1. How terrible will the “Battle for Donbass” be?


2. Scholz's visit to Kiev is far away


3. What strategy is the ECB pursuing?


4. Baerbock's mission in West Africa


5. The details of the nine-euro ticket


6. Travel at Easter almost like before Corona


7. The biggest game of Frankfurt Eintracht







1. How terrible will the “Battle for Donbass” be?

Sebastian Reuter

Editor on duty.

  • Follow I follow

Ukraine is preparing for a major Russian offensive in the east.

She could decide the future of the country.

“Tens of thousands of soldiers”:

In the past few days there have been increasing warnings of an imminent large-scale Russian attack in eastern Ukraine.

"The Battle of Donbass will remind you of World War II," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told NATO foreign ministers in Brussels a week ago.

According to what you can see in Russia in terms of preparations, it will be “not a local operation”.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of "tens of thousands of soldiers and a huge amount of equipment" that Russia was assembling in eastern Ukraine.

The spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recently said that Russia's preparations for a new attack are almost complete.

Putin's goal:

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has recently made it clear again that he still intends to destroy the Ukrainian state.

The goals set at the beginning of the "military special operation" would without a doubt be fully achieved, he said on Tuesday.

In the Donbass, Putin is trying to do what he failed to do in 2014 – the year of the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in eastern Ukraine: he wants to expand the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, which he recognized shortly before the invasion, and with the soon planned capture of Mariupol establish a direct land connection between the "People's Republics" and the occupied Crimea.

According to the Russian army, the port of Mariupol is now completely under their control.

There was no confirmation of this from the Ukrainian side. 

Morale and Superiority:

The American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) expects that the main thrust of the Russian attack will be towards Sloviansk.

According to the ISW, the battle for Sloviansk could become a decisive battlefield for the war.

Since the fighting is likely to be concentrated in a relatively small area, Russia's numerical superiority could play a greater role than it has so far.

However, in addition to the obvious logistical problems, the Russians have apparently recently had difficulties mobilizing soldiers.

The defeats in northern Ukraine have weighed on the already poor morale of the troops.

In terms of willingness to fight and motivation, the Ukrainians have a clear advantage.

However, they too have lost soldiers and equipment in recent weeks.

How high their military losses are, however, is unclear.

more on the subject

2. Scholz's visit to Kyiv in the distant future

After the Federal President was uninvited, a visit by Olaf Scholz to Ukraine is unlikely for the time being.

But the pressure on the Chancellor not to block the delivery of heavy weapons is increasing.