The head of Ukraine’s armaments factory Motor Sich was arrested – because of cooperation with Russia. Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal calls for anti-aircraft weapons as soon as possible. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
More on the course of the war in Ukraine
9.44 a.m .: According to media reports, the head of the Ukrainian armaments company Motor Sich has been arrested on suspicion of high treason in favor of Russia. Vyacheslav Bohuzlaev and another top manager of the company are suspected of “collaborating with and aiding the aggressor state, including through illegal wholesale deliveries of Ukrainian aircraft engines and the repair of Russian helicopters,” reported the Ukrainian Internet portal “Strana” on Sunday night.
Motor Sich is one of the most important defense and industrial companies in Ukraine. The company, based in the eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia, primarily produces aircraft turbines and engines. By 2014, much of the production went to Russia. According to the media report, the house search at Bohuslayev took place on Saturday. The longtime head of Motor Sich has already been transferred to Kyiv. If Bohuzlayev is convicted of treason, he faces life imprisonment.
03:51: Federal Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) called for a global effort before the reconstruction conference for Ukraine. It is “a generational task in which as many countries as possible have to join forces,” she told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “It goes far beyond Europe, we basically need the entire civilized community of states.”
The aid isn’t just a government issue either, she added. “We also need business and civil society for this.” Ukraine needs “more than just weapons, namely money and solidarity,” said Schulze. “The economy collapsed during the war, now it is crucial that the state can maintain its essential functions.” For example, he must be able to pay employees such as teachers, educators or police officers.
Schulze called for rapid reconstruction. The minister stressed that Ukraine could not wait until the war was over to repair bridges or power grids. “The basic supply must continue to function, because that is the basis for the resilience and cohesion of this society.”
The SPD politician also warned of a new flight movement in winter. The recent attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure demonstrated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “ruthless, inhuman calculations,” she said. Every third power plant in Ukraine has already been destroyed and there are power cuts, she added. “If the lights and the heating went out in winter, even more people would have to leave their homes.”
At the invitation of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), who currently chairs the G7 group, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, an international expert conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine will take place in Berlin on Tuesday.
Sunday, October 23, 12:07 a.m.: The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has spoken out in favor of resuming Russian gas supplies after the war. “We need long-term contracts for LNG supplies from the US, Qatar and other Arab countries. In addition, we must finally develop our own natural gas in the North Sea. And when the war is over, we should use gas from Russia again,” he told the “Bild am Sonntag.” When asked if he assumed that the damaged Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline would be repaired, he said : “We will need pipeline gas, and that is only possible with functioning pipelines.”
Referring to the war in Ukraine, Kretschmer said: “A joint diplomatic effort by the EU, the USA, China, India and Japan is now needed. This war must be stopped.” According to Kretschmer, such negotiations would not automatically result in Ukraine having to relinquish parts of its national territory. “There is not a single reason why Ukraine should give up even one square meter of its territory. War damage must be compensated by Russia, war criminals must be held accountable. You have to go into peace talks with this attitude,” said Kretschmer.
11:55 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sees his country’s troops advancing in Moscow-occupied areas despite massive Russian rocket attacks. The Ukrainian armed forces are advancing on the front line every day, and Russian strikes on the infrastructure cannot stop them, Zelensky said in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Saturday evening. “Ukrainians are united and know very well that Russia has no chance of winning this war.”
Zelenskyj had previously criticized the large number of Russian rocket attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Saturday. No strike by the “Russian terrorists” could stop the country. “Russian propagandists lie when they say that this terror against our infrastructure and people could somehow slow down the active actions of our military.” Zelenskyy announced that sanctions against Kremlin propagandists are being coordinated with the US.
Russia is already retreating on the battlefield and realizes that it is losing; The aggressor is therefore trying to feign military victories by attacking civilians and infrastructure, Zelenky said. The Ukrainian Armed Forces received everything they needed to defend the country every day. It is not yet possible to fend off all Russian attacks. Selenskyj emphasized that this will succeed with the help of the West.
According to Ukrainian information, there were a total of 40 rocket attacks on Saturday, and the Russian side also sent 16 Iranian drones. 20 rockets and 11 combat drones had been shot down, according to Kyiv.
In view of the severe damage to the energy infrastructure, Selenskyj once again called on the population to save electricity. According to him, the regions of Khmelnytskyi, Odessa, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk, among others, were affected by the attacks. “The main target of the terrorists is energy,” Zelenskyy said. The stability of supply in the country depends on each city. In some cases, the supply has already been restored.
