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Európa Europe
Magyarország
2022.04.30. 20:29 Már több mint 650 ezer ukrajnai menekült érkezett Magyarországra, akik közül 108 ezren kértek és kaptak ideiglenes tartózkodási engedélyt – jelentette ki a miniszterelnök belbiztonsági főtanácsadója. Bakondi közölte: Magyarországra naponta 8-12 ezren érkeznek Ukrajnából és részben Románia területéről. A menekültek száma várhatóan elérheti azt a 900 ezret, amit előre jelzett a kormány a háború kitörésekor. Társadalmi összefogás nyomán Magyarország eddig 40 milliárd forintot fordított a menekültek ellátására, ennek az összegnek csupán a 2%-át biztosította az Európai Unió – tette hozzá. A kormány kellő higgadtsággal kezeli a helyzetet. A legfontosabb szempontja, hogy távol tartsa Magyarországot a háborúból és a háború árát ne a magyar embereknek kelljen megfizetniük. Bakondi kifejezte reményét, hogy az Európai Unió növeli az ukrajnai menekültek ellátásának támogatását. Abban is reménykednek, hogy megváltozik az Európai Unió 2015 óta tartó, elhibázott migrációs politikája. Baloldali, liberális csoportok, Soros által finanszírozott szervezetek továbbra is a legális migráció szervezését szorgalmazzák – jegyezte meg. (Forrás: Híradó / MTI, M1)
Transcarpathia
30 April 2022 The Hungarian government is adding new financing of 200 million forints (EUR 531,000) for humanitarian aid and efforts to help the internally displaced and those in need in Transcarpathia in Ukraine. The government is supporting war refugees both in Hungary and in Transcarpathia, Azbej, the state secretary for assisting persecuted Christians and implementing the Hungary Helps Programme, said in Uzhhorod (Ungvár) after a meeting with the leaders of the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia (KMKSZ). Also, an additional 120 million forints will be given in support of other charitable activities, alongside a consignment of medicines and equipment worth 210 million forints destined for Transcarpathia next week. The state secretary met local entrepreneurs involved in the One Meal Programme provided by Hungary Helps. Around 60,000 servings of hot food have been served to refugees in Transcarpathia over the period of a month. Fully 230,000 refugees have officially made their way to Transcarpathia, though the real number may be double that, KMKSZ vice-president Barta said at the event. (Source: dailynewshungary)
Germany
April 30, 2022 Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, gave the green light for the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine in April 28 The motion has the cynical title “Defending Peace and Freedom in Europe.' It was jointly introduced by the governing parties as well as the opposition, passing by 586 votes to 100, with seven abstentions. Is it a barely veiled declaration of war on Russia? The ten-page motion calls on the German government to “continue and, where possible, accelerate the delivery of needed equipment to Ukraine, including extending the delivery to heavy weapons and complex systems, for example in the framework of the ring exchange.” The 'ring exchange' refers to a process whereby Eastern European NATO members supply Ukraine with Soviet-era weaponry, which is then back-filled by Germany with ultra-modern equipment. The Bundestag passed its declaration just two days after the US government held a war summit at Ramstein Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate with representatives of 40 nations to plan the next stage of the escalation. The meeting left no doubt that NATO itself is the driving force in the war with Russia. At the meeting in Ramstein, Defence Minister Lambrecht (SPD) announced that the German government would now also supply Ukraine with heavy weapons and provide it with “Gepard” anti-aircraft tanks. Just four days earlier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had warned of a nuclear war and made assurances that everything would be done to avoid a direct military confrontation with the nuclear power Russia. Now he has cast his own warning to the wind. The Bundestag resolution boasts that Germany has “provided a good two billion euros in financial support” since 2014 to Ukraine. How much of this has gone to military projects is not mentioned. One day before passage of the Ukraine motion, the Bundestag debated the first reading of the special fund appropriation of 100 billion euros, which triples the defence budget in one fell swoop this year. Here, too, all parties pulled together. For ammunition shortages alone, 20 billion euros would be required. Planned armament projects - including procurement of nuclear-capable F-35 fighter bombers - meant that the 100 billion in special funds would quickly be depleted Defence Minister Lambrecht said. The Reservists Association is urging a doubling of troop strength. “With around 200,000 soldiers, the Bundeswehr is too small,” association President Sensburg told the Rheinische Post. For national defence, he said, around 340,000 servicemen and women and 100,000 regularly exercising reservists were needed. (Source: wsws)
30.04.2022 Germany has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt the sale of German-owned buildings in Rome that could soon be auctioned off to pay for Nazi war crimes compensation cases. The four properties include buildings in Rome that house the local offices of the German Archaeological Institute, the German Historical Institute, the cultural Goethe Institute and the German School of Rome. Germany argues in its filing that "Italy has violated, and continues to violate, its obligation to respect Germany's sovereign immunity" by threatening to take the buildings to pay complaints filed by victims of Nazi crimes. An Italian court said it would decide on May 25 whether to auction off the buildings. In the ICJ's previous 2012 decision, the judges found Italy's highest court violated Germany's sovereignty by ruling in several Nazi crime compensation cases. Germany argues that it has already paid out billions of euros in compensation for atrocities committed by the Nazi regime since the end of WWII, taking part in extensive reparations and peace treaties with the countries affected. The ICJ is the highest judicial organ of the United Nations, and its rulings are final and legally binding. (Source: DW)
