Ukraine war in the blog | Putin delivers state of the nation address

Day 363 since the beginning of the war: Putin’s speech in the live ticker. Italy’s Prime Minister travels to Kyiv. All information in the news blog.

9.05 a.m.: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni traveled to Kiev to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As the Italian television station TG24 reported, Meloni boarded a train in Poland at night that is expected in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday morning.

On Monday evening, Meloni spoke to US President Joe Biden, who had just returned from a visit to Kiev. Meloni and Biden spoke of the close cooperation between Italy and the US in supporting Ukraine, including on security, economic and humanitarian issues, according to a statement by the Italian government.

Meloni had announced that he would travel to Ukraine ahead of the February 24th anniversary of the Russian invasion. Ukraine can count on Italy’s support, she told journalists in Warsaw on Monday evening.

9.02 a.m.: According to observations by British secret services, damage to schools and hospitals has recently increased during the Ukraine war. In January, more and more medical and educational institutions were hit, according to the daily short report from the British Ministry of Defense on Tuesday. This is likely largely to do with Russia’s indiscriminate use of artillery and other weapons systems. Again and again, civilians were killed.

According to the United Nations, at least 8,000 civilians died in the Ukraine war by mid-February, although the number could be significantly higher. According to British intelligence, independent estimates already put the number of civilian fatalities at 16,000.

The British Ministry of Defense has published daily information on the course of the war since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, citing intelligence information. In doing so, the British government wants to both counter the Russian portrayal and keep allies in line. Moscow accuses London of a disinformation campaign.

8.45 a.m.: Since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began, 240 cultural sites have been damaged in the country. These include 105 religious sites, 18 museums and 12 libraries, UNESCO announced on Monday. So far, no World Heritage site has suffered damage in the war. According to an annual review published on Monday, the organization has been advising Ukraine since the beginning of the war on how best to protect its cultural heritage.

8:34 am: According to a study, the USA has left behind the European Union and its largest economy, Germany, with its aid to Ukraine. The United States has pledged support worth a good 73 billion euros since January 2022, according to a study by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) published on Tuesday. For the EU as a whole, the comparable value is 54.9 billion euros. “The Americans set the pace in supporting Ukraine,” said IfW expert Christoph Trebusch. “The hesitation of the Europeans in the first year of the war is a remarkable phenomenon, especially since financial resources can be mobilized quickly.”

This is shown, for example, by the amount of financial aid that governments have provided to cushion the energy price shock in their own country. Since the beginning of last year, Germany alone has announced more than 250 billion euros in subsidies to cushion the rise in energy prices for consumers and companies. In contrast, the bilateral aid pledges to Ukraine totaled only 6.15 billion euros. In addition, a proportion of 7.2 billion euros would come from the EU. “Together that’s only five percent of the announced energy aid,” says the IfW. Other EU countries also pledged large domestic energy packages – on average 10 times the amount they have given to support Ukraine.