NATO convenes special summit – Putin dampens hopes for peace talks

Munich After the most recent tentative signs of hope, on this 20th day after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, there are more pessimistic signs: NATO is calling a special summit, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is relativizing the results of talks between Russia and Ukraine and the attacks on Ukrainian cities continue unabated.

Against this background, NATO has invited the heads of state and government of its member states to a special summit next week. The meeting is to be organized for March 24 at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Tuesday evening.

US President Joe Biden is also expected to be a guest at the regular EU March summit scheduled for March 24-25. This was confirmed by a senior EU official.

Stoltenberg announced that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, support for Ukraine and further strengthening of NATO’s defenses would be addressed. “At this critical time, North America and Europe must continue to stand together.”

It is considered unlikely that there will be far-reaching decisions at the summit next week. However, it is likely to be discussed, among other things, whether NATO will react to Russia’s advance towards the west with a substantial and long-term reinforcement of the eastern flank.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities continued on the 20th day of the war. According to Ukrainian sources, 19 people died and nine were injured in an attack on a television tower near the north-western Ukrainian city of Rivne.

Russian troops shell school

A school was fired on near the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, killing seven people. The Ochmatdyt Hospital in Lviv (Lemberg) near the Polish border is overwhelmed by the number of injured children arriving from the embattled regions, according to the UN children’s fund Unicef.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops said they were fending off a Russian advance in the embattled port city of Mariupol. About 150 attackers were killed and two tanks and several armored vehicles were destroyed, the Ukrainian General Staff said. The information cannot be verified.

Mariupol on the Azov Sea has been besieged by units of the Russian army and pro-Russian separatists for days. Hundreds of thousands of people endure there under catastrophic conditions.

According to the authorities, people in about 2,000 cars got to safety on Tuesday. Another 2000 cars were waiting on the outskirts. It was still unclear whether a convoy with dozens of tons of aid supplies and empty buses for an evacuation reached Mariupol, which was surrounded by Russian troops.

Russia and Ukraine speak of military successes

Both Russia and Ukraine report military successes. According to the Ukrainian armed forces, they have fended off Russian attacks on several fronts. The Ukrainian General Staff announced that Russian forces had not been able to break through the defenses north of Kyiv. The attackers could not have taken the city of Makariv, to the west of the capital, either.

The Russian army announced that it had taken control of the entire Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Around a million people live there. The occupation was not initially confirmed by the Ukrainian side. The information cannot be independently verified.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko imposed a curfew from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning after heavy attacks on the city. During this time, residents are only allowed to leave their houses to seek shelter in shelters and bunkers.

According to official information, four residential buildings in several districts in the capital were hit by rockets on Tuesday morning, killing at least two people. Russian troops try to encircle the capital from several sides.

This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:

The European Union has sent a signal of solidarity with Ukraine in the midst of hostilities. Despite Russian attacks on Kyiv just hours earlier, the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia made their way to a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

The train carrying Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, his deputy Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa reached Kyiv in the early evening.

“The purpose of the visit is to express the European Union’s unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence,” Czech Prime Minister Fiala wrote on Twitter. A wide package of support for Ukraine and its citizens will be presented during the trip.

sanctions on both sides

Russia’s President Putin also had contact with the EU on Tuesday. In a telephone conversation with EU Council President Charles Michel, he criticized the behavior of the Ukrainian side in the ongoing negotiations. Putin said that “Kyiv is not showing a serious attitude towards finding mutually acceptable solutions,” it said in a Kremlin statement on Tuesday evening.

Putin also accused the EU of ignoring a Ukrainian rocket attack on a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian separatist region of Donetsk on Monday. Ukraine has already denied responsibility for the attack.

After the conversation, Michel wrote on Twitter that the EU condemned Russia’s aggression. He also stressed that Moscow should end the “fratricidal war” against Ukraine.

Instead, however, Russia continued to escalate at the diplomatic level. In response to US sanctions, the country is now imposing entry bans on US President Joe Biden and other US government officials, the State Department in Moscow said. It published a “blacklist” of 13 names, including Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
It is the first time that Russia has published a list of affected persons. New sanctions against Russia should also come into force on the part of the EU. Accordingly, the Russian state and Russian companies should no longer be allowed to be rated by rating agencies from the EU.

More: UN Secretary-General warns of danger of nuclear conflict