Since the Russian invasion, more than a million children have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries. This is reported by the UN children’s fund Unicef. At least 37 children were reportedly killed and 50 injured.
+++ 03:57 Green calls for Russian lobbyists to be banned from the European Parliament +++
European politician Daniel Freund is calling for Russian lobbyists to be banned from the European Parliament. “Russian state-owned companies and companies close to the Kremlin spend more than three million euros a year on lobbying in Brussels,” says the Green MP. “It cannot be that those who are financing Putin’s war are influencing European politics.” Freund sends a list of eleven organizations and companies that he believes have close ties to the Russian government under Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola. These include companies such as the energy giant Gazprom, the oil company Rosneft and Nord Stream 2 AG.
+++ 03:35 Ukraine relies on further arms deliveries from Germany +++
In the fight once morest the Russian attackers, Ukraine relies on further arms deliveries from Germany. The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, told the German Press Agency that the German defense industry had made suggestions as to how the Ukrainian armed forces might be supported. “I know that the Ministry of Defense has 60 pages of offers from armaments companies. We expect a positive decision,” said Melnyk. The companies’ proposals would refer to a wish list from the Ukrainian embassy in early February. These include air defense systems with a range of up to 70 kilometers, anti-drone guns, mine clearance equipment, radio equipment, radar stations, night vision equipment and ambulances.
+++ 03:04 Authorities report shelling of the cities of Sumy and Mykolaiv +++
Ukrainian local officials report shelling from several cities. Russian planes bombed the area around the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, writes the head of the Sumy regional administration, Dmytro Shyvytskyi, on Telegram. Residential areas were once more shelled in the town of Ochtyrka south of Sumy. There is also information that a gas line had also been hit there. The mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv also reports fire from multiple rocket launchers coming from the north. “Either they are testing the robustness of our checkpoints, or they are preparing for an offensive,” Mayor Olexandr Senkewitsch said in a live video on Facebook. The information cannot be independently verified.
+++ 02:33 Selenskyj: 35,000 civilians escape through escape corridors +++
At least 35,000 civilians were evacuated from cities besieged by Russian troops on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In a video address on the night, Zelenskyy said three humanitarian corridors allowed residents to leave the cities of Sumy in the northeast, Enerhodar in the southeast and areas around the capital Kyiv.
+++ 02:10 negotiator: Russia does not want to make any concessions +++
According to the Russian negotiator Leonid Slutsky, the Russian delegation to the peace negotiations with Ukraine is not prepared to make any concessions. The RIA news agency quoted him as saying that they would not give in on a single point. So far there have been three rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kubela spoke for the first time since fighting broke out on Thursday.
+++ 01:40 a.m. 13,000 refugees arrive in Berlin every day +++
In the past three days, more than 13,000 Ukrainian war refugees have arrived in Berlin every day. However, these are only the numbers of buses, trains and registered arrivals, says Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey. In the past two weeks, a number of people “in the mid-five-digit range” have arrived in the capital. Not all of them stayed here, but many also traveled on. Giffey spoke of a “strong increase in immigration” in the last three days. Some buses would also be forwarded to other federal states, but many people want to stay in Berlin. The connection to the Ukrainian community is “very large”. The capital is therefore still “the hardest hit”.
+++ 01:09 Ukraine demands an end to energy imports from Germany +++
Before the EU summit in Versailles, France, Ukraine is increasing the pressure on Germany to stop energy imports from Russia. In view of the high number of war victims among the civilian population, the German government’s no to an import ban is “morally unacceptable,” said the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, to the German Press Agency. “We call on the Germans to make the only right decision and to introduce this embargo immediately to put an end to Putin’s war once morest Ukrainian women and children.”
+++ 00:30 USA warn once morest the use of weapons of mass destruction +++
The US government warns of a possible Russian use of chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine. By spreading misinformation, Moscow wants to pave the way for further escalating the unjustified war of aggression in Ukraine, US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki warned on Twitter. Russia follows a clear pattern of behavior – either to use weapons of mass destruction itself or to fake an attack by the Ukrainians in order to construct a justification for continuing the war, Psaki writes.
Read more regarding this here.
