Ukrainian President Zelenskyy emphasizes that future wars can only be prevented by defeating the Russian aggressor. A mass grave was discovered in Lyman. The news at a glance.
After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine, the authorities say they found around 200 graves and one mass grave. The exhumations have already begun, wrote the military governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, on Friday evening in his channel on the Telegram news service. He also published photos showing many small wooden crosses and emergency services in white protective suits. The strategically important small town, temporarily occupied by Russian troops, was recaptured by the Ukrainians in early October.
According to initial findings, the dead could be both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, it said. How many bodies were in the mass grave has yet to be determined. According to the police, several small children and entire families were among the people killed.
Ukrainian media had already reported on the discovery of dozens of graves in Lyman last Wednesday. Some of the victims are said to have died from heavy shelling during the Russian conquest of the site in May.
Mass graves had already been found in various parts of Ukraine in the past after the withdrawal of Russian troops. The bodies found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha in early April caused particular international outrage. Hundreds of dead civilians had been found there – some with signs of torture and their hands tied. Since then, Bucha has been considered a symbol for the most serious war crimes.
Zelenskyj sees further progress in Kiev’s offensive
Meanwhile, President Zelenskyj sees further progress in the defense offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces. In the past week, 776 square kilometers of land have been liberated; 29 settlements in total, including 6 in the Luhansk region, he said. Villages in which the occupiers had recently held mock referendums on joining Russia are now again under Ukrainian control. Since the beginning of the offensive, a total of 2,434 square kilometers and 96 settlements have come back under Ukrainian control. The liberation of the territories continues, he said.
The Russian occupiers must be driven out everywhere and defeated as aggressors, Zelenskyj said. This is the only way wars can be prevented in the future. In a new reaction to Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories, Zelenskyy now recognized the Pacific archipelago of the southern Kuril Islands as Japanese sovereignty. In a video message, he called on the world community to also recognize Russian territory as Japanese.
The Soviet Union conquered the areas in the north of Japan as the victorious power in World War II. Japan and Russia, the legal successors of the Soviet Union, still have no peace treaty because of the territorial dispute. “Russia has no right to these areas,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyj defuses statements on “preemptive strikes”
At the same time, Zelenskyy softened his controversial statements about a “preventive strike” against Russia in a television interview. “You have to use pre-emptive kicks, not attacks. We are not terrorists, we are not attacking any other territory,” Zelenskyy said in a BBC interview in English on Friday in Kyiv. Even after all the suffering of the war, Ukraine is still not ready “to kill people like the Russians do.”
Zelenskyi caused a stir on Thursday with calls for the decisive prevention of a Russian use of nuclear weapons. The Kremlin in Moscow sharply condemned the statements as a “call to start the third world war”.
Training of Ukrainian soldiers supported by Germany
According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany will make an “important contribution” to the planned EU training mission for the Ukrainian armed forces. The SPD politician said on Friday after an EU summit in Prague. Scholz emphasized that the mission would be “large in scope” and that he assumed that decisions on this could be made as early as next week. It was recently planned that the EU would offer training programs outside of Ukraine for around 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers, 2,800 of whom could be special forces.
In view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell discussed a new training program for the Ukrainian armed forces in August. Specifically, according to earlier information, it could include training in areas such as logistics and protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Several EU states are already training Ukrainian soldiers on the basis of national agreements. Germany has recently been particularly involved in the areas of air defense and artillery. In addition, a proposal was drawn up together with the Netherlands on how mine countermeasures training could be strengthened.
The Chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), spoke out in favor of tank training for Ukrainian soldiers in the EU. “The Spaniards would be willing to train the Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard 2 in Latvia,” she told the German Press Agency on Friday in Kyiv. But Germany would have to give the green light for this.
Food Crisis: Ukraine Gets $1.3 Billion
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is giving Ukraine billions in fresh aid from a new program to cushion food price shocks. The IMF Council approved the disbursement of 1.3 billion dollars (1.33 billion euros) on Friday. The money was intended, among other things, to compensate for the loss of income from grain exports that were lost in the course of the Russian war of aggression, the IMF said. The Ukrainian economy is forecast to shrink by 35 percent this year and the need for financing will remain high. The new IMF support program in connection with the food crisis was launched just a few days ago.
What is important today
Ukraine is continuing its offensive in the east and south of the country in order to further push back the Russian troops and liberate more towns. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense is relocating more and more reservists, who are called up as part of a partial mobilization, to the invaded country. The conscripts should hold there occupied areas in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
Communication Kyrylenko BBC interview