Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are currently unthinkable.
Poland and the Baltic States are increasing the pressure on Russia's elite.
The war diplomacy in the news ticker.
Tanks
to
Ukraine
?
Baerbock rows back on "Anne Will".
Zelenskyj's advisor
gives three reasons why meetings with
Putin
would be pointless: Kiev currently rejects any talks between Ukraine and Russia.
Germany
and the
Ukraine War
: Federal government allows Kiev to buy howitzers
This
news ticker on international diplomacy in the Ukraine war
is constantly updated.
You can read more about the background to the conflict here.
Update from September 19, 12:13 p.m
.: Moscow has now rejected the Ukrainian allegations of a mass grave and 440 other graves near Isjum.
"These are lies.
We will of course defend the truth in this story," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Since the beginning of the Russian intervention in Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly denied having committed atrocities there - such as in Bucha.
"It's the same scenario as in Bucha," Peskov claimed.
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Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov (archive image)
© IMAGO/Alexander Ryumin
Tanks to Ukraine?
Baerbock rows back on "Anne Will".
Update from September 19, 8:46 a.m
.: In the ARD program “Anne Will”, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) confirmed that further arms deliveries to Ukraine can only be discussed together.
On the question of tank deliveries, she therefore spoke out in favor of further ring exchanges.
"Not every country, and certainly not the Bundeswehr, can deliver everything that Ukraine needs," said Baerbock.
Among other things, it is better to deliver tanks of Soviet design because you can already see that equipment of other designs breaks down more quickly in action, despite the training of the soldiers, because they have to be operated completely differently in action.
“It depends on every week.
Every week under Russian occupation means more suffering, more mass graves,” was her impression after her recent visit to Kyiv.
Nevertheless, it is important to keep a "cool head" from an international point of view, even if "your heart bleeds" sometimes.
Baerbock is in favor of delivering everything that makes a difference.
German tanks alone could not necessarily do this, but only an international vote.
Talks are being held non-stop, but there are still no clear statements from international partners, says Baerbock.
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Foreign Minister Baerbock visits a mine clearance project funded by Germany near Kyiv.
The car in the background has been destroyed by a mine.
© Michael Fischer/dpa
Russia: Prime Minister Weil - "Nord Stream 2 will never go into operation"
Update from September 18, 8:30 a.m.:
According to Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil, gas will never flow from Russia to Germany through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline – not even after the end of President Vladimir Putin’s era.
"The loss of trust is so fundamental that there will never again be a situation in which a German federal government can rely on energy from Russia," the SPD politician told the dpa.
He is very sure: "Nord Stream 2 will never go into operation."
Weil said there would be no more energy partnership with Russia.
"The Russians burned all bridges long ago, by destroying the most important asset in a partnership: trust."
“This cooperation is irretrievably destroyed.
And the West will recover faster than Russia.”
Visits to Ukraine during the war - Politics shows solidarity
Visits to Ukraine during the war - Politics shows solidarity
Entry-Aus for Russians in the Baltic States and Poland - new visa regulations from Monday morning
Update from September 18, 6:31 a.m
.: The entry of Russian citizens into the Baltic States and Poland from Monday: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Poland keep the borders for people from Russia with a Schengen visa for tourist stays, business trips , sports and cultural events closed.
There are only a few exceptions, for example for Russians with a place of residence, a right of residence or relatives, as well as for humanitarian reasons.
Dissidents should also be allowed to continue entering the country.
In response to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the governments of the Baltic states and Poland had already largely suspended the issuing of visas and residence permits to Russians.
With a valid visa, however, it was still possible to enter the Schengen area across the borders of the four countries.
This is no longer possible in the future.
Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called on other countries to join the EU's controversial entry ban.
"We should use every tool in the toolbox to get Russia to end this war," she said on Saturday.
“Only 30 percent of Russian citizens have international passports and they come from the Russian elite.
That means they also have the opportunity to pressure the Kremlin to make other decisions if they feel this war is affecting their daily lives.”
Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia
Ukraine-News: Zelenskyj wants to liberate all of Ukraine
Update from September 18, 10:45 p.m .:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has announced new attacks on the territory occupied by Russian troops in Ukraine.
"Perhaps it seems to some of you that after a series of victories there has been silence, but it is not silence," Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Sunday.
Rather, it is the preparation for the next offensive, the aim of which is to recapture Mariupol, Melitopol and Cherson in the south of the country.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine will not only focus on the areas it controlled before the Russian attack in February.
The 44-year-old announced that the territories of the Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country and cities in Crimea, which had been annexed by Russia since 2014, would also be recaptured.
"Because all of Ukraine must be free."
Zelenskyj's advisor gives three reasons why meetings with Putin would be pointless
Update from September 18, 6:45 p.m .:
The Ukrainian government in Kiev currently sees no basis for a meeting between the two heads of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
"In short, the negotiation process itself and a face-to-face meeting between the presidents doesn't make sense right now," external adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podoliak, said on Sunday, according to Ukrainian media.
Podoljak gave three reasons why talks are pointless at this stage.
First, Russia will try to record and legitimize land gains.
