live blog
The federal government has commissioned the arms company Rheinmetall to produce around 100,000 mortar shells for Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelensky promised the EU further reforms. All developments in the live blog.
A Russian entrepreneur has failed in his lawsuit against European Union sanctions. Dmitri Masepin’s assets were rightly frozen, the judges in Luxembourg said. According to the court, Masepin is one of the leading chemical entrepreneurs in Russia. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, he and other businessmen took part in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the approach to Western sanctions against Russia.
According to the Ukrainian government, Russian forces have attacked energy infrastructure 60 times in recent weeks. The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said various weapons were used. “After each new attack, the need for energy equipment grows, and therefore the help of partners is very important for the Ukrainian energy sector.”
Last year, the Russian military increasingly attacked energy facilities in Ukraine before winter.
According to the occupying power, a Russian-backed member of parliament was killed in an attack in the Russian-annexed eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk. Mikhail Filiponenko died in the city of the same name when an explosive device placed in a car detonated, a local news agency reports, citing his son. Filiponenko had been active in the pro-Russian separatist movement in Luhansk since 2014 and was one of the commanders in chief of the army of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
Ukrainian troops have expanded their presence on the southern bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to Russian reports. There are signs of armored technology being relocated across the river, said the US Institute for War Studies ISW, citing Russian military bloggers.
In addition, more than 300 Ukrainian soldiers are said to have crossed over to the previously Russian-controlled bank near the village of Krynky. There was no confirmation of this from the Ukrainian side. The Ukrainian-controlled bank on the lower reaches of the Dnipro has been heavily bombarded by Russian artillery and bombed by the Russian Air Force for weeks. Most of the Kherson region remains occupied by Russian troops.
The German arms company Rheinmetall has been commissioned by the federal government to produce around 100,000 mortar shells for Ukraine. As the company announced today in Düsseldorf, delivery of the 120 millimeter caliber bullets will “begin in the short term” and “take place within the next two years.” The value of the order is “in the low three-digit” million euro range, Rheinmetall explained.
According to the group, the delivery agreement is part of a further support package for Ukraine worth 400 million euros announced by the government almost two months ago. As Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) announced at the time, this money would be used to pay for additional ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces for their defensive battle against the Russian army, as well as winter equipment, among other things.
The Ukrainian military says it has repelled several Russian attacks in widely separated parts of the war. The General Staff said forces repelled 15 attacks near Kupiansk in the northeast and 18 attacks near Mariinka further south. The attackers were also able to be repulsed in the heavily contested Avdiivka.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised the EU further reforms ahead of today’s expected recommendation for the country’s accession negotiations to the European Union. Ukraine is working on new laws and strengthening its state institutions in order to introduce EU standards in the country, Zelensky said in his evening video message. “Ukraine will be in the EU.” Membership means “economic security and social stability” for Ukraine, Zelensky said. The country is surviving in its fight against the Russian invasion thanks to billions in aid from the EU. The European Commission plans to present its report on Ukraine’s reform progress today.
The G7 countries have assured Ukraine of their continued support. At their meeting in Tokyo, G7 foreign ministers reaffirmed their determination to continue supporting Ukraine despite the war in the Middle East and to “impose tough sanctions on Russia,” according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
It is important that, against the backdrop of the war between Israel and the radical Islamist Hamas, the G7 states “send a clear signal to the international community that our unwavering commitment to support Ukraine will never weaken,” said the Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa. The G7 foreign ministers also pledged to accelerate efforts to rebuild Ukraine in the “medium and long term” and to “work towards a peace process” together with international partners.
The Russian occupation authorities have imposed several year prison sentences on three Ukrainian soldiers. According to the Netherlands, the first F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine are on their way to Romania. Tuesday’s developments to read.