Liveblog: ++ EU gives Ukraine another 1.5 billion euros ++

The EU wants to provide Ukraine with another 1.5 billion euros in aid. A bridge to Crimea has apparently been damaged in a Ukrainian attack. The developments in the live blog.

According to Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal, the Ukrainian army has now recaptured eight villages and 113 square kilometers of occupied territory in the ongoing counteroffensive. This is reported by the dpa news agency. “It’s a huge territory,” Shmyhal said today at the Ukraine reconstruction conference in London.

In addition, the Ukrainian troops advanced at a depth of up to seven kilometers into Russian-occupied territory. “We have good results,” said Schmyhal. Nevertheless, he urged patience. A counteroffensive is a series of military operations, some offensive, some defensive. Sometimes tactical breaks are necessary. The advance is also slowed down by minefields laid out by the Russians. “We will not fire our soldiers like the Russians do,” said the Ukrainian prime minister. Every life counts.

According to the dpa news agency, the EU wants to provide Ukraine with a further 1.5 billion euros in aid. The money is intended to guarantee that the country can pay wages and pensions and maintain hospitals, schools and accommodation for refugees, the EU Commission announced today in Brussels. In addition, water supply, roads and bridges are to be restored.

Since the war began 16 months ago, Ukraine has received more than 70 billion euros in aid from the EU. “Europe keeps its word,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “There is more to come. We have just proposed continued financial support for Ukraine until 2027.”

From next year to 2027, 50 billion euros are to flow into the financial reserve for Ukraine. The 27 member states still have to agree to this proposal. For the payment, Ukraine had to meet conditions – for example, strengthen the rule of law and make transparent where the money goes. According to the Commission, the 1.5 billion euros are part of an aid package of up to 18 billion euros.

IOC President Thomas Bach has again criticized Ukraine’s boycott of the re-admission of athletes from Russia and Belarus to international competitions. “Ukrainian athletes are being punished by their own government for the war started by the governments of Russia and Belarus,” the head of the International Olympic Committee said today at the IOC special session in Lausanne.

Ukraine’s actions are difficult to understand, Bach added. By order of the Ministry of Sports of Ukraine, athletes from the country are not allowed to participate in competitions that also include Russian and Belarusian athletes. Ukraine is also threatening to boycott the 2024 Summer Games in Paris if Russia and Belarus are allowed to participate there.

In March, the IOC cleared the way for Russians and Belarusians to be reinstated under conditions. A decision about the Olympic starting permission should only be made later.

The repair of the after one Missile attack damaged bridge between the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland could take several weeks, according to Russian information. According to the RIA news agency, an employee of the Ministry of Transport sent by Russia estimates this.

US reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on espionage charges, remains in custody. A Moscow court rejected Gershkovich’s renewed appeal, a reporter from the Reuters news agency reported.

His parents, Mikhail Gershkovich and Ella Milman, who left the Soviet Union for the United States in 1979, were in court to support their son. US Ambassador Lynne Tracy was not allowed to enter the room. The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested on March 29 in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg.

The Russian government has denied Ukrainian allegations that it is planning a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. This is “another lie,” said Presidential Office spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the secret service had received information that Russia was considering an attack that would release radioactivity.

The federal government is relaxing the rules for export guarantees in trade with Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia. The Federal Ministry of Economics announced in Berlin that this should contribute to the economic recovery of Ukraine.

Specifically, for state guarantees for export credits, a simplified procedure will apply immediately instead of a stricter individual assessment. In the future, there will be no need for bank guarantees, provided the risk is still acceptable. According to the ministry, small and medium-sized companies should also benefit from this. “The simplified procedures that have now been decided will speed up a lot here,” said Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens). Direct investments can also continue to be secured with federal guarantees.

According to Russia, the Ukrainian armed forces are easing their counter-offensive and are reorganizing themselves on the front line. But there is still potential to continue the offensive, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admitted on Wednesday that the counteroffensive was “slower than hoped”.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to clear the way for Sweden to join NATO. “I am firmly convinced that Sweden, as a new ally, should sit at the summit table alongside Finland,” he said in a government statement with a view to the NATO summit in July. “I appeal to the re-elected Turkish President Erdogan to clear the way for this now – as we all decided together last year in Madrid.”

Left faction leader Dietmar Bartsch has asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to present a peace initiative for Ukraine at the EU summit next week in Brussels. “At the EU summit, present a European-coordinated peace initiative,” Bartsch demanded in his response to Scholz’s government statement in the Bundestag in Berlin.

The aggressor in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is President Vladimir Putin, he stressed. But the approach of holding no negotiations until the last Russian has left Ukraine threatens to prolong the war for years, with tens of thousands of victims and incalculable risks. “Peace initiative must not be a taboo word,” Bartsch warned.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has again promised Ukraine unlimited aid in the fight against the Russian attack. Germany will support Ukraine “as long as necessary,” said Scholz in a government statement in the Bundestag in Berlin.

“We stand firmly with Ukraine.” At the same time, the federal government is determined to defend Germany and Europe. “We are doing everything that is necessary to protect the security of our country against any threat,” stressed the Chancellor.

Russian sources say a bridge to Crimea was damaged in a Ukrainian attack. The Chongar Bridge, which connects the Moscow-annexed peninsula with the southern Kherson region, was hit during the night, Crimea’s Russian governor, Sergey Aksyonov, said on Telegram. There weren’t any victims.

Two weeks after the start of Ukraine’s offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed progress on the front lines. “We’re moving forward in the South,” he said in his daily video address. He admitted heavy fighting, but everywhere – including in the east, where the Ukrainian troops are on the defensive – the enemy is being destroyed, he said.

Only a short time before, the Ukrainian head of state had dampened public expectations of the Ukrainian offensive. In a BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday, he admitted that the offensive was progressing “slower than desired”. In his evening video message, however, Selenskyj announced mainly positive news.

The International Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine continues today in London. Among others, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced his participation. In his daily video speech after the first day of the conference, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said that Ukraine not only received state aid at the conference, but also pledges from the private sector to participate in the sustainable development of the country.

Zelenskyy praised the EU sanctions package as important to further isolate Russia “as long as Russia’s main export commodity is evil and death”. The priority now is to cut off ways to circumvent the previous sanctions, according to the Ukrainian head of state.

The Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant wants to pump water from the damaged reservoir of the destroyed Kakhovka dam again to cool the reactors. This is reported by the International Energy Agency IAEA. For the past two weeks, the nuclear power plant had received its cooling water from the reserves of a nearby thermal power plant. Last week, the UN agency announced that it was unclear whether the nuclear power plant would be able to pump water out of the damaged reservoir again.

The head of the authority, Rafael Grossi, had visited Europe’s largest nuclear facility last week. The area around the nuclear power plant is fiercely contested.

According to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, progress on the battlefield is “slower than desired”. There have been major power outages in Kiev.