Romania
April 30, 2022 A ship loaded with 70,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn left a Romanian Black Sea port, allowing Kyiv to dodge a Russian blockade of its key grain exports. (Source: AlJazeera)
Kosovo
April 30, 2022 Six Ukrainian women train in Kosovo to find, clear landmines. The 18-day training camp takes place at a range in the western town of Peja where a Malta-based company regularly offers courses for job-seekers, firms working in former war zones, humanitarian organizations and government agencies. Praedium Consulting Malta’s range includes bombed and derelict buildings as well as expanses of vegetation. Military analysts say it appears Russian forces have employed anti-personnel and anti-vehcile mines, while Ukraine has used anti-tank mines to try to prevent the Russians from gaining ground. (Source: AP)
Russia
14:37, 30 Apr 2022 Kremlin-backed TV Channel One on the popular TV show 60 Minutes in Russia hosted by wife and husband Skabeyeva and Popov, simulated a nuclear strike on three European capitals as presenters claiming the nukes would obliterate Paris, Berlin, and London in around 200 seconds and there would be 'no survivors.' It claimed that Berlin could be destroyed by a nuclear strike in only 106 seconds, Paris in 200 seconds and London in only 202 seconds. 'One Sarmat [missile] and that's it - the British Isles are no more,' guest Zhuravlyov said. The show unveiled a map showing how the missiles could be launched from Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. Putin recently ordered his military to test-fire its Sarmat missiles. Only last week, Putin claimed that his country’s hypersonic missiles could “break through all modern defences” . This comes amid reports that top military brass pushing Putin to stop calling the invasion a “special operation” and instead declare all-out war. (Source: Mirror)
Sat 30 Apr 2022 The Tass state news agency cites Yermakov, the foreign ministry’s head of nuclear non-proliferation, as saying all nuclear powers had a duty to stick to the logic enshrined in joint official documents aimed at avoiding nuclear war. It quotes him as saying: The risks of nuclear war, which should never be unleashed, must be kept to a minimum, in particular through preventing any armed conflict between nuclear powers. Russia clearly follows this understanding. The official documents Yermakov refers to are a joint statement published in January by Russia, China, Britain, the US and France, in which the five countries - which are the permanent members of the UN security council – agreed that the further spread of nuclear arms and a nuclear war should be avoided. Dialogue between Moscow and Washington on strategic stability is formally “frozen”. Yermakov said those contacts could be restarted after Russia completes what it terms its “special military operation” in Ukraine, according to the Tass news agency. Yermakov claimed Moscow believed the US planned to finalise projects to deploy medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. "The emergence of such weapons in those regions will further worsen the situation and fuel the arms race,” Tass quotes him as saying. Moscow’s artillery units had hit 389 Ukrainian targets overnight, according to Russian media. The figure, reported by Russian news agency Interfax, includes 35 control points, 15 arms and ammunition depots, and several areas where Ukrainian troops and equipment were concentrated, it said. The statement added that Russian missiles also struck four ammunition and fuel depots. (Source: TheGuardian)
April 29, 2022 Russian billionaire Tinkov, who has called Moscow's war against Ukraine "crazy," has sold his stake in the company he founded to a firm controlled by Potanin, a tycoon close to President Putin. Potanin's Interros Capital said yesterday that it was acquiring Tinkov's 35 percent stake in TCS Group Holding, the group that owns Russia's second-largest bank, Tinkoff Bank. Interros added that Russia's central bank had approved deal. The RBK news agency estimated the deal at about $2.4 billion. Cyprus-based TCS Group Holding controls a broad range of companies from banking and insurance to mobile phones. The 54-year-old Tinkov has long resided outside of Russia to receive treatment for leukemia. Potanin, 61, is the head of mining giant Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), which has benefited from high metals prices in recent months. He is Russia's second-richest man, with a fortune estimated at $17.3 billion. (Source: VoANews)
