Before the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague, Austria reiterated its opposition to the entry ban for Russian tourists. Austria is of the opinion that a blanket ban on visas for Russian nationals would completely cut off the last contacts with Russian civil society. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
Wednesday, August 31, December 10: Before the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague, Austria reiterated its opposition to entry bans for Russian tourists. “We must not throw the baby out with the bath water, a blanket ban on visas for Russian nationals would completely cut off the last contacts with Russian civil society,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told the “Welt” on Tuesday. “It would be absurd to block the way to the West for critical voices in Russia right now.”
The Kremlin’s news embargo is obscuring the Russian population’s view of the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, the minister said. “A visa freeze would also be counterproductive in the fight against the Russian propaganda machine. If we block the Russian population’s door to Europe across the board, that would only fuel the camp mentality propagated by the Kremlin.”
The foreign and defense ministers of the European Union will be meeting in Prague on Tuesday to discuss further support for Ukraine. On the table is a proposal by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell for a joint military training mission for Ukraine.
The European foreign ministers are also dealing with the demand from Ukraine and eastern EU countries for a general visa freeze for Russian tourists. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) warned again on Monday in Prague against making all Russians liable for the war.
7.40 p.m .: Ukraine wants the historic old town of Odessa on the Black Sea to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The city, which is famous for its architecture, has already been hit by bombardments and is only a few dozen kilometers away from the frontline in the Ukraine war, UNESCO said in Paris on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian Minister of Culture, Oleksander Tkachenko, declared during a visit to UNESCO in Paris: “Odessa is in danger.” There are frequent bombings. Odessa is especially known for its monumental staircases. In the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the city was a strategically important target for Moscow right from the start.
Unesco now wants to urgently examine the Ukrainian inquiry about Odessa and possibly put the city on the list of endangered world heritage sites. The same applies to Kyiv and Lviv.
Odessa is known as the “Pearl of the Black Sea”. Founded by Catherine the Great, Odessa is famous for its stunning 19th-century architecture. With its huge port, the city, founded in 1794, already played a special role in the Russian Tsarist Empire.
6:33 p.m .: The federal government has spoken out in favor of the complete suspension of the European visa agreement with Russia. Such an approach could be a “quite good bridge” in the EU-internal dispute over possible entry restrictions for Russians, said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) on Tuesday at the sidelines of the federal government’s cabinet meeting. The German approach is pretty much in the middle between those who no longer want to issue visas to Russians and those who simply want to continue as before.
According to Baerbock, the German proposal also means that multiple-entry visas that are valid for several years will no longer be issued. The proposal is to be discussed at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague this Wednesday.
So far, the agreement that came into force in 2007 after Russia’s attack on Ukraine was officially suspended only for business people, government officials and diplomats. From a German point of view, not only journalists or well-known members of the opposition, but also students, for example, should still have the opportunity to travel to the EU, stressed Baerbock. Critical civil society should not be penalized.
The background to Baerbock’s statements is the discussion that has been going on for days about whether Russians should be prevented from traveling to the EU for shopping trips and vacations, while thousands of people are dying in Ukraine because of the war.
6:31 p.m .: According to a survey, 77 percent of Germans believe that the West should initiate negotiations to end the Ukraine war. This emerges from a survey by the opinion research institute Forsa for the RTL/ntv “trend barometer”, which was published on Tuesday. 17 percent thought the West should not do that at the moment.
87 percent of those surveyed think it is right for Western heads of government to continue talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 11 percent didn’t think that was right.
26 percent of respondents believe that the federal government is doing too little to support Ukraine. 43 percent felt the level of support was just right. 25 percent were of the opinion that the federal government was doing too much for Ukraine.
According to the survey, almost a third of Germans (32 percent) were in favor of supplying more heavy weapons to Ukraine – even if this was at the expense of equipment for the Bundeswehr. In contrast, 62 percent of Germans were of the opinion that Germany should not do this.
6:23 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj received experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Kyiv. “The arrival of the IAEA mission in Ukraine is certainly one of the most important security issues of Ukraine and the world today,” he said, according to a video shown on public television on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy called an “immediate demilitarization” of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine as a goal. A demilitarized zone should be created around the power plant. “And the transfer of the nuclear power plant under the control of the Ukrainian state,” Zelenskyy said. This is the only way to rule out all nuclear risks.
The 14 experts, led by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, are to travel across the front line to the nuclear power plant in the Russian-controlled area. Your task is to check the condition of the power plant. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the nuclear power plant came under the control of the Russian army in early March.
