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Ukrainian soldier at the site of a destroyed farm in south-eastern Ukraine (May 20, 2022)
Photo: - / dpa
What has happened in the past few hours
On Sunday night, the
Ukrainian military
reported
ongoing fighting in the
Donetsk
and
Luhansk
regions
in the east of the country.
Nine attacks by Russian troops were repelled there on Saturday.
The Ukrainian army said five tanks, four artillery systems and one drone were destroyed during the day.
According to the situation report, Russia is deploying combat aircraft, rocket launchers and tanks along the entire front.
In the
Zaporizhia
region in southern Ukraine, the local administration says it has observed increasing numbers of
Russian drone
flights .
The Russian military has increased aerial reconnaissance, it said.
In addition, columns of military vehicles were sighted.
Zaporizhia is northwest of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which has since been occupied by Russia, on the Sea of Azov.
That says Kyiv
"The situation in
Donbass
is extremely difficult," said
Zelenskyj
in a video message on Sunday night.
The Russian army is trying to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Sievjerodonetsk in the east of the country.
"The forces of Ukraine are holding back this offensive."
Selenskyj insists on further punitive measures by the West against Russia.
The
sixth package of sanctions
by the European states must be accelerated, said the head of state in a video message that was published on Sunday night.
He recently spoke to Italy's Prime Minister
Mario Draghi
about this .
Many Western countries have already imposed unprecedented punitive measures against Russia.
Moscow says so
Prominent Russian foreign
policymaker Leonid Slutsky
did not rule out an
exchange
of Ukrainian fighters captured in Mariupol for pro-Russian politician
Viktor Medvedchuk
.
"We will examine the possibility of replacing Medvedchuk with the Azov fighters," Slutsky said, according to the Interfax agency.
He later explained in his blog on the Telegram news channel that the fighters would have to be brought to justice in any case.
There is no way around a
tribunal
, he stressed.
Competent people would have to decide whether Medvedchuk should be replaced.
According to Russian sources, more than 2,400 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered in Mariupol in the past few days.
For weeks they had holed up in the bunkers of the Azov steelworks and defended the port city against the Russian occupiers.
According to the
pro-Russian separatists
, among the fighters captured at the steel plant are 78 women.
According to the Russian state agency TASS, the head of the Donetsk separatists, Denis Puschilin, said on Saturday evening that
foreigners had also been taken into Russian captivity
.
He didn't give a number.
In addition to his compatriots, Zelenskyi had also called on foreigners to fight against Russia.
International Reactions
The long-standing German ambassador to Russia,
Rüdiger von Fritsch
, accuses Moscow of using
refugee movements
as a means of
warfare
.
"Vladimir Putin is specifically trying to create hunger crises in the Middle East and North Africa," said von Fritsch in the Berlin "Tagesspiegel" (Sunday edition).
That is why Russia is preventing Ukraine from exporting grain and even bombing grain silos.
"Putin's calculus is that after the collapse of grain supplies, the starving people will flee these regions and try to get to Europe," said von Fritsch.
Putin wants to
destabilize
Europe
in this way
.
What is happening today
Chancellor
Olaf Scholz
(SPD) is setting off on his first
trip to Africa
since taking office almost six months ago.
He also wants to talk about the effects of the Ukraine war on the continent.
Africa is affected, among other things, by the sharp rise in grain prices in the course of the war, which has triggered a food crisis.
Scholz will first visit Senegal, Niger and South Africa.
Meanwhile, Polish President
Andrzej
Duda
returned to the capital
Kiev
to support Ukraine .
The Polish presidential administration in Warsaw announced that on Sunday he would be the first head of state to give a
speech in the Rada
, the Ukrainian parliament, since the war began three months ago.
Duda is committed to ensuring that Ukraine is granted EU candidate status as quickly as possible.
After a break of more than two years due to the pandemic , the
World Economic Forum
(WEF) will take place again in
Davos
, Switzerland , starting on Sunday .
The agenda of the meeting of the global political and business elite is dominated by the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
A speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy
via
video
link is planned for Monday morning.
jpz/dpa/AFP