April 29, 2022 Moscow continues to benefit from Europe's energy dependence on Russian oil despite a reduction in sales due to sanctions imposed to pressure it to end its war against Ukraine, according to experts of the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Finland-based research organization. The research released on April 28 shows that Russia has nearly doubled its revenues from sales of fossil fuels to the EU during the two months of war in Ukraine. Soaring prices have more than compensated Russia for the loss in sales volume due to sanctions, the research shows. Researchers at CREA also say new sanctions promise to drive up prices even more, nullifying efforts to prevent Russian President Putin from using energy to pressure the EU and to finance the war against Ukraine. Since the start of the war, Russia has sold 46 billion euros worth of energy resources to the European Union, and the figure continues to rise. This is about twice as much as the amount of sales in the same period in 2021, according to CREA. Even though there was a decline in the volume of sales, the increase in the price of oil brought Moscow about 63 billion euros ($66 billion) on the energy exported on ships and through pipelines since the invasion was launched on February 24. According to CREA, the volume of Russian oil imported by the EU fell by 20 percent and coal by 40 percent. However, gas imports grew, and Germany remains the main buyer. The German government has ruled out a gas embargo because of the economic damage it would cause, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on April 28 during a visit to Tokyo, that Germany must prepare for Russia to suspend gas deliveries. Gazprom forecast a fall in gas output of about 4 percent this year in another sign of the impact of Western sanctions against Moscow. (Source: VoANews)
30 April, 2022 2.8 million people in Ukraine have asked to be evacuated into Russia, said Foreign Minister Lavrov in China's official Xinhua news agency published on the Russian foreign ministry's website. More than 1 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine into Russia since February 24, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said in remarks published early today. The 1.02 million includes 120,000 foreigners and people evacuated from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics, which Russia recognised as independent just before launching its invasion. According to data from the United Nations, more than 5.4 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion. Lavrov said that if the United States and NATO are 'truly" interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis, they should stop sending weapons to Kyiv. "By publicly expressing support for the Kyiv regime, the NATO countries are doing everything to prevent ending of the operation through political agreements," Lavrov said. (Source: alaraby *)
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Serbia
Saturday, April 30, 2022 Serbia today publicly displayed a recently delivered Chinese anti-aircraft missile system during the military exercises on Batajnica, military airport near Belgrade. Serbia has been arming itself mostly with Russian and Chinese weapons, including T-72 battle tanks, MiG-29 fighter jets, Mi-35 attack helicopters and drones. The sophisticated HQ-22 surface-to-air system whose export version is known as FK-3 was delivered last month by a dozen Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport planes in what was believed to be the largest-ever airlift delivery of Chinese arms to Europe. The Chinese missile system has been widely compared to the American Patriot and the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems although it has a shorter range than more advanced S-300s. Serbia is the first operator of the Chinese missiles in Europe. Vucic said Serbia is also negotiating a purchase of French multi-purpose Dessault Rafale jets, as well as British Eurofighter Typhoon fighters. He said that only “political hurdles” could prevent the purchase of the Western aircraft. Although Serbia has voted in favor of U.N. resolutions that condemn the bloody Russian attacks in Ukraine, it has refused to join international sanctions against its allies in Moscow or outright criticize the apparent atrocities committed by the Russian troops in Ukraine. There are widespread concerns that Russia could push its ally Serbia into an armed conflict with its neighbors to try at least partly to shift public attention from the war in Ukraine. Serbia was at war with its neighbors in the 1990s and does not recognize Kosovo’s independence declared in 2008. It still has frosty relations with NATO-members Croatia and Montenegro as well as Bosnia, whose separatist Bosnian Serb leader Dodik attended the military drill today. An arms buildup in the Balkans could threaten fragile peace in the region. (Source: AP)
Ukraine
30/04/2022 - 07:22 Russian missile strike has hit Odessa airport, rendering its runway unusable. The general staff of the armed forces posted on Facebook that the Ukrainian military had regained control over four settlements in the Kharkiv region. Zelensky thanked France for sending 'large-scale military shipments that contribute to the Ukrainian resistance'. Kharkiv was hit by multiple Russian shellings today, though President Zelensky says Ukrainian forces are making "tactical successes" in the region. (Source: France24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
Sat 30 Apr 2022 08.51 BST This week, Russia hit Ukraine’s main fuel producer, the Kremenchuk oil refinery, alongside others. A Russian missile strike on Odesa airport has damaged the runway and it can no longer be used, the Ukrainian military said. Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region today but failed to capture three target areas, Ukraine’s military said. The Russians were trying to capture the areas of Lyman in Donetsk and Sievierodonetsk and Popasna in Luhansk, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said. The agriculture ministry said yesterday speaking to Ukrainian national TV, that six of Ukraine’s 24 regions had completed their early spring grain sowing despite the Russian invasion. There are no plans to sow in Luhansk due to the fighting. In the last two weeks Russian forces have stolen “several hundred thousand tonnes” of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Solskyi, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister said. The Kremlin denied the allegations. He expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5m tonnes of grain stored in occupied territory could also be stolen by Russian forces. "Queues and rising prices at gas stations are seen in many regions of our country. The occupiers are deliberately destroying the infrastructure for the production, supply and storage of fuel. Russia has also blocked our ports, so there are no immediate solutions to replenish the deficit,” in his nightly video, Zelenskiy said. (Source: TheGuardian)
