Israel bans the supply of anti-tank missiles. Chancellor Scholz speaks about the war in Davos and is convinced that Putin will not win it. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.

11:33 a.m .: In Davos, Olaf Scholz (SPD) was again convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not win the war in Ukraine and described the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine as a failure. “He has already missed all of his strategic goals,” said Scholz in his speech at the World Economic Forum on Thursday. “A capture of all of Ukraine by Russia seems further away today than it was at the beginning of the war. More than ever, Ukraine is emphasizing its European future.”

In addition, the “brutality of the Russian war” has welded the Ukrainian nation closer together than ever before and prompted two states to move closer to NATO: “With Sweden and Finland, two close friends and partners want to join the North Atlantic alliance. You are very welcome!” said the Chancellor. Putin also underestimated the unity and strength with which the Group of Seven Industrial Nations (G7), NATO and the EU reacted to his aggression.

Putin wants to go back to a world order in which the stronger dictate what is right, said Scholz. “This is an attempt to bomb us back to a time when war was a common policy tool.”

11.25 a.m .: At the end of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for new forms of international cooperation. One should no longer look for political partners in the same countries, said the SPD politician on Thursday at the conference in the Swiss Alps. “In this multipolar world, very different countries and regions are demanding a greater political say in line with their growing economic and demographic weight,” said Scholz. He added, “To be clear, there is no threat in that.”

International cooperation provides answers, said the Chancellor. It’s about progress in future issues. In Asia, Africa and Latin America there are new, aspiring powers that are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by globalization. “For too long we have practically equated ‘democracy’ with the ‘West’ in the classical sense.”

That’s why he invited South Africa, Senegal, India, Indonesia and Argentina to this year’s summit of seven major industrial nations (G7) in Elmau in Bavaria at the end of June. “They represent countries and regions whose cooperation the world needs in order to make progress on global challenges in the future.” A new partnership also means showing solidarity in the face of impending starvation of raw materials and inflation crises. “In a multipolar world, such an international order will not be possible without international solidarity.”

7:31 am: Israel has refused a US request to allow Germany to supply Ukraine with anti-tank missiles manufactured here with Israeli technology under Israeli license. This is reported by the news site “Axios”, citing American and Israeli officials. This is the second ban on exports to Ukraine, following Estonia’s ban on supplying Israeli Blue Spear anti-ship missiles.

9:58 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj advocates a visa requirement for Russians entering Ukraine. He supported a corresponding online petition on Wednesday, which has had almost 27,000 signatures since February. “Against the backdrop of full-scale Russian aggression, the issue raised is important and urgent,” he wrote. He sees the need to tighten control over entry of Russian citizens into the territory of Ukraine. The government under Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal was commissioned with a regulation.

In principle, there is no visa requirement between Ukraine and Russia. However, there have been restrictions on Russians entering Ukraine in recent years, and many individuals have been banned from entering the country. On February 28, shortly after the Russian invasion, Ukraine banned the entry of Russian citizens in general.

9:16 p.m .: The Turkish government has renewed its demands on Sweden and Finland and called for “concrete measures” before agreeing to the two countries joining NATO. “We have made it clear to our interlocutors that the process of NATO membership cannot proceed unless Turkey’s security concerns are addressed with concrete measures and within a set timeframe,” said Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for the Turkish presidency and close confidante, on Wednesday by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kalin received delegations of diplomats from Sweden and Finland, who sought to allay Ankara’s concerns. The meeting lasted five hours.

The demands of the Turkish side have been noted and will now be forwarded to the governments of Sweden and Finland, Kalin said. “We will continue the talks once we receive their responses to our demands.”

7:55 p.m .: According to information from the SPD, there is an informal agreement in NATO not to deliver any heavy Western-style battle tanks or armored personnel carriers to Ukraine without prior agreement. “The Defense Committee was fully informed of this in mid-May,” said the defense policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Wolfgang Hellmich, of the German Press Agency.

Hellmich explained that there are no formal NATO resolutions because the alliance itself does not supply weapons, but rather the individual member states. So far, however, all partners have kept to the informal agreement. “Anyone who claims otherwise has either not listened properly or knowingly tells the untruth,” said Hellmich.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz answered questions from the Defense Committee on May 11. Even then, after the meeting, Hellmich spoke of a NATO decision “not to supply heavy battle tanks, no Leclerc and no Leopard”. That was “decided and decided among themselves” in NATO.

