We have been following major developments in the war in Ukraine while our live politics are disrupted. Here’s what happened.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States, Britain and France over Ukraine may lead to a direct confrontation between the world’s largest nuclear powers.
“The West is dangerously at the breaking point of a direct army between nuclear powers, fraught with catastrophic consequences,” he said.
“What he fears most is the fact that the ‘troika’ of Western nuclear states is among the main sponsors of the corrupt Kiev regime and among the main initiators of provocative measures.
“We see in this serious strategic dangers, which lead to an increase in nuclear danger. “
Poland donates nuclear weapons to NATO as host country
At the same time, Poland is in a position to host nuclear weapons belonging to other NATO members, its president said.
Andrzej Duda said this in reaction to Russia’s transfer of nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus.
“If our allies use nuclear weapons as part of the nuclear exchange also on our territory to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready,” Duda told the Fakt newspaper.
Promise there will be no “delays or bottlenecks” in new U. S. aid
After a large aid deal for Ukraine was finally approved in the U. S. House of Representatives (see article below), the Biden administration needs to start introducing weapons and equipment into the country days after its expected final approval, an official said.
The law provides £48 billion in military aid to Kiev.
The Senate will approve it this week.
It will then move on to Mr. Biden.
Ammunition, air defense interceptors and long-range weapons will begin circulating “within days” once the bill becomes law, a U. S. official told Reuters.
“There will be no delays or obstacles on the part of the United States,” he said.
The new package of measures from Washington, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, would make no difference.
“The Russian armed forces have their positions on the front,” he told reporters.
“The money allocated and the weapons that will be provided will replace this dynamic. “
Russia “takes a Ukrainian village”
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its forces had taken the Ukrainian village of Novomykhailivka, 40 kilometers southwest of Donetsk.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces continued Russian attempts to advance near the village.
Meta spokesperson convicted of “publicly protecting terrorism”
Meta Platforms spokesperson Andy Stone has been sentenced to six years in prison by a Moscow military court.
The criminal sentence was handed down in absentia, RIA news agency reported.
Meta is considered an extremist organization in Russia, while its Facebook and Instagram apps have been banned in the country since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
According to the RIA news agency, investigators accuse Stone of posting comments online advocating “aggressive, hostile and violent actions” toward Russians involved in what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
House Passes Major Relief Bill
The big news of the week came from Washington, where an aid deal for Ukraine is about to be signed after months of delays.
In a primary victory for Ukraine, the $60. 8 billion ($49 billion) bill passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, delaying the delay.
Republicans aligned with former President Donald Trump had blocked the bill, but a cross-party effort managed to triumph after months of delay on Saturday.
The package will be presented to the U. S. Senate, where it will likely pass and then promptly become law through Joe Biden.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “grateful” for the decision, after spending months trying to convince U. S. politicians to send more weapons to Ukraine.
The one on the ground
And here’s why this aid bill is like this for Ukraine.
Russian forces have had merit in recent weeks by having more men and weapons.
Since Moscow captured the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Feb. 17, they have been advancing and enveloping villages.
They made more marginal gains west of Avdiivka and Bakhmut and now appear to be targeting the small town of Chasiv Yar.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyii, has said Moscow needs him until May 9, Russia’s Victory Day holiday.
Yesterday, Russia said its forces had gained territory near the key battlefield city.
Military analysts believe that if Chasiv Yar falls, Ukraine would be exposed to attacks on the cities of Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in western Donetsk.
“We have the opportunity to take the initiative”
So, will the U. S. bill make a difference?
Zelensky thinks so, but warned that it would depend on how temporarily the weapons were sent to Ukraine.
“Now we have the opportunity to stabilize the scenario and take the initiative, and that’s why we want weapons systems,” the Ukrainian president told our network of partners yesterday.
He said Ukraine had already suffered significant losses in personnel and aircraft due to the delay, and warned that if the weapons took another six months to arrive, the situation could get even worse.
NATO to offer more air defenses to Ukraine
Ukraine’s desperate pleas for more air defenses appear to have reached NATO, which has announced that it will make announcements about it in the near future.
An emergency meeting was held between Zelensky and NATO defense ministers on Friday as Russian attacks on civilians intensified.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting that defense ministers had “agreed to step up and provide more military support, adding more air defence. “
Kyiv had been making concerned calls for air defense assistance due to a series of deadly Russian attacks.
On Wednesday, a mid-morning attack in the city of Chernihiv killed another 18 people and wounded 78 others.
An Attack on a Nuclear Power Plant
On Tuesday, the head of the U. N. nuclear watchdog said there had been three attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant since April 7.
Grossi added that the three attacks “were carried out with a multitude of drones,” adding that it was a matter of verifying who introduced them.
Ukraine and Russia blame others for the attacks on the site.
