– Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal asked Germany to classify Russia’s atrocities as genocide. All developments of the war against Ukraine can be found here.

+++ “It is Russian policy to deliberately kill civilians in Ukraine just because they are Ukrainian. It is called genocide,” Denys Schmyhal said in an interview with German press agency. “If you look at all the facts, then all the characteristics of genocide are met. We hope that our partners, including Germany, agree with our assessment.” The Ukrainian parliament officially classified the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers as “genocide” in April.

+++ Russia began a large-scale military maneuver with more than 50,000 troops on Friday. The nearly week-long exercise was held in the east, thousands of miles from the battle. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, countries such as China, India and Mongolia are also involved, as well as several ex-Soviet republics, with Belarus in the lead. In this way, Russia wants to show solidarity with other countries at a time of extreme tension with the West.

+++ After more than half a year of war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has formulated the elimination of the alleged “anti-Russian enclave” as a further goal. According to the Interfax news agency, the head of state told schoolchildren in Kaliningrad, Russia’s Baltic Sea on Thursday that such an area had appeared in what is now Ukraine and threatened Russia. “That’s why our people who fought there protected the people of Donbass and Russia itself.”

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