President Joe Biden spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on the phone for nearly an hour on Wednesday, a day after Zelensky praised Biden for accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of “genocide.”
Biden said in a statement that he has authorized $800 million in additional security assistance, including arms and ammunition, to Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian military has used the weapons we are providing to disastrous effect,” Biden said. “As Russia prepares to intensify its offensive in the Donbass region, the United States will continue to provide Ukraine with the ability to defend itself.”
Zelensky tweeted about their conversation, saying: “Continuing talks with @POTUS. Assessed Russian war crimes. Discussed additional packages of defensive and potential macro-financial assistance. Agreed to increase sanctions.” “
Also on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that China and other nations are refusing to sanction Russia’s future economic fallout for failing to help end Russia’s “heinous war” in Ukraine. may have to face. “Let’s be clear, the Unified Coalition of Sanctioning Countries will not be indifferent to actions that weaken sanctions,” Yellen said.
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French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, a nationalist with long-standing ties to Russia who would face President Emmanuel Macron in the April 24 runoff, warned against sending any further weapons to Ukraine and after the war. Calls for synergy between NATO and Russia. Wind down in Ukraine.
Some Ukrainian officials presided over Pope Francis’ decision to have a Russian woman and a Ukrainian woman carry a cross together during Pope Francis’ Good Friday procession, with Archbishop of Kyiv Svyatoslav Shevchuk calling it “inappropriate and inappropriate”. vague.”
Cyprus said it was going to revoke the citizenship of four Russians and 17 of their family members approved by the European Union.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has forcibly deported more than 500,000 Ukrainians to the Russian Federation.
The Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that more than 720 people have been killed and more than 200 are believed to be missing in Buka and other Kyiv suburbs occupied by Russian troops.
Germany’s Scholz finds Ukraine’s diplomatic insult ‘upsetting’
Ties between Ukraine and Germany took a turn for the worse on Wednesday when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his displeasure over a diplomatic hesitation and said he had no intention of traveling to Kyiv anytime soon.
Scholz told German radio station RBB that it was “somewhat disturbing, to put it politely”, that Ukraine had reportedly rejected the visit of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose role was mostly ceremonial. because of their previous close ties with Russia. Scholz also pointed out that Steinmeier strongly criticized the Russian invasion, although Steinmeier also acknowledged mistakes in Germany’s policy towards Moscow.
The flap comes amid discussions within Scholz’s governing coalition over whether Germany should authorize Ukraine to send heavy weapons such as tanks as that country prepares to face a Russian offensive in a move east. Germany broke with tradition following Russia’s invasion of arms to supply Ukraine, but faced criticism from Kyiv for perceived hesitation and slowness in providing materials.
‘These are someone’s children’: Russia asks to bring back dead soldiers
Officials in Ukraine’s east-central city of Dnipro say they are ready to help bring the bodies of more than 1,500 Russian soldiers back to the city’s morgues.
“We already have four refrigerators filled with bodies of Russian soldiers,” Deputy Mayor Mykhailo Lysenko said. “Never mind, these are someone’s kids.”
The city’s airport and some infrastructure were destroyed by rocket attacks a few days ago. Military analysts say Russia’s new focus on eastern Ukraine could include Dnipro, a city of one million people in the Donbass region, where Russian separatists have fought Ukraine’s military since 2014.
Russia is reloading helicopters, artillery to push into eastern Ukraine
Russia is continuing to ship additional helicopters, artillery and troops to make a fresh push into eastern Ukraine, a senior defense official said on Wednesday. The one-mile-long Russian convoy is heading towards the strategic city of Izium, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the intelligence assessment. The convoy was about 35 miles north of Izium on Tuesday. It is not clear how far it has moved towards the city. To the south of Izium, the Russians are trying to improve their movement inside Ukraine, including building a temporary bridge.
The official said the Russian focus in eastern Ukraine points to a new attack after the country’s withdrawal from the north. The official said Russian air strikes focused on targets in the eastern Donbass region and the besieged city of Mariupol.
