Chancellor Olaf Scholz He does not expect the war in Ukraine to end any time soon and affirms that peace is impossible without the withdrawal of Russian troops. “We have to be prepared for the fact that this (war, editor’s note) can take a long time,” said Scholz yesterday at a Rheinische Post event. This is reported by Deutsche Welle. Moscow cannot dictate peace terms in Ukraine, he added. “Ukraine must be able to defend its integrity and independence,” he continued, reiterating – as he said on March 5 – that he sees no possibility of peace without the withdrawal of Russian troops.
ANSA agency
Moscow’s Defense Ministry announced that one of its Su-35 fighters yesterday intercepted two US B-52H strategic bombers flying towards the Russian border over the Baltic Sea: the jet returned after the bombers left. (HAND)
Kishida in Kyiv
surprise visit to Ukraine Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Meeting with President Zelenskyy. It is the Japanese prime minister’s first visit to a country at war since the end of World War II.
Kishida “will convey to President Zelenskyy his respect for the courage and perseverance of the Ukrainian people who are defending their homeland under his leadership, as well as the solidarity and tireless support of Japan and the G7 for Ukraine,” Japan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The trip to Ukraine took place on a military jet used for public purposes instead of on a government aircraft, NHK reports. The plane took off from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport for India on Sunday evening, three hours ahead of the government plane carrying Kishida in the same direction for the state visit. The jet had a capacity of about 10 passengers to minimize the prime minister’s entourage and control the flow of information. Kishida then boarded a train near Przemysl, Poland, near the border with Ukraine, bound for Kiev at around 1.30am local time.
The Japanese prime minister is the only leader of the group of the world’s most industrialized nations who has not visited Ukraine since the conflict began.
ANSA agency
Second tranche of the 18 billion package agreed for 2023. Focus in the interview on migrants and solutions for competitiveness. Tajani: “Give ammunition to Kiev, parliament will be informed” (ANSA)
War
An explosion in the Crimean town of Dzhankoi destroyed Russian cruise missiles bound for Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Monday. The Guardian reports on it. For his part, Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko released a video showing the city’s railway station area and a powerful explosion.
Russian forces launched 21 air strikes and 9 rocket attacks yesterday in Ukraine, including one in the city of Slavyansk (east), which did not claim any casualties: the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kiev announced this in its daily update on the conflict, adding that Moscow also fired about sixty rockets with multiple launch systems. For their part, Ukrainian troops repelled 120 Russian attacks in the direction of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariinka and Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. This is what Ukrainian media reported. Russian forces, the report said, continue to maintain a significant military presence on Belarusian territory, but apparently without forming offensive groups.
The Russian army bombed a village this morning in the Kharkiv region, in eastern Ukraine, damaged some power lines: this was announced by the head of the regional military administration, Oleg Sinegubov, as reported by Ukrinform. Sinegubov also noted that the Russian army continued shelling border settlements in the Kharkiv region yesterday, hitting at least 14 of them.