Nato’s Jen Stoltenberg visits Kyiv for first time since Russian invasion
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday paid his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion, in a show of support for Ukraine as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive.
Stoltenberg paid his respects to Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed fighting in the war and reviewed damaged Russian military equipment displayed on a central square in Kyiv, a Reuters photographer said.
Key events
Here are some of the images of Jens Stoltenberg in Kyiv this morning.
Nato’s Jen Stoltenberg visits Kyiv for first time since Russian invasion
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday paid his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion, in a show of support for Ukraine as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive.
Stoltenberg paid his respects to Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed fighting in the war and reviewed damaged Russian military equipment displayed on a central square in Kyiv, a Reuters photographer said.
Reports and images on social media suggest that Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has arrived in Kyiv this morning.
⚡️Jens Stoltenberg arrives in Kyiv.
The NATO Secretary-General was seen by a Kyiv Independent journalist on the morning of April 20 paying tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers on St Michael’s Square in central Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/QhY515J305
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 20, 2023
The Russian military has launched a video campaign to lure more professional soldiers to fight in Ukraine which challenges those interested to show they are “a real man” and swap what it casts as humdrum civilian life for the battlefield.
The ad, set to imposing rock music, follows a report from British military intelligence and Russian media reports that suggest Moscow is seeking to recruit up to 400,000 professional soldiers – on a volunteer basis – to bolster its forces in Ukraine.
The ad has so far been released on major Russian social networking sites. It invites men to sign a contract with the Russian defence ministry for a salary starting at 204,000 roubles (£2,000 / $2,495) a month, and begins by showing a man in a supermarket dressed in military uniform holding a heavy machine gun.
He is then shown instead in the uniform of a supermarket security guard with the question: “Is this the kind of defender you dreamed of becoming?”
Next in the video, a man is walking through the fog with other soldiers on what looks like a battlefield. He is then shown as a gym instructor helping a client lift weights. “Is this really where your strength lies?” the video asks, before cutting to a taxi driver taking a client’s fare who then transforms into a soldier on the battlefield.
“You’re a man. Be one,” the ad concludes.
After launching a partial mobilisation drive in September which prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country to avoid being drafted, the authorities are playing down the possibility of a second mobilisation call – despite a recent move to introduce electronic call-up papers to clamp down on draft dodgers – and are seeking to recruit volunteers instead.
Posters seeking professional soldiers have sprung up in the Russian capital in recent weeks declaring: “Our profession is to defend the Motherland.”
Reuters reports the posters, which say the army is looking for gunners, sappers, military medics, drivers and tank commanders, promise potential recruits “respect, an honourable profession and decent pay”.
DR, Denmark’s public broadcaster, is reporting that foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and acting defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen have said the 14 Leopard 2 tanks being donated by the Netherlands and Denmark could be with Ukraine in early 2024.
Poulsen is quoted as saying they are not Danish tanks, but tanks “which are bought in collaboration with the Netherlands”.
Rasmussen described it as “a very significant contribution”.
Denmark and Netherlands to donate 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine
A quick snap is breaking across Danish news sources, citing the Ritzau news agency, that Denmark, together with the Netherlands, is to donate 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
More details soon …
Pakistan has placed its first order for discounted Russian crude oil under a new deal struck between Islamabad and Moscow, the country’s petroleum minister said, with one cargo to dock at Karachi port in May.
The deal will see Pakistan buy crude oil only, not refined fuels, and imports are expected to reach 100,000 barrels a day if the first transaction goes through smoothly, minister Musadik Malik told Reuters on Wednesday night.
Grain deal ship inspections are scheduled to continue today – UN spokesperson
Russian state-owned news agency Tass has posted on its official Telegram channel to state that “inspections of vessels under the grain deal resumed on 19 April and are scheduled for 20 April”. It cited Ismini Palla, spokesperson for the UN office at the joint coordination centre for the deal in Istanbul.
The Donetsk People’s Republic, the Russian-imposed authority in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region, has posted on one of its Telegram channels to claim that overnight a woman has been killed in the city of Donetsk by shelling from Ukrainian armed forces. It said the woman, born in 1968, died when a private residential building was hit. The claims have not been independently verified.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which Russia captured last year, will stop using US-produced nuclear fuel as quickly as possible, the Interfax news agency quoted a Russian official as saying on Thursday.
Reuters reports Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the general director of Russian nuclear energy firm Rosenergoatom, which is now in charge of the occupied plant, told Interfax it had about four years’ worth of US-made fuel in reserves.
But the Russian management will seek to replace that fuel with the Russian one as quickly as possible as it considers its own technologies superior, he said.
A flash in the sky over the Ukrainian capital prompted confusion and alarm as city authorities said it was caused by a Nasa satellite re-entering the atmosphere, AFP reports, while the US space agency denied involvement.
