US House of Representatives passes aid package worth billions for Ukraine +++ Ukrainians arrived for training on the 2000 self-propelled howitzer +++ The reports on the war in Ukraine in star-Ticker.
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There has long been a dispute in Berlin about the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. Now Germany is picking up the pace. While Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was visiting Ukraine yesterday and promising “unshakeable” support there, Ukrainian soldiers arrived in Rhineland-Palatinate. They are to be trained at the Bundeswehr Artillery School in Idar-Oberstein on the Panzerhaubitze 2000, which is considered to be one of the most modern artillery pieces in the world. Meanwhile in the Ukraine, on the 77th day of the war, the fighting continued with undiminished severity. Heavy shelling is reported from Zaporizhia. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the Azovstal steelworks will not be allowed to leave. Read all the important developments on the war in Ukraine in the star-Ticker.
News of the war in Ukraine on Wednesday, May 11:
6.41 a.m. Ukraine reports land gains around the city of Kharkiv
The Ukrainian armed forces have reported gaining ground around the second largest city of Kharkiv in the east of the country. “The occupiers are gradually being pushed back from Kharkiv,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video message. “The villages of Cherkasy Tyshky, Rusky Tyshky, Rubishne and Bayrak were liberated,” the Ukrainian general staff said on Facebook.
While the Russian armed forces could hit the city of Kharkiv “even less” with artillery attacks, the “intensity of the bombing in the Kharkiv district has increased”. According to the Ukrainian regional administration, the Russian troops are also leaving “death traps” – mines.
While the Ukrainians regain control of lost territories in the north-east of the country, the Russians are gradually advancing about 150 kilometers to the south-east in the Donbass. Ukraine’s Southern Command reports “merciless” attacks by Russian forces on homes, farms and power supplies.
5:00 a.m.: Ukrainians arrived for training on the Panzerhaubitze 2000
Ukrainian soldiers have arrived in Germany for training on the Panzerhaubitze 2000. The future crews of the weapon system and technical experts landed in Rhineland-Palatinate yesterday. As of today, they are to be instructed in training at the Bundeswehr Artillery School in Idar-Oberstein, as the German Press Agency learned from government circles in Berlin.
To defend against the Russian attack, Germany and the Netherlands want to hand over a total of twelve self-propelled howitzers to the Ukraine. They are each served by five soldiers. The number of soldiers planned for the training is therefore more than 60. There are also technical experts and translators.
According to dpa information, the soldiers started in Poland and were flown to Zweibrücken Airport in a Bundeswehr transport plane that could be tracked on the Internet. According to earlier information, the training should last about 40 days, or less depending on the level of knowledge of the soldiers. You have to learn how to drive the self-propelled howitzer, shoot it and troubleshoot its operation.
4.52 a.m .: Little hope of withdrawal from Azovstal
According to the will of the Russian besiegers, the Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the Mariupol steelworks are not allowed to leave the premises. The Russian military has rejected any proposal for the unhindered withdrawal of the besieged fighters from the Azovstal plant, says President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The head of state, meanwhile, praises the “superhuman strength” of the Ukrainian troops after successes in Kharkiv, but at the same time warns against allowing “excessive emotions” to arise about it.
“The defenders of Mariupol are staying there, they are continuing the resistance in the Azovstal area,” says Zelenskyy. Kyiv continues to use all available diplomatic means to enable the soldiers to be rescued. Russia insists on surrender of Azovstal defenders.
4.16 a.m .: US House of Representatives passes billions in aid package for Ukraine
The House of Representatives in Washington has approved an aid package for Ukraine requested by US President Joe Biden by billions of dollars and passed it by a large majority. In the House of Representatives, 368 representatives from both Biden’s Democrats and the opposition Republicans voted for the bill. The 57 votes against come from the ranks of Republicans. The package is worth almost $40 billion (€38 billion). It will be “decisive in helping Ukraine not only defend its nation but also defend democracy for the world,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a letter to colleagues.
The Senate – the other chamber in Congress – has yet to approve it. Biden had asked Congress for $33 billion. In the package that has now been increased, around half of the total sum goes to defense. Of this, $6 billion is earmarked for direct military aid to Ukraine. Another billions are planned, among other things, to replenish US stockpiles with military equipment that was sent to Ukraine. Other funds are earmarked for, among other things, humanitarian aid for refugees from Ukraine or for people around the world who are suffering from hunger as a result of the Russian war of aggression.
3.01 a.m .: Several victims in the shelling of Zaporizhia
At least one person was killed and eight others injured in new Russian attacks near the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. According to the regional administration, mainly residential buildings in Orekhovo were hit, reports Ukrajinska Pravda. Because of the intensity of the shelling, the delivery of humanitarian aid to the town was temporarily interrupted. The information could not be independently verified.
2.02 a.m .: UN Secretary-General visits refugee camps in Moldova
UN Secretary-General António Guterres visited a reception center for refugees from Ukraine in Moldova. “It’s impossible to meet refugees and not be deeply moved by their stories,” says the 73-year-old, according to a UN statement in the capital, Chisinau. This tragedy shows that “war is a meaningless thing and that this war must end,” he says, referring to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
1:22 am: Amnesty Secretary General: Putin hates Ukrainians
According to the Secretary General of the human rights organization Amnesty International, the Russian leadership around President Vladimir Putin has “hatred” against all Ukrainians. “There are statements, comments and appearances by Putin and other Russian leaders that show how they ignore and hate the Ukrainian people, in which they talk as if Ukraine does not exist,” says Agnès Callamard on Ukrainian television. “And it is precisely these statements that we will use as part of the evidence when we discuss the issue of genocide.”
The violence used in this war was due to the systems thinking created by the leadership. “Violence becomes the main mode of action, it is tolerated and sometimes even glorified… There is no control and this creates the conditions for violent behavior, there is a regime of impunity…” Callamard is quoted as saying by the Unian agency.
There is no evidence that the military leadership demands torture or murder from the soldiers. “But we have evidence that the leadership is not stopping these crimes. So they keep repeating themselves,” says the Amnesty Secretary-General.
0.23 a.m .: Ukraine stops gas transit in the Luhansk region due to the war
Due to the war, Ukraine is stopping the transit of Russian gas in the Luhansk region in the east of the country. As a result, up to 32.6 million cubic meters of gas per day were lost – that is almost a third of the maximum amount that can be transported via Ukraine to Europe every day, according to the Ukrainian gas network operator. Due to the Russian occupation, it has become impossible to control the Sochranivka point and the Novopskov compressor station, they say. The operator referred to a case of “force majeure”.
Sokhranivka is part of the Soyuz pipeline, which runs from the Russian region of Orenburg to Uzhhorod in Ukraine. The partial transit stop is to apply from 7:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. CEST).
The Ukrainians indicate that Russians recently disrupted the operation of the plants. Russia’s energy giant Gazprom, which recently pumped almost 100 million cubic meters of gas through Ukraine to Europe every day, said it had received “no confirmation of force majeure.”