Russian nuclear weapons are said to be on the border with Poland

Kyiv Russia is sticking to the announced stationing of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and wants to position them on the border with the NATO state of Poland. This was announced by the Russian ambassador in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday.

The bunkers required for storing the weapons should therefore be completed by July 1st. While a series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities claimed the lives of several civilians, a Russian military blogger was killed in a bomb attack in Saint Petersburg. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck arrived in Kiev on Monday morning for political talks.

Russia’s ambassador in Minsk, Boris Gryzlov, praised the fact that the planned stationing of nuclear weapons in Belarus has already caused “a lot of noise” in Western media. “Finally it is being considered that there should be a certain parity,” he said, referring to the allegation by the Russian leadership that the United States had stationed its own nuclear weapons in Europe and thus provoked Moscow.

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin recently announced that tactical nuclear weapons would be stationed in Belarus against the background of high tensions with the West as a result of the war of aggression he had ordered against Ukraine. He justified the transfer of arms to the neighboring ex-Soviet republic by saying that the USA had been doing something similar in Europe for years.

An analysis by the US Institute for War Studies (ISW) said a week ago that Putin wanted to stir up fears of a nuclear escalation in the West in order to break support for Ukraine, for example in the delivery of heavy weapons. According to the ISW assessment, it is “very unlikely that Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine or anywhere else”. According to the ISW, Putin’s step was already announced before the war in Ukraine. By stationing nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia is above all cementing its influence in the ex-Soviet republic.

Zelensky wants military victory over “evil state”

After the new series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities with more civilian casualties, President Volodymyr Zelensky called his country’s military victory the “only way” to safety.

At least eight people died in Russian artillery attacks in the east of the country on Sunday. “There is only one way to stop Russian terror and restore security in all our cities and towns – from Sumy to Donbass, from Kharkiv to Kherson, from Kiev to Yalta, and that way is Ukraine’s military victory,” said Selenski on Sunday in his nightly video speech. “There is no other way, and there can be no other way.”

It has become normal for the “evil state” of Russia to fire rocket launchers at homes, launch rockets at cities, and bomb villages and innocent people. This state must be completely defeated – militarily, economically, politically and legally. “The first point is the military one,” Zelenski said. And we are working towards this goal.

Russian military blogger killed in explosion

A Russian military blogger was killed in an explosion at a café in the center of Russia’s Baltic Sea metropolis of Saint Petersburg on Sunday. Another 30 people were injured when the explosive device detonated, six of them seriously, the state agency TASS reported. The 40-year-old journalist and blogger using the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarskij, who comes from Donbass in eastern Ukraine, was killed on the spot.

According to officially unconfirmed media reports, Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, had invited to a “patriotic evening” in the “Stritfud-Bar No.1” cafe on Sunday. The restaurant is connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, as Prigozhin himself said via Telegram. He left the café to a “patriotic movement”, which in turn used it for various events.

According to the first findings of the investigators, the explosive device was built into a bust that was presented to Tatarsky as a gift at the meeting, according to Moscow. The gift – eyewitnesses reported of a gilded bust of the military blogger – was presented to him by a young woman, local media wrote. The information cannot be independently verified.

Kiev: Heavy fighting continues in the east of the country

Meanwhile, heavy fighting between Russian attackers and Ukrainian soldiers continued in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. The towns of Liman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marjinka were once again at the heart of the fighting, as the general staff in Kiev announced in its daily situation report. A total of around 50 Russian attacks were repelled during the day. The information could not be independently verified.

The situation in Bachmut is still “very tense,” wrote Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar on Facebook. In addition to forces from the Wagner mercenary unit, the enemy is now also deploying paratrooper units there. “The enemy is not deterred by the exorbitant loss of personnel, the decisions are made emotionally.”

The defenders’ reaction was “competent and taking into account all the circumstances, tasks and the principle of military expediency,” Maljar emphasized. “We trust in our military.”

Zelensky said six people were killed and eleven others injured in Russian artillery attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka near Bakhmut on Sunday. In addition, two civilians were killed in a grenade launcher attack in Konotop in the Sumy region.

Habeck wants to support Ukraine in reconstruction

Vice Chancellor Habeck arrived in Kiev on Monday morning with a small delegation of German business representatives. Topics of the trip are the reconstruction of the Ukraine attacked by Russia and cooperation in the energy sector. “Concrete investment decisions” have either already been made or should still be made, explained the Green politician.

This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:

What does the day bring?

While Habeck is holding talks in Kiev, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting Romania and meeting the EU country’s heads of state and Moldovan President Maia Sandu. Moldova was recently caught up in the political maelstrom of the Russian war against Ukraine. Since the 1990s, Russian soldiers have been stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistria, which Moscow calls peacekeepers.

More: Current news on developments in the Ukraine war can be found in our news blog