Ukraine war in Newsblog | Scholz criticizes China’s peace concept: “No recognizable line”

Day 367 since the beginning of the war: The EU agrees on further sanctions against Russia. US President Joe Biden calls China’s 12-point plan “irrational”. All information in the news blog.

4 p.m.: Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticizes China’s proposals for a peace solution in Ukraine. “From my perspective, there is no recognizable line that says: Russian troops must also withdraw,” said Scholz during his visit to India. Otherwise, the advance has “recognizable light and shadow”. “Remarkably correct” is the renewed condemnation of the use of nuclear weapons. He spoke intensively about the topic with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The fact remains that there can be no “dictated peace Russian-style”. Russian President Vladimir Putin must see that.

13 o’clock: In internal talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently developing new ways of interpreting the course of the war against Ukraine. This is reported by the “Focus” with reference to the “Financial Times”. “The army is a wreck. Our industry is a mess,” the Kremlin chief is said to have said to a former Russian official quoted by the US magazine, according to the report. But it’s a good thing that the deficiencies in the armed forces have now been discovered in this way, says Putin.

Russia attacked the Ukraine over a year ago and has suffered many setbacks in the costly battles since then. According to the Russian officials, the reason for the misjudgment by the Russian military was that the Russian ruler was not honestly informed about the current situation. “No one tells Putin the truth,” the newspaper quoted a confidant of the Kremlin boss as saying. The FSB secret service in particular had convinced Putin that no major resistance was to be expected in Ukraine.

The research is based on conversations with six different contacts who are said to be familiar with Putin and also involved in the war against Ukraine. According to a former senior official, the “entire elite” opposes the war but feels they can’t do anything about it or fear for their own safety.

11 clock: According to British intelligence experts, the Russian military has probably used up its stock of Iranian drones. This is likely because there have been no reports of the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles in Ukraine since February 15, the Ministry of Defense said in London on Saturday. However, between late January and early February, the Ukrainian military shot down at least 24 of the Shahed-136 disposable drones.

“Russia will probably try to get supplies,” it said. “Although the weapons do not have a good record of destroying intended targets, Russia likely sees them as useful in distracting Ukraine’s air defenses from much more effective Russian cruise missiles.”

8:17 a.m.: According to Chinese information, the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko will travel to China on a state visit on Tuesday. “Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will be on a state visit to China from February 28 to March 2 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.