Summary
It’s just approaching 9pm in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Here’s a roundup of today’s news.
Ukraine has received two types of air defence system ahead of the Rammstein military group meeting on Thursday where it will ask for more supplies.
The Patriot air defence system delivery was confirmed by the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, on Wednesday.
The second of four promised German Iris-T system were also delivered, according to a German newspaper which had spoken to government officials. No official announcements have been made.
The United States announced a new military aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday to help the Ukrainian military in its war against Russia, Reuters reports. The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told the daily press conference the package will include more ammunition and artillery rounds. It is the 36th security package since the war began in February 2022.
The European Commission is proposing €100m (£88m) in compensation for EU farmers affected by the recent influx of Ukrainian grain as well as restrictions on selling wheat and maize in affected countries, in a move to calm tensions with central and eastern Europe. Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the commission, has written to the leaders of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, setting out support measures after four of those countries banned the import or sale of grain and other food products inside their borders earlier this week. Bulgaria had confirmed its temporary halt on Wednesday.
Inspections of ships are resuming after a two-day hiatus under a UN-brokered agreement on the safe export of grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said on Wednesday.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said on Wednesday during a visit to Sweden that the US looks forward to welcoming Sweden as a Nato member before the alliance’s summit in July, and will encourage Turkey and Hungary to ratify accession. Along with Finland, Sweden applied to join Nato in May last year. Finland’s application was processed in record time and it became the 31st member of the alliance earlier this month.
The Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin has lost an appeal against what his supporters say was a politically motivated decision to jail him for eight and a half years for criticising Moscow’s assault on Ukraine – in a case that has echoes of Monday’s jailing of Vladimir Kara-Murza. The former Moscow councillor’s appeal was rejected as authorities continue to repress freedoms in Russia, with independent media shut down and leading opposition figures behind bars or in exile.
Russia has said it summoned the UK ambassador Deborah Bronnert on Tuesday after she criticised the 25-year jail term given to Kara-Murza. She spoke to reporters outside Moscow city court alongside the US and Canadian ambassadors, describing the sentence as “shocking” and called for Kara-Murza, who holds joint UK and Russian citizenship, to be released immediately.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Volyn region of Ukraine which borders with Belarus and Poland, where he praised the work of border guards.
Russian drones struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight and caused a fire at an infrastructure facility, the head of the military command of the Odesa region, Yuri Kruk, said on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported and firefighters were working at the scene, he said.
That’s all for today. Thank you for following. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
US announces new aid package for Ukraine
The United States announced a new military aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday to help the Ukrainian military in its war against Russia, Reuters reports.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told the daily press conference the package will include more ammunition and artillery rounds. It is the 36th security package since the war began in February 2022, she told reporters.
Details were to come later from the Pentagon.
The package, “as part of our ongoing efforts to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s brutal invasion”, will “include more ammunition for US-provided Himars rocket systems and anti-armor systems, as well as additional artillery rounds,” Jean-Pierre said according to Agence France Presse.
The US is one of the countries leading an unprecedented effort by Nato and other allies to supply Ukraine with weaponry and other aid as the country pushes back against a Russian onslaught that began in February 2022.
Ukraine is preparing an attempt at a counter-offensive, driving Russians back from swaths of occupied territory in the east and south of the country.
Updated
The Ukrainian army is reporting that the Russian forces in Bakhmut are taking “heavy losses” after seven strikes throughout Wednesday.
An update by the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said that two areas which included soldiers, weapons and military equipment and ammunition depots were hit.
The reports have not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Further news on air defences being delivered to Ukraine as German officials have reportedly confirmed it has sent another Iris-T air defence systems to the country.
Ukrinform reported that the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung had spoken to German government sources who said they had been received.
No official announcements have been made by either Berlin or Kyiv. Germany has pledged to transfer four systems to Ukraine, the first arriving in October.
Updated
Ukrainian police have arrested a man who they claim worked with a pro-Russian news outlet and spread “fake” news amid Moscow’s invasion.
