New appeal from Zelensky. Ukraine needs long-range missiles to stop the “Russian terror”. The Ukrainian president reiterated this, underlining that the Himars missiles currently used by Kiev have a range of 80 kilometers and cannot reach many of the areas occupied by the Russians.
According to Kiev, long-range missiles are needed to prevent the Russians from positioning their missile launchers far from the front line and destroying Ukrainian cities. “There should be no taboos in supplying arms to Ukraine – says Zelensky – to protect itself from Russian aggression. We will do everything possible to ensure that our partners are open to this vital supply, including the delivery of Atacms missiles, which have a range of 300 kilometres, and other similar weapons.”
Meanwhile, according to the British Ministry of Defence, Moscow’s decision to introduce basic military training into the secondary school curriculum “underscores Russia’s increasingly militarized wartime atmosphere, as well as being a (probably intended) evocation of the ‘Soviet Union: similar training was compulsory in schools until 1993”.
The report states that the course – called ‘Basics of life safety’ – will be introduced from 1 September next: it will include training with AK series machine guns and hand grenades, as well as military exercises and the use of for personal protection. Already last December, the Ministry of Science had announced a military training program for university students.
“I will talk to Putin again on the phone, because it is necessary to talk to each other. It is up to Putin to withdraw the troops from Ukraine and stop this terrible senseless war which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives,” German Chancellor Scholz said, stressing that as long as Russia continues the war with the current level of aggressiveness, the situation it will not change.
The chancellor then recalled that past telephone conversations with Putin “were not rude in tone”, stressing however that the Russian leader has repeatedly clarified that he wants to “forcibly annex parts of his neighboring country”, which is “unacceptable” . “There are no scheduled conversations so far. Putin has been and remains open to contacts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov assured after Scholz’s words.
