Ukraine war
UN accuses Russia of war crimes. Putin sees “positive change” – the overview in the evening
STORY: Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock calls on Serbia to take a tougher stance on Russia because of the Ukraine war. “Clear words and actions are now required,” said Baerbock after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Friday. Anyone who shares European values cannot stand on the sidelines now. Vucic pointed out that Serbia had voted for a UN resolution condemning the Russian attack. So far, however, Serbia has not wanted to join the Western sanctions against Russia. Baerbock said that joining the EU also means supporting the Union’s common foreign policy. The federal government was very aware of the voting behavior on the UN resolution against Russia. The minister also praised the “key sign” that Serbia was ready to take in refugees from Ukraine. Vucic said he has not had any contact with the leadership in Moscow since the Russian invasion began on February 24. He emphasized that Germany is the most important partner for Serbia. This applies not only to economic relations, but also to integration into the EU.
As the Russian army escalates attacks in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin sees “positive changes” in talks with the Ukrainian government. There was an attack on a German-Russian school in Berlin. The situation on Friday evening.
The war in Ukraine is in its third week and the Russian army is expanding its offensive. The industrial city of Dnipro and two air force bases in the west of the country were also attacked for the first time. At least three people were killed. The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said both air bases had been rendered unusable.
According to the Ukrainian army, the Russian troops tried to further encircle the capital Kyiv. In addition, the Russian army is in the process of eliminating the defenses in the regions west and north-west of the capital in order to “block” Kyiv. The capital region is “preparing for the evacuation of the most vulnerable localities,” the authorities announced.
Despair in Mariupol
The situation in the besieged port city of Mariupol became increasingly desperate. Aid organizations report the dramatic situation of the approximately 300,000 civilians who are stuck there without water, electricity or gas. “People started fighting over food. Others smashed someone else’s car to get gas,” said Sasha Volkov, representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in an audio statement. The people in the strategically important city on the Azov Sea have been trapped for ten days.
The most important messages at a glance:
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has raised serious allegations against the Russian military. The organization has documented numerous attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. A spokeswoman in Geneva said it could be war crimes. At least 26 health facilities have been attacked since the war began on February 24, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Twelve people died and 34 were injured, said a spokesman in Geneva.
- The spokeswoman for the High Commission spoke of “apparently indiscriminate attacks” in which civilians were killed and injured, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Russian forces used rockets and heavy artillery shells near populated areas and attacked from the air. There are credible reports of the use of cluster munitions.
- “We remind the Russian authorities that targeted attacks on civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called carpet bombing in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international law and may constitute war crimes,” the spokeswoman said.
- “Any deliberate attack or targeting of civilians is a war crime,” US Vice President Kamala Harris said at a meeting with Romanian President Klaus Johannis in Bucharest. It is painful to see what is happening to innocent people in Ukraine.
- Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in Ukraine and actually a friend of Russia, says that war crimes and “crimes against humanity” are being committed in Ukraine. What is happening now “can neither be explained nor justified.” He hailed the “united action of the western world on an unprecedented scale” in support of Ukraine.
Putin: Certain “positive changes” in talks with Ukraine
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin sees some movement in negotiations to end hostilities in Ukraine. The Russian negotiators have informed about “certain positive changes” in the talks, which are held “almost daily”, said the Russian President at a meeting with the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. But Putin did not give any details. He was also demonstratively unimpressed by the large number of Western sanctions imposed because of his war. He spoke of a “massive blow” to Russia’s economy. However, the country has already adapted to the many sanctions in recent years. “And of course we got stronger,” he said.
War refugees should be distributed to federal states
After more and more municipalities complained about bottlenecks in the accommodation of war refugees from Ukraine, at least some of them should now be distributed to the individual federal states. After a meeting with the interior ministers of the federal states and representatives of the municipal umbrella organizations, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said: “We agreed this morning that we will now use the Königstein key to distribute those refugees to the federal states who are not privately in families or to be housed and cared for by friends.”
Since the beginning of the war, the federal police have identified 109,183 people entering Ukraine. The majority — 99,091 people — are Ukrainian nationals, according to the agency. Since Ukrainians can enter without a visa and there are no stationary controls at the border with Poland, for example, the number is probably higher. It is also unknown how many refugees have already traveled from Germany to other EU countries.
Arson attack on the gymnasium of the German-Russian school in Berlin
Unknown persons set fire to the entrance area of the gym of a German-Russian school in Berlin. Alerted officials initially extinguished the flames with their own resources. The fire brigade then took over the extinguishing work so that the fire could be prevented from spreading further. The structure of the building in the Marzahn district was damaged by the fire, but nobody was injured. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said that the war of aggression in Ukraine was the war of the Russian head of state Vladimir Putin and not the Russian population, and certainly not the Russian-born population in Germany.
Photo Chronicle of the War: A Signature. What follows is death and suffering
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Russia continues to restrict access to online media
The Russian authorities have restricted access to the online network Instagram. The responsible media supervisory authority stated that Instagram called for “violence” against Russians. Shortly before, the public prosecutor’s office had started investigations against Meta, the US parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, on charges of “calling for murder”. Since the start of the military operation in Ukraine, the Russian authorities have massively restricted access to online media. Facebook and Twitter are already affected. At the beginning of March, President Vladimir Putin also signed a law that provides for draconian prison sentences for “false information” about the Russian army.
The EU gives Ukraine no hope of rapid admission
The heads of state and government of the EU countries have put a significant damper on Ukraine’s hopes of rapid accession to the European Union. The statement from the EU summit in Versailles early Friday morning said: “Ukraine is part of our European family.” However, no concrete commitments were made to Kyiv with a view to acceding to the EU quickly, even after the eight-hour summit deliberations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy applied for membership last week in view of the Russian war against his country. He is sobered on Friday. “The European Union should do more. Should do more for us, for Ukraine. And for itself. We expect that. All Europeans expect that,” Zelenskyy said in a video message.
… and more background on the Ukraine war