live blog
Status: 07/27/2022 07:46 a.m
According to Russian troops, they have captured Ukraine’s largest coal-fired power plant near Svitlodarsk. The US apparently wants to treat Ukrainian soldiers in US hospitals in Germany. The developments in the live blog.
7:46 a.m
Ukrainians report recapture of a village in the Cherson region
According to the Ukrainian military, it has completely conquered the small town of Andriyivka in the Cherson region in the south of the country. “Andriyivka has been liberated and finally cleared of the Russian occupying forces,” spokesman for the “South” command center of the Ukrainian troops, Vladyslaw Nazarov, said in a video message. According to Nazarov, the Ukrainian forces also captured the neighboring town of Losowe a few days ago.
7:23 a.m
180 Ukrainians in Germany are looking for relatives
Ukrainians who have fled to Germany seek help from the German Red Cross (DRK) in locating missing relatives. As a spokeswoman told the Evangelical Press Service, the DRK Tracing Service has received 183 inquiries from Ukrainians since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. The aid organization tries to clarify the fate of the deceased or to help with family reunification. The tracing service calls for contacting him if relatives are missing.
Inquiries from Ukrainian refugees are collected at a central office at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. At the same time, the organization conceded that his opportunities to actively search for missing persons in Ukraine, to send messages or to visit prisoners are currently severely restricted due to the hostilities. Due to the ongoing refugee movements, it is currently also difficult outside of Ukraine to clarify the whereabouts of relatives with whom contact has been lost, it said.
The tracing service advises displaced persons to memorize telephone numbers and to ensure that children always carry the contact details of relatives with them.
06:34 a.m
Russia: Have conquered the largest coal-fired power plant
In the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Russian troops say they have taken control of Ukraine’s largest coal-fired power plant near Svitlodarsk. The media of the Donetsk separatists already reported the capture yesterday. Pictures should prove the presence of Russian mercenaries of the so-called Wagner group in front of the administration building. According to other reports, however, the fighting around the power plant site, which had been going on since the end of May, continued. The information cannot be verified independently.
The Ukrainian General Staff no longer mentioned the power plant in its evening situation report. Instead, the military leadership only reported fighting around Semyhirya, which was a little further to the west. In the morning report there was still talk of air raids on Ukrainian positions on the power plant site. East of the line from Siwersk via Soledar to Bakhmut, on the other hand, Russian attacks were successfully repelled, the General Staff said. Successful defensive battles were also reported from other sectors of the front in the Donetsk and neighboring Kharkiv regions. Russian troops continued to shell dozens of places with artillery and the Russian Air Force flew attacks.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
04:04 a.m
DIW warns of a severe recession
The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, expects a recession well into the coming year if the energy crisis worsens. “If energy prices continue to rise and no more Russian gas flows, then we must expect a deep and prolonged recession for the whole of 2023,” says Fratzscher of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. If Germany gets through the winter without too much energy shortage, it could remain in a mild recession for two quarters.
The economist expects prices to remain high in the long term, to which companies would have to respond with wage increases. “Only permanently higher wages will help against permanently higher prices.” He sees no danger of a wage-price spiral. “My biggest concern is rather that wages are rising too slowly and consumer demand is falling.” It is dangerous scaremongering when housing companies threaten tenants with restricting heating in winter. “Because most of the damage that we are currently suffering economically is not the result of an energy shortage, but the result of skyrocketing prices. And the fact that prices are skyrocketing is also due to this type of scaremongering.”
2:31 a.m
Association: No exaggerated expectations of nuclear power plant extension
The President of the Federal Association of Renewable Energy, Simone Peter, warns against exaggerated expectations of a possible continued operation of nuclear power plants. “From a purely technical point of view, nuclear power plants cannot replace what gas-fired power plants can do,” Peter told the Rheinische Post. The continued operation of nuclear power plants would also lead to a massive displacement of renewable capacity from the grid.
Instead, the potential of renewable energies must now be fully exploited. Domestic biogas in particular can contribute even more. “And when it comes to the power supply, many wind and solar projects are in the approval process, which can be connected at short notice. From our point of view, this should be checked as a matter of priority.”
2:30 a.m
ZEW boss: EU emergency plan insufficient
The head of the Center for European Economic Research, Achim Wambach, considers the EU emergency plan to be inadequate. “We should go beyond a policy of appeals,” Wambach told the Rheinische Post. “We need gas prices in line with the market in order to provide incentives for savings.” If a four-person household reduces gas consumption by 20 percent, they save over 1,000 euros at the current prices for new contracts.
At the same time, there must be protection against financial overload. The European Union’s gas emergency plan is an important step. “But the EU should go further: It should ensure that the European storage facilities are filled, for example by holding tenders for filling.”
2:27 a.m
Treatment of Ukrainian troops in US hospital in Germany
According to an insider, the United States is giving the green light for medical care for injured soldiers from Ukraine in Germany. The Pentagon agreed in June to treat Ukrainian troops at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC), a US Defense Department official said on condition of anonymity.
So far, no injured Ukrainian soldiers have been treated there. Also, US troops would not take any wounded out of Ukraine. Located adjacent to Ramstein Air Force Base southwest of Frankfurt, LRMC is the largest US military hospital outside of the Americas.