Several dead by rocket in apartment building – Putin facilitates conscription

Sloviansk

A rocket attack on Friday killed at least eight people and destroyed several homes.

(Photo: dpa)

Kyiv/ Moscow Shortly before the Orthodox Easter celebrations this Sunday, Ukraine was again shaken by a heavy Russian rocket attack. According to the authorities, at least eight people were killed and more than 20 others injured in the city of Sloviansk in the eastern region of Donetsk on Friday evening.

“This is an evil state,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the aggressor Russia. “And he will lose. Victory is our duty to humanity. And we will win!”

Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin passed a law that would make it much easier for men to be drafted into the army to fight against the neighboring country.

Rocket in residential area: Ukraine reports deaths in Sloviansk

The police said children were among the victims in Sloviansk. The rescue work has not yet been completed, so the number of dead could continue to rise. The information could not initially be verified by an independent party.

President Zelensky offered his condolences to the families of the civilians killed. This week there was “not a single hour without Russian murders and terror,” he said. The Russian war of aggression against the neighboring country has been going on for almost 14 months.

The fiercest fighting is taking place in Donetsk. The fighting is currently particularly heavy in the town of Bakhmut, south-east of Sloviansk. For months, Russian troops have been trying to take the city, which once had 70,000 inhabitants, in extremely costly battles. Today only a few thousand people live there among the ruins of a ghost town.

Putin enacts eased conscription law

In Russia, men can be more easily drafted into the military with immediate effect. President Putin signed the necessary amendments to the law.

In the future, notices of convocation no longer have to be handed over personally, but can be sent electronically. Conscripts registered online are not allowed to leave Russia until they are presented to the army.

This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:

Many Russians fear that masses of men will again be drafted for the war against Ukraine. The Kremlin denied such plans.

Hundreds of thousands of men fled abroad in the fall as a result of a sometimes chaotically organized first wave of mobilization. Other Russians avoided conscription because they did not live at their registered address, so that the notice of conscription, which was only valid in letter form, could not be delivered. Russia’s leadership now wants to close this loophole.

Habeck: Federal government for sanctions against Russian nuclear industry

Against the background of the war in the Ukraine, the federal government is committed to EU sanctions against Russia’s nuclear industry. It has been seen that Russia is specifically using dependencies in the energy sector as a means of exerting pressure, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) told the German Press Agency.

“The Federal Government has therefore now spoken to the European Commission in favor of including the civil nuclear sector. That should be part of the next package of sanctions.” Among other things, the nuclear power Russia supplies uranium for nuclear fuel rods and stores radioactive waste on its territory.

What will be important on Saturday

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is traveling from China to South Korea this Saturday. On the second stop of her trip to Asia, the Green Party politician wants to speak to Foreign Minister Park Jin during the inaugural visit. China’s backing for the Russian war of aggression is likely to play a role in this.

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

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