Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock regrets that the West cannot guarantee humanitarian corridors. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
1:57 p.m .: The Russian authorities have blocked the Welt website in Russia. As Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, the Welt website is now on the ever-growing list of media to be banned by the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor at the request of the public prosecutor.
The “world” had started distributing content in Russian in Russia with the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Most independent information is suppressed in Russia.
For a time, the newspaper also employed the Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who became known for protesting against the war in front of cameras on Russian television.
1:41 p.m .: French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire asked the EU at an economic forum in Aix-en-Provence in southern France to prepare for a complete stop in the supply of Russian gas. “As of today, this is the most likely scenario,” quoted the news agency Bloomberg Le Maire.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia would restart energy supplies through the throttled Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline if its repaired gas turbine returned from Canada. “If the turbine comes after the repair, it will allow for an increase in volume,” Peskov said, according to the Interfax agency. “The only question is why it wasn’t done that way.” Peskov again denied that Russia was using its gas as a means of exerting political pressure.
9.05 a.m .: Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) regrets that the West cannot intervene militarily in the Ukraine war to protect civilians. “For example, I would have liked to promise that we would guarantee humanitarian corridors from the contested areas in Ukraine,” Baerbock told Der Spiegel. “But we can’t afford it. Such a promise would have to be backed up militarily.”
That’s why she had to “clearly say” that there would be no no-fly zones, added the Foreign Minister. “Good foreign policy also means keeping a cool head, even when your heart is burning,” says Baerbock in a joint “Spiegel” interview with her Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn. “To have to endure that there is nothing you can do – that is sometimes the brutality of foreign policy.”
Asselborn made a similar statement. “You have to acknowledge the reality of war, even if it’s barbaric,” he said.
Baerbock described the moment when she saw photos of shot children during her visit to Ukraine as one of the “worst moments” of her tenure so far. “That says everything about not being able to negotiate with this Putin at the moment,” she said of the Russian president. “It’s about destruction. Even from children.”
9:56 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj described the recall of Ambassador Andriy Melnyk from Germany as a normal process. “Today I signed decrees dismissing some ambassadors of Ukraine. This issue of rotation is a common part of diplomatic practice,” he said in a video message on Saturday, without naming any of the five ambassadors. “New representatives of Ukraine will be appointed for the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Norway and India,” Zelenskyy said. The candidates would be prepared by the State Department.
9:12 p.m .: In addition to the ambassadors in Germany, Hungary, Norway, the Czech Republic and India, Ukrainian President Selenskyj also dismissed the ambassadors in the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This emerges from another decree published by the Presidential Office in Kyiv. No reasons are given here either.
It is not the first time since the beginning of the war that Zelenskyy has made personnel changes at the Ukrainian ambassadors. In March he signed a decree dismissing the ambassadors to Morocco, Nigeria and Cameroon, and Georgia. At the time, Zelenskyj warned that civil servants should work for the benefit of the state and not just focus on their posts.
“There are those who work together with everyone to defend the state so that Ukraine can secure its future – we appreciate the work of each of these people. And there are those who waste time and only work to stay in office […] With all due respect: if there are no guns, no sanctions, no restrictions on Russian companies – please find another job”, said the head of state in March. Then, at the end of June, he signed decrees dismissing Ukrainian ambassadors in five countries at once: Georgia, Slovakia, Portugal, Iran and Lebanon.
7:23 p.m .: Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt paid tribute to Andriy Melnyk after his dismissal as Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany. “Andriy Melnyk did everything in his power for his country. He is an unmistakable and tireless voice for a free Ukraine,” said the Green politician on Saturday.
At the same time, Göring-Eckardt distanced himself from Melnyk’s statements about the Ukrainian nationalist and anti-Semite Stepan Bandera. In an interview, Melnyk denied that Bandera was a mass murderer of Jews and Poles. He was heavily criticized for this. “As far as Bandera is concerned, we don’t agree,” said Göring-Eckardt. “Regardless of that, I wish him all the best for himself personally, for his future service and above all for his country.”
6:24 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenksky has dismissed Andriy Melnyk as Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany. This emerged from a decree published by the President’s Office in Kyiv on Saturday. Several media had previously reported that Melnyk was to be recalled from Germany and move to the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv. Melnyk had been in office since 2015 and was particularly criticized for his provocative statements.
It was initially unclear whether Melnyk would be appointed ambassador to another high-ranking post in Kyiv or elsewhere after his dismissal. The Ukrainian embassy in Berlin declined to comment on the decree. A spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office said on request: “The Federal Foreign Office has not yet been notified of the ambassador’s dismissal.”
In addition to Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassadors to Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary and India were also dismissed, according to the Presidential Office. Reasons or a future use of the diplomats were not initially mentioned.
Most recently, Melnyk came under pressure with controversial statements about the former nationalist leader Stepan Bandera (1909-1959). Melnyk defended Bandera in an interview and said: “Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles.” Sharp criticism of the statements came from Poland and the Israeli embassy in Berlin, among others. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Melnyk had stated his personal position, which was not the ministry’s position.
After days of silence, Melnyk finally rejected the accusation that his statements played down the Holocaust. “Anyone who knows me knows: I have always condemned the Holocaust in the strongest possible terms,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. The allegations against him are “absurd”.
4:48 p.m .: The former Russian President and current Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, sees the international importance of his country strengthened by the Ukraine war. The “military special operation” in Ukraine has already fulfilled a task, Medvedev wrote on Saturday in the Telegram news service. “We are now seriously counting on Russia. As with the Soviet Union. And in some respects even more serious, judging by the sanctions package.” Medvedev continued that this was different a while ago. Although Russia was a participant in the G8 meetings of the world’s largest industrialized countries, it was not invited to certain meetings of the other seven participants “when economic and defense policy issues of Western countries were discussed”.
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