23 residents of the city of Cherson received Russian passports Allegedly more than 800,000 new Russians in Donbass in recent years The news about the war in Ukraine in the star ticker.
Since the Russian war of aggression began, many Russians have left the country because they are against the war in Ukraine or because they fear repression. Since then, around ten thousand Russians have received visas for Germany.
2:33 p.m .: Selenskyj: Ukrainian EU membership crucial for Europe
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described his country’s decision on EU membership as groundbreaking for the whole of Europe. “A positive response from the European Union to Ukraine’s application for EU membership can be a positive answer to the question of whether the European project has a future at all,” said the Ukrainian head of state on Saturday during a visit by EU Commission President Ursula von the Leyen in Kyiv.
In fending off the Russian war of aggression, which has been ongoing since the end of February, the Ukrainian people have “already made a huge contribution to defending common freedom,” Zelensky said.
Kyiv is grateful for the recently adopted sixth package of sanctions against Russia, he said. “Unfortunately, the war goes on, so a seventh package of sanctions is needed, which should be even stronger.”. Zelenskyy demanded that this should apply to all Russian officials and judges who worked for the war. In addition, all Russian banks without exception would have to be sanctioned. The Ukrainian head of state also spoke out in favor of the EU completely dispensing with Russian energy sources and for a reconstruction program for his country.
1:26 p.m .: Russia distributes the first passports to Ukrainians in occupied territories
Russia has issued the first Russian passports to residents of the occupied Ukrainian city of Cherson. 23 residents of the city in southern Ukraine received their identity papers during a ceremony on Saturday, the official Russian news agency Tass reported. At the end of May, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that allows passports to be issued using the “simplified procedure”. This also applies to the Zaporizhia region, which is also partially controlled by Russia.
“All of our residents in Kherson want to get a passport and (Russian) citizenship as soon as possible,” pro-Russian regional chief Vladimir Saldo said, according to TASS. “This is the beginning of a new era for us,” he was quoted as saying by the Ria Nowosti news agency. The Kherson region had been almost completely captured by the Russian army at the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Ukraine had condemned the introduction of the special passport procedure and spoke of an “egregious violation” of its territorial integrity. “The Russian presidential decree is legally void and does not affect” the Ukrainian citizenship of residents “of the territories temporarily occupied by Russia,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said at the time.
12:38 p.m .: Selenskyj warns of food riots around the world due to the grain crisis
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned of worldwide food riots as a result of the Russian war of aggression against his country. “If we cannot export our food, then the world will face a serious food crisis and hunger in many countries in Asia and Africa,” the 44-year-old told visitors to the security forum “Shangri La Dialogue” in Singapore, which he spoke to on Saturday was connected via video. The food shortage could lead to political chaos and the overthrow of governments in many countries.
In fact, since the beginning of the aggressive war more than three months ago, the Russian Navy has been blockading the Ukrainian Black Sea ports or has occupied ports in Mariupol and Kherson. Ukraine, the world’s fourth largest grain exporter, is therefore stuck on its own stocks. Ukraine also accuses Russia of stealing large quantities of grain. Moscow, in turn, blames Ukraine for the crisis because it refuses to clear sea mines. According to Ukraine, the mines are used for defense and protection against Russian warships.
12:25 p.m .: Poland accuses Germany of a lack of commitment when it comes to tank deliveries
Poland has accused the federal government of a lack of commitment to the promised delivery of tanks. “The talks have come to a standstill. There is no good will, let’s hope that will change,” said the head of the National Security Office under the President, Pawel Soloch, on Saturday on Radio Rmf.fm. The defense ministries are in contact.
Berlin had asked for tanks to be used to replace tanks that Poland had given to Ukraine, Soloch said. “German military aid – be it for Ukraine or be it support of countries that provide this aid – falls short of expectations.” Poland supports its neighbor with Soviet T-72 tanks. Warsaw has already made it clear that it expects compensation from NATO partners, including Germany. A large part of the tank arsenal in the Polish Armed Forces consists of German Leopard tanks.
12:18 p.m .: Karl Lauterbach got stuck in the elevator when he visited Ukraine
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach went down for a short time during his visit to Ukraine on Friday. The SPD politician was stuck in an elevator with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Ljaschko, as Lauterbach wrote in a “last tweet about the trip to Ukraine” and illustrated it with a photo. The lift suddenly dropped a meter. “No one wanted to climb out at first…” Lauterbach added.
The health minister was received by Lyashko in Lviv, western Ukraine. Lauterbach started direct medical aid for war victims, took part in a donor conference to set up a rehabilitation center for war invalids and met fire victims and other seriously injured people. “The trip to the Ukraine was full of important impressions and information,” said Lauterbach in conclusion.
11:29 a.m .: Kyiv is upset after the US President’s criticism
The political leadership in Kyiv reacted angrily to statements by US President Joe Biden that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not take the threat posed by Russia seriously enough before the war began. At a fundraiser event Friday night in Los Angeles, Biden said there was evidence before February 24 that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin was planning to invade Ukraine. Then he added: “There was no doubt. And Zelenskyy didn’t want to hear it – a lot of people didn’t want it.”