Espionage scandals continue
Outside of Ukraine itself, espionage scandals involving Russia are rocking the European continent as a whole.
On Thursday, Germany arrested two men suspected of spying for Russia, one of whom planned to carry out attacks in hopes of sabotaging aid to Ukraine.
It comes after the NATO leader said the alliance had expelled Russian citizens gathering intelligence.
On the same day, a Pole was arrested on charges of being willing to assist Russian army intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate M. Zelenskyy.
Today we are postponing our policy of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We’ll have more updates.
Here’s a recap from today, which began with the deaths of at least eight other people in a first Russian missile strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region of central Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more air defenses, saying, “Russia will have to be held responsible for its terrorism, and each and every missile, each and every Shahed [drone] will have to be shot down. “
In a speech after a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies on the Italian island of Capri, U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was “imperative” that Ukraine immediately get more resources to help it fight Russia.
“He wants more air defense, more ammunition, more artillery. Allies and partners, as well as the G7 countries, are determined to make this happen,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed to have shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber “for the first time. “The Russian Defense Ministry said the accident appeared to have been caused by a technical malfunction.
Two arrested in Poland after beating a Navalny collaborator
Two other people have been arrested in Poland on suspicion of hammering Leonid Volkov, the exiled top aide of former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Volkov blamed Putin for the attack and thanked Lithuanian police for working “with power and perseverance” over the past month on his case.
“I’m very pleased that this work worked,” he tweeted. “Well, we’ll find out the details soon. I can’t wait to find out!”
And a Pole has been arrested on accusations that he is willing to collaborate with Russian military intelligence on an alleged plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an emotional appeal to NATO members: the current scope of foreign aid to Ukraine is “very limited”.
Ukraine’s president said Israel was not left to fend for itself after Iran’s aerial bombardment on Saturday.
In that attack, Western allies intervened to shoot down Iranian drones and missiles.
“Putin will have to return to earth and our skies will have to be back to earth. . . And it depends entirely on your selection. . . [of] the selection of whether we are really allies,” Zelensky said in his speech.
He said Ukraine wants at least seven Patriot air defense systems or other high-end air defense systems to counter Russian airstrikes.
Russia has recently stepped up its bombardment of Ukraine and the UN reported a sharp rise in civilian deaths in March.
NATO ministers agreed to supply more air defense systems to Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General said.
Jens Stoltenberg that several NATO allies had made concrete commitments that are expected to be announced soon.
A Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine, the governor said.
One user was injured, he added.
This map from the UK Ministry of Defence is the latest update on the progress of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The head of the European Union branch visited the Finnish-Russian border to assess the security situation.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Finland’s resolve to close its borders with Russia due to the influx of migrants was a security factor for the bloc’s 27 members to consider.
“We all know how Putin and his allies instrumentalize immigrants to control our defenses and try to destabilize us,” he said.
“Now Putin is focused on Finland, and this is certainly a reaction to his strong support for Ukraine and its NATO membership. “
Finland has a 1,430-kilometer land border with Russia.
“This is only about the security of Finland, but also about the security of the European Union. We are in the same boat,” von der Leyen said after visiting the border in Lappeenranta with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.
“We will be more Finnish in terms of security. “
Finland joined NATO in April 2023 in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a major blow to President Putin.
Slovaks, angered by their government’s refusal to provide military aid to Ukraine, have raised just about 2 million euros (£1. 7 million) to supply ammunition to Kyiv.
Although Ukraine is in dire need of ammunition after two years of war, Slovakia has refused to sign off on a plan led by the Czech government to buy shipments of thousands of artillery shells for Ukraine.
Last year, Slovakia suspended sending the army to Kyiv, arguing that the confrontation had no military solution.
It is “imperative” that Ukraine get more resources to help it fight the Russian invasion, the US secretary of state said after an assembly of the main democracies of the Group of Seven (G7).
“He wants more air defense, more ammunition, more artillery; allies and partners, as well as G7 countries, are committed to making that happen,” Blinken added.
Blinken went on to say that while China needs greater relations with Europe, it cannot continue with Russia as it attacks Ukraine, adding that Beijing is the largest contributor to Russia’s defense trade base.
He made the remarks after Kyiv’s foreign minister said the G7 was aware of the “specific measures” needed for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Kyiv’s foreign minister said.
Dmytro Kuleba warned that Europe would be plunged into war if Russia succeeded in its invasion.
Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the G7 is looking into whether it can use Russian assets frozen in the West and not just the interest on the funds.
Tajani said there is an established legal basis for the use of interest on the frozen funds, but experts were now looking into whether the capital itself could simply be used to help Ukraine.
The West has frozen some $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets, which the UK and US need to use to fund the war effort in Ukraine; European Union member States have questioned the legality of such a measure.