- 08:45 am: ➤ Russia gains territory in Donbass
- 08:31 am: Left-wing politician Gysi speaks out against arms deliveries to Ukraine.
- 07:50 am: Alice Schwarzer criticizes Selenskyj.
➤ Russian ground attacks in Donbass pick up speed again
After several days without any significant progress, Russian troops have again gained ground in their attacks in the Donbass region, according to Ukrainian sources. “In the direction of Liman, the enemy attacked the northern outskirts of Shandrigolove,” the Ukrainian general staff said in its situation report on Sunday. Shandrigolove is around 20 kilometers north of the city of Sloviansk, which is part of the target of the Russian operation in the Donbass.
In addition, Russian troops continue to launch attacks in the direction of Sievjerodonetsk, Popasna, and Avdiivka. “In the direction of Kurakhove, the enemy is trying to resume its offensive on Novomykhaylivka with artillery support,” it said. In Mariupol, the Ukrainian units would continue to be blocked in the steel mill. With air and artillery support, the Russian troops continue their assault attempts there.
All in all, the Ukrainian military leadership speaks of nine repelled Russian attacks. Among other things, a Mi-28 helicopter, 19 tanks and 20 armored military vehicles were shot down.
According to the report, the Russians have gotten on the defensive in the north of the Kharkiv region. There, “the enemy concentrated their efforts on stopping the advance of our troops towards the border north and north-east of Kharkiv,” the general staff said.
© dpa infographic GmbH
The situation at a glance:
Leads since February 24 Russia from the air and on the ground a war of aggression against the Ukraine. Shortly before that, President Vladimir Putin had Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent state in doubt and the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine.
Since then, the Ukrainian army has been fighting the invaders as best they can. Thousands of dead are reported on both sides, but exact numbers of soldiers and civilians have not been independently verified. The fact is: the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is getting worse every day. According to the More than 5.8 million people have now fled Ukraine (As of May 8th), especially women and children, since men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country.
The EU and the USA reacted with sanctions. Besides, they supply arms to Ukraine, too Deutschland supports the country with arms deliveries. Also tanks of the class Cheetah is to receive Ukraine from Germany. So far, it has been ruled out that NATO will actively intervene in the war.
On the first weekend in April, pictures of the The bodies of many civilians in the small town of Bucha near Kyiv caused international horror. Ukraine speaks of serious war crimes and genocide and blames Russian troops for it. Despite numerous indications, Moscow denies having been involved in the deaths of the civilians. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Selenskyj stressed that negotiations with Russia should continue.
On April 18, according to the Ukrainian statement, a long-prepared Major Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.
The other news of the day:
Ukraine: Up to 60 dead after airstrike on school in Luhansk region
08:37 am: After a Russian airstrike on a school in the Luhansk region, the Ukrainian authorities say up to 60 people may have died. After an airstrike on the school in Bilogorivka, two bodies have been recovered so far, the governor of the region Serhiy Hajdaj announced on his Telegram channel on Sunday. “Probably all 60 people still under the rubble of the building are dead,” he added.
According to him, the air raid happened on Saturday afternoon. 90 people had sought protection from the attacks in the school building. A fire broke out in the school as a result of the bombing and the building collapsed. The emergency services were able to save 30 people – 7 of them were injured, according to the governor.
Bilogorivka is an urban settlement about ten kilometers west of Lysychansk. The town is heavily contested.
Gysi to Ukraine trip against German arms deliveries
08:31 am: The Left Foreign Politician Gregory Gysi spoke out against German arms deliveries to the country attacked by Russia at the end of a multi-day trip to Ukraine. “We have 27 million dead in the second World War in the Soviet Union, mostly Russians,” said Gysi of the German Press Agency.
“In second place are the killed Ukrainians and then people of other nationalities.” Germany should not arm one ex-Soviet republic against the other. Of course, Ukraine has the right to defend itself and import weapons, said the 74-year-old.
Nor is it Germany’s job to decide how to end the war, said Gysi. If the Ukrainian government wants to reach a compromise with the Kremlin, the federal government cannot forbid it. “I can only hope that Russia and Ukraine will agree on a ceasefire as soon as possible.”
At the same time, Gysi criticized the Kremlin in clear terms: “I’m done with the Putin regime.” But he also stressed that there is a Russia after the current president Wladimir Putin will give. It is therefore wrong to burn all bridges.
According to his own statements, Gysi visited the Ukrainian capital, among other things, during his trip Kyiv and the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. He was also in the Kiev suburb of Bucha, where the bodies of hundreds of murdered civilians were found a few weeks ago.
“Especially when you go to a war zone, such a hush-hush visit for the media is out of the question,” he said, referring to relatively short visits by other international politicians to Ukraine in recent days.
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Updated on 05/06/2022 at 16:25
According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the US assumes that most of the Russian ground forces have left Mariupol. The military is said to have retreated north, Kirby said on Thursday. Meanwhile, the “Azovstal” steelworks continues to be bombed. The Ukrainian government suspects that President Putin intends to seize the site by Monday. (Image credits: picture alliance/dpa/AP/Alexei Alexandrov)
Kiev leadership hopes to recapture Kherson
08:14 am: The Ukrainian leadership is counting on recapturing the city of Cherson in the south of the country, which is occupied by Russian troops. “There will be no People’s Republic of Kherson,” said Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Ukrainian radio. The area will be completely liberated, which will cost the lives of many Russian soldiers, Podoljak said in Kyiv on Saturday.
He was reacting to statements by Moscow politicians and the occupying power that want to declare Cherson Russian. “Russia is here forever!” said Secretary General of the Kremlin’s United Russia party, Andrei Turchak, during a visit. Russian passports are also to be issued in Cherson, and the ruble is to become the only means of payment. This would be a development similar to the people’s republics founded by the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Before the Russian war of aggression, Cherson had around 290,000 inhabitants and is located on the lower reaches of the Dnipro River. In the city, people protest again and again against the Russian occupying power.
Schwarzer criticizes Selenskyj: Don’t stop provoking
07:50 am: The Feminist Alice Schwarzer would like to see more moderate tones from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “I regret that Selenskyj does not stop provoking,” she told the German Press Agency in Munich on Saturday at the presentation of the documentary film “Alice Schwarzer”.
If Chancellor Olaf Scholz were to accept Zelenskyy’s invitation and travel to Kyiv on May 9, it would be an “unparalleled provocation.” On the day, Russia celebrates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Schwarzer has been criticized for days because of an open letter to Scholz in which she spoke out against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine for fear of an escalation of the war with other intellectuals.
“I would like to see a bit more nuanced tones from Ukraine, too,” said Schwarzer, emphasizing that if you find the president’s official policy “partly questionable,” that doesn’t mean you don’t feel for the country or ignore the victims – “But on the contrary”.
With the open letter in the magazine “Emma”, which Martin Walser, Juli Zeh and Gerhard Polt also signed, the debate about the pros and cons of arms deliveries in Germany flared up. According to surveys, half of the people in Germany are critical of the delivery of heavy weapons.
“Our open letter knocked the stopper out of the bottle. That’s how the debate got off to a flying start, and that’s good. Because you have to talk about such vital issues.” Around 250,000 people have now signed the letter. “There is little in my life that has made as much sense as initiating this open letter.”
With material from dpa, AFP, APA
Updated on 05/07/2022 at 12:11 p.m
With the sanctions imposed by EU members and other states against Russia, the oligarchs around President Putin have also come into focus. For weeks there had been speculation about a luxurious yacht being detained in an Italian port. On Friday evening, the Italian police went on board.