There is huge anger in the Kremlin over the airspace ban on Foreign Minister Lavrov. Meanwhile, the United States wants to confiscate two of Oligarch Abramovich’s planes. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth became clear during her visit to Odessa. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
6.40 a.m .: Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) chose clear words for the attack by Russian troops during her visit to the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. Her Ukrainian counterpart gave her two stamps as a gift. The first motif shows a soldier in front of the silhouette of the sunken Russian warship Moskva. On the second stamp, the ship has disappeared and the soldier is raising his middle finger instead. “Fuck off, Black Sea Fleet!” Roth translates the scene to the delight of the Ukrainian.
As a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, Odessa is not only of strategic but also of cultural importance. For the first day of her journey, Roth chose to visit the Potemkin Stairs, which became world-famous through the film “Panzerkreuzer Potemkin” by Sergei Eisenstein (1925).
Roth summed it up: “In Odessa we can see what it means when culture is deliberately destroyed. A war on culture is also a war on democracy,” said Roth. “When culture is destroyed, democracy no longer makes sense.” Ukraine reports 375 destroyed cultural sites in the country since the Russian war of aggression began.
4:15 a.m .: The Union has warned the federal government not to prevent Spain if the country wants to deliver German-made battle tanks to Ukraine. “If Spain wants to deliver Leopard 2, the federal government must make it possible quickly,” demanded the deputy head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Johann Wadephul, in the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “Germany abandons the Ukraine every day that no heavy weapons arrive there.” The CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter said in a similar way in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “I expect that the federal government will quickly, as proactively as possible, necessary export license issued.”
The usually well-informed Spanish newspaper El País, citing Defense Ministry sources, reported that Spain was preparing to deliver about 40 Leopard 2 A4 main battle tanks, as well as ground-launched anti-aircraft missiles.
Tuesday, June 7, 4:06 a.m .: Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda is pushing for a stronger NATO presence in the Baltic States in view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “The NATO summit in Madrid must be the summit of decisions,” Nauseda told the German Press Agency before Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s one-day visit to Vilnius on Tuesday. “We hope to agree at the summit: on a transition from deterrence to forward defense, from a battalion to a brigade, from air surveillance to air defense.”
At the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of the month, the question will be whether the troops on the eastern flank of the western defense alliance will be increased again.
11:44 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj firmly expects his country to have EU candidate status within the next few weeks. “I mean, this will be a decision not only for Ukraine, but for the entire European project,” the head of state said in his daily video message on Monday. That will also decide whether the EU has a future or not, Zelenskyj said.
The EU Commission wants to decide in June how to proceed with the ambitions of the country attacked by Russia. The federal government has not yet taken a position on this issue. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz made it clear that there should be no shortcuts for Ukraine on the way to the EU. Ukraine sees their fight against Russia as sufficient qualification.
The Justice Department estimates the combined value of the two planes at $400 million. However, the planes are apparently out of reach of the US authorities. According to media reports, the Gulfstream G650ER is said to be in Russia, the Boeing machine possibly in Dubai.
The US Department of Justice will take “active steps” to confiscate the two planes, Department Representative Andrew Adams said in New York. According to him, the measure aims to induce people with close ties to the Kremlin to “distance” from the Moscow power center and from the Russian state.
6:21 p.m .: Greece will only deliver its approximately 100 Soviet-design infantry fighting vehicles from GDR stocks to Ukraine if the German infantry fighting vehicles promised for this have actually arrived in Greece. This was emphasized by government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou at a press conference in Athens on Monday.
The background is the country’s conflict with Turkey: Athens had already announced in May that heavy weapons would only be supplied to Ukraine if they were replaced immediately, because the Greek islands should not remain unprotected. Turkey is currently questioning the sovereignty of a number of islands in the eastern Aegean. The Greek armed forces are therefore on alert.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had promised Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week that tanks would be exchanged in principle. The Greek armed forces have armored vehicles of the Soviet type BMP-1. For this they could receive German armored personnel carriers of the Marder type. However, the Greek government subsequently came under fire from the opposition, which said the islands should not be left unprotected by the ring swap.
3:50 p.m .: Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth has arrived in Odessa for a two-day visit. The Greens politician is the first member of the federal government to be a guest in the strategically important port city on the Black Sea after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
1:39 p.m .: The Kremlin has criticized the blocking of European airspace for Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after his failed trip to Serbia as “hostile action”. “Undoubtedly, such hostile actions towards our country, towards high-ranking representatives of our country, can cause certain problems and lead to the schedule of these contacts being postponed for some time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency.
