Visitors to a concert in Russia caused a stir with anti-war chants. Many users published a short video on social networks over the weekend, showing how hundreds of people in front of a stage keep shouting “shit war, shit war”.

According to independent media and well-known members of the opposition, the recording was made during a performance by the Russian rock group Kiss-Kiss last Friday in the Baltic Sea metropolis of St. Petersburg. “Kiss Kiss” is also written in illuminated letters on the stage.

The band, which had previously opposed Russia’s war in Ukraine, initially did not comment. Some users worried that the musicians may now have to fear legal consequences. In Russia, the war against Ukraine is officially referred to only as a “military special operation”. Those who spread alleged “fake news” about Russia’s army face severe penalties.

Last week, a video of a concert by the band DDT in the city of Ufa in the Urals was widely shared on Russia’s social networks. It shows frontman Yuri Shevchuk shouting to the audience: “Home, my friends, this is not the president’s ass that has to be licked and kissed all the time. Home is the poor granny at the train station who sells potatoes.” Shevchuk received applause for this from the concert-goers. It was later revealed that the singer was now under investigation for allegedly discrediting Russia’s armed forces.

Polish President Andrzej Duda has become the first foreign head of state to address Ukraine’s parliament since the start of the Russian invasion. “The free world has the face of Ukraine,” said Duda in his speech.

The parliamentarians rose again and again to applaud the guest from Poland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also present. Nobody can disturb the Polish-Ukrainian unity, said Duda. “Poland will do everything in its power to help Ukraine become a member of the European Union.”

The Polish head of state also spoke of the intention to conclude a Polish-Ukrainian friendship agreement. Details were not initially known. Surprisingly, Duda’s solidarity visit only became known on Sunday morning. The 50-year-old traveled to Ukraine for the second time since the outbreak of war.

Ukraine has extended martial law, which has been in effect since the end of February, by a further 90 days. In view of the Russian war of aggression, the parliament in Kyiv also voted to extend the general mobilization until August 23, as several MPs wrote in the Telegram news service on Sunday.

In Russia, at least two neo-Nazi groups have joined forces with soldiers in Ukraine. The reports the magazine “Spiegel” and refers to information from circles of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). A document states that this is supposed to be the “Russian Imperial League” and the group “Rusich”.

This leads “the alleged reason for war of the so-called ‘denazification’ of Ukraine ad absurdum,” the “Spiegel” quoted the analysts from the paper as saying. In its propaganda, Russia had claimed that it wanted to rid Ukraine of neo-Nazis.

It was not specified how many people were involved. However, one of the groups is said to have been active in Donbass in 2014 and 2015. The “Rusich” group is said to be attributed to the Russian mercenary group “Wagner”, which has also already fought in the Donbass.

The Bund Naturschutz Bayern rejects a softening of the ecological goals for agriculture because of the Ukraine war. In Memmingen, the assembly of delegates of the association voted in a leading motion to stick to the set-aside of four percent of arable land planned by the EU and not to give up this goal because of the Ukraine war. This was reported by a spokesman for the association after the vote.

Both Russia and Ukraine are among the most important exporters of grain on the world market. The war has meant that grain exports via the Black Sea have largely come to a standstill. Experts therefore fear famine in poorer regions of the world.

At the end of March, the EU Commission itself proposed suspending the shutdowns. In Germany, Union politicians in particular are advocating not to set aside any fields. According to the conservationists, however, nature conservation and nutrition should not be played off against each other.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko sees her country’s desire to join the EU as the reason for Russia’s war of aggression. “We are the only country that pays with the lives of its citizens and with their blood for the desire to return to their European homeland,” she told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Friday edition). “It’s not a new goal for Ukrainians. For a long time they have clearly expressed their will to become part of Europe again. That is why Putin started the war.”

Tymoshenko twice prime minister of Ukraine. She became known internationally in 2004 – at that time with a braided fringe of hair – as the face of the pro-Western Orange Revolution. Tymoshenko has also been in prison twice. In 2019, the politician ran for the third time in the presidential election in Ukraine, but was defeated in the first ballot.

She knows about the problems in her country. “I accept that we must fight corruption, but I protest when it is used as an excuse not to give the candidate status the green light,” said the 61-year-old.

In the newspaper interview, Tymoshenko rejected the creation of a new political community in which Ukraine could find a place: “We don’t want a replacement. We do not want a special European ghetto to be created for Ukraine,” she said. “The moment has come to confront the Kremlin and its blackmail. It’s a choice between values ​​and the price one is willing to pay. It’s time to prove that all the talk about values ​​is real.”

An opera against artillery fire: the opera opened again in Kyiv on Saturday evening, and the play “The Barer of Seville” by Gioachino Rossini was on display. The Ukrainian Minister of Culture published pictures on Twitter. Accordingly, numerous diplomats sat in the audience, which was dressed in both evening wear and uniform.

“I can’t say that opera is my usual entertainment, but it’s an amazing feeling to hear this music and be in another world for a while before returning to our reality,” Britain’s Guardian newspaper said. a spectator named Volodymyr – a soldier who only wanted to give it his first name.

According to its state gas producer Gazprom, Russia continues to supply gas through Ukraine to other European countries. The delivery volume at the Sujah ​​entry point was 44.7 million cubic meters on Sunday, compared to 45.9 million cubic meters on Saturday, the group said.

