New developments:
– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday visited the village of Yahidne in northern Ukraine on the anniversary of its liberation, commemorating the brutal captivity of nearly 400 civilians by Russian invaders in a school basement for 27 days before their release.
– Russian authorities accused Ukrainian intelligence services of having orchestrated a bombing at a cafe in St. Petersburg that killed a Russian military blogger who supported Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
– The US government is pushing hard for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia on espionage charges, the White House said on Monday.
– Ukrainian and Russian forces have given competing reports on the status of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the site of months of fierce fighting between the two sides.
– The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will meet with a Russian delegation on Wednesday in Moscow to discuss the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Finland’s official entry into NATO on Tuesday will double the alliance’s border with Russia. The move, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, is exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to avert with his attack on Ukraine.
“What we see is that President Putin went to war against Ukraine with a stated goal of shrinking NATO,” Stoltenberg said. “He gets just the opposite.”
Russia immediately warned it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sent additional troops or equipment to what will become its 31st member state.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends a press conference ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, on April 3, 2023.
NATO has said it has no immediate intention to intensify its presence in Finland. Some members have deployed troops there for war games in the past year.
Finland’s entry into the military alliance on Tuesday comes less than a year after it submitted its application in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The ceremony falls on NATO’s own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of the founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949.
Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers that Finland is bringing a well-trained, well-equipped military to the alliance after Turkey became the last existing member to give its approval in a process that must be unanimous.
The Secretary General also said that he is “absolutely sure” that Sweden will follow Finland as a new NATO member and that it is a priority that it happens as soon as possible.
As NATO foreign ministers prepare for their talks, Stoltenberg said there is an urgent need for both lethal and non-lethal support for Ukraine and urged allies to “maintain and further increase” their support. He said that Ukraine also needs financial support.
So far, Ukraine’s Western allies have sent the country 65 billion euros ($70 billion) in military aid to help counter Russia’s full-scale invasion. With no future peace talks, the alliance is preparing to provide more aid, Stoltenberg said: “We cannot allow Russia to continue to undermine European security.” He added that there are no signs that Putin is preparing for peace.
NATO foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss how to increase aid to Ukraine, including by strengthening its armed forces. Stoltenberg said: “Our support is for the long haul.”
Bakhmut fight
Ukraine on Monday denied Russian claims that it had captured the eastern city of Bakhmut. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s mercenary force leading the siege, said Sunday that his troops had raised a Russian flag on the administrative building in the city center and taken control “from a legal point of view.”
In response to these claims, Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Ukrainian Eastern Military Command, scoffed, โThey raised the flag over some kind of toilet. They attached it to the side of who knows what, hung their cloth and said they had conquered the city. Good, let them think they’ve taken it, Cherevaty told Reuters in a telephone interview. He added that fighting in Bakhmut is raging and that Ukrainian troops “bravely held the city while repelling numerous enemy attacks.”
American prisoners
The U.S. government is pushing hard for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia, and is closely monitoring his detention, the White House said Monday.
Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal, appears in an undated handout photo taken at an undisclosed location. (The Wall Street Journal/Handout via Reuters)
The United States is “diligently, strongly, closely” following his detention, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“We will do everything we can to bring Evan and Paul Whelan home,” Kirby said, referring to the former US Marine serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia on espionage charges he and the US deny. ‘We have no illusions that it will require a lot of hard work, that doesn’t mean we will shy away from it.
In a statement released last week, the White House said it “condemns in the strongest terms the detention of Gershkovich.”
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also called for the immediate release of Gershkovich, in a phone call Sunday with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Responding to Blinken, Lavrov said Gershkovich’s fate will be decided by a Russian court and told Blinken it was unacceptable for Washington to politicize the case. Lavrov said the journalist was caught “in the act”, although Russia has yet to provide any evidence.
The Kremlin claims Gershkovich used journalism as a cover for espionage, something the paper has vehemently denied. The Wall Street Journal has called for his immediate release, calling his arrest on Thursday “a vicious affront to a free press,” while The New York Times published a statement from a coalition of news organizations expressing deep concern over Gershkovich’s detention.
St. Petersburg explosion
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declined to comment on the explosion that killed Russian pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in St. Petersburg last Sunday.
CNN reports that during a tour of the northern Chernihiv region, Zelenskyy said: ‘I’m not thinking about what’s happening in St. Petersburg or in Moscow. They have to think. Russia must think about its cities. I think of our country. And our cities.’
Russia has arrested an anti-war activist named Daria Trepova in connection with the explosion that killed Tatarsky and injured at least 32 others at a cafe in St. Petersburg last Sunday.
Trepova’s husband, Dmitry Rylov, says he is convinced his wife “was really just set up and used.” On Monday, Russia accused Ukraine of organizing Tatarsky’s murder.
Some material in this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Source: sn.dk