Ukraine: Putin ready to extend conflict
Von dpa, afp, Reuters, t-online
Updated on 03/15/2023 – 19:35Reading time: 27 min.
Shocking footage: satellite images and drone videos show how little remains of Bakhmut after weeks of fighting. (What: t-online)
Day 383 since the beginning of the war: After the drone incident over the Black Sea, tensions are increasing. Ukraine reports dozens of attacks on the Eastern Front. All information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
Kremlin blames US military for drone incident
7:34 p.m.: The Kremlin has blamed Washington for the crash of a US military drone over the Black Sea. “Perhaps those who are not entitled should not have flown there, then everything would have been clean,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian state television on Wednesday.
Earlier, the United States had made allegations, among other things, that Russian fighter jets had dumped fuel on the drone in order to bring it down. According to the Pentagon, the drone was traveling in international airspace.
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Klitschko: “Today, Putin doesn’t give a damn how he’s seen”
2:03 p.m.: Vitali Klitschko, mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, has warned Germany that Russian President Vladimir Putin could escalate his war. “Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet empire”, said Klitschko to the “Tagesspiegel”. The Russian President is not satisfied with Ukraine. “This war will continue to spread if Ukraine gives up its resistance to Russia,” says the 51-year-old.
“We hear how the Kremlin is openly discussing the future of Poland and the Baltic States,” Klitschko continued. For Putin, the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century. With the GDR, this also included a large part of Germany, in which Putin even worked as a KGB spy, Klitschko recalled. “Putin’s Russia will go as far as we allow it.”
The former boxing pro also reported on his only face-to-face meeting with the Russian President at an awards ceremony in Saint Petersburg in 2008. “At the time he was peaceful and listened to all sides,” Klitschko recalled. “He enjoyed being recognized internationally,” he continued. This has now changed fundamentally. “Today, Putin – as they say in good German – doesn’t give a damn how he’s seen.”
Russia’s oil revenues have shrunk by 42 percent since the start of the war
1:22 p.m.: Russia has sold about as much oil in the past 12 months as it did before the Ukraine war, but oil revenues have fallen by 42 percent. India and China in particular have been buying Russian oil at low prices, which is no longer being sold to traditional customers because of Western sanctions, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) published on Wednesday.
“In February, Russia took in about $11.6 billion, a year ago it was about $20 billion,” says the report. “This shows that the sanctions imposed by the G7 countries will not reduce the volume of crude oil and refined products, but will limit Russia’s ability to earn money from exports,” the IEA said.
Exports fell by only about 500,000 barrels a day to 7.5 million barrels a day. The approximately 4.5 million barrels per day that Russia exported to the EU, the USA and other OECD countries before the war have now found other buyers, especially in Asia. India and China are currently taking about 70 percent of Russia’s oil exports. African countries, Turkey and Middle Eastern countries were also among the customers.
Ukraine: Putin ready to escalate conflict
12:53 p.m.: According to a Ukrainian government official, the drone incident over the Black Sea shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to expand the conflict regionally. This was tweeted by the head of the National Security and Defense Council in Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov.
