War Ukraine Russia, live | Spain will send tanks to Ukraine in spring

According to a survey released this Friday by the public channel ZDF, a 54% of German citizens believe that the decision send battle tanks to ukraine is correct, compared to 38% who oppose it, a result similar to that shown by polls published over the last week. While support for arms shipments to Ukraine is particularly high among Green voters, it is rejected above all by followers of the far-right formation Alternative for Germany (AfD) and from the leftist Die Linke. About half the population is concerned that the delivery of tanks to kyiv increases the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and the West, a fear particularly pronounced in areas that correspond to the former East Germany.

the portuguese Antonio Vitorinogeneral director of the International Organization for Migration (OIM), asked in an interview with EFE that the war in Ukraine don’t let others be forgotten humanitarian crises, such as the one caused by the Venezuelan exodus. “For us, attention to the situation in Ukraine is very important and understandable”, but “do not make us forget that there continue to be many other humanitarian crises throughout the world that require support and mobilization” of the international community, Vitorino told EFE in the framework of a visit to Brasilia.

Among these other crises, he affirmed that “the situation in Venezuela” and the impact it has on almost all of Latin America “clearly” are inscribed, which imposes “urgent humanitarian needs.” He cited that currently, among other countries, it is estimated that there are about 2.5 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, about 1.7 million in Peru, another 400,000 in Brazil and the same number in Chile, and about 700,000 in Ecuador, which has received the greatest impact per capita, based on its population.

After hearing the bad news, some people decide to go to the center to say goodbye to a legend of the Moscow cultural scene. “If the Russian leadership could, they would change the last years of the USSR. They consider that page (the breakup) an error. Since they couldn’t avoid it then, now they’re trying to take revenge,” says Vladimir, who is studying for a doctorate at the Russian Academy of Sciencesa. Vladimir accuses the Kremlin of “creating internal enemies” in the absence of a real external threat.

“We are entering a very dark period in our history,” he admits resignedly. Of course, he denies that the kremlin can destroy human rights organizations. “Those organizations are not buildings or brick walls, they are people. Sakharov’s legacy is not material, so it cannot be destroyed, no matter what our censorship does, ”he insists. Nastia, an art expert, believes that “Russians are afraid of the truth”, which is why they see civil organizations as dangerous, because they bring out both the good and the bad in society. “The truth can be a painful thing. It hurts to admit mistakes. It all started hundreds of years ago. I blame myself, first, and then the leaders, ”she says. She laments that every time “the Russian people seem to have learned to be free and to think in freedom, something happens that spoils everything.”

The eviction, which is added to the fine of 5 million rubles (more than $70,000) that the organization received in December, “is the first step towards liquidation,” according to its director. Although like the rest of the liquidated organizations, which will continue to work, he admits that the activities of the Sakharov Center they are closely linked to the building that houses it. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin“does not need civil society, that is, an independent voice that denounces the problems with human rights,” he points out.

“Even more so in wartime conditions, in which a multitude of questions can be asked. Is the war just? What happens to the hostages in the occupied territories? What happens to the Ukrainian prisoners of war? The State does not want to answer with the truth, ”he underlines. Lukashevski believes that Russia has already crossed the red line and has become a “typical personalist dictatorship“. “A regime that is based on force, that controls society through fear, where there is no political alternation and a single person runs the State almost alone for more than 20 years is a dictatorship,” he says. Consider that “in Russia you can practically not go out on the streets, there is no independent press, there is no freedom of expression or assembly, and the last levers of freedom have been removed.”

The center’s days are numbered, since the Prosecutor’s Office has decided evict the historic institution on the grounds that it represents a security threat and the constitutional order in this country. “The accusation that we undermine state security is ridiculous. What happens is that, as the kremlin has an atrocious fear of freedom of expression, we are a dangerous platform,” says Lukashevski, fined in absentia this Friday with 3 million rubles (about 43,000 dollars).

Remember that your space has brought together over the years people who disagree with the politics and mood prevailing in Russia, based “on xenophobia, chauvinism, the repression of human rights and contempt for human dignity.” First it was the turn of the main Russian NGO, Memorial; earlier this week to the oldest, Moscow’s Helsinki Group, and now to the most influential. In this case the excuse is a new amendment that stipulates that foreign agents cannot receive state financing either, which allowed the Moscow City Council to terminate the lease and issue the eviction order.

Russia has decided to close the Sakharov Centerthe last bastion of freedom for opponents of the Kremlin, defenders of human rights and critics of the military campaign in Ukraine. “In a country that is not free, there cannot be an island of freedom. We live under a dictatorship, ”he commented to Efe Sergei Lukashevskydirector of the exile center in Berlin since the beginning of the war.

The Sakharov Center, founded seven years after the death of the Nobel Peace Prize winner (1989), hosts exhibitions, conferences, concerts, films and plays, the vast majority of which are independent. In addition, its two buildings house a library and two permanent exhibits, one on the life of Sakharov and the other on the history of the dissident movement in the Soviet Union. The surrounding garden is dominated by a fragment of the Berlin Wall.

According to Reuters, the Russian oil company Gazprom has reported that it will send 24.3 million cubic meters of gas to Europe via Ukraine this Saturday.

Ukraine has starred in separate battles this Friday against the russian troops who were attempting to pierce their lines in the east and northeast before they Kyiv receive the announced tanks from its western allies. President Volodymyr Zelenskyand has described the situation at the front as “extremely acute”, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is stepping up an offensive. Zelenskiy has reported major battles for Vuhledar, southwest of the regional capital of Donetsk, and Bakhmut, to the northeast.