The Kiev secret service admits the attack on the Crimean bridge – the night update without photos Kiev asks Berlin for cruise missiles – the night update without photos

Selenskyj thanks Germany

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Germany for the continued supply of various defense equipment and weapons. This would strengthen anti-aircraft and overall defenses against Russian terror, Zelenskyj said in his evening video message distributed in Kiev on Saturday. He gave no details. He also thanked Finland for a new defense package, as well as Canada and Iceland.

New sanctions against Russia

At the same time, he announced even tougher sanctions against Russia to end the country’s war against Ukraine. “Today is another day of sanctions,” Zelenskyj said. He listed 220 companies and 51 people as those who “work for terror”. Most are arms factories associated with Russian companies. “Companies that serve the war.” Not all of them are active on Russian soil. “But everyone will get the global pressure,” he said.

Ukrainian authorities collected data on all those who supported the war in Russia and campaigned for their punishment, including at the international level. “Russia will gain nothing and lose everything. This will happen to anyone who helps him in this terror,” Zelenskyj said. He thanked Japan for issuing a new package of sanctions this week. The EU already has ten packages of sanctions against Russia in force. Meanwhile, there is great concern in the West that Russia will circumvent the punitive measures with the help of third countries and will therefore hardly come under pressure.

Despite noticeable problems and economic disadvantages, Russia insists that the sanctions cannot stop the war in Ukraine. The country insists on achieving its war goals. The raw materials superpower earns billions from the sale of oil and gas to China, for example, which also benefits the country’s war economy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that the ever-new sanctions will ultimately make the country stronger.

Ukraine reacts negatively to Russian demands

Meanwhile, Ukraine again flatly rejected Russian calls for possible negotiations to end the war. The civilized world must recognize that “Putin and his clique” are not legitimate representatives of Russia on the international stage, said Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podoliak. “Therefore there is nothing to discuss with them,” he wrote on Twitter. Russia must be removed from all international institutions. “If the regime changes, we will talk to the successors.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galusin had previously made seven demands for peace with Ukraine. For example, he called the end of Ukrainian hostilities and the cessation of Western arms supplies to the country. In addition, Ukraine should refrain from joining NATO and the EU, he told the Russian state news agency Tass. A new requirement is that Ukraine must also allow Russian as an official language.

Podoljak described the demands as further proof of the “incompetence of the Russian leadership”. He, in turn, tweeted Kiev’s demands for peace talks, including the withdrawal of all Russian soldiers from the territory of Ukraine and the transfer of all “war criminals” and “initiators of the war” to the country. There should be a demilitarized zone on Russian territory and fewer offensive weapons. In addition, Russia must pay reparations and disarm nuclear weapons.

Kiev’s secret service admits involvement in the attack on the Crimean bridge

More than seven months after the explosion on the Crimean bridge, Ukrainian intelligence chief Wassyl Maljuk officially confirmed Kiev’s involvement for the first time. “Since this is a logistical route that we had to cut off from the enemy, appropriate measures were taken,” the head of the SBU domestic intelligence agency said in a YouTube interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Komarov. He did not give details about the operation. Pictures of the fire on the bridge following the explosion on October 8 – the night after Putin’s 70th birthday – went around the world.

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The bridge, which was closed for days but has now been repaired, which leads from the Russian mainland to the Crimea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, is considered a key supply route for the war against Ukraine. Malyuk said Ukraine was acting in accordance with “war traditions”.

He also stated that at the beginning of the Russian offensive war more than 15 months ago, the SBU secret service formed a special unit for acts of sabotage on Ukrainian territory against the enemy and for repelling such attacks by the enemy. The October drone strikes against warships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol Bay were also part of a special SBU operation jointly with the Ukrainian armed forces, he said.

What will be important on Sunday

The head of Wagner’s Russian private army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says he is continuing to withdraw his mercenaries from the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. He reiterated on Saturday that the city must be completely handed over to the Russian army by June 1. The Wagner troops then have to recover and prepare for new combat missions. At the same time, Ukraine is still not giving up on the city. In his video address, President Selenskyj praised the fighting spirit of the soldiers who want to further liberate Bakhmut. (con/sda/dpa)