Berlin The Russian military has stepped up its airstrikes in Ukraine and has also shelled the western part of the country. The Defense Ministry announced on Friday that the army had disabled air bases in the western cities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk with “high-precision weapons”. In the east, pro-Russian separatists took control of the city of Wolnowacha. The information could not be independently verified. Initially, there was no confirmation from the Ukrainian side.
According to Ukrainian rescue workers, no one was injured in the Russian airstrike on a psychiatric clinic in Kharkiv. The patients had previously been brought to safety in the basement of the building. According to its mayor, the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is under constant fire. 48 schools in the city have already been destroyed.
Fierce fighting also continued around the besieged port city of Mariupol. On Friday, the separatist troops tightened the ring, said a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry. Several hundred thousand residents are stuck in the city, and their situation is becoming increasingly dramatic in view of the fighting and attacks.
The Russian military is regrouping its units near the capital Kyiv. Satellite imagery by Maxar showed armored vehicles in locations near Antonov Airport in Hostomel, northwest of the capital. The US company announced that other units had moved into Lubyanka north of Kyiv and positioned artillery. The British Ministry of Defense said on Friday that the conversion was “a realignment for new offensive activities in the coming days”, probably also against Kyiv.
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However, the Russian advance in Ukraine continues to be slower than experts expected. According to the Ukrainian army, it was able to hold back the advance of Russian units in several places. At Kharkiv in the east of the country, the Russian military is being prevented from blockading the city from the north. Again, this information cannot be independently verified.
Putin speaks of progress
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on Friday spoke out in favor of sending “volunteer fighters” to support pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. From the Middle East alone, more than 16,000 people have already volunteered to fight for the “liberation movement” of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, said Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, talks with Ukraine have made some progress. “There are certain positive changes, negotiators on our side tell me,” he said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. Putin added that talks continue “almost daily”. He did not give details.
The President of the U-Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Versailles. The heads of state want to double military aid to Ukraine.
(Photo: Reuters)
The Ukrainian armed forces could get more weapons and equipment from the EU. According to EU Council President Charles Michel, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell proposed at the summit in Versailles, France, that 500 million euros be mobilized for additional supplies. A first package of 500 million euros had already been approved at the end of February.
EU heads of state and government also want to work together better on their own defence. This includes the consideration of jointly acquiring capabilities for the military that are too expensive for individual states, said Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on the sidelines of the summit.
110,000 refugees arrived in Germany
According to the Federal Police, at least around 110,000 people have come to Germany from Ukraine since the Russian invasion. As the authority announced on Friday in Potsdam, it assumes that the actual numbers are higher. Ukrainians with a biometric passport can travel freely in the EU for 90 days without a visa. According to UN estimates, around 2.3 million people have left Ukraine so far.
People fleeing in the train station of the western Ukrainian city. More than 100,000 refugees have now arrived in Germany.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk announced new escape routes for the evacuation of civilians. Regarding the port city of Mariupol in the Donetsk region, which has been under siege for days, she said: “We are waiting and hoping that this route will work today.” Trucks with relief supplies and empty buses are on their way from Zaporizhia towards Mariupol.
Ukrainian Economy Minister: War costs billions
While the inhabitants flee, the war leaves billions in damage. “Today this number has been specified – it is 119 billion US dollars,” said Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Denys Kudin on Friday. This number could not be checked independently.
The sum increases with every day of war, said Kudin. In its calculations, the ministry takes into account both direct damage and indirect losses due to the decline in economic output. According to the Ukrainian energy company Energoatom, almost a million people were without electricity.
In Russia, too, the economy is suffering from the sanctions imposed by the West. Russian metals oligarch Vladimir Potanin spoke out on Friday over considerations of confiscating foreign company assets. He warned of a situation like that before the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.
Putting the Russian assets of companies that left Russia under state control would sideline the country for decades, Potanin wrote on Telegram. “It would set us back 100 years to 1917, and the consequences – a global lack of investor confidence in Russia – would be felt for many decades.” Russia is already facing its worst crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Thursday proposed to President Vladimir Putin that the facilities of companies that had left Russia should be placed under external management. Potanin is the largest shareholder and president of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest supplier of palladium and high-grade nickel.
>> Read about this: The federal government is working on new economic aid – and a protective shield for the energy industry
Facebook group relaxes hate speech rules for war in Ukraine
Facebook group Meta is partially relaxing its rules to allow calls for violence against Russian troops in Ukraine. As an example of the exception, a Facebook spokesman cited the phrase “death to the Russian invaders.” “We will continue to ban credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” he wrote on Twitter.
The easing will only apply to users in a few countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Hungary. The Russian government then threatened to shut down the Facebook parent company Meta.
More on the Ukraine war:
According to media reports, the USA, together with other G7 countries and the EU, want to pave the way for higher tariffs on Russian goods. President Joe Biden will ask the US Congress on Friday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia. From a US foreign trade perspective, that would put Russia in the same category as, say, Cuba or North Korea.
Kremlin: “No information” on ex-Chancellor Schröder
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov has not confirmed reports that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. When asked by journalists about a meeting between the SPD politician and the head of the Kremlin, Peskov said on Friday in Moscow, according to the Interfax agency: “I have no information about Schröder. I can’t tell you anything.”
The wife of ex-Chancellor Soyeon Schroeder-Kim published a photo on Instagram showing her in Moscow.
(PHOTO: SOYEON SCHROEDER-KIM VIA REUTERS)
According to information from the German Press Agency, a first meeting took place on Thursday. It was initially unclear whether more were planned. The news portal “Politico” and the “Bild” newspaper first reported on Schröder’s trip.
>> Read about this: Schröder surprises with a visit to Moscow – Meeting with Putin
The federal government previously announced that the trip had not been agreed with her. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) only said on the sidelines of the EU summit in Versailles about the reports on the trip: “I don’t want to comment on that.”
Meanwhile, the German Football Association (DFB) has withdrawn honorary membership from former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The decision was made by the DFB Bundestag on Friday in Bonn without a dissenting vote. Schröder (77) has been under a lot of pressure since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine – the former chancellor has not yet condemned the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is still holding on to his posts in Russian state-owned companies
With agency material
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