5:13 p.m .: The military expert Ralph Thiele publicly expresses doubts about the major offensive announced by Ukraine. In an interview with the broadcaster “ntv”, he said that he “does not expect that anything will happen there on a large scale”. If there were really a major offensive, one would not talk about it, but would surprise the opponent. In fact, the war rhetoric is probably a ruse used by the Ukrainians to stabilize the situation in the embattled south.
According to Thiele, one of the goals is to protect the city of Odessa. “With the announcement of a major offensive, Russian forces will be tied down in Cherson,” said the expert. The Russians would move troops because of the announcement of an offensive. “So they have less power for Russians in Donbass,” which would help Ukraine.
3:17 p.m .: Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) sees hardly any opportunities to send weapons from Bundeswehr stocks to Ukraine to defend against Russia. “I have to admit, as Minister of Defense, (…) we are reaching the limits of what we can hand over from the Bundeswehr,” said the SPD politician on Tuesday at the cabinet meeting in Meseberg near Berlin. The Bundeswehr must be able to guarantee national and alliance defense. As Minister of Defense, she will ensure that this continues to be the case, she stressed.
Among other things, the Bundeswehr has handed over several self-propelled howitzers (heavy artillery pieces) and multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine. A few days ago, the chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), called for Ukraine to continue being supplied with weapons from Bundeswehr stocks. She specifically named Marder armored personnel carriers, for which the Bundeswehr could later get a replacement from industry.
Lambrecht was “very optimistic” that there could be a ring exchange with Greece in support of Ukraine in the near future. She offered Poland further talks about it. The idea of ring exchange came up shortly after the beginning of the Ukraine war. The aim is to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons as quickly as possible. Since the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not require additional training for Soviet systems, such weapons were swiftly delivered to Ukraine from Eastern European countries. For this, they should now be supplied with western brands.
The Federal Government has already reached corresponding agreements with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Poland, which has already delivered around 200 tanks to Ukraine, was dissatisfied with the German offers and complained loudly about them. An agreement has also not yet been reached with Greece and Slovenia.
10.35 a.m .: The Russian Gazprom group has further reduced its gas deliveries to France. The energy group Engie announced on Tuesday that Gazprom had informed the company that deliveries would be cut with immediate effect. The reason is a “disagreement about the application of contracts”.
Gazprom had already sharply reduced its supplies to Engie since the start of the Ukraine war. According to Engie, it received 1.5 terawatt hours of gas per month until the new cut. At the end of July, that was around four percent of the amount that Engie purchases each month. The group announced on Tuesday that it had taken measures to compensate for cuts in supplies from Russia. The supply of customers with gas is guaranteed.
Gazprom is currently delivering around 20 percent of the possible volume to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. On Wednesday, the Russian group wants to completely stop delivery due to maintenance work. According to Gazprom, they should last three days.
10:29 a.m .: Before the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague, Austria reiterated its opposition to entry bans for Russian tourists. “We must not throw the baby out with the bath water, a blanket ban on visas for Russian nationals would completely cut off the last contacts with Russian civil society,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told the “Welt” on Tuesday. “It would be absurd to block the way to the West for critical voices in Russia right now.”
The Kremlin’s news embargo is obscuring the Russian population’s view of the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, the minister said. “A visa freeze would also be counterproductive in the fight against the Russian propaganda machine. If we block the Russian population’s door to Europe across the board, that would only fuel the camp mentality propagated by the Kremlin.”
The foreign and defense ministers of the European Union will be meeting in Prague on Tuesday to discuss further support for Ukraine. On the table is a proposal by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell for a joint military training mission for Ukraine.
The European foreign ministers are also dealing with the demand from Ukraine and eastern EU countries for a general visa freeze for Russian tourists. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) warned again on Monday in Prague against making all Russians liable for the war.
Tuesday, August 30, 10 a.m.: The Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” from Rome writes on Sunday about the EU’s behavior towards Russia in the energy crisis:
“Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing the gas card as an extreme attempt to assert himself in military aggression against Ukraine. After six months of war, Kyiv continues to resist thanks to EU and NATO aid. The only way for Moscow to survive in the armed conflict is to reduce the compactness of the European-Atlantic front. After failed attempts to divide the allies over arms sales to Kyiv and sanctions against Russia, Putin’s strategy has focused on gas. (…)
But if the gas offensive is bringing visible results to the Kremlin chief, it is because the European Union is not yet able to speak with one voice on this front. (…) In short, it is the gap between the EU partners that prevents Brussels from responding effectively to the Russian gas offensive, leaving individual countries practically alone vis-à-vis Moscow.”
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