DHe announced timely personnel changes in the government and regions of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Some decisions have already been made and others will be made on Tuesday, Zelensky said in his video address on Monday evening. He had earlier asserted that corruption would not be tolerated and that he wanted to take action against malpractices in the government machinery.
Allegations against a deputy minister who was removed from the background of this. Deputy Minister of Community, Territorial and Infrastructure Development Vasyl Loczynski allegedly accepted a $400,000 bribe to buy generators to deal with the country’s energy crisis.
Kyrillo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, is also no longer in his post. After criticism of his work, he applied to Selenskyj for dismissal. According to a decree published on the president’s website, the head of state complied with the request and dismissed the top official. Tymoshenko was traveling in an American SUV donated by General Motors to rescue civilians from war zones and for humanitarian missions. The officer officially defended his travels.
In his video speech, Zelenskyj looked back at the eleven-month war and emphasized cooperation with allies, especially the United States. Ukraine’s 11-month “predatory all-out war” has kept the US and all other allies as tight as possible. He can now confidently say that “this evil on Ukrainian soil” can be overcome.
All Improvements in Live Ticker:
09:22 – London sees signs of split in Russian military leadership
British intelligence sees the sacking of a senior Russian soldier as a sign of disunity within Moscow’s military leadership. The British Ministry of Defense’s daily briefing says that Colonel General Mykhailo Teblinsky, who played a key role in the war in Ukraine, has been sacked. According to the British, Deblinsky was responsible for the Russian withdrawal west of Ukraine’s Dnipro River in November last year. In Russia, he was hailed as an efficient and practical commander.
9:16 am – Wagenknecht: Western countries must increase pressure for negotiations
Sahra Wagenknecht has called on Germany and other Western countries to step up pressure for talks on the war in Ukraine. It is irresponsible to always think only in terms of military logic, said the left-wing politician on Deutschlandfunk. Instead, the West should pressure Ukraine to negotiate with Russia. “The current strategy of the Ukrainian government: we don’t want to negotiate at all.”
08:45 – Pistorius: Ukraine must win the war against Russia
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has made it clear that Germany’s support for Ukraine is aimed at defeating Russia. “We support Ukraine to win against Russia, not to lose this war,” he told ZDF’s “Morgenmagazin”. “Germany is doing more than any other ally except the United States.”
Pistorius left open whether Germany would supply Ukraine with Leopard-class main battle tanks. “The decision was taken at the chancellery,” said the SPD politician. There will be an inventory of tanks available “soon” from his side.
7:50 am – Strack-Zimmermann is optimistic about possible leopard deliveries
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, head of the defense committee, expressed confidence that the decision to supply Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine would move forward. He and new federal defense minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) “will get something together,” says the FDP politician on ZDF.
“I think the sign that we’re now sending the mortar — which always works alongside a battle tank — is correct,” he says, referring to the promised delivery of armored personnel carriers. However, Strack-Zimmerman rejected the offer of fighter jets. “A plane is quite another thing, creating air superiority is quite another thing. I don’t see us at all.”
07:02 – Ukraine: Every day a school is destroyed
In Ukraine, a school has been destroyed every day since the start of the school year, Save the Children reports. “The war has made it incredibly difficult for children in Ukraine to access education,” said Save the Children Ukraine Country Director Sonia Kush. “Millions of children have had to study at home due to the constant threat of shelling and rocket attacks, and now even online learning is further affected by frequent power and internet outages.”
6:50 am – EU wants to fund reconstruction with confiscated Russian assets
EU Council President Charles Michel is urging that assets seized from the Russian central bank be used to rebuild Ukraine. He told the Financial Times that member states should explore the idea of profitably managing frozen funds. Profits from this can be used for reconstruction. This should be done as a question of justice and fairness and within the framework of legal principles. The European Union froze 300 billion euros in Russian central bank reserves in November as part of sanctions imposed on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.
05:45 Ukraine: Nine houses destroyed in Russian shelling
Russian shelling damaged at least nine high-rise buildings in the Ukrainian city of Chasiv Yar on Monday. One person was killed and two others were wounded, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrilenko, said in a telegram. “The Russians are deliberately terrorizing and killing civilians. They will pay dearly for it.” Reuters could not independently verify this report.
4:20 am – CDU security expert calls SPD foreign policy opinion a “fog candle”
CDU defense expert Henning Otte criticized the SPD proposal for a new foreign and defense policy, demanding a decision from the coalition council on the supply of Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine, if necessary. Otte of the German Press Agency said the magazine was “a smokescreen to cover the lack of political action in the current situation”. “A strategy paper does not change the decisions that are urgently needed,” added Otte, who is also the vice-chairman of the Security Council at the Bundestag.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil presented an opinion on Monday that shows the chancellor’s party wants to restructure its foreign and defense policy. It acknowledges the faults in Russia’s policy and names the military as a means of peace policy. Ote criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SPD) reluctance to hand over Leopard tanks to Kiev: “Ukraine and our allies cannot wait for the SPD to finish its self-employment.”
03:34 – Russia sends three more infantry units to Ukraine
Russia will deploy three more motorized infantry units in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, according to new Russian chief of staff Valery Gerasimov. According to Moscow, the regions were annexed in September. “The main goal of this work is to ensure the security of our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Gerasimov told the Russian newspaper “Argumenti i Facti”.
01:18 – Russia blacklists Sakharov Foundation
Russia has designated an American foundation named after a Soviet-era Russian opposition figure as an undesirable entity. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office says it has blacklisted the US-based Andrei Sakharov Foundation. The list includes foreign and international non-governmental organizations whose activities are considered undesirable on Russian territory.
The foundation, which is headquartered near Washington, was not initially available for comment. According to its own statements, its goal is to create a world that listens to the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, a safe and just place.
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