“A local resident, who helped the enemy spread fake information about the socio-political situation in the capital, was detained in Kyiv,” Ukraine’s SBU security service said in a statement on Telegram, according to Agence France Presse.
The SBU described the man as a “fixer” for Bel.ru, a pro-Kremlin media outlet that covers news developments in the region of Belgorod, near the Ukrainian border.
“He gave Russian ‘journalists’ fabricated and distorted information about Ukraine,” the statement said.
The detained man, whose identity was not revealed, is under investigation for “justifying the Russian aggression in Ukraine” and “glorifying its participants”, the SBU said.
The security service said the man “publicly supported the actions of the Russian occupiers and denied their crimes in Bucha, Irpin and Izium.”
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Wednesday that delivering goods to regions of Ukraine that Russia unilaterally annexed last year was “problematic”, and ordered the government to address the problem, Reuters reports.
Putin visited Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine’s Luhansk and Kherson regions on Monday, according to the Kremlin.
Updated
European Commission proposes compensation for farmers affected by grain oversupply
The European Commission is proposing €100m (£88m) in compensation for EU farmers affected by the recent influx of Ukrainian grain as well as restrictions on selling wheat and maize in affected countries, in a move to calm tensions with central and eastern Europe.
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the commission, has written to the leaders of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, setting out support measures after four of those countries banned the import or sale of grain and other food products inside their borders earlier this week.
The commission wants member states to approve a further €100m in compensation payments for farmers in affected countries, on top of €56.3m that has already been shared between Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. It is also considering banning the sale of grain in the five affected countries until the end of June: instead, wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds would only be able to enter affected countries en route to another country.
Updated
Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, the member of the US air national guard who is facing criminal charges for leaking top-secret military intelligence records online – including documents pertaining to the war in Ukraine – will remain in jail for now, according to court filings, Reuters reports.
He was due to appear in court on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether he would remain jailed pending trial, but his team of federal public defenders have filed a request asking the judge to delay the detention hearing for two weeks because they needed “more time to address the issues presented by the government’s request for detention”.
Updated
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said on Wednesday during a visit to Sweden that the US looks forward to welcoming Sweden as a Nato member before the alliance’s summit in July, and will encourage Turkey and Hungary to ratify accession.
Along with Finland, Sweden applied to join Nato in May last year. Finland’s application was processed in record time and it became the 31st member of the alliance earlier this month.
“We look forward to soon welcoming Sweden as the 32nd. To be clear, we look forward to that happening before the summit in July,” Austin told a news conference, Reuters reports.
“We encourage our allies, Turkey and Hungary, to ratify Sweden’s accession as soon as possible.”
Austin was in Sweden to hold talks with the defence minister, Pål Jonson, about the war in Ukraine and Sweden’s Nato application, in a visit that coincides with Sweden’s biggest military exercise for more than a quarter century.
Updated
Romania will seal and monitor Ukrainian grain cargoes transiting the country and conduct quality controls on food products at border checkpoints, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday, while stopping short of banning imports.
Bulgaria joined Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in temporarily banning Ukrainian grain imports as central and eastern European states come under domestic pressure to shield local farmers, Reuters reports on Wednesday,
In Romania, the agriculture minister, Petre Daea, held talks over video link with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mykola Solsky, and asked him to “quickly identify solutions to restrict grain and oilseeds exports to Romania”. The two will meet in Bucharest on Friday.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Volyn region of Ukraine which borders with Belarus and Poland, where he praised the work of border guards.
In a video posted on Telegram he said: “There are many important issues – equipment and protection of the state border, socioeconomic and current security situation in the region, arrangement of fortification and defence engineering structures.
“It is an honour for me to be here today to thank our border guards for protecting the state border,” Ukraine’s president wrote under footage showing him meeting and addressing border guards.
