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Russia-Ukraine War: This happened on Friday night (January 6)

2023-01-06T09:48:18.847Z


Pledges for more tanks cause the Ukrainian government to celebrate. And: The USA sees hard economic interests behind the Russian goal of taking over the Bakhmut salt mines. The most important developments.


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Damaged apartment building in Kherson (on December 21)

Photo: Maria Senovilla/EPA

That says Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) for the announced delivery of a Patriot air defense system and Marder-type infantry fighting vehicles.

"We'll get another Patriot system and powerful armored technology, that's really a great victory for our state," Zelenskyy said in his video speech on Friday night.

He also thanked the United States, which also wants to supply armored personnel carriers.

The Ukrainian head of state had previously written on Twitter: "Together with the previously delivered Iris-T system and the Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, Germany is making an important contribution to intercepting all Russian missiles!"

The Ukrainian ambassador Oleksii Makeiev also tweeted the hashtags #Patriot and #Marder as well as three black, red and gold hearts and the words #Thank you Germany.

Scholz and US President Joe Biden agreed in a telephone call on Thursday that both states would now supply Ukraine with armored personnel carriers to fight the Russian attackers for the first time.

The US sends Bradley tanks.

Both countries will also train Ukrainian armed forces on the tanks.

In addition, the federal government is following suit with the Patriot system, the delivery of which Washington Selenskyj had already promised shortly before Christmas.

It will be the first western-style armored personnel carriers to be received in Ukraine.

For months, Kyiv had been asking the Western Allies, and Germany in particular, for main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Scholz had repeatedly emphasized that Germany would not act alone on this issue and pointed out that no other NATO country had ever sent such tanks to Ukraine.

International reactions

US President Joe Biden sees the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine at a critical juncture.

Biden said so on Thursday (local time) at a cabinet meeting in the White House.

The United States and its allies would "further increase support for Ukraine," Biden said, referring to the recent pledge by the United States and Germany to also supply infantry fighting vehicles to Kyiv for the first time.

The US President also emphasized: "We will help Ukraine to defend itself against air attacks." That is why Germany will also provide a Patriot-type air defense system, in addition to the one system that the United States had already promised.

The Patriots "are working well and the Russians are starting to realize they're working well," Biden said.

FDP leader Christian Lindner has defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz's (SPD) line on supplying tanks to Ukraine.

The delivery of the Marder infantry fighting vehicle was "in line with the allies," wrote the Federal Minister of Finance on Twitter on Thursday evening.

“It was right not to go it alone, even if decisions can be made more quickly in the future.

Ukraine's staying power must remain greater than Putin's cruelty,” he wrote.

The number of conscientious objectors in the Bundeswehr skyrocketed in 2022, the year of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Since conscription was suspended in 2011, conscientious objectors have only been people who are already serving in the Bundeswehr.

According to the report, many justify their applications with the fact that they did not expect a military conflict.

"In 2021, the Federal Office for Family and Civil Society Tasks received 201 applications for conscientious objection, in 2022 there were a total of 951 applications," a spokesman for the Federal Office for Family and Civil Society Tasks told the editorial network Germany (RND).

The political director of the "German Peace Society", Michael Schulze von Glaßer, told the RND: "Soldiers who come to the realization in these explosive times in terms of security policy that they do not want to shoot at other people and kill or injure them must do so be offered an easy way out of the army.« Many of today's Bundeswehr members are lured into the army with advertising promises that have nothing to do with reality.

economic consequences

According to White House estimates, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Russian Wagner mercenary group and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is intent on seizing control of the salt and gypsum mines near the Ukrainian-controlled town of Bakhmut.

This was announced by a White House official on Thursday.

There are indications that Russia's "obsession" with capturing Bakhmut is fueled by monetary motives, the official added.

jok/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2023-01-06

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