According to a report, there will be a secret summit of Kremlin critics against Putin starting Friday. Chancellor Scholz spoke in Davos about the war and was convinced that Putin will not win it. Selenskyj fears a depopulation of the Dobass. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
6:18 a.m .: According to a report by the “Bild” newspaper, a secret anti-Putin summit will take place on Friday. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has invited current and former top politicians, business people, human rights activists and journalists from Europe, the USA and Russia.
One of the participants told the “Bild” newspaper: “Putin has gone too far with the brutal war against Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, tens of thousands of Russians have had to pay with their lives for his megalomania. If we don’t rid Russia of him now, when will we?”
5:11 a.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fears a largely depopulated Donbass in view of the massive Russian attacks in the east. With their superior firepower, the attacking Russian troops put pressure on the Ukrainian defenders around the city of Sieverodonetsk on Thursday.
“The ongoing offensive of the occupiers in the Donbass could desert the region,” said Zelenskyj. Cities were being destroyed, people killed or kidnapped, he said. He saw this as “an obvious policy of genocide”. In his evening video address in Kyiv He also explained: “The ongoing offensive by the occupying forces in the Donbass could make the region deserted. Cities would be destroyed, people killed or kidnapped. Friday is the 93rd day of the war.
4:25 a.m .: The political scientist Carlo Masala from the Bundeswehr University in Munich has criticized the federal government’s information policy on arms deliveries to Ukraine. “We have no strategic communication in this area,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND, Friday). “It’s an unbelievable cacophony at times. Americans always state what they deliver. The French initially delivered without talking about it. We don’t even find a middle ground.” Masala added, “Even I’ve lost track by now.”
If you take what is known about arms deliveries to Ukraine as a benchmark, Germany is in the middle, said the political scientist. “First of all, that’s not bad. If you take into account that Germany has one of the largest economies in the world, then we are well below our potential. The US and UK deliver significantly more. That also applies to heavy weapons.” On the other hand, what Germany delivers is not decisive for the war, according to Masala. What matters is what everyone delivers together. “The critics overestimate the German influence.”
3:11 a.m .: According to a media report, the US government is considering sending advanced long-range missile systems to Ukraine. The US-made weapon systems could fire missiles hundreds of kilometers away, CNN reported on Thursday, citing several officials.
A new military aid package could be announced as early as next week. Ukraine asked for these types of weapons, it said. However, the US government has been hesitant because of fears that Ukraine could use the missile systems for attacks on Russian territory. The question arises whether this could lead to a Russian retaliation, according to CNN.
1:56 a.m .: Against the background of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, a large multinational maneuver will take place in the Baltic Sea region under the leadership of the USA in the coming month. In addition to 14 NATO countries such as Germany, the partner countries Sweden and Finland would also take part in the annual maritime exercise “Baltops 22”, said the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, on Thursday (local time) in Washington.
Sweden is the host of the maneuver this year, which is planned from June 5th to 17th. Sweden and Finland have applied for NATO membership because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The maneuver has been taking place regularly in the Baltic Sea region since 1972.
Kirby said Baltops 22 would involve 45 naval units, 75 aircraft and around 7,000 soldiers. The maneuver “provides a unique training opportunity to strengthen joint responsiveness,” which is critical to security in the Baltic Sea region.
Among other things, amphibious operations, anti-submarine warfare, air defense, mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal, as well as diving and salvage operations would be practiced. Soldiers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, Great Britain and the USA are involved.
1:24 a.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has complained about the hesitancy of the Europeans to impose sanctions on Russia. “Ukraine will always be an independent state and will not break up,” said Zelenskyy in his evening video address on Thursday. The question is what price Ukraine has to pay for its freedom – and what price Russia has to pay for the senseless war.
Zelenskyj asked why the EU was taking so long to adopt a sixth package of sanctions. Russia still earns billions from energy exports, and not all Russian banks have yet been sanctioned. How long will Ukraine have to fight to get the weapons it needs, he asked.
Friday, May 27, 12:55 am: The US government has rejected Russia’s call for sanctions on grain release to be lifted. “It is Russia that is actively blocking food exports from Ukrainian ports and increasing world hunger,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in Washington on Thursday.
There would be tons of grain stored in silos in Ukraine and on ships that could not be shipped because of the Russian naval blockade. The sanctions would prevent neither the export nor the necessary monetary transactions. There is currently no discussion about lifting sanctions, said Jean-Pierre.
10:06 p.m .: Russia has agreed to take action against the food crisis if the West lifts its sanctions against Moscow. President Vladimir Putin stressed in a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Russia was ready “to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis through the export of grain and fertilizers, provided that the politically motivated restrictions imposed by the West are lifted.” the Kremlin on Thursday.
In the conversation, Putin dismissed accusations from the West that Russia had been blocking Ukrainian grain exports since its offensive in Ukraine as “unfounded”. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s most important grain producers. Exports from both countries have collapsed because of the fighting in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia.
The phone call with Putin came about on Draghi’s initiative. The Italian head of government said he wanted to explore whether something could be done to end the grain blockade in Ukraine. He proposed “cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in clearing the Black Sea ports, on the one hand to clear these ports of mines and on the other hand to ensure that the clearance does not lead to clashes”.
On the Russian side there is a willingness to take this path, Draghi said. He will now speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his proposal. At the same time, Draghi emphasized after the phone call with Putin that he had seen no “glimmer of hope for peace”.
9:32 p.m .: The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin Andriy Melnyk has again sharply criticized the traffic light and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). After the Chancellor’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where, among other things, he described Russia as a “highly nuclear-armed great power”, Melnyk expressed his disappointment. It was hoped in Kyiv “to hear from this speech which very specific steps the traffic light will take to give us massive support so that Ukraine wins this war,” he told the “Bild”. And further: “Unfortunately, that was a non-negotiable report, especially in relation to the immediate delivery of heavy weapons from Germany to suffocate the massive Russian offensive in the Donbass.”
“The manager and courage are probably missing,” he criticized in the direction of Scholz. “Militarily,” the Ukrainian ambassador continued, “Berlin is simply letting Ukraine down.”
5:21 p.m .: According to former German ambassador Rüdiger von Fritsch, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position in the Ukraine war is also at stake. “In addition, this war went so badly for Vladimir Putin that he is now fighting for his own power in Ukraine,” von Fritsch said in an interview with “Die Welt”. He couldn’t “come home with a bad compromise. Because then the question would be asked whether it would not be better for someone else to be president.”
At the same time, he classified the hope that the entire people could rise up against Putin as “failed”. It would be better to trust the military. “Of course you have a very clear picture of the war situation there. Some military officials may come to the conclusion that the war is so clearly to Russia’s detriment that it would be better to replace the president,” von Fritsch said.
Von Fritsch was German ambassador in Moscow until 2019. Previously, he was German ambassador in Warsaw and vice-president of the BND.
You can read more news on the following pages.
