Can you punish a church leader for his political stance? Hungary says no, blocking EU sanctions. For the first time ex-Chancellor Merkel talks about the Ukraine war. That happened on the night of the Ukraine war.
According to the will of the other EU states, Patriarch Kirill should be included on the sanctions list because of his support for the Russian war of aggression. The 75-year-old church leader maintains close contact with President Vladimir Putin. In his sermons, he repeatedly supported the war policy and most recently claimed that Russia had never attacked another country.
The plan in Brussels was actually to initiate the decision-making process for the sixth package of sanctions on Wednesday. An agreement had been reached in the dispute over the planned oil embargo on Tuesday night after a long dispute. Hungary pushed through that oil deliveries by pipeline are initially excluded.
Specifically, sanctions against Kirill would mean that the cleric would no longer be allowed to enter the EU. Possibly existing assets would be frozen. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had already expressed concerns at the beginning of May. “Hungary will not consent to treating church leaders in such a manner,” he said. “For reasons of principle, this is an even more important issue than the oil embargo.”
Ukraine’s military has admitted that Russian troops are having “partial success” in battles in the embattled city of Sieverodonetsk in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. The enemy is in control of the eastern part of the city, the general staff said on Wednesday evening. The storm on the big city continues, it was said. The pro-Russian separatists claimed they had already taken control of more than 70 percent of the city.
Sieverodonetsk is the administrative center in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Luhansk region. The city has been fighting for weeks. Should Russian troops capture the city, they would have complete control over the Luhansk region. The capture of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions is one of the goals set by Putin.
According to military information, the Ukrainian army recaptured 20 occupied towns in the Kherson region. About half of the population had fled from these villages, it said. The information could not be independently verified. However, for days there have been reports of advances by the Ukrainian army in the south. Several Russian missiles are believed to have landed in Stryi in western Ukraine on Wednesday evening. According to initial reports, five people were injured.
Chancellor Scholz announced in the Bundestag on Wednesday that he would deliver the Iris-T air defense system from the German manufacturer Diehl to Ukraine. There is also a tracking radar that can be used to detect artillery positions. The latter is likely to be the Cobra system. Scholz did not give an exact delivery date. “But there is no longer an obstacle.” According to government sources, four Mars II multiple rocket launchers from Bundeswehr stocks are also to be delivered by the end of June. Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk welcomed the announcement.
In her first public speech in around six months, former Chancellor Angela Merkel called the attack on Ukraine a “profound caesura”. Merkel said in Berlin that she did not want to make any assessments from the sidelines. But Russia’s invasion of the neighboring country marks a blatant breach of international law. “My solidarity goes to Ukraine, which was attacked and invaded by Russia, and to supporting their right to self-defense.” “.
Poland promised further aid to the neighboring country during a visit by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to Kyiv. His country was also asked to help export Ukrainian grain. According to Kiev, it was agreed during the consultations to examine the establishment of joint armaments companies. This will take military cooperation to a new level, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Morawiecki and his deputy Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s national-conservative ruling party PiS, also spoke to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj.
That brings the day
While Brussels is looking for ways to overcome the Hungarian veto, the security situation in Eastern Europe is being discussed in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. The most prominent speakers at the Globsec Forum Bratislava 2022 on the very first day include EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Selenskyj, who joined via video conference.
You can read more updates on the Ukraine war on the following pages.
More on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine:
