Russian military aircraft intercepted in international airspace, says Germany
Three Russian military aircraft flying without transponder signals have been intercepted in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, Reuters reports.
Two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft were identified by German and British forces, the German air force has said, adding several images of the aircraft mid-flight on Twitter.
Key events
Spain has welcomed Brazil’s interest in the push for mediation in peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, Reuters reports.
Prime minister Pedro Sánchez told a joint news conference with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday.
Lula has recently said that a group of neutral nations should come together to broke peace between Russia and Ukraine. He has refused to supply arms to Kyiv, and Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has invited him to Ukraine to see the impact of the conflict.
Russia’s envoy to the UN in Geneva said on Wednesday that no real progress had been achieved in resolving issues raised by Moscow over the Black Sea grain deal, which is set to expire in May.
Speaking to reporters at the Russian permanent mission in Geneva, envoy Gennady Gatilov said Russia’s position on extending the deal remains unchanged. Moscow has said it will not agree to an extension unless the ewst removes obstacles to Russian exports of grain and fertiliser.
Ukraine is urging its allies not to bow to Russian “blackmail” over nuclear plants it has seized during its invasion on the 37th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Reuters reports. On Telegram, the president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:
Thirty-seven years ago, the Chornobyl NPP accident left a huge scar on the whole world. We must do everything to give the terrorist state no chance to use nuclear power facilities to blackmail Ukraine and the entire world.
An explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the formerly Soviet Ukraine spread radiation across Europe in 1986. It is thought around 30 plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath and many more people died later from radiation-related illnesses.
The decommissioned plant, north of Kyiv, lies near the Ukraine’s border with Belarus and was captured by Russian troops on 24 February 2022; the first day of Russia’s invasion. Moscow’s forces occupied the plant for five weeks before withdrawing on 31 March 2022.
Ukrainian officials have accused Putin of attempting to blackmail Kyiv and its allies into meeting Russian demands due to safety concerns about radiation levels.
The Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny says he is being investigated on terrorism charges that could see him sentenced to 30 years in prison, Reuters reports.
The Kremlin critic is currently serving sentences totalling 11-and-a-half years on charges including fraud and contempt of court, which human rights groups say were made up to silence him.
On Twitter, Navalny’s aides said: “They have presented absurd allegations that threaten me with 30 years in prison … that I, while in prison, commit terrorist acts.”
Навальный:
Они выдвинули абсурдные обвинения, по которым мне грозит 30 лет колонии. Следователь Видюков вчера сказал, что из этого дела отдельно выделено террористическое дело о том, что я, сидя в тюрьме, совершаю теракты. И по этом делу меня будет судить отдельно военный суд
— Команда Навального (@teamnavalny) April 26, 2023
In August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent and was hospitalised in critical condition. The Kremlin denied trying to kill him, though he blamed Putin for the attack.
He was jailed in 2021 when he returned to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany following the poison attack.
This month, Russian investigators formally linked Navalny supporters to the murder of Vladlen Tatarsky, a Russian military blogger and supporter of Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, who was killed by a bomb in St Petersburg. Navalny’s allies have denied any involvement.
Russian investigators have also said that 11 people have been added to an “international wanted list” in a case linked to Navalny, the state-owned news agency Tass reports.
Yevgeny Roizman, the former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city Ekaterinburg, is going on trial today over accusations he discredited the Russian armed forces over the war in Ukraine. He has claimed he is being charged for describing Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine as “the invasion of Ukraine”, the French press agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Roizman, who has been a prominent Kremlin critic, said he knows he could go to prison at any moment. He is Russia’s last prominent opposition figure who is still in the country and has not been jailed. He could face five years in prison if convicted, Russian state media reports.
In August 2022, authorities opened a criminal case against Roizman for “discrediting” the Russian armed forces in comments he made about the war in Ukraine.
Roizman, 60, pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial in Ekaterinburg in a live YouTube broadcast of the hearing, according to AFP. Asked by the judge if he admitted his guilt, Roizman said “no”.
In 2013, he became Russia’s highest-profile opposition mayor and held the position in the Urals city from from 2013 to 2018.
All other top opposition figures are either in prison or in exile because of Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on anti-Kremlin dissent.
Here are the images shared by the German air force of the Russian aircraft intercepted over the Baltic Sea.
They are reported to be two SU-27 flankers and one IL-20 aircraft.
Fears are growing in Ukraine that Moscow is pushing its close ally Belarus to take direct part in fighting, as Belarusian men are called to attend military training, AP reports.
“Russian troops are already in Belarus, and I see the country gradually being turned into a military barracks,” Ruslan, an engineer who was recently summoned for military training in the Belarus capital of Minsk, told AP. He preferred not to share his full name out of concerns for his safety.
Everybody fears that they won’t allow Belarusians to keep watching the war from a distance for too long.
The Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko has relied on the Kremlin’s political and economic support in recent months to help deal with protests and mass arrests.
A Belarusian air defence unit was formed recently in Minsk, which is thought to station some of Moscow’s missile units.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited border guards in the northwestern Volyn region earlier this month, saying that the country must “be ready” for a possible invasion from Belarus, AP reports.
Russian military aircraft intercepted in international airspace, says Germany
Three Russian military aircraft flying without transponder signals have been intercepted in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, Reuters reports.
Two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft were identified by German and British forces, the German air force has said, adding several images of the aircraft mid-flight on Twitter.
Ukraine is working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and American companies to collect evidence of war crimes by Russians, such as geolocation and cellphone information, Reuters reports, citing senior officials.
