Ukraine-News: ++ Selenskyj wants to restructure government after corruption scandal ++

Dhe President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyj has announced timely personnel changes in the government and in the regions. Some decisions have already been made, others would be made on Tuesday, said Zelenskyj in his video speech on Monday evening. He had previously emphasized that he would not tolerate corruption and that he wanted to take action against misconduct in the state apparatus.

The background to this are allegations against a deputy minister who has since been fired and arrested. Deputy Minister for Community, Territory and Infrastructure Development Vasyl Losynsky is said to have taken a $400,000 bribe to buy generators to help deal with the country’s energy crisis.

The deputy chief of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, is also no longer in his post. After criticism of his work, he applied to Selenskyj for dismissal. The head of state complied with the request and fired the top official, according to a decree published on the president’s website. Tymoshenko had previously caused a stir because he had been traveling in a US SUV provided by the car company General Motors for the rescue of citizens from the combat zones in the war zone and for humanitarian missions. The official had defended his trips as official.

In his video speech, Zelenskyj also looked back on the war that has been going on for eleven months and emphasized the cooperation with the allies, especially the USA. The 11 months of “Russia’s predatory all-out war” have welded Ukraine, the US and all other allies as tightly as possible. He can now say with confidence that “this evil on Ukrainian soil” can be overcome.

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All developments in the live ticker:

7:50 a.m. – Strack-Zimmermann confident about a possible Leopard delivery

The Chair of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has expressed confidence in moving forward with the decision on a supply of Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine. She is optimistic that she and the new Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) will “get something off the ground together,” says the FDP politician on ZDF.

“I think the sign that we are now sending the Marder – it always works in combination with a battle tank – is correct,” she says, referring to the promised delivery of armored personnel carriers. However, Strack-Zimmermann rejected a possible delivery of combat aircraft. “An airplane is something completely different, creating air superiority is something completely different. I don’t see us at all.”

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07:02 – Ukraine: A school is destroyed every other day

In Ukraine, a school has been vandalized every other day since the start of the school year, Save the Children reports. “The war has made it incredibly difficult for children in Ukraine to access education,” said Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Ukraine country director. “Millions of children have had to study at home due to the constant threat of shells and rocket attacks, and now even online learning is being further hampered by frequent power and internet outages.”

6:50 a.m. – EU wants to finance reconstruction with confiscated Russian assets

EU Council President Charles Michel is urging the use of confiscated assets from the Russian central bank to rebuild Ukraine. Member states should examine the idea of ​​profitably managing the frozen funds, he told the Financial Times. The profits made could then be used for reconstruction. It is a question of justice and fairness and must be done within the framework of legal principles. The EU in November froze 300 billion euros from the reserve of the Russian central bank as part of the sanctions it imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

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05:45 Ukraine: Nine houses destroyed by Russian shelling

At least nine high-rise buildings were damaged by Russian shelling in the Ukrainian city of Chasiv Yar on Monday. One person was killed and two others were injured, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram. “The Russians deliberately terrorize and kill civilians. And they will pay dearly for it.” Reuters could not independently verify the report.

4:20 a.m. – CDU defense expert calls SPD foreign policy concept “fog candle”

The CDU defense expert Henning Otte has criticized the SPD concept for a new foreign and security policy and, if necessary, demanded a decision by the coalition committee on the delivery of Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine. The paper is “a smokescreen to cover up the lack of political action in the current situation,” said Otte of the German Press Agency. “A strategy paper does not replace urgently needed decisions,” added Otte, who is also Vice-Chairman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag.

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil presented a concept on Monday with which the Chancellor Party wants to reorganize its foreign and security policy. It also acknowledges mistakes in Russia policy and names the military as a means of peace policy. Otte criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SPD) hesitation in handing over Leopard tanks to Kyiv: “Ukraine and our allies cannot wait any longer for the SPD to complete its self-employment.”

03:34 – Russia sends three more infantry divisions to Ukraine

Russia will deploy three more motorized infantry divisions in Ukraine’s Cherson and Zaporizhia regions, according to new Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. According to Moscow, the regions were annexed in September. “The main goal of this work is to ensure the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country,” Gerasimov claimed to the Russian newspaper “Argumenti i Fakti”.

01:18 – Russia blacklists Sakharov Foundation

Russia has declared a US foundation named after a Soviet-era Russian dissident an undesirable organization. The Office of the Russian Prosecutor General said it had blacklisted the American Andrei Sakharov Foundation. The list includes foreign and international non-governmental organizations whose activities on Russian territory are considered undesirable.

The foundation, which is headquartered near Washington, was initially unavailable for comment. According to its own statements, its goal is to create a world in which the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov are heard and which is a safer and fairer place.

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