1. German affords Patriot missile defence system to Poland
Germany has provided Warsaw the Patriot missile defence system to assist it to safe its airspace, after a stray missile crashed in Poland final week, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht advised a newspaper on Sunday.
The German authorities had already mentioned it will supply its neighbour additional assist in air policing with German Eurofighters after the incident, which initially raised fears that the warfare in Ukraine might spill throughout the border.
“We have offered Poland support in securing airspace — with our Eurofighters and with Patriot air defence systems,” Lambrecht advised the Rheinische Post and General Anzeiger.
The missile that hit Poland final week, killing two individuals, appeared to have been fired by Ukraine’s air defences relatively than a Russian strike, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has mentioned.
Ground-based air defence programs resembling Raytheon’s Patriot are constructed to intercept incoming missiles.
NATO has moved to strengthen air defences in japanese Europe since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. More than a dozen NATO allies led by Germany in October kicked off an initiative to collectively procure air defence programs for a number of layers of threats, together with Patriot.
Germany had 36 Patriot models when it was NATO’s frontline state throughout the Cold War. German forces presently have 12 Patriot models, two of which are deployed to Slovakia.
2. Ukraine to examine allegations its troops killed surrendering Russian forces
Ukraine says it is going to examine video footage circulated on Russian social media which Moscow alleged reveals that Ukrainian forces killed Russian troops who could have been making an attempt to give up, after considered one of the males seemingly refused to lay down his weapon and opened hearth.
“Of course Ukrainian authorities will examine this video,” Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister overseeing the country’s push to join the European Union, said on the sidelines of a security forum in Halifax, Canada.
Stefanishyna said “it is very unlikely” that the short, edited snippets show what Moscow claims.
Russian authorities announced the opening Friday of a criminal investigation based on the snippets posted on Russian Telegram channels and relayed on other social media. They present a muddled and incomplete picture.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed the footage shows an “execution” and mentioned Russia desires a global investigation.
Stefanishyna, nonetheless, mentioned Ukrainian forces are “completely not desirous about the execution of anyone” and are under direct orders to take “as many prisoners of war as we can” so they can be swapped in prisoner exchanges with Russia.
“Every potential executed Russian soldier is some Ukrainian that is not able to be exchanged, so the spirit and logic is not there,” she said.
The UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine called for further investigation.
3. Renewed shelling threatens Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
Powerful explosions shook Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region that is the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant Sunday morning, the global nuclear watchdog said in a statement, calling for “urgent measures to help prevent a nuclear accident” in the Russian-occupied facility.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said two explosions — one on Saturday evening and another on Sunday morning — near the Zaporizhzhia plant abruptly ended a period of relative calm around the nuclear facility that has been the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces since the start of the war on 24 February.
Fears of a nuclear catastrophe have been at the forefront since Russian troops occupied the plant during the early days of the invasion of Ukraine. Continued fighting in the area has raised the specter of a disaster.
In what appeared to be renewed shelling both close to and at the site, IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhia facility reported hearing more than a dozen blasts within a short period of time on Sunday morning, the statement said, adding that the IAEA team could see some explosions from their office windows.
Several buildings, systems and equipment at the power plant — none of them critical for the nuclear safety and security of the plant — were damaged in the shelling, the IAEA statement said, citing information provided by the plant’s management. There were no reports of casualties.
4. Russia seeks world ‘where might makes right’, says US Defence Secretary
American Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warned this weekend that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a look at a world where nuclear-armed countries could threaten other nations and said Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right.
Austin made the remarks at the annual Halifax International Security Forum in Canada, which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies.
“Russia’s invasion offers a preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil that none of us would want to live in. And it’s an invitation to an increasingly insecure world haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation,” Austin said in a speech.
“Because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching. And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation.”
Austin dismissed Putin’s claims that “modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia,” calling it “a world in which autocrats decide which countries are real and which countries can be snuffed out.”
He added that the war “shows the whole world the dangers of disorder. That’s the security challenge that we face. It’s urgent, and it’s historic.”
5. Eurovision winner joins Ukraine rally in Athens
Hundreds of Ukrainians and supporters marched in central Athens on Saturday night, to protest towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing warfare.
The demonstrators had been joined by Ukrainian singer Ruslana, who received the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.
The protesters ended up at Athens’ central Syntagma Square, the place they sang Ukrainian folks songs, led by Ruslana.
They had been additionally joined by a small group of Iranian protesters marching for ladies’s rights in Iran.