Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposes sanctions on a former business associate as a wide-ranging corruption scandal in the energy sector puts the country’s ruling elite under scrutiny.
Georgia’s Saakashvili asks Zelenskyy to exchange him in POW swap
Dmytro Hubenko Editor
Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s jailed former president, has appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to arrange a prisoner swap with Russia that would see him released.
Saakashvili, the former pro-Western leader of Georgia who was in office between 2004 and 2013, became a Ukrainian citizen in 2015. He then served as governor of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region for about a year and a half.
In a Facebook post, Saakashvili asked Zelenskyy to include him “on the list of civilian prisoners of this war, with the corresponding legal consequences”, stating that he had been “illegally detained by the pro-Russian regime in Georgia”.
On Wednesday, Saakashvili was transferred back to prison from a private clinic, where he had been receiving treatment, to continue serving his sentence. He has denounced the sentence as politically motivated.
Zelenskyy had previously called on the Georgian authorities to allow Saakashvili to be sent to Ukraine for treatment, but this request was denied.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ensure fewer young Ukrainian men seek to emigrate to Germany, saying they should instead “serve their country.”
Merz told a crowd at a business event in Germany on Thursday that he had told Zelenskyy the young men were “needed” at home.
Recent changes to wartime emergency laws prohibiting Ukrainian men aged 18-22 from leaving the country led to an uptick in young men looking to move to Germany.
The chancellor also voiced support for his government’s plans to remove the automatic eligibility for social benefits that had been granted to Ukrainian refugees in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Going forward, they would be entitled to the same system of state support afforded to typical asylum-seekers rather than that of German residents.
Merz also said there would be “concrete changes” going forward designed to push for Ukrainians in Germany to seek work rather than to receive state support.
According to recent German media reports citing government sources, Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (a Social Democrat) and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (a member of the conservative Bavarian CSU) recently agreed on plans to change Ukrainian’s entitlement to German benefits, although the details have not yet been formally presented.
Merz has been trying to strike a tougher tone on migration and asylum amid the challenge from the populist right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), the leader of the opposition in parliament and the second-largest party in the country since federal elections earlier this year.
Russia looking for ‘big’ war, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted to X that there was a need for more pressure on Russia, and that, according to his assessment of the battlefield situation, Russian forces would continue fighting.
Zelenskyy said he thinks Russia wants a “big war” and that Europe has to be ready by 2029 or 2030 to face that prospect.
“We have to recognize that they want a big war and prepare to be ready in 2029 or 2030 — in this period of time — to begin such a big war,” he said. “On the European continent. We look at this like a really big challenge.
“I think that we have to think about how to stop them now in Ukraine.”
Source: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-corruption-scandal-puts-top-figures-under-scrutiny/live-74725665