The situation in the Ukraine war continues to deteriorate – militarily, diplomatically and humanitarianly: the news ticker on Thursday.
- Russia uses cluster munitions: The use of the weapon is internationally banned.
- Evacuations from Mariupol: UN Secretary-General comments on plans in Ukraine war
- New escalation level: The Russian President Wladimir Putin apparently planning martial law in Russia to impose.
- All developments and news in the Ukraine conflict in our news ticker: This is continuously updated.
+++ 10.32 a.m.: According to information from the US broadcaster CNN, the Ukrainian military has admitted Russian advances in some areas in eastern Ukraine. However, the extent of the progress is difficult to measure. In its daily situation report, the General Staff said Russian forces had crossed the Siverskiy Donets River towards Lyman in the Donetsk region. Lyman is a city northeast of Sloviansk, one of the strategic destinations of Russia. Several bridges across the river had been destroyed in previous fighting.
Ukraine war: Occupied territory wants to “ask” Russia for annexation
+++ 09.20 a.m.: The Kherson region of Ukraine apparently wants to ask Russia to annex the area, reports the Moscow Times news portal. The Russian military took control of the Kherson region at the end of April, replaced the Ukrainian leadership with a pro-Moscow “military-civilian administration” and completed the conversion to the Russian ruble. So far, the Kremlin has neither confirmed nor denied plans to annex Kherson. The decision should be “with the residents of the region.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the process will be “absolutely clear and legitimate,” drawing parallels with Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 after a referendum later invalidated by the United Nations General Assembly.
Ukraine war: Russia uses banned cluster munitions
Update from Thursday, May 12, 06:15: According to a report by the organization Human Rights Watch, the Russian armed forces have used internationally banned cluster munitions in Ukraine. As a result, hundreds of civilians died and schools, residential buildings and hospitals were damaged, the human rights organization reported on Thursday in Geneva. The Ukrainian army also used such ammunition at least once.
There is an international treaty that has banned the use, stockpiling, trade and production of cluster munitions since 2010 (Cluster Munitions Convention). Strictly speaking, however, only the 110 contracting states are bound by it. Russia and Ukraine are not among them. Nonetheless, the widespread condemnation of so many countries has made the use of these weapons internationally outlawed.
Cluster munitions can be dropped by ground missiles or from aircraft. These are bombs, some of which contain hundreds of smaller bombs, and explode in mid-air. The ammunition spreads indiscriminately over a large area. Ammunition that fails to detonate initially can lie on the ground for years and is as dangerous as unexploded landmines.
Ukraine war: no hope for fighters in Mariupol? US anticipates martial law in Russia
+++ 7.20 p.m.: According to the Ukrainian authorities, there is currently little hope of the liberation of the occupied port of Mariupol on the Azov Sea, where over 1,000 Ukrainian fighters have been holding out in a steel mill for weeks. “As of today, such a deblocking operation would require a significant number of troops because Ukrainian forces are 150-200 kilometers from Mariupol,” Deputy Chief of General Staff Oleksiy Hromov said on Wednesday (May 11). Such an operation would also claim many victims.
+++ 4.15 p.m.: The US secret service surprised on Tuesday afternoon with the assessment that Vladimir Putin was probably planning to impose martial law in Russia. In this way, the president can justify further war investments domestically, according to Avril Haines, director of the secret service. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the allegations on Wednesday. “No, that’s not in the plans,” he said. This is reported by the US broadcaster CNN. Peskov also asserted that Russia’s domestic political situation was very stable.
Ukraine War: New evacuations planned from Mariupol
+++ 3.45 p.m.: According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, new evacuations are planned from Mariupol. “We are in contact with the authorities in Ukraine and Russia to push similar initiatives forward,” Guterres said at a joint press conference with Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.
+++ 3 p.m.: The Mariupol steel mill is still under fire. According to a representative of the Azov regiment fighting there, the second “hospital” underground at the site has already been destroyed. This is reported by the news portal Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine War: New military alliance between Sweden and Great Britain
+++ 2.30 p.m.: Great Britain forms a military alliance with Sweden with immediate effect. This was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to Scandinavia. In this context, he signed a “political declaration of solidarity”. In it, the states promise to strengthen military relations and to help each other in the event of an attack. Great Britain apparently also wants to sign a similar declaration with Finland. Johnson will then travel to Finnish President Sauli Niinistö. Johnson also said on Wednesday afternoon that more British troops would be sent to Scandinavia for stability. “This is not a short-term stopgap, but a long-term commitment to strengthening military ties and global stability, as well as strengthening Europe’s defenses for generations to come,” the prime minister said.
