live blog
Status: 05/23/2022 02:33 am
Russia’s head of state meets the Belarusian ruler in Sochi. A pro-Russian mayor in Ukraine is injured in an explosion. The developments in the live blog.
2:33 a.m
Baltic states end electricity imports from Russia
The Baltic states have stopped importing electricity from Russia because of the Ukraine war. “This is an important step on our way to energy independence,” Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys told AFP on Sunday. “By refusing to import Russian energy resources, we are refusing to finance the aggressor,” the minister said. On Friday, the Nord Pool energy exchange sent a message to the Russian energy supplier InterRao that it was barred from trading in the Baltic States due to international sanctions. Latvia imported its last Russian electricity in early May, while Lithuania and Estonia stopped purchasing electricity on Sunday. Russian electricity accounted for 17 percent of Lithuania’s electricity imports last year. The Baltic States had been working for years to gain energy independence from Moscow. To do this, they expanded domestic power generation on the one hand and strengthened connections to Scandinavia on the other.
2:32 a.m
Buschmann and Gahler concerned about Mariupol prisoners of war
Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann and CDU foreign affairs expert and MEP Michael Gahler are concerned about the prisoners of war in Mariupol. “Russia’s massive violations of international law are completely unacceptable – but they also make us very concerned about the people of Ukraine and the soldiers who have now been taken prisoner,” the Bushman told the Rheinische Post newspaper. “War is a bloody beast, but not a rule-free state.” From Gahler’s point of view, there are fears of show trials, although Russia has no right to treat the prisoners of Mariupol differently from all other Ukrainian prisoners of war.
1:43 a.m
Pro-Russian mayor injured in Ukraine explosion
The Moscow-appointed mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar was wounded in an explosion. He has confirmation that pro-Russian mayor Andrei “Shevchik and his bodyguards were injured in the explosion,” Dmytro Orlov, Ukraine’s elected mayor of Enerhodar, told Telegram on Sunday. They are in the hospital “with injuries of varying severity.” Otherwise no one was injured. Enerhodar is located near Zaporizhia and is the site of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Russian troops took control there at the end of February. Located on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, Zaporizhia is still held by Ukraine. Russian news agency Ria Novosti, citing a source in the emergency services, reported that Shevchik was in intensive care. According to security circles, the explosion is said to have been triggered by an “improvised explosive device”, as the news agency further reported.
12:16 a.m
Putin meets Lukashenko in Sochi
Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi this Monday. It should be about questions of further cooperation, as the agency Interfax announced. The central topic is the integration cooperation between the two countries in a union state. Industrial cooperation and cooperation in the field of rocket science could also be part of the talks, as well as handling Belarusian goods in Russian ports and building a Belarusian port near St. Petersburg. Since the controversial presidential election in 2020, in which Lukashenko declared himself the winner without recognition from the West, Minsk has become increasingly dependent on Moscow. Lukashenko emphasizes that Belarus will remain independent. But a union state between the two countries that had only existed on paper for a long time is increasingly taking shape. International political observers consider the possibility of Belarus joining Russia to be quite real.