PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - AUGUST 5, 2022: Russia s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov gives a press conference. Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS PUBLICATIONxINxGERxAUTxONLY TS13D00C

After the deadly attack on the daughter of an ultra-nationalist ideologue close to the Kremlin, Moscow announced that there would be “no mercy” for the murderers and the masterminds. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke in Moscow on Tuesday of a “barbaric crime” against Daria Dugina. “There can be no mercy for the organizers, clients and performers,” he added. Lavrov assumed that in the case “the investigation will hopefully be completed soon”.(AFP)

For Ukraine, Crimea is part of our people, our society.

Almost exactly six months to the day after the start of the war, the ball is rolling again in Ukraine. With the match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv, the highest Ukrainian football league resumed play on Tuesday afternoon. The date was no coincidence, on the official flag day, the footballers were supposed to provide some distraction for the war-torn Ukrainians.

But there was no question of carefree fun – which was not necessarily due to the goalless draw between Donetsk and Kharkiv. The Russian war of aggression, which has put the country in a state of emergency since February 24, was also omnipresent at the start of the league. Before the kick-off of the first game at Kiev’s Olympiysky Stadium, both teams commemorated the victims of the war with a minute’s silence, and an injured war veteran was allowed to carry out the symbolic kick-off.

There was no cheering from the stands, for safety reasons all games will take place without spectators until further notice. Strict safety rules also apply to the professionals: In the event of an air alarm, the game is stopped immediately, and everyone involved then has to go to the shelter, which according to the concept must be in the immediate vicinity of the stadium. If it is not possible to restart the game, the result at the time of the alarm is included in the score.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is said to have personally campaigned for the resumption of the championship. “I spoke to Zelenskyy about the importance of distracting people with football,” said Andriy Pavelko, president of the Ukrainian Football Association UAF.

The Premjer-Liha will start without the two teams Desna Tschernihiw and Mariupol, whose infrastructure was massively destroyed by the war. Most of the games are scheduled to be played in Kyiv and western Ukrainian cities. Going abroad would have been the wrong sign and would have been “artificial”, said Pawelko, who spoke of a “historic mastery”. (dpa)

According to information from the UN Human Rights Office, trials against Ukrainian prisoners could start in the coming days in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was occupied by Russia. Bureau spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, on Tuesday in Geneva, referred to media photos and videos of metal cages being built at the Mariupol Philharmonic Hall, which appear to be used to display Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Death sentences are to be feared, said Shamdasani. Reports received by the Office suggested that Ukrainian detainees were tortured. “We recall that international humanitarian law prohibits the establishment of courts exclusively for prisoners of war and that it is a war crime to willfully deny a prisoner of war the right to a fair and due process,” Shamdasani said. Fighters who have POW status cannot be tried under international law for their participation in hostilities, she said.

It is unclear how many prisoners are to be tried, what they are accused of and how the court should be composed. The UN Human Rights Office requested access to the detainees for independent visitors. According to Donetsk Oblast separatist leader Denis Pushilin, “investigations” have been completed in 80 cases. He spoke in this context of 23 arrested. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is responsible for this.

The ICRC says it has seen some POWs since the Russian attack began in February 2022, but not all. In many cases, access was denied or there were no security guarantees for the ICRC staff. The ICRC has been trying for weeks – so far in vain – to gain access to the survivors of the attack in Olenivka in the part of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia. Around 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in a camp there at the end of July. Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the attack. (dpa)

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged continued support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. “The international community will never accept Russia’s illegal, imperialist annexation of Ukrainian territory,” said the SPD politician on Tuesday at a conference on the situation in Crimea, to which he was connected via video from Canada. Ukraine’s partners are united like never before. “I can assure you: Germany stands firmly by Ukraine’s side as long as Ukraine needs our support.”

Scholz also said that Germany and its partners would maintain the sanctions against Russia, provide financial help, supply weapons and also take part in reconstruction. “I am sure that Ukraine will overcome the dark shadow of war – because it is strong, courageous and united in its struggle for independence and sovereignty,” said the Chancellor. “And because she has friends in Europe and all over the world.”

With the Crimean Platform – an online summit – Ukraine wants to mobilize international support for the repatriation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, for the second time. (dpa)

Russian-led separatists in eastern Ukraine have reported heavy attacks on the city of Donetsk by the Ukrainian army. Among other things, the administration building of separatist leader Denis Puschilin was hit, the self-proclaimed territorial defense of Donetsk announced on Telegram on Tuesday. Puschilin himself was not injured, but three civilians were killed. This could not be verified independently.

