Russian military near Mariupol: Ukrainian front falters.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
Kyiv For the Ukrainian troops in the east of the country, the situation is becoming increasingly precarious in view of Russian gains in territory. President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of a difficult situation in Donbass.
As the Russian war of aggression against his country entered its fourth month, he renewed the request for heavy weapons such as rocket artillery, tanks or anti-ship missiles. “This is the best investment in maintaining stability in the world,” he said in Kyiv on Tuesday evening.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine will also occupy many international meetings on Wednesday, from the Baltic Sea Council’s foreign ministers to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The military situation
With massive artillery and air strikes, Russian troops have driven the Ukrainian defenders out of several towns in the east of the country in the past few days, and the Ukrainian front is beginning to falter. For Moscow, the complete conquest of the Ukrainian administrative regions of Donetsk and Luhansk is an important war goal. In Luhansk, this goal has almost been achieved.
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“The Russian army is throwing all its forces into this attack,” said Zelenskiy in his video speech on Tuesday evening. He listed the cities of Lyman, Popasna, Sieverodonetsk and Sloviansk. “The occupiers want to destroy everything there.”
It will take great efforts on the part of the Ukrainian people to overcome the Russian superiority in armaments and technology. According to the administration, 15 civilians were killed within 24 hours in the Donetsk region alone.
Eastern Ukraine has been under massive fire in recent days.
(Photo: dpa)
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also spoke of a difficult situation in the Donbass coal and steel region. Apparently, the Russian army wants to encircle Ukrainian units in the major cities of Sievjerodonetsk and Lysychansk, said spokesman Olexander Motusyanyk. Both cities had about 100,000 inhabitants before the war.
The Ukrainian defenders there are supplied via a single road. This has now come under fire from Russian artillery and mortars, wrote the expert Nikolay Mitrokhin in the magazine “Osteuropa”.
Russia announces safe sea passage from Mariupol
According to military information, Russia wants to set up a safe sea passage from the conquered Ukrainian port of Mariupol through the Sea of Azov from Wednesday. The mine-cleared route towards the Black Sea is 115 nautical miles (213 kilometers) long and two nautical miles wide and navigable from 8:00 a.m. local time (7:00 a.m. CEST). At the same time, the damaged port infrastructure of Mariupol will be repaired.
The last Ukrainian defenders of the city laid down their weapons at the end of last week, and Mariupol itself has been largely destroyed. According to Russian information, around 70 foreign ships from 16 countries are still stuck in the ports controlled by Ukraine on the Black Sea coast.
Schröder rejects board positions at Gazprom
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been heavily criticized for his connections to Russia. Now he has announced that he has no plans to join the board of energy giant Gazprom. He had waived the nomination a long time ago and also informed the company of this, Schröder wrote on Tuesday evening on the online portal “Linkedin”. The authenticity of the contribution was confirmed to the German Press Agency from Schröder’s environment.
Gerhard Schröder maintained good contacts with Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin.
(Photo: AP)
Gazprom nominated Schröder for a post on the committee in early February – shortly before the Russian attack on Ukraine. In an interview published by the New York Times in April, the former SPD leader left open whether he would accept the nomination.
The former chancellor had held various posts for the Russian energy industry over the years: a seat on the supervisory board of the energy group Rosneft and activities for the Gazprom subsidiaries Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. On Friday, Rosneft announced that Schröder was resigning from the supervisory board position – the ex- Chancellor announced that it was impossible for him to extend his term of office.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
That brings the day
On Wednesday, the EU Commission presented a proposal on how Russian assets could be confiscated and used for the reconstruction of Ukraine. According to the latest figures, Russian oligarchs have lost assets worth around ten billion euros since the war began in February. A proposal to criminalize circumventing sanctions in the EU is also expected.
The Russian war of aggression dominates several international conferences. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is expected at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. The foreign ministers of the members of the CBSS discuss security in northern Europe on the second and final day of their meeting in Kristiansand, Norway. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) will represent Germany.
Meanwhile, Finland and Sweden are sending delegations to Turkey for negotiations. Ankara has announced that it will veto the Nordic countries’ entry into NATO.
More: You can read all current developments on the Ukraine war in our news blog.