Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 04-22-2024

Great news that Speaker Johnson finally found his balls and did the right thing by putting the Ukraine support bill to the House - which duly backed it with a large majority.

Great news that Speaker Johnson finally found his balls and did the right thing by putting the Ukraine support bill to the House - which duly backed it with a large majority. Notable also that included in the bill on TikTok was language that suggested that Congress supports the confiscation of the $300bn plus in immobilised Russian assets in Western jurisdiction. The House noted the fact that as Russia is the aggressor that this provides enough legal basis for confiscation. I strongly concur - let’s see if the beancounters at the ECB actually manage to understand the national security imperative here.

The assumption now is the Senate votes on this this week allowing Biden to vote the Ukraine bill into law by the weekend and funds/munitions to flow by next week - long overdue - six months at least. The assumption is the U.S. has been prepositioning munitions close to theatre so that Ukrainian forces will be re-supplied in a matter of weeks now.

Explore the frontline defense mechanisms crucial for protecting soldiers from drone threats. From cutting-edge anti-drone guns to advanced detection system.

Commented Ukraine Naval Forces official spokesman Dmitro Pletenchuk of the hit on Kommuna: “This will keep happening until the Russians run out of ships.”

A complex chain of Ukrainian air operations and ground strikes around the occupied Crimea peninsula culminated on Saturday with at least one hit by a heavy, long-range anti-ship missile on a Kremlin warship, putting the oldest vessel in the entire Russian navy out of action, probably for months.

The rescue ship Kommuna, a vessel built during the Tsarist era and still used by Russia’s Sevastopol-based Black Sea Fleet (BSF) for deep sea rescues and submarine tending, was set afire following multiple explosions during a daylight attack, local news and social media sources said. Some reports said a single missile hit the Kommuna amidships.

Preliminary information remains scarce, but local officials have reported TV signal disruptions after the tower could be seen split in half, with the top half tumbling into the streets below.

Russian forces have struck the TV tower located in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city bordering Russia, where the top of the tower could be seen plummeting into the streets below amidst a thick cloud of smoke.

Belarus was the world’s third worst jailer of journalists, with at least 28 journalists behind bars on Dec. 1, 2023, when CPJ conducted its most recent prison census.

Belarusian authorities must immediately release journalist Aliaksandr Ignatsiuk, who was sentenced to six years imprisonment, and ensure that no members of the press are jailed for their work, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) stated.

On April 5, a court in the southern city of Stolin convicted Ignatsiuk of extortion, organizing or participating in gross violations of public order, and defaming the president, according to media reports, the banned human rights group Viasna, and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), an advocacy and trade group operating from exile.

In an interview with BBC, Ukraine’s intelligence chief said the upcoming months would be “difficult” but not “catastrophic,” and touched on the recent downing of Russian jets among other topics.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR), said the upcoming months would be “difficult” for Ukraine with the renewed Russian offensives but stressed that it won’t be “catastrophic.”

During the interview with BBC Ukraine, Budanov also commented on the recent downing of the Russian Tu-22MZ strategic bomber – the first in the current war – as well as Russia’s hybrid operations and other upcoming challenges for Ukraine.

Kremlin propagandists spread information last week that Ukraine’s Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov was allegedly killed in a Russian missile strike and later claimed he was in captivity.

Late last week, Russian media began publishing videos alleging that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, had been captured by Russia, after reporting earlier that Budanov had been killed in a missile strike.

After a large-scale Russian missile strike on Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) positions early last week, Russian media reported that Budanov was killed in the attack.

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

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to reject any sanctions on the country’s military, after reports that the US plans to cut aid to one unit. “I will fight it with all my strength,” the prime minister said on Sunday. Earlier, the Axios news site said the US would target Israel's Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights violations in the occupied West Bank. The BBC understands any move would come under a US ban on aid to foreign units credibly implicated in violations. When asked last week about reports that US military aid to the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) units could be cut over allegations of human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “I've made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead.”

Columbia University is facing a full-blown crisis heading into Passover as a rabbi linked to the Ivy League school urged Jewish students to stay home and tense confrontations on campus sparked condemnation from the White House and New York officials. The atmosphere is so charged that Columbia officials announced students can attend classes and even possibly take exams virtually starting Monday – the first day of Passover, a major Jewish holiday set to begin in the evening. Tensions at Columbia, and many universities, have been high ever since the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas. However, the situation at Columbia escalated in recent days after university officials testified before Congress last week about antisemitism on campus and pro-Palestinian protests on and near campus surged. – CNN

Moldova’s Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu said the group had consciously been formed “right next to the Kremlin.”

Moldovan opposition parties denouncing pro-European President Maia Sandu’s drive to secure European Union membership said on Sunday, April 21, they were forming an electoral bloc in an announcement delivered in Moscow.

The groups dubbed their alliance Victorie (Victory), formed around fugitive pro-Russian business magnate Ilan Shor, sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for mass fraud in the country lying between Ukraine and Romania.

Everyone in a free society has the right to their opinion. We honor that right. Yet we also denounce those who would help deprive Ukrainians of that right.

