New attacks on Ukrainian residential areas

According to Ukrainian sources, Russian warplanes have carried out new airstrikes on residential areas in eastern and central Ukraine. On Wednesday night, Ukrainian authorities reported dead people – including children – and many injured in the attacks in the Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions, among others. The information is not independently verifiable.

Russia insists the troops are not attacking civilian targets, only military ones. According to Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn, air strikes destroyed a mineral wool plant near the town of Zhytomyr.

Russian artillery shelled the outskirts of Kyiv, said Yaroslav Moskalenko, who coordinates humanitarian aid in the Kyiv region. Civilians would have had to seek refuge in air raid shelters. The supply of water, electricity and food was interrupted.

Escape from Sumy apparently succeeded

The opponents of the war have been struggling for days to allow civilians to flee the cities besieged by Russia. According to Ukrainian information, numerous civilians were able to leave the region of the city of Sumy via the escape corridor agreed with the Russian army.

Around 5,000 Ukrainians and around 1,700 foreign students were taken to a safer place on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told the Ukrainian news agency Unian. The escape routes led, for example, to Poltava, to Lviv (Lemberg) or to neighboring EU countries. However, the city has around 270,000 inhabitants.

According to the regional authorities, the humanitarian corridor from the Ukrainian city of Sumy will remain open this Wednesday.

Sumy is the first of five selected cities where an escape corridor worked. The city is about 30 kilometers from the Russian border. Russian troops have been attacking Sumy for days. Central Ukrainian Poltava is about 170 kilometers to the south and has so far been largely spared.

So far, however, no escape corridor has been found for the embattled southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. According to the Red Cross, 200,000 people are waiting there in catastrophic conditions to get out of the city. Aid deliveries to the port city have also failed, said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk to the Unian agency.

According to Ukrainian information, the escape routes lead to Poltava, to Lviv (Lemberg) or to neighboring EU countries. According to the UN, more than two million people have fled Ukraine.

Around 64,600 war refugees were registered in Germany by Tuesday, but the authorities believe that many more Ukrainians have come here. The German Association of Cities is calling for a refugee summit to be coordinated by the federal, state and local governments, as General Manager Helmut Dedy told the Funke media group.

Ukraine does not rule out neutrality

Ukrainian President Zelenskiy is constantly appealing to the West to help his country. “The war must end,” Zelensky said in a video message released on Tuesday evening. “We have to sit down at the negotiating table.”

According to its foreign policy adviser Ihor Zhovkva, Ukraine has not ruled out discussing the country’s possible neutrality in negotiations with Russia. In the ARD “Tagesthemen”, the consultant called for a direct conversation between Selenski and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Showkwa called on Germany “as the economic engine of the EU” to impose further sanctions. His country is asking for an embargo on Russian gas and oil. In addition, goods belonging to Russians should be confiscated.

>>Read more: Volodymyr Zelensky – the hero of freedom who came out of TV

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba also urged on Facebook on Wednesday night: “Every sanction, every company that leaves Russia is a step closer to victory.”

Appeal from Selenski’s wife

Ukrainian President Zelensky is now known for his passionate calls for help in Ukraine. Now his wife Selenska has also addressed the public with dramatic words. In an open letter to international media, she declared that the Russian invasion was tantamount to “the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians”. The most terrifying thing about the invasion was the child casualties, she wrote.

>>Read more: Diary from Ukraine – “War and death have come close to us”

Zelenska mentioned eight-year-old Alice, who died in the streets of Oktyrka while her grandfather tried to protect her, and Polina from Kyiv, who died in the shelling with her parents. She also referred to 14-year-old Arseniy, who was hit in the head by debris and could not be rescued because an ambulance couldn’t get through to him in time due to heavy fighting.

“This war is being waged against the civilian population, and not only through shelling,” Zelenska wrote. She pointed to the lack of basic medicines in the besieged cities. Zelenska supported the demands of her husband, President Zelensky, for the West to do something to counter Russian air superiority. “Lock down the skies and we’ll handle the war on the ground ourselves.” This information cannot be independently verified.

A no-fly zone over Ukraine has so far not only ruled out the federal government, because otherwise NATO could be drawn into the war. But there are now discussions about delivering MiG fighter jets from Poland to Ukraine. The only thing that is unclear is how, because there are fears of involvement in the fighting.

Dispute over Polish fighter planes

Poland had suggested handing over the planes to the United States – probably in order to somehow bring them to Ukraine with a stopover at the Ramstein base in Germany. The US government, in turn, considers this to be unfeasible.

The Polish proposal poses “difficult logistical challenges” and there are “serious concerns” about the geopolitical dimension, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. At a Senate hearing, a top State Department diplomat, Victoria Nuland, described Poland’s previously apparently uncoordinated offer as a “surprising move.”

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Kirby said the Pentagon is in contact with Warsaw following the Polish statement. The decision to let Ukraine have Polish fighter jets is ultimately a matter for the Polish government.

The idea that fighter jets handed over to the US military were flying from a US or NATO base in Germany into contested Ukrainian airspace during the war with Russia raises “serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance,” he said Kirby onward.

“It’s just not clear to us that there’s a valid rationale for doing this.” Kirby added in the unusually clear statement that the US would discuss the issue further with Warsaw and NATO allies, but did not believe the proposal Poland’s “durable”. The United States, Germany and numerous NATO allies are supporting Kyiv with the delivery of weapons and equipment for the Ukrainian military.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had expressed reservations about the considerations on Tuesday because of similar concerns.

Russian economy falters

Since military aid is tricky, the West relies primarily on economic pressure. So far, the federal government sees no way of doing without Russian energy imports. On Tuesday, however, the USA issued an import ban for Russian oil and announced one to Great Britain. With Coca-Cola, Pepsico and Starbucks, other global corporations have announced restrictions on their business in Russia.

The Russian economy now seems to be badly hit because of the numerous sanctions. The Central Bank of Russia imposed drastic restrictions on foreign exchange trading. According to the central bank, Russian banks will no longer be able to sell foreign cash to citizens. The rating agency Fitch downgraded Russia’s credit rating again – to junk level. The rating means that a payment default is imminent, Fitch said.

That’s going to be important today

According to Russian information, there will be a cease-fire from 8:00 a.m. to open up further escape routes. Chancellor Olaf Scholz talks to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And the Interior Committee of the Bundestag is dealing with the consequences of the war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will travel to Turkey later today to hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Kuleba, according to a report by the Russian news agency TASS. The TASS message refers to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

With agency material.

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