04.10.2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ Ukraine: Russia promotes division in Africa +++
At the start of his visit to Africa, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitri Kuleba accused Russia of furthering the division of the continent. “Russia not only attacked Ukraine. It is spreading disintegration and supporting military coups in Africa,” says Kuleba in the Senegalese capital Dakar. Russia is increasingly militarily active in the Sahel region. A few days ago, the West African country of Burkina Faso was rocked again by a military coup. A number of people were out and about with Russian flags in the capital Ouagadougou at the weekend. The junta of the new ruler Ibrahima Traoré had stated that it wanted to use “other partners” for the fight against terrorism in the country, without giving any further information.
+++ Ukraine complains about massive environmental damage from invasion +++
Ukraine estimates the environmental damage caused by the Russian invasion at around 36 billion euros. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Environment, nature reserves covering an area of millions of hectares are under threat. A fifth of the protected areas could be destroyed. 2000 cases of damage have already been documented. So far, the bill for air pollution has amounted to around 25 billion euros. Another eleven billion euros are needed to clean the floors.
+++ 01:26 Baerbock currently sees no room for negotiation for a ceasefire +++
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock currently sees no chance for negotiations to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The negotiation offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kyiv reads something like this: “We are robbing your country, subjugating your citizens, and you can then sign it,” the Greens politician told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. Nevertheless, they themselves and the government were constantly looking for a diplomatic solution. “We try every day. Every day since February 24, one of the more than 190 countries in the world or an international organization kneels on behalf of the world community on the Russian President to stop bombing,” said the Foreign Minister. “The only answer from the Russian president is more atrocities.”
+++ 00:37 Zelenskyj: “Do not consider people in occupied territories as collaborators” +++
Against the background of the Ukrainian offensive, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is trying to win the trust of the population in the Russian-occupied areas. “Russian propagandists intimidate people in the areas still controlled by the occupiers, claiming that Ukraine will consider almost everyone who stays in the occupied territories as collaborators. Absolutely crazy stuff,” says Zelenskyy in his evening video address. Those who have not offered themselves to the Russians have nothing to fear. The president stressed that there was only isolated support for the Russian occupiers, although “hundreds of thousands” were temporarily under the occupation forces.
+++ 23:45 Kremlin: First mobilized recruits arrived in Donbass +++
Twelve days after the Russian partial mobilization, the first recruits have officially arrived in the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. “Mobilized soldiers are undergoing combat training in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on its Telegram channel. A video shows soldiers during target practice. The Russian military had previously reported the arrival of reservists in the Luhansk region. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the reservists are not deployed to fill gaps, but are to secure supply routes after their training in the rear of the front. The majority of the recruits would therefore only be deployed in one to two months. However, numerous irregularities and problems in the course of the partial mobilization have already become known.
+++ 23:10 People in the Czech Republic are giving Ukraine a tank +++
Over 11,000 donors in the Czech Republic are financing a modernized T-72 main battle tank for Ukraine. According to the organizers, 30 million crowns – the equivalent of almost 1.2 million euros – were raised within around a month. The collection was initiated by the Ukrainian embassy in Prague under the motto “A gift for Putin”. The tank already has a name: the organizers christened it “Tomas” after the co-founder and first President of Czechoslovakia, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk.
+++ 22:26 Duma decision on annexation: More votes cast than MPs present +++
The Russian parliament approved the annexations of four Ukrainian territories this afternoon – unanimously. However, the numbers show some discrepancies. Although there were no dissenting votes and none of the deputies abstained, the tableau of the State Duma showed, according to the Internet newspaper “Meduza” a different number of yes votes. 413 and 412 votes were counted for the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk regions respectively. 409 and 411 votes were reportedly cast for the annexation of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. The news agency Agentstvo points out that only 408 deputies were registered to vote at the session. From this it follows that in all four voting rounds more yes votes were cast than MPs were present. The chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, attributed the discrepancy to a “technical glitch” and demanded that nobody should worry about “plus or minus one vote”.
+++ 21:57 Selenskyj: “Which Elon Musk do you like more? The Ukraine supporter or the Russia supporter?” +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now also getting involved in the Twitter debate about a peace scenario for Ukraine by US billionaire Elon Musk. “Which Elon Musk do you like more? The Ukraine supporter or the Russia supporter,” asked the head of state on Twitter. Within a short time, several hundred thousand users took part in the survey. Previously, the outgoing Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, unmistakably clearwhat he thinks of Musk’s peace proposal: “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk”.
You can read earlier developments relating to the Ukraine war here.