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Ukraine updates: NATO chief makes surprise visit to Kyiv
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Jens Stoltenberg has arrived in the Ukrainian capital on an unannounced visit. Meanwhile, the Netherlands and Denmark are planning on sending 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. DW has the latest.
https://p.dw.com/p/4QKDi
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Thursday.
In his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, Stoltenberg paid his respects to soldiers who had died fighting Russian forces and inspected Russian military equipment that is on display in a central square in Kyiv.
The NATO chief’s visit comes as Ukrainian forces are preparing for their spring counteroffensive after Russia’s attempt to make gains during winter, especially around the town of Bakhmut, proved largely unsuccessful.
NATO has pledged to support Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression.
Stoltenberg has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to take part in a NATO summit in July.
Kyiv launched a bid to join the alliance — a prospect that was seen as being one of the main reasons for Russia’s invasion — after Moscow claimed it had annexed four regions of Ukraine under partial Russian occupation.
Stoltenberg: ‘Supporting Ukraine remains critical’
00:42
Here are some of the other notable developments concerning Russia’s war in Ukraine on Thursday, April 20:
Photo of pregnant Ukrainian woman wins World Press Photo contest
A photo of a pregnant Ukrainian woman being carried on a stretcher after Russian forces hit a maternity hospital in Mariupol has won the World Press Photo contest.
The photographer Evgeniy Maloletka was awarded the first prize by a jury in Amsterdam.
The woman in the photo, as well as her child, died a short time after the photo was taken.
“The deaths of both the pregnant woman and child encapsulate both much of this war and Russia’s possible intent,” jury chairman Brent Lewis said.
“As one member of the jury said, ‘It’s like they’re trying to kill the future of Ukraine,'” he added.
Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from the damaged by shelling maternity hospital in Mariupol, UkraineUkrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from the damaged by shelling maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine
Evgeniy Maloletka’s photo of a pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher in Mariupol, here with her face blurredImage: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/picture alliance
Ukraine says it shot down 21 drones
Russia launched a wave of strikes against targets in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, including 26 unmanned Shahed-136 drones, of which Ukrainian air defenses downed 21, Ukraine’s general staff said on Thursday.
Some of the Russian strikes hit their targets, which were both military and civilian according to Ukrainian forces. Civilian casualties were also reported.
Ukraine also said that it had fended off 55 ground attacks in the Donetsk region, including around the highly contested town of Bakhmut.
“Heavy fighting around Bakhmut continues,” the general staff said.
Battle for Bakhmut
03:46
Netherlands, Denmark pledge more Leopard 2 tanks
Another batch of advanced, German-made tanks has been pledged to Ukraine, this time, jointly, from Denmark and the Netherlands.
The Dutch and Danish delivery will include 14 Leopard 2 tanks, according to Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and acting Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
The tanks will first be purchased from elsewhere and then refurbished before arriving in Ukraine, which is planned for the first quarter of 2024.
“It is absolutely crucial for the hope of a peaceful and secure Europe that we do not let the Ukrainians fight the battle alone,” Poulsen, who was in Ukraine earlier this month, said.
A Leopard 2 tank fires a round during live-fire exercises in SwitzerlandA Leopard 2 tank fires a round during live-fire exercises in Switzerland
The refurbished batch of Leopard 2 tanks is expected to arrive in Ukraine early next yearImage: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
As with all German-made weaponry, Amsterdam and Copenhagen will need approval from Berlin before the tanks are sold or donated, in this case, to Ukraine.
Germany had dragged its feet for months amid calls from Ukraine for the advanced tanks, but eventually agreed to send 18 of the tanks in January.
After training Ukrainian soldiers on how to use the new equipment, the heavy vehicles arrived in Ukraine in late March.
Spain, Poland, Finland and Portugal have also supplied or vowed to supply Leopard 2 tanks.
Ukrainian troops eager to try Western tanks
03:07
Russia’s Lavrov praises Nicaragua’s support during visit
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised Nicaragua as an ally during a visit to the Central American country.
