Ukraine (bbabo.net), - The Bundeswehr will soon transfer 10 thousand artillery shells from its own reserves to Ukraine. This was announced by the head of the working group for coordinating assistance to Ukraine at the German Ministry of Defense, Major General Christian Freuding.
According to him, supplies of ammunition to Kyiv are planned to be carried out in three stages. At the first stage, 10 thousand shells will be transferred. At the second stage, Germany intends to bear the costs of purchasing 180 thousand shells. Delivery will take place in the second half of this year. For the long term, Germany has entered into a bilateral agreement to supply Ukraine with an additional 100 thousand ammunition. Delivery is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024. It is not specified which country the agreement was concluded with.
In addition, Freuding spoke about the training of Ukrainian soldiers on the territory of Germany. According to him, 10 thousand Ukrainian military personnel were trained; since the beginning of this year, the number of soldiers is approximately 4 thousand.
The official representative of the German Cabinet of Ministers, Steffen Hebestreit, said on March 6 that Germany will join the Czech initiative to purchase at least 800 thousand artillery ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in countries outside the European Union, and will allocate for this “a three-digit sum in millions of euros.”
On February 17, Czech President Petr Pavel said at the Munich Security Conference that Prague has found the possibility of purchasing hundreds of thousands of artillery shells from third countries for Ukraine if funds are available to implement the initiative. Earlier, the Politico newspaper reported that the Czech Republic, dissatisfied with the failure of the European Union's promises to supply Kiev with a million shells from March 2023 to March 2024, demanded that Brussels begin purchasing shells for Ukraine around the world, in particular in Turkey, South Africa and South Korea.
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UN: Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine faces discrimination
Ukraine (bbabo.net), - The Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine is subject to discriminatory treatment compared to linguistic minorities speaking the language of the European Union. This is stated in the report published on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Thus, OHCHR commented on the law that was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament on December 8. This law amends a number of legislative acts relating to the rights of national minorities, and also tightens restrictions on the use of the Russian language in the country.
“Although the law is a significant step forward in improving the rights of national minorities, it maintains a discriminatory differential treatment between, on the one hand, national minorities speaking an official EU language and, on the other hand, national minorities whose languages are not official EU languages, such as Russian, Armenian and Gypsy. Although the rights of the first category of national minorities have been expanded as described above, national minorities whose language is not an EU language will not be able to enjoy the same rights,” the document noted.
The international organization also called on Ukraine to lift bans on peaceful gatherings of people who identify themselves as ethnic Russians.
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