+ Ukraine war in the news blog + | Ukraine uses “smart” bombs

Day 400 since the beginning of the war: The Kremlin rules out an early end to the war. Olaf Scholz calls for the prosecution of Butscha’s war crimes. All information in the news blog.

7:48 p.m.: The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann does not consider a ceasefire to be the ultimate solution in the Ukraine war. Such a scenario alone is certainly not enough. “Putin would rebuild his army to attack again,” the chairwoman of the Bundestag’s defense committee told the Westdeutsche Zeitung (Saturday), referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “In 2014 he was not yet militarily able to do so. He has used the time since then because he registered that the West reacted little or not at all to its attack on the Donbass,” she said, referring to the conflicts in eastern Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

In her view, there must be a peace treaty, emphasized Strack-Zimmermann. “After this destruction, this unbelievable toll of blood, there is no other way. How would you explain anything else to the descendants of the victims?”. Under no circumstances should there be a dictated peace. Because history teaches that a dictated peace would only have resulted in more wars. “It must come down to Putin withdrawing his army and restoring Ukraine’s borders, including Crimea under international law,” emphasized the FDP politician.

7:13 p.m.: The countries on NATO’s eastern flank are demanding an increased US military presence in their region. “We must work to increase the US presence in our region on the eastern flank in terms of troops and equipment,” Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said after talks with his counterparts from the so-called Bucharest Nine (B9) in Lodz, Poland.

The ministers of the NATO states of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia reiterated their call to promote defense capabilities in the region bordering Ukraine. “If we have a strong defense, then we are able to provide a strong deterrent to Russia’s destabilizing and aggressive behavior,” Aurescu said. “It’s the only language that Russia understands.”

Among other things, the Romanian politician called for “more air defence, more anti-missile capacities in our areas”. In addition, there must be more means of surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence.

7:09 p.m.: As part of military aid from the West, so-called smart bombs are now available to the Ukrainian Air Force. “We now have bombs called JDAM,” Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat said on television on Friday. In principle, JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) are conversion kits developed in the USA for conventional bombs which, thanks to a navigation system, become highly precise weapons.

“These bombs are a little less powerful, but they are extremely accurate,” said Ihnat. “We would like to have more of these bombs to be successful at the front.”

5:58 p.m.: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved loan assistance to Ukraine worth $15.6 billion over four years. It is the largest loan for Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022. It is also the first time the IMF has approved a larger package for a country at war. Western creditors – including Germany – cleared hurdles to IMF aid about a week ago.

4:55 p.m.: Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebensia has denied allegations by Ukraine and the International Criminal Court (ICC) that his country is abducting children from Ukraine. Rather, they were evacuated from combat zones in accordance with international humanitarian law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Nebensja told the TASS news agency. “In this way, millions of people were evacuated, including children, who in the vast majority of cases reach Russian territory together with their parents, guardians and legal guardians.”