Sat, April 30, 2022, 4:01 AM Social media evidence, testimony from residents, and materials seized by Kyiv Oblast police suggest that the Kadyrovtsy regiments in Bucha most likely belonged to the Special Rapid Response Unit (SOBR) and (Special Purpose Mobile Unit) OMON, and that these units, along with other Russian troops, were likely responsible for a significant portion of the massacre that took place there. 'What they do have experience in, in terms of military operations, is really these zachistki, these clean sweep operations, brutal style of house-to-house searches and killings that Russian forces perfected during the Chechen Wars in the 1990s and early 2000s' , independent security analyst Chambers, who specializes in the north Caucasus said. 'It plays into their specialty of targeting civilian populations'. Despite their presence in Bucha in late February, Russian forces were not able to gain full control of the town until several days later on or after March 2. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has identified the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade as one of the Russian military groups responsible for the massacre that ensued in Bucha throughout March, but evidence suggests they were not the only ones involved. According to Halavin, the priest at the Church of the Holy Apostle St. Andrew the First-Called in Bucha, where a mass grave for around 280 people was dug during the Russian occupation, regiments that included SOBR and OMON units began to replace the original occupying forces later in March. “At the beginning, even though they were, shall we say, strict, they were fair. At the very beginning they would just search my car and tell me to just continue with my work, and so on,” Halavin said. “But after that the others came.” (Source: Yahoo / TheDailyBeast)
April 30, 2022 Ukraine claims that the Ukrainian armed forces use 227mm M270 multiple launch rocket system [MLRS] and M142 high mobility artillery rocket system [HIMARS] delivered from the US. Both missile systems have a caliber of 227mm. The GUR-Ukraine says that on the night of April 22-23, Ukrainian troops used the “latest MLRS” to attack Russian positions near Novobahmutka in the Donetsk region. The M270 and M142 can cover a distance of 480 km on a single refueling. The M270 and M142 use [but are not limited to] the MGM-140 army tactical missile system [ATACMS] which is actually a surface-to-surface missile and is manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The MGM-140 ATACMS weighs 1,670 kg. Develops maximum speed Max 3 and has integrated a system for GPS-aided inertial navigation guidance. In both missile systems, the effective and maximum range is identical: 300 km effective and 500 km maximum in precision strike missiles. Participation in the wars in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq has been officially documented. MGM-140 ATACMS is in service in four countries: the United States, South Korea, Greece, and Turkey. It was built in 1986 but entered service in the early 1990s. (Source: BulgarianMilitary)
United Kingdom
April 30, 2022 Britain’s controversial plan to deport migrants to Rwanda announced just before the May council elections when the Tories fear electoral defeat - the plan applies only to single men, who would be given one-way plane tickets to a country 4,000 miles away, where their asylum claims will be processed. Even if they are granted asylum, the men would not be allowed back to Britain. Rejected applicants will be deported again. The idea is to deter migrants, stop people smugglers, and ultimately end mass immigration. The scheme particularly targets migrants and asylum seekers who cross the English Channel from France in rubber dinghies, after paying a fortune to people traffickers. Some 6,000 people have crossed the channel this way so far this year, almost three times the number that had crossed by this time last year. The migrants largely come from Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia, Myanmar and Venezuela. The irony is that the controversial plan is the brainchild of Home Secretary Patel, the daughter of Ugandan-Asian immigrants who arrived in Britain in the 1960s. Initial costs are projected to be up to £30,000 per migrant, although the actual cost is likely to be much higher. Rwanda will receive £120 million from Britain for “economic development”. Britain has form when it comes to deportation. Most famously, more than 162,000 convicts were deported to Australia between 1788 and 1868, the majority for petty crimes such as stealing a sheep, cutting down a tree or poaching. In the early 18th century, it also deported convicts to the American colonies to work; the alternative was execution. Rwanda is the world’s 14th most densely populated country. Rwanda hosts about 174,000 refugees, including 57,000 people from neighbouring Burundi who fled violence in 2015. (Source: TheElephant*)
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