7.40 p.m .: The USA, the European Union and Great Britain want to support Ukraine in solving war crimes. A joint initiative is intended to help with coordination and communication and to provide support for the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office responsible for prosecuting war crimes, a joint statement said on Wednesday. The so-called Advisory Group on Atrocities will also promote the rapid deployment of funds and qualified personnel.

“There must be no impunity for war crimes,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. secure and analyze, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

7.05 p.m .: Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Catholic Day in Stuttgart to withdraw immediately from Ukraine. “Respect the sovereignty of Ukraine, stop fighting,” Steinmeier appealed on Wednesday evening at the opening ceremony of the church festival. “Mr. Putin, end the suffering and destruction in Ukraine! Withdraw your troops! And don’t refuse direct and serious talks with President Zelenskyy!”

Putin’s war of aggression is not only affecting the people of Ukraine. Because millions of tons of grain are being blocked in the Ukrainian seaports, world grain prices have risen dramatically. “Many areas of the world are threatened by starvation and death in the coming months, especially in East and South Africa,” Steinmeier warned. “Because the consequences of Putin’s war are affecting states that have still not recovered from Corona, and they are affecting regions in which the soil is drying out and becoming infertile because of the climate crisis.”

6:23 p.m .: According to information from the German Press Agency, there are informal agreements among the NATO countries to refrain from delivering certain weapon systems to Ukraine. As the dpa was confirmed in alliance circles in Brussels on Wednesday, the risk of a direct military confrontation between NATO states and Russia should be kept as low as possible.

It is feared, for example, that Russia could officially see the delivery of Western battle tanks and combat aircraft as entering the war and then take military retaliatory measures. Weapon systems of this type have not yet been delivered to Ukraine.

In Germany, statements by the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense, Siemtje Möller (SPD), had recently caused discussions. She said on Sunday in the ZDF program “Berlin direkt” about arms deliveries that it was stated within NATO “that no armored personnel carriers or battle tanks of Western models were delivered”.

Union parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul (CDU) then criticized on Wednesday that the federal government had not mentioned such an agreement during the deliberations in the Bundestag on the delivery of heavy weapons. “Either it’s a scandalous incompetence coupled with sloppiness and ignorance. Or, and that would be a real scandal, the German Bundestag and the public are being led behind the spruce with new pseudo-justifications to camouflage a systematic delay strategy,” he told FOCUS Online.

A NATO spokesman only commented on the subject in general on Wednesday. He pointed out that all delivery decisions are ultimately a matter for the individual member states. According to diplomats, they have so far adhered to informal agreements – also because otherwise they would have to fear that they would not receive the full support of their alliance partners in the event of a Russian attack. For this reason, Poland, for example, is said to have refrained from delivering MiG-29 fighter jets of Soviet design to Ukraine more than two months ago.

The commander-in-chief of the US armed forces in Europe, Tod D. Wolters, said in March that the transfer of MiG-29s could be misunderstood by Moscow secret services and could result in an escalation between Russia and NATO. This is a high-risk scenario, the four-star general said.

Agreements in the past have been indirectly confirmed by French President Emmanuel Macron, among others. In March, after a special summit of the heads of state and government of the NATO countries on the subject of arms deliveries, he said: “There is a limit that consists in not becoming a party to the war.” This limit is shared by all the Allies and that is why nobody has been delivering weapons like this airplanes.

5:21 p.m .: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has asked Western countries to stop imports of Russian goods. “My message is very simple. Kill Russian exports,” Kuleba said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. “Stop buying from Russia.” The West must not allow Russia to take money for its “war machine”.

Only “important goods that the West needs” should be exempt from such an import ban, said Kuleba. Russia has already been subject to a number of international sanctions for the war of aggression against Ukraine. However, Kyiv has called on Western countries to further increase the pressure on Moscow.

So far, the Ukrainian economy has suffered “more from the Russian destruction and attacks than the Russian economy from the sanctions,” said Kuleba. “As long as Russia is making money selling oil and gas, its pockets are pretty full.”

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