No Easter peace in Ukraine

Kyiv According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has rejected a proposal for a ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter holiday. Moscow is also moving more troops for the war in Ukraine. Recently, Russian units have apparently been able to make isolated advances in the Donbass. The federal government wants to provide funds for reconstruction in Ukraine. Fridays for Future wants to demonstrate against gas from Russia this Friday across Europe.

According to Zelensky, the cancellation of a ceasefire for Easter by Orthodox Christians this weekend shows what the Christian faith and one of the happiest and most important holidays mean to the leaders of Russia. “But we’ll still have hope. The hope for peace, the hope that life will triumph over death,” Zelenski said.

Among other things, Pope Francis had called for a ceasefire in the run-up to the Easter festival of orthodox Christians this weekend. Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on April 24 this year. They are the largest religious group in Ukraine.

Zelensky: Continued resistance in Mariupol

According to Zelensky, resistance in the port city of Mariupol continues. The city continues to resist Russia, he said on Friday night. “Despite what the squatters say about them.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the city conquered on Thursday. However, according to Russian information, more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries have holed up in the Azowstal steelworks there. So far they have not responded to Putin’s demands to lay down arms. Putin did not order a storm, but a hermetic sealing off of the site.

According to the US war research institute ISW, it is “rather unlikely” that a reduction in the pace of operations in Mariupol will now free up significant forces for Russian offensives elsewhere in the east. According to the latest ISW analysis, Russian tactical battalions have suffered heavy losses in the battle for the city and need time to be deployed. Some of the troops deployed there are also needed for several other missions, including the siege of the Azovstal plant and securing the rest of the city.

Ukraine: Russian troops captured 42 locations in Donetsk

According to an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, Russian troops occupied 42 towns in the Donetsk region in the east within 24 hours. All in all, Russian units are currently controlling more than 3,500 locations across Ukraine, said Olena Simonenko on Friday night on Ukrainian unity television. Recently, Russian advances in the Luhansk region had also been reported.

According to Ukrainian sources, several people were injured or killed by shelling in several regions in the east and south of the country. Two people were killed in the Kharkiv region after a bullet hit their car.

Altogether about 50 Russian artillery and multiple rocket launcher attacks were registered in the Kharkov region on Thursday, said Governor Oleh Synyehubov.

More Handelsblatt articles on the war in Ukraine

From the southern city of Zaporizhia, it was said that eight people were injured when the city was shelled twice on Thursday. The pressure wave from a rocket destroyed, among other things, the windows of four wagons on an evacuation train. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, five people were injured in three rocket attacks and railway tracks were completely destroyed. Shelling was also reported from the southern city of Mykolaiv on Friday night. The information could not be independently verified.

Zelensky: Ukraine will need hundreds of billions for reconstruction

Because of the Russian war of aggression, according to President Zelenskiy, Ukraine needs around seven billion US dollars (around 6.5 billion euros) a month to compensate for its economic losses. In addition, Ukraine will need “hundreds of billions of dollars to later rebuild everything,” said Zelenskiy on Thursday via video link at an international donor conference of the World Bank in Washington.

US government delivers newly developed drone to Ukraine

According to the Pentagon, the USA has developed a new type of drone that meets the requirements of the Ukrainian military and is now to be further adapted. “In discussions with Ukrainians about their needs, we felt this particular system would be very well suited to their needs, particularly in eastern Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday afternoon (local time).

The development of the drone with the name “Phoenix Ghost” had already begun before the outbreak of the Ukraine war. They now want to continue to push this forward so that it better suits the Ukrainian requirements.

More than 120 of the drones are to be delivered to Ukraine as part of a new US government military aid package.

Federal government announces 37 million for reconstruction in Ukraine

The federal government wants to provide around 37 million euros for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The funds are to be used to repair damage caused by the Russian war of aggression. “Ukraine urgently needs housing for the millions of internally displaced persons and it needs an intact power grid. This is where German development cooperation can help in the short term,” said Federal Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) before the World Bank conference of the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Friday).

That’s going to be important today

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visits Lithuania. The focus of the talks is the reaction of the EU, NATO and the international community to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The prime ministers of the Baltic states are also meeting in Riga to discuss the Ukraine crisis. In addition, the organization Fridays for Future is planning demonstrations across Europe for an immediate end to gas supplies from Russia. Rallies are planned in several cities in Poland, Hungary, Belgium and also Germany.

More: You can follow the latest developments in our news blog