Nine million Ukrainians on the run

Dusseldorf Ukraine is unwilling to bow to Russia despite continued attacks and the worsening humanitarian situation: Ukrainians are refusing to capitulate in the badly damaged port city of Mariupol. An occupation of cities like Kyiv or Kharkiv by Russian troops is also unacceptable. Meanwhile, the refugee situation is getting worse.

The refugee situation

The Russian invasion drives millions of Ukrainians from their homes. 6.5 million people alone have left their homes, apartments, villages and towns because of the rocket attacks and bombings and are seeking refuge inside the country, the UN Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Monday.

In addition, almost 3.5 million people have fled across borders to neighboring countries in the three and a half weeks since the war began, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Around a fifth of the former population is affected. Around 44 million people lived in Ukraine before the Russian invasion began.

For many of those who have fled, it is not the first time that they have been snatched from their familiar surroundings. According to the IOM, 13.5 percent of them have already been displaced, in 2014 or 2015, when fighting broke out in the pro-Russian separatist regions in the east of the country and Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

According to the IOM, the displaced people primarily need medication, medical care and cash. Among them are many particularly vulnerable people: pregnant and breastfeeding women, the elderly, people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, and people directly affected by violence.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (SPD) said on Monday during consultations with EU colleagues that Europe had to reckon with eight million war refugees. In the first days of the war, it was mainly those who had a car or had relatives in other European countries who fled, she explained. With the increase in the brutality of the Russian war, more people would come “who have nobody in Europe, who couldn’t take anything with them”.

People would therefore have to be distributed across Europe, said Baerbock. “We have to distribute from the external border directly to European countries. Everyone has to take in refugees,” she said, and suggested “an airlift in solidarity”. The number per country will have to be “in the hundreds of thousands”. In addition, it should also be distributed across the Atlantic.

The military situation

It is attacks such as those on residential buildings and a shopping center in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv that are driving people to flee. After it had been relatively quiet over the weekend, the shelling of the Podil district began late on Sunday evening, it said.

Pictures from Monday show the destruction caused by bombings, which according to Ukrainian sources killed at least eight people. The mall in the densely populated Podil district was reduced to a smoldering ruin after being hit by shells late Sunday. The attack shattered all the windows of a neighboring high-rise building.

The Russian military on Monday admitted attacking a shopping center on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov accused Ukrainian forces of using the mall to reload multiple rocket launchers and store rockets for shelling Russian troops. A battery of multiple rocket launchers and associated ammunition were destroyed in the attack.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights counts 925 civilians killed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. In addition, 1,496 were injured.

Did they or didn’t they? It remains to be seen whether the Russian military really used particularly fast and high-flying hypersonic missiles over the weekend. According to the Department of Defense, the United States cannot confirm this. From a military point of view, the use of these missiles makes little sense.

Russia also claims to have twice destroyed targets in Ukraine with hypersonic missiles. The Russian military also announced further attacks with the “Kinzhal” (Dagger) missile. “The attacks of this airborne missile system on the Ukrainian military infrastructure during the military special operation continue,” said Defense Ministry spokesman in Moscow Igor Konashenkov.

The situation in the negotiations

Negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian sides appear to be faltering. The morning talks between the official delegations lasted a good hour and a half, said the parliamentary group leader of the Ukrainian presidential party Sluha Narodu (Servant of the People), David Arachamija, according to the newspaper “Ukrajinska Pravda”.

After that, the deliberations continued at the level of the working groups. “Today we work all day,” said Arachamija. The politician initially did not comment on the content.

It seems questionable whether there has actually been any progress. The Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mikhail Podoljak accused Russia of numerous lies on Twitter. Russia is persistently trying to justify “massive aggression” against Ukraine.

They drew on stories about biolabs, Nazi battalions and heavy shelling on the Ukrainian side. “All of this is an absolute lie that is rejected by the world watching the war live,” Podoljak wrote. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday confirmed Kiev’s line of not accepting any Russian ultimatums.

Russia has promised an end to the war if Ukraine ultimately meets certain conditions, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Suspilne on Monday. However, Ukraine will not respond to such ultimatums.

Ukraine announced that it would not give up the besieged port city of Mariupol either. “There can be no question of capitulation and laying down of arms,” ​​the news portal Ukrainska Pravda quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying. On Sunday, Russia had asked Ukrainian forces to lay down their arms in the city. An occupation of cities like Kyiv or Kharkiv by Russian troops is also unacceptable.

EU wants to become a military power

The Russian war of aggression has shown the EU how vulnerable it is – and not just economically. “The EU is surrounded by instability and conflict and confronted with war on its external borders,” says the new EU security policy guideline, which was adopted by European foreign and defense ministers on Monday.

The central element of the plan is a new military intervention force, which should be operational by 2025 at the latest and should comprise up to 5,000 soldiers. Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) described the intervention force as the “military heart” of the concept and announced that Germany wanted to provide the contingent as early as 2025.

According to Lambrecht, the Federal Republic will also make a strong financial contribution to joint EU military projects. Germany will finance more than a quarter of the additional EU support of 500 million euros for the Ukrainian armed forces. The package includes delivery of weapons and equipment.

Irrespective of this, Germany will provide the Ukrainian army with further weapons, announced government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. This is based on previous deliveries. So far, these have been bazookas and anti-aircraft missiles. Hebestreit left it open how much money the federal government intends to spend on this.

Russia’s disputes with the US and Japan

The relationship between the US and Russia remains icy. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the US Ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, has been summoned. The US diplomat was told that statements by US President Joe Biden about Russian President Vladimir Putin had brought bilateral relations to the brink of collapse. Biden called Putin a “war criminal” last week.

There can be no talk of relaxation in Moscow’s relationship with Tokyo either. Russia withdrew from negotiations for a peace treaty officially ending World War II, citing Japanese sanctions on Ukraine.

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In addition, talks about joint economic projects in the Kuril Islands have been interrupted, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry. Russia and Japan have not signed a peace treaty since World War II. There is a dispute over some of the Kuril Islands, a chain of islands between Hokkaido and Kamchatka.

First opening steps on the stock exchange in Moscow

In Russia, trading on the stock exchange is starting up again, albeit hesitantly. However, this is not about stocks, but about ruble bonds. The great uncertainty on the market became apparent: the price of the most observed ten-year ruble bond fell by around 15 percent at the start of the week to around 64 percent of the repayment value of 100 percent.

Trading in Russian bonds and stocks on the Moscow Stock Exchange had been suspended since February 25, the day after Russia launched a war of aggression in Ukraine. Moscow wanted to prevent the plants from crashing in view of the sanctions imposed by the West. But that was only partially successful.

The ruble, which continued to be traded, has plummeted. This also applies to Russia’s foreign currency bonds, which are primarily denominated in dollars and which also continued to be traded. It is not yet certain when the stock exchange in Moscow will reopen for trading.

With agency material
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