The Russian occupiers have announced the first results of the mock referendums. The Ukrainian President announces the “liberation” of the occupied territories. Now Turkish President Erogan wants to talk to Putin about it. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
Thursday, September 29, 5:50 a.m.: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the sham referendums in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Turkey’s support for the affected regions and “that we convince Putin,” Erdogan said on Wednesday evening. On Thursday he will discuss this with the head of the Kremlin.
Regarding the referendums, Erdogan said: “I wish they wouldn’t hold a referendum and we could solve this problem through diplomacy instead.”
The sham referendums on the accession of occupied regions in southern and eastern Ukraine to Russia are not recognized worldwide. The reason is that they were held in violation of Ukrainian and international laws and without minimum democratic standards.
Turkey is a member of NATO and has good relations with Ukraine, but is also considered a close partner of Russia.
The phone call could also be about plans to build a new nuclear power plant in Sinop on Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Talks are being held with Putin about this, Erdogan said, according to the state news agency Anadolu. Turkey’s first Akkuyu nuclear power plant is currently under construction in southern Turkey, and the Russian state-owned company Rosatom is in charge of construction.
8:04 p.m .: The US government has announced further arms deliveries for Ukraine worth 1.1 billion US dollars (1.14 billion euros). The package should give Kyiv 18 more Himars multiple rocket launchers, “which Ukraine has used so effectively on the battlefield,” US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
In addition, Ukraine is to receive, among other things, the associated ammunition, 150 armored vehicles and anti-drone systems, as the Ministry of Defense said. The weapons and systems should not come directly from the stocks of the US military, but should first be bought from industry for Ukraine, it said. It is about the medium and long-term equipment of the Ukrainian military.
This brings US military support to Ukraine to a total equivalent of $16.9 billion since the beginning of Biden’s tenure, the Pentagon said.
4:08 p.m .: The EU Commission has presented a proposal for another package of sanctions against Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine. The package contains, among other things, the legal basis for a price cap for oil imports from Russia and other import restrictions worth seven billion euros, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday in Brussels. Now the EU states must discuss the proposal and decide unanimously on it.
4:06 p.m .: Because of the long exit queues as a result of partial mobilization in Russia, the Russian authorities have restricted access to a region on the border with Georgia. The leader of Russia’s North Ossetia region, Sergei Meniajlo, signed a decree restricting passage of passenger vehicles through the region except for locals and tourists, the regional government’s official television channel reported on the online service Telegram on Wednesday.
A state of alert was also raised in several districts and in the regional capital, Vladikavkaz. The restrictions will make it much more difficult to travel from North Ossetia to the Georgian capital Tbilisi, around 200 kilometers further south. Numerous Russians have sought refuge there since the Russian intervention in Ukraine.
Since the partial mobilization by President Vladimir Putin last week, tens of thousands of Russians have traveled abroad, mainly to Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
The mass onslaught at the borders prompted Russian security agencies to set up a “mobile” recruitment office on the border with Georgia on Tuesday to intercept those trying to evade conscription by the army. According to Georgian figures, almost 10,000 Russians crossed the border every day.
3.40 p.m .: Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj continued political, financial and humanitarian aid as well as arms deliveries to defend against the Russian war of aggression. In a telephone call on Wednesday, Scholz also emphasized that Germany would never recognize the results of the sham referendums in the Russian-occupied areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Cherson and Zaporizhia, explained government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. The Chancellor and the Ukrainian President also discussed aid for the reconstruction of Ukraine. They wanted to keep in touch in the future.
3:15 p.m .: In order to limit the mass flight of young, able-bodied men from Russia, the Kremlin now no longer wants to issue passports to people who could be recruited for the war effort, writes “Deutschlandfunk”, citing Kremlin reports. It is unclear whether the measure also affects “internal passports”, comparable to an identity card. With “internal passports” it is still possible to leave the country for the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.
On September 21, President Vladimir Putin ordered partial mobilization in Russia. Accordingly, 300,000 men with military service experience are to be drafted. The Novaya Gazeta, which is critical of the Kremlin, assumes much higher numbers. Since then, tens of thousands of people have left Russia.
10.40 a.m .: The former world chess champion and political opponent of Putin Garry Kasparov criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s hesitant position in the Ukraine war in an interview with “Welt”. The strategy of the federal government in terms of arms delivery is incoherent. “The Federal Republic is delivering slowly and only selectively. I understand that given German history, it’s psychologically difficult. But Germany is on the wrong side of history,” said the 59-year-old, who has lived in exile in the USA and Croatia since 2013.
“Right now Germany has the chance to pay off its historical debt. The Chancellor is slow to understand that,” criticizes Kasparov, who compares the role of Ukraine with that of the Soviet Union in World War II. “She fights fascism. Putin now symbolizes the worst, I have often compared him to Hitler.”
Karparov describes demands from Germany about negotiations with Russia as “the worst nonsense that has ever been debated in the free world.” Putin’s goal is “to destroy free Ukraine. Ukraine’s goal is to liberate its country. There is not an inch of room for compromise. As a citizen of Russia, I have no right to tell Ukraine what to do. The Germans have no right to do so either, they helped finance Putin’s aggression,” said the Russian, who clearly demanded: “Ukraine needs weapons. The quicker these are delivered, the quicker the war will be over.”
Wednesday, September 28, 2022, 7:38 a.m.: Despite the sham referendums held by the Russian occupiers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced the recapture of the affected areas of his country. In his video address to the UN Security Council, Selenskyj described the referenda as a farce. “We are moving forward and liberating our country!” Shortly before, the occupation administrations deployed by Moscow in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions had said that the people there had spoken out in favor of joining Russia.
After counting all the votes, 99.2 percent of the voters in Donetsk agreed, said the occupation administration there. According to Russian information, it was more than 98 percent in Luhansk, more than 93 percent in Zaporizhia and more than 87 percent in Cherson. Thus, an unprecedented annexation of the territories is likely to begin in the coming days.
The mock referendums, which have been held for a total of five days since last Friday amid widespread international protest, are not recognized worldwide because they were held in violation of Ukrainian and international laws and without minimum democratic standards. In the past few days, observers had pointed out numerous cases in which residents of the occupied territories had been forced to vote.
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