live blog
According to Russian information, the situation in Belgorod on the border with Ukraine is becoming increasingly tense. Strack-Zimmermann wants to reduce committee rounds after the “Taurus” leak. All developments in the live blog.
According to the British, Russia wants to protect its fighter jets and warships from Ukrainian attacks using replicas and other deception. “The Russian Armed Forces are most likely trying to increase and improve the use of so-called Maskirovka techniques to mitigate the heavy losses of the past two years in both the Black Sea Fleet and the Aerospace Forces,” the British Ministry of Defense said, referring to the Russian term with.
Cheap replicas of jets are being set up at Russian airfields or machines are being covered with tires, and there are also reports of aircraft silhouettes painted on the ground, it said in London. The bow and stern of warships would be painted black to make the boats appear smaller. Outlines of the ships would be painted onto the pavement on the quays. The British ministry showed an aerial photo of a submarine anchored in the port of Novorossiysk and a silhouette next to it.
“Despite these attempts at concealment, Russian aircraft in the air are still vulnerable to conventional shoot-downs and Russian ships are still vulnerable during operations in the Black Sea,” the British authority emphasized. “It is unlikely that the use of ‘Maskirovka’ techniques will lead to a significant reduction in losses.”
The situation in the Russian border region of Belgorod, which has been under fire from the Ukrainian side for days, is apparently becoming increasingly tense. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced an early start to the holidays for the regional capital of the same name and the districts on the border with Ukraine. Some of the lessons will still be conducted online.
In seven districts, checkpoints with security forces have begun to be set up, as in crisis areas, to regulate access to towns. Federation Council President Valentina Matviyenko announced in Moscow an “appropriate response” to the attacks and retaliation. The attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces were specifically directed against civilian objects and cities, said Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s confidante – without providing any evidence. She accused the USA, Great Britain and NATO of coordinating the actions of the Ukrainian army. She did not provide any evidence for this either.
Pro-Ukrainian paramilitaries have claimed responsibility for the attacks, but not Kiev’s regular armed forces. The authorities in the Belgorod region announced that they would distribute food due to the increasingly poor supply situation in the area, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
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.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has described it as an open secret that Western soldiers are already in Ukraine. “As your chancellor said, there are already some troops from major countries in Ukraine,” Sikorski said in an interview with the dpa news agency. When asked whether it was a problem that the Chancellor spoke about the issue, he said: “In Polish we have the term Tajemenica Polizynela, which describes a secret that everyone knows.”
On February 26, Scholz justified his rejection of the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine to journalists and said, among other things, that Germany would not participate in targeting with soldiers – neither from Germany nor on site. He added: “What the British and French are doing in terms of targeting and accompaniment of targeting cannot be done in Germany.”
This was interpreted by opposition politicians, but also by individual politicians abroad, to mean that Scholz had confirmed the presence of Western soldiers in Ukraine. Sikorski reiterated that Poland would not send ground troops to Ukraine. However, he welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron’s approach of not taking the option of sending ground troops to the war zone off the table.
The EU court has overturned the sanctions against Russian ex-Formula 1 racing driver Nikita Masepin. The judges in Luxembourg said that the family relationship with his father was not sufficient to assume that he was linked to him by common interests.
His father is accused of belonging to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and, as a leading businessman, supporting measures in the chemical industry, among other things, that threaten Ukraine. Because of Russia’s war of aggression, the EU countries decided in March 2022 to freeze Masepin’s funds and deny him entry into the EU. However, he took action against the sanctions.
The judges had already partially suspended the sanctions in preliminary proceedings last year until the final decision. Masepin drove alongside Mick Schumacher in Formula 1 for the Haas racing team until the latter ended the collaboration in March 2022 due to the war against Ukraine.
The chairwoman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), wants to reduce the number of participants at certain meetings in order to reduce the risk of confidential information being passed on from the committee. The FDP politician announced talks on Deutschlandfunk.
The ministries should withdraw employees they have sent when secret matters are discussed. “We will make the suggestion. It will not cause any joy,” said Strack-Zimmermann. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has already told her that he wants to do this. The committee itself could also make suggestions to ask some of the employees to leave the room when discussing secret topics. They want to talk to the chairmen in the committee about the procedure.
After the secret meeting of the Defense Committee on Monday last week, information about the Taurus cruise missile was made public. 105 people took part in the meeting.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has encouraged Ukraine in its demand for “Taurus” cruise missiles and accused Germany of hesitancy in delivering new weapons systems to the war zone. Providing the “Taurus” cruise missiles with a range of 500 kilometers would have a “significant impact on Ukraine’s ability to defend itself,” Sikorski said in an interview with the dpa news agency. With cruise missiles from other countries, the Ukrainians have already persuaded the Russians to move their logistical bases such as ammunition depots far behind the front. “And the German rockets would force them to go even further away.”
According to authorities, Russian anti-aircraft defense shot down drones in the southern Saratov region during the night. According to initial findings, there was no damage or casualties in the city of Engels from falling debris, said Governor Roman Busargin on Telegram. Engels is more than 500 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. More than 200,000 people live in the city.
Russia has shot down drones several times in the Saratov region, where the Engels-2 military air base is located. Russia has stationed strategic bombers here for missile attacks on Ukraine. It has not yet been possible to independently verify whether all drones could actually be fended off on approach. The Russian side, which has been waging a war of aggression against its neighboring country for more than two years now, often only reports supposed successes of its own air defense in the case of Ukrainian drone attacks.
According to official information, access to several towns in the Russian border region of Belgorod will be limited due to the ongoing shelling. For security reasons, police, national guard, border guard and administrative barriers would be set up in front of six settlements from Wednesday, the governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced in the evening. Attempts are being made to convince residents to seek safety. “I have personally convinced myself that a large number of residents remain under attack today. This is of course unacceptable,” he said on his Telegram channel.
After his re-election, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would further strengthen the military and security organs. “Of course, today – especially today – strengthening the defense capability and security of the Russian state is particularly important,” said Putin, according to the state news agency Tass, at a meeting with the parliamentary group leaders.
Once again he portrayed the Ukraine he attacked as the aggressor and declared that the Russian people would not be intimidated. With his actions, the enemy is achieving exactly the opposite of what he intended, he said, referring to the increasing shelling of Russian border regions by Ukraine in recent days. The attacks on the border regions have also caused casualties among the Russian civilian population. However, the damage is disproportionate to the number of victims and the extent of the destruction that Russia’s military is causing in Ukraine.
The Russian region of Belgorod says it wants to bring around 9,000 children from the border with Ukraine to safe areas. Chancellor Scholz sharply criticizes the “Taurus” debate. Tuesday’s developments to read.