Ukrainian authorities are collecting digital information from battlefields and Ukrainian towns ravaged by the war since Russia invaded the country last February, said Alex Kobzanets, a FBI special agent.
“Collection of that data, analysis of that data, working through that data is something the FBI has experience working through,” Kobzanets said at a cybersecurity conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.
That work includes looking into cellphone information, forensic analyses of DNA samples, as well as analysis of body parts collected off battlefields, he said.
The work reflects deepening collaboration between the US and Ukraine on the cyber front, where Russia has been a common adversary for both nations. The Russian government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Some recent images from the war in Ukraine:
The Ukrainian president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, in his latest statement on Telegram has said “no one can feel safe” unless Russia is defeated and called for the war to end with a “new Nuremberg”.
“Every manifestation of Russian terror, every day of aggression is an additional argument that all this must end in the Tribunal – in a new Nuremberg against ruscism, against those who destroy lives and people, who use missiles against museums and guided bombs against churches. Russia must lose. The world cannot have any other goal,” Zelenskiy wrote.
Russia’s war in Ukraine will be top of the agenda at the G7 summit next month, with the White House announcing on Tuesday that the US president, Joe Biden, will attend the meeting in Hiroshima, Japan.
The leaders of the G7 – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – are meeting at the site of the world’s first nuclear attack, with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, having said he hopes to make nuclear disarmament a key plank of discussions.
A little more from Lavrov – the foreign minister also warned the European Union “is becoming militarized at a record rate” and aggressive in its goal of containing Russia. Associated Press reports he told a news conference he has no doubts that there is now “very little difference” between the EU and Nato. Lavrov said they recently signed a declaration, which he said essentially states that the 31-member Nato military alliance will ensure the security of the 27-member EU political and economic organisation. He was apparently referring to a January EU-Nato declaration on their “strategic partnership” which urges closer cooperation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to confront evolving security threats, Associated Press says.
Lavrov: ‘practically no results’ from grain deal
Moscow has seen “practically no results” from a pact with the United Nations that aimed to help Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports and blamed Western countries for creating a deadlock, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on in New York on Tuesday.
Russia has signalled that unless a list of demands is met to remove obstacles to those exports, it will not agree to extend a related deal beyond 18 May that allows the safe wartime export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Lavrov, at a news conference at the United Nations in New York, praised the work of UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and UN aid chief Martin Griffiths in their bid “to reach agreement with countries that have announced illegitimate and lateral sanctions against the Russian Federation.”
“But there has been practically no result,” Lavrov said.
Russia signed a three-year deal last July in which the United Nations agreed to help try and remove any obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports. While those exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are a barrier to shipments.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Virginia Harrison and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next little while.
It’s coming up to 8am in Kyiv, here’s where things stand:
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Two women have been killed and 10 wounded in a strike on a museum in Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”
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Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree establishing temporary control of the Russian assets of two foreign energy firms, signalling Moscow could take similar action against other companies if need be. The decree – outlining possible retaliation if Russian assets abroad are seized – showed Moscow had already taken action against Uniper SE’s Russian division and the assets of Finland’s Fortum Oyj.
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The number of daily casualties Russia is suffering has fallen by about 30% in April, UK intelligence has said. In its daily intelligence briefing, the Ministry of Defence reported that the drop was probably due to the end of Russia’s winter offensive, which, it added, had largely failed. The MoD also said Russia was now likely to be preparing its troops for Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
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Kyiv admitted it was behind a drone attack in the bay of Sevastopol, Ukrainian authorities confirmed. However, officials rejected Russian claims that the attack had put the operation of the grain corridor at risk.
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Russia’s foreign ministry has said it is expelling a Moldovan diplomat in what it cast as retaliation for the expulsion last week of a Russian diplomat in Moldova. The ministry said in a statement it had summoned Moldova’s ambassador in Moscow to announce the expulsion, as well as to protest against what it called “unfriendly steps towards Russia” and “regular anti-Russian statements”.
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Lithuania’s parliament voted on Tuesday in favour of allowing border guards to turn back migrants who illegally enter the country. Lithuania borders fellow EU states Latvia and Poland, as well as Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. In 2021, Latvia declared a state of emergency and Lithuania began planning a razor-wire fence to stop record numbers of migrants crossing its border from Belarus.
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A former commander in Russia’s Wagner mercenary group seeking asylum in Norway has pleaded guilty to being involved in a fight outside an Oslo bar and carrying an air gun in public and said he felt “very ashamed”. Andrei Medvedev, 26, crossed the Russian-Norwegian border in January and has spoken out about his time fighting with Russian invasion forces in Ukraine.
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Britain and France’s sports ministers insisted on Tuesday that Russian and Belarusian athletes must never compete as neutrals as recommended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because they could still be funded by their governments.
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A court in Russia has convicted a former police officer of publicly spreading false information about the country’s military after he criticised the war in Ukraine to his friends over the phone. The ex-officer, Semiel Vedel, was sentenced on Monday to seven years in prison and barred from working in law enforcement for four years after his release.
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Risks of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States, are steadily growing, the Tass news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Tuesday. Vladimir Yermakov, the foreign ministry’s head of nuclear non-proliferation, told the Russian state news agency that Washington was escalating the risks through its conduct with Moscow.
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It is time for the Nato alliance to “stop making excuses” and accept Ukraine as a member, as the country has demonstrated its readiness and has much to offer, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba said. Writing in Foreign Affairs, Kuleba said the political will of the alliance had been “sorely lacking” on the issue of admitting Ukraine.
