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Destroyed building in Kharkiv
Photo: - / dpa
What has happened in the past few hours
According to Governor Serhiy Hajday, the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk is not yet fully controlled by the Russian army.
The fighting continued in the outskirts, he said via the Telegram news service.
The Russian military is suffering casualties.
The Ukrainian army only withdrew from those positions that could not be held.
Hajdaj accused the attackers of leaving scorched earth in the region.
He assumes that the Russian army wants to launch an offensive from Luhansk against the towns of Bakhmut and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.
Against this background, the authorities in the Donetsk region are calling on the civilian population to flee.
"Russia has turned the entire Donetsk region into a dangerous hotspot, including for civilians," Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Lyakh announced that civilians would be taken to the west of the country by bus and train.
"Don't take any chances!
Pack up!” A total of 17 people have been killed and 67 others injured since the fighting began in Sloviansk.
Meanwhile, both warring parties blamed each other for the dead and injured in new attacks.
The pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region accused the Ukrainian army of shelling killing six people, including three children.
19 people were injured.
The information could not be independently verified.
That says Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed western arms supplies for the Ukrainian army as enormous support in the war against Russia.
For example, the artillery that Ukraine has received from its partners is very accurate, he said in a video message on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian army is destroying depots and other targets that are important for Russian logistics.
“And that significantly reduces the offensive potential of the Russian army.
The casualties of the occupiers will increase every week,” Zelenskyy said.
On Wednesday, the pedagogical university in Kharkiv, the second largest city, was destroyed by a Russian missile attack.
“That characterizes the Russian invasion with 100 percent accuracy.
If you define what barbarism is, this blow is the most appropriate,” Zelenskyy said.
Only an "enemy of civilization and humanity" could fire rockets at a teacher training college.
Zelenskyy asserted that no occupier would be left in peace.
“Every Russian murderer and rapist who has entered our country will be held accountable.
And it doesn't matter how long it takes to complete this task."
International reactions
The
Bundestag Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl
, would like the Bundeswehr to repair more weapons themselves.
"We should make more use of the skills of our troops, who want to repair their devices themselves," said the SPD politician in an interview with "t-online.de".
"We're at a high level there, so we should draw more on our own abilities."
So far, according to the portal, the army has only been allowed to repair almost half of the approximately 50 main weapon systems itself for legal reasons.
Högl now also referred to the speed factor: "With the war in Ukraine, we can see that things sometimes have to happen quickly: For example, if our soldiers are transferred to the eastern flank so that they can support NATO partners in the east."
Serhij Zhadan, winner of the Ukrainian Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
, condemns the call by prominent Germans for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
The biggest fallacy of the people demanding this is to believe that the Russians want to negotiate.
The 47-year-old wrote this in an article for the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit".
It also says: »We cannot give up our resistance, because otherwise we will be destroyed.
We must demand weapons from the West, otherwise we will be destroyed.«
Last week, German celebrities such as Juli Zeh and Richard David Precht called on politicians in another open letter to end the war in Ukraine through negotiations.
This appeal was also published in Die Zeit.
To which Zhadan now replied: “By clinging to a misconceived pacifism – which reeks of cynical indifference – the authors legitimize the Putinian propaganda narratives that say Ukraine has no right to liberty, no right to existence, no right voice of his own because her voice might irritate the great and terrible Putin.«
What is happening today
In order to save gas in view of the throttling of Russian supplies, less gas is to be used for electricity production - instead more coal-fired power plants are to be used again.
The Bundestag is expected to vote on the relevant changes to the law late Thursday evening.
In the future, coal-fired power plants are to be used that are currently only available to a limited extent, will soon be shut down or are in reserve.
The changes should then pass the Federal Council on Friday.
A meeting of G20 foreign ministers will begin on Thursday evening (local time) on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Before leaving, the German head of department, Annalena Baerbock, campaigned for a joint response to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
»We all have an interest in international law being observed and respected.
That's the common denominator,' she said before she left.
"And it's also why we won't just let Russia take the stage at the meeting."
aar/dpa/Reuters