Dusseldorf. “We will not surrender and we will not lose. We will fight to the end, at sea and in the air. We will continue to fight for our country, no matter what the cost. We will fight in the forests and in the fields, on the coasts, in the towns and villages, in the streets and on the hills.” With these words, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky campaigned for his country before the British Parliament’s lower house today.
And the events of this 13th day of the war make it clear: Selenski still needs every support. Because despite an almost unmanageable number of diplomatic activities – today, for example, French President Emmanuel Macron and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz tried in vain to persuade China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping to have a moderating influence on Russia – the Russian invasion is not letting up on its violence.
Zelensky, who was connected via video, told lawmakers his country would fight the Russian invasion to the end in cities, fields and riverbanks in Ukraine.
“We will not give up and we will not lose,” he said in his speech, which was reminiscent of a speech given by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the British House of Commons during the Second World War.
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The Ukrainian President called on Britain to tighten sanctions against Russia and designate it as a “terrorist country”. Zelenskyy was the first foreign leader allowed to speak in the House of Commons.
Russian units advancing near Mariupol
According to information from Moscow, pro-Russian units are still advancing in the embattled Ukrainian port of Mariupol. Fighters from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have advanced almost a kilometer since the end of a ceasefire, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. Mariupol on the Azov Sea has been under siege for days, and the situation in the city is considered catastrophic. Several evacuation attempts had failed. The information could not be independently verified.
According to their own statements, separatists and Russian units also achieved successes on other front sections in eastern Ukraine. The head of the Luhansk “People’s Republic”, which Russia recognizes as an independent country, Leonid Pasechnik said the town of Popasna had been captured and Ukrainian forces had been encircled.
For the first time, the separatists admitted their own losses. Since the beginning of the “special operation”, as Russia calls the war in Ukraine, 47 fighters of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” have been killed and 179 injured, the spokesman for the pro-Russian forces in the Donetsk region, Eduard Bassurin, said according to local media.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not provide any new information on its own losses. Most recently, the number of almost 500 soldiers killed was mentioned. So far, 2,581 military targets have been destroyed, said ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. These include numerous missile defense systems, checkpoints and radar stations, hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles and 84 combat drones.
The frustrated Mr. Putin
Even if Russian forces keep reporting advances, it seems clear that the attack on the neighboring country is not going as planned for the Russian head of state.
CIA chief William Burns told the US Congress on Tuesday: “I think Putin is angry and frustrated at the moment. He will probably go one step further and try to crush the Ukrainian military without regard for civilian casualties.” The next few weeks would likely be “ugly” and the fighting in the cities even worse than before.
Zelensky accuses Russia of escape corridors
A sustainable solution for Putin is not in sight, said the CIA chief. It is not foreseeable how the Kremlin chief in Ukraine could maintain a puppet regime or a pro-Russian leadership, which he is trying to install against the massive resistance of the Ukrainian population. It was precisely Putin’s aggression during the annexation of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 that created the strong feeling of national independence and sovereignty in Ukraine that he faces today.
>> Read here: Volodymyr Zelensky – the hero of freedom who came out of TV
For Putin, the attack on Ukraine is a matter of deep personal conviction. “He’s had an explosive mix of grief and ambition for many years,” Burns said. “He has created a system in which his own circle of advisors is becoming ever narrower. Covid has made this circle even tighter. And it’s a system where questioning or challenging one’s judgment isn’t proving career-enhancing.”
The head of the secret service argued that the Russian president made a complete miscalculation in his decision to attack Ukraine. Putin thought Ukraine was weak and easily intimidated. On the other hand, Putin probably suspected that Europeans, especially the French and Germans, were distracted and risk-averse by the elections in France and the change in leadership in Germany. “Third, he believed he had sanction-proofed his economy.” In addition, the Kremlin chief felt confident that he had modernized his military and that it was capable of winning a quick victory at minimal cost. All of these assessments turned out to be wrong.