According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia transferred launchers of the short-range ballistic missile system “Iskander-M” to Belgorod on the border with Ukraine on Sunday night. The cruise missiles are fired from heavy trucks and have a range of up to 500 kilometers. They can carry conventional or nuclear warheads. The technical support for the system has also been increased, according to a post on Facebook.

Only on Thursday did it become known that the authoritarian Belarus had bought two of the most powerful Russian weapon systems from Moscow: the “Iskander” short-range missiles and the S-400 air defense system. That said the Belarusian head of state Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, as reported by the Belta state agency on Thursday. He did not provide any information on the number of missile systems acquired, he spoke of a “sufficient number”. The Iskander surface-to-surface missiles should be delivered by the end of the year.

The long-standing German ambassador to Russia, Rüdiger von Fritsch, accuses Moscow of using the global supply crisis caused by the Ukraine war and the resulting threat of refugee movements as a means of warfare. “Vladimir Putin is specifically trying to create hunger crises in the Middle East and North Africa,” said von Fritsch in the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” about the Russian head of state.

That is why Russia is preventing Ukraine from exporting grain and even bombing grain silos. “Putin’s calculus is that after the collapse of grain supplies, the starving people will flee these regions and try to get to Europe – like the millions of Syrians who fled the horrors of war did then,” said von Fritsch, who informed Putin in met in person several times in the past.

“He wants to destabilize Europe with new streams of refugees and build up political pressure so that Western states give up their tough stance against Russia.” This is “a new form of hybrid warfare,” criticized the diplomat, who will shortly publish the book “Zeitenwende: Putin’s War and the Consequences ” released.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has returned to the capital Kyiv to support Russia’s war-torn Ukraine. The Polish presidential administration in Warsaw announced that on Sunday he would be the first head of state to give a speech in the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, since the war began three months ago. Duda is committed to ensuring that Ukraine is granted EU candidate status as quickly as possible. The Polish head of state had already visited Kyiv after the outbreak of war in April and also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj there.

FDP Federal Vice Wolfgang Kubicki has rejected demands that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) should give up more jobs at Russian companies. “No further action is required, neither by the ex-chancellor nor by the German Bundestag,” said Kubicki, who is also Bundestag Vice President, to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Consequences are understandable and understandable, but the line of humiliation should not be crossed,” he said.

Among other things, he contradicted Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). He had asked Schröder to stop further activities for companies from the country after resigning from the supervisory board post at the Russian energy company Rosneft. “We note that it is now happening to one, and the others must follow,” said Scholz on Saturday in Hildesheim on the sidelines of the SPD state delegate conference.

Schröder is also nominated for the supervisory board of the Russian energy company Gazprom and works as a leading lobbyist for the Gazprom subsidiaries Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2.

The chairwoman of the German trade union federation, Yasmin Fahimi, has called for a fundamental about-face in German refugee policy. It should be based on the regulations for war refugees from Ukraine. “I’m thinking of the quick right to basic security, but above all direct access to the training and job market,” she told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

“I don’t really understand why we still maintain this system of distinguishing between basic security and asylum seeker benefits,” she explained. At the same time, Fahimi complained about the bureaucratic hurdles involved in integrating Ukrainian refugees. “Before the refugees can claim any services, they have to go to the immigration authorities to have their stay confirmed. They need a personal appointment for this – and that is the bottleneck at the moment. That often lasts for many weeks.” This is a dangerous phase in which people from Ukraine “receive unwell-intentioned and sometimes illegal job offers,” said Fahimi.

The former military policy advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, Erich Vad, considers the announced special fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr to be insufficient. He told the editorial network Germany: “The opinion that has often been heard that the German security and defense industry has ‘taken care of’ for the next few years with the resolution on the Bundeswehr special fund of 100 billion euros does not go far enough, because in return the industry as a partner of the German Armed Forces is in high demand.”

He explained that the industry is expected to increase its capacities in a wide range of areas as quickly as possible, to deliver the required quality and to serve the Bundeswehr in the best possible way at all times. “This will only be possible if a correspondingly high level of defense spending of two percent of the respective gross domestic product is maintained even after the special fund of 100 billion euros has expired and the industry is not left alone with the capacities that have been built up,” said Vad. Financing an adequate defense capability is a permanent task of the state.

According to the will of the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP, the special fund should be anchored in the Basic Law. Because she also needs votes from the CDU and CSU for the required two-thirds majority, intensive negotiations are currently underway.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for further sanctions against Russia. He also spoke to Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi about this, said the head of state in a video message published on Sunday night. Many Western countries have already imposed unprecedented punitive measures against Russia.

Zelenskyy said the Russian army had destroyed 1,873 educational institutions in Ukraine since the beginning of the war three months ago. “Russia sent practically all of its resources to destroy us.”

The situation in Donbass is extremely difficult, the President added. The Russian army is trying to attack the cities of Slavyansk and Severodonetsk. “Ukraine’s armed forces are holding back this offensive.” Every day that the defenders thwart Russia’s plans is a concrete contribution on the road to victory.

At the same time, Selenskyj warned that the war could be forgotten in those parts of the country where there is currently no fighting. One shouldn’t be careless, he warned. “Ukrainians die every day for our independence.” The war is not over yet. “We still have to keep fighting.”