Joschka Fischer has been commenting on the current situation for a long time. Elon Musk now wants to make his Spacelink satellites available to Ukraine free of charge. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.

More on the course of the war in Ukraine

03:00: The effects of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine have pushed four million children into poverty in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, according to the UN. “Children bear the greatest burden of the economic consequences of the Ukraine war,” UNICEF said on Monday. As a result of the conflict and the resulting inflation, the number of poor children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia has increased by 19 percent within a year.

UNICEF bases its report on data from 22 countries. Accordingly, the effects of the war on children in Russia and Ukraine are particularly strong. According to the report, Russia accounts for three quarters of the increase in children living in poverty, where the number of poor children increased by 2.8 million as a result of the war. According to UNICEF, the number of poor children in Ukraine has increased by half a million because of the war. In third place is Romania, where the number of children living in poverty increased by 110,000.

“Children across the region are being drawn into the horrific effects of this war,” said Afshan Khan, UNICEF Regional Director. If the affected children and their families do not get help quickly, “the precipitous rise in child poverty will almost certainly mean lost lives, lost learning and lost futures”.

The poorer a family is, the higher the proportion of income they have to spend on food and fuel and the less is left for children’s education and health care, Unicef ​​warned. Children living in poverty are also more likely to be at risk of violence, exploitation and abuse.

The UN children’s aid organization warned that the increase in child poverty this year alone could result in an additional 4,500 children dying before they reach the age of one and 117,000 children dropping out of school.

2:25 a.m.: The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the EU Parliament, David McAllister, welcomes the planned European training mission for Ukrainian soldiers in member states of the European Union. The EU support mission is “in view of the ongoing war, in addition to the delivery of military material, a very important step to substantially strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities,” said the CDU politician to “Welt” before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. However, it is crucial that the training is closely coordinated with the NATO allies: “The activities of the EU and NATO must be complementary.”

This Monday, the foreign ministers of the EU states will discuss, among other things, further support for Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia. A training mission for the Ukrainian armed forces is also to be decided at the meeting. From mid-November, training programs for around 15,000 soldiers are to be offered via the training mission. To minimize the risk of Russia attacking the mission, the trainings are not organized in Ukraine but in countries like Poland and Germany.

According to McAllister, he expects that the EU training mission will be decided on Monday and then be able to start quickly in November. “We’ve already lost time. The sooner the training starts, the better.”

With a view to arms deliveries, the committee head brought up a new proposal: “For further support, a proposal from the European Parliament is that Ukraine temporarily borrows modern weapons from the West. The EU could provide funds to pay for the rental costs.”

Monday, October 17, 12:40 a.m.: The Red Cross defends itself against criticism from Kyiv that it has not yet visited numerous prisoners of war. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has moral obligations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj said last week and demanded immediate visits. “Blaming the ICRC for being denied full and immediate access does not help prisoners of war or their families,” the ICRC said on Sunday evening. Eleven employees, including a doctor, are available for such visits in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, but have not yet received permission.

This must come from the participating states. According to the Geneva Conventions, they are obliged to grant access to the ICRC. For almost eight months, the ICRC has been asking in vain to be able to visit all the places where prisoners of war are interned – including the Olenivka prison camp – unhindered and regularly.

“Prisoners of war and their families deserve this glimmer of hope and humanity in the agony of armed conflict,” the ICRC said. “Our determination is unbroken. We will never stop demanding access to prisoners of war until we can see them all not just once but repeatedly, wherever they are being held.”

On Friday, the ICRC reported that it had seen hundreds of prisoners of war on both sides, but probably not thousands more. It appealed to both sides, Russia and Ukraine, to allow these visits.

Olenivka is in Russian-occupied territory in Donetsk. It is unclear how many people are being held there. More than 50 prisoners were killed in an explosion there in July. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for this.

6:14 p.m .: The Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR has put up a $100,000 bounty for the capture of former Russian intelligence officer Igor Girkin, who led the 2014 separatist uprising in Donbass. “The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine guarantees payment of $100,000 for the transfer of Igor Girkin (Strelkov) to Ukrainian captivity,” the military intelligence service said on its website on Sunday. Girkin, known by his code name “Strelkov”, is held responsible, among other things, for shooting down a passenger plane over the Donbass.

For months, Girkin had criticized what he saw as insufficient harshness against Ukrainians, the incompetence of the Russian military leadership and the sometimes absurd reports of success from the General Staff. He called for a general mobilization in Russia for a major war against the neighbors. According to Russian military bloggers, after Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilization, Girkin himself has since rejoined a volunteer battalion to fight in Ukraine.

2:40 p.m .: China has called on its residents to leave Ukraine as soon as possible. This is reported, among other things, by the state-affiliated newspaper “Global Times”. “The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine urge Chinese citizens in Ukraine to increase security and leave the country given the difficult security situation,” the official statement said.

Tensions in Ukraine have “raised to a new level,” the report said. It remains unclear whether China is alluding to a possible nuclear threat here.

12:58 p.m .: Joschka Fischer was foreign minister of the first red-green federal government – and led the party to the Kosovo war at the time. The ex-foreign minister has now commented on the current war in Ukraine. The 74-year-old told the “Münchner Merkur”: “I cannot tell you how and when this war will end. But the relationship between Europe and Russia will never be the same again. Confidence has been lost, the danger in the East remains.”

And further: “What we are experiencing is a break in time. The world we know won’t come back. I cannot tell you how and when this war will end. But the relationship between Europe and Russia will never be the same again. Confidence has been lost, the danger in the East remains.”

11:34 p.m.: France wants to train almost 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Artillery training for the Caesar howitzer has already taken place, but now it will go a little further, Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published on the website on Saturday.

As Lecornu specified, the training will take place in three stages: first, the general training of the fighters, then the specific needs reported by the Ukrainians, such as logistics, and finally a third, which concerns training on the weapons supplied.

Just a few days ago, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of six Caesar-type howitzers as well as radar systems and other anti-aircraft missiles. France has already delivered 18 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine.

8:44 p.m .: U-turn at Elon Musk: As the SpaceX boss announced on Twitter, he now wants to continue to provide free Starlink satellites to Ukraine through his company. “The hell with that. Even though Starlink keeps losing money and other companies get billions in taxpayers’ money, we will continue to support Ukraine for free,” Musk’s personal account tweeted.

The Starlink satellites allow Ukrainian soldiers stable communications at the front. Musk had threatened in the past few days that he would no longer make these available if the Pentagon did not pay for the costs.

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