Ukraine/Russland/NATO – Sammler 3. März 2022 (Update: Briefings Russland, USA) )

Der tägliche Sammler zum Krieg in der Ukraine und den Spannungen zwischen Russland und dem Westen am 3. März 2022:

• Etwas überraschend am Donnerstagmorgen die Meldung zu weiteren Waffenlieferungen aus Deutschland an die Ukraine – nicht grundsätzlich, sondern wegen der Waffensysteme, die da angesprochen sind. Aus der dpa-Meldung:

Deutschland will weitere Waffen an die Ukraine liefern. Das Wirtschaftsministerium genehmigte die Abgabe von 2.700 Flugabwehrraketen vom Typ „Strela“, wie die Deutsche Presse-Agentur am Donnerstag aus Kreisen des Ministeriums erfuhr. Dabei handle es sich um Waffen sowjetischer Produktion aus ehemaligen Beständen der Nationalen Volksarmee (NVA) der DDR.

Daran ist einiges merkwürdig. Für die Abgabe dieser Waffen, die die Bundeswehr von der NVA übernommen hatte, ist nicht das Bundeswirtschaftsministerium zuständig, es ist ja kein Rüstungsexport. Sondern eine Länderabgabe, die in der Zuständigkeit des Verteidigungsministeriums liegt.

Update: Das Verteidigungsministerium teilte dazu auf Anfrage lediglich mit:

Weitere Ausrüstungsgegenstände zur Unterstützung der Ukraine sind transportbereit. Einige Gegenstände benötigen noch die Freigabe durch den Bundessicherheitsrat.

Und: es handelt sich um ziemlich betagte Waffen, die ja mindestens rund 35 Jahre alt sein müssen. Nun wurden Strela bis Ende der 1990-er Jahre noch in der (inzwischen aufgelösten) Heeresflugabwehrtruppe genutzt, seitdem liegen sie im Depot. Und machen Probleme, wie der Spiegel im Januar berichtet hatte:

Im Bestand der Streitkräfte gibt es weitere Munition, die wegen ihres Alters gefährlich werden könnte. (…) So befänden sich im Lager im baden-württembergischen Wermutshausen etwa 2500 Flugkörper »Strela«, die in Holzkisten aufbewahrt würden und »oxidieren/korrodieren mit teilweiser Schimmelbildung, die zur Schädigung der Munitionslagerhäuser sowie zur Beeinträchtigung des Personals« führen könnten.

Dem hatte das Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw) nur teilweise widersprochen:

Die Flugkörper vom Typ „STRELA“ sind seit 2012 für die Nutzung gesperrt.
Auslöser der Sperrung waren entdeckte Mikrorisse im Treibsatz der Munition, die zu Korrosion/Oxidation führten. Untersuchungen der WTD haben ergeben, dass von den Flugkörpern keine Gefahr ausgeht.
Die Transportsicherheit ist weiterhin gegeben. Da kein Bedarf an einer weiteren Nutzung besteht, wurde die Aussonderung eingeleitet. Die Ausschreibung zur Entsorgung durch gewerbliche Anbieter ist in Vorbereitung.
Die Verpackungskisten der „Strela“ sind teilweise von Schimmel befallen. Die Lagerung erfolgt in gesonderten Munitionslagerhäusern, ein Betreten erfolgt nur zu regelmäßigen Kontrollen.
Eine Gefährdung durch diesen Schimmelbefall ist nur bei längerer und ungeschützter Exposition von Personen gegeben. Sie entspricht etwa einer Schimmelbildung, die beispielsweise in Wohnungen auftreten können. Die Sicherheit der Raketen ist davon nicht betroffen.

(Die gesamte Pressemitteilung vom 17. Januar 2022 als Sicherungskopie:
20220117_BAAINBw_Munitionsgefaehrdung_Pressemitteilung)

(Update: Der Stand am Donnerstagabend: weiterhin keine Bestätigung für diese Lieferung)

• Zur Lage in der Ukraine selbst der Überblick am Morgen vom britischen Verteidigungsministerium:

The main body of the large Russian column advancing on Kyiv remains over 30km from the centre of the city having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion. The column has made little discernible progress in over three days.
Despite heavy Russian shelling, the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain in Ukrainian hands. Some Russian forces have entered the city of Kherson but the military situation remains unclear.
The Russian defence ministry has been forced to admit that 498 Russian soldiers have already been killed and 1,597 wounded in Putin’s war. The actual number of those killed and wounded will almost certainly be considerably higher and will continue to rise.

