NewsWorldEuropeKyiv still holding on in Bakhmut as Wagner group makes advances
FBI arrests Pentagon leaks suspect
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Mercenaries for the pro-Russia Wagner group claim to have made gains in Bakhmut, but Ukraine’s forces are reported to still be holding on in the frontline Donetsk city.
Vladimir Putin’s defence ministry claimed that Wagner had made two gains in the centre and northwest of Bakhmut, the city where Kyiv has hunkered down for months in an apparently successful bid to force Russia into conceding heavy losses.
“Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area,” said Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, whose forces had planned to remain in the west of the city so long as their supply route held.
“Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down [the enemy’s] combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so,” he told the 1+1 television channel.
The Russian defence ministry said its paratrooper units were supporting two previously claimed advances on Saturday by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks.
1681750857Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to appeal against arrestWall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will appeal on Tuesday against his arrest and detention in Moscow’s most notorious former KGB prison on charges of espionage, according to court documents – Reuters has said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on March 30 it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against him for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.
Gershkovich, the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War, and the Journal have denied he was involved in espionage, as has the United States.
According to a public Russian judicial document, Lefortovo District Court will hear on Tuesday a complaint filed by Gershkovich against the decision to keep him in custody in Lefortovo prison while the case is being investigated.
William Mata17 April 2023 18:00
1681749057Kyiv aims for ‘first step’ of Poland transit for grainKyiv aims to re-open food and grain transit via Poland as “a first step” to ending import bans at talks in Warsaw on Monday as countries halted grain from Ukraine to protect their local agriculture markets from an influx of supply.
Poland and Hungary announced bans on some imports from Ukraine on Saturday. Slovakia said on Monday it would do the same and other countries in central and eastern Europe said they were also considering action.
Some Black Sea ports were blocked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February last year and logistical bottlenecks trapped large quantities of Ukrainian grain – cheaper than that produced in the European Union – in Central European countries.
Reuters reports.
The Black Sea
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
William Mata17 April 2023 17:30
1681747121Wife of jailed Putin critic says 25-year sentence is ‘recognition’ of his workThe wife of Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday that the 25-year prison sentence a Russian court handed him was recognition of the effectiveness of his work and showed that authorities fear him.
Evgenia Kara-Murza spoke at a Washington Post event about the sentence on charges of treason and other offences Kara-Murza denies committing.
State prosecutors also accused him of discrediting the Russian military after spreading “knowingly false information” about its conduct in what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“I understand that this sentence is the high recognition of the effectiveness of Vladimir’s work,” she said at the event that was streamed online, alongside an attorney for her husband.
“He has proven time and again that he would not back down, that he would not abandon his fight, that he would not betray his country and betray his ideals, that he would keep on fighting.”
Opposition reporter Vladimir Kara-Murza
(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
William Mata17 April 2023 16:58
1681746754Foreign office minister says further sanctions could follow after Vladimir Kara-Murza newsForeign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said officials are investigating the possibility of sanctioning everyone involved in the trial of British-Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza.
He said “the Government agrees with pretty much everything that (Tory MP Alician Kearns) has said, reiterating the Russian ambassador has been summoned “and is expected to arrive shortly”.
He said the UK is seeking to ensure consular access, and said: “Her Majesty’s Government condemn the politically motivated sentencing of Mr Kara-Murza and of all those who speak out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
He called for his release, and said “politically the UK has been at the forefront of efforts to pressure Russian to release Mr Kara-Murza”.
MP Andrew Mitchell
(PA)
William Mata17 April 2023 16:52
1681745457Czech Agriculture Ministry will not ban Ukrainian grain importsThe market impact of Ukrainian grain imports to neighbouring countries needs a European Union-wide solution and not individual bans on imports like those taken in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, the Czech Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.
“The Czech Republic is for now not planning to ban imports of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural commodities from Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
Reporting by Reuters.
William Mata17 April 2023 16:30
1681743657Pictures from Ukraine: Monday, April 17A woman collects Orthodox icons at a site of a church destroyed by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine
(REUTERS)
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) are seen during a swap, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location, Ukraine
(via REUTERS)
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) are seen after swap, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location
(via REUTERS)
William Mata17 April 2023 16:00
1681743517Russia’s foreign minister arrives in Brazil for Ukraine peace talksRussia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived to the Brazilian capital on Monday as Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s pushes a diplomatic approach for peace in Ukraine that has irked both Kyiv and the West.
The meeting between Lavrov and his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira was set in March, when they held a bilateral at the summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in New Dehli. They met Monday morning and, according to the foreign ministry’s website, both will meet with Lula in the afternoon.
Lula has refused to provide weapons to Ukraine while proposing a club of nations including Brazil and China to mediate peace. On Sunday, he told reporters in Abu Dhabi that two nations – both Russia and Ukraine – had decided to go to war, and a day earlier in Beijing said the U.S. must stop “stimulating” the continued fighting and start discussing peace.
Earlier this month, he suggested Ukraine could cede Crimea to end the war, which the spokesperson for Ukraine‘s foreign ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, rejected.
Sergey Lavrov arrives in Brazil
(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
William Mata17 April 2023 15:58
1681742120Jailed journalist ‘in good spirits’ after spying accusationLynne Tracy, US ambassador to Russia, said on Monday she had made a first visit in jail to Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter accused by Moscow of spying, and had found him in good spirits.
“This is the first time we’ve had consular access to Evan since his wrongful detention over two weeks ago. He feels well and is holding up. We reiterate our call for Evan’s immediate release,” Tracy said in a short statement in Russian on Telegram – according to Reuters.
Gershkovich was arrested last month in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. His newspaper and Washington have rejected the charge of espionage, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Evan Gershkovich faces a maximum sentence of 20 years
(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
William Mata17 April 2023 15:35
1681741855Temporary protection status to migrants dropsThe number of temporary protection status permits issued to Ukrainians in the European Union dropped in most member states in February, the bloc’s statistics institute Eurostat said on Monday.
EU countries had issued over the course of 2022 more than 4 million permits to Ukrainian nationals, Eurostat data shows.
However, the influx seems to be gradually decreasing.
“The number of decisions granting temporary protection to Ukrainians in February fell in 19 of the 26 EU members with available data,” Eurostat said.
Poland and Germany, each counting a total of about one million asylum seekers coming from Ukraine, saw in February a monthly drop of 3,540 and 3,080 permits to 24,905 and 25,125 respectively, the agency said.
Of them, more than 6,000 were under the age of 18 in Poland, and almost 8,000 in Germany.
Ukraine migrants
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
William Mata17 April 2023 15:30
1681740055Visit shows strengthening ties between Beijing and MoscowChina’s defense minister on Monday toured the top Russian military academy on a visit to the Russian capital that underscored the increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing amid the fighting in Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin hosted Gen. Li Shangfu in the Kremlin on Sunday, noting that his trip follows a “very productive” three-day state visit to Moscow by Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month.
Putin emphasized that defense cooperation, including joint military drills, has helped “strengthen the trust-based strategic relationship” between the two countries.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, China’s defence minister Li Shangfu and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu attend a meeting in Moscow, Russia, 16 April 2023
(EPA)
William Mata17 April 2023 15:00
