++ Ukraine war in Newsblog ++ Report on night air raids: Injured in Mykolaiv

Day 443 since the beginning of the war: Two rockets have landed in Luhansk. Volodymyr Zelenskyj calls for sanctions against Russia’s defense industry. All information in the blog.

8:09 a.m.: It could lead to a further escalation of the Ukraine war: A CDU politician calls for the attacked country to be provided with long-range weapon systems. Read more about it here.

7.30 am: According to “Spiegel”, the federal government has put together another arms package for Ukraine. In the coming weeks and months, the country should receive weapons worth around 2.7 billion euros, according to the magazine. The list also includes 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 30 Leopard 1 tanks, 15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, 200 reconnaissance drones, four Iris-T anti-aircraft systems, as well as ammunition and vehicles.

The package should be announced parallel to the presentation of the Aachen Charlemagne Prize to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj on Sunday. It is unclear whether Selenskyj will come to the award ceremony.

6.30 a.m: According to information from Moscow, Russian troops have withdrawn from an area north of the embattled city of Bakhmut after Ukrainian attacks. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenko said the troops repelled 26 Ukrainian attacks but cleared one area to regroup.

The head of the Russian private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, spoke of a defeat. Ukraine has occupied a hill in front of the city and is in control of the main road to Bakhmut. A spokesman for the Eastern Group of Ukrainian Armed Forces said its troops “liberated an area of ​​17.3 square kilometers in three days of counter-offensive”.

5.55 a.m.: According to the Kyivindependent, the military administration of the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine reported explosions in the early hours of the morning. Residents have been asked to stay in emergency shelters. At around 3 a.m. local time, air raid alerts were sounded in many Ukrainian regions

According to the report, in the early morning hours of May 13, Ukrainian air defenses were deployed in Kiev and in the southern region of Mykolaiv. Three people were injured in a Russian attack on Mykolaiv in the early hours of the morning, the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, reported on Telegram.

3.22 a.m.: Estonia has called on countries like Germany, France and Italy to allocate significantly more money to support Ukraine. The goal should be to reach one percent of gross domestic product, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told the German Press Agency on the sidelines of a two-day EU meeting in Sweden. Estonia is more than one percent, although it is not that big a country. “We know it’s possible,” he said.

1.32 a.m.: Before the possible visit of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj to Germany this weekend, the chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs, Michael Roth, is pleading for the country’s prospects of joining NATO. “The next NATO summit in Vilnius in July must send out a clear signal as to how Ukraine’s path towards reliable security guarantees with the aim of NATO membership can look like,” the SPD politician told the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” (Saturday). “Our goal must be that Russia never again threatens or challenges the security, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

12:21 a.m.: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba about the ongoing preparations for a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Russian war of aggression. In a phone call on Friday, the two discussed how international partners could best contribute to the success of the offensive, the US State Department said. Blinken once again pointed out that Ukraine’s sovereignty is of crucial importance for security and peace in Europe.