It has come to our attention at Kyiv Post that an opinion piece we published on April 18, “The Enemy Within the US Is Letting Russia Get Away With Murder” by Askold Lozynskyj, has incited the anger of Steve Bannon, who cast aspersions on us in an April 20 edition of his televised podcast War Room.

Rather than address his hostility toward us, suffice it to say that we give voice to a variety of opinions and go to great lengths to label them as opinion rather than news. Recently, we have voiced opinions criticizing the Biden administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself. At the end of every opinion essay, we explicitly acknowledge that “the views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.”

The Russian self-propelled gun was discovered by the 73rd Maritime Center of the SSO during reconnaissance operations in the southern front line.

The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SSO) said it destroyed a Russian Hyacinth-S 152-mm self-propelled gun 2S5 using an American HIMARS system.

“The Hyacinth-S was destroyed in the occupied southern region,” reads the description of the video released on Telegram.

The $61-billion military aid package from the United States, if passed as expected, will allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to bomb troops and operations behind enemy lines.

Russia’s most effective weapons against Ukraine have been Donald Trump, Victor Orban, and leaders in rich countries who have been timid or pulled their punches. Fortunately on April 20, Congress passed a desperately needed $61-billion military aid package despite opposition by Putin Republicans who delayed approval for months. That dickering was disastrous for Ukrainians. Thousands of their soldiers died or were wounded, and Russia gained another 5 per cent of the country.

But now, military help is on its way and won’t be delayed, according to military officials, and it will arrive before Russia’s offensive in June. The US is also sending non-combat military advisors to Kyiv, for the first time, and Europeans are bolstering their armies and expediting military aid shipments to shore up Ukrainian efforts. Finally, Western governments have stopped debating about whether to drag their tanks or jets out of arsenals or out of storage for Kyiv.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has yet to comment on this information.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had captured Novomykhailivka, a village located between Maryinka and Vuhledar in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Russian troops have completely occupied the village and "improved their tactical position along the front line."

A cybersecurity firm said it detected the virus during a threat-hunting exercise, though it called it the “work of an inventive but relatively inexperienced developer” that has been mostly confined.

Cisco Talos, a US cybersecurity firm, said it detected the OfflRouter virus in Ukrainian networks embedded in text documents “with potentially confidential information” during a “threat-hunting exercise.”

The virus remains active in Ukraine and could potentially upload documents of unsuspecting users whose computer is infected with the virus, it said.

After months of wrangling, the US House of Representatives has passed a legislative package for 61 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine. Europe's press examines the implications of the decision.

After months of wrangling, the US House of Representatives has passed a legislative package for 61 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine. Many Republicans also voted in favour. Around nine billion dollars is to be granted as a loan, while 23 billion will be used by the US to increase its own military stockpiles in view of future transfers. The package is to be discussed in the Senate on Tuesday. Europe's press examines the implications of the decision.

Immediate impact

The US House of Representatives on Saturday cheered Ukraine and its allies by approving a $61-billion package for Kyiv after six months of political wrangling.

European Union ministers on Monday said Europe must still speed up its arms deliveries to Ukraine, after US lawmakers eased pressure by unblocking a major aid package.

But at a meeting of EU defence and foreign ministers in Luxembourg there was no sign of more pledges of vitally needed air defence for Kyiv.

CIA Director William Burns has reportedly painted a dire picture of the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine and emphasized the global consequences of inaction.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson found himself in a challenging position after Iran attacked Israel. According to sources familiar with the situation, as reported by CNN, Johnson was on the phone with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, indicating his readiness to act on foreign aid, despite the potential consequences for his position as speaker.

Upon his return to Washington, Johnson faced criticism from Republican colleagues for his plan to hold separate votes on aid for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. This approach could have triggered a vote to remove him as speaker.

What happened on Saturday in the US House is epochal. Due to the fallout from Ukraine’s fight against Russia, we are witnessing a struggle between democracy and autocracy in the US itself.

Support for Ukraine in itself and constraining Russia is a very big deal. But the decision by US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to go ahead with the Ukraine aid vote cuts across everything. Matt Gaetz has been emasculated. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s howler monkey hoots have been answered with: go climb a tree and pick some fruit. Trump has been ignored. What happened yesterday has created a brand new/old dynamic – one of compromise. What a novel/ancient concept!

Compromise on this issue completely severs the ties and tends to disempower the radical extremist Putin wing of the Republican Party. In this political universe, anything can happen, and one cannot say that the war has been won. It’s more like the war is fully on within the Republican Party. Many now are moving to utterly crush the rabid monkeys.

The head of Ukrainian intelligence clarified that the tough situation will encompass “everything,” not just the front or domestic political situation.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) of the Ministry of Defense, stated in an interview with the BBC that Ukraine will soon face a challenging situation but ensured that Armageddon is not on the horizon.

“According to our assessment, we are anticipating a rather difficult situation shortly. However, it is not catastrophic, and this must be understood,” Budanov told the BBC.

Poland, a NATO member and a staunch supporter of Ukraine, shares a border with both Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and with Belarus, Moscow's ally.