Updated
The Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin has lost an appeal against what his supporters say was a politically motivated decision to jail him for eight and a half years for criticising Moscow’s assault on Ukraine – in a case that has echoes of Monday’s jailing of Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The former Moscow councillor’s appeal was rejected as authorities continue to repress freedoms in Russia, with independent media shut down and leading opposition figures behind bars or in exile.
Speaking in court, Yashin said he had been put behind bars for “speaking the truth” over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and Russia. “The sentence delivered against me is amazing: eight and a half years for a 20-minute speech on the internet,” he said, according to Agence France Presse.
“In prison, I met murderers, rapists, and robbers who have received lesser sentences for their crimes.”
Last year, Yashin, 39, described the murder of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha as a “massacre”, referring to a town near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, where civilians were found killed after Russian forces pulled back.
In December 2022, Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for spreading “false information” about Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
Updated
On the topic of air defence systems, Ukraine will ask for urgent supplies of surface-to-air missiles at the Rammstein military meeting on Friday, according to the Financial Times.
It reports that Ukrainian officials fear that a shortfall in defence systems could lead to Russia launching a campaign of bombing attacks. This report comes on the day that the Ukrainian defence minister has announced the Patriot air defence systems have arrived in Ukraine.
“Short-range air defence has been a topic that has been raised increasingly by the Ukrainians,” one European official said. “If they use them all up, it opens the space up for air forces.”
“If Russia can get in with dumb bombers, Ukraine will be in trouble,” they added, referring to unguided munitions dropped from planes. “It’s looking grim.”
Updated
Patriot air defence systems in use in Ukraine
The Patriot air defence systems the Ukrainian government had called for to help the country defend itself from air attacks have arrived, according to Ukraine’s defence minister.
Oleksii Reznikov posted on Twitter that “our beautiful sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defence systems have arrived in Ukraine”.
“Patriots” for patriots
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) April 19, 2023
Do you know how to visualize a dream? We must tell about it to the world and give it life! This is exactly what happened with the Patriots, even before the large-scale war, even before my appointment to the most important position of my life at the most… pic.twitter.com/m6H63erV6Z
He thanked the US, German and Dutch governments for providing them. Reznikov said he had first lobbied for the Patriots in August 2021, before the invasion, in a visit to the US.
The lack of a considerable Ukrainian air force since the early stages of the invasion has meant Ukraine has been laid bare to Russian air attacks by jets.
Ukrainian government ministers were still urging foreign powers to provide the missile systems as recently as December, as the US drew up plans to supply them.
The Dutch government then agreed in January to also send the batteries.
Updated
Russia has said it summoned the UK ambassador Deborah Bronnert on Tuesday after she criticised the 25-year jail term given to Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday.
She spoke to reporters outside Moscow city court alongside the US and Canadian ambassadors. She described the sentence as “shocking” and called for Kara-Murza, who holds joint UK and Russian citizenship, to be released immediately.
Kara-Murza’s sentence is the longest given to a dissident yet. He was arrested in April 2022 and charged with spreading false information about the Russian army in Ukraine.
A statement by the Russian foreign ministry said it regarded her comments as “gross interference in the internal affairs of Russia”.
They also criticised the UK’s “lectures” on human rights.
Updated
Bulgaria has become the latest country to introduce a temporary ban on Ukraine grains imports except for those in transit, Radio Bulgaria reported on its website on Wednesday quoting caretaker prime minister, Galab Donev.
“Over the past year, a significant amount of food has remained in the country and disrupted food chains,” the report quoted Donev as saying according to Reuters.
“We are forced to adopt this national measure because the European authorities are still considering an adequate measure.”
Slovakia, Poland and Hungary have already introduced similar measures after claims Ukrainian grain was undermining their own farmers.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Inspections of ships are resuming after a two-day hiatus under a UN-brokered agreement on the safe export of grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said on Wednesday.
Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of sabotaging the Black Sea grain deal by demanding bribes from shipowners to register new vessels and carry out inspections. There was no immediate comment on the allegation, levelled by Russia’s foreign ministry, from Ukraine. Russia did not produce any evidence to back up the allegation.
Ukrainian agriculture minister Mykola Solsky confirmed on Wednesday that the transit of Ukrainian grain and food products will resume through Poland following an agreement reached in talks with Warsaw.
Russian drones struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight and caused a fire at an infrastructure facility, the head of the military command of the Odesa region, Yuri Kruk, said on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported and firefighters were working at the scene, he said.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that late in the evening of Tuesday 18 April, the Russian army dropped two aerial bombs on Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region. It says that houses were damaged, about 60 stalls burned down in the market, two people were injured, and rescuers are looking for two more people under the rubble.
Rodion Miroshnik, one of the Russian-imposed officials in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, has posted to Telegram to report that the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, on the left-bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region, is under fire from Ukrainian forces. Citing the city administration, he writes “The whole city is under fire. There are already wounded.”
A former Wagner mercenary has admitted to killing and torturing dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war, in one of the most detailed first-person accounts of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. Alexey Savichev, 49, a former Russian convict recruited by Wagner last September, told the Guardian in a telephone interview that he participated in summary executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war during his six months of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that authorities in Crimea claim to have thwarted a sabotage plot aimed at energy infrastructure. The FSB states that a man has been detained.
South Korea might extend its support for Ukraine beyond humanitarian and economic aid if it comes under a large-scale civilian attack, President Yoon Suk Yeol said, signalling a shift in his stance against arming Ukraine for the first time.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the security council of the Russian Federation, threatened South Korea that if it changed its stance, a “quid pro quo” would be to see the latest Russian weapon designs in the hands of “our partners from the DPRK”.
Russia is carrying out a surveillance programme aimed at energy infrastructure in Nordic waters around Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden according to a new investigation by media companies in the region.
Moldova has summoned the Russian ambassador in order to declare a member of staff at the Russian embassy persona non grata.
Updated
Russia is carrying out a surveillance programme aimed at energy infrastructure in Nordic waters around Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden according to a new investigation by media companies in the region.
DR, Denmark’s public broadcaster reports:
According to intelligence services and experts, a Russian military programme is currently mapping offshore windfarms, gas pipelines and power and internet cables in the waters around Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.
The mapping is done by a large number of military and civilian ships sailing around the Nordic waters and uncovering what lies at the bottom of the sea and how our infrastructure is connected.
According to the sources, the aim is to plan sabotage against the Nordic countries, including by being able to cut power and data cables across the Atlantic and to the rest of Europe.
The revelation comes in a new documentary series made by DR in collaboration with NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden and Yle in Finland.
Nils Andreas Stensønes, head of the Norwegian Intelligence Service, is quoted as saying the mission is strategic for Russia, and is considered very important and is controlled directly from Moscow.
The reports are based on ten years worth of data on Russian “ghost ships” that sail in the waters with their location transmitters turned off. The documentary team say that they have found 50 Russian ships that have sailed in what they describe as a suspicious manner over the past ten years.
Reuters has a quick snap to say that Moldova has summoned the Russian ambassador in order to declare a member of staff at the Russian embassy there persona non grata.
Tensions have been running high in Moldova, which has accused Russia of trying to destabilise the former Soviet republic. A breakaway region of Moldova which is sandwiched next to the Ukrainian border, Transnistria, has had a Russian military presence since 1992.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the security council of the Russian Federation, has issued a threat to South Korea on the Telegram messaging app following the news that South Korea may change its stance on sending weaponery to Ukraine. The long-term ally of Vladimir Putin wrote:
There are new ones willing to help our enemies. South Korean president Yun Sok-yeol said that, in principle, the state is ready to supply weapons to the Kyiv regime. Until recently, the South Koreans ardently assured that the possibility of supplying lethal weapons to Kyiv was completely ruled out.
