Summary
The time is now approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Here is a roundup of today’s news as Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, visited the country and held a joint press conference with Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Ukraine’s future lies in Nato, the western military alliance’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, said during his first visit to the country since Russia’s invasion 14 months ago. He pledged continued military support for Ukraine, saying that, so far, Nato allies had trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops and provided €65bn ($71.31bn) of military aid alone. “Nato stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes,” Stoltenberg stated, before inviting Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the Nato summit in Vilnius in July.
Zelenskiy said Nato needs to invite Ukraine to become a member and give it a timeframe for accession. “There is not a single objective barrier to the political decision to invite Ukraine into the alliance and now, when most people in Nato countries and the majority of Ukrainians support Nato accession, is the time for the corresponding decisions.”
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s longtime foreign minister, will meet the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Monday, according to Russia’s ambassador to the UN. The two last met at the G20 summit in Bali in November. According to ambassador Vassily Nebenzia the Black Sea grain deal will be an item for the meeting on Monday.
Denmark, together with the Netherlands, is to donate 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Denmark’s acting defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said they are not Danish tanks, but tanks “which are bought in collaboration with the Netherlands”. Foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen described it as “a very significant contribution”.
The admiral of Russia’s Pacific fleet has left his position after a check of its combat readiness. Adm Sergei Avakyants left his post as commander as it was announced he will oversee a new centre for military sports training and “patriotic education”. Units from the Pacific fleet had been taking part in inspection exercises that were announced by the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, last week.
The Financial Times has reported that a leaked US intelligence report shows that China refused a request from the Wagner mercenary group for weapons. Wagner’s request in early 2023 suggested “it had some confidence Beijing would be open to arming Moscow, going beyond other non-lethal forms of support for the military campaign provided by Chinese companies,” according to the FT.
Switzerland will add Wagner and news agency RIA to its list of Russian-sanctioned entities.
A group of Ukrainian servicemen have been accused of treason for giving away information during an unauthorised mission that enabled Russia to attack a military airfield, Ukraine’s SBU security agency said. The SBU announced in a statement that the servicemen had attempted, “without coordination with the relevant state authorities”, to seize a Russian plane last July after its pilot said he would defect.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has criticised the delays in the EU plan for jointly buying ammunition for Ukraine. The EU agreed the purchase of 1m artillery rounds for Ukraine in March, but there are still discussions about the plan’s details.
The US and other allies of Ukraine are considering an outright ban on most exports to Russia in an attempt to increase economic pressure on Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The report by the Bloomburg business website says discussions are under way ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit in May. It is thought that it will be followed by similar actions by EU member states.
The United States announced $325m in new military aid for Ukraine, including additional ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems, advanced missiles and anti-tank mines. It is the 36th security package since the war began in February 2022.
That’s all for today, thank you for following along. We’ll be back tomorrow.
Updated
Russia's foreign minister to meet UN secretary general
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s longtime foreign minister, will meet the UN secretary general António Guterres on Monday, according to Russia’s ambassador to the UN.
The two last met at the G20 summit in Bali in November, where they discussed the Black Sea grain deal.
According to ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, the Black Sea grain deal will again be an item for the meeting on Monday.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has criticised the delays in the EU plan for jointly buying ammunition for Ukraine.
The EU agreed the purchase of 1m artillery rounds for Ukraine in March, but there are still discussions about the plan’s details.
One disagreement is over whether the firms to receive the contracts should be just in the EU, and whether the US or UK should be involved. Politico reported on Wednesday that France is pushing for the funds to stay in the EU.
Kuleba tweeted on Thursday: “The inability of the EU to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine is frustrating. This is a test of whether the EU has strategic autonomy in making new crucial security decisions. For Ukraine, the cost of inaction is measured in human lives.”
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A group of foreign affairs committees from parliaments across Europe have signed a joint statement calling for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Vladimir Kara-Murza.
It was signed in London on Thursday during a security conference which included discussions about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Other signatories include representatives from Sweden, Ireland, Poland and Denmark, as well as Baltic states and other Visegrád members.
It says: “We … strongly condemn [the] Russian court decision sentencing one of the leading [politicians] and Kremlin vocal critic Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years on politically motivated charges.
“It is a clear demonstration of misuse of power by Russian authorities and [an] attempt to silence political opponents.”
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A Ukrainian brigade that vows to “destroy Russian troops” simulated a skirmish in the woods near Kyiv on Thursday, as the country pushes ahead with plans for a counteroffensive – with the hope of getting similar results to the one that swept across south-eastern Ukraine in autumn 2022.
