“Lots to do in Luhansk and Donetsk”

Kyiv, Washington The United States has pledged additional Himar rocket launchers to Ukraine in support of the 148-day war against Russia. The leadership in Kyiv was grateful, but also urgently demands the delivery of air defense systems. A victory for his country against the Russian attackers would protect all of Europe, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in his video address on Thursday night.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during online consultations with the so-called Ukraine Contact Group from dozens of countries that the Himars missile launchers that have been delivered so far have “made so much difference on the battlefield”. The US would also provide additional arms, ammunition and equipment, including missiles and artillery shells, as part of the next package for Ukraine. Details would be announced later in the week.

Austin said at a press conference after the deliberations that there had been “many new announcements” from defense secretaries and army chiefs from the more than 50 participating countries. “We see that countries from all over the world continue to provide urgently needed systems and ammunition.” He was not more specific.

The US is the main arms supplier to Ukraine. So far, according to US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, they have already delivered twelve Himars systems in addition to numerous other weapon systems.

Also on Wednesday, the Ukrainian President’s wife Olena Selenska urged the United States in a speech in the Capitol in Washington for more weapons and specifically for air defense systems.

Zelenskiy: Russia uses Ukraine as a testing ground

Meanwhile, President Zelensky himself accused Russia of using Ukraine as a testing ground for possible attacks against other European states. “Russia is testing everything that can be used against other European countries in Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “It started with gas wars and ended with a full-scale invasion, rocket terror and burning down of Ukrainian cities.”

Ukraine was outraged that Russia had threatened to take more territory. “Russia discards diplomacy and is focused on war and terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. Instead of negotiations, the Russians are after bloodshed. Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov had previously stated that Moscow’s territorial claims on Kyiv are now greater than they were at the beginning of the war at the end of February.

After the invasion of the neighboring country, the Kremlin of Kyiv demanded above all the cession of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed in 2014, as well as the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine clearly refused. Moscow is now pointing to Western arms deliveries that are said to pose a threat to the pro-Russian separatist areas of Luhansk and Donetsk. That’s why they want to push back the Ukrainian army even further than originally planned, according to Moscow.

Kremlin chief Putin promises reconstruction of Donbass

In view of the severe destruction caused by his war in Ukraine, Russian President Putin has announced that the cities in Donbass will be rebuilt. There is a lot to do in Luhansk and Donetsk, said Putin. “Therefore, our country will help the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic,” he said at a video conference with children and young people. In February, Russia recognized the areas of Luhansk and Donetsk that had broken away from Ukraine as independent states and then started the war – officially to protect them.

The Russian border region of Belgorod blames the Ukrainian side for an attack that killed one person. The region’s governor said the villages of Nekhoteyevka and Zhuravlevka were shelled on Wednesday.

Several houses were damaged in Nekhoteyevka and a civilian died. Russia, which itself started the war against neighboring Ukraine, has since repeatedly complained about shelling on its own territory. The Ukrainian side usually does not comment on these allegations.

The Electoral and Human Rights Office ODIHR of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) accused the Russian troops of serious and mass violations of international humanitarian law since the beginning of the war. Particularly serious cases are the shelling of the theater full of refugees in Mariupol in mid-March and the busy Kramatorsk train station in early April.

The experts were also appalled by the siege of cities whose inhabitants had not been given the opportunity to evacuate. Witnesses reported many cases of illegal executions, detentions, torture, sexual violence and kidnappings.

The Ukrainian army also violated international humanitarian law, albeit to a lesser extent, the ODIHR report said. In addition, both sides would violate applicable international law when dealing with prisoners of war.

This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war and the consequences:

That will be important on Thursday

The EU’s new Russia sanctions are due to come into force this Thursday. The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States launched the written decision-making process in Brussels on Wednesday. It is considered a formality as the procedure is usually only approved when all EU capitals have cleared their objections.

There is also the question of whether the most important pipeline for Russian gas deliveries to Europe will start operating again on Thursday. Is Russia actually allowing gas to arrive in significant quantities at the German landing station of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline – or is the energy crisis getting worse? Moscow kept foreign countries in the dark until the very end.

More: Don’t miss any development – everything new in our news blog about the Ukraine war