I wonder what the inhabitants of this country will say when they see the latest designs of Russian weapons from their closest neighbors – our partners from the DPRK? What is called ‘Quid pro quo …’
Reuters is carrying a quote from Ismini Palla, spokesperson for the joint coordination centre (JCC) in Istanbul, who confirms that “inspections teams are already at work” due to the resumption of the grain deal shipments.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that authorities in Crimea claim to have thwarted a sabotage plot. It quotes an FSB security service statement which says:
In Kerch, the preparation of sabotage at the facility of the peninsula’s energy system was prevented. As a result of the measures taken, a citizen of Russia and Ukraine, born in 1971, involved in the preparation of this crime, was detained.
Tass reports that “An improvised explosive device and means of communication were confiscated at his place of residence, containing correspondence with a representative of the special services of Ukraine, who coordinated his criminal activities.”
The claims have not been independently verified. The Russian Federation claimed to annex Crimea in 2014, in a move which is not widely internationally recognised.
Grain deal ship inspections resume after two day hiatus
Inspections of ships are resuming under a UN-brokered agreement on the safe export of grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said on Wednesday.
Reuters report he wrote on Facebook that “ship inspections are being resumed, despite the Russian Federation’s attempts to disrupt the agreement.”
Russia’s RIA news agency has also reported, citing the UN coordinator’s press office, that inspections have resumed.
Updated
Russia accuses Ukraine of corruption over Black Sea grain initiative
Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of sabotaging the Black Sea grain deal by demanding bribes from shipowners to register new vessels and carry out inspections.
There was no immediate comment on the allegation, levelled by Russia’s foreign ministry, from Ukraine. Russia did not produce any evidence to back up the allegation.
Ukraine’s agriculture minister said on Wednesday talks were under way on the status of the deal, and time was needed to see how they go. A Ukrainian official also said that shipments were resuming today after being held up since Monday.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement that the joint coordination centre (JCC) in Istanbul, which oversees the deal, was experiencing difficulties with the registration of new vessels and inspections.
The problems were caused “solely as a result of the actions of Ukrainian representatives, as well as UN representatives, who, apparently, do not want or cannot resist them,” she said.
Reuters reports that in the same statement, Zakharova accused Ukraine of “trying to exploit the Black Sea initiative as much as possible, not refraining from abuses of the rules of procedure or demands for bribes from shipowners. All for the sake of maximising commercial profits.”
Shipowners who refused to pay a bribe to Ukrainians were forced to wait for more than a month while they waited for registration, she said, without providing evidence.
In the last fortnight, shipments have stopped twice after Russia refused to agree to the vessels listed by Ukraine being inspected.
Russia has repeatedly warned it will not renew the deal beyond 18 May unless the west agrees to lift a host of restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance which it says are hindering its own agricultural exports. Russia’s food and fertiliser exports are not, in themselves, sanctioned. But Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance amount to a barrier to shipments.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, offers this summary of overnight events on its official Telegram channel, posting:
Late in the evening of 18 April, the Russian army dropped two aerial bombs on Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region: houses were damaged, about 60 stalls burned down in the market, two people were injured, rescuers are looking for two more under the rubble.
The Russian army attacked Kherson twice at night, there is damage. In total, the Kherson community was shelled 18 times during the day: one person died, ten were injured.
At midnight, the Russian army struck Druzhkivka in Donetsk region, the hospital was damaged. Yesterday, one person was killed and 13 wounded in the region from shelling. Another woman was injured in Nevske in Luhansk region.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Ukrainian confirms grain transit to resume in Poland
Ukraine’s agriculture minister, Mykola Solsky, confirmed on Wednesday that the transit of Ukrainian grain and food products will resume through Poland after an agreement reached in talks with Warsaw.
But Reuters reports he again raised concerns about the status of an agreement with Moscow on the safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, saying it was impossible to predict how many vessels Moscow would allow through.
Updated
The AFP news agency has spoken to Ukrainian service personnel who have been taking part in the fierce battle for Bakhmut, which has been a focus for Russia’s war effort for months.
