CONFLICTSUKRAINE
Ukraine updates: Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Rome
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Rome for talks with Italian political leaders and Pope Francis. DW has the latest.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has embarked on a crucial diplomatic mission to Italy and the Vatican, where he is expected to hold talks with senior officials in the Italian government and the Roman Catholic Church.
A planned meeting with Pope Francis is particularly significant, the pontiff’s recent disclosure of the Holy See’s push to end the war in Ukraine.
Upon his arrival, Zelenskyy tweeted that it was “an important visit for approaching victory of Ukraine.”
In Rome, Zelenskyy had separate meetings with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni promised Italy’s full support to Ukraine in its efforts to repel Russia’s “brutal and unjust aggression.” Speaking alongside Zelenskyy, she said Italy would continue to supply Ukraine with weapons and back his country for as long as is necessary.
“We are betting on Ukraine’s victory,” Meloni added.
The Ukrainian leader’s trip marks his first visit to Italy since Russia launched its full-scale invasion early last year.
The pope had hinted to journalists that a Vatican “mission” concerning the war was currently underway, a statement to which both Moscow and Kyiv publicly expressed surprise. The Vatican has maintained that something is in the works without providing any specifics.
Earlier this week, Francis met with Russia’s outgoing ambassador to the Vatican, Alexander Avdeev. Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported the Vatican may have given Avdeyev a letter for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite the pontiff’s persistent calls for peace and his desire to serve as a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow, his offer has yet to lead to a breakthrough.
Here are some of the other notable developments concerning Russia’s war in Ukraine on Saturday, May 13:
Moscow says Russian forces advancing inside Bakhmut
Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces were still pushing inside the frontline town of Bakhmut and had wrested control of an area in the eastern Ukrainian city.
“In the Donetsk direction, assault detachments liberated a block in the northwestern part of the city of Artemovsk,” the defence ministry said, referring to Bakhmut by its Russian name.
Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian military commander said that Kyiv’s forces were advancing along parts of the front line against Russian forces near Bakhmut.
“Our soldiers are moving forward in some areas of the front, and the enemy is losing equipment and manpower,” Commander of Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said on social media.
Russian helicopter and warplane crash in Bryansk region
A military helicopter and fighter jet both crashed in the Russian region of Bryansk, according to Russian media reports. It was not immediately clear what caused the crashes.
The helicopter crashed in an uninhabited area near the town of Klinsty, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. Videos posted on social media appeared to show the helicopter exploding before it fell to the ground in flames.
TASS later reported the crash of a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 fighter jet in the same region. The circumstances of the crash were not immediately clear.
Russian media reported that both people aboard the two-seat Mi-8 helicopter were dead, although there has been no official confirmation from the Russian government.
Germany to send Ukraine €2.7 billion military aid package
Germany has promised Ukraine further arms deliveries worth €2.7 billion ($2.95 billion) ahead of a possible visit to Germany by President Zelenskyy, the German Defense Ministry said Saturday.
According to the ministry, the package, which is Germany’s biggest yet, includes 20 more Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 30 Leopard-1 tanks and four IRIS-T-SLM air defense systems.
“We all hope for a rapid end to this terrible war by Russia against the Ukrainian people, but unfortunately this is not in sight. This is why Germany will supply all the help that it can, for as long as necessary,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement.
Germany last year provided Ukraine with military support worth €2 billion and had earmarked €2.2 billion for this year, though details had not yet been finalized.
Zelenskyy: Russia has lost the ‘war in their minds’
In his nightly address on Friday, Zelenskyy said Russians were “already internally ready for defeat.”
“They have already lost this war in their minds. We must put pressure on them every day so that their sense of defeat turns into their flight, their mistakes, their losses,” he said.
Ukraine claims to have retaken swaths of ground from Russian forces near Bakhmut, the scene of the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.
Moscow acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back north of the city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group that has led the campaign in Bakhmut, said in an audio message that what Moscow described, “unfortunately, is called ‘a rout’ and not a regrouping.”
G7 finance leaders to warn of global uncertainty
The finance leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) wealthiest nations are poised to conclude a three-day meeting in Japan with a warning of increased economic uncertainty.
“The global economy has shown resilience against multiple shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and associated inflationary pressures,” the leaders will say in a final draft of a communique seen by the Reuters news agency.
“We need to remain vigilant and stay agile and flexible in our macroeconomic policy amid heightened uncertainty about the global economic outlook.”
More DW coverage on Russia’s war in Ukraine
South Africa’s Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned the US ambassador to meet over allegations he made a day earlier about the country supplying arms to Russia for the war in Ukraine.
A student with an anti-war slogan, a vocational school founder who doesn’t want to recruit for the military: some people in Russia are still demonstrating opposition to the war in Ukraine. They’re taking huge risks in doing so, DW’s Juri Rescheto reports in the video below.
Russia’s silent protest against war
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dh,lo/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
