Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 04-05-2024

Kyiv Post’s intelligence sources confirmed that at least three Russian Tu-95MS aircraft were damaged and two Su-25 attack aircraft were destroyed last night.

Kyiv Post’s intelligence sources have confirmed a successful special operation by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (НUR), during which they struck three Russian airfields late Thursday night into Friday morning.

According to the source, at least three Tu-95MS strategic bombers were damaged in the attack by unmanned aerial vehicles at the Engels-2 airfield. Seven Russian soldiers were also killed in the operation, including, presumably, bomber pilots.

Finland has accused Moscow of weaponizing migration against the Nordic nation, an assertion the Kremlin denies.

Finland will indefinitely extend the closure of land border crossings with Russia and add several ports to a list where travel from its eastern neighbor is prohibited, the government said on Thursday (April 4).

Finland shut its land borders with Russia late last year amid a growing number of arrivals from countries including Syria and Somalia. It has accused Moscow of weaponizing migration against the Nordic nation, an assertion the Kremlin denies.

Chuck Pfarrer, a former squadron leader of SEAL Team 6, explains why Russia, despite having substantially more troops than Ukraine, is failing to make significant territorial gains.

Arsenal’s international defender Oleksandr Zinchenko says he would definitely leave the Premier League to fight in Ukraine if he were called up by his war-torn country.

Arsenal footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, 27, told the BBC’s Newsnight that he was prepared to give up his career to fight for Ukraine if he was called up.

On Wednesday, a bill was signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelensky that lowered the age of military mobilization from 27 to 25, which would allow the country to call up Ukrainians to replenish its reserves and bolster its front line.

The founders of the private military company both died when an explosion brought down their business jet in Russia’s Tver region on Aug. 23.

Photographs of a monument to the founders of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin were posted on social media sites linked to the private military company (PMC). The memorial has been erected in front of the Wagner’s “Chapel to the Memory of Fallen Soldiers” on the edge of a forested areas close to the city of Goryachy Klyuch, in the Krasnodar Territory, 40 kilometers from Krasnodar city.

Prigozhin, the 62-year-old co-founder of the Wagner Russian mercenary group was a former convict during the Soviet era, who became a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin until he launched his aborted mutiny against the regime in June 2023. Prigozhin known to many as “Putin's chef” who owned restaurants and catering businesses that frequently catered events hosted by the Kremlin. Prigozhin controlled a network of businesses all of which were linked to Putin, the Defense Ministry and the GRU military intelligence department.

Lithuania will also send €35 million ($38 million) toward the Czech initiative to purchase artillery ammunition for Ukraine.

Lithuania will produce 3,000 drones to send to Ukraine and allocate €15 million ($16 million) to help rehabilitate wounded Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a Telegram post.

“We agreed on this with the Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonytė during my visit to Vilnius,” Shmyhal wrote.

Meanwhile, NATO considering supporting Ukraine with a five-year €100 billion fund.

At the Alliance’s next meeting, NATO officials are not planning to discuss member-states training Ukrainian servicemembers inside Ukraine’s borders, despite an invitation from Kyiv’s Foreign Minister and ensuing speculation, according to a report Friday, April 5 from the Ukrainian news site European Pravda.

“At the moment, this is not on the agenda,” an unnamed NATO official tells European Pravda. “And let me add that there are currently no plans to send troops to Ukraine in any shape or form,” the official is reported saying.

Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko's light-through-darkness approach can be appreciated starting Friday in Poland's capital, now home to thousands of refugees from neighbouring Ukraine.

Days after invading Ukraine, Russian forces fired rockets at a museum housing colourful paintings by the late Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko, admired by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. The building burned down but her joyful work survived.

Residents of the northern town of Ivankiv managed to rescue the pictures, turning the imaginative painter into a symbol of endurance and hope.

Macron had said Thursday that Moscow was trying to promote the narrative that France was unable to host the Games and that the event would be a risk.

The Kremlin on Friday blasted as "unacceptable" French President Emmanuel Macron's claims that Russia was trying to undermine the Paris Olympics through a disinformation campaign.

