Ukrainians could use Biden’s support

Good morning dear readers,

Last night’s message could hardly have been more impressive. Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Joe Biden in the Rose Garden, in front of the Oval Office fireplace, on the White House Terrace. The images that went around the world from the first foreign trip of the Ukrainian President allowed only one conclusion: The US stands with Ukraine. Symbolic, political, military.

Biden and Zelenski obviously liked each other. “I respect him not only as a president, but as a person,” said Zelensky. Biden called his guest a “hero”, an “inspiration to the world”.

A message that was probably just as intended and staged and that had one addressee above all: Russian President Vladimir Putin. He had sent his own message to the world just a few hours earlier. In Moscow, Putin immodestly praised that “everything” is available in war. In the future there should be even more modern equipment and a lot of money for the army, he promised.

In Ukraine, Russia is currently bombing civilian infrastructure: houses, power plants, power grids, heating systems and water treatment plants. The actual target of the attack, however, is the morale of the Ukrainians, who in the cold, fear and darkness are hoping for an end to the war.

Joe Biden accused Putin of “escalating his attacks on civilians” and that Russia wanted to “use winter as a weapon”. He said to Selenski: “I want you to know: We will be by your side as long as it is necessary.”

Words of comfort, because if there’s one thing Ukraine could use particularly well in the fight against Putin’s “morale bombing” right now, it’s hope. Hope in the form of powerful support.

So it is no coincidence that the Ukrainian president is daring to travel to his most important ally, who is not based in Brussels, Berlin or Paris, but on the other side of the Atlantic. The US is by far Ukraine’s biggest supporter in defense against the Russian aggressor.

In the run-up to the visit, the US also promised to provide another aid package worth 1.74 billion euros in financial aid and new weapons. A great success for Selenski, because as the Italian Marshal Gian Giacomo Trivulzio stated: “Three things are necessary to wage war, money, money and more money”.

Modern air defense systems such as the “Patriot” system are intended to make attacks on the infrastructure more difficult and to better protect Ukrainian troops on the ground. The US wants to send the Patriots to Ukraine “immediately”. However, it will be a while before they are used. At a US base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, the Ukrainian soldiers have to be trained on the systems for several months.

And: Another factor for Zelenski to undertake the visit right now is American domestic politics. Because on January 3, the newly elected Congress will meet in the USA, and the House of Representatives will be dominated by Republicans in the future. Right-wing representatives could try there in the new year to undermine aid to Ukraine in the future.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, Selenski’s visit to the United States caused disappointment. The head of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, regretted in the Handelsblatt interview that the Ukrainian President had not chosen a destination in Europe for his trip: “I would certainly have wished that his first trip abroad since the beginning of the war was to the EU. But he “fully understands” that Zelenskiy chose Washington because military logic is now the focus. For Europe, the visit was a “wake-up call to finally get on its feet militarily,” Weber said.

In the showdown between Russia and Ukraine, there are some indications that the Russian forces could dwindle, at least economically. New data from the financial service Bloomberg and the think tank Bruegel suggest that the G7 countries’ economic sanctions are having an effect.

The volume of oil exports has fallen by 54 percent to about 1.6 million barrels a day since the embargo was introduced. The new data suggests that Russia is finding it increasingly difficult to divert crude oil originally destined for Europe to Asia. At the same time, Germany wants to benefit from Asian oil supplies, for example from Kazakhstan. Conclusion: The geoeconomic cards are currently being reshuffled.

Finally, on another important topic. So far, medicines have mostly been available in unit doses. For example, a tablet contains 500 milligrams of an active ingredient, and the leaflet on the package tells you how many of these the patient should take in order to feel the desired relief.

However, there is a problem: while the drugs are all designed the same way, every human organism is different. The human prototype on which medicine is based is male and adult. Women and children are at risk of being overmedicated.

The solution to the problem is called personalized medicine. Printed pills with the right dosage should supply each body with exactly the active ingredients it needs. A daily dose of several medications could also be taken with just one tablet. Maike Telgheder wrote down how a German start-up is working on the personalized pill and who wants to use the new drugs.

And then there’s Berlin’s unhealthy relationship with aquariums. After the “Aqua-Dom” accident, in which more than 1,500 exotic fish died by suffocation, a new major project is now causing a stir. A new hotel with a built-in aquarium is to be built in the Lichtenberg district.

I wish you a good day without accidents.

It greets you cordially

your

Teresa Stiens
Editor of the Handelsblatt