Lavrov reacted with outrage on Monday and spoke of a “scandal”. Lavrov, like President Vladimir Putin, is subject to Western sanctions because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “The unthinkable happened,” Lavrov said at an online press conference. “A sovereign state has been deprived of the right to conduct foreign policy.”
Lavrov had to cancel his trip to Belgrade because Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia denied the minister’s government plane overflight rights. Lavrov is on the EU sanctions list because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Moscow was satisfied with the course of the war itself. The Kremlin is “optimistic” about the development of the “military special operation in Ukraine,” said Peskov. Moscow describes the war against the neighboring country only as a special military operation.
11.14 a.m .: According to a media report, the federal government wants to enable around 70 Russian dissidents to stay in Germany permanently. The Russian journalists critical of the Kremlin, who fled to Germany with a 90-day Schengen visa after the Russian attack on Ukraine, should be able to live and work permanently in Germany, the “Spiegel” reported on Monday, citing government circles. Your short-term visas should be converted to long-term visas.
According to the report, the federal government is in talks with the interior authorities of the states of Berlin and Saxony, among others. A report by the Russian Experts Task Force for the Federal Cabinet meeting next Wednesday states that “the Federal Government is committed to ensuring that dissident cultural and media workers from the Russian Federation, who have entered the country on a Schengen visa and are now staying in want to stay in Germany to continue their work here, can obtain a residence permit for the purpose of employment in the federal territory.”
The living costs of the dissidents should be covered by grants for the time being. These should initially be valid for one year. However, they could be extended if the dissidents have not found a job by the end of the year or are not yet able to make a living from self-employed work. The scholarships should be financed from the budget of Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens), around three and a half million euros are estimated for this. According to the report, three organizations will host the scholarships: Reporters Without Borders, Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT) and the Schöpflin Foundation.
10:25 a.m .: According to a media report, the Russian leadership has agreed a scheme with Kyiv and Ankara to release grain deliveries from the previously blocked Black Sea port of Odessa. “In the sovereign waters of the neighboring country, the Turkish military will take over the mine clearance and they will also accompany the ships to neutral waters,” the Kremlin-affiliated daily “Isvestia” described the planned process on Monday, citing government circles. Later, Russian warships would escort the grain carriers to the Bosphorus.
The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has led to massive turbulence on world markets and driven up food prices. Ukraine is one of the largest grain exporters in the world. The Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports had therefore led to fears of famine, especially in poor African countries.
Most recently, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin received the President of the African Union (AU) and Senegal, Macky Sall. While Putin denied Russia was responsible for the food crisis, he showed his willingness to facilitate grain deliveries.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to hold talks in Ankara on Wednesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov had already confirmed in advance that the issue of grain deliveries from Ukraine would be discussed. According to the newspaper report, the scheme should be coordinated there in detail and then officially approved. So far, such a release has only been agreed for Odessa.
03:05: Despite warnings from Russia’s head of state Vladimir Putin, Great Britain also wants to support Ukraine with the delivery of long-range missile systems. The Ministry of Defense in London announced on Monday that the delivery of the US-made multiple rocket launcher artillery system (MLRS) to Ukraine was closely coordinated with the government in Washington.
The British Ministry of Defense emphasized that the planned delivery of the M270 multiple rocket launchers means “a significant boost to the capabilities of the Ukrainian army”. The weapon system can hit targets up to 80 kilometers away with precision-guided missiles. Great Britain also wants to train Ukrainian soldiers in the use of the new weapon system.
The United States announced last week that it would deliver its Himar mobile artillery missile system to Ukraine, which can launch several precision-guided missiles at the same time and surpasses previous Ukrainian weapon systems in terms of range and precision. According to military experts, its range of up to 80 kilometers is slightly greater than that of similar Russian systems, allowing Kiev forces to hit enemy artillery without getting within range.
Monday, June 6, 12:00 a.m.: According to information from Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cannot travel to Serbia on a planned two-day visit this Monday because he did not have a flight permit. According to the Russian agency Interfax, a high-ranking ministry official confirmed a corresponding Serbian media report on Sunday, according to which Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro had not given permission for the Russian government aircraft to fly over. Lavrov is subject to Western sanctions over Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In addition, European airspace is closed to Russian aircraft.
The minister wanted to meet with the Serbian leadership to talk about supplying the country with Russian energy, for example. When asked whether the visit had been cancelled, the ministry official replied: “Diplomacy has not yet acquired the ability to beam.” Serbian media had previously reported on the cancellation of Lavrov’s visit to Belgrade because there was no overflight permit. On Sunday, Lavrov surprisingly invited foreign journalists to a press conference this Monday.
You can read more news on the next page
