News and assessments of the Russian attack and the war in Ukraine and the effects:
Wüst demands faster weapon deliveries
In view of the atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Butscha, the chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Conference and North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) has demanded that Germany “now have to give Ukraine even more support”. “Pledged arms deliveries must be made faster. Sanctions must be tightened,” Wüst told the Bild newspaper. Germany must “not again be a brake on the efforts of the western community of states to achieve peace and justice in Ukraine”. At the same time, the CDU politician warned that the federal government should contribute sufficiently to the costs of accommodating the refugees. The federal, state and local governments are “a community of responsibility in this serious crisis”.
Scholz: Don’t end dependency from one day to the next
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has rejected calls for an immediate exit from all Russian energy supplies. “These dependencies have grown over decades and they cannot be ended from one day to the next,” said Scholz in the Bundestag. It’s not just about finding new contractual partners, but about organizing independence from fossil resources in the long term. Scholz was “deeply shaken” by the “appalling pictures” from the Ukrainian city of Bucha. “Russian soldiers massacred Ukrainian civilians there before retreating,” he said. Arms deliveries to Ukraine should continue. “Everything that makes sense and works quickly will be delivered,” said Scholz.
Johnson: Russia’s actions in Ukraine ‘not far from genocide’
For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine borders on genocide. “If you look at what’s happening in Bucha, Putin’s actions in Ukraine don’t seem far removed from genocide,” Johnson said. Great Britain will impose further sanctions in consultation with its international partners. Numerous bodies were found in Bucha near Kyiv last weekend after the Russian army retreated. The Ukrainian authorities assume that hundreds of civilians have been killed in the areas around the Ukrainian capital that have been under Russian occupation for weeks.
Zelenskyj criticizes Europeans for hesitating on energy sanctions
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized the Europeans’ reluctance to impose energy sanctions on Russia. “I cannot tolerate indecisiveness after what we have been through and what Russia has done to us,” Zelenskyy said in a video-transmitted speech at the Irish Parliament in Dublin. The “Russian military machine” should no longer be supplied with money from energy exports. Zelenskyy acknowledged that a new “rhetoric” on the imposition of sanctions was evident. However, he denounced “the principled attitude of some leading politicians and business leaders” who apparently considered war and war crimes to be less serious than financial losses. In addition to energy sanctions, Zelenskyy called for the complete exclusion of Russian banks from Western finance.
Greece expels 12 Russian diplomats
Greece has joined other European states in announcing the expulsion of Russian diplomats. “The Greek authorities have declared twelve members of the diplomatic and consular missions of the Russian Federation accredited in Greece as undesirable persons,” the Foreign Ministry said in Athens. Earlier, European countries, including Germany, France and Italy, had expelled more than 200 Russian diplomats within two days in response to the atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
The President of the EU Council expects to stop imports of Russian oil and gas in the medium term
EU Council President Charles Michel expects medium-term import bans for Russian oil and gas in Europe. “I believe that action on oil and even on gas will be necessary sooner or later,” said Michel in the Strasbourg European Parliament. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed an import ban on coal from Russia as a first step. The ambassadors of the 27 EU countries discussed the new sanctions package for the first time on Wednesday, which also includes import bans on wood and vodka from Russia.
Report: Ukraine is still waiting for approval for German tank deliveries
According to a report, the Ukrainian government is still waiting for the German government to approve a delivery of 100 used tanks. At the end of last week, Kyiv contacted the Chancellery directly on this matter, reported Die Welt, citing Ukrainian government circles. However, no signal had come by Tuesday evening as to whether the permit would be granted. It is therefore about 100 tanks of the Marder type. The largest German armaments group, Rheinmetall, had already offered this to the federal government on February 28. According to the report, the vehicles are currently at Rheinmetall because the Bundeswehr has retired them – they would have to be overhauled if they were to be used in Ukraine. However, this would take until next year. The idea is therefore that the Bundeswehr should give its own Marder tanks to the Ukraine and fill the resulting gaps with the overhauled Marders in the coming year.
Russian army destroys oil depot near Dnipro in eastern Ukraine
According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian army has fired on and destroyed an oil storage facility near the city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine. According to local authorities, a factory was also attacked. So there were no dead or injured. “It was a difficult night,” said the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentin Resnichenko, in the messenger service Telegram. “The enemy attacked from the air and hit an oil depot and a factory.” The depot was destroyed and the factory caught fire. “Fortunately there were no injuries,” the governor later added. After more than eight hours, the fire brigade extinguished the fire in the factory.
Contact the editors: [email protected]
DJG/ank/cbr
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 06, 2022 09:29 ET (13:29 GMT)