War against Ukraine: ++ Selenskyj wants to expand air defenses ++

8:29 a.m

Käßmann: Striving for peace

The Protestant theologian Margot Käßmann speaks out against cutting further contacts with Russia. “I am against the fact that all city, scientific and cultural partnerships with Russia are now being ended,” said the former chairwoman of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany of the “Rheinische Post”. “We don’t need to break off contacts with Russia, we need to intensify them in order to encourage the people of Russia to oppose the war in Ukraine.”

She also called for “massive peace initiatives” from politicians for the coming year. The destruction that Putin is doing in Ukraine must stop. “I’m not a politician, I can only pray for it and raise my voice,” said Käßmann. But she is convinced that the call for more and more weapons will not bring a solution. On the other hand, there must be serious cooperation with Russian civil society.

8:29 a.m

Heusgen admits mistakes in Russia policy

The chairman of the Munich Security Conference and former foreign policy adviser to ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, Christoph Heusgen, has acknowledged mistakes in Russia policy during his tenure. Gas never flowed through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, “but if you ask me – yes, in retrospect it was a mistake,” Heusgen told the “Welt am Sonntag”. Heusgen explained that the federal government decided in favor of the German-Russian pipeline project in 2015 because after the reactor accident in Fukushima, Japan, they wanted to phase out nuclear energy quickly and Russian gas was the fastest and cheapest solution. “The SPD and the economy” were “very much in favor”.

Nord Stream 2 was built to transport gas from Russia to Germany. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the federal government decided not to put the pipeline into operation. In the “Wams” Heusgen demanded the delivery of German Leopard main battle tanks to the Ukraine. Germany has “a moral obligation to support this country,” he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin is counting on “the US and Europe’s economic and military support for Ukraine decreasing,” Heusgen warned. Despite requests from Kyiv, the German government has so far refused to hand over modern Leopard and Marder tanks to Ukraine.

The security expert Heusgen also spoke out in favor of a European nuclear weapons umbrella. Germany should comment on France’s offer to negotiate a share in French nuclear weapons, Heusgen said, adding: “We should take up this offer and make it a European project that allows British participation.” If the United States were to focus more on Asia and Europe had to take care of its own security, “it can no longer be a taboo subject,” Heusgen argued.

8:29 a.m

200,000 Ukrainian students – teachers “at the limit”

High school representatives are demanding additional support because of the large number of Ukrainian students admitted. “We cannot wait a year and a half before the new student numbers appear in the statistics and we can hire more teachers,” said Arnd Niedermöller, the chairman of the federal directors’ conference for high schools, the German press agency. Resources urgently need to be made available more quickly. “The integration performance of the schools for society is enormous, teachers face their tasks with full dedication – and are at the limit,” said Susanne Lin-Klitzing, chairwoman of the German Philology Association, which represents the high school teachers.

Both associations jointly surveyed the school administrations of more than 350 high schools in eight federal states. The survey was conducted online in November/December 2022 among a total of 356 school administrators in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saarland. It makes it clear that many schools are struggling with scarce resources given the situation. True, half of the respondents who took in Ukrainian students said that additional staff had been hired for teaching. But that wasn’t the case for the other half.

8:29 a.m

Zelenskyj announces expansion of air defenses

The Ukrainian President Selenskyj wants to continue to expand the air defenses because of the ongoing Russian attacks. In his daily video message, Zelenskyi announced plans to make Ukraine’s air defenses even stronger and more effective. This is also a security guarantee for the entire continent. Russia has been targeting Ukraine from the air for weeks, trying primarily to destroy the country’s infrastructure. According to Ukrainian information, however, many rockets or drones were intercepted by the air defense system. Most recently, Russia had again attacked Ukraine with so-called kamikaze drones, which were intended to hit the capital Kyiv, among other things. Kiev Mayor Klitschko said the seven drones were rendered harmless.