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Ukrainian soldiers near the embattled town of Bakhmut on Wednesday
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
That says Kyiv
After the death of the Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj and 13 other people in a helicopter crash, the background is still unclear.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video address on Wednesday evening that he had commissioned the secret service to investigate.
He promised clarification.
Monastyrskyj and Deputy Interior Minister Yehwhenij Jenin, who was also killed, are not politicians who "can easily be replaced".
"It is really a great loss for the state."
According to the latest information, a child is among the dead in the crash, which occurred on Wednesday morning in a residential area near a kindergarten near the capital Kyiv.
Up to 18 dead, including four children, had previously been mentioned.
The Ukrainian side then corrected their information downwards without further explanation.
Debate on tank supplies to Ukraine
According to media reports, the United States is putting together a new, extensive military package for Ukraine.
According to the AP news agency, it is expected to be worth up to $ 2.6 billion.
For the first time, Stryker wheeled armored personnel carriers could also be there, AP and Reuters reported.
Wheeled armored personnel carriers are used, for example, for reconnaissance and transport and are intended to offer a high level of protection against attacks.
According to the information, the US M1 Abrams main battle tanks desired by Ukraine are not included in the package.
The reason is the extensive maintenance and training on the battle tank (you can find out more about this here).
So far there has been no official confirmation of this.
According to media reports, Chancellor Olaf Scholz signaled in a phone call to US President Joe Biden that Germany might be ready to allow Leopard tanks to be delivered to Ukraine.
According to information from the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and the "Bild", Scholz said that one could only deliver if the USA in turn made its own Abrams main battle tanks available to Ukraine.
Biden had apparently not yet made a decision in the conversation on Tuesday.
The federal government did not want to comment on a SPIEGEL request about the reports in the evening.
20 countries worldwide have the modern Leopard 2 tanks.
They are produced in Germany;
Therefore, the federal government must approve any transfer – no matter from which country.
Ukraine has been trying to get heavier tanks delivered for months.
The head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, now called for Germany to play a leading role in supplying battle tanks to Ukraine.
"If you want to lead, that can't mean always being the last to do what's most necessary," said the former top diplomat at the dpa news agency.
»We have to go ahead and actually take this lead.«
Heusgen criticized that the battle tank delivery had been delayed.
"When we see the terrible suffering the Russians are causing in the occupied territories, then there is also a moral obligation on the subject of main battle tanks," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not moving an iota from his policy.
"And then you just have to say: Unfortunately, this man only understands the language of hardness."
Ukraine urgently wants these tanks, said Angela Merkel's former adviser.
"I don't see how we as Germany could say: No, we see things differently, we're slowing down the whole thing.
I'm assuming that Germany will say with a new defense minister: We'll get involved in the European alliance."
International reactions
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has spoken out in favor of negotiations with Kremlin chief Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
"It's important that we maintain contact with Putin," Sánchez told US broadcaster CNN on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"For example, I strongly advocate that the French government and the German government (...) take the lead here."
A return to the so-called Normandy format is conceivable - a contact group made up of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, as it existed before the outbreak of the war.
The foreign ministers of the four countries usually met for this purpose.
The other EU member states would support Paris and Berlin in such an initiative, said Sánchez.
When asked whether Putin could interpret the West's willingness to talk as a "weakness," he replied: "No, I don't think so."
Canada has summoned the Russian ambassador to the country.
The background is Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine, including the devastating attack on a residential building in Dnipro.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said: "We do not accept the sheer brutality of Russia's recent attacks on civilians in Dnipro."
In addition, at the personal meeting with Russia's ambassador, they wanted to "condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by the Russian Minister Sergey Lavrov".
Foreign Minister Lavrov compared the West's Russia policy on Wednesday with the National Socialists' "final solution" to the murder of the Jews.
The United Nations (UN) denounce the backlog in the Ukraine grain agreement.
They called on all parties to remove obstacles and grievances without assigning blame.
Efficiency needs to be increased.
More than a hundred ships are awaiting inspection and permission to sail in Turkish waters.
Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain exporters, so its deliveries have a major impact on global food price trends.
The grain deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey, was reached in July and is one of the few diplomatic successes since the war began.
It is intended to dampen the global increase in grain prices, which are particularly affecting poorer countries.
What is happening today
The new Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) takes office today.
Shortly after being sworn in in the Bundestag, Pistorius receives his American colleague Lloyd Austin in the Bendlerblock – who will also want to know from Pistorius how he feels about the delivery of battle tanks to the Ukraine.
The defense ministers of several European countries are meeting today in Estonia.
At the meeting at the Tapa military base, they want to present their latest aid packages.
In addition to hosts Estonia and Great Britain, on whose initiative the meeting takes place, the defense ministers from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania are involved.
The meeting of the western Ukraine contact group in Ramstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, will follow on Friday.
The Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden is today publishing its population estimate for 2022. The question of how the population has recently developed in view of the war refugees from Ukraine should also be of interest.
aar/dpa/Reuters
