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Joe Biden: Clear words towards Moscow
Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
This article will be continuously updated.
Further air raids on Mariupol
6:28 a.m .:
The Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which has been fought over for weeks, was again the target of Russian air raids on Wednesday night, according to Kiev.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russian troops also attacked the city's port and the Azovstal Steel Plant.
Ukrainian soldiers have entrenched themselves in the sprawling industrial complex.
The city of Kharkov in the east of the country had been shelled by Russian artillery, it said.
The details of the fighting were not independently verifiable.
However, the Ukrainian morning report indicated that the military situation had not changed much.
A large-scale Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine is expected in the coming days or weeks.
According to a media report, 150,000 empty freight cars are clogging the tracks in Russia
6:52 a.m .:
In Russia, 150,000 freight cars are unused due to international economic sanctions.
This is based on information from the Ministry of Transport in Moscow, the agency Tass reported on Wednesday.
As a result of the sanctions, the transport flows have changed, and the unused fleet of vehicles is growing, the reason given.
“That has a negative effect on train operations and makes it difficult for the loaded trains to move.”
Chemical Weapons Agency concerned by reports from Mariupol
04:32:
In view of Russia's war against Ukraine, the chemical weapons control agency OPCW has expressed concern about reports of the possible use of chemical weapons in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
All 193 member states of the OPCW, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine, have pledged "never to develop, produce, acquire ... or use chemical weapons," according to a statement by the control authority in The Hague on Tuesday.
The use of chemical weapons is reprehensible and contradicts “the legal norms of the international community”.
The OPCW technical secretariat has been in contact with the parties concerned since the conflict began.
The secretariat had heard about threats to use toxic chemicals from both the Russian and Ukrainian sides.
US President Biden accuses Putin of genocide in Ukraine
2:15 a.m .:
US President Joe Biden has clearly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “genocide” in view of the atrocities in Ukraine.
"I called it genocide because it's becoming clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to erase the idea of being Ukrainian at all," Biden said on Tuesday (local time) during a visit to the US state of Iowa.
In the afternoon, Biden had already spoken of genocide in connection with the Ukraine war – albeit less clearly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Biden's words: "Calling things by their proper name is important if you want to stand up to evil," he wrote on Twitter.
Read more here.
SPD politician Roth on the prevented Steinmeier trip: "I am very disappointed with this rejection"
12:10 a.m .:
The Federal President is not welcome in Ukraine, but three German MPs at the traffic light are.
Here the SPD politician Michael Roth talks about a trip with sensitive news and great expectations.
Read the interview here.
bbr/dop/dpa/AFP/AP/Reuters