The head of the Duma railed against the US government.
Kiev is taking action against the Russian metal magnate Deripaska.
The news ticker.
Strike
against Putin friend and
oligarchs
: Ukraine confiscates 250 million euros
Duma chief
rails against
US government
:
"terrorist attack" against Russia and Germany
No
success
for
Russia
: will Vladimir Putin's big public address be a flop?
This
news ticker
on
diplomatic events in the Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Update from February 17, 9.15 a.m .
: The Left Chairman Martin Schirdewan criticizes that Russia was unloaded from the Munich Security Conference (Siko) in 2023.
He considers it a "mistake" that Russian representatives are not taking part in the international meeting, Schirdewan said in the ARD "Morgenmagazin".
"They only talk about arms deliveries, I want them to think about how to create peace and how to achieve collective security."
Siko chairman Christoph Heusgen justified the decision not to invite Russia to the 59th Siko.
He was not prepared to give Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a stage "for his unspeakable demagogy and propaganda," Heusgen said in the "Morgenmagazin".
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his speech to the Duma on Wednesday (February 15).
© Sergei Fadeichev/Imago
Ukraine News: According to a survey, Germans oppose fighter jet deliveries to Kiev
Update from February 17, 8:38 a.m
.: According to a survey, the majority of Germans are against fighter jet deliveries to Ukraine.
Questioned in a current ARD “Germany trend”, 64 percent rejected this step.
Only 23 percent were in favor of it, 13 percent were unwilling or unable to comment.
The rejection is particularly large among AfD supporters (86 percent) and supporters of the left (81 percent).
The proposal is still most popular with supporters of the Greens (38 percent) and FDP (34 percent).
In the Union of CDU/CSU (27 percent) and SPD (26 percent) there are already significantly fewer.
Across party lines, however, there is consistently more rejection than approval.
Ukraine war: President Zelenskyj addresses the world via video
Ukraine war: President Zelenskyj addresses the world via video
Strike against Putin friend and oligarchs: Ukraine confiscates 250 million euros
Update from February 17, 6:55 a.m .:
Ukraine confiscated 250 million euros from a Russian oligarch.
According to the secret service in Kiev, the assets belong to Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest Russians.
According to the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine, the multi-billionaire and metal tycoon managed companies through a network of companies and business structures in different regions of Ukraine.
Deripaska's companies, land and holdings are now to be handed over to the state, the secret service announced on Thursday evening (February 16).
Ukraine wants to use the money to compensate for war damage.
Deripaska is said to be close to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and has been subject to Western sanctions for supporting the war of aggression against Ukraine.
Update from February 16, 9:05 p.m .:
In conversation with the British BBC, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj ruled out giving up Ukrainian territories as part of possible peace negotiations with Russia.
Giving up land would mean Russia could "keep coming back," while Western weapons would bring peace closer, Zelenskyy said.
In doing so, he rejects one of Russia's central demands for negotiations.
The Ukrainian President went on to say that the Russian counter-offensive, which was expected in the spring, had already begun.
"Russian attacks are already coming from multiple directions," he told the BBC.
However, Zelenskyy indicated that the Ukrainian forces could resist the Russian advance until they were able to launch a counteroffensive.
Duma chief rails against US government: "terrorist attack" against Russia and Germany
Update from February 16, 6:45 p.m .
: The Chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, again blamed the USA for the explosion on the Baltic Sea pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 on Thursday.
The Speaker spoke of a "terrorist attack" for which US President Joe Biden was responsible.
He instructed the Duma committees to determine the damage to the gas pipelines.
Then foreign assets could be confiscated as compensation.
MEPs also called on the United Nations Security Council to launch an investigation.
The explosions in September were aimed at Russia and Germany, Volodin said.
The US "carried out" the attack.
There is no evidence of US involvement.
For days, however, Russian politicians have been working on unsubstantiated claims by US journalist Seymour Hersh, who, citing a single anonymous source, wrote that US Navy divers were responsible for the explosions in the Baltic Sea.
The White House dismissed the report as fabrication.
Volodin criticized the fact that even months after the explosions, which were noticed around the world, there was only silence in the West, although important energy infrastructure for Europe had been destroyed.
The European states "with their great history have become colonial states of the USA".
Because Russian money is now being confiscated in the West in order to pay for damage in Ukraine, Russia also has the right to confiscate property because of the destruction of the pipelines.
Ukraine war: Secretary of State Cohen meets Kuleba - Israel says humanitarian aid
Update from February 16, 5:50 p.m .:
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was the first senior Israeli politician to visit Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
After a meeting with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Cohen announced that Israel would co-finance healthcare and civilian infrastructure projects with up to $200 million.
