After Turkey has greatly expanded its exports to Russia since the start of the Ukraine war, the EU is now demanding that Turkey implement the western sanctions that have been imposed. All current voices and developments on the Ukraine war can be found in the ticker.
4:31 a.m .: The EU is demanding that Turkey change its trade policy towards Russia and implement western sanctions imposed for the attack on Ukraine. “Turkey’s (…) policy of not joining the EU’s restrictive measures against Russia is a growing cause for concern,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a letter to the EU Parliament, from which the newspapers of the Quote Funke media group.
Turkey has massively expanded its exports to Russia since the start of the Ukraine war and is also increasingly buying Russian oil.
Borrell pointed out that the EU and Turkey form a customs union, thereby granting free movement of goods that includes “dual use” goods – goods with dual use that can be used for both civil and military purposes.
Turkey should not offer Russia any workarounds, Borrell warned, emphasizing the country’s status as an EU candidate: “All candidate countries including Turkey” are expected to comply with the measures that have been decided.
The deepening of bilateral economic ties between Turkey and Russia amid Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine “is also a cause for serious concern,” it said. The EU has repeatedly emphasized its concerns and expectations towards Turkish interlocutors and will raise this at all levels, the foreign policy chief said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on closer economic cooperation in August. Apparently, Western companies are also using Turkey as a loophole to sell their products to Russia. The US government has therefore already threatened Turkey with secondary sanctions.
2:39 a.m .: Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is urging Germany and other allies to continue supplying arms to Ukraine. “I urge all allies, including Germany, to send everything to Ukraine that it needs to defend itself,” said the Prime Minister of the German Press Agency. “If all allies had sent weapons as early as January or February, many lives would have been saved.”
Unlike Germany, Estonia, one of the smallest EU countries, had already delivered arms to Ukraine before the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine began on February 23. According to statistics from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the Baltic country bordering Russia has supported Ukraine more than any other country in the world in terms of gross domestic product. When it comes to arms deliveries, it is statistically ahead of much larger and financially stronger European countries such as Italy or Spain, even in absolute numbers.
On the question of whether Germany should also send Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, Kallas said: “It is up to each individual country to say what it can and cannot provide.” of battle tanks therefore do not criticize.
However, she also stressed that arms deliveries are not just about Ukraine. “It’s not just about the sovereignty and freedom of one country in Europe, it’s also about the security of all of Europe,” she said. A country must be able to defend itself if it is attacked.
Ukraine has long been demanding that Germany deliver Leopard 2 main battle tanks. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) does not want to deliver the tanks single-handedly. However, the US has already given its consent. According to information from the Ukrainian side, talks are underway with the federal government about the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
Sunday, December 11, 1:21 a.m .: The European Union is concerned that Turkey is maintaining a too close partnership with Russia – despite the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the harsh Western sanctions against Moscow. The deepening of economic relations between Turkey and Russia gives “reason for great concern”, according to a letter from the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to the EU Parliament, from which the Funke media group quotes. Turkey’s continued policy “not to join the EU’s restrictive measures against Russia” is also worrying.
According to the report, Borrell pointed out that the EU and Turkey form a customs union and thus grant free movement of goods, which also includes “dual use” goods – i.e. goods that can be used for civil and military purposes. It is important that Turkey does not offer Russia any workarounds, Borrell warned.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this Sunday. The aim is to “strengthen” the corridor for cargo ships in the Black Sea set up with the grain agreement, Erdogan announced. He did not give details.
Mediated by Turkey and the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement in July to export Ukrainian grain via a corridor in the Black Sea. The agreement ended a months-long blockade on Ukraine’s grain exports as a result of Russia’s war of aggression. Ships en route to or from Ukrainian ports are checked at a joint center in Istanbul by teams made up of Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish and UN representatives.
8:15 p.m .: The Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula was apparently shaken by several explosions on Saturday evening. Among other things, Ukrainian media reported explosions from a military base near Sevastopol, citing residents. Tremors are also reported from Saky and Simferopol.
There should be an air alert on the peninsula. Russia apparently reported that the air defense was active.
A few hours ago, several military barracks in Crimea went up in flames. There are said to have been victims in a fire in Radianske. Russian recruits are stationed there.
2:03 p.m .: According to its own armed forces, Russia went on the offensive in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine. “In the Donetsk area, the Russian units continued their attacks and drove the enemy out of their fortified positions,” army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow on Saturday. Positions were also seized in the north between the small towns of Kreminna and Lyman. The information could not be verified independently.
Reports have been circulating for weeks that the Ukrainian army is on the defensive in the Donetsk region, trying to hold its defense lines in front of the industrial city of Donetsk and east of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk conurbation. There is fighting around the small town of Bachmut in particular, with heavy casualties on both sides.
Further north, on the other hand, the Ukrainians still have the initiative after the Russian troops were driven out of the Kharkiv region. Here both sides report mutual attacks on the opposing positions. Observers also reported that Russian troops have built fortifications in the area 60 kilometers long up to the Russian state border.
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