“The city looks more like ruins. There are almost no whole houses left. It’s practically wiped out. There’s shelling every day and every day there are more ruins,” said Denis, who joined the military last year after university.
“Artillery and mortar shelling – don’t stop. Drones drop grenades. And of course there is street fighting and machine gun fire.”
“You hear a boom, a whistle and then an explosion. And of course the shrapnel,” the military engineer told AFP, just hours after rotating out of the battle.
“That’s the worst. It’s scary – scary for anyone,” he said, adding he had no antidote to fear other than staying home.
The unit taking a short reprieve outside Bakhmut is tasked with demining Russian explosives and booby traps so Ukrainian infantry can move forward.
“When you go out, you don’t know if you’re coming back,” said Oleg, 34, who works in positions around Bakhmut, often at night, often by moonlight.
“They even mine the corpses of their soldiers. When they retreat, they mine absolutely everything,” he added.
“You have no margin for error. It all depends on how lucky you are.”
Around 70,000 people once called Bakhmut home, and despite the bloodshed and bombing, some still do.
“Yesterday I saw an old woman. And I was really surprised. Everything was flying and whistling, and she was chopping firewood near the house. I guess they’re already used to it,” said Denis.
Rodion Miroshnik, one of the Russian-imposed officials in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, has posted to Telegram to report that the occupied city of Nova Kakhovka, on the left-bank of the River Dniepr in the Kherson region, is under fire from Ukrainian forces. Citing the city administration, he writes “The whole city is under fire. There are already wounded.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia has been continuing with exercises on its eastern flank, and this morning Reuters reports that the Russian ministry of defence has stated that eight of its long-range bombers flew over neutral waters in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan.
Wagner mercenary admits ‘tossing grenades’ at injured Ukrainian PoWs
A former Wagner mercenary has admitted to killing and torturing dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war, in one of the most detailed first-person accounts of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Alexey Savichev, 49, a former Russian convict recruited by Wagner last September, told the Guardian in a telephone interview that he participated in summary executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war during his six months of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“We were told not to take any prisoners, and just shoot them on the spot,” he said.
In one instance, while fighting near the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar last autumn, Savichev said he participated in the killings of 20 Ukrainian soldiers who were surrounded. “We sprayed them with our bullets,” he said. “It is war and I do not regret a single thing I did there. If I could, I would go back.”
Savichev said that in another episode, with other Wagner fighters he had killed “several dozen” injured Ukrainian prisoners of war by “tossing grenades” into the ditch where they were held near the city Bakhmut in January. “We would torture soldiers too, there weren’t any rules,” he said.
Updated
South Korea signals willingness to supply Ukraine with drones
South Korea might extend its support for Ukraine beyond humanitarian and economic aid if it comes under a large-scale civilian attack, President Yoon Suk Yeol said, signalling a shift in his stance against arming Ukraine for the first time.
In an interview with Reuters ahead of his state visit to the US next week, Yoon said his government has been exploring how to help defend and rebuild Ukraine, just as South Korea received international assistance during the 1950-53 Korean war.
“If there is a situation the international community cannot condone, such as any large-scale attack on civilians, massacre or serious violation of the laws of war, it might be difficult for us to insist only on humanitarian or financial support,” Yoon said.
It was the first time that Seoul suggested a willingness to provide weapons to Ukraine, more than a year after ruling out the possibility of lethal aid.
A key US ally and major producer of artillery ammunition, South Korea has so far tried to avoid antagonising Russia due to its companies operating there and Moscow’s influence over North Korea, despite mounting pressure from western countries for weapons supply.
“I believe there won’t be limitations to the extent of the support to defend and restore a country that’s been illegally invaded both under international and domestic law,” Yoon said. “However, considering our relationship with the parties engaged in the war and developments in the battlefield, we will take the most appropriate measures.”
