Since the start of Russia’s invasion on Tuesday Germany’s president arrived in Kyiv for his first visit to Ukraine, for Ukrainian rebuilding when the war eventually ends as Western countries mulled a massive plan.
“With drones, cruise missiles and rockets it was important to me in this phase of air attacks to send a signal of solidarity to Ukrainians”, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said just after arriving.
The Kremlin’s forces have ruined homes, eight months of pummelling, public buildings and the power grid. At 350 billion euros ($345 billion) the World Bank estimates the damage to Ukraine so far.
On his third try the German president made it to Ukraine whose position is largely ceremonial.
In April, with his Polish and Baltic counterparts he was planning to visit the country, but said his presence “apparently wasn’t wanted in Kyiv”. During his time as Germany’s foreign minister Steinmeier has been criticized in Ukraine for allegedly cosying up to Russia.
Because of security concerns last week, a planned trip was put off.
This winter following a sustained Russian barrage on their infrastructure in recent weeks Steinmeier’s visit came as Ukrainians are bracing for less electric power.
As Ukrainian forces advanced on the nearby Russian-occupied city of Kherson Citizens in the southern city of Mykolaiv lined up for water and essential supplies on Tuesday.
A reference to the U.S.-sponsored plan that helped revive Western European economies after World War II, in Berlin, meanwhile, European Union leaders brought together experts to start work on a “new Marshall Plan” for the future rebuilding of Ukraine.
The meeting aims to discuss “for years and decades to come how to ensure and how to sustain the financing of the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine”, Olaf Scholz, German Chancellor said.
For the 21st century he’s looking for “nothing less than creating a new Marshall Plan, a generational task that must begin now”, Scholz, who co-hosted the meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said.
Even so, on Tuesday one of Moscow’s allies urged Russia to step up the pace and scale of Ukraine’s destruction.
The regional leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who has sent troops from the region to fight in Ukraine, urged in retaliation for Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s territory Moscow to wipe off the map of entire cities.
Ukrainian shelling that damaged infrastructure and residential buildings authorities in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine have repeatedly reported.
In a statement posted on his messaging app channel Kadyrov said that “Our response has been too weak”. “Entire cities must be wiped off the face of the Earth so that they don’t ever think that they can fire in our direction”, if a shell flies into our region.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities sought to ease public fears over Russia’s use of Iranian drones to strike the country’s infrastructure, claiming increasing success in shooting them down.
The head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Monday Ukraine’s forces have shot down more than two-thirds of the approximately 330 Shahed drones that Russia has fired through Saturday. About 1,700 drones of different types Russia’s military had ordered and is rolling out a second batch of about 300 Shaheds, Budanov said.
Civilians in Kyiv and elsewhere the distinctive triangle-shaped Shahed-136s have rained down, although Russia and Iran deny that the Iranian-built drones have been used.
Russia was likely to use a large number of drones “increasingly effective Ukrainian air defenses” to try to penetrate the to substitute for Russian-made long-range precision weapons “which are becoming increasingly scarce”, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.
On Tuesday the British report said that Russia’s “artillery ammunition is running low”.
“The slower tempo of Russian air, missile, and drone strikes possibly reflects decreasing missile and drone stockpiles and the strikes’ limited effectiveness of accomplishing Russian strategic military goals”, in Washington, the Institute for the Study of War, added.
At least seven civilians were killed and another three wounded in the latest Russian shelling of the eastern Donetsk region, despite the reduced attacks, on Tuesday Ukraine’s presidential official said.
The attacks came as the Russians pressed their offensive and also shelled other areas in the Donetsk region On the strategically placed towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which is part of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas.
Over the weekend that Ukrainian forces were preparing a “provocation” involving a radioactive device a so-called dirty bomb the developments came after a stark warning by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to his British, French, Turkish and U.S. counterparts that claim as “transparently false Britain, France, and the United States rejected”.
Source:- https://coinworldlive.com/as-west-mulls-rebuilding-plan-german-president-visits-kyiv/
