Russia is sticking to the announced stationing of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and wants to position them on the border with the NATO state of Poland. This was announced by the Russian ambassador in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday. The bunkers required for storing the weapons should therefore be completed by July 1st. While a series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities claimed the lives of several civilians, a Russian military blogger was killed in a bomb attack in Saint Petersburg. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck arrived in Kiev on Monday morning for political talks.
Russia’s ambassador in Minsk, Boris Gryzlov, praised the fact that the planned stationing of nuclear weapons in Belarus had already caused “a lot of noise” in Western media. “It’s finally being considered that there should be a certain parity,” he said, referring to the allegation by the Russian leadership that the United States had stationed its own nuclear weapons in Europe and thus provoked Moscow.
Putin is sticking to the announced stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Photo: Sputnik/Keystone
An analysis by the US Institute for War Studies (ISW) said a week ago that Putin wants to stir up fears of a nuclear escalation in the West in order to break support for Ukraine, for example in the delivery of heavy weapons. According to the ISW assessment, it is still “very unlikely that Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine or anywhere else”. According to the ISW, Putin’s step was already announced before the war in Ukraine. By stationing nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia is above all cementing its influence in the ex-Soviet republic.
Zelensky wants military victory over “evil state”
After the new series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities with more civilian casualties, President Volodymyr Zelensky described his country’s military victory as the “only way” to safety. At least eight people died in Russian artillery attacks in the east of the country on Sunday. “There is only one way to stop Russian terror and restore security to all our cities and towns – from Sumi to Donbass, from Kharkiv to Kherson, from Kiev to Yalta, and that way is Ukraine’s military victory,” said Selenski on Sunday in his nightly video speech. “There is no other way, and there can be no other way.”
Destruction after rocket fire in Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region. (April 2, 2023)
Photo: AFP
For the “evil state” of Russia, it has become normal to shoot at houses with rocket launchers, fire rockets at cities, and bomb villages and innocent people. This state must be completely defeated – militarily, economically, politically and legally. “The first point is the military one,” said Zelensky. And we are working towards this goal.
Russian military blogger killed in explosion
A Russian military blogger was killed in an explosion at a café in the center of Russia’s Baltic Sea metropolis of Saint Petersburg on Sunday. Another 30 people were injured when the explosive device detonated, six of them seriously, the state agency TASS reported. The 40-year-old journalist and blogger using the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarskij, who comes from Donbass in eastern Ukraine, was killed on the spot.
According to officially unconfirmed media reports, Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, had invited to a “patriotic evening” in the “Stritfud-Bar No.1” cafe on Sunday. The restaurant is linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, as Prigozhin himself said via Telegram. He left the café to a “patriotic movement”, which in turn used it for various events.
According to the investigators’ initial findings, the explosive device was built into a bust that Tatarsky was presented with as a gift at the meeting, sources in Moscow said. The gift – eyewitnesses reported of a gilded bust of the military blogger – was presented to him by a young woman, local media wrote.
Kiev: Heavy fighting continues in the east of the country
Meanwhile, heavy fighting between Russian attackers and Ukrainian soldiers continued in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. The towns of Liman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marjinka were once again at the heart of the fighting, as the general staff in Kiev announced in its daily situation report. A total of around 50 Russian attacks were repelled during the day. The information could not be independently verified.
In Bachmut, the situation is still “very tense,” wrote Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar on Facebook. In addition to forces from the Wagner mercenary unit, the enemy is now also deploying paratrooper units there. “The enemy is not deterred by the exorbitant loss of personnel, the decisions are made emotionally.” The defenders’ reaction was “competent and taking into account all circumstances, tasks and the principle of military expediency,” emphasized Maljar. “We trust in our military.”
Aerial view of Bakhmut on March 26, 2023.
Photo: Keystone
Zelensky said six people were killed and eleven others injured in Russian artillery attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka near Bakhmut on Sunday. In addition, two civilians were killed in a grenade launcher attack in Konotop in the Sumi region.
Habeck wants to support Ukraine in reconstruction
Vice Chancellor Habeck arrived in Kiev on Monday morning with a small delegation of German business representatives. Topics of the trip are the reconstruction of the Ukraine attacked by Russia and cooperation in the energy sector. “Concrete investment decisions” have either already been made or should still be made, explained the Green politician.
What does the day bring?
While Habeck is holding talks in Kiev, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting Romania and meeting the EU country’s heads of state and Moldovan President Maia Sandu. Moldova was recently caught up in the political maelstrom of the Russian war against Ukraine. Since the 1990s, Russian soldiers have been stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistria, which Moscow calls peacekeepers. (SDA)