+++ 2 p.m.: The authorities deployed by Moscow in Kherson want to ask Russia to annex the Ukrainian region. The authorities would submit a request to make the region captured by Russian troops a “full part of the Russian Federation,” Deputy Head of the Kherson Military and Civil Administration Kirill Stremusov told Russian news agencies on Wednesday.
+++ 1 p.m.: The losses for Russia in the Ukraine war are piling up. According to Ukraine, more than 25,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war broke out. According to British experts, the number could be much higher, “up to three to four times” as high, according to Justin Bronk, who works at the independent research institute “Royal United Services Institute” in Great Britain. If the Russian army’s losses in the Ukraine war were to include the wounded (and thus disabled) soldiers, as well as prisoners and missing persons, then the number “after the second two weeks of heavy fighting would definitely be 50,000 to 60,000 victims”. Bronk told Britain’s Daily Mail.
Ukraine war: Medvedev accuses USA of proxy war against Russia
+++ 12.00 p.m.: Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian President, has accused the US of a proxy war. He referred to the aid package for Ukraine approved by the US House of Representatives. It amounts to around 40 billion US dollars. The approved package aims to reduce Russia’s influence in the world, Medvedev told Telegram.
+++ 11.30 a.m.: Russia says it destroyed more than a dozen command posts and ammunition depots in Ukraine on Wednesday night. “Rocket forces and artillery units shelled 407 areas with concentrations of troops and military equipment, destroying 13 command posts, 4 Ossa-AKM rocket launcher positions and 14 ammunition depots,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow.
Ukraine War: Heavy fighting for “Snake Island” in the Black Sea
+++ 11.00 a.m.: The “Snake Island” in the Black Sea is still contested. According to an assessment by the British Ministry of Defense, fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops continues. Accordingly, Russia is currently trying to strengthen the troops on the ground. If Russia strengthens its position on the island with strategic anti-aircraft defenses and cruise missiles for coastal defense, it could dominate the northwestern Black Sea, the morning’s situation report said. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, there are fears that the Russian army might want to take over the entire Ukrainian Black Sea coast (including the city of Odessa) after the “Snake Island”.
Ukraine war: new data on Russia’s heavy losses
+++ 10.15 a.m.: Statistics on Russian losses were again published by the Ukrainian General Staff. According to this, 26,350 soldiers from Russia’s army have apparently been killed in the Ukraine war so far. According to the General Staff, this is an estimated value. The information cannot be independently verified. Russia has not yet commented on the latest data. However, significantly lower figures have been reported from the Kremlin in recent weeks, with President Putin surprisingly admitting heavy losses in his speech on May 9th.
Ukraine war: US send fighter jets to Crete
+++ 09.45 a.m.: The US is apparently sending 24 fighter jets to Crete to increase its presence in the eastern Mediterranean. By the end of July, ten US Air Force “F-35” stealth jets and 14 “F-15” fighter bombers are to be relocated to a base in West Crete/Souda Bay – together with around 500 pilots and technicians. This is reported by the Athens newspaper Kathimerini, citing circles in the Greek Defense Ministry. The deal is based on a new agreement between Greece and the United States. From the location in Crete, the US Air Force can probably operate in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
+++ 09.00 a.m.: Belarus wants to station special forces in three areas near its southern border with Ukraine. The armed forces said so on Tuesday, while President Alexander Lukashenko highlighted the role of Russian-made missiles in strengthening the country’s defenses. As recently as March, Belarus had declared that its armed forces would not take part in what Moscow called a “special operation” invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine war: Russia is two weeks behind schedule for invasion
+++ 07.45 a.m.: Putin is two weeks behind his war plans in the Ukrainian Donbas and southern Ukraine. The Pentagon reports. As the Kyiv Independent news portal reports, a senior Defense Ministry official said at a closed press conference on May 10 that Russia is currently about two weeks behind schedule, “what [Putin] would like to see”.
Ukraine War: One dead in Russian attack in south-east
First report from Wednesday, May 11, 6:15 a.m.: At least one person was killed and eight others injured in new Russian attacks near the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia on Tuesday evening. According to the regional administration, mainly residential buildings in Orekhovo were hit, Ukrajinska Pravda reported. Because of the intensity of the shelling, the delivery of humanitarian aid to the town was temporarily interrupted. The information could not be independently verified.
(dil/ktho/tu/nak/ska with AFP/dpa)
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