Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Russians to protest after the attack on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. "You have to take to the streets and say you want to live, you want to live in a world without radioactive contamination," he said in a speech. "Radioactive radiation doesn't know where Russia is, radiation doesn't know where your country's borders are."
After a fire, the situation in Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, which was hit by a Russian attack, is "secured" according to the authorities.
The manager of the power plant said that firefighters had reached the plant, the head of the regional military administration, Oleksander Staruch, wrote on Facebook on Friday night. According to the power plant management, the fire broke out in a building for training events and a laboratory.
Less than 24 hours after the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Vladimir Putin announced that he recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Four days later, Russia had already unleashed a triple invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south.
There were many rumors that senior Chinese officials, before the start of the Games, had asked their Russian colleagues not to provoke any military conflict in Ukraine during the Olympics. From Moscow, officially, they denied those rumors. From Beijing, they kept silent.
Despite the ongoing sports court proceedings because of a positive doping test, the Russian figure skater Kamila Valiyeva is on the starting list for the Olympic short program.
The 15-year-old is scheduled to start on February 15 in 26th place out of 30, according to the published list. The judgment of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport Cas is scheduled for tomorrow Monday.
The US thinks it is possible that Russia will invade Ukraine before the end of the Olympic Games. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at a White House press conference. There is a "very clear possibility that Russia will decide to take military action."
Accordingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet decided whether he wants to order an attack. However, Russia has prepared all its armed forces for a large military operation. The threat is so serious that now is the time for all US citizens in Ukraine to leave the country within the next 24 to 48 hours.
In recent days, Beijing has urged both sides to remain calm and end the "Cold War mentality". At the same time, it has made it clear that it supports Moscow's concerns.
It looks like China will side with its longtime ally and former communist comrade Russia on this issue. However, it should be noted that China has a long history of this behavior.
The US-Americans would politicize the Winter Olympics, China's leadership complained - most recently in a telephone call between the two foreign ministers Wang Yi and Antony Blinken at the end of January. The Biden government announced in early December that it would not have any political or diplomatic representatives from the United States will be traveling to the games.
The US government no doubt has geopolitical motives for the boycott, but it cites good reasons: serious human rights abuses are being committed against minorities in China. Hundreds of thousands of people from the Uyghur people and other Muslim ethnic groups in the north-west of the country were or are being interned in re-education camps. Human rights experts bring this close to at least cultural genocide. In addition, Beijing today treats the citizens of the until recently largely liberal city-state of Hong Kong with open repression.
The situation in the Ukraine conflict is confused and confusing. The reports of a single day make it clear how much. The Friday of last week reflects the whole confusion of the global political muddle.
Almost simultaneously, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder called on Ukraine to stop saber -rattling, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to Washington to tone down the American saber-rattling, tone down was his vocabulary. Same wording, but very different attitudes.
Chinese state television 's announcement this week sounded whimsical: "Minimize the purchase of overseas goods from countries with a high incidence," the CCTV website reads.
And if so, it went on to say, packages and envelopes should be opened outdoors if possible and the recipients should definitely wear masks and gloves. In short: There is a warning about postal items as a potential way of spreading the coronavirus.
After the USA, Great Britain is now considering diplomatically boycotting the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. This was reported by the Times on Saturday. According to the report, the British government is advising whether it will only send its ambassador to China to the games in February, but not British ministers. US President Joe Biden confirmed on Thursday that his government is also considering a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in Beijing.
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