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Ukrainian forces on Sunday at a house in Kherson - it was destroyed in a Russian attack
Photo:
GENYA SAVILOV / AFP
What has happened in the past few hours
At least four people have been killed in Russian airstrikes on cities in eastern and southern Ukraine, according to Kiev.
In the southern Ukrainian city of
Cherson
, three people were killed and six others injured, local authorities said on Sunday.
"Enemy artillery shelled the residential areas of the city," the Kherson regional administration said.
Civilian facilities were damaged, including the regional hospital, a school, a post office, a bank and residential buildings.
The Russian army "brutally bombed Cherson all day long," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his video message on Sunday evening.
A woman was killed in an attack on an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of
Kharkiv
, according to Governor Oleg Synegubov.
"According to current information, one person was killed when a Russian missile hit a residential building," he wrote on Telegram.
Several injured were treated.
Four people were also killed in an attack on a railway bridge in the southern Ukrainian region of
Zaporizhia
, according to the regional head appointed by Russia, Yevgeny Balitsky.
Five other people were injured.
He blamed Ukraine for the attack.
The information could not be independently verified.
Along with Cherson, Donetsk and Luhansk, Zaporizhia is one of the Ukrainian regions that Russia occupies in part and annexed last year.
That says Kyiv
According to President Zelenskyy, Ukraine needs faster delivery of weapons and new types of weapons in order to be able to withstand Russian attacks.
In Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, the situation is very difficult given the ongoing attacks, he said in his video message.
In particular, the cities of Bachmut and Wuhledar are still exposed to constant Russian shelling.
There are constant attempts by the Russians to break through the Ukrainian defenses.
"Russia hopes to prolong the war and exhaust our forces," said Zelenskyy.
“So we must make time our weapon.
We must accelerate events.” In particular, the speed of delivery of foreign military aid is a key factor in this war.
He also insisted once again on further arms deliveries beyond the main battle tanks recently promised by the West.
Regardless of the difficult situation at the front, Selenskyj was confident of victory.
"2023 must and will definitely be the year of our victory," he wrote on Telegram.
Debate on delivery of fighter jets
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has criticized the debate over the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine.
»It is idiosyncratic that this debate is being held.
Some people have to ask themselves: Why is he asking the question when it's about helping the Ukrainians," he said on Sunday evening (local time) at a press conference in Santiago de Chile.
A serious debate is now necessary and not "an outbidding competition (...), in which perhaps domestic political motives are in the foreground instead of supporting Ukraine".
In an issue as important as arms deliveries, it has to be about the matter and about rational considerations, said Scholz.
He recalled that shortly after the war began, he and US President Joe Biden ruled out no-fly zones because that would have led to a conflict between Russia and NATO.
"Such nonsensical suggestions" as sending ground troops were also rejected.
"Everything has really been said about it now, including me," said Scholz.
He is currently completing his first trip to South America as Chancellor.
The discussion last year about a no-fly zone over Ukraine was about the fact that this could only be enforced if NATO provided its own fighter jets.
Scholz and Biden rejected that.
However, the current discussion is about making combat aircraft available to Ukraine, which would then be flown by Ukrainian pilots.
Ukraine is demanding fighter jets, and the United States has not fundamentally ruled out a delivery.
The SPD leader Saskia Esken did not fundamentally rule out the delivery of combat aircraft on Sunday in the ARD.
International reactions
According to former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Russian President Vladimir Putin made personal threats against him shortly before the war began.
"He kind of threatened me at one point and said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile it would only take a minute' or something like that." According to the British news agency PA, Johnson said this in a BBC documentary with the Title »Putin Vs the West«.
It is scheduled to air on Monday.
"Judging by the very relaxed tone and the level of composure he seemed to display, he must have been toying with my attempts to get him to negotiate," Johnson said.
Like other Western leaders, the then prime minister had tried to steer Putin off course shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The statements are said to have been made during such a “very long” phone call.
The head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, does not expect Russia to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.
Putin knows "that he cannot use nuclear weapons because he will then lose the support of his most important partner China, which has warned against the use of nuclear weapons," he told the "Rheinische Post" and the Bonn "General-anzeiger".
'He won't risk it.
Without China, Russia is isolated in the world." Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons "to intimidate us in Germany and Europe in particular."
What is happening today
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius found out about the Bundeswehr's foreign missions today.
The SPD politician visits the operational command in the Henning von Tresckow barracks in Schwielowsee near Potsdam.
Pistorius will speak there in video conferences with soldiers on selected foreign deployments and missions, the Bundeswehr said.
There he also visits the memorial forest of remembrance, a memorial built from memorial groves from the areas of operation, which is dedicated to the dead of the Bundeswehr.
Around 3 p.m. Pistorius wants to speak to the press.
aar/dpa/AFP
