All news about the course of the war in Ukraine can be found in the FOCUS Online news ticker
The Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, wants to apologize to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) for his controversial “liver sausage” statement. “That’s a statement that I later regret, of course,” said Melnyk to “Spiegel” in an interview published on Wednesday. “I will personally apologize to him,” he announced.
The statement was “diplomatically inappropriate” and “offended many people, not only in Germany,” Melnyk continued. The background was Scholz’s decision at the beginning of May not to travel to Ukraine for the time being. Scholz justified this by saying that Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was not welcome there at the time. Melnyk then said that the chancellor was playing “an offended liverwurst”.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for a “Marshall Plan” for the reconstruction of war-torn Ukraine. During his visit to Kyiv last week, some things reminded him of the images of German cities after the Second World War, Scholz said in the Bundestag. “And like war-ravaged Europe then, Ukraine needs a Marshall Plan for reconstruction today.”
Between 1948 and 1952, the USA helped Germany and other European countries with their Marshall Plan to get back on their feet after six years of war. Many billions of US dollars have been invested in reconstruction.
German support for Ukraine in using heavy weapons in the war against Russia is progressing. Next week the training of Ukrainian soldiers on the Mars II multiple rocket launcher system promised by Germany will begin, said Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) on Wednesday in the Bundestag. After completing the training, the system can be delivered to Ukraine. For the time being, however, Lambrecht continued to rule out the delivery of certain tanks.
The deployment of the Mars II multiple rocket launcher system is “in preparation,” said the minister. As already announced, Germany will provide three such systems, Great Britain also three and the USA four.
Military situation:
The Ukrainian army says it has fired on Russian forces in southern Ukraine. On Tuesday there were a total of 150 rocket and artillery fires, according to the Operational Command of Southern Ukraine in its daily report. 49 Russian soldiers were killed. In addition, two howitzers and an ammunition depot belonging to the Russians could be destroyed.
The Russians, for their part, attacked Mykolaiv and Ochakov in the region. In the Mykolaiv region, a person was killed in a residential area. The Russians have set up a defensive line and are fighting from there, they say. The situation in the south is “tense but controlled,” according to the Ukrainian army.
In the heavily contested eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Ukrainian units around the towns of Solote and Hirske could be surrounded by Russian forces. According to a report by the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russian troops had gained territory, so that the Ukrainian forces there could be cut off the northern road connection to their other units around Lysychansk. The connection via Wrubiwka, west of Hirske, had already come under Russian control last week.
According to Russian information, 70 ships from 16 countries are currently stuck in six ports in Ukraine. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, they cannot go to sea unhindered because of the shelling by Ukrainian forces and the high risk of mines. On the other hand, Ukraine – one of the world’s largest exporters of grain – has criticized the fact that Russia is preventing grain exports by blockading Ukrainian ports, thereby provoking a food crisis. The international community has also been demanding that Russia allow the export of Ukrainian grain for weeks.
Political developments:
Shortly before the decision on Ukraine’s possible status as a candidate for EU membership, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj called for further sanctions against Russia. “Russia must feel the growing pressure as a result of the war and its aggressive anti-European policy,” said the Ukrainian head of state in his video message on Wednesday night. In talks with several European heads of state and government, he stressed that a seventh package of sanctions was needed as soon as possible.
Zelenskyj’s economic adviser Alexander Rodnyansky expressed his confidence in his country’s victory against the Russian aggressor. “We can win the war,” he said on the ARD program “Maischberger”. He hopes that the counteroffensive can begin in August. The support from abroad helps a lot and also arrives, but it takes a while before the weapons can be used. In any case, one should not indulge in the illusion of a sustainable peace with Russia. Under President Vladimir Putin, the neighboring country is about imperialism – “and it will stay that way”.
There could soon be some movement in grain exports from Ukraine – according to the Kremlin, representatives of Turkey are to travel to Moscow next week to hold talks on the blocked exports, which are leading to dangerous supply bottlenecks in developing countries in particular.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) swore the citizens of Germany into a long phase of deprivation in view of rising prices as a result of the war. “My concern is that we could have a very worrying situation in a few weeks and months,” said Lindner on ZDF’s “heute journal”. “It’s about three to four, maybe five years of scarcity. And we have to find an answer for that.” He added: “There is a risk of a very serious economic crisis due to the sharp increase in energy prices, due to supply chain problems, due to inflation too.”
The decision on Ukraine’s possible status as a candidate for EU membership is now imminent. EU Council President Charles Michel advocates granting this status to both her and her small neighbor Moldova. The latest draft of the final declaration of the EU summit, which begins on Thursday, states: “The European Council has decided to grant Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova the status of candidate countries.” This would mean that the 27 heads of state and government who met in Meet in Brussels, follow the recommendation of the EU Commission.
The day brings:
Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to comment on the upcoming EU, G7 and NATO summits in the Bundestag on Wednesday, which will focus on the war in Ukraine. The 20-minute government statement by the SPD politician is followed by a one-and-a-half-hour debate.
In addition, the heads of the traffic light coalition are discussing possible steps against the price increases, especially for gas and energy, as a result of the war. In the afternoon, Ifo President Clemens Fuest also spoke about the consequences of the war for the economy and Germany as a business location.
At noon, Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) is also to face a question time in the Bundestag.
Also read: The Ukraine update on June 21 – “Everything that can burn burns” – what happened in Ukraine today