“The phrase ‘didn’t want to hear’ certainly needs some explanation,” Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov said on Saturday. Selenskyj has repeatedly called on international partners to impose preventive sanctions in order to force Russia to withdraw troops that were already stationed in the border region with Ukraine, Nykyforov told the online newspaper Liga.net. “And here you can say that our partners “didn’t want to hear us,”” he said.
11.05 a.m .: Around ten thousand German visas have been issued to Russians since the beginning of the war
Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, around ten thousand Russians have received visas for Germany. From the beginning of March to the end of May, around 3,560 corresponding Schengen visas were issued, the Foreign Office told the “Welt am Sonntag”. In addition, there are 5,530 national visas that allow longer stays.
Since May 18, 43 Russian nationals have also been promised admission for humanitarian reasons, the Federal Ministry of the Interior told the newspaper. From the beginning of the war up to this point there had been four. In May, the federal government agreed internally on facilitating the admission of Kremlin critics from Russia who are particularly at risk.
10.45 a.m .: Ursula von der Leyen to talks about EU membership application in Kyiv
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv on Saturday to hold talks on Ukraine’s EU membership application. Among other things, the top German politician wanted to discuss open points in the application for admission with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The European Commission is expected to publish its assessment next Friday on whether Ukraine should be granted candidate status for EU membership. The decision on whether Ukraine will be granted candidate status lies with the EU states and must be taken unanimously.
Ukraine’s expectations of rapprochement with the EU are huge. The President of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefantschuk, recently made it clear in the European Parliament that the morale of the Ukrainian people is also at stake: “We need this incentive, we need this accession candidate status. The Ukrainian people need to hear that from Europe,” he said. President Zelenskyy keeps pushing and recently said that the EU could take a historic step and prove that words about the Ukrainian people’s belonging to the European family are not just empty words.
Within the EU, however, this question is highly explosive – it is a challenge for the EU Commission to take the interests of all countries into account when making its recommendation. States such as Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Italy and Ireland, are strongly in favor of making Ukraine a candidate for the EU as quickly as possible. There has recently been little open rejection of such a path, but some states are at least skeptical. These include France and the Netherlands. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has not yet taken a clear position, but he has emphasized that he will not accept any special rules for Ukraine’s accelerated EU accession.
9.47 a.m .: Allegedly more than 800,000 new Russians in the Donbass in recent years
According to the Russian news agency Tass, more than 800,000 people have received Russian citizenship in the past three years in the separatist areas of eastern Ukraine. Just under one percent of the applications from residents of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk were rejected, Tass reported on Saturday, citing the Ministry of the Interior in Moscow. In April 2019, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin issued a decree that made it easier for Ukrainians in Donbass to become Russian citizens.
According to critics, the many new Russians serve as a tool for the Kremlin to expand its influence in eastern Ukraine. Russian passports are also to be distributed in areas that Russian troops have occupied since the war began at the end of February this year. In this way, the Cherson and Zaporizhia regions, for example, are to be tied more closely to Moscow. The Russian ruble is also to be introduced there as a means of payment.
9.40 a.m.: Fierce fighting for the Ukrainian city of Sieverodonetsk
According to the British government, Ukrainians and Russians are fighting violently in the streets around the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievjerodonetsk. Both sides are likely to suffer a high number of casualties, the British Ministry of Defense wrote on Saturday in its regular intelligence update on the situation in the Ukraine war.
The strategically important industrial city of Sieverodonetsk is the last major city in the Luhansk region that is not yet fully under Russian and pro-Russian control. They have been fighting for weeks.
The British also reported that the Russian air force had been using dozens of old, imprecise anti-ship missiles against land targets since April due to a lack of modern weapons. The Kh-22 missiles date back to the 1960s and were actually designed to destroy aircraft carriers with a nuclear warhead.
If they are instead used in a ground attack with a conventional warhead, they are very inaccurate and could cause significant collateral damage and civilian casualties, the update said. Russia is probably using these inefficient weapon systems because the armed forces lack more modern and accurate weapons.
8.50 a.m .: Biden criticizes Selenskyj
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ignored warnings of a Russian invasion shortly before the start of the war, according to US President Joe Biden. There was “no doubt” that Russia would “cross the border,” Biden said at an event in Los Angeles on Friday. “Zelenskyj didn’t want to hear that, and neither did many others.”
“I know a lot of people thought I was exaggerating,” he said, referring to US warnings of a possible Russian attack. However, the US government had data to support its assessment.
2.45 a.m .: Zelenskyj: Russia wants to destroy “every city” in Donbass in eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of wanting to destroy “every city” in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. “Russia wants to devastate every city in Donbass, every single one, without exaggeration. Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol,” said Zelenskyy in his video address on Friday evening, referring to two war-torn cities in southern Donbass. However, the Ukrainian military is doing everything “to stop the attacks of the occupiers”.
Fierce fighting continued on Friday, particularly in eastern Donbass, particularly in the embattled city of Sievarodonetsk in the Luhansk region. According to Governor Serhiy Hajday, the Russians destroyed an important sports hall in the city on Friday: “One of the landmarks of Sieverodonetsk was destroyed. The Ice Palace burned down,” he explained.
