As of: March 18, 2024, 5:26 a.m
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Air alerts were raised in several regions of Ukraine early on Sunday evening.
© Efrem Lukatsky/AP/dpa
While champagne corks are popping in the Kremlin, rockets and grenades are detonating in Ukraine.
The war continues without interruption.
The developments at a glance.
Kiev - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin the legitimacy of his election success.
“This election fraud has no legitimacy and cannot have any,” Zelensky said in his evening video address.
“This figure (Putin) must end up in the dock in The Hague - we must ensure that, everyone in the world who values life and decency.” Ukraine's demands for a peace agreement with Moscow include, among other things Russian political and military leaders should be held accountable before an international court.
Putin has been faking another election these days.
“It is clear to everyone in the world that this character, as so often in history, is simply obsessed with power and will do anything to rule for life,” Zelensky said.
“There is no evil that he will not commit to prolong his personal power.”
In view of the Russian invasion of his homeland and the war that has now lasted more than two years, Zelenskyj demanded justice.
“There must be just retribution for everything Russian murderers have done in this war and in the interests of Putin’s lifelong power,” he said.
“He is only afraid of one thing - justice.” There is an arrest warrant issued by the World Criminal Court in The Hague against Putin because of allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.
US government denounces lack of supplies of weapons
The US government once again denounced the lack of supplies of military equipment and weapons to Ukraine and warned of the consequences.
Russian forces pushed against the Ukrainians' first line of defense and tried to reach the second, National Security Council communications director John Kirby told US broadcaster Fox News on Sunday.
They were taking over small towns, villages and farmland, not so much because it was strategically valuable, but because they wanted to show that they were making profits, especially because of the elections in Russia.
They are on the rise, albeit slowly.
The Ukrainians would not have the ammunition and other military capabilities they need to push back the Russians and retake the territories.
That's why it's so important that they receive supplies now.
The Ukrainian soldiers have to make tough decisions on the battlefield because they lack the necessary ammunition.
It's not the courage, leadership or skills that the Ukrainian soldiers lack, but rather the ammunition.
The USA has been considered Kiev's most important ally in the past two years since the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
The US government supplied Ukraine with massive amounts of weapons and ammunition.
However, there has been no supply from the USA for quite some time.
The background is a domestic political blockade in the US Congress, where Republicans have so far refused further aid to Kiev.
Putin: No interest in world war
After his re-election, Russian President Putin painted the tensions between Russia and the West, especially NATO, in a dark light.
A full-scale conflict with NATO cannot be ruled out, and in this case the world would be just one step away from a third world war, Putin said in Moscow on Sunday.
“I think it is unlikely that anyone is interested in this,” Putin was quoted as saying by the state agency Tass.
According to Putin, numerous soldiers from NATO member states are already deployed in Ukraine.
“We already know that,” he said.
French and English have already been heard.
“This is not a good thing, especially for them, because they are dying there in large numbers,” Putin said - without providing any evidence for this claim.
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Swarms of drones on the move - air alert in Ukraine
Air alerts were raised in several regions of Ukraine early on Sunday evening.
The reason was several swarms of so-called kamikaze drones that the Russian military had launched, as Ukrainian media reported, citing aerial reconnaissance.
The air alert applied to the regions of Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy and Dnipro in the east of the country.
Late in the evening, an alarm was also raised in the capital Kiev as a wave of drones approached from the south.
No further information was initially provided about possible attacks, defense successes or damage.
The previous night on Sunday, the Ukrainian military had carried out drone attacks on the south of Russia.
In Krasnodar, a drone attack caused a fire at an oil refinery.
According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, at least eight drones were shot down over the southern Russian city of Belgorod.
At least one person died when a drone hit Belgorod, and eleven others were injured, according to media reports.
The information could not be independently verified.
On Sunday evening, Zelenskyj highlighted the so-called drone coalition of Western states that supplies Ukraine with unmanned flying objects.
“This is a weapon that has proven to be extremely effective,” said the Ukrainian leader.
dpa