Dusseldorf One figure leaves no doubt that the attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin will hit the people of Ukraine first and foremost: the European Commission predicted this Monday afternoon that five million of them will probably leave their homeland. Fleeing rockets, bombs and violence that Russia’s soldiers are currently inflicting on their neighboring people.
And yet, on the eleventh day of this war, there is more and more news that shows how this tragedy has long since eaten into the lives of millions of other people around the world. There is the government of Iraq, which, fearing a food shortage as a result of destroyed wheat crops in Ukraine, is buying wheat on the world market for $100 million. Or there are the Europeans who, at the latest at the beginning of this new week of war, realize that the years of dependency into which they have become dependent on the energy supplier Russia under German leadership is now taking revenge: with record-breaking prices for oil, gas and other energy commodities.
One question looms over all of this: Who could help the warring factions find a way out of this war? The top Western politicians are unlikely to be. The heads of state and government of the USA, Germany, France and Great Britain again called on Russia on Monday evening to stop its attack on Ukraine “and to withdraw its troops completely”. There was agreement that the protection of the civilian population must currently have the highest priority, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit after Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson had switched. Only: they have not been heard by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a long time.
The Chinese foreign minister, on the other hand, didn’t sound as if he saw himself in that role during a press conference today, despite his pro-Russia stance. At least Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to bring together the foreign ministers of both parties in one place. They are scheduled to meet their Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in the Turkish coastal town of Antalya on Thursday.
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But will it bring more than the meeting of the now well-known delegations of Russian and Ukrainian diplomats? Their third round of negotiations ended on Thursday evening. There are small positive steps in improving logistics for humanitarian corridors, said Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mikhail Podoliak. Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said there should be a new attempt this Tuesday to get people to safety via the corridors.
The third round of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow after Russia’s attack on Ukraine lasted around three hours in Belarus. The Belarusian state agency Belta published a picture of the delegations at a table on the Telegram news channel.
For talks with his Ukrainian colleague in Turkey.
(Photo: dpa)
And so Europe continues to adjust to the fact that the next worst development will always occur rather than the next better one. Of the up to five million war refugees that the EU is expecting, there are already around 1.6 million, said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday after a meeting of the development ministers of the EU states in Montpellier. “We haven’t seen such a large movement of refugees since the end of the Second World War.”
According to Borrell, almost 100 million euros are to be made available for humanitarian emergency aid in a first step in order to support the people in Ukraine and war refugees in neighboring Moldova. The money could be used to finance food, water and shelter, among other things. It is estimated that more than 18 million people have been affected by the war inside Ukraine, Borrell said.
>> Read here the current developments in the Ukraine war in our news blog
Russian troops report gaining ground
Also because Russia’s aggressiveness is not abating. Russian troops are said to have continued to launch heavy attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on Monday. Russia has captured five settlements on the border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, the Defense Ministry said in Moscow.
The residents of the towns “will be given humanitarian aid,” it said. In addition, fighter jets and bombers destroyed 26 other military objects, the ministry said. These include two command posts, a radar station and five ammunition depots. Russia insists the troops are not attacking civilian targets, only military ones.
According to the Ukrainian armed forces, the attackers suffered heavy losses. Some Russian units lost up to 50 percent of their personnel in battles for Konotop and Ochtyrka in the north-east of the country. “The moral and psychological state of the enemy remains extremely low,” the General Staff claimed in Kyiv. Russian soldiers would desert in droves. The General Staff accused the Russian troops of flying even heavier airstrikes on Ukrainian cities. The information provided by the two warring parties could not be verified independently.
>> Read about this: 1.5 million people flee Ukraine – Europe’s biggest refugee tragedy since 1945
US strengthens troops in the Baltic States
In view of this, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced further US troops for the Baltic States. An additional 400 soldiers are expected to arrive in Lithuania in the coming days, he said on Monday after meeting his colleague Gabrielius Landsbergis in Vilnius. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the United States deployed around 7,000 more soldiers to Europe. Part of the contingent is now to be stationed in the Baltic EU and NATO country. During a visit to Latvia, Blinken also pledged help to strengthen cyber and energy security
At the same time, Blinken assured the Baltic States of US solidarity. Washington continues to be “ironically” committed to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, and the obligation to provide mutual assistance is “untouchable”. Nobody should have any doubts about that, he said almost verbatim in Lithuania and Latvia. The US is more determined than ever to stand by the Baltic States.
Blinken’s Baltic partners spoke out in favor of further strengthening NATO’s eastern flank. Specifically, they hope for more support in air defense, which is considered a weak point of the three Baltic states. “We are working on this issue,” Rinkevics replied to a related question at the press conference.
In the meantime, it is becoming increasingly clear that the war is not only forcing Western countries to build up their military equipment, but also requires completely new economic efforts. Because it is becoming increasingly clear that the sanctions are hitting the Russian economy more severely than the Russian government probably never expected.
However, they also cause high costs in European countries. Wholesale natural gas prices rose to new heights on Monday. A megawatt hour (MWh) cost around ten to 20 times as much on the Dutch TTF exchange as it did a year ago. In the meantime, the price was around 350 euros, in March 2021 the end-of-day value had never been above 20 euros.
Raw material prices at record levels
“We have never seen such rashes. This is historically unique and we have certainly not yet reached the maximum,” said Fabian Huneke from Energy Brainpool energy market research. Europe now has the highest gas prices in the world.
And that might just be the beginning. Western governments have long been discussing stopping importing oil from Russia and are looking for alternatives on the world market. Since they are not unlimited, the considerations alone should drive the price further in the next few days. It can no longer be ruled out that the West will take this step, primarily under pressure from the US government. Solidarity with Ukraine would then actually make itself felt in the everyday life of many people in Europe and North America.
Here you can find more Handelsblatt articles on the subject:
EU skeptical about Ukraine membership
Elsewhere, however, the Europa shows this Monday evening that solidarity also has limits: several western countries of the European Union are resisting the demand that Ukraine be granted the status of an EU accession candidate this week. That would be a first step on a long road to EU membership. This is reported by several diplomats.
The EU states have now commissioned the Commission to issue an opinion on Ukraine’s readiness for accession.
Germany, the Netherlands and other countries want to focus on ending the war and providing practical support to Ukraine rather than embarking on a process that could take at least a decade, according to diplomats, speaking from private talks ahead of a summit in France in reported this week.
And a decade that seems a bit far away in a conflict that produces new climaxes of horror every day. More symbol than solution.
With agency material.
More: Russia’s economy: The sanctions are hitting the country with full force