In a glade of pine trees, reconnaissance troops from the Bureviy brigade, playing the “enemy,” covered their faces in camouflage makeup and balaclavas, donned yeti-style suits and rolled in marsh water to blend in with their surroundings.
Then another group representing Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack on them, shooting blanks and flinging smoke grenades according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Part of the National Guard internal troops, Bureviy, or storm, brigade is also known as the “first presidential brigade”. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised its “resilience” this week.
Bureviy says its name in Ukrainian can also be deciphered as “brigade to destroy Russian troops”.
Ukraine has said they will aim to liberate regions that are now under Moscow's occupation – including Crimea.
“It’s time to return what’s ours,” reads the National Guard’s recruitment site.
“At the beginning of the war, we took a defensive position. Our task was to restrain the enemy,” said one of the Bureviy soldiers, Taras, 41, who joined up soon after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
“Now we must go on the counteroffensive. We need to win back what was taken from us,” said the former manager in a factory making armoured doors.
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Italy said it is seeking to freeze the assets of a Russian arrested in Milan at Washington’s request who disappeared while under house arrest only to re-emerge in Russia.
Agence France-Presse reports that justice minister, Carlo Nordio, was called to parliament to explain what happened with Artyom Uss, the son of Siberian governor, Alexander Uss, who was arrested in Italy on a US warrant in October.
He went missing from his residence near Milan at the end of March, despite wearing an electronic tracking bracelet, the day after a judge ordered his extradition to the US. The US had warned that he may flee.
Washington accuses Uss of taking part in illegal schemes to export US military technology to Russia.
In evidence to MPs, Nordio did not explain how he escaped, saying only that an investigation was under way.
But he said Italy was “checking whether it was possible to insert Uss in the list of Russian citizens whose assets it is possible to freeze”.
“Let’s see [if] we can at least attack him on his assets,” he added.
The minister also said he had initiated disciplinary proceedings before the court of cassation against the magistrates of the Milan appeal court who authorised his transfer from detention to house arrest.
On 4 April, Uss announced he was back in Russia, giving no details of how he escaped.
Uss was one of five Russians arrested on Washington’s request in October for “unlawful schemes to export powerful” US military technology to Russia.
The US justice department said some of these had been “discovered on the battlefields of Ukraine”.
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US among countries considering 'total ban' on exports to Russia
The US and other allies of Ukraine are considering an outright ban on most exports to Russia in an attempt to increase economic pressure on Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
The report by the Bloomburg business website says discussions are under way ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit in May. It is thought that it will be followed by similar actions by EU member states.
It would transform the current sanctions package of measures in favour of introducing more stringent restrictions. Only a limited amount of goods could still be traded.
Earlier on Thursday, the Financial Times reported that, according to EU officials, there would be no new sanctions against Russia in the near future.
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A group of Ukrainian servicemen have been accused of treason for giving away information during an unauthorised mission that enabled Russia to attack a military airfield, Ukraine’s SBU security agency said on Thursday.
The SBU said in a statement that the servicemen had attempted, “without coordination with the relevant state authorities”, to seize a Russian plane last July after its pilot said he would defect.
During the “special operation”, they revealed details about the location of Ukrainian air force personnel and aircraft that made it possible for Russia to carry out a successful missile strike on the Kanatove airfield in central Ukraine near the city of Kryvyi Rih, it said.
A Ukrainian commander was killed, 17 other personnel were wounded, two fighter jets were destroyed and the airstrip, buildings and equipment suffered significant damage, the SBU said in the statement posted on the Telegram messaging app.
The SBU did not say how many service personnel were involved, or identify them, but said they were accused of treason and abuse of their position.
“According to the investigation, the (air) strike was caused by the arbitrary actions of individual servicemen who decided to … seize a plane of the Russian Aerospace Forces, whose pilot supposedly agreed to an offer to defect to Ukraine,” it said.
“These actions of individual servicemen, which led to serious consequences, death and injury of Ukraine’s defenders and harmed the country’s defence capabilities, require an appropriate legal assessment.”
The Financial Times has reported that a leaked US intelligence report shows that China refused a request from the Wagner mercenary group for weapons.
Wagner’s request in early 2023 suggested “it had some confidence Beijing would be open to arming Moscow, going beyond other non-lethal forms of support for the military campaign provided by Chinese companies,” the FT reported.
However no weapons have been provided and it hasn’t been in contact with the group.
China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, has said that the country will not sell weapons to either side in the war, despite US concerns being raised. Russian president, Vladimir Putin, visited China and met President Xi Jinping in March.
Ukraine has also said it has not found any Chinese weapons on the battlefield.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Ukraine.