Second, maintaining the status quo is only serving Russia as a breathing space so that it can then continue the attacks on the new line.
And third, Russia must be held accountable for crimes committed on Ukrainian territory.
Negotiations are therefore only possible once the Russian troops have withdrawn from Ukrainian territory.
Then the level of reparation payments and the handing over of war criminals could be negotiated, Podoljak said.
War in Ukraine: successes of the counter-offensive by Western military aid
Update from September 18, 12:28 p.m
.: NATO estimates that Ukraine’s successes in its counter-offensive are largely due to Western military aid.
"The munitions, equipment and training that allies and other nations are providing make a real difference on the battlefield," NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer said yesterday.
The NATO Military Committee advises the North Atlantic Council, NATO's highest political body, on military issues.
The defense chiefs of Finland and Sweden attended the conference as guests for the first time.
Sweden and Finland had applied to join the defense alliance after Russia attacked Ukraine.
Germany and the Ukraine War: German government allows Kyiv to buy howitzers
Update from September 18, 6:42 a.m
.: The federal government has allowed Ukraine to buy German-made howitzers.
"We can confirm that a license has been granted to export 18 RCH-155 howitzers," a government spokesman said on Saturday.
However, the delivery of the industry or the necessary financial resources for the upgrading aid still require the approval of the German Bundestag.
"Appropriate applications are being processed".
According to information from
Welt am Sonntag
, these are RCH-155 howitzers that Kiev has ordered from the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) armaments company.
Their total value is therefore 216 million euros.
The big but: The first copies of the RCH-155 would be ready for delivery after 30 months at the earliest, the newspaper reported.
KMW therefore only wants to start production when there is a clear signal from the federal government that the weapons can be exported to Ukraine.
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The Panzerhaubitze 2000. The RCH-155 model also has a 155mm barreled weapon.
© Andreas Beil/Imago
Update from September 17, 7:05 p.m
.: Vladimir Putin is currently ensnaring Turkey around Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan (see first report).
The attempts to flirt from Russia now seem to be answered.
NATO member Turkey wants to join the Shanghai group around Russia and China.
Erdogan told Turkey's state-run Anadolu News Agency that Turkey intends to discuss the goal of membership at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in India next year.
Turkey has "historical and cultural" connections to the Asian continent and wants to play a role in the organization, whose members together make up "30 percent of global economic output," Erdogan said.
Turkey is currently listed as a dialogue partner by the Shanghai organization.
In the event of accession, Turkey would be the first member of the group to also belong to the western defense alliance NATO.
Established in 2001 to fight terrorism, the group includes China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Nuclear strike by Putin in the Ukraine war?
how would US President Joe Biden react?
First report from September 17th
: Washington DC – While Vladimir Putin raves about Erdogan and practices political solidarity with China, a turnaround is taking place in the fighting in the Ukraine war.
In a counter-offensive, the Ukrainians are recapturing a number of places, especially in the Kharkiv region - also thanks to a "game changer" from Germany.
Nevertheless, in view of the new developments, the question often arises: How far will Vladimir Putin go?
A question that becomes more explosive the more the Kremlin boss has his back against the wall.
Recently, circles of Russian politicians have even publicly criticized Putin, and the tone of Russian state propaganda is becoming harsher.
The most drastic step that Putin could take is the use of nuclear weapons in the armed conflict.
Confidants of the President, such as Dmitry Medvedev, have frequently threatened the use of such weapons in the media.
What if it really did come to that and Putin was contemplating a nuclear strike or the use of chemical weapons?
US President Joe Biden had to ask himself this question.
Nuclear threats in war: "Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it," Biden told Putin
Biden was asked about it in an interview on CBS television.
His reaction to possible Russian plans for a nuclear strike was quite clear.
"Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it," Joe Biden told Putin.
According to the US President, such an attack would change the face of the war in a way that has not been seen since World War II.
In addition to his urgent warning, Biden has already spoken about the consequences that would threaten Vladimir Putin's plan of this kind.
Moscow would "become even more of an outsider than ever before," Biden said in the interview.
In this case, the US President announced a tough reaction from Washington.
nuclear weapons?
"I think that's relatively unlikely"
According to some military experts, the use of nuclear weapons is not (yet) to be expected.
"I think that's relatively unlikely," says military expert Gustav Gressel in an interview with our editors.
"A tactical nuclear weapon would change little at the front, if only because the Ukrainian military is organized in a relatively decentralized manner." Gressel believes that Putin would not have stopped the recent Kharkiv offensive with a nuclear weapon.
"It would have taken ten or twenty such bombs for that."
Carlo Masala from the Bundeswehr University does not fear the use of nuclear weapons either.: "Of course there is always this theoretical option of using chemical or nuclear weapons in the background," said the military expert to the
Business Insider
portal .
"At the moment I think that's very unlikely."
Meanwhile, Russia recently experienced quite a disgrace in the Kharkiv region from the Ukraine counter-offensive.
Russian troops are said to have almost fled the region.
The Kremlin now apparently wants to take Putin out of the line of fire.
(han/AFP)
List of rubrics: © IMAGO/Alexander Ryumin