Lula condemns “violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity” by Russia
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has condemned the “violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity” by Russia and again called for mediation to end the war, as he came under fire for his previous comments on the conflict.
Speaking at a lunch on Tuesday with Romanian president Klaus Iohannis, Lula said a group of neutral nations must come together to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.
Lula faced criticism from the US over comments he made over the weekend that they were prolonging the fighting by supplying arms to Ukraine.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine’s government also criticised Lula for his efforts to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, and invited the Brazilian leader to visit the war-torn country and see for himself the consequences of the Russian invasion:
Ukraine and the UN are causing difficulties with inspections of ships moving grain from Ukrainian ports and the registration of new vessels, the RIA news agency cites the Russian foreign ministry as saying today.
Ukraine said this week the grain deal was at risk of being shut down, although Moscow said on Tuesday inspections of ships under the agreement had resumed after a brief pause.
Drone strikes hit infrastructure facility in Odesa region
Russian drones struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight and caused a fire at an infrastructure facility, the head of the military command of the Odesa region, Yuri Kruk, said on Wednesday.
No casualties have been reported and firefighters were working at the scene, he said.
Flash news has these photos from the strikes – they have not been independently verified by the Guardian.
⚡️ The russian troops attacked the Odesa region with a kamikaze drone type "Shahed-131/136" at night. 10 of the 12 drones were destroyed by air defense forces, reports the OC “Pivden” (South). pic.twitter.com/fE6G5T89Tr
— FLASH (@Flash_news_ua) April 19, 2023
Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top story this morning: Russian drones struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight and caused a fire at an infrastructure facility, the head of the military command of the Odesa region, Yuri Kruk, said on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported and firefighters were working at the scene, he said.
Here are the other key recent developments:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited Ukrainian troops on Tuesday in Avdiivka, Donetsk region, his office have said. Zelenskiy listened to commanders’ reports on the battlefield situation and gave awards to soldiers, it said.
Zelenskiy and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy held a phone call on Tuesday in which they discussed Ukraine’s need for weapons as well as increasing sanctions pressure on Russia. On Twitter, Zelenskiy said he thanked McCarthy for bipartisan support in Congress for Ukraine.
A Moscow court rejected an appeal from US journalist Evan Gershkovich to be freed from pre-trial detention, meaning he will stay in a former KGB prison until at least 29 May while a spying case against him is investigated. Gershkovich denies the espionage charges.
The G7 has criticised Russia’s threat to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, promising to intensify sanctions on Moscow for its war on neighbouring Ukraine. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting with the Russian-installed head of Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Tuesday, the state-run Belta news agency reported.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will discuss the Black Sea grain export deal with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York next week, just weeks before the pact could expire unless Russian demands regarding its own exports are met.
Poland has said that it has reached an agreement on restarting transit of Ukrainian grains through its territory as of Friday, according to Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus.
Poland also announced plans to install thousands of cameras and motion sensors along its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave to prevent what Warsaw says are illegal migrant crossings orchestrated by Moscow. Polish interior minister Mariusz Kaminski said the system would join a barbed wire fence being built on the 200-kilometre frontier.
Russian forces are stepping up their use of heavy artillery and airstrikes in Bakhmut, the commander of Kyiv’s ground forces said on Tuesday. Russia is suffering significant losses in the battle, he said.
A Russian artillery attack killed one person and injured nine more in Kherson, regional officials said. Officials said a market in the city centre had been hit.
The maker of Sweden’s Absolut vodka has said it is ceasing all exports to Russia after calls to boycott the brand flared up in Sweden and on social media, Agence France-Presse reported.
Security concerns have prompted Russian authorities this year to cancel traditional nationwide victory day processions where people carry portraits of relatives who fought against Nazi Germany in the second world war, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Russia is “not yet” planning to block Wikipedia, its minister of digital affairs said on Tuesday as a Moscow court handed the online encyclopedia another fine for failing to remove content Russia deems illegal.
