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Separatist fighters in Luhansk (May 14, 2022): Allegedly thousands of prisoners of war
Photo: Alexander Reka / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
Russia's oil production is shrinking
8:30 a.m .:
According to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Nowak, Russia’s oil production will shrink by up to 8.4 percent this year.
After 524 million tons last year, there are likely to be 480 to 500 million tons in 2022, said Nowak in Tehran, according to the Russian state news agency RIA.
The prognosis can change depending on the situation.
In its base scenario, the Ministry of Economic Affairs expects a decline of 9.3 percent to around 475 million tons.
"I think the drop will be much smaller," Nowak said.
Separatists demand acceleration of attack
8:15 a.m .:
The leader of the pro-Russian separatist region of Donetsk, Denis Puschilin, calls for the Russian military operation in Donbass to be accelerated.
According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the Ukrainian government has blocked the water supply to important cities in the north of the region.
Therefore, the deployment of Russian troops must be promoted.
Separatists speak of thousands of prisoners
7:45 a.m .:
According to a report by the Russian news agency Tass, around 8,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war are being held in the Russian-backed separatist areas of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
"There are many prisoners," Tass quotes the representative of the self-proclaimed and internationally unrecognized "Luhansk People's Republic," Rodion Miroshnik: "Now the total number is somewhere in the order of 8,000. That's a lot, and literally hundreds are added every day. «
Zelenskyy: Russian troops "significantly superior" to defenders in eastern Ukraine
06:26:
According to Ukrainian information, the Russian army is trying at all costs to take the strategically important city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine.
In his speech on Thursday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admitted that "the enemy was clearly superior in terms of equipment and the number of soldiers" in the front section.
However, their own armed forces withstood the “extremely violent offensive”.
Russian troops have already advanced to the suburbs of the industrial city.
However, Governor Serhiy Gajdaj rejected statements by pro-Russian fighters that Severodonetsk was surrounded.
About 15,000 people are still in the city and in the surrounding villages.
Gajdaj stressed that despite the ongoing attacks, the overwhelming majority of them did not want to leave the city.
These are mainly older people who are looking for protection from the constant shelling in cellars.
Strack-Zimmermann: Inventory for ring exchange of weapons necessary
5:31 a.m .:
The chair of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, wants to take stock of the so-called ring exchange to support Ukraine with weapons.
The FDP politician told the German Press Agency that clear arrangements for replacements would have to be made with partner countries that gave Ukraine weapons from Soviet production.
"It must not be that at the end of the war the world perceives Germany as a complete brakeman and loser just because we are not able to organize and communicate," said Strack-Zimmermann.
Germany had organized humanitarian aid and delivered high-value military material and weapons.
“The chancellor holds the reins and can make the puppets dance accordingly.
I'm trying to understand why he doesn't do that.
Out of conviction, or because of his party?" Strack-Zimmermann said about Olaf Scholz (SPD): "And the Federal Minister of Defense is just loyal to him.
But it's also their job to clear up the mess.«
Ukraine reports shelling of more than 40 cities
4:21 a.m .:
According to the Ukrainian military, the Russian armed forces are pushing ahead with their major offensive in Donbass.
»The occupiers shelled more than 40 towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and destroyed or damaged 47 civilian facilities, including 38 houses and a school.
As a result of this shelling, five civilians died and 12 were wounded,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Facebook.
The Ukrainian army repelled ten enemy attacks, destroyed four tanks and four drones and killed 62 "enemy soldiers".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops "greatly outnumbered" them in some parts of the east.
The reports of the fighting cannot be independently verified.
Deutsche Bahn wants to provide Ukraine with more support for grain exports
12:02 a.m .:
Deutsche Bahn wants to support Ukraine more with grain exports.
"In view of the impending famine in parts of the world and the enormous need to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to the world, we as DB Cargo will organize further orders and train journeys in coordination with the federal government," said DB Cargo boss Sigrid Nikutta the editorial network Germany.
DB Cargo, with its subsidiaries in Poland and Romania, currently runs several trains a day with grain to various seaports.
"Now it's a question of expanding these agricultural exports," says Nikutta: "The aim is to have viable connections to the seaports of the North Sea and the Black and Mediterranean Seas." Because of the blockade of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports by Russia, Ukraine is urgently dependent on alternative export routes, to export grain abroad.
ptz/dpa/Reuters/AFP