Also initially unverifiable was the claim that the Ukrainians had fired at Donetsk with Himars missiles supplied by the USA. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that it had advanced a few dozen square kilometers in the southern areas of Cherson and Mykolaiv. (dpa)

Slovakia will now receive 15 German Leopard 2 A4 main battle tanks in exchange for a delivery of 30 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. This was announced by Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad in Bratislava on Tuesday. A corresponding agreement was also signed for this purpose. The German tanks are therefore supplied from stocks of German industry and supplemented by a so-called ammunition, training and logistics package.

German and Dutch anti-aircraft missiles of the Patriot type are already deployed in Slovakia, with which the NATO partner bordering Ukraine is being supported. The delivery of the Leopard tanks will be the first ring swap from industry stocks. (dpa)

In the discussion about an entry ban for Russian tourists to Europe, Lithuania indicated that the EU countries bordering on Russian territory might go it alone. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland could refuse entry to Russian tourists unless an EU-wide ban is introduced, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told journalists in Vilnius.

After talking to ministers from all these countries, he doesn’t see many political differences. “Russian tourists should not be in the European Union… Your country is committing genocide.” Lithuania and Poland border the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. (Reuters)

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier congratulated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the Ukrainian national holiday on August 24th. Steinmeier assured in the letter published in Berlin on Tuesday that Germany and Europe are standing by the side of the Ukrainians, who are defending their country and their freedom in the war that Russia started six months ago.

Steinmeier recalled that the Ukrainians had gained their independence 31 years ago. “Today Ukraine has to fight for its survival as a free and democratic nation in a war forced upon it by an attack that violates international law,” emphasized the Federal President. Ukraine, which was formerly part of the Soviet Union, declared its independence on August 24, 1991.

“I admire the courage and determination with which you, the armed forces and the entire population are opposing Russia’s brutal war of aggression. You won’t let your country, your life, your freedom be taken from you,” said Steinmeier. He concluded with the words “Slava Ukrajini” (Glory to Ukraine). (epd)

Ukraine has exported hundreds of thousands of tons of food by ship in the past four weeks since the grain deal was signed with Russia. A total of 33 cargo ships with around 719,549 tons of food on board were able to leave the Black Sea ports, the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture announced on Tuesday.

This is made possible by an agreement signed by Moscow and Kyiv on July 22, for which the United Nations and Turkey have campaigned. Since then, cargo ships have been able to dock in three ports. The Joint Coordination Center in Turkey, which oversees the implementation of the agreement, even put the total amount of grain and food at 721,449 tons. (Reuters)

Hundreds of people took part in a memorial service in Moscow on Tuesday for the daughter of an ideologue close to the Kremlin, Daria Dugina, who was killed in an attack. Her father Alexander Dugin and his wife also attended the celebration in a hall of the Ostankino television center. “She died for the people, for Russia, at the front. The front – she’s here,” said the ultra-nationalist intellectual at the beginning of the ceremony.

Dugina was killed on a highway near Moscow on Saturday evening after a bomb exploded in her car, according to Russian investigators. According to Russian media, the actual target of the attack could have been Dugina’s father, who is considered an important mastermind of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. Russia’s domestic secret service FSB blamed Ukraine for the crime, but Kyiv firmly denies this.

Dugin has long championed an ideology that envisages the unification of Russian-speaking areas into a new Russian empire. Based on this conviction, he also supports the Russian military operation in Ukraine. His daughter shared this belief and followed in his footsteps as a well-known media personality. The 29-year-old worked for Kremlin-affiliated television stations such as Russia Today. (AFP)

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 967,546 refugees from Ukraine have come to Germany, at least temporarily, since the start of the Russian war of aggression on February 24. This emerges from the central register of foreigners, as the ministry reports. Of the refugees registered by August 21, around 36 percent are children and young people (351,061 people under the age of 18), most of them of primary school age. (Reuters)

Shortly before Ukraine’s Independence Day, the United States warned of increased Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure and government buildings in Ukraine over the next few days. Referring to this warning from the State Department in Washington, the US embassy in Kyiv called on all US citizens on Tuesday to “leave Ukraine immediately” – using the available land connections.

Ukraine is celebrating its Independence Day on Wednesday, at the same time it is exactly six months since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine on February 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned over the weekend that Russia “could do something particularly disgusting and violent” this week. All public gatherings were banned in the city of Kyiv, and a curfew was imposed in the second largest city in the north-east, Kharkiv. ^(AFP)