Macron had said Thursday that Moscow was trying to promote the narrative that France was unable to host the Games and that the event would be a risk.

It’s purely speculative that all the C-5 Galaxies, C-17 Globemasters and 747-400s thudding down at Rzeszów are loaded with artillery ammo. But clearly Washington is seriously behind the operation.

Arrivals of heavy cargo planes, the majority of them military, have spiked in recent weeks in the eastern Polish airport of Rzeszów, NATO’s main air logistics hub for supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) with weapons and war-related supplies.

Total arrival and departure counts for aircraft of all types, averaging around 20-25 aircraft landed or launched every day at the start of the year, during March intensified by better than a third. On some peak days ground handlers at Rzeszów Airport – sometimes called Rzeszów-Jasionka or by its IATA code letters RZE [ICAO: EPRZ] – have had to hustle to handle as many as 40 arrivals or departures every 24 hours.

Ukraine will soon add drones with a range of 2,000 kilometers or more, extending Kyiv’s reach to the Urals and beyond, according to German newspaper Bild.

A source “familiar with the situation” told Bild that the recent drone strikes by Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) on Tatarstan, was just the beginning.

Ukraine's Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR) confirmed on Tuesday, April 2 that Ukraine had targeted a drone assembly facility in Yelabuga and an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, both in Tatarstan, more than 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from Ukraine. The weapons used are said to have been a modified UJ-22 drone fitted with additional fuel tanks to extend its normal 800-kilometer range and a Ukrainian ultra-light aircraft Aeroprakt A-22 “Flying Fox,” filled with explosives and adapted to act as a drone.

Andrey Chibis, 45, was knifed in the stomach on Friday evening outside a cultural centre in the town of Apatity, where he had been holding a meeting.

The governor of Russia's far northern Murmansk region was in hospital Friday after being stabbed by a man, his spokeswoman said.

Andrey Chibis, 45, was knifed in the stomach on Friday evening outside a cultural centre in the town of Apatity, where he had been holding a meeting.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

U.S. President Biden threatened on Thursday to condition future support for Israel on how it addresses his concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, prompting Israel to commit to permitting more food and other supplies into the besieged enclave in hopes of placating him. During a tense 30-minute call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mr. Biden for the first time leveraged U.S. aid to influence the conduct of the war against Hamas that has inflamed many Americans and others around the world. The announcement of additional aid routes hours later met some but not all of Mr. Biden’s demands. “President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” according to a White House summary of the call. “He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers. He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.” The statement was the sharpest the White House has issued on Israel’s conduct in the six months of its war against Hamas, underscoring the president’s growing frustration with Mr. Netanyahu and his anger over this week’s killing of seven aid workers by Israeli military forces. But while the president repeated his call for a negotiated deal that would result in an “immediate cease-fire” and the release of hostages taken by Hamas, White House officials stopped short of saying directly that he might limit U.S. arms supplies if not satisfied - NYT

Israel’s Shin Bet announced on Thursday that it had busted a mixed terror cell of Israeli-Arabs and Palestinians who had plotted to kill National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The terror cell was also targeting Ben Gurion Airport and government offices. A statement from the Shin Bet named seven Israeli-Arabs and four West Bank Palestinians involved in the plot. The cell planned to attack Ben Gvir in Kiryat Arba using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons - Jerusalem Post

A massive drone attack slammed the Morozovsk airfield in Rostov region taking out planes that Russia uses to target Ukrainian army positions and frontline cities. Three other sites were hit.

Kyiv Post sources within Ukraine's Special Services have confirmed that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), in collaboration with the military and the Defense Forces, orchestrated the nighttime assault on the Morozovsk airfield, resulting in the destruction of at least six aircraft.

On the 75th anniversary of the NATO alliance, it should be clear to all members that Ukraine is not only preparing join, but that it is fast becoming an indispensable security asset.

This year, April 4 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO, which has become the foundation of a unified Euro-Atlantic security system from Canada to the Baltic States.

