On day 22 of Russia’s war of aggression against his country, Ukrainian President Selenskyj addressed the Bundestag directly. He paints a picture of the desperate situation of the people in his country. The Kremlin was outraged by a statement by US President Biden.
Faced with the death, destruction and displacement of millions from the Russian attack, Ukraine has asked Germany for more help. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message to members of the Bundestag on Thursday that the people of Ukraine want to live freely and not submit to any other country that makes claims on their own territory. He thanked all Germans who worked for Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) promised further support.
The US government again warned China not to support Russia in the war against Ukraine with military equipment. In such a case, the US would not hesitate to impose “costs” on China, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, alluding to possible sanctions.
President Selenskyj describes the suffering in the war zone
Zelenskyy said in his speech: “Russia is bombing our cities and destroying everything in Ukraine: residential areas, hospitals, schools, churches – everything. With rockets, with bombs, with artillery. In three weeks, many Ukrainians have died, thousands. The occupiers have killed 108 children – in the middle of Europe, with us, in the year 2022.”
According to the city council, around 80 percent of the apartments in the port city of Mariupol, which was particularly hard hit by the war, were destroyed. “Every day an average of 50 to 100 bombs are dropped on the city. The devastation is enormous.”
The EU sees the siege and bombing of Mariupol by Russian troops as a “serious and grave violation of international humanitarian law”. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 780 civilians since the invasion. The High Commissioner only reports death and injury figures that it has independently checked itself – the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.
President Selenskyj thanked all Germans who are committed to Ukraine – including companies that put morality above profit. At the same time he complained that he had asked for help in vain for a long time and that his request to join NATO was unsuccessful. Selenskyj also made Germany jointly responsible for what he saw as a new wall in Europe, a wall between freedom and bondage. He then addressed Chancellor Scholz directly: “Dear Chancellor Scholz, destroy this wall. Give Germany the leadership that Germany deserves.” He was quoting former US President Ronald Reagan, who, during a visit to Berlin in 1987, had demanded that Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall.
Russia rejects International Court of Justice order for Ukraine
The Kremlin on Thursday rejected an order from the United Nations’ top judges to end the violence. The judges had ordered this on Wednesday and thus granted a lawsuit by Ukraine. “We cannot take this decision into account,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to the Interfax agency. The court in The Hague has no means of compelling a losing state to implement a judgement.
The Kremlin described a statement by US President Joe Biden as “unacceptable and unforgivable”. He publicly called Putin a war criminal for the first time on Wednesday. “Our president is a very wise, far-sighted and cultured international figure,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov said, according to Interfax. Such words come from the president of a country “that has been bombing people all over the world for years.”
Biden followed suit on Thursday. Putin is a “murderous dictator, a pure criminal who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine”. In view of the Russian war of aggression, Biden sees a “turning point in history” that only happens every few generations. “I think we’re in a real battle between autocracies and democracies and whether or not democracies can be preserved.”
Russia continues negotiations with Ukraine
Negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow in online format continued. “The work will continue,” said Kremlin spokesman Peskov. Russia’s conditions are “extremely clear, articulated and fully brought to the attention of the Ukrainian negotiators.”
However, Zelenskyj’s adviser Alexander Rodnyansky dampened the hope of an early peace solution in the ARD program “maischberger. die woche”. Russia is trying to buy time to recruit new troops and then launch an offensive again.
According to the Kremlin, it is about “demilitarization” and “denazification” as well as a neutral status for Ukraine. Moscow is also demanding that Crimea, annexed by Ukraine in 2014, be recognized as Russian territory and that the administrative borders of the separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk should be sovereign. For its part, Ukraine wants an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and a ceasefire. Kyiv has shown itself willing to forego NATO membership, but demands security guarantees from other countries.
More than three million people are fleeing Ukraine
According to the UN, around 3.2 million people from Ukraine have now fled to safety. Poland alone registered 1.95 million refugees, according to the Ministry of the Interior there were officially more than 187,000 in Germany.
Federal government emphasizes financial responsibility for Ukraine refugees
The federal and state governments want to tackle the admission of war refugees from Ukraine as a joint task. This was emphasized by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) after a Prime Ministers’ conference. The federal and state governments initially failed to reach an agreement on who would bear which costs. A working group is to prepare a decision by April 7th.
War negatively affects growth and inflation
According to one analysis, global growth could shrink by more than one percentage point as a result of the Ukraine war. In the first full year after the start of the conflict, global inflation could also rise by almost 2.5 percentage points, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in Paris. European economies as a whole are the hardest hit – particularly those that share a border with Russia or Ukraine.
Under the impression of the war in Ukraine, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy halved its growth forecast for 2022. The economic research institute RWI also expects that the war will noticeably slow down economic growth in Germany.
Source: Stern
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