US Presidential Sanctions
Despite this bleak prognosis, the US is doing everything it can to dissuade Putin from his attacks on Ukraine. US President Joe Biden issued an import ban on oil from Russia on Tuesday. “This means that Russian oil will no longer be accepted in US ports and the Americans will deal another major blow to Putin’s war machine,” Biden said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great Britain wants to reduce its oil imports from Russia by the end of 2022 and then stop importing oil from there.
The US President announced an import ban on Russian oil on Tuesday.
(Photo: UPI/laif)
Biden said at a short-term appearance in the White House that the import ban had been coordinated with Congress and European allies. However, we know “that many of our European allies and partners may not be able to join us.” He added: “We are working closely with Europe and our partners to develop a long-term strategy that also includes their dependency.” reduced by Russian energy.”
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck warned on Tuesday of serious damage to Germany in the event of a Western embargo on Russian energy supplies. The Greens politician said on Tuesday after consultations with the energy ministers of the federal and state governments that Germany had become increasingly dependent on fossil energy imports from Russia over the past 20 years. “This is not a good condition.”
>>Read more: diary from the Ukraine – “War and death have come close to us”
European countries like Germany are significantly more dependent on Russian energy imports than the USA. Last year, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Russia was the third most important country for imports of crude oil and petroleum products for the US – behind Canada and Mexico. Imports from Russia, at 672,000 barrels (159 liters) per day, accounted for almost eight percent of all US imports in this category. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the share of Russian imports in crude oil imports to Germany is around 35 percent.
Europe wants to become more independent
According to EU Council President Charles Michel, as a consequence of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the European Union urgently needs to become more independent. At the informal EU summit this Thursday and Friday in Versailles near Paris, one of the things to be discussed is how dependencies on gas, oil and coal from Russia in particular can be reduced, the Belgian wrote on Tuesday in his invitation to the meeting. In addition, it should be about expanding the defense capabilities of the EU and creating a more robust economic basis.
In the meantime, more than two million people are said to have left Ukraine.
(Photo: dpa)
“In the light of recent events, it is more urgent than ever that we take decisive steps to build our sovereignty, reduce our dependencies and develop a new growth and investment model,” Michel writes.
The basis of the discussion is likely to be, among other things, a plan by the EU Commission on Tuesday with measures to reduce Russian gas imports by two thirds within a year.
Here you can find more Handelsblatt articles on the subject:
According to the White House, the US import ban extends to crude oil and certain petroleum products as well as liquid gas and coal from Russia. However, the USA produces most of its gas itself, and Russia plays no role in imports. Coal is imported from Russia, but only in small quantities.
The suffering of the people in Ukraine shows how important the pressure on Russia is.
According to the government, the first escape corridors for civilians from embattled cities have been opened in Ukraine.
(Photo: Getty Images)
More than two million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began. Most people went to Poland, as well as Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Slovakia, said a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
According to the UN Organization for Migration (IOM), these included a good 100,000 people from third countries. Before the start of the war, Ukraine had a population of more than 44 million.
Dark Harbinger
The American globalization apostle Thomas Friedman (“The world is flat”) said one thing: Two countries in which the burger chain McDonald’s is represented would not go to war with each other. His point was that economically intertwined countries had too many common interests to start a war.
Seen in this way, this Tuesday is also bad news: as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the fast-food chain McDonald’s is closing its 850 branches in Russia until further notice. All business there would be temporarily suspended, but the salaries of around 62,000 local employees would continue to be paid, the company said on Tuesday.
McDonald’s has been in the country for more than 30 years and now has “millions of Russian customers there every day”. However, because of the company’s values, “one cannot ignore the needless human suffering that is happening in Ukraine,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an email to employees released by the company. All employees in Ukraine would continue to be paid in full, he stressed.
With agency material.
More: Russia’s economy: The sanctions are hitting the country with full force