On this occasion, an anniversary summit will be held in Washington, DC, where the agreement that is considered to be the document that created the North Atlantic Alliance was signed on April 4, 1949. Much attention will be paid to Ukraine, for which membership in the North Atlantic Alliance is one of the key goals of its foreign policy, and its accession to NATO is enshrined in the country’s Basic Law.

Despite IS claiming responsibility for the March 22 attack, Moscow has persistently attempted to connect Kyiv and the West to the incident despite repeated denials.

Russian investigators said Friday, April 5, that one of the assailants involved in last month's tragic massacre at a Moscow concert hall, claimed by the Islamic State (IS), had pro-Ukrainian content on his phone.

Despite IS claiming responsibility for the March 22 attack, which resulted in the deaths of over 140 people, Moscow has persistently attempted to connect Kyiv and the West to the incident, despite repeated denials.

Ukraine applied to join the European Union in February 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion began and was granted the status in June of that year.

The new Portuguese government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro favours Ukraine joining the European Union, Portugal’s new foreign minister Paulo Rangel said on Thursday, criticising the previous government’s hesitation.

“Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has given a clear signal that he is in favour of EU enlargement. This is something that I think needed to be clarified because Portugal had some hesitations, especially when it was being given candidate status last year,” said Rangel at the end of a ministerial meeting of the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels, as reported by Euractiv’s partner Lusa.

The 330-kilovolt line, which supplied power from the Ukrainian energy system to the NPP, was cut by Russian shelling in the area.

A critical power transmission line at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was disconnected on Thursday, April 4, according to reports from Ukrainian state-owned company Energoatom.

The 330-kilovolt line, which supplied power from the Ukrainian energy system to the NPP, was severed due to Russian shelling in the area.

Thirteen people including novelist Victoria Amelina were killed when a Russian ballistic missile tore through the popular "Ria Pizza" restaurant on the evening of June 27, 2023.

A resident of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, who helped Russia target a missile strike on a pizzeria last June has been jailed for life, prosecutors said Thursday.

Thirteen people including novelist Victoria Amelina were killed when a Russian ballistic missile tore through the popular "Ria Pizza" restaurant on the evening of June 27, 2023.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov claimed that NATO and Russia are in “direct confrontation,” likely as part of ongoing Kremlin efforts to intensify existing information operations meant to force the West into self-deterrence.
• Russian Chief of the General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov appealed to Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS) members to increase cooperation against perceived Western threats as part of the effort to posture against the West.
• The Kremlin leveraged this overall information operation about escalation with NATO to target France specifically, following French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent calls for the West to expand the level and types of security assistance it sends to Ukraine.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also promoted information operations feigning interest in negotiations, and Lavrov’s and Shoigu’s likely coordinated informational efforts may signal a new round of intensified Russian rhetoric about negotiations.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin continues attempts to balance the Kremlin’s opposing efforts to set social expectations for a protracted Russian war effort and to assuage Russian society’s concerns about the economic consequences of the war and labor migration.
• Russian forces conducted a roughly reinforced company-sized mechanized assault towards Chasiv Yar (west of Bakhmut) on April 4 and advanced up to the eastern outskirts of the settlement.
• Russian forces also recently made confirmed advances near Bakhmut and Donetsk City.
• An unspecified senior NATO official reportedly told Russian opposition news outlet Vazhnye Istorii that NATO intelligence agencies have not observed indications that Russia is preparing for a large-scale partial mobilization wave.

June to July 2023 – the destruction of civilian areas intensifies with increased use of guided aerial bombs, cluster munitions and phosphorous along with cruise missiles and Shahed drones.

Please find the previous parts of the digest below:

February to March 2022

US top diplomat says NATO should “help build a bridge to membership and create a clear pathway for Ukraine,” while Kyiv's Foreign Minister stresses this should happen “sooner rather than later.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken advanced Washington’s confidence that Ukraine will eventually ascend to NATO, without a specific timeframe, during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Brussels on April 4. 

Speaking at the biannual NATO summit, Blinken said that the purpose of the assembly is “to help build a bridge to that membership and to create a clear pathway for Ukraine moving forward,” a readout from the Statement Department said.