The most important things for you this Friday:

Sebastian Reuter

Editor on duty.

  • Follow I follow

1. Will Scholz travel to Kyiv after Baerbock?


2. How western arms get into Ukraine


3. Does the oil embargo affect Russia at all?


4. Will everything remain as it is in Schleswig-Holstein?


5. How Beijing wants to prevent the complete lockdown


6. Lufthansa's new business class


7. The Frankfurt Eintracht football festival







1. Will Scholz travel to Kyiv after Baerbock?

After more than three weeks, Berlin and Kyiv have declared their diplomatic upsets over.

Now Foreign Minister Baerbock is to travel to Ukraine soon.

Invitation:

After the announcement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), it was initially unclear when exactly Annalena Baerbock (Greens) would travel to Ukraine as the first member of the German government since the beginning of the war.

A few hours earlier, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Both declared the diplomatic upsets that had been going on for weeks to be over.

Selenskyj not only invited Steinmeier, but also Scholz and the entire federal government to visit Kyiv, it said.

The interview was described as "very important and very good".

No dates have yet been announced for visits by Steinmeier or Scholz.

Bas visit:

On the anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) is expected in Kiev this Sunday.

At the invitation of her Ukrainian counterpart, Bas is to commemorate all the victims of the Second World War and hold political talks with him, according to the Bundestag.

The plans for this have been going on for weeks.

According to the protocol, Bas is the second highest representative in Germany after Steinmeier.

He will give a speech in Germany on Sunday about the war in Ukraine.

6.5 billion dollars:

Chancellor Scholz announced further financial aid for the country at the international donor conference for Ukraine in Warsaw.

Germany has already provided 430 million euros and is now committing "a further 125 million euros for humanitarian aid and measures to strengthen Ukraine's resilience to Russian aggression," Scholz said in a video message.

The pledging conference, co-organized by Poland and Sweden, brought in total pledges of more than $6.5 billion.

more on the subject

2. How western arms get to Ukraine

Russia is targeting Ukraine's railway infrastructure to stop Western arms shipments.

Apparently this isn't working as planned.

Top secret:

Most recently, the Russian attacks were directed primarily against the rail network.

The targets were in the east, in the center and in the west of Ukraine.

Rail traffic was disrupted by the attacks, but there was no evidence that Western deliveries had been stopped or even hit, according to Pentagon and NATO circles.

These statements cannot be verified.

Exactly how the shipments get to Ukraine is top secret.

In the next few days, Kyiv is supposed to get more and more heavy weapons.

If the Russians do not prevent these deliveries, the balance of power in the Donbass could shift to their detriment.

Unacceptable:

Belarusian ruler Alexandr Lukashenko has described the Russian use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine as unacceptable.

He told the American news agency AP that such an attack "could throw the earth out of its orbit who knows where." On Wednesday, Russian forces in Kaliningrad simulated attacks with nuclear-capable missiles, according to the Kremlin.

Ten weeks after the war began, Lukashenko also said he had not expected Russia's invasion of Ukraine to be "drawn out" in such a way.