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Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that a person has been killed after shelling in the Kherson region. On its official Telegram channel, it posted to say that “civil infrastructure objects, residential buildings, commercial premises and motor vehicles were damaged” in Kizomys.
Citing the local prosecutor’s office, Suspilne said: “So far, the death of one man is known, the number of wounded is being identified.”
Kizomys is on the right-bank of the Dnipro River, to the north of the portion of Kherson occupied by Russia. Kherson is one of the partially controlled regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed.
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Milk, poultry and other food products should be included on a list of Ukrainian imports to be temporarily banned by the EU, Poland’s agriculture minister said on Thursday.
It follows Hungary extending its ban on grain to other foodstuffs on Thursday (see 10:13am).
“We discussed our proposals, our list is much wider – milk, poultry meat, honey,” Robert Telus told a news conference.
European trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis discussed the plans on Wednesday with ministers from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as well as with Ukrainian counterparts.
More from the press conference here, Volodymyr Zelenskiy also told journalists that he urged Stoltenberg to overcome the “restraint” of some member states in supplying modern warplanes, long-range weapons, artillery and armour.
He said they had discussed the meeting at Rammstein in Germany for military powers on Friday, and how Ukraine may be able to get more aid. Holdups were costing lives of Ukrainian soldiers, he added. Zelenskiy went on to say that he wanted Ukraine to have security guarantees while on the Nato aceession path.
The president added that he sees Stoltenberg’s visit as a sign of Nato’s openness to “open a new ambitious chapter” for Ukraine and the alliance, Reuters reports.
Stoltenberg: 'Ukraine's rightful place is in Nato'
Ukraine’s future lies in Nato, the western military alliance’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday during his first visit to the country since Russia’s invasion 14 months ago.
“Let me be clear: Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato. And over time, our support will help you to make this possible,” Stoltenberg told reporters during a joint press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, Reuters reports.
He pledged continued military support for Ukraine, saying that, so far, Nato allies had trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops and provided €65bn ($71.31bn) of military aid alone.
“Nato stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes,” Stoltenberg stated, before inviting Zelenskiy to the Nato summit in Vilnius in July.
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Zelenskiy: Nato needs to admit Ukraine into alliance at July conference
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Nato needs to invite Ukraine to become a member and give it a timeframe for accession during a visit by the alliance’s secretary general.
The Ukrainian president told a joint news conference in Kyiv with Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, that a Nato summit in Vilnius in July could become “historic”, and that he had been invited to attend.
“I am grateful for the invitation to visit the summit, but it is also important for Ukraine to receive the corresponding invitation,” he told reporters, according to Reuters.
“There is not a single objective barrier to the political decision to invite Ukraine into the alliance and now, when most people in Nato countries and the majority of Ukrainians support Nato accession, is the time for the corresponding decisions.”
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The admiral of Russia’s Pacific fleet has left his position after a check of its combat readiness.
Adm Sergei Avakyants left his post as commander on Thursday as it was announced he will oversee a new centre for military sports training and “patriotic education”.
Units from the Pacific fleet had been taking part in inspection exercises that were announced by the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, last week. Its results have not been announced.
The fleet has been involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including some combat action for its marines in Vuhledar, Donetsk.
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Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka won the World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday for his harrowing image of emergency workers carrying a pregnant woman through the shattered grounds of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, in the chaotic aftermath of a Russian attack.
The Ukrainian photographer’s 9 March 2022 picture of the fatally wounded woman, her left hand on her bloodied lower left abdomen, drove home the horror of Russia’s brutal onslaught in the eastern port city early in the war.
The 32-year-old woman, Iryna Kalinina, died of her injuries a half hour after giving birth to the lifeless body of her baby named Miron.
“For me, it is a moment that all the time I want to forget, but I cannot. The story will always stay with me,” Maloletka said in an interview before the announcement.
Summary of the day so far …
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday paid his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion, in a show of support for Ukraine as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive. Stoltenberg paid his respects to Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed fighting in the war and reviewed damaged Russian military equipment displayed on a central square in Kyiv
Denmark, together with the Netherlands, is to donate 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Denmark’s acting defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen said they were not Danish tanks, but tanks “which are bought in collaboration with the Netherlands”. Foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen described it as “a very significant contribution”.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass has cited Ismini Palla, spokesperson for the UN office at the joint coordination centre for the deal in Istanbul, saying that “inspections of vessels under the grain deal resumed on 19 April and are scheduled for 20 April”.
The Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian-imposed authority in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region, has claimed that overnight a woman has been killed in the city of Donetsk by shelling from Ukrainian armed forces.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which Russia captured last year, will stop using US-produced nuclear fuel as quickly as possible, the Interfax news agency quoted a Russian official as saying.
A flash in the sky over Kyiv prompted confusion and alarm as city authorities said it was caused by a Nasa satellite re-entering the atmosphere, while the US space agency denied involvement. A “bright glow” was observed over Kyiv around 10pm local time and shortly after, the Ukrainian air force said the flash was “related to the fall of a satellite/meteorite”.
Switzerland will add the private military Wagner group and news agency RIA to its list of Russian sanctioned entities.
Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, seems to be conducting “a large-scale overhaul of domestic security organs,” the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, reports in its update today. The overhaul appears to be related to leaks of data to Ukraine, the ISW reports.
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Switzerland will add the private military Wagner group and news agency RIA to its list of Russian sanctioned entities, Reuters reports the Swiss department of economic affairs, education and research said on Thursday.
Hungary extends ban on Ukrainian imports to include honey and some meat products
Hungary has banned imports of honey and certain meat products in addition to grains from Ukraine until 30 June, the prime minister’s chief of staff said on Thursday, increasing pressure on Brussels to broaden proposed European Union-wide measures.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it would take emergency “preventive measures” for wheat, maize, sunflower seeds and rapeseed after some central European countries took unilateral steps to ban imports of food products from Ukraine to protect their own agricultural sectors.
However, Hungary and Poland have said that other products should also be included.
Reuters reports Gergely Gulyás said the Hungarian ban on imports of major cereals and agricultural products “includes a total of 25 products, the most important of which are cereals, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, flour, oil, honey and certain meat products”.
Agriculture minister István Nagy told state news agency MTI on Wednesday that Hungary will continue to allow transit of Ukrainian grain, ensuring the departure of such shipments “in a controlled manner”.
“It was worthwhile for Hungary to take firm action and protect the interests of Hungarian farmers,” he said, referring to the ban, adding the measures forced Brussels to take action.
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Here are some of the images of Jens Stoltenberg in Kyiv this morning.
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Nato's Jen Stoltenberg visits Kyiv for first time since Russian invasion
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday paid his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion, in a show of support for Ukraine as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive.
Stoltenberg paid his respects to Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed fighting in the war and reviewed damaged Russian military equipment displayed on a central square in Kyiv, a Reuters photographer said.
Reports and images on social media suggest that Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has arrived in Kyiv this morning.
⚡️Jens Stoltenberg arrives in Kyiv.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 20, 2023
The NATO Secretary-General was seen by a Kyiv Independent journalist on the morning of April 20 paying tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers on St Michael's Square in central Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/QhY515J305
The Russian military has launched a video campaign to lure more professional soldiers to fight in Ukraine which challenges those interested to show they are “a real man” and swap what it casts as humdrum civilian life for the battlefield.
The ad, set to imposing rock music, follows a report from British military intelligence and Russian media reports that suggest Moscow is seeking to recruit up to 400,000 professional soldiers – on a volunteer basis – to bolster its forces in Ukraine.
The ad has so far been released on major Russian social networking sites. It invites men to sign a contract with the Russian defence ministry for a salary starting at 204,000 roubles (£2,000 / $2,495) a month, and begins by showing a man in a supermarket dressed in military uniform holding a heavy machine gun.
He is then shown instead in the uniform of a supermarket security guard with the question: “Is this the kind of defender you dreamed of becoming?”
Next in the video, a man is walking through the fog with other soldiers on what looks like a battlefield. He is then shown as a gym instructor helping a client lift weights. “Is this really where your strength lies?” the video asks, before cutting to a taxi driver taking a client’s fare who then transforms into a soldier on the battlefield.
“You’re a man. Be one,” the ad concludes.
After launching a partial mobilisation drive in September which prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country to avoid being drafted, the authorities are playing down the possibility of a second mobilisation call – despite a recent move to introduce electronic call-up papers to clamp down on draft dodgers – and are seeking to recruit volunteers instead.
Posters seeking professional soldiers have sprung up in the Russian capital in recent weeks declaring: “Our profession is to defend the Motherland.”
Reuters reports the posters, which say the army is looking for gunners, sappers, military medics, drivers and tank commanders, promise potential recruits “respect, an honourable profession and decent pay”.
Updated
DR, Denmark’s public broadcaster, is reporting that foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and acting defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen have said the 14 Leopard 2 tanks being donated by the Netherlands and Denmark could be with Ukraine in early 2024.
Poulsen is quoted as saying they are not Danish tanks, but tanks “which are bought in collaboration with the Netherlands”.
