10/14/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 03:00 opposition politicians: Russia wants to station 120,000 soldiers in Belarus +++
Belarusian opposition politician Pavel Latushka, who lives in exile in Warsaw, is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko are planning an invasion of Ukraine from Belarus next spring. “Our sources say that the Russians want to station 120,000 soldiers in Belarus by then,” Latuschka told the editorial network Germany. He put the current number of Russian soldiers in his country at around 5,000, spread over four Russian military bases.
+++ 02:20 Moscow considers not extending grain deal +++
The Russian leadership is considering not renewing the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain. “I don’t know, because the second part of the agreement is not being complied with,” said Yuri Ushakov, adviser to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, according to the Interfax news agency, when asked by journalists whether the grain deal would be continued in its current form. In the contract, Russia has committed itself to ending the blockade of Ukrainian seaports for grain exports, but in return wants easier exports of fertilizers and food. Ushakov is now complaining that around 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizers are stored in European ports that nobody can pick up.
+++ 01:37 Selenskyj: Russia sends reservists as “cannon fodder” to the front +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of sending conscripted reservists to Ukraine as “cannon fodder” as part of its partial mobilization. The Russian army is currently sending “thousands of conscripts to the front,” says Zelenskyj in his evening video address. “Using these people as cannon fodder by the Russian generals allows them to increase the pressure on our defenders,” added the Ukrainian leader. This surge in troops is creating “tangible pressure” on the Ukrainian army, Zelenskyy said.
+++ 00:53 report: Federal police stop searching for traces of the Nord Stream pipeline +++
According to a media report, the federal police have ended their mission to investigate the sabotage attack on the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea. The multi-purpose boat “Mittelgrund” is already on its way back to its home port, reports the “Spiegel”. After an underwater inspection near the pipeline leaks, the minehunter “Dillingen” was to set course for Germany. The federal police are conducting the investigation and asked the Bundeswehr for administrative assistance with military boats last week. A “Sea Cat” underwater drone equipped with cameras and other sensors was launched near the leaks northeast of the island of Bornholm. The drone was able to take several pictures of the damaged pipeline. These would now be evaluated.
+++ 00:11 Ukrainian authorities: the city of Kharkiv under fire +++
According to the regional authorities, the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was hit by Russian rockets in the evening. Mayor Ihor Terekhov reports at least two impacts. There was a power outage in some parts of the city. There is no immediate information about the dead or injured. Rockets have also fallen in the Kharkiv area, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said. There are also power outages there. Ukrainian media blamed the attack on the town on the border with Russia as a response to rocket parts hitting a residential building in the Russian city of Belgorod earlier on Thursday.
+++ 23:24 IAEA boss sees “progress” in talks about nuclear power plant Zaporizhia +++
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, spoke positively about the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant after talks with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine. “The work goes on, and I think we’re making good progress,” Grossi said in Kyiv that evening about his plans for a security zone around the contested Ukrainian nuclear power plant. However, there are no concrete signals of approval from Moscow and Kyiv.
+++ 22:50 Investigations after the destruction of the world’s largest aircraft Antonov An-225 +++
The destruction of the world’s largest aircraft, the Ukrainian Antonov An-225 Mriya, at the start of the Russian invasion has criminal consequences for the former management of the Antonov concern. The only airworthy example of this oversized transporter was burned on February 27th when Russian paratroopers attacked the Hostomel airfield near Kyiv. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the SBU secret service are now investigating why the plane was not brought to safety in time despite warnings. This is reported by Ukrainian media in Kyiv. Legally, this is considered a violation of official duties or even collaboration with a foreign military power.
+++ 22:01 First dead recruits are mourned in Moscow +++
The first corpses of untrained recruits are coming back to Russia from Ukraine — including in big cities like Moscow. Wall Street Journal correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov wrote on Twitter: “Even the Z propagandists are upset.” He refers to a 28-year-old former Moscow city government department head who was drafted on September 23 and killed on October 10.
+++ 21:30 well before the target date: German gas storage tanks are more than 95 percent full +++
On average, the gas storage facilities in Germany are already 95 percent full before the target date of November 1st. The storage tanks have reached a filling level of 95.14 percent, according to data from the European gas storage platform AGSI in the evening. In Germany, a law was passed in the spring with clear specifications for the storage levels in order to secure the supply. Read more about this here.
+++ 21:01 Russian ammunition depot in Belgorod explodes +++
According to Russian sources, an ammunition depot exploded during Ukrainian air raids on a village in the Russian region of Belgorod on the border with Ukraine. According to the first findings, there were no victims or injuries, said the local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on Thursday in the online service Telegram. Russian authorities earlier on Thursday accused Ukraine of bombing an apartment building in the city of Belgorod. Gladkow wrote on Telegram that there were no victims. The damage to the building is not serious. Kyiv had denied the shelling and said the Russians had accidentally hit the building themselves when they wanted to shell Kharkiv.
Read earlier developments related to the Ukraine war here.