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woman in the city of Mariupol, which has been fought over for months
Photo:
ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is coming under increasing pressure over the issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine, especially since other heads of government are making on-site visits and some are providing extensive military and financial aid.
First and foremost the United States.
Meanwhile, Russian troops are advancing further into the country, they have taken several cities and, for example, taken Kharkiv under "angry fire," as the mayor put it.
The number of people in the country who are leaving their homes to seek safety is also increasing.
Millions are on the run, others are stuck, for example in the Mariupol steelworks.
The developments at a glance.
The military situation
After almost two months of fighting, the strategically important port city of Mariupol has been taken, Russia claims.
However, many Ukrainian fighters and civilians are still trapped in a steel plant in the city.
However, this should no longer be stormed, but sealed off, says President Vladimir Putin.
"Block this industrial zone so that not even a fly can come out."
The Ukrainian fighters should lay down their arms and they would escape with their lives.
The city's mayor, Vadym Boychenko, however, contradicted the Russian claim: "The city is and will remain Ukrainian." Fighters would continue to hold positions in the city.
Watch his press statement in the video here.
The south-eastern Ukrainian port city was surrounded by Russian troops shortly after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine that began on February 24.
Before the war, Mariupol had more than 400,000 inhabitants, about 100,000 are still in the city.
Several attempts at an orderly evacuation of civilians have failed.
Russian forces say they also took the small town of Kreminna in eastern Ukraine, which the Ukrainian army had previously turned into a fortification.
Overall, Russian troops are advancing in Ukraine, but the feared major offensive in the east of the country may still be imminent.
The Russians have been attacking along the entire front in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions since Tuesday, Secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council Oleksiy Danilov said in a radio interview.
However, these are probably just “test attacks”.
According to Ukrainian sources, most of Luhansk is already under Russian control.
The humanitarian situation
"Highly dramatic and hard to bear," is how Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the situation for the people of Mariupol on Thursday.
It illustrates "the brutality with which the Russian government is waging this war."
Baerbock accused Russia of “bleeding out, starving” the city.
She urged to allow evacuation of people lacking water, food and essential medicines.
The Ukrainian government demanded a humanitarian corridor from Russia for the steelworks near the city.
“There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there right now.
They must all be taken out of Azovstal today!” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on the Telegram news channel.
At least three buses with people from Mariupol are said to have made it to Zaporizhia on Thursday, according to the AFP news agency.
The image below shows some hugging each other in relief.
Overall, more than a quarter of the roughly 44 million residents of Ukraine have fled their homes since the start of the Russian invasion - or lost them.
You are on the run from bombs and destruction.
More than five million people have fled to safety in neighboring countries since Putin's war of aggression began.
According to new figures from the United Nations Organization for Migration, 7.7 million are fleeing within their own country.
According to the information, this corresponds to around 17 percent of the population before the start of the war.
That's what Kyiv says: "We need appropriate weapons"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not believe that the port city of Mariupol, which is now under Russian control, is completely lost.
"The situation is difficult, the situation is bad," the head of state said in Kyiv on Thursday, according to journalists from local media.
There are several ways to liberate the city, namely "a military way for which you have to prepare, and we are preparing," Zelenskyy said.
According to the President, this requires the help of Western partners.
"It's difficult for ourselves, we need weapons, but let's think about it," he said.
Another way is a diplomatic, humanitarian one.
Kyiv has already suggested several options to Moscow, including an exchange of "wounded for wounded."
“There are over 400 wounded in that citadel.
It's just the soldiers.” There are also injured civilians.
"We have decisive days ahead of us," emphasized the head of government, "the decisive battle for our state, for our country, for the Ukrainian Donbass."
This is how foreign countries act: extensive military and financial aid
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made a solidarity visit to Ukraine on Thursday.
You expressed shock after a visit to the Kiev suburb of Borodyanka.
“It is heartbreaking to see the horrors and atrocities of Putin's war on the streets of Borodyanka.
