April 4, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has indicated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to the alliance’s summit taking place in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius in July. 

He made the remark in Brussels on Tuesday, following a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission – the body responsible for the relationship between Ukraine and the alliance. 

Training for Ukrainians on US M1-A1 Abrams tanks has not yet started, but will begin “relatively soon,” a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday.

“Abrams training has not yet begun…We are still working on the equipment procurement so we haven't we have not yet begun the training, but I would expect that that will happen relatively soon,” the official said during a background briefing.

In total, the official said the US has trained more than 7,000 Ukrainian troops since the beginning of Russia’s invasion more than a year ago. The US plans to send 31 M1-A1 tanks to Ukraine — the size of a Ukrainian tank battalion.

The US agreed to send the tanks in January after a sudden reversal on its stated policy that Abrams were too complex and difficult to maintain for Ukrainian forces in the middle of a war.

The Biden administration relented under pressure from Germany, which said that it would only approve the transfer of its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine if the US agreed to send Abrams tanks as well.

But the US cautioned that delivering tanks to Ukraine would take time. “We just don’t have these tanks available in excess in our US stocks,” said Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh shortly after the US announcement.

Turkey on Tuesday welcomed Finland as a new NATO member as Ankara continues to block Helsinki's Scandinavian neighbor Stockholm from joining the transatlantic military alliance. 

“I would like to welcome Finland as a new ally. With Finland, now our alliance is much more stronger,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in Brussels, speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier today as the minister handed ratification document to the American diplomat.

The Turkish Parliament voted unanimously in favor of Finland’s membership on Thursday, clearing the last hurdle in the accession process. 

Both Finland and Sweden requested to join the military alliance in May last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  

The Ukrainian military says it continues to repel Russian attacks in several places along the front lines in Donetsk region, with more than 45 assaults in the past day focused on the Bakhmut area, as well as around Avdiivka and Mariinka near Donetsk city, and Lyman near the border with Luhansk.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces said that about 20 of those attacks had been around Bakhmut. It gave no indication that Ukrainian units had lost ground. 

Separately, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said that he had spoken with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. “Attention was paid to the weapons and ammunition supplies issue. We emphasized the importance of the Ukrainian AD [air defense] system augmentation. We discussed further steps of the AF [armed forces] in order to de-occupy our territories,” Zaluzhyni tweeted.

The conversation came after further drone attacks by Russian forces.

The General Staff confirmed that over the past day, the Russians launched 17 Shahed-136 drones against Ukraine. As it has been the case for several weeks, Russian forces continued offensive actions in the Avdiivka and Mariinka areas, “but did not succeed,” according to the General Staff.

Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi, the military spokesperson for that area, said there had been 35 combat engagements near Avdiivka and Mariinka in the past day. “The towns of Orikhiv and Preobrazhenka were hit by air strikes,” he said, but Ukrainian units had hit Russian forces with artillery.

He said that around Vuhledar, Russian forces were making fewer attempts to conduct assaults compared to the first three months of the year.

“The occupiers are hiding in fox-holes,” Dmytrashkivskyi said – but were still being targeted. 

Further south, in the Zaporizhzhia sector, he said the Russians are actively mining the area and arranging anti-tank barriers – in anticipation of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in that region. The Russians were also moving ammunition and equipment depots from Mariupol, Dmytrashkivskyi said.

The General Staff claimed that in parts of occupied territory, the Russians were appropriating private homes. “For example, in the city of Starobilsk, Luhansk region, the so-called occupation 'authorities' use representatives of public utilities to move servicemen of the Russian occupation forces into apartments and houses temporarily abandoned by Ukrainian citizens.”

Finish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto took part in country’s first NATO round table meeting in Brussels Tuesday, following Finland’s accession ceremony earlier in the day.

Haavisto was seen smiling and shaking hands with other NATO leaders, before taking a seat next in between Estonia and France.

The alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg opened the meeting by saying, “Let me start by welcoming Finland as the newest member of our alliance.”

Stoltenberg’s comments were met by a long round of applause, with Haavisto smiling and mouthing the words, "Thank you."

“Mr Haavisto you have attended many meetings, but this is the first time you sit down there between France and Estonia. It is really a great privilege to have you now as a full-fledged member,” Stoltenberg said, adding, “and as we stated so clearly outside, soon we will also have Sweden as a full-fledged member of our alliance.”

Sweden has congratulated Finland on its accession to NATO on Tuesday, as Stockholm still awaits the ratification of its own bid.

Both Finland and Sweden requested to join the transatlantic military alliance in May last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, Sweden’s accession is being stalled by Turkey and Hungary, both of which are holding back support.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously said Turkey would not approve Sweden's NATO membership unless the country extradites "terrorists" upon Turkish request. 

Sweden has made clear this won't happen, and for now, the process is stuck. But the US and European officials remain hopeful that Sweden will be able to join the alliance in the coming months. 

The United States and the European Union pledged on Tuesday to “directly confront” any attempts to weaponize energy and destabilize global energy markets as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. 

“The two sides reiterated their strong commitment to directly confront, with adequate measures, all efforts to further destabilize the global energy situation and to circumvent sanctions,” they said in a joint statement released after an EU-US Energy Council meeting in Brussels. 

Western leaders have warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against weaponizing its energy exports since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. 

The council also discussed ways to bolster energy security in Ukraine and Moldova. 

“Following the successful synchronization of Ukraine and Moldova with the EU electricity grid, the Council intends to continue to support Ukraine's rapid recovery and reconstruction, and support both Ukraine and Moldova by assisting with their long-term economic and clean energy transition,” the statement said. 

The US and the EU also vowed to continue coordinating bilateral and multilateral responses to keep the global energy markets stable.   

US President Joe Biden's administration announced an additional package of military aid to Ukraine totaling $2.6 billion on Tuesday.

The package includes $500 million in drawdown equipment, such as ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and additional munitions for the Patriot missile system, artillery and mortar rounds, heavy fuel tankers, and tactical recovery vehicles. It is the 35th drawdown of US equipment for Ukraine since August 2021.

The administration is also allocating $2.1 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds, which intend to produce a “significant package of air defense capabilities” including air surveillance radars and counter-unmanned aerial system 30mm gun trucks, as well as Javelin anti-armor systems and 23 million rounds of small arms munition.

The Pentagon’s release announcing the aid on Tuesday reiterated that the US would continue to work with its allies to “provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements.”

The pre-trial detention hearing for a woman detained in connection with an explosion that killed a prominent Russian military blogger at a cafe in St. Petersburg is taking place in Moscow.

Video showed the woman, 26-year-old Daria Trepova, being escorted through a Moscow airport and later taken into the court. Th official Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that the court, at the request of an investigator, agreed to a closed session. The investigator said that a public hearing could violate privacy, according to RIA.

At the hearing, the judge said Trepova, who was formally placed under arrest, should be held for one month and 30 days, until June 2.

In a statement, the court said it had “granted the investigator's petition to take a preventive measure in the form of detention against Daria Evgenievna Trepova, who is accused of committing a crime under paragraph b, part 3, article 205, part 4, article 222.1 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation until June 2, 2023.” Article 205 deals with terrorist offenses.

“The petition of the defense party to choose another measure, not related to detention, was denied,” the court said.