In addition, his country wants to help develop an early warning system.
Cohen did not comment on possible arms deliveries, which Ukraine has long been demanding.
EU Parliament calls for examination of fighter jet delivery
Update from February 16, 3.40 p.m .:
The European Parliament calls for a serious examination of the delivery of combat aircraft.
"Ukraine must not only be able to defend itself, but also regain full control over all of its internationally recognized territory," reads a resolution passed in Strasbourg on Thursday.
In addition, serious considerations are needed about the delivery of helicopters, missile systems and more ammunition.
Update from February 16, 2:50 p.m .:
Russia announced on Thursday that it would expel four Austrian diplomats.
At the beginning of February, Vienna expelled four Russian diplomats.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow declared that Vienna had taken an "unfriendly and unjustified step" and was destroying Austria's previous position as a respectful, unbiased and neutral state.
Will Kyiv win the war?
Majority in Europe believe in Ukrainian victory
Update from February 16, 1:23 p.m .
: 61 percent of Europeans are convinced that Ukraine will win the war against Russia.
This is the result of a survey recently published by the opinion research institute eupinions of the Bertelsmann Foundation.
In Germany, 55 percent expect a Ukrainian victory, slightly less than the European average.
With regard to possible negotiations with Russia, around three quarters of those surveyed said that only the Ukrainians themselves can decide when negotiations are appropriate.
When it came to war guilt, two-thirds of those questioned (66 percent) said it was clearly Russia's responsibility.
After all, eleven percent blamed the USA, five percent NATO and five percent the attacked Ukraine itself. Eleven percent did not want to comment.
No successes for Russia: Will Putin's big public address be a flop?
Update from February 16, 10:24 a.m .
: Things are not going according to Vladimir Putin's plan in the Ukraine war: the Kremlin chief is unable to sell his attack on Ukraine to the Russian public as a success.
The Institute for War Studies (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, has come to this conclusion.
The last significant achievement was the capture of the city of Sieverodonetsk in July 2022.
Analysts think it is unlikely that Putin will announce any measure that will further escalate the war in his upcoming State of the Union address on February 21.
The ISW estimates that Putin will not announce any major mobilization or other significant political initiatives.
Ukraine War: Almost complete Russian army in Ukraine
Update February 15, 11:50 a.m.:
The West is increasing its own security by helping Ukraine defeat Russia.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said this in an interview with the
BBC
.
According to Wallace, 97 percent of the Russian army is now tied up in Ukraine.
The "attrition rate" is very high, the "combat effectiveness" of the Russians has dropped by an estimated 40 percent, according to the defense minister.
Almost two-thirds of Russian tanks are destroyed or broken.
"This has a direct impact on the security of Europe."
Russia has so far proved incapable of assembling an army that could "penetrate" Ukraine's defenses, Wallace said in the interview.
Russia's strategy is currently reminiscent of the First World War, "with success rates of meters instead of kilometers".
Ukraine war: Speeches by Putin and Lavrov, Duma special session - what does Russia want to announce?
MOSCOW - The Russian parliament has announced a special session to deal with the areas in Ukraine annexed by Russia.
This is reported by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
Vyacheslav Timchenko, a member of the Russian House of Lords, was quoted as saying that the unscheduled meeting next Wednesday (February 22) will deal with "laws for the integration of the new regions into Russia's legal framework".
In October 2022, after six months of bloody fighting in the Ukraine war, Russia annexed four regions of the neighboring country.
This happened under international protest and in violation of international law.
According to the Kremlin, the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk have since belonged to Russia.
Ukraine war: Putin wants to give a big speech
The day before the session - Tuesday, February 21 - Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the Federal Assembly on the state of the nation.
This was announced by spokesman Dimitri Peskov last week, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Peskov said Putin will address the "current situation," including the "military special operation" in Ukraine.
Putin's state of the nation address had been repeatedly postponed and last took place in April 2021.
As reported by the independent Russian news portal
Meduza
and citing state media, a large concert and a rally in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, Russia's largest football stadium, is to follow the next day.
Putin spoke there in March 2022 - at that time the TV broadcast abruptly ended.
War in Ukraine: Lavrov delivers speech before Duma
According to a report by the Russian state news agency TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also give a speech before the Russian State Duma, without giving a specific date.
He will discuss "key areas of the country's foreign policy" with the parliamentarians.
Lavrov last spoke before the Duma in January 2022, a few weeks before the start of the Ukraine war.
At the time, Lavrov warned against the West inciting Ukraine to provoke Russia - and announced "profound negative changes in world politics".
(smu)
List of rubrics: © Sergei Fadeichev/Imago