7:15 p.m .: Olena Selenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj, emphasized at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Saturday that there were no “overtones” in the war in her homeland. “We are fighting for our lives,” she said in the evening at an event organized by the magazine “Brigitte”. “You have to tell the truth about what happens to us every day.” That’s what she sees as her job when she appears as First Lady.
There were air raids again in Kyiv on Saturday and her thoughts are with her children, she said. “Our planning horizon is maybe one or two days – we don’t know what tomorrow or the day after tomorrow will bring.” We’re going to the air-raid shelter.”
The Ukrainian first lady described the search for normality despite the effects of the war – for example, her daughter had started studying. “We are constantly in different places, the children have rarely seen their father, but they call every day.”
4:08 p.m .: Ukraine has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the face of massive Russian rocket attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure. “The aggressor does not stop terrorizing our country,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Kyiv on Saturday. According to the presidential administration, around 1.5 million customers of the energy supplier Ukrenerho were without electricity in the country. Zelenskyi’s adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said Russia was trying to push Ukrainians into a new mass flight to Europe.
“The only way to stop a humanitarian catastrophe is to quickly deliver anti-aircraft systems and additional missiles,” Podoliak said. It is feared that because of the cold and darkness and the lack of energy, people will get into even more serious trouble than they already have and will flee.
According to Zelenskyj, Russia fired another 36 rockets at Ukraine on Saturday. Most were shot down by the air defenses. Nevertheless, Russian rockets hit some important energy plants, as a photo published by Zelenskyj showed. These are typical terrorist tactics. “The world can and must stop this terror,” said the head of state. He thanked the energy service providers who are in the process of rebuilding the infrastructure.
The energy supplier Ukrenerho had previously spoken of particularly serious damage caused by the Russian attacks in the west of the country. According to the authorities, an energy supply object was hit particularly hard in Lutsk, and the supply failed. Ukrenerho had announced that hundreds of thousands of households in the country were without electricity.
Russia issued a nationwide air alert on Saturday with new rocket attacks on Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow confirmed a large number of attacks. Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for almost eight months.
12:59 p.m .: Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) talks to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal on Tuesday about further possible arms deliveries from Germany. The meeting is planned in the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin, a spokesman for the ministry said on Saturday. It can be assumed that “further military support from Germany will also be a topic of discussion”.
Schmyhal had previously asked Germany to deliver new ammunition to ward off Russian air raids within a few days. In the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” he also referred to the newly delivered German Iris-T SLM anti-aircraft missile system. This has “already saved a great many human lives”. However, Ukraine is “impatiently” waiting for new ammunition that the country needs “right now”. In addition, Schmyhal asked for jammers to ward off remote-controlled drones used by Russia.
12:21 p.m .: The Putin critic and head of Navalny’s foundation, Leonid Volkov, commented on the situation in Ukraine in an interview. In his opinion, the West cannot influence Putin’s decisions – and must continue to supply Ukraine with weapons. He told the “t-online” portal: “The position of the West must be: We do what we have to do. Putin is a sick man – and there is no way we can influence him. He’ll push the damn button eventually, or not.”
9.45 a.m .: The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Schmyhal, spoke in the “FAZ” about the situation in Ukraine. He continued to demand more weapons from international partners, including Germany. “First of all, we need anti-aircraft defenses. Germany has already delivered the IRIS-T system to us. It has been in use for a week and has already saved many, many lives, especially in the Kyiv area. Unfortunately, we only have such a system at the moment and we are impatiently awaiting the next shipment of ammunition,” says Schmyhal.
Time is the biggest factor. “It’s literally a matter of days. The Russians use twenty to thirty Iranian kamikaze drones against us every day. They’re hard to shoot down. That is why we ask our partners here for special repellents.”
8:52 a.m .: In a letter to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) call for more money for the coming year to provide military support to Ukraine. The letter is in front of the “Spiegel”.
The two ministers therefore have a special pot for weapons aid of 2.2 billion euros in mind. Only with this budget, they wrote in a letter on Thursday, could Germany “concretely and visibly assume the responsibility that our international partners expect of us”.
5:48 a.m .: Against the background of the energy crisis and massive price increases, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) warned of a social split. “The difficult situation we are in has to do with Putin’s war of aggression. It is his calculation to damage us economically and divide us socially,” he told the Bayern media group (Saturday edition) with a view to the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A “strong welfare state” counteracts this, Heil added. In order to keep the country together economically and socially, the labor market must be kept “stable” with the instrument of short-time work, for example. In addition, the current peak in employment subject to social security contributions is strengthening social insurance, particularly in unemployment and pension insurance.
“We must not allow Putin to divide our society socially,” demanded Heil. “That’s why we keep an eye on everyone who is hit particularly hard at the moment – people on low incomes as well as the needy.”
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