head of the consular section of the Russian embassy in Argentina, estimates that between 2,000 and 2,500 Russians have come to Argentina this year, including many Russian women who want to give birth in the country. “Next year that number may rise to 10,000,” he tells the British “Guardians”.
+++ 06:17 Caritas expects a new wave of refugees +++
The Catholic aid organization Caritas International expects a new wave of refugees in the Ukraine war. “If infrastructure continues to be destroyed and temperatures drop, people in some areas will have no choice but to leave,” said Ukraine team boss Gernot Krauss. “We expect that there will be another wave.” Millions of people have already had to leave the war-torn country. According to Krauss, there are many older women among those left behind. “They will have to go. That will buffer the country for the time being. But it increases the pressure on neighboring countries, including us.” According to the UN refugee agency, almost eight million Ukrainians are living as refugees in European countries. More than 6.5 million are displaced people in their own country.
+++ 05:45 Strack-Zimmermann for NATO’s two percent target as a minimum requirement +++
The Chair of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, supports calls from NATO member states to tighten the current two percent target for defense spending. “NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s considerations of defining the two-percent target as a minimum requirement not only makes a lot of sense in the current world situation. Chancellor Olaf Scholz also emphasized in his turning point speech in February that we Percentage target must permanently “exceed””, says Strack-zimmermann.
+++ 02:50 MPs criticize the federal government for being silent about the Nord Stream explosions +++
100 days after the alleged attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, members of the Bundestag criticize the fact that the federal government has so far shared almost no information on the results of the investigation with them and the public. “Especially in times of war, I understand that these sensitive investigations can also require secrecy,” Green Konstantin von Notz, chairman of the parliamentary secret service control committee, told the Tagesspiegel. “But in a constitutional state, the public has a right to know what really happened.” His deputy, the CDU MP Roderich Kiesewetter, announced that they would continue to “put pressure on parliamentarians because the wild speculation in this unclear situation is not without danger”. But he has the impression “that the German investigative authorities and thus also the federal government are actually still groping in the dark”.
+++ 01:47 Russia: Killed soldiers responsible for attack on barracks +++
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian soldiers killed in the improvised barracks in Makiivka are themselves responsible for the attack. “It is already obvious that the main reason for what happened was the switching on and massive use of mobile phones by personnel – contrary to the ban – within range of enemy weapons,” the Ministry of Defense said. “This circumstance allowed the enemy to track down the coordinates of the location of the soldiers and use them for a missile attack.”
+++ 01:01 attack on military accommodation: Moscow admits more dead +++
After the Ukrainian attacks on a Russian military base in Makiivka in the Donetsk region, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow corrected the number of its own soldiers killed by more than 20 to 89. The men and the deputy commander were found after the rocket attack on New Year’s Eve in the rubble of the collapsed reinforced concrete building, said Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov. So far, 63 dead had been mentioned.
More about this here.
+++ 23:33 Selenskyj praises Norway for “very far-reaching decisions” +++
After the recent Russian missile strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the international community to strengthen his country’s defense capabilities. Ukraine is preparing for a new wave of mobilization by the “terror state” Russia and must therefore be prepared, says Zelenskyj in his evening video message. He thanks Norway, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Canada, with whose heads of state he spoke today. There were “very far-reaching decisions” with Norway in particular. Among other things, the country is ready to supply Ukraine with the necessary gas quantities this winter, according to Zelenskyy.
+++ 22:01 Russia: Several HIMARS rocket launchers destroyed +++
The Russian army claims to have destroyed several HIMARS rocket launchers. The Russian state news agency Tass writes, the armed forces destroyed four US-made HIMARS rocket launchers yesterday. In addition, 120 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic.” The information cannot be independently verified.
+++ 21:31 video shows explosion directly behind reporter +++
A video from eastern Ukraine shows an explosion occurring in the immediate vicinity of a reporter. The French channel TF1-TMC writes on his website, three journalists were in the Kramatorsk area, including the reporter who is in front of the camera. The bombardment happened yesterday just before a switch – only a few dozen meters away from the journalists. They were unharmed, they said. The exact location is not mentioned. Multiple media to report, it was about the Russian rocket attack on the ice rink in the town of Druzhkivka near Kramatorsk. Reports said two were injured.
+++ 20:46 Kyiv: War forces us to rebuild energy system +++
Ukraine wants to accelerate green energy transition amid Russian attacks on power grid. The war made plans for this even more urgent, Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal said at a cabinet meeting. The potential of renewable energies such as sun, wind and hydrogen will be used more actively. “The Russian attacks are forcing us into a fundamental reform – building a decentralized energy system. It will be less vulnerable to enemy attacks,” says Schmyhal. A priority this year is to create the conditions for the construction of mini power stations and small power generation plants. The government is also concentrating on repairing damaged power plants and better protection, especially for nuclear power plants.
+++ 20:07 administration: civilians killed by land mines +++
According to the regional administration, two people were killed by the explosion of landmines in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson. The Russian army left the mines in the now liberated area, writes the regional administration on Telegram. The explosives detonated when a car with civilians drove over the mines near the town of Mala Oleksandrivka.
You can read earlier developments in the Ukraine war here.