The country is preparing for a Russian offensive in the east and is asking Germany to provide more equipment.
Kiev/Moscow/Berlin. “Here in Ukraine, every hour, every minute counts” – with these words the former world boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, brother of the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, asked urgently for help from Germany. In view of the impending Russian offensive in the embattled east of the country, German determination is needed – in order to stand up to Russia, Ukraine urgently needs a Western oil and gas embargo – “and more weapons”.
The debate on the latter demand is slowly gathering speed: on Sunday, both the leader of the FDP parliamentary group, Christian Dürr, and the green European politician, Reinhard Bütikofer, were thinking aloud about additional arms deliveries to the invaded country. However, such advances are slowed down by the SPD, which supplies Olaf Scholz to the Federal Chancellor. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) referred to the Bundeswehr’s delivery problems. It is hardly possible to supply weapons and material to Ukraine directly from Bundeswehr stockpiles, she told the Augsburger Allgemeine.
According to a report by “Bild am Sonntag”, Ukraine now wants to buy 35 “Marder” tanks directly from the German armament group Rheinmetall. However, these could only be delivered gradually until the end of the year, he said. The German Defense Ministry avoided faster and more direct deliveries. According to a report by Welt am Sonntag, Ukraine is also trying to get approval from the German government for the purchase of 100 self-propelled howitzers from the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann group.
Dnipro airport destroyed
Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine, preparations are being made for the full-scale attack. The Russian offensive is “a matter of days”, Serhiy Hajdaj, governor of the Luhansk region, told “Corriere della Sera”. Russian troops attacked Dnipro airport again on Sunday. Both the airport and surrounding infrastructure were destroyed, explained the governor responsible for the eastern Ukrainian city. It is currently being checked for fatalities.
According to British intelligence reports, preparations on the Russian side of the front are in full swing. So Moscow is trying to make up for the growing loss of soldiers by using former military personnel. The Russian military is looking to increase its troop levels with personnel who have retired from the military over the past decade, the UK Ministry of Defense said in its regular intelligence update on Sunday.
After Russian troops withdrew from northern Ukraine, mass graves with civilians were found in more and more places. Authorities reported finding dozens of bodies west of the Ukrainian capital Kiev. “Today we found dead civilians in a well near the gas station in Busowa,” community leader Taras Didych said on Ukrainian television that night. On the route from Kiev to Zhytomyr, bodies were also found near the capital in cars that were shot at.
Ukraine’s Attorney General Iryna Venediktova on Sunday accused Russia of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in all regions of Ukraine. Ukraine has identified 5,600 suspected war crimes cases involving 500 suspects. That includes Friday’s rocket attack on the train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, which killed more than 50 people. More than 1,200 people were found dead in the region around the Ukrainian capital alone.
However, Kiev does not expect a meeting between Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin anytime soon. According to Ukraine’s chief negotiator David Arakhamiya, there is no tangible progress in the peace talks. For Kiev, the territorial unit remains a red line. “We will not give up any territory and we will not recognize anything,” he said, referring to the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and the eastern Ukrainian “People’s Republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk. Putin recognized both as independent states.
(“Die Presse”, print edition, April 11, 2022)