, Tom Vanden Brook
WHO chief also challenged the world to worry about black people
The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday slammed the global community for turning a blind eye to crises outside Ukraine. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, citing serious issues of war, disease and famine in countries such as Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria, questioned whether “the world really pays equal attention to black and white lives.” He called the Horn of Africa. Nations are at high risk of famine and many people are “already starving or food insecure and are moving rapidly.”
“I need to be blunt and honest that the world is not treating mankind the same way,” he said. “Some are more equal than others.”
Finns worried about joining NATO
Thousands of Finns have signed up with training associations to sharpen their military skills or learn new ones, an interest fueled by concern over Finland’s geographic proximity to Russia. For the first time in the history of Finland, most of the Finns are in favor of joining NATO. Finland, with 5.5 million people, is one of the few European countries with compulsory military service, mainly due to its 830-mile border with Russia. read more here,
“Many say they are worried about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they want to keep their military capabilities up to date, they want to learn new things, they want the compulsory service they probably didn’t take too seriously at the time, ” said Ossi Hietala, training officer of the National Defense Training Association of Finland. “They want to make sure they are prepared for the worst.”
Sweden, which, like Finland, remains militarily non-aligned, has also shown a strong inclination to join NATO after Russia’s invasion.
, Tami Abdullah
Ukrainian tennis professional to play Team USA in North Carolina
A team of Ukrainian tennis players will face Team USA this weekend in a Billie Jean King Cup qualifying event in Asheville, North Carolina, aimed at raising money for Ukrainian relief efforts. Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, ranked 93rd in the world, had to flee her country when the war broke out. She told ESPN that 21-year-old Yastremska and her 15-year-old sister took a small boat from Ukraine to Romania and then headed for Lyon, France, where she joined a professional tennis tour. read more here,
King is personally donating $50,000 to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, the United States Tennis Association is donating 10% of ticket revenue from the event, and local sponsors have also pledged to donate based on ticket sales.
, James Crabtree-Hannigan, Asheville Citizen Times
European security agency says Russia is committing human rights abuses
Russia has violated international law and some Russians have committed war crimes in Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe claimed in a report released on Wednesday. The report, which comes a day after President Joe Biden accused Russia of “genocide”, found that if Russia “discrimination, proportionality and precautions in attack and specifically protected objects such as hospitals and hospitals” If the obligations were respected, the number of civilians killed or injured would have been much less.”
Fewer homes, hospitals, cultural properties, schools, residential buildings and infrastructure systems would also have been damaged or destroyed, according to the report by the Austria-based agency, which covers 57 countries in Europe, North America and Asia.
Ukraine did not escape the agency’s review. Some “violations and problems” were also identified in relation to Ukraine military practices, which included treating captured Russian soldiers as criminals rather than prisoners of war.
The report said that “a detailed assessment of most allegations of violations of international humanitarian law and the identification of war crimes related to particular incidents has not been possible.”
Polish, Baltic leaders visit Ukraine to show support
The presidents of Poland and the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were in Ukraine on Wednesday to show their support in talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – like Ukraine – were part of the Soviet Union for half a century.
Now the Baltic countries fear they may be the next targets of Russia’s belligerence, and in total they are only about 6 million people compared to Ukraine’s 44 million. Ukraine did not give the Baltics an advantage – they are members of NATO. NATO leaders have made it clear that the coalition will protect all its members from Russian aggression.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda posted pictures of a burnt-out residential building on social media. “The horrors of war that Ukraine has endured could not have been done by humans,” Nauseda said. “The creatures who did this do not deserve the name. This is a conscious, targeted and extremely brutal destruction of the Ukrainian nation. Ukraine will resist. Truth will prevail!”
Obama: Putin has ‘always been ruthless’ but aggression is ‘reckless’
Former President Barack Obama talks about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in an interview with NBC News “Today”, answering questions about his handling of Russian relations while in office and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state of mind.
Obama said the war in Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 are reminders of “not taking our own democracy lightly”, adding that the Biden administration is “doing what it needs to do.”
“Putin has always been cruel to his people as well as others,” Obama said. “What we’ve seen with the invasion of Ukraine is reckless in a way that you might not have guessed eight, 10 years ago, but you know, the threat was always there.”
Contribution: The Associated Press
