Situation in the evening – Russia bombs cities in Ukraine

Kyiv, Moscow, Dusseldorf Despite international calls to end hostilities, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine. The Unian agency reported a rocket attack on the television tower in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Tuesday. At least five people are said to have died.

There was a huge explosion in the center of the second largest city of Kharkiv. A huge military convoy about 40 miles long was moving towards Kyiv. According to the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Russia is also preparing a provocation to justify the participation of Belarusian troops in the fighting.

The secret service announced on social media that around 300 Belarusian tanks had gathered near the border with Ukraine. However, a Pentagon official said Tuesday in Washington that there was no evidence Belarusian troops were invading Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and UN Secretary General António Guterres again called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war immediately. The United Nations is preparing to take care of up to four million refugees.

The military situation

On day six of the invasion, Russian attacks continued to focus on the major cities, which Ukraine’s foreign ministry said are now being fired at with rockets.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry published a video on Twitter showing a rocket hitting the central Freedom Square in Kharkiv. “Russia is waging war in violation of international humanitarian law,” the Foreign Ministry tweeted in Kyiv. Moscow denies the allegation.

According to the Interfax agency, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced that it intends to attack the information infrastructure of the Ukrainian secret service in Kyiv. This was how “information attacks” against Russia were to be crushed.

Residents living near the facilities have been asked to evacuate their homes. Shortly thereafter, the Unian agency released a video showing a cloud of dark smoke right next to the TV tower in Kyiv. According to the civil defense, at least five people died in this attack. Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the situation as “threatening”.

The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure. According to the Ukrinform agency, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the Russian military was blowing up substations.

Advance on Kyiv continues

This leads to problems with the electricity and water supply. The information about the events of the war cannot be independently verified. According to the UN, more than 100 civilians have been killed and more than 300 injured.

It is considered certain that the Russian troops will continue their advance towards Kyiv. Satellite images from Tuesday night showed a massive convoy of tanks and other military vehicles. According to US defense circles, the Russian military wants to take the capital despite strong Ukrainian resistance.

The port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine continues to be heavily contested. The Russian separatists announced that they would set up two “humanitarian corridors” for residents. People could leave the city by Wednesday, said the spokesman for the insurgents in the Donetsk region, according to the Interfax agency.

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Ukraine, in turn, offered Russian soldiers impunity and money if they surrendered. Each soldier is offered the equivalent of more than 40,000 euros. The campaign is financed by the international IT industry. It was not initially possible to check whether the surrendering Russians actually received the money. According to Ukrainian sources, at least 200 Russian soldiers have been captured so far.

Political lines of defense and attack

In an emotional appeal to the European Parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that his country be admitted to the European Union. “We are fighting for our rights, for our freedom, for our lives. And now we are fighting for survival,” Zelensky said in a video message at the beginning of a special session of parliament.

The European Parliament designates Russia as a “rogue state” over the invasion. This emerges from a resolution that Parliament wanted to adopt in an emergency session.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, reiterated his conditions for ending the “military operation”. The government in Kyiv must recognize the “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk and Russia’s sovereignty over the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the Kremlin said. In addition, Ukraine must be demilitarized and given a neutral status, the statement said.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of threatening international security. The government in Kyiv wants its own nuclear weapons, Lavrov said in a video before the Permanent Disarmament Conference in Geneva. Soviet nuclear technology and the means to shoot down such weapons are still on Ukrainian territory, Lavrov said, according to the English UN translation.

Lavrov demanded that US nuclear weapons be withdrawn from NATO partner territory. He also stressed: “We continue to believe that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that it saw no evidence of any claims about a possible nuclear weapons program in Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg again ruled out the military alliance taking part in the Ukraine war.

Number of refugees increases

According to the UN, 677,000 people have fled to neighboring countries since the Russian attack on Ukraine. Around half had arrived in Poland, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, in Geneva.

Around 90,000 are in Hungary and tens of thousands in other neighboring countries such as Moldova, Slovakia and Romania. Within 24 hours, the total had increased by 150,000.

More and more people from Ukraine are also arriving in Germany. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said that by Tuesday morning the federal police had ascertained the entry of 3,063 war refugees from Ukraine. Since there are no border controls at the internal EU borders, the number of war refugees who have entered the country could actually be significantly higher.

The United Nations are planning for a possible supply of up to four million refugees.

aid to Ukraine

The US is planning more billions in aid for Ukraine. President Joe Biden’s administration has requested a $6.4 billion package from Congress, in addition to the US government’s recent $350 million in emergency military aid.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced 500 million euros in humanitarian aid in a special session of the EU Parliament. The sum is intended to supplement the already announced 500 million euros from the European Union for arms deliveries to Ukraine.

The Australian government plans to provide Ukraine with military equipment and humanitarian aid totaling AUD 105 million (EUR 68 million).

According to the US government, the Russian attack has led to a closing of ranks within NATO and other western allies. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called Putin “one of the greatest unifiers of NATO in modern history.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for international solidarity against Putin. “We want as many states as possible to show their colors against Putin’s war,” said the Greens politician in Lodz, Poland.

Chancellor Scholz warned that the situation in Ukraine would escalate dramatically and announced further sanctions against Russia. “We will certainly add more to the packages that we have decided so far (…),” he said on Tuesday after a meeting with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel in Berlin.

However, the previous sanctions have already had an effect. Russia’s economic development will be significantly affected. You have the opportunity for a good future together. But the West must stand up for the principle of not accepting military raids. Scholz called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop fighting immediately and withdraw Russian troops from Ukraine.

Lindner: “The ruble is in free fall”

The logistics giant Deutsche Post DHL will no longer send any express shipments or freight to Russia and Belarus until further notice. The reason is the blocking of airspace, said a DHL spokesman in Bonn.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that the crisis in the country’s crop fields could have a serious impact on vulnerable people around the world. “The World Food Program buys more than half of its wheat from Ukraine. A disruption in harvest could drive up prices and increase global hunger,” Guterres said.

According to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the sanctions against Russia are having an effect. “We want to isolate Russia politically, financially and economically,” said the FDP chairman on Tuesday in Berlin after consultations with the G7 finance ministers.

It is about maximizing the damage to the Russian economy, to supporters of President Vladimir Putin and to the capital markets there. The restrictions on the activities of the Russian central bank exceeded expectations. “The ruble is in free fall.” Putin’s war chest was badly hit.

Lindner told the Handelsblatt that sanctions should also focus more on Russian oligarchs.

IEA wants to release crude oil reserves because of the Ukraine war

The International Energy Agency (IEA) wants to mitigate the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the markets by releasing crude oil reserves. In total, the agency’s 31 member countries will release 60 million barrels of crude oil, according to a statement published in Paris on Tuesday. This is intended to alleviate supply bottlenecks as a result of the war. Oil prices have recently risen significantly. The IEA is an interest group of industrialized countries.

IEA member ministers at an extraordinary meeting expressed concern over the impact of Russia’s “egregious actions” on energy security. Support the international community’s sanctions against Russia.

According to the information, the IEA members have emergency reserves of 1.5 billion barrels. Only four percent are released. Initially, oil prices hardly reacted to the decision.

It is only the fourth time that reserves have been released in a coordinated manner. The last time it happened was in 1991 – during the war in Iraq.

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