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Wagner group soldier (January 29 in Soledar, Donbass)
Photo: Ivan Noyabrev / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
That says Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hailed his country for surviving a "very difficult" winter in the face of systematic Russian attacks on energy facilities.
"We got over this winter," said Zelenskyj in his daily speech on Wednesday.
"It was a very difficult time, and every Ukrainian experienced this difficulty, but we were still able to supply Ukraine with energy and heat," Zelenskyy said.
The head of state added that there is still "a threat to the energy system".
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had previously stated that Ukraine had survived the most difficult winter in its history.
With the beginning of spring on March 1, Ukraine survived the "winter terror" of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said.
In October, the Russian armed forces began increasingly attacking the energy infrastructure in Ukraine with rockets and drones.
For millions of people, this meant water, electricity and heating failures in freezing winter temperatures.
According to Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian armed forces have the situation on the country's fronts under control.
"We have every area on the front line under control," he continued his video address.
However, the people behind the fronts would continue to suffer from the Russian attacks.
"Deliberate terror," Zelenskyy said of the Russian artillery attacks on towns and villages behind the fronts in southern and eastern Ukraine.
"In most of our country, where we have managed to provide relative safety, they (residents) may not understand what life is like for people living in the border areas with Russia and in the south of our country," said Zelenskyy.
Although the people there are not at the front, they are still directly involved in the war.
"Where Russia is constantly trying to destroy everything the people have, constantly - and that's no exaggeration."
The Ukrainian armed forces are trying to restore security for those people who have to endure these constant Russian attacks: "Every movement of our flag forward will increase the security of our people."
processing of war crimes
US Attorney General Merrick Garland has called the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a "war criminal".
The US Department of Justice is helping Kiev investigate allegations of war crimes committed since Russia invaded Ukraine, Garland said in a US Senate hearing on Wednesday.
Including crimes attributed to the Wagner group.
"In my opinion, Mr. Prigozhin, who is in charge of this matter, is a war criminal," said the justice minister.
Perhaps it is inappropriate to say this before all the evidence is in place.
"But I think we have more than enough evidence at this point to justify my feeling," Garland continued.
What the Wagner group is doing in Ukraine is "incomprehensible."
Prigozhin, 61, was an ally of Russian President Putin.
Recently, however, he had made people sit up and take notice with extremely sharp criticism of the Russian army leadership.
He accused the Russian general staff of treason because his mercenaries fighting in Ukraine were being denied ammunition.
Russia denies this accusation.
At the moment, Wagner units are mainly deployed in the fighting around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which has been going on for months.
International Reactions
According to insiders, the United States is exploring the possibility of new sanctions against China with close Western allies.
It is about measures in the event that China provides military support to Russia in the war against Ukraine, several government officials told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
The explorations are still at an early stage.
They should serve to gain the support of the G7 group of seven leading industrialized countries in particular, in order to coordinate support for possible measures.
In addition to the USA, the G7 includes Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Great Britain.
Exactly which sanctions could be involved remained open.
The United States has repeatedly said in recent weeks that China is considering arms sales to Russia.
The government in China has rejected this.
The first exploratory steps by the US included informal contacts at the personal and diplomatic levels, including at the Treasury Department, insiders said.
The cornerstone for possible action against the Beijing government should be laid with the core group of countries most supportive of sanctions against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
What is happening today
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will make a government statement from 9 a.m. on the "turning point" that he stated a year ago.
Three days after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the chancellor announced on February 27, 2022 in a special session of the Bundestag: “We are experiencing a turning point.
That means: The world after is no longer the same as the world before.«
Around a year after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the foreign ministers of the G20 group of leading economic powers are meeting in India for consultations.
In addition to the war, the global food and energy crisis as well as development cooperation and the fight against terrorism are also on the agenda in New Delhi.
The appearance of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is eagerly awaited.
Last July, he caused a scandal at the G20 foreign ministers' meeting on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali when he left the room immediately after his speech and stopped listening to his critics' comments.
The G20 meeting in India is considered the first major conference since Bali at which he met Western colleagues
jok/dpa/Reuters
