Ukraine news on Saturday: the government in Kyiv does not want to negotiate again with Russia until August

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Destroyed Russian military equipment in Kyiv: Ukraine wants to achieve a better negotiating position and then negotiate with Moscow

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Kay Nietfeld / dpa

This article will be continuously updated.

Ukraine

wants to start negotiations with Russia again in August

9:11 a.m .:

The Ukrainian chief negotiator David Arachamija wants to resume peace negotiations with Moscow at the end of August after counterattacks have been carried out.

By the end of August, Ukraine will have a better negotiating position, he said in an interview with Voice of America published on Saturday.

"I think we're going to conduct an operation with counterattacks in different places," Arachamija said without giving details.

Negotiations for a peace settlement began shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine.

At the end of March, during the talks in Istanbul, Kyiv proposed, among other things, that it not join NATO if the country would receive international security guarantees in return.

However, Russia is also demanding demilitarization and the cession of territory.

In addition to Crimea, which has been annexed since 2014, this also applies to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The talks later came to a standstill.

Russia wants to advance further into the Donetsk region

7:55 a.m .:

According to British information, the Russian military has apparently tried again in the past 48 hours to advance south of the city of Isium in eastern Ukraine.

The aim of the Russian army is to advance further into the Donetsk region and encircle the embattled city of Sievjerodonetsk from the north, the Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter, citing British military intelligence.

BKA has several hundred tips on war crimes

7 a.m.:

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has a “three-digit number of indications” of war crimes by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, as BKA President Holger Münch told the “Welt am Sonntag”.

Not only the perpetrators of war crimes are being investigated, but also those responsible militarily and politically.

"Our clear goal is to identify those responsible for the atrocities, to prove their actions through our investigations and to bring them before a court." The BKA follows all leads, looks for whistleblowers and collects evidence.

“We are preparing in Germany for possible charges against people who are suspected of being responsible for war crimes in Ukraine,” says Münch.

According to the principle of universal jurisdiction, war criminals can also be tried in Germany.

Ukraine

reports sinking of a Russian tugboat

6:50 a.m .:

The tugboat of the Russian Black Sea Fleet hit by Ukrainian rockets has sunk, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The tug "Vasily Bech" was damaged by Ukrainian missiles in the morning.

"Later it became known that he had sunk," Odessa's military governor, Maxim Marchenko, said in a video speech on his Telegram channel on Thursday evening.

There is no confirmation from Russian or independent sources for the sinking.

The Ukrainian Navy had already reported the shelling on Thursday.

The ship, which was commissioned in 2017 and equipped with a Tor air defense system, was hit by Harpoon missiles and badly damaged.

Denmark delivered the anti-ship missiles to Ukraine.

The smuggler was therefore with military equipment on the way to the strategically important "snake island", which has been occupied by Russian troops since the end of February.

The "Vasily Bech" would not be the first ship that the Russian Black Sea Fleet lost in the war against Ukraine.

The loss of the landing ship Saratov and the missile cruiser Moskva was confirmed by the Russian side.

Zelenskyj on Ukraine's possible EU membership: "It's not only positive for us"

6:30 a.m .:

In the debate about Ukraine’s suitability for Europe, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized the value of his country for the European Union.

"Our rapprochement with the European Union is not only positive for us," he said in his video address on Friday evening in Kyiv.

»This is the greatest contribution to the future of Europe in many years.«

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was confident that the EU members would find a common position on Ukraine's application for membership.

On Friday, the EU Commission recommended that Ukraine and Moldova be classified as candidate countries.

During Scholz's visit to Kyiv the day before, Ukraine had received support from Germany, France, Italy and Romania.

An EU summit next week, at which unanimity is required, is decisive for recognition as a candidate for accession.

Russian media

parade US soldiers captured in

Ukraine

6:21 a.m .:

The Russian state broadcaster RT has published videos of two US citizens missing in Ukraine.

RT journalist Roman Kosarev published a video on Friday evening in the Telegram messenger service, in which former US soldier Alexander Drueke addressed his mother.

RT's official Telegram channel also published a video interview with US veteran Andy Huynh, who said he and Drueke were "involved in battles with Russian troops" in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.

Drueke and Huynh are said to have fought alongside the Ukrainian army as volunteers.

Huynh said in the video released by RT that he and Drueke retreated during the skirmishes in the Kharkov region and hid for several hours before finally surrendering to the Russian army.

It was initially unclear who was holding the two men.

Read the whole message here.

Poland calls for more sanctions against Russia

5:12 a.m .:

Poland is pushing for a further tightening of punitive measures against Russia.

“It's about expanding the sanctions.

From our point of view, a seventh package of sanctions must be launched as soon as possible," Lukasz Jasina, spokesman for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told "Welt am Sonntag".

Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told the newspaper about the content of a possible seventh sanctions package: "We want to completely prevent European technology exports to Russia." In addition, more action must be taken against Russian banks and against Russian propaganda and disinformation channels.

Barley warns of Ukraine's 'hasty accession'

2.45 a.m .:

After the EU Commission’s recommendation to officially appoint Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for EU membership, Deputy President of the EU Parliament Katarina Barley warns against cutting back on the admission criteria.

»There must be no hasty accessions.

Anyone who is once in the EU cannot be excluded,” said the SPD politician to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.

You can currently see that in Hungary, which is systematically undermining the rule of law.

"It is all the more important that the criteria laid down for accession, such as institutional stability, a functioning market economy and the rule of law, are fully met." You can read the full report here.

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