Ukraine war in the Newsblog ++ Britain wants to deliver 600 more missiles to Ukraine

Day 330 since war began: Special Court called to investigate alleged war crimes. Russia warns against arms deliveries. All information in the news blog.

6.35 p.m.: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is pessimistic about Germany’s permission for other countries to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks. “I’m moderately skeptical, moderately pessimistic, because the Germans are fighting back like a devil against holy water,” says Morawiecki. Poland says a broad coalition of supplier countries is a condition for the delivery of 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

5:23 p.m.: The UK on Thursday announced it would deliver 600 Brimstone missiles to Ukraine. The anti-tank weapon will be “incredibly important in helping Ukraine dominate the battlefield,” British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said after a donors’ conference with several of his colleagues in Tapa, Estonia. Just a few days ago, London announced the delivery of British Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Denmark announced that it would deliver 19 French-made Caesar howitzers to Ukraine. According to the Danish Defense Ministry, Kyiv requested the artillery despite certain technical challenges.

For its part, the Estonian government announced that it would provide Ukraine with its “largest military aid package to date”. The armaments with a total value of around 113 million euros include anti-tank weapons and ammunition. The package would increase Estonian military aid to Ukraine to 370 million euros “or just over 1 percent of Estonia’s gross domestic product,” it said.

4:34 p.m.: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has threatened the West with a nuclear strike. “The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war can trigger a nuclear war,” Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on the Telegram messenger service on Thursday. “Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” added Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012. In the past few months, he had repeatedly threatened the western states that Russia would take drastic steps if they increased their military aid to Ukraine.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, made a similar statement. “We pray to the Lord to bring the madmen to their senses and help them understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world,” he said in a sermon. The leadership in Moscow repeatedly emphasizes that the West, and above all the USA, wanted to destroy Russia. Western governments vehemently disagree. Just help Ukraine defend itself against a war started by Moscow on February 24, 2022.

Asked whether Medvedev’s comments mean that Russia is taking the crisis to a new level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No, it absolutely doesn’t mean that.” Medvedev’s comments are fully consistent with Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which “[allows]a nuclear strike after an “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the existence of the state itself is threatened.”

3:23 p.m.: According to a report in the “Handelsblatt”, the armaments group Rheinmetall is preparing to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine. From the older Leopard 1 model, 20 main battle tanks could be re-equipped this year and another 80 within 20 months, the newspaper reports, citing industry circles. Read more about it here.

3pm: Russia warns Ukraine not to attack Crimea. “The mere discussion of arming Ukraine to attack Russian territory is dangerous,” Russian Presidential Office spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press. “This means a new level of conflict and does not bode well for world and European security.” Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014. This is not recognized internationally. The New York Times reported that the United States might warm to the idea of ​​helping Ukraine attack Crimea.