MURMANSK REGION, RUSSIA FEBRUARY 10, 2022: A Mikoyan MiG-29KUB carrier-based multirole trainer aircraft of the Russian Northern Fleet s naval aviation lands at the Severomorsk-3 airfield while performing training flights over the Barents Sea and the Kola Peninsula. Lev Fedoseyev/TASS PUBLICATIONxINxGERxAUTxONLY TS1225BE

According to media reports, Russia is relocating three fighter jets to Kaliningrad. The state news agency RIA quotes the Russian Ministry of Defense as saying that the MIG-31 are ready for action around the clock in the Baltic Sea exclave. According to Interfax, the jets are equipped with Kinzhal supersonic missiles. The enclave borders on the EU and NATO states of Lithuania and Poland. (Reuters)

Russia rejects UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ proposal to demilitarize the area around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops. This is unacceptable, says Moscow Foreign Ministry spokesman Ivan Nechaev. The nuclear power plant is located near the course of the front. Projectiles have repeatedly fallen on the site in recent days, fueling fears of a nuclear catastrophe. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the facility. (Reuters)

A number of Russian opponents of the war are in Limassol on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and are being confronted with attempts at intimidation. However, they do not want to be intimidated by this. “Threats of this kind are common in Russia,” says activist Evgeny Elesin about posters with the faces of nine Russian opponents of the war, which were provided with black ribbons.

The posters were put up by unknown persons on Limassol’s seafront promenade and later removed by the police. Russian opponents of the war regularly protest in Limassol, and the nine people pictured take part. “These threats cannot stop us,” explains Elesin. (Reuters)

The Russian military leadership appears to be increasingly losing confidence in the peninsula’s security after the recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian military assets in Crimea. According to Russian media reports, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet currently stationed in Crimea has been replaced. The Institute for the Study of War suspects that the Russian armed forces have been put on high alert by the attacks and have undertaken a restructuring of troop composition, logistics and command accordingly. (tsp)

Ahead of a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a military hospital in Lviv. Zelenskyi spoke to the wounded and doctors in the western Ukrainian city, according to photos released by his press service on Thursday. He praised the fighters as “heroes”.

“Russia will not win this war. Thank you for protecting the Ukrainian land,” Zelenskyy said, according to a message on his Telegram channel. The 44-year-old awarded medals to several soldiers. (dpa)

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has arrived in Ukraine for a two-day visit. Guterres visited the western city of Lviv on Thursday. According to the UN, a meeting planned there with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan will primarily deal with the implementation of the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports. (AFP)

According to official information, at least eleven people were killed in massive Russian rocket attacks on the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine on Thursday night. The Ukrainian military governor, Oleh Synyehubov, told the Telegram news service that these were exclusively civilians. Another 35 people were injured. There were also attacks in the city of Krasnohrad, around 80 kilometers to the south-west. According to the authorities, two people were killed and two others injured. The information could not initially be verified independently.

According to the authorities, at least three civilians were killed and another six injured in towns in the neighboring region of Donetsk, which are under Ukraine’s control. The pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region also report deaths and injuries from rocket attacks on an almost daily basis. The Russian war of aggression on the neighboring country has now lasted almost half a year. The United Nations has registered more than 5,500 civilian deaths, but assumes the number of victims to be far higher. (dpa)

An aid network for third-country nationals who have fled Ukraine has called for extended residence permits for this group of people. Nationwide, the visa-free stay in Germany for these people will expire at the end of August. A follow-up regulation is missing, criticized Juliane Gebel from the Berlin aid organization “BIPoC Ukraine and Friends” in the “tageszeitung” (Thursday).

Gebel called a corresponding decision by the Berlin Senate on Tuesday not sufficient. War refugees from third countries who have studied in Ukraine receive a residence permit extended by six months. According to the organization, it looks after so-called “people of colour”, including students and families who fled Ukraine after February 24. “BIPoC” stands for “Black, Indigenous and People of Color”.

Gebel emphasized that it was largely unrealistic to meet the requirements for a place at university within six months. Among other things, she referred to the requirement for proof of language proficiency and a blocked account of 11,000 euros, which foreign students must prove. She also criticized the fact that the Berlin Senate decision only affected students. (epd)

In connection with the shelling of the southern Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia, Russia warns that radioactive material could reach Germany, Poland and Slovakia if an accident occurs. The Ministry of Defense announced that the backup systems of the nuclear power plant were damaged by the shelling. If the Ukrainian armed forces continue to shell the plant, the nuclear power plant may be shut down. The nuclear power plant was captured by Russian troops in March. It has come under fire several times in recent weeks. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for this. (Reuters)

Four people were killed in Russian attacks on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and nearby Krasnograd, according to Ukrainian sources. According to regional governor Oleg Synegubov, 20 other people were injured in the artillery shelling early Thursday morning, including children. Several residential buildings were badly damaged. The attack came just hours before UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were expected for talks in western Ukraine.

Seven people were killed in a Russian attack on Kharkiv on Wednesday. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke of a “disgraceful and cynical attack on civilians” that was “completely unjustified” and showed the “powerlessness of the aggressor”. (AFP)

According to British intelligence services, Russia has problems protecting its main battle tanks in the war of aggression against Ukraine. The severe damage to many Russian vehicles in Ukraine is most likely related to the fact that the tanks are not well enough protected with so-called reactive armor, according to a statement by the Ministry of Defense in London on Thursday. According to the information, such protective covers can protect tanks from damage in the event of a fire.

The secret services therefore assume that many Russian troops are not sufficiently trained in handling such protective covers. That’s why they aren’t attached to the tanks at all – or at least not in such a way that they could deter explosive projectiles. Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February, the British government has regularly published intelligence information on its progress. Moscow accuses London of a targeted disinformation campaign. (dpa)

A young Russian influencer died in a landmine explosion in the Donetsk region. This was reported by the Russian news agency Interfax. First, the “mirror” had picked up the information.

In pro-Russian groups, 25-year-old Zemfira Suleymanova is hailed as a “peace activist”. According to Interfax, she was a reporter for the Russian state broadcaster “Russia Today”, but the broadcaster itself denied this.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine is preparing a “provocation” during the planned visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on Thursday. In the Russian-controlled nuclear power plant and in its vicinity there are no heavy Russian weapons, the ministry also said in a statement distributed by the state news agency RIA. (Reuters)

According to human rights activists in Russian prisons, volunteers are being specifically sought for Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The Russian civil rights activist Olga Romanowa, who lives in Berlin, reported on Facebook that suspects and accused were also recruited with the promise that in return the criminal proceedings would be dropped. There are examples from detention centers in the Moscow region. “But I think it started everywhere,” wrote Romanova, who is considered a respected expert on prisoner’s rights in Russia.

There is no general mobilization in Russia for the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for almost half a year. That is why the army and President Vladimir Putin depend on volunteers. A sign of a shortage of personnel at the front is that the authorities in many regions have started using street advertising to promote a mission in Ukraine. Cities and regions set up their own battalions. (dpa)