live blog
Status: 04/22/2022 05:18
The federal government announces another 37 million euros for the reconstruction of Ukraine. According to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Russia has rejected an Easter ceasefire proposal. All developments on the live blog.
5:18 am
Ukraine: almost three quarters of people left Donetsk
According to Ukrainian information, nearly three-quarters of all people have already left the Ukrainian-controlled part of the contested Donetsk region in the east of the country. This is what the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Ukrainian national television, as reported in the morning by the Internet newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda. Thus, there are still around 430,000 inhabitants in the area. Before the start of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, there were still more than 1.6 million people. Kramatorsk, the second largest city under Ukrainian control in Donetsk after Mariupol, is currently home to just over 40,000 of the original 200,000 people.
4:53 am
Zelenskyy: Russia wants to fake independence referendums in occupied territories
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Moscow of wanting to hold a fake independence referendum in the Russian-controlled areas around Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south of the country. In an evening video message, Zelenskyy asked residents of the occupied territories not to provide personal information, such as passport numbers, which the Russian military would ask them to do. “It’s not just about taking a census,” he warned. “It’s not about sending humanitarian aid of any kind. It’s really about manipulating a so-called referendum in your country when the order to perform this comedy comes from Moscow,” said the Ukrainian president. “There will be no Kherson People’s Republic. If anyone wants another annexation, even stronger sanctions will hit Russia,” Zelenskyy threatened.
4:06 am
Reports on mass graves near Mariupol
4:06 am
Fridays for Future is demonstrating across Europe against Russia’s gas
Almost two months after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the organization Fridays for Future wants to demonstrate across Europe for the immediate end of Russia’s gas supplies. As the organization announced to the German Press Agency, protest marches and small rallies are planned for this Friday in several cities in Poland, Hungary, Belgium and Germany. In Brussels, activists are planning a demonstration in front of the German embassy at noon. Germany is particularly in focus “because of its blocking attitude” on gas imports, he said. A campaign is also planned at the possible future liquefied gas terminal at Brunsbüttel in Schleswig-Holstein.
3:05 am
Schulze: Another 37 million euros for the reconstruction of Ukraine
Germany will provide around another 37 million euros for the reconstruction of Ukraine. According to the Federal Minister for Development, Svenja Schulze, the funds should be used to repair the damage caused by the war. “Ukraine urgently needs housing for millions of internally displaced people and needs an intact power grid. German development cooperation can help here in the short term. My ministry has reallocated funds for this through an emergency program,” Schulze said. to the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. ahead of the World Bank conference this Friday.
2:15 am
Ukraine: Russian troops captured 42 sites in Donetsk
According to information from Kiev, Russian troops occupied 42 cities in the eastern Donetsk region within 24 hours. The announcement was made by an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, Olena Simonenko, on Ukrainian national television, as reported by the Unian agency. In total, Russian units currently control over 3,500 sites across Ukraine. There are combat operations in 11,550 locations across the country, Simonenko said.
1:56 am
Mariupol City Council: Up to 9,000 bodies in mass graves
According to the Mariupol City Council, up to 9,000 people may have been buried in mass graves in the nearby city of Manhush. In a Telegram post, the city council quoted Mayor Vadym Boychenko as saying that Kiev’s Holocaust memorial was a “new Babyn Yar”. “At that time, Hitler killed Jews, Gypsies and Slavs. And now Putin is killing Ukrainians. He has already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol,” Boychenko said. “This requires a determined response from around the world. We must stop this genocide by any means possible.” At night, Ukrainian media published satellite images that it said showed mass graves in Manhush. These are similar to those in Bucha, near Kiev, where hundreds of bodies were found after the withdrawal of Russian soldiers. The Ukrainian information could not be independently verified.
conflicting parties as source
Information on the course of the war, bombing and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body in the current situation.
1:14 am
UNHCR: War in Ukraine has exacerbated refugee situation everywhere
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the war in Ukraine has significantly worsened the situation of refugees around the world. “The conflict has further worsened the situation for many of the estimated 84 million people displaced on Earth, after food has already become scarcer and significantly more expensive around the world,” said Roland, UNHCR acting director in Germany. Bank, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Millions of people would have lost their income and hardly the basic necessities of life because of the pandemic and the economic crises that often aggravated it. Now food prices have gone up everywhere, sometimes dramatically. Rising fuel prices would also pose new challenges for humanitarian supplies and for UNHCR’s work, the Bank said.
1:09 am
Zelenskyy: Mariupol continues to resist Russia
According to information from Kiev, resistance in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol continues. The city continues to resist Russia, President Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. “Despite what the squatters say about them.” Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the city conquered on Thursday morning. However, according to Russian sources, more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries are hiding at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. So far, they have not responded to Putin’s demands to lay down their arms. Zelenskyi said Russia is moving troops to Ukraine for the war. “They are gathering forces and bringing new tactical battalions into our country.” In the east and south of the country, Russian units would do “everything” to at least speak of “some” victories.
1:07 am
Hofreiter warns of long war and spreads to other countries
Committee for Europe chairman Anton Hofreiter fears the war will escalate beyond Ukraine if Russia is not stopped. “Due to Putin’s criminal war, we have to be prepared for the fact that Russia’s war of aggression will continue for months,” the green politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “By easing the energy embargo and necessary arms deliveries, there is a risk that this war will drag on longer and that Putin will attack other countries.” Hofreiter is again calling for the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine as soon as possible. “The problem is that Putin’s offensive in eastern Ukraine has already started.
1:04 am
Ex-general coordinates US arms shipments to Ukraine
A retired general and former adviser to former President Barack Obama is tasked with coordinating the billions of US arms shipments to Ukraine. Terry Wolff was tasked with the task by President Joe Biden, the AP news agency learned from government circles. Wolff was deployed to Iraq three times, held senior positions at the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US State Department. In 2015, he was appointed by Obama as deputy special envoy of the international coalition against the Islamic State terrorist militia. Biden pledged $800 million in military aid to Ukraine on Thursday. Among other things, the country’s soldiers will receive heavy artillery pieces and drones.
12:55 pm
Zelenskyy: Russia rejected Easter ceasefire proposal
According to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Russia has rejected the ceasefire proposal during the Orthodox Easter holiday. That’s what Selenskyj said in his nightly video message. It shows what the Christian faith and one of the happiest and most important holidays means to Russia’s leaders, Zelenskyy said. “But we will still hold out hope. The hope for peace, the hope that life will triumph over death,” Zelenskyy said.
Among other things, Pope Francis called for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war in the run-up to Easter for Orthodox Christians this weekend. The Holy See and the Holy Father adhered to the appeal of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, and the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Svyatoslav Shevchuk, on Tuesday. Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on April 24 this year. They are the largest religious group in Ukraine.
12:55 pm
US Defense Secretary Invites Ukraine to Ramstein Meeting
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin plans to meet with colleagues from several countries about the war in Ukraine next week at Ramstein Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate. The meeting is expected to take place next Tuesday, announced Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. Kirby did not provide details on the list of participants. But not just NATO countries would be invited, he said. One of the goals of the meeting is Ukraine’s lasting security and sovereignty.
It should therefore be about Ukraine’s defense needs beyond the current war. “We think it’s time to have that discussion as well,” Kirby said. In addition, it should be about additional military support from Ukraine. Earlier in the day, the US government announced $800 million in new military aid.
12:55 pm