Poland is ready to host nuclear arms if NATO decides to deploy the weapons in the face of Russia reinforcing its armaments in Belarus and Kaliningrad, President Andrzej Duda said in an interview published on Monday.

"If our allies decide to deploy nuclear arms on our territory as part of nuclear sharing, to reinforce NATO's eastern flank, we are ready to do so," Duda said.

Although modest in size, the Magura V5 sea drone has taken down some of Russia's biggest warships and forced the Kremlin's formidable Black Sea fleet to move east.

Standing on the shores of a lake with a remote control, a Ukrainian soldier trained his eyes on a small and seemingly innocuous grey vessel as he guided it over the water's surface.

Flipping a joystick, he changed the boat's course in an instant and smiled.

Natalia Humeniuk’s dismissal followed an official statement from local and foreign journalists that accused her of hindering media coverage in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

Natalia Humeniuk, head of the Center for Strategic Communications in Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces, was dismissed on Friday.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) announced her dismissal on Facebook on Friday, April 19. According to Ukrinform, Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy, will replace Humeniuk starting today, April 22. 

Now that Macron has broken the taboo on the suggesting the possibility of European troops on the ground in Ukraine, it is time to assess the details of such an ambitious and dangerous scenario.

French President Emmanuel Macron stating that Europeans may consider sending troops to Ukraine is a psychological shock for Europeans. It brings war one step closer to kitchen tables. But is it feasible from a battlefield perspective?

Mostly because of Moscow’s extreme “denazification” goals, there are only two ways out of this conflict right now: Russia’s victory or Ukraine’s victory. And given the demographics and Ukrainian infantry losses, it is all too obvious that Ukraine can only last two or three more years at this deadly pace. Russia, on the other hand, can prolong the ordeal it initiated until the end of the decade.

The current geopolitical context is pushing the Weimar Triangle of France, Germany and Poland to prioritise defence and security.

The current geopolitical context is pushing the Weimar Triangle of France, Germany and Poland to prioritise defence and security. On the occasion of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on 22 April, NGOs, think tanks, and businesses argue that a ‘Green Weimar Triangle’ could safeguard achieving the EU climate goals and address critical economic competitiveness and cohesion issues. 

Sylwia Andralojc-Bodych is Senior Advisor, EU Climate Policy and Polish-German Cooperation and Marion Guénard is Senior Advisor,EU Climate Policy and Franco-German Cooperation, both at Germanwatch.

Military spending rose across the globe with particularly large increases in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The United States, China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia were the top five spenders.

Global military expenditure saw its steepest increase in over a decade in 2023, reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fuelled spending across the world, researchers said Monday.

Military spending rose across the globe with particularly large increases in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Zelensky drew parallels to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, which led to years of conflict and eventual US involvement.

The recent decision by the US House of Representatives to allocate $61 billion in long-awaited aid for Kyiv signals that Ukraine will not suffer the fate of “a second Afghanistan,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday, April 21.

The House on Saturday approved the latest massive package of military and economic assistance for Ukraine as it struggles to hold off Russian forces more than two years since Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president said that Ukrainian success at the front lines will depend on when it receives the US aid.

Following the US House of Representatives moving forward some $61 billion in assistance for Ukraine over the weekend, the Ukrainian military now has a chance to “stabilize the situation and to overtake the initiative,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday, April 21.

Zelensky said that success at the front lines will now depend on when Ukraine receives assistance.

After months of partisan infighting, the United States House of Representatives finally approved the major package in a vote Saturday, giving a morale boost to Ukrainian forces.

Russia said Sunday its forces had gained territory near the key battleground town of Chasiv Yar in east Ukraine, highlighting the pressure facing Kyiv as it gears up to receive $61 billion in new US aid.

Ukraine meanwhile reported renewed Russian strikes against its civilians.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairperson Senator Mark Warner reported on April 21 that US provisions of military aid to Ukraine, including long-range ATACMS missiles, will be in transit to Ukraine “by the end of the week” if the Senate passes the supplemental appropriations bill on April 23 and US President Joe Biden signs it by April 24.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on April 21 that the swift delivery of US military aid to Ukraine could allow Ukrainian forces to stabilize the frontline and seize the initiative.
• Ukrainian forces struck and damaged the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s (BSF) Kommuna submarine support ship – the world’s oldest active-duty naval vessel – in occupied Sevastopol, Crimea on April 21.
• US-sanctioned, pro-Kremlin Moldovan politician Ilan Shor created the new pro-Russian Moldovan Victory electoral bloc on April 21, which plans to run a candidate in the October 20 Moldovan presidential election.
• The Victory electoral bloc will likely allow the Kremlin to focus on a unified political effort in Moldova instead of maintaining relations with multiple pro-Russian Moldovan actors and parties, as it has done recently.
• The Russian and Chinese navies signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation on April 21 amid recent reports of China’s increased support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
• The Kremlin blocked domestic access to the website of the French non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), depriving Russians of access to independent assessments of Russian freedom of speech and press.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Kreminna and Avdiivka and in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area.
• Russian forces have increased their use of small, lightweight, off-road vehicles along the frontline.