2023-09-06 03:33:00
Day 561: The First Lady of Ukraine opens up about her family life. A Russian defector collects a hefty bounty for his desertion. All information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
Ukraine – Defense systems repel air attack on Kiev
5.30 a.m.: According to the military administration in Kiev, Ukrainian air defense systems are in use to repel a Russian air attack on the capital. Eyewitnesses from the Archyde.com news agency reported several explosions. Air raid alerts have been on throughout Ukraine since 0550 local time/0250 GMT.
BBC: Great Britain wants to classify Wagner as a terrorist organization
4:49 a.m.: According to a media report, the Russian mercenary group Wagner is to be classified as a terrorist organization by the British government, the BBC reports, citing a draft regulation. “They are terrorists, pure and simple – and this decision to ban them makes that clear in British law,” Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the broadcaster. Wagner was “violent and destructive … a military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia”.
Banning Wagner as a terrorist organization would mean that it would be a criminal offense in the UK to belong to or promote the group, organize or attend its meetings and wear its logo in public. Britain had already imposed sanctions on Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and the group after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in 2020, and on individuals and companies associated with Wagner in the Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan in July of this year.
CDU politician demands clear commitment from Scholz
2:34 am: CDU foreign policy expert Jürgen Hardt has called for more German support for Ukraine’s recapture of Crimea. “I believe that Ukraine has the right to recapture Crimea and that we should support that,” he told the newspapers of the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft. Hardt criticized what he saw as too hesitant an attitude on the part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). with military aid.
Specifically, Hardt called for the delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, which the country has been asking for for some time. Due to their range, these could also reach destinations in Russia. It was “legitimate to attack targets from which one should be fought oneself,” said Hardt. On Russian-held Crimea, he said, Ukraine’s recapture could shorten the war.
Hardt called on Chancellor Scholz to commit to a victory for Ukraine. “It is urgently time for him to say: Ukraine must win this war and we are doing what is necessary to do so,” said the Union’s foreign policy spokesman in the Bundestag. Scholz should drive the decision to deliver the Taurus “more consistently and quickly”. Hardt criticized the fact that military aid for Ukraine had been delayed for too long last winter, which is now making their counter-offensive against the Russian invaders more difficult.
Selenskyj assures soldiers of new equipment
1.20 a.m.: After his visit to the troops in the contested regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again promised the soldiers new equipment. “There will be new deliveries,” said Zelenskyj in his video message distributed in Kiev on Tuesday evening.
He recounted his conversations with commanders and military doctors during his trip near the frontline. Accordingly, Zelenskyj visited 13 brigades. He will convey the soldiers’ demands to generals, government officials and those in charge of international relations. He did not give details.
Zelenskyi once again announced new weapons production and other important decisions for the country. Earlier, the President announced that he was dismissing the head of the military administration of the Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko. According to a report by the Internet portal “Ukrajinska Pravda”, Kyrylenko will in future head the Ukraine’s anti-trust agency, which is supposed to prevent the formation of monopolies. The move counts as a promotion.
Ukraine: Russian defector pilot receives big bonus
12:30 a.m.: In Ukraine, a defected Russian pilot who handed over a Mi-8 helicopter to Kiev’s armed forces is set to receive a half-million-dollar bounty. Military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said on television on Tuesday that the money would be paid out in the national currency hryvnia. He called on other Russian military personnel to follow suit. The case of the 28-year-old Russian, who also appears in public, has been reported by Ukrainian media for days.
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