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.
Updated
