Russian invasion
War against Ukraine: That’s the situation
Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks at a joint press conference with Turkish President Erdogan after their meeting in Istanbul. photo
© Francisco Seco/AP/dpa
Russia’s war of aggression is entering its 500th day – and the USA is increasing its military aid for Kiev with controversial cluster munitions. Istanbul is about the grain agreement. The news at a glance.
Today marks the 500th day of the war after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. UN human rights experts in Ukraine documented 15,993 injuries and 9,177 civilian deaths since June 30, 2023. The UN only counts cases that they have been able to independently confirm. The number of victims initially fell in the spring, but rose again in May and June, it said.
In an interview excerpt broadcast by US broadcaster CNN on Friday, Biden emphasized that he had spoken to allies and members of the US Congress about the delivery of cluster munitions. Unlike Germany, the USA is not a signatory to the treaty banning cluster munitions, but it took a while before he was convinced that he would supply the controversial ammunition. Ukraine needs the cluster munitions in the fight against Russia.
The cluster munitions are part of a new $800 million US military aid package. “Russia has used cluster munitions to attack Ukraine since the beginning of the war,” Sullivan said. “We recognize that cluster munitions pose a risk of harm to civilians from unexploded munitions, so we have delayed the decision as long as we could.” Ukraine has committed to demining to mitigate potential harm to civilians.
Zelenskyy thanks the USA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Biden for the new military aid. “A timely, comprehensive and much-needed defense assistance package from the United States,” Zelenskyy said on Twitter on Friday evening. He was in Istanbul for talks with his Turkish colleague Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Among other things, it was about the continuation of the grain agreement. Zelenskyy commended Washington for “decisive steps to bring Ukraine closer to victory over the enemy and democracy to victory over dictatorship”. Ukraine has repeatedly called for cluster munitions to more effectively destroy positions held by Russian occupiers.
Russia: USA bring mankind closer to new world war
Russia described the announced US delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine as a further escalation in the war. “Washington continues to step up its efforts in the conflict,” Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said overnight, according to the State Department in Moscow. Even without the cluster munitions, the US is deeply involved in the conflict and is bringing “mankind closer to a new world war”. According to Antonov, the use of cluster munitions will increase the number of war victims and only prolong the “death struggle of the Kiev regime”.
Hofreiter criticizes equipment with cluster munitions
The Greens politician Anton Hofreiter also criticized the planned equipment of the Ukrainian army with cluster munitions. “I reject the delivery of cluster munitions. It is rightly outlawed,” said Hofreiter of the German Press Agency (dpa). Instead, the chairman of the Europe Committee in the Bundestag called for the delivery of German cruise missiles to Ukraine and support for the fighter jet alliance led by Denmark and the Netherlands with logistics and training.
Different opinions about joining NATO
Ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, US President Biden told CNN that he did not believe Ukraine was “ready for NATO membership”. There is still no agreement among the NATO member states as to whether Ukraine should be included in the defense alliance “now, in the middle of the war”, or not. If you do that, you are also obliged to defend every inch of NATO territory. If the war then continued, all NATO partners would be at war.
Shortly before, Biden’s national security adviser, Sullivan, had already dampened Ukraine’s hopes of joining NATO quickly. Ukraine will not join NATO as a result of the summit, he said. Turkish President Erdogan, on the other hand, expressed his support for the Kievs’ wish. “Ukraine undoubtedly deserves NATO membership,” Erdogan said after his meeting with Zelenskyy.
Within the alliance, there were discussions right up to the end about how the topic should be dealt with at the summit. According to information from alliance circles, countries such as Lithuania and Poland are demanding that the country should receive a commitment to be admitted immediately after a possible end of the war. Other countries like Germany don’t actually want to make such promises.
However, according to a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of dpa, a majority of Germans are in favor of Ukraine being admitted to NATO sooner or later. In the survey, around 42 percent are in favor of the fact that this should only happen after the end of the Russian war of aggression against the country. 13 percent are in favor of immediate accession during the ongoing war. 29 are fundamentally opposed to Ukraine’s admission to the alliance. Its core is mutual military assistance in the event of an attack from outside.
What is important today
Under the impression of new aid pledges from the USA, the Ukrainian armed forces continue their offensive to liberate the areas occupied by Russian troops. Kiev’s goal is not only to liberate the east and south of the country, but also the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. In doing so, Kiev’s armed forces come up against massive Russian defenses that are difficult to break through.