We will not leave the Ukrainian people alone," Sánchez wrote on Twitter.
According to Ukrainian sources, two more mass graves had just been discovered in Borodyanka.
Some of the bodies showed signs of torture.
These crimes should not go unpunished, stressed Sánchez and Frederiksen.
Frederiksen spoke to Danish reporters about war crimes that needed to be documented.
"These are also very, very brutal attacks against a civilian population that has done nothing to anyone and only wants to lead a peaceful life like the rest of us do."
According to Sánchez, a Spanish ship with 200 tons of ammunition and other equipment for Ukraine is bound for Poland.
Since the beginning of the war, his country has already sent eleven transport planes with military goods to Ukraine.
Frederiksen said Denmark is donating more arms and military equipment to Ukraine worth around 80 million euros.
She left it open which weapons it was.
US President Joe Biden announced that the United States intends to supply Ukraine with additional arms and ammunition worth up to $800 million.
The support will be sent “directly to the front lines of freedom”.
In addition, another 500 million dollars, the equivalent of around 460 million euros, should flow in economic aid.
Just last week, the US government announced an $800 million military aid package.
With the new commitment, the USA has already promised or already delivered arms worth more than 3.3 billion US dollars to Ukraine since the start of the Russian war of aggression at the end of February.
Biden said the new package should help fend off Russia's major offensive in eastern Ukraine.
With a view to the feared Russian offensive in the Donbass, Biden spoke of a "critical time window" in which the "course for the next phase of this war" would be set.
For the detailed report, please click here.
Germany under pressure:
The more explosive the military situation in Ukraine, the greater the pressure on the German government, both at home and abroad: Chancellor Olaf Scholz in particular has been accused of overly hesitant action.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he would make it clear to Scholz that this was a turning point in the history of Europe and the world.
The Ukrainians needed something to defend themselves with.
»Here the ambiguous attitude of Germany is certainly not helpful.«
Scholz said this week that Germany is now reaching its limits when it comes to supplying weapons from its own stocks.
The ability to defend one's own country against a Russian attack must be guaranteed.
However, Ukraine is demanding weapons such as air defense systems, battle tanks and armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery from the federal government in order to be able to withstand the expected Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Berlin is now preparing a first ring exchange for the delivery of heavy weapons: NATO partner Slovenia is apparently supposed to hand over a large number of its old battle tanks to Ukraine and receive the Marder infantry fighting vehicle and the Fuchs wheeled armored vehicle from Germany in return.
The idea: the Ukrainian armed forces can handle the aging weapons without special training.
So they can be used faster.
Read details here.
It is now also known for the first time which military assets Germany has already delivered to Ukraine.
The Defense Committee in the Bundestag invited Scholz to its next meeting on Thursday.
"The question of what contribution Germany and in particular the Bundeswehr can actually make in relation to arms deliveries is existential for the people in Ukraine," wrote committee chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) in a letter to Scholz.
"The drama of the war in Ukraine is increasing day by day."
You should read this:
Germany's Ukraine policy has been greeted with astonishment at home and abroad.
Particularly under pressure: Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
SPIEGEL columnist Sabine Rennefanz criticizes that he remains true to his style: tactics carefully, say nothing concrete and just don't risk trouble.
This method came to an end during the war.
SPIEGEL editors Martin Hesse and Gerald Traufetter state that Russia's attack on Ukraine has given the armaments industry an unexpected boost in sympathy.
But this is on the verge of wasting a historic opportunity.
How is Russia's attack on Ukraine different from previous wars?
SPIEGEL editor Danny Kringiel spoke to military historian Sönke Neitzel about the Butscha massacre and a new Cold War.
You can find the interview worth reading here.
And for those who would rather listen than read: In the podcast "Time loop instead of a turning point?" SPIEGEL editors Olaf Heuser and Maximilian Popp analyze the behavior of the German government during the Ukraine war.