Russia wants to withdraw civilians from Mariupol steel mill
Russia’s Defense Ministry has announced that it will cease hostilities at 2:00 p.m. Moscow time (1:00 p.m. CEST) to allow civilians to evacuate the besieged Azovstal Steel Works in the port city of Mariupol. The trapped civilians were allowed to choose which way to exit the plant.
Moscow denies plans for secession referendum in southern Ukraine
The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied plans that Moscow is planning a referendum on the secession of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson. “I haven’t heard anything about that,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko at a press conference when asked by journalists.
Speculations about the preparation of such a referendum as on the Crimean peninsula in 2014 or in the separatist republics in the Donbass have increased recently. Among other things, leaflets with corresponding calls are said to have appeared in the Cherson region.
A meeting between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba is also not currently planned, Rudenko explained.
Russia warns US against further arms deliveries
Russia warns US against arms shipments to Ukraine. “We have stressed that it is unacceptable for the United States to deliver arms to Ukraine. We have demanded an end to this practice, »said the Russian ambassador to the USA, Anatoly Antonov, in an interview with the TV channel Rossiya 24. An official diplomatic note was sent to Washington expressing Russia’s concerns .
Such arms shipments aggravated the situation and aggravated the conflict. Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pledged $713 million in military aid to Ukraine and the region during a visit to Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the Americans for their arms support. “We have discussed with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arms assistance, tightening sanctions policy against Russia, financial assistance to Ukraine and security guarantees,” Zelenskiy said on his official Telegram channel.
According to Moscow: Refinery in Ukraine’s Kremenchuk bombed
Russia says it has attacked the Kremenchuk oil refinery in Ukraine. “High-precision long-range weapons destroyed fuel production facilities at an oil refinery on the northern outskirts of Kremenchuk, as well as storage facilities for petroleum products that refueled military equipment for Ukrainian troops,” the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
Can Ukrainian refugees relieve Swiss restaurants?
Even before the corona crisis, the catering industry was struggling with a shortage of staff. Since the beginning of the pandemic, more and more employees have been turning their backs on the industry. The industry disagrees as to whether Ukrainian refugees could provide relief.
Tobias Burkhalter from Gastro Bern is convinced that Ukrainian refugees could relieve Swiss restaurants, as he told the AWP news agency. An online platform for job-seeking refugees is currently being set up in Bern and a one-month introductory course is being set up.
Gastrosuisse also sees potential here and therefore welcomes the Federal Council’s decision to grant Ukrainian refugees quick and easy access to the Swiss labor market. But the language is a problem.
The Hotel & Gastro Union workers’ association also perceives the language barrier as a problem. “Gastronomy is a people business,” said Roger Lang, head of legal services at the association, in an interview with AWP. Not least because of this, in his opinion, Ukrainian refugees are not the solution to the problem. The gastro association of the canton of Zurich also sees it this way.
Legend:
The catering industry was already struggling with staff shortages before Corona.
Icon Image/Keystone
Greenpeace activists chain themselves to tankers carrying Russian oil
Greenpeace environmental activists try to stop a tanker from delivering Russian oil to Norway. This is reported by the Reuters news agency. According to the environmental organization, the activists chained themselves to the ship in protest against the war in Ukraine. According to the company, the tanker is in front of the Exxon Mobile oil terminal about 70 kilometers south of Oslo.
US Secretary of State: Russia failed, Ukraine succeeded
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russia’s intentions in the war against Ukraine have not been successful. “As far as Russia’s goals are concerned, Russia has already failed and Ukraine has succeeded,” said Blinken at a press conference in southern Poland. He and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were previously in Ukraine with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At three hours, the meeting lasted twice as long as scheduled.
According to the railway boss: Several railway stations in the country were shot at
According to Ukrainian sources, several rockets fell in western and central Ukraine on Monday morning. Five railway stations were also hit, said the head of the Ukrainian railways, Oleksandr Kamyshin, on the company’s Telegram channel. “Russian forces continue to systematically destroy railway infrastructure,” Kamyshin commented.
According to him, the route and timetable of several trains had to be changed for safety reasons. There are conflicting reports about possible injuries. The authorities in the western Ukrainian region of Lviv and in Vinnytsia, southwest of Kyiv, also reported rocket attacks.
Legend:
According to Ukrainian sources, five train stations in western and central Ukraine came under fire on Monday (archive photo from March 6, 2022).
Archive/Reuters icon image
Russia apparently shoots down drones
In the Russian region of Kursk, which borders Ukraine, air defense forces shot down two Ukrainian drones, according to Governor Roman Starovoyt. There were no victims, the governor writes on Telegram. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Russia made little headway in the east
Russia has not made a “significant breakthrough” since shifting the focus of its military effort to a full occupation of Donbass, according to the UK MoD. The progress so far has been modest.
Gerhard Schröder is to leave the SPD because of Russian mandates
SPD co-chair Saskia Esken has asked Gerhard Schröder to leave the SPD. Schröder has only acted as a businessman for years, says Esken on “Deutschlandfunk”. “We should stop perceiving him as … ex-chancellor.” Unfortunately, the party leadership had asked him in vain to give up his mandates with Russian energy companies. Several applications for a party exclusion would already be examined.
Schröder has been heavily criticized in Germany for not resigning from his post despite the Russian attack on Ukraine. Schröder has been close friends with Putin since he was chancellor (1998 to 2005).
Kyiv reports new Russian attack attempts towards Kramatorsk
According to the Ukrainian military, it has repelled several Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine. “In the direction of Izyum – Barvinkove and Izyum – Kramatorsk, the enemy attempted to storm, but were unsuccessful, shelling the villages of Velika Komyshuvahka, Virnopillya and Nova Dmytrivka,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in its situation report on Monday.
In the Donetsk area and further south, Russian combat operations were primarily limited to heavy artillery fire on the Ukrainian positions. Only in the small town of Popasna, which has been fought over for weeks, have there been further storm attempts.
In the city of Mariupol, the Azovstal steelworks was hit with bombs and rockets, it said. The General Staff made no statements about its own losses. The Russian side is said to have lost 13 tanks and other military technology.
Blinken and Austin pledge $322 million to Selenski in meetings
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pledge an additional $322 million in US aid during their meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “This will support the military capabilities needed by Ukraine, particularly the fight in Donbass,” a US State Department official said. “This aid will also help Ukraine’s armed forces transition to more advanced weaponry and air defense systems that are essentially NATO-ready.”
Total US security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion is now around $3.7 billion.
Legend:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Reuters
The most important things from the past few days
- The foreign policy representative of the European Union Joseph Borrell, currently sees insufficient support among the member countries for one Embargo on Russian oil and gas. He told the newspaper “Welt” on Monday.
- The Ukrainian government proposes one Special round of negotiations with Russia to the in Mariupol trapped civilians and soldiers. The aim of the talks would therefore be immediate ceasefire in the port city, the establishment humanitarian corridors as well as a deduction or an exchange of Ukrainian fighters trapped in the steelworks.
- The establishment of a escape corridor from Mariupol is according to the Ukrainian government failed again. Another attempt should be made this Monday, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
- The Russian armed forces have theirs missile attacks against Ukraine also for Orthodox Easter continued with all severity.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres is scheduled to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this Monday Ankara to travel. Guterres will be in for talks on Tuesday Moscow and on Thursday in the Ukraine expected.
- Germany must none in the Switzerland bought ammunition transfer to Ukraine. The federal government has vetoed this maneuver.
The reports from the last week can be found here.