+++ 23:45 British Foreign Secretary: Invasion is “paradigm shift like 9/11” +++
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss compares the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA and calls on the West to rethink. Russian President Vladimir Putin not only attacked the Ukrainian people, but also “the foundations of our societies” such as democracy and sovereignty, says the British chief diplomat, who is leaving for a visit to Washington, according to a previously published manuscript for a speech the Atlantic Council think tank. “He [Putin] has shaken the architecture of global security. The invasion of Ukraine represents a paradigm shift like 9/11.”
+++ 23:12 Habeck: “Quickly get rid of Russian imports from brackets” +++
According to Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Germany can quickly free itself from Russian energy imports. “We will quickly free ourselves from the bracket of Russian imports, but we’re not there yet,” says the Green politician on ZDF’s “heute journal”. “You can change it in weeks and months, but not in hours.” Habeck explains that these weeks and months are necessary. It is regarding preventing hundreds of thousands of unemployed and price increases that people can no longer afford. The aim is to avert damage that would bind Germany for years and also paralyze it politically.
Read more regarding this here.
+++ 22:50 city administration: 1207 civilians died in Mariupol +++
According to local authorities, more than 1,200 civilians have died in the past nine days in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces. “1,207 peaceful residents of Mariupol” died during the city’s “blockade,” according to a post published on the city government’s official Telegram channel. The city authorities had previously reported the destruction of a children’s hospital by Russian shelling.
+++ 22:24 Kyiv: IMF approves emergency financing of 1.4 billion dollars +++
Ukraine can count on further funds from abroad. According to the central bank in Kyiv, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given the green light for emergency financing with a volume of 1.4 billion dollars. “We are extremely grateful to the IMF for its quick response to our request,” the central bank said in a statement. Funding is of great importance during this cruel time.
+++ 21:52 IAEA boss: Also talks on Ukrainian nuclear safety in Antalya +++
Talks on the security of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities are also to be held in Antalya on Thursday. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announces that he will travel to the Turkish city. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba want to meet there on Thursday. The IAEA has not announced whether Grossi will only speak to the two chief diplomats or whether representatives of nuclear authorities from Kyiv and Moscow will also be present.
+++ 21:44 200,000 accommodations for refugees in Germany +++
So far, around 200,000 private and public accommodations are available in Germany for refugees from Ukraine. “We are in the process of making these offers accessible on a digital platform. This will be available very soon,” says Interior Secretary Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter of the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. The federal government doesn’t want to let the municipalities down, according to the SPD politician, but “I can’t say that we already have a package”. Cities like Berlin, which are currently attracting a particularly large number of refugees, are to be further relieved.
+++ 21:38 Ambassador Melnyk disappointed following conversation with Scholz +++
After a conversation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, expressed his disappointment on the “RTL Direkt” program. “The worst thing regarding this conversation was when it came to the future,” Melnyk said in reference to Ukraine’s possible membership of the European Union. However, the Ukrainian President’s request for membership fell on deaf ears with the EU states. “It’s very disappointing,” says Melnyk. “Nevertheless, we hope that the federal government will consider this request from the Ukrainians seriously and benevolently.” in one Draft final declaration for the upcoming EU summit there is no mention of an accelerated procedure or approval in principle.
+++ 21:22 Formula 1 drivers set an example once morest war and for Ukraine +++
Formula 1 drivers have taken a stand once morest the war in Ukraine. Before the test drives in Bahrain, 18 of the 20 regular drivers around Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher gathered on the home straight of the race track in Sakhir in front of a poster with the inscription “No War” (No War). Before that they had laid a Ukrainian flag. All racing drivers, including world champion Max Verstappen from Red Bull, also wore white T-shirts that also read “No War”. World association chief Mohammed Ben Sulayem thanked the pilots and the drivers’ union GPDA for the action.
+++ 21:05 Amazon stops shipping to customers in Russia and Belarus +++
In response to the war of aggression once morest Ukraine, the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, has stopped shipping products to private customers in Russia and Belarus. The group also announced that it would block users in Russia from accessing its Prime Video streaming service until further notice. In addition, Amazon will no longer accept orders there for “New World” – the only video game that the company sells directly in Russia. Amazon has also decided to close both its online marketplace and cloud platform AWS to new customers in Russia and Belarus.
+++ 20:58 Scholz talks to UN Secretary General Guterres +++
In a telephone conversation, Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regarding the Russian attack on Ukraine. The federal government announces this. Both urged the implementation of the agreed humanitarian corridors “to protect civilians and enable humanitarian access”.
Read the previous developments here.