A “bright glow” was observed over Kyiv around 10pm local time, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Sergiy Popko, wrote on Telegram.
An air raid alert was activated, Popko said, but “air defence was not in operation”.
Shortly after, the Ukrainian air force said the flash was “related to the fall of a satellite/meteorite”.
But a Nasa spokesperson denied this assessment, telling the AFP news agency that the satellite in question was “still in orbit”.
The US space agency had announced earlier this week that a retired 300kg satellite would re-enter the atmosphere some time on Wednesday.
“However, that re-entry has not yet occurred … No other Nasa satellite re-entered the atmosphere earlier today,” a Nasa spokesperson told AFP.
The ISW reports that the changes may be a way for the Kremlin to “conduct an overhaul of the domestic security apparatus to oust officials who have fallen out of Kremlin favour and consolidate further control internal security organs”.
Moscow reportedly carrying out ‘overhaul’ of security service over data leaks to Ukraine, says US thinktank
Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, seems to be conducting “a large-scale overahaul of domestic security organs,” the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, reports in its update today.
The overhaul appears to be related to leaks of data to Ukraine, the ISW reports:
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) appears to be conducting a large-scale overhaul of domestic security organs. Russian state-controlled outlet TASS reported on 19 April that the FSB and the Main Directorate of the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) have been conducting mass checks at the Moscow Central District Internal Affairs Directorate and several Moscow district police offices for the past several weeks due to “the leakage of data from Russian security forces at the request of Ukrainian citizens.”
…
Russian outlets reported that the suspected police officers leaked personal data on Russian security forces to external individuals, some of whom are Ukrainian citizens.
The reported FSB and MVD raids on the Moscow police departments are occurring against the backdrop of a series of arrests and dismissals of prominent members of Rosgvardia (Russian National Guard) leadership.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Our top story this morning: Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, appears to be conducting “a large-scale overahaul of domestic security organs,” the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, reports in its update today.
The overhaul appears to be related to leaks of data to Ukraine, the ISW reports.
More on this shortly. Here are the other key recent developments in the war:
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Ukraine has received two types of air defence system ahead of the Ramstein military group meeting on Thursday, where it will ask for more supplies. A Patriot air defence system delivery was confirmed by the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, on Wednesday. The second of four promised German Iris-T system were also delivered, according to a German newspaper which had spoken to government officials. No official announcements have been made.
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The United States announced $325m in new military aid for Ukraine, including additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, advanced missiles and anti-tank mines. It is the 36th security package since the war began in February 2022.
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The European Commission is proposing €100m (£88m) in compensation for EU farmers affected by the recent influx of Ukrainian grain as well as restrictions on selling wheat and maize in affected countries, in a move to calm tensions with central and eastern Europe. Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the commission, has written to the leaders of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, setting out support measures after four of those countries banned the import or sale of grain and other food products inside their borders earlier this week. Bulgaria had confirmed its temporary halt on Wednesday.
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Inspections of ships are resuming after a two-day hiatus under a UN-brokered agreement on the safe export of grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said on Wednesday.
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A Ukrainian military spokesperson accused Moscow of a “provocation” after Russian proxy forces said Ukrainian forces had blown up four buildings in the eastern city of Bakhmut, killing 20 civilians. The spokesperson said Ukrainian forces never target civilians. Russia also denies targeting civilians.
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The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said on Wednesday during a visit to Sweden that the US looks forward to welcoming Sweden as a Nato member before the alliance’s summit in July, and will encourage Turkey and Hungary to ratify accession. Along with Finland, Sweden applied to join Nato in May last year. Finland’s application was processed in record time and it became the 31st member of the alliance earlier this month.
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A joint investigation by the public broadcasters of several Nordic countries alleges that Russia has established a programme using spy ships disguised as fishing vessels aimed at giving it the capability to attack windfarms and communications cables in the North Sea.
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The Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin has lost an appeal against what his supporters say was a politically motivated decision to jail him for eight and a half years – in a case that has echoes of Monday’s jailing of Vladimir Kara-Murza. The former Moscow councillor’s appeal was rejected as authorities continue to repress freedoms in Russia, with independent media shut down and leading opposition figures behind bars or in exile.
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Russia has said it summoned the UK ambassador Deborah Bronnert on Tuesday after she criticised the 25-year jail term given to Kara-Murza. She spoke to reporters outside Moscow city court alongside the US and Canadian ambassadors, describing the sentence as “shocking” and called for Kara-Murza, who holds joint UK and Russian citizenship, to be released immediately.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Volyn region of Ukraine, which borders with Belarus and Poland, where he praised the work of border guards.
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Russian drones struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight and caused a fire at an infrastructure facility, the head of the military command of the Odesa region, Yuri Kruk, said on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported and firefighters were working at the scene, he said.
