War against Ukraine: + Medvedev threatens to end grain agreements +

3:16 p.m

Faeser does not want any upper limits for the admission of refugees

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has again rejected upper limits for the admission of refugees in Germany. In an interview with ZDF today she said that in view of the war in Ukraine one cannot demand to define upper limits at the moment. Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) meanwhile called on the federal government to limit immigration and also questioned the commitments for local Afghan workers.

2:42 p.m

Putin confidant Medvedev threatens to end grain deals

Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to scrap the agreement to export grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea if the Group of Seven industrialized countries (G7) decide to impose a near-total ban on exports to Russia.

In such a case, the grain deal would end, as would the flow of many other Russian supplies that the G7 countries depend on, the longtime Putin confidant wrote in a post on his Telegram channel.

The grain export deal is considered the only significant diplomatic breakthrough achieved since the beginning of the Ukraine war. It expires on May 18 if not renewed. Numerous countries are dependent on grain deliveries. Russia has repeatedly threatened to stop supporting the agreement if the West maintains restrictions on Russian agricultural and fertilizer exports.

1:57 p.m

Russia reports further ground gains in Bakhmut

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, the Russian units are making progress in their attempt to completely capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. They therefore took two more blocks in the west of the city, which had been heavily contested for months. Airborne units would also provide reinforcements in the north and south.

1:36 p.m

Son of Kremlin spokesman Peskov: Was with the Wagner troupe in Ukraine

The son of the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was a member of the Wagner mercenary group in Ukraine. He served there under a false name as an artilleryman, Nikolai Peskov said in an interview with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. He is the 33-year-old son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “It happened on my initiative,” said Peskov, whose father has been the Kremlin spokesman since 2008. “I saw it as my duty.”

1:29 p.m

Before Hungary trip, Pope reminds of war in Europe

Pope Francis has commented on the background to his upcoming trip to Hungary. “It will be a journey to the heart of Europe, where icy winds of war continue to blow, while the displacement of so many people puts pressing humanitarian issues on the agenda,” he said after midday prayers in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. Francis recalled the people of Ukraine who are still suffering from the war. The Pope travels to Hungary for three days on Friday. He only attended the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest in September 2021.

10:36 a.m

Test: Lithuania decoupled from Russian power grid

For the first time, Lithuania operated its power grid alone and completely independently of Russia. For the isolated operation of the grid, the Baltic EU and NATO country interrupted all connections to the Russian power grid for ten hours on Saturday. The test was successful, said the Lithuanian network operator Litgrid.

The test decoupling went unnoticed by the electricity consumer and served to prepare for the planned synchronization of the grid with Western Europe.

According to its own statements, Lithuania had already completely stopped its energy imports from Russia last year as a consequence of its aggressive war against Ukraine. However, like Estonia and Latvia, it is still part of a joint, synchronously switched power grid with Russia and Belarus – the so-called BRELL ring system, which dates back to Soviet times.

06:06 a.m

G7 ministers call for extension of grain agreements

The agriculture ministers of the seven leading industrialized nations (G7) call for the extension, full implementation and expansion of an agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. “We condemn Russia’s attempts to use food as a means of destabilization and geopolitical coercion, and reiterate our commitment to act in solidarity and support those most affected by Russia’s use of food as a weapon,” the statement said , which was written after a two-day meeting of ministers in Miyazaki, Japan.

Russia had emphatically signaled that it would not allow the agreement to continue beyond May 18. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York next week to discuss Ukraine’s grain export business in the Black Sea.

2:27 a.m

Athlete spokesman: At the moment only collective exclusion

Athletes spokesman Maximilian Klein has reiterated the demand that Russian athletes continue to be excluded from competitions because of the war of aggression in Ukraine. The recommendation of the International Olympic Committee for the re-admission of athletes from Russia and Belarus on the international sports stage is wrong, above all because they and the sport are still “instrumentalized by Putin’s war propaganda”, said the spokesman for the association Athletes Germany in ZDF’s “Aktuelles Sportstudio”.

“That’s why only collective exclusion is possible at the moment,” said Klein. Otherwise you have the situation “that you accompany the Russians back into world sport, court them, open the doors for them – and as a result the doors are closed to the Ukrainians”.

1:42 a.m

The live blog from Saturday to read