Rasmussen described it as “a very significant contribution”.
Denmark and Netherlands to donate 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine
A quick snap is breaking across Danish news sources, citing the Ritzau news agency, that Denmark, together with the Netherlands, is to donate 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
More details soon …
Pakistan has placed its first order for discounted Russian crude oil under a new deal struck between Islamabad and Moscow, the country’s petroleum minister said, with one cargo to dock at Karachi port in May.
The deal will see Pakistan buy crude oil only, not refined fuels, and imports are expected to reach 100,000 barrels a day if the first transaction goes through smoothly, minister Musadik Malik told Reuters on Wednesday night.
Grain deal ship inspections are scheduled to continue today – UN spokesperson
Russian state-owned news agency Tass has posted on its official Telegram channel to state that “inspections of vessels under the grain deal resumed on 19 April and are scheduled for 20 April”. It cited Ismini Palla, spokesperson for the UN office at the joint coordination centre for the deal in Istanbul.
The Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian-imposed authority in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region, has posted on one of its Telegram channels to claim that overnight a woman has been killed in the city of Donetsk by shelling from Ukrainian armed forces. It said the woman, born in 1968, died when a private residential building was hit. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which Russia captured last year, will stop using US-produced nuclear fuel as quickly as possible, the Interfax news agency quoted a Russian official as saying on Thursday.
Reuters reports Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the general director of Russian nuclear energy firm Rosenergoatom, which is now in charge of the occupied plant, told Interfax it had about four years’ worth of US-made fuel in reserves.
But the Russian management will seek to replace that fuel with the Russian one as quickly as possible as it considers its own technologies superior, he said.
Updated
A flash in the sky over the Ukrainian capital prompted confusion and alarm as city authorities said it was caused by a Nasa satellite re-entering the atmosphere, AFP reports, while the US space agency denied involvement.
A “bright glow” was observed over Kyiv around 10pm local time, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Sergiy Popko, wrote on Telegram.
An air raid alert was activated, Popko said, but “air defence was not in operation”.
Shortly after, the Ukrainian air force said the flash was “related to the fall of a satellite/meteorite”.
But a Nasa spokesperson denied this assessment, telling the AFP news agency that the satellite in question was “still in orbit”.
The US space agency had announced earlier this week that a retired 300kg satellite would re-enter the atmosphere some time on Wednesday.
“However, that re-entry has not yet occurred … No other Nasa satellite re-entered the atmosphere earlier today,” a Nasa spokesperson told AFP.
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The ISW reports that the changes may be a way for the Kremlin to “conduct an overhaul of the domestic security apparatus to oust officials who have fallen out of Kremlin favour and consolidate further control internal security organs”.
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Moscow reportedly carrying out ‘overhaul’ of security service over data leaks to Ukraine, says US thinktank
Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, seems to be conducting “a large-scale overahaul of domestic security organs,” the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, reports in its update today.
The overhaul appears to be related to leaks of data to Ukraine, the ISW reports:
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) appears to be conducting a large-scale overhaul of domestic security organs. Russian state-controlled outlet TASS reported on 19 April that the FSB and the Main Directorate of the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) have been conducting mass checks at the Moscow Central District Internal Affairs Directorate and several Moscow district police offices for the past several weeks due to “the leakage of data from Russian security forces at the request of Ukrainian citizens.”
…
Russian outlets reported that the suspected police officers leaked personal data on Russian security forces to external individuals, some of whom are Ukrainian citizens.
The reported FSB and MVD raids on the Moscow police departments are occurring against the backdrop of a series of arrests and dismissals of prominent members of Rosgvardia (Russian National Guard) leadership.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Our top story this morning: Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, appears to be conducting “a large-scale overahaul of domestic security organs,” the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, reports in its update today.
The overhaul appears to be related to leaks of data to Ukraine, the ISW reports.
More on this shortly. Here are the other key recent developments in the war:
Ukraine has received two types of air defence system ahead of the Ramstein military group meeting on Thursday, where it will ask for more supplies. A 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 $325m in new military aid for Ukraine, including additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, advanced missiles and anti-tank mines. 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.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson accused Moscow of a “provocation” after Russian proxy forces said Ukrainian forces had blown up four buildings in the eastern city of Bakhmut, killing 20 civilians. The spokesperson said Ukrainian forces never target civilians. Russia also denies targeting civilians.
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.
A joint investigation by the public broadcasters of several Nordic countries alleges that Russia has established a programme using spy ships disguised as fishing vessels aimed at giving it the capability to attack windfarms and communications cables in the North Sea.
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 – 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.
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