Lambrecht warns of "paralysis" by Putin's nuclear threats - NATO practices defense with nuclear weapons
Created: 10/17/2022, 11:00 am
By: Markus Hofstetter
Defense Minister Lambrecht called the airstrikes on the Ukrainian civilian population incomprehensible.
Meanwhile, NATO is practicing defense with nuclear weapons.
The news ticker.
Federal Defense Minister Lambrecht
: Russian threats to use nuclear weapons should not be dismissed as a bluff.
Millions of children
driven into
poverty
: They feel the effects of the war strongly.
This news ticker on
diplomacy
in the
Ukraine war
is updated regularly.
Berlin/Kyiv/Moscow — Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) has sharply condemned the recent Russian airstrikes on civilian targets in Ukraine.
“What is happening to the population is unbelievable.
It's so stressful," she said on Monday in the ZDF morning magazine.
The delivery of modern air defense systems is therefore currently crucial.
However, according to the minister, the remaining three of a total of four Iris-T SLM air defense systems from Germany will only be able to take place "over the course of the next year".
Industry could not provide these any faster, she said.
Federal Defense Minister Lambrecht: Take Russia's nuclear weapons threat seriously
Lambrecht has also warned against dismissing threats by Waldimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war as a bluff.
You have to take these threats seriously, "but taking them seriously doesn't mean letting them paralyze you, it means watching them closely," she said.
Exercises such as the NATO maneuvers "Steadfast Noon" to defend the European alliance area with nuclear weapons, which begin on Monday, made an important contribution to this.
Up to 60 aircraft will be involved in the exercise over the next two weeks.
Lambrecht left open the question of whether the Bundeswehr would also play through scenarios of a nuclear attack on Germany.
A German Air Force Tornado fighter jet during the annual exercise to defend alliance territory with nuclear weapons (archive photo from April 1, 2020) © Thomas Frey/dpa/picture alliance
Ukraine-News: Still no access to prisoners of war — Red Cross rejects Zelenskyj's criticism
Meanwhile, the Red Cross is defending itself against criticism from Kyiv that it has not yet visited numerous prisoners of war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has moral obligations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj said last week and demanded immediate visits.
"Blaming the ICRC for being denied full and immediate access does not help prisoners of war or their families," the ICRC said on Sunday evening.
Eleven employees, including a doctor, are available for such visits in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, but have not yet received permission.
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This must come from the participating states.
According to the Geneva Conventions, they are obliged to grant access to the ICRC.
For almost eight months, the ICRC has been asking in vain for free and regular visits to all places where prisoners of war are being held.
Million children pushed into poverty — 2.8 million in Russia
The young in particular suffer from the Russian war of aggression and the associated economic downturn.
The war is said to have driven an additional four million children into poverty in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
This is the result of a study by the UN children's fund Unicef published on Monday.
The study includes data from 22 countries in the region.
The effects of war are particularly strong for children in Russia and Ukraine.
According to the study, an additional 2.8 million children live in households below the poverty line in Russia.
In Ukraine, half a million additional children lived in poverty, then Romania followed with an additional 110,000 children.
