The Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk has again accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) of being hesitant to deliver heavy weapons. “We have the impression that the Chancellor does not want to deliver,” Melnyk told the editorial network Germany (RND, Friday).

When asked if Germany was playing for time, Melnyk replied, according to the report: “It looks like it. One can get the impression that one is waiting for a ceasefire. Then the pressure from Germany will be gone and there will be no more need for courageous decisions.”

So far, neither Cheetah tanks, nor Leopard 1 or Marder have been delivered, the ambassador criticized. The announced exchange of rings with T-72 tanks for the Ukraine from Slovenia has also not worked out so far.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) spoke out in favor of strengthening the organization after Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe. “The fact that, as a result, missing membership fees have to be compensated, for example, must not result in the work of the Council of Europe being impaired,” she said on Friday before her departure for the Ministerial Conference of the Council of Europe in Turin. “It needs the Council of Europe more than ever.”

In order to ensure a balance and to strengthen the Council of Europe, the federal government will pay an additional ten million euros. Russia’s “inhuman, criminal policy” also “shook the Council of Europe to its foundations,” the Greens politician continued. “A regime that raids its neighbors, that bombs hospitals and schools, that murders and starves civilians” can no longer be a member of the council, she added. “That would be a mockery.”

Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe because of the war of aggression against Ukraine. For its part, Moscow had announced its withdrawal from the organization. The Council, to which 47 countries belong, sees itself as the guardian of human rights.

According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian war of aggression means a budget deficit of around five billion US dollars (4.8 billion euros) every month for Ukraine. The head of state said this in his evening video address on Thursday in Kyiv. “In order to survive the war for freedom, we need quick and sufficient financial support,” he said.

Foreign partners of Ukraine should not see aid as expenses or gifts. “It’s their contribution to their own security.” Ukraine protects other countries from war. Together we must ensure that Russia’s aggression is unsuccessful.

Against the background of the Ukraine war, the USA and Russia have held each other responsible for the deteriorating food situation worldwide. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Moscow of holding hostage the food supply “of millions of Ukrainians and millions of other people around the world” at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.

“Stop threatening countries that criticize your war of aggression with export bans on food and fertilizer,” Blinken added. He urged Russia to allow exports of Ukrainian grain blocked in Black Sea ports.

The Russian UN Ambassador Wassily Nebensia rejected the allegations. The world has long suffered from a food crisis as a result of spiraling inflation. This was caused by rising insurance costs, logistical bottlenecks and speculation on Western markets. Sanctions by Western countries worsened the global food situation.

“On the one hand crazy sanctions are being imposed on us, on the other hand they are demanding food deliveries. It doesn’t work that way, we’re not idiots,” Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev later explained to Telegram.