Calls for the delivery of more weapons are becoming more vehement from the traffic light parties. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a surprise trip to Kyiv by special train. The EU energy ministers meet for a special summit. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
Monday, September 12, 8:26 a.m .: The Chairwoman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has appealed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (both SPD) to give up their reluctance to deliver main battle tanks from Germany to Ukraine. “I wish the Chancellor would change his line. I wish the Minister of Defense would change her line,” said the FDP politician on Monday in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”.
The delivery of the Marder infantry fighting vehicle and the Leopard 2 main battle tank is required. “This is incredibly important and should happen immediately,” said Strack-Zimmerman. She appealed to all those “who still haven’t understood that in a war situation like this, Ukraine’s successes can only be underpinned if they now have the weapons they need.”
Scholz and Lambrecht have not yet advocated direct tank deliveries – i.e. not in a ring exchange with Eastern European NATO partners who are supposed to hand over Soviet-design tanks to Ukraine and receive replacements for them. Calls for more exports of heavy weapons from Germany were also raised by the Greens’ traffic light partners after Ukraine recaptured territory from Russia over the weekend.
10:34 p.m .: The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his compatriots for defending their homeland in view of the war that has now been going on for 200 days. “We have achieved a lot in these 200 days, but the most important and therefore the most difficult thing is still ahead of us,” said Zelenskyj in his video speech on Monday night.
Among other things, he thanked the Ukrainian ground forces, the air force, the naval forces – and everyone who wrote “the history of independence, the history of victory, the history of Ukraine” these days.
In the face of Russian attacks on thermal power plants in eastern Ukraine, which led to widespread blackouts, he told Zelenskyy: “Russian terrorists remain terrorists.” Then Zelenskyy addressed the Russians directly: “History will fix everything. We will use gas, light , water and food and without you.”
10:25 p.m .: After the withdrawal of Russian troops from large parts of the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to have postponed a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Defense and the defense industry. This is reported by the Russian online newspaper “Moscow Times”, citing government information.
His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, justified Putin’s refusal with current events in Ukraine. “With the development of the military special operation, certain experiences are being gained, which first need to be discussed,” he said.
7:48 p.m .: The Chechen President and Putin confidante, Ramzan Kadyrov, has criticized the Russian warfare in view of the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“If there are no changes in the strategy of the military special operation today or tomorrow, I will have to speak to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the leadership of the country to explain the actual situation on the ground,” said the 45-year-old, who usually publicly supported by the Russian leadership.
He also said in a voice message that Russian troops had made mistakes in northeastern Ukraine. The soldiers were not sufficiently prepared, he also said. He does not understand what strategy is being pursued and demands an explanation from the Russian Defense Ministry. He himself had sent soldiers into the war.
7.44 p.m .: In the regional elections in Russia, as expected, there was broad success for the Kremlin party United Russia on Sunday evening. In the Republic of Buryatia on Lake Baikal, for example, or in Sverdlovsk in the Urals, where governors were elected, the previous incumbents were ahead after counting the first votes, according to data from the central election commission. In the Siberian region of Tomsk, the candidate of United Russia also led in the evening.
The elections in more than 80 Russian regions were the first since the war against Ukraine began at the end of February – and they were overshadowed by massive allegations of manipulation. The independent election observers from the Golos organization listed numerous signs of fraud while the election was still going on. Even before the elections, there was criticism that opposition members who openly opposed the war in the neighboring country were not even allowed to vote. The Russian Ministry of the Interior, on the other hand, said that no serious violations had been registered so far.
5.18 p.m .: According to information from Moscow, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron have telephoned about the critical situation at the Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia. According to a Kremlin statement on Sunday, Putin has called for international action on Ukraine to stop its attacks on the facility. Putin “pointed to the regular Ukrainian attacks on nuclear facilities, including a radioactive waste storage facility, which can have catastrophic results,” according to the Kremlin. Kyiv, on the other hand, repeatedly accuses the Russian troops of shelling the nuclear power plant, which has been under their control since March.
Shortly before, it had become known that the largest nuclear power plant in Europe had to be shut down completely. According to the Ukrainian nuclear authority Enerhoatom, all connection lines to the power grid were temporarily interrupted due to shelling. The Russian side also confirmed that the power plant had been shut down. Two employees of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are still on the site to monitor the situation.
4:17 p.m .: Members of parliament from Moscow publicly call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to resign. According to Radio Free Europe, Russian MPs published a statement on the Lomonosovsky district website after a meeting.
In Putin’s second term “everything went wrong,” it says. Putin must resign for the good of the country, MPs said after the meeting. A 30-minute video documents the politicians’ meeting. They emphasize that Putin’s aggressive rhetoric has thrown Russia back to the Cold War era.
The deputies find particularly critical words for the country’s economic situation: the minimum wage has not been raised to the promised level, thousands are leaving Russia for better positioned countries, and Putin’s views are “hopelessly outdated and hinder Russian development”.
Previously, deputies from a St. Petersburg district had called for Putin to be convicted of high treason. The Ukraine war led to a massive economic slump, so the accusation.
1:20 p.m .: Leading politicians from the traffic light parties in the Bundestag have called for more support for the Ukrainian military offensive against the Russian attackers. “Germany must immediately do its part in Ukraine’s successes and deliver protected vehicles, the Marder infantry fighting vehicle and the Leopard 2 main battle tank,” said the chairwoman of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, on Sunday of the German Press Agency. The FDP politician also called for no time to be lost. “And certainly not this is the time for procrastination and hesitation,” she said.
After Ukraine’s military successes, SPD foreign policy expert Michael Roth also spoke out in favor of quickly supporting the country with new weapons. “In this new phase of the war, Ukraine needs weapons that will enable it to liberate Russian-occupied areas and keep them under permanent control,” the Foreign Affairs Committee chairman told Funke media group newspapers. “The West, especially the US, Germany, France and Poland should quickly coordinate closely here and adapt their deliveries to the new situation.”
The Greens defense expert Agnieszka Brugger spoke out in favor of increasing arms deliveries. Especially in the areas of air defense, protected transport, artillery and protective equipment “we should do everything possible,” said the Vice Chair of the Greens parliamentary group of the Funke media group. “All options have to be put to the test again without any bans on thinking, because these are crucial months for the people in Ukraine and for order on our continent.”
Sunday, September 11, 12:32 p.m.: The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, commented in the “Bild” on the current counter-offensive by the Ukrainian military. He told the newspaper: “Our time has come. We’re taking our country back!”
The former boxer goes even further: “We will liberate the entire Ukraine, but the question is how quickly that will happen and how high the number of victims will be.” Klitschko’s demand: “My request to the German government is: Deliver what you can , to expel the Russian soldiers from our country quickly!”
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