Ukraine war in Newsblog | Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin: “We will simply destroy everyone”

Day 425 since the beginning of the war: The fighting in eastern Ukraine continues. Moscow threatens Kiev to suspend the grain agreement. All information in the blog.

04:51: A new round of sanctions by the European Union (EU) against Russia is not likely until the end of next month, according to Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau. “It’s all still in the discussion phase,” says Rau. The adoption of an eleventh package of sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago is not expected until “late May”. Poland this month tabled a proposal for new sanctions against Russia, including a ban on further oil and diamond imports.

00:56: Around three and a half weeks before the international agreement on grain exports from Ukraine expired, Russia again threatened to end the agreement. “Terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime threaten a renewed extension of the ‘grain deal’ after May 18,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday night. Specifically, Russia, which itself launched the war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, accuses the neighboring country of having used drones to attack the base of the Russian Black Sea fleet on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in March and April. Initially, there was no reaction from Kiev.

It’s a sinister threat, as Ukraine is one of the country’s top agricultural exporters, raising fears of a massive spike in food prices and, as a result, a hunger crisis in the poorest countries. Russia repeatedly threatens to rupture the grain agreement, which was last extended by 60 days in mid-March – albeit with changing arguments.

7:02 p.m.: For Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, Ukraine’s fate is intertwined with that of her country. “There will be no free Belarus without a free Ukraine, and there will also be no safe Ukraine without a free Belarus,” she said on Monday in Berlin, according to a previously distributed speech at an event organized by the FDP-affiliated Friedrich Naumann Foundation. She is proud that hundreds of Belarusian volunteers fought alongside Ukraine.

At least 18 volunteers from the neighboring country, which is officially considered an ally of Russia, said they lost their lives defending Ukraine. But the fight goes on in her home country too. Many activists joined the opposition movement. Tichanovskaya emphasized: “In 2022 alone, Belarusian railway partisans committed 80 acts of sabotage to stop Russian troops.”

These Belarusians have shown that they stand with Ukraine and do not support war. “It is therefore important to distinguish between (Alexander) Lukashenko’s regime, which supports Russia’s genocidal war, and the Belarusian people, who together with the Ukrainians are fighting back against the warmongering empire,” said Tichanovskaya in the “17th Berlin Speech on Freedom “.

6:57 p.m.: The EU and Ukraine will in future mutually recognize court decisions in civil and commercial matters. EU countries voted on Monday to establish relations under the relevant international treaty with Ukraine, the Council of Member States said.

It is believed that there are no fundamental obstacles to this in the country attacked by Russia – for example with regard to the independence of the judiciary, respect for fundamental rights and the fight against corruption.

The Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters enters into force on 1 September. It obliges the contracting parties to recognize and enforce decisions from other contracting states. Ukraine ratified the agreement in 2022. Monday’s decision is “an important instrument for facilitating international trade,” it said.