Steinmeier cancels his visit to Kyiv. Nothing else in the Kremlin indicates that Vladimir Putin could lose power. One critic doesn’t think Putin is willing to die for an idea. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
More on the course of the war in Ukraine
7:18 p.m .: Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has canceled his visit to Kyiv. He was supposed to arrive in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday. As the “Bild” reports, the cancellation is “for security reasons”. Accordingly, several German authorities, including the Federal Foreign Office and security authorities, have advised against the visit that has been planned for weeks. According to the report, the decision was made on Tuesday and should be made up for shortly.
As the newspaper goes on to write, the cancellation from the Ukrainian government is met with irritation: “While the Federal President is canceling his visit, there are many international diplomats and guests who want to show their presence in the capital right now,” the “Bild” does not quote one specified Ukrainian government officials.
5:07 p.m .: The EU countries have launched new sanctions against Iran for supporting the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The punitive measures are intended to affect people and organizations responsible for the construction and delivery of Iranian drones to Russia, as several diplomats confirmed to the German Press Agency in Brussels on Wednesday.
Specifically, it is planned to sanction five people and three organizations. They are likely to be subject to entry bans and asset freezes. In some cases, penal measures are taken against them for other reasons. The sanctions still had to be formally confirmed in the written procedure in the capitals. This should be done by Thursday morning. In order to come into force, they then have to be published in the Official Journal of the EU.
Russia had repeatedly attacked Ukraine in the past few days with Iran’s single-use Shahed 136 combat drones. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, there have been more than 100 attacks with so-called kamikaze drones since last week. The leadership in Tehran denies having supplied Russia with the disposable drones.
On the other hand, a spokeswoman for the EU Commission said on Wednesday that there was now sufficient evidence that the drones came from Iran. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) had already spoken out in favor of further sanctions against the country if the delivery of the drones by the Islamic Republic to Moscow was proven.
5:05 p.m .: The European Parliament awards the Sakharov Prize for Democracy and Human Rights to the Ukrainian people this year. Represented by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other elected representatives, as well as civil society, it will receive the prize for its struggles and suffering, said Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola in Strasbourg today, Wednesday.
3:47 p.m .: The Himars rocket launchers, which are so important for the Ukrainian army, are expensive to produce and limited in number. A few weeks ago, reports circulated that the US was lagging behind in producing Himar’s ammunition. Ukraine, in turn, requested further supplies of the weapon, which helped prepare counter-offensives.
Now the US Army is pushing the armaments company Lockheed Martin to produce more Himars artillery systems. And Lockheed Martin announced that it would increase production to 96 systems per year. This corresponds to an increase of 50 percent. The army even wants 120 rocket launchers a year. This should also make it possible to export more Himars to Europe.
1:53 p.m.: Vladimir Putin has declared a state of war in four recently annexed Ukrainian territories. He has already signed a corresponding decree, Putin said on Wednesday. This goes hand in hand with extended powers for the Russian occupation administrations in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Cherson and Zaporizhia regions.
11:07 a.m .: According to its own statements, the pro-Russian administration is withdrawing completely from the southern Ukrainian city of Cherson. The pro-Russian chief administrator of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, told the Russian broadcaster Rossiya 24 on Wednesday: “As of today, all government structures of the city, the civil and military administration, all ministries, will be moved to the left bank (of the Dnipro)”. However, the Russian army will fight “to the death” in the city against the advancing Ukrainian troops.
Glukhovsky speaks of a painful loss because he can no longer obtain the material for his books, which have so far mainly been about Russia, at home. “I’ll write another book on Russia while the memory is fresh.” His current book is about the often rough life, corruption and political despotism in Russia. In a foreword, Glukhovsky once again condemned Putin’s war against Ukraine as “barbarism”.
Referring to Russia’s nuclear threats and Western fears of nuclear war, he says: “I don’t believe in nuclear war, because then it will all be over.” Glukhovsky assumes that Putin may not win the war against Ukraine, but that he himself is attached to his life. “Putin is used to always winning, is always concerned about his health and is afraid of assassination attempts.” But he was “by no means crazy enough” to start a nuclear war. “He’s not willing to die for an idea. This is not a fanatic dying for an idea.”
In Glukhovsky’s opinion, the nuclear threats are serving the Russian elite as an attempt to gain respect on the world stage – “especially from the USA”. “The only goal of this ordinary corrupt regime, this autocracy without plan and ideology, is to stay in power,” says the author. He said goodbye to Russia for the next 15 to 20 years because there are no longer any prospects for younger people. “As long as this president is alive or longer, I can no longer go to Russia.”
5:01 a.m .: According to a report, Iran has sent instructors to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, to train Russians on how to operate Iranian drones. The New York Times reported on Tuesday (local time), citing current and former officials familiar with intelligence information. The Iranian trainers were supposed to help the Russians deal with problems with the drone fleet acquired from Tehran. This is another sign of the growing closeness between Iran and Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine eight months ago.
In the past few days, the Russian army has increasingly shot down Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at the energy supply in Ukraine, but also at cities. Both Moscow and Tehran deny an arms deal with the drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the use of Iranian drones by Russia as a declaration of bankruptcy by Moscow.
According to the New York Times, the Iranian trainers operate from a Russian military base in Crimea, where many of the drones have been stationed since they were delivered from Iran. The instructors belonged to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. The organization is classified by the US as a terrorist organization.
The deployment of the Iranian trainers appears to coincide with the increased use of drones in Ukraine and indicates greater Iranian involvement in the war, it said. According to the officials, the Iranian instructors are far from the front lines and would be used to teach the Russians how to fly the drones. It is not known how many instructors were sent or whether they controlled the drones themselves.
Former senior Pentagon official and retired CIA officer Mick Mulroy told the newspaper: “The deployment of drones and trainers to Ukraine has deeply embroiled Iran in the war on the Russian side and directly drawn Tehran into operations that have killed civilians and killed were injured.” Even if it’s just trainers and tactical advisors in Ukraine, he thinks that’s significant. Deliberate attacks on civilian targets constitute war crimes.
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