Update: Das Briefing des russischen Verteidigungsministeriums, auf der Facebook-Seite auf Englisch veröffentlicht – diesmal mit dem Fokus auf ausländische Söldner der Ukraine:

Briefing by Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson:
«The grouping of troops of the Lugansk People’s Republic, with fire support from the Russian Armed Forces, continued offensive operations and took control of the road direction Yarovaya – Krasny Liman – Privolye.
The units of the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic carried out successful offensive operations, advanced 8 kilometers and took control of Novokrasnovka and Krasnovka settlements.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued the offensive, acting on the adjacent flank with the units of the DPR and took control of Blagoveshchenka, Sinya Gora, Petrovskoye, Shevchenkovskoye, Sladkaya Balka, Ilchenkovo, Ocherevataya and Novoprokopovka settlements.
Please note that against the background of the encirclement and destruction of the main groups of Ukrainian nationalists by the Russian Armed Forces, Western countries have increased the dispatch of contract soldiers from private military companies to the areas of hostilities.
Foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine are committing sabotage and raids on Russian convoys of equipment and supplies, as well as aircraft covering them.
It is they who, evade getting into the frame of the phones of supposedly “local residents” in the propaganda videos distributed on social networks by the Ukrainian special services.
All attacks by foreign mercenaries are carried out using weapons supplied by the West to the Kiev regime.
We are talking about anti-tank systems Javelin (USA), NLOW (Great Britain) and man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems Stinger, the use of which requires serious training.
The US military intelligence has launched a large-scale campaign to recruit PMC contractors to be sent to Ukraine. First of all, employees of the American PMCs Academi, Cubic and DynCorp are recruited.
Great Britain, Denmark, Latvia, Poland and Croatia legally allowed their citizens to participate in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. The command of the French foreign legion plans to send military personnel – ethnic Ukrainians to help the Kiev regime.
According to Zelensky, about 16,000 foreign mercenaries are expected to arrive in Ukraine in addition to the existing ones in order to compensate for the crushing military failures of the Ukrainian armed forces. For them, a visa-free regime is officially introduced.
Last week alone, about 200 mercenaries from Croatia arrived through Poland and joined one of the nationalist battalions in southeastern Ukraine.
Today, the Defence Attache at the Croatian Embassy in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Defenсe Ministry.
The military attache was pointed out to the illegal activities of Croatian citizen Denis Sheler, who participated in the hostilities in the south-east of Ukraine in 2015, forming detachments of Croatian mercenaries to be sent to Ukraine.
We noticed that we are aware of the arrival in Ukraine of about 200 Croatian mercenaries.
I want to emphasize that all mercenaries sent by the West to help the Kiev nationalist regime are not combatants under international humanitarian law.
They are not entitled to prisoner of war status.
The best thing that awaits foreign mercenaries upon arrest is criminal prosecution.
We urge citizens of foreign countries planning to go to fight for the Kiуv nationalist regime to think twice before the trip».

… und die wesentlichen Punkte aus dem täglichen Pentagon-Briefing, notiert von der Stars&Stripes-Kollegin Caitlin Doornbos:

Senior defense official: „We now assess that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has put in 90% is pre-staged combat power across the border into Ukraine.“ There’s been „heavy bombardment“ in cities including Kyiv and Chernihiv.
„We’ve seen reporting that Kherson is under Russian control, but we’re not in a position to independently verify that. In the southeast, our assessment is that Mariupol is still under Ukrainian control.“
„Airspace over Ukraine remains contested as we said yesterday. We assess that Ukrainian air and missile defense systems remain intact and they remain effective. They continue to be able to fly their airplanes and to employ air defense assets.“
„I’ve seen reports attributed to various US officials about Stinger missiles. I can only say we continue to provide Ukraine systems they need to defend themselves & that includes systems & weapons they can use to deal with the threats on the ground as well as airborne threats.“
„As of this morning, we’ve now counted more than 480 Russian missile launches again of all sizes and stripes“ since the start of the invasion last week.“
„The majority are coming from inside Ukraine, the next biggest chunk are coming from Russia“ and about 70 came from Belarus.
„We still assess that the convoy is that everybody’s been focused on is stalled and we have no reason to doubt Ukrainian claims that they have that they have contributed to it being stalled by attacking it.“ The convoy is 40-miles long and reportedly headed to Kyiv.
„We cannot confirm reports of the use of cluster munitions. We cannot confirm reports of the presence or use of thermobaric weapons.“
„Nothing to speak to in the maritime environment … We don’t have any naval activity to speak to or any moves by the Russians with respect to Odessa at this time. Obviously, we’re watching it as closely as you can, but we just haven’t seen any appreciable activity.“
On Russia using 90% of its prepositioned combat power: „Just because they’re drawing more on it every day, you should not take away from that that their combat power is being diminished to such a point inside Ukraine that they are feel like they’re running out of juice here.“
„We still assess that [Russia has] available to them in and outside Ukraine. They still have an awful lot of capability left to them. Just because they throwing in now 90%, we shouldn’t take away from that that this is some sort of overreaction or that they are diminished.“
„We cannot independently confirm reports that [Kherson] has fallen. Our best information — and I want to stress the caveat that there’s a lot that we don’t always know — is that is that they’re still fighting there. But we’re not ready to call it one way or another.“
„It’s probably been 2-3 days since the last time we thought [Russia] made any major geographic distance towards Kiev … Generally speaking, we still assess that the advanced columns they started moving on Kyiv are roughly about 25 kilometers north of the city.“
Pentagon view on Ukrainian President Zelenskyy staying in Kyiv: „Obviously, we remain concerned about his [safety.] It’s incredibly noteworthy that he has stayed there in Kyiv [as he] continues to have command & control over his forces. And we commend his bravery for [staying.]“

(Weiter nach Entwicklung)