The situation at a glance: Pistorius warns of hybrid danger from Moscow

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warns of a hybrid threat to Germany from more or less covert Russian warfare at the behest of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. “Putin is attacking hybrids, and Germany is particularly in focus. He knows us well, Putin knows how to put pinpricks in us,” the SPD politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

The Federal Ministry of Defense defines hybrid warfare as a “combination of classic military operations, economic pressure, computer attacks and even propaganda in the media and social networks.” The aim of the attackers is “not just to cause damage, but especially to destabilize societies and influence public opinion. Open, pluralistic and democratic societies offer many areas of attack for this and are therefore easily vulnerable.”

Pistorius emphasized that it is important that Germany prepares itself for this. “We must prepare ourselves so that we can confidently confront Putin’s threat. If we ignore the threat because it makes us uncomfortable, it will not become smaller, but larger.” It’s about attacks on infrastructure and energy supplies, activities in the North and Baltic Seas and violations of rules in the airspace.

“In addition, there are campaigns on social media, influencing election campaigns and financing votes that, like the AfD and BSW, claim that we are not concerned with our own protection, but that we are heading towards a war with Russia,” said Pistorius. This is all part of Putin’s strategy to unsettle and divide our society. “We have to do everything we can to prevent Putin’s strategy from working.”

Zelensky threatens retaliatory attacks on Russian territory

Meanwhile, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which has been ongoing for almost three years, continued with nightly air strikes. The Ukrainian Air Force located numerous Russian combat drones in the sky on Sunday night. Russian aircraft dropped glide bombs on the Donetsk and Kherson regions. The Ukrainian General Staff reported many battles along the front in Ukraine. In the Russian border region of Kursk, Moscow troops tried with all their might to drive out the Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened further attacks on military facilities in Russia in retaliation for Russian airstrikes. “We will definitely continue to attack Russian military targets with drones and missiles,” he said in a video address. Ukraine is using more and more self-produced weapons. It goes against “the military bases, the Russian military infrastructure that is used for this terror against our people.”

By terror he meant the recent Russian air strikes on Kiev, Kherson and other cities. Last week, Russia used more than 550 glide bombs, almost 550 combat drones and more than 20 missiles of various types against Ukraine, Zelensky wrote on the social network X.

Ukrainian drones hit residential buildings in the Russian city of Kazan, about 1,100 kilometers from Ukraine, on Saturday. In the western Russian region of Oryol, a swarm of drones set fire to a fuel facility, the state news agency Tass reported on Sunday night. More drones were shot down over the Bryansk region before they could cause any damage, it said, citing the regional administration. As a rule, the information provided by both warring parties can hardly be verified independently.

Kind words for CIA chief Burns in Kyiv

Zelensky received the outgoing director of the US CIA, William Burns, in Kiev and thanked him for his support. “We will surely meet again, and we will certainly see that this war ends with a real and lasting peace,” the president wrote on Platform X on Saturday.

The top diplomat Burns (68) has served in the USA under Democratic and Republican administrations – including as ambassador to Russia and as deputy foreign minister. As CIA chief, he visited Moscow in November 2021 and returned convinced that Putin would attack Ukraine. US insights into Russian troop buildup helped Kiev prepare for the invasion in February 2022. The US’s intelligence findings were and are also essential for the country’s subsequent defense against the Russian invasion.

Ambassador Melnyk represents Ukraine at the UN

The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, is to become his country’s new representative to the United Nations in New York. Zelensky announced the transfer of the current ambassador to Brazil, who will replace the current UN representative Serhiy Kyslytsia.

As ambassador in Berlin, Melnyk had unusually openly and sharply criticized the federal government for what he considered to be too hesitant arms support in the defensive fight against Russia. In October 2022 he returned to Kyiv and became deputy foreign minister. In June 2023 he then moved to Brazil as ambassador. In New York, the sharp-tongued diplomat will meet, among others, the Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebensja.