Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Finland will formally be welcomed into Nato “within days” after Turkey’s ratification of the Baltic country’s accession to the western defence alliance, the Nato secretary general has announced. The Turkish parliament was the last among the 30 members of the alliance to ratify Finland’s membership, after Hungary’s legislature approved a similar bill this week. Sweden’s Nato bid faces objections from Ankara over claims it is harbouring what it considers members of terrorist groups.
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, has said he has intensified talks with Russia about deploying tactical nuclear weapons in his country, alleging there were plans to invade Belarus from neighbouring Poland. Belarus had deployed a special forces contingent to its southern border with Ukraine “to prevent provocations”, he added.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said “severe violations” of human rights and international humanitarian law have become “shockingly routine” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine was far higher than official figures show, Türk said in an address to the UN’s human rights council in Geneva, where he said Ukraine was a nation “struggling to survive” in the face of Russia’s invasion.
The White House says it has new evidence that Russia is looking again to North Korea for weapons and munitions to fuel the war in Ukraine. “We also understand that Russia is seeking to send a delegation to North Korea and that Russia is offering North Korea food in exchange for munitions,” the White House national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Thursday.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has encouraged the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to speak to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and learn first-hand Ukraine’s peace formula to help end Russia’s invasion. Sanchez, speaking at a news conference during his visit to China, said he had informed Xi that Spain supported Zelenskiy’s proposals, which include a demand to restore Ukraine’s territory to before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. A readout of the meeting from the Chinese side said Xi called for an end to a “cold war mentality” and to the pressure of “extreme” sanctions against Russia.
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to call up 147,000 Russian citizens for statutory military service as part of the country’s spring conscription campaign, Russian state media reported on Thursday. The Russian leader last signed a routine conscription campaign in September, calling up 120,000 citizens for statutory service, the state-run Tass news agency said. The general staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation stated on Friday that it was not a second wave of mobilisation.
Ukraine will never forgive the Russian troops responsible for alleged atrocities in Bucha, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, as the town near Kyiv marked the anniversary of its recapture after 33 days of occupation in 2022. The leaders of Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia travelled to Ukraine on Friday to take part in commemorative events, the Croatian government said.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has rejected charges brought against President Vladimir Putin by the international criminal court (ICC) for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children. The ICC issued an arrest warrant earlier this month for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children and their transfer from areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.
President Joe Biden has called on Russia to release Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter arrested earlier this week on espionage charges and facing 20 years in jail. “Let him go,” said Biden, when asked about the case on Friday. Previously, the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, described the espionage charges levelled against Gershkovich as “ridiculous”. The prospect of a speedy release seems increasingly unlikely, however, as Russian officials continue to speak about Gershkovich in terms suggesting his conviction is a foregone conclusion. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has said any “threats” made by the US over Gershkovich’s would reap a “whirlwind”, Russian state media reports.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will chair a UN security council meeting in April when Russia assumes the international body’s presidency, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed on Thursday. Russia’s coming UN security council presidency was “the worst joke ever for April Fool’s Day”, said Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning”.
Russian and Belarusian players will be allowed to compete at Wimbledon and the British grass-court tournaments this year after the All England Club (AELTC) and the LTA jointly opted to reverse their bans on players for this season’s events. Russian and Belarusian players will be required to sign neutrality agreements, which prohibit them from expressing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, receiving funding from the Russian or Belarusian state and being sponsored by organisations funded by their governments.
Ukrainian athletes will not be allowed to take part in qualifying events for the 2024 Paris Olympics if they have to compete against Russians, government minister Oleh Nemchinov has said. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations Tuesday for the gradual return to international competition for Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thank you for following.
Updated
US threats over arrested reporter will ‘reap whirlwind’, warns Russia
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has said any “threats” made by the US over the arrest of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich would reap a “whirlwind”, Russian state media reports.
President Joe Biden earlier called on Russia to release Gershkovich, who was arrested in Ekaterinburg on Wednesday and flown to Moscow, where a court on Thursday officially charged him with espionage and remanded him in custody until the end of May.
The Biden administration on Thursday said it was deeply concerned about Gershkovich’s arrest and strongly urged Americans to avoid travel to Russia and to leave if they were already there.
Zakharova, speaking today on Russia’s flagship Rossiya 1 channel, said Washington had made no attempt to understand what had happened to Gershkovich.
She said:
They immediately turn to threats, reprisals against Russian journalists. If this logic continues in the public space, they will reap a whirlwind.
Updated
