Ukraine War Newsblog| Selenskyj received with applause in the European Parliament

Day 351 since the beginning of the war: SPD leader Klingbeil calls for diplomatic initiatives. President Selenskyj meets Chancellor Scholz in Paris. All information in the news blog.

1:12 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on European leaders to deliver fighter jets and other weapons. Ukraine “really needs ammunition, modern tanks, long-range missiles and combat aircraft,” said Zelenskyy at the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. “We have to be faster than the attacker,” he warned the member states.

11.11 a.m.: The European Parliament gave the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj an enthusiastic welcome. MEPs rose from their seats on Thursday and applauded the head of state. Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola emphasized that Ukraine is fighting for European values. “The future of your nation is in the European Union,” Metsola said to Zelenskyy.

7.45 a.m.: The Russian mercenary group Wagner says it has stopped recruiting prisoners for the fight in Ukraine. Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said this procedure had been stopped altogether in response to a request from a Russian media company published on social media.

The Wagner Group began recruiting prisoners in the summer of 2022. Prigozhin, a catering entrepreneur who served nine years in Soviet-era prison, offered them a pardon for six months of military service in combat in Ukraine. The private military company, which has played an increasingly prominent role in Russia’s war in Ukraine in recent months, has not disclosed how many convicts it has taken on board. According to US information, around 50,000 Wagner mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine. Among them are said to be 40,000 prisoners recruited from Russian prisons.

2.45 a.m.: Tesla boss Elon Musk’s US satellite internet service Starlink is taking steps to block Ukraine from using the system to control drones in its war against Russia. The supply of the network was “never intended to be used as a weapon,” says Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of the manufacturer SpaceX. According to the contract, Starlink is only intended for humanitarian purposes, such as providing broadband internet to hospitals, banks and families affected by the Russian invasion. “We know the military uses Starlink for communications, and that’s fine. But it was never our intention for it to be used for offensive purposes.” Shotwell declined to give details of the measures.

1.25 a.m.: The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany and current Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has again criticized negotiations with Moscow. He published an alleged excerpt of a school book on Twitter. This already includes the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Cherson and Zaporizhia as Russian territory. “What should be negotiated with Moscow?” he wrote angrily.

1.10 a.m.: Almost a year after the Russian attack on Ukraine, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil is pushing for diplomatic initiatives to end the war. “It annoys me how the term diplomacy is often almost despised in the political debate,” Klingbeil told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “For me, military strength and diplomacy are two sides of the same coin.” Germany is out of the question as a mediator because it is “unreservedly” on the side of Ukraine. “We have to get away from the fact that the debates about arms deliveries are overturning.” There is dwindling acceptance among the German population when battle tanks are discussed immediately after armored personnel carriers and immediately afterwards about fighter jets. The Chancellor’s “clear statement” applies: “There will be no fighter jets.”