The minister met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega during the visit.
“Westerners, under the auspices of such countries as the United States, try to unite as exclusive countries, try to proliferate their hegemony in conflicts such as, for example, in Ukraine,” Lavrov said.
“We, with our Nicaraguan supporters, are going to fight against such tendencies and prevent such acts,” he said.
Lavrov and Ortega also downplayed the impact of US sanctions.
“Today, the United States sanctioned three judges because they have applied justice against terrorists. We already have hundreds of fellow state officials sanctioned, but we are no longer afraid of that,” Ortega said.
Lavrov said people “who are under sanctions in Russia say that it is a recognition of their progress in the protection of Russia’s rights.”
The comments come after the US Treasury Department announced that it had put three Nicaraguan judges on a sanctions blacklist over their role in stripping 316 Ortega opponents of their citizenship.
Flash over Kyiv causes confusion
A bright flash seen in the sky above the Ukrainian capital overnight was likely a meteorite, according to Ukraine’s space agency.
Kyiv authorities said an air raid alert was sounded, but air defenses were not activated.
The city’s military administration initially said the burst of light may have been caused by a NASA satellite reentering the atmosphere.
But the US space agency denied involvement, and said its satellite had still been orbiting at the time.
“We cannot identify what it was exactly, but our assumption is that it was a meteorite,” Igor Korniyenko, the deputy head of a control center at Ukraine’s space agency, was quoted by AFP as saying.
Kyiv claims Putin body double visited war zone
The Ukrainian government has cast doubts on reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently traveled to the war zone in Ukraine, saying it was a doppelganger that did so.
“That wasn’t the real Putin,” Ukraine’s National Security Council Secretary Olexiy Danilov said on television.
“In order to talk to the real Putin, you need to self-isolate for 10 to 14 days,” he said.
He said that the man in a Kremlin-released video that appears to show Putin getting out of a helicopter was “an ordinary double, of which there are several, as we know.”
Danilov called Putin a “frightened man” and a “bunker grandpa,” arguing that it was impossible for the Russian president to choose to visit the front.
The official did not provide any evidence that the figure in the video was a doppelganger.
According to a Kremlin statement on Tuesday, Putin met with troops fighting in the regions of Kherson and Luhansk.
This would be Putin’s second trip to the war zone since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine faces huge task of clearing landmines
03:41
Rebuilding efforts a ‘clear message,’ German deputy minister tells DW
Jochen Flasbarth, a deputy minister in Germany’s Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, says that reconstruction efforts in Ukraine send a “clear message.”
“At the moment, we are fixing problems. Wherever the Russians destroy something, it is going to be fixed,” he told DW. “It’s also psychologically a clear message to Ukraine, but also to Russia.”
“We believe that the reconstruction has to be done strategically,” he said. “We should avoid unnecessary doubling or tripling of efforts, or else we leave gaps, unfinanced gaps in other areas.”
The deputy minister said that there were a “number of strategic areas” where reconstruction needed to start immediately, including the energy sector, traffic, transport and housing.
Ukraine: From breadbasket to mine-infested farmland
04:40
Flasbarth also spoke to DW on the issue of mines affecting farmers and agriculture in Ukraine.
“We are running risks that farmers, specifically smallholder farmers, leave business and might not return due to mines.”
He said that risks also included “increased costs for inputs, for seeds, for fertilizers” and farmers facing “difficulties to sell their products on the global markets.”
US charges 2 with violating Ukraine-related sanctions
A US businessman and a Belarusian citizen have been arrested in Florida and charged with violating US sanctions.
The alleged scheme involved purchasing over $150 million (€137 million) in steelmaking materials from an exiled Ukrainian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko, who is accused of funding Russian-backed separatist militants in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
“The Justice Department is relentlessly pursuing those who seek to evade sanctions imposed against the Russian regime and whose crimes enable the regime to continue its unjust, illegal war in Ukraine,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
ab, sdi/sms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
