As the Russian-Ukrainian war enters its 402nd day, we take a look at the main events.
Here is the situation on Saturday, April 1, 2023:
Diplomacy/assistance
- A new $2.6 billion package of United States military aid could be announced early next week, US officials said, and is expected to include air surveillance radars, anti-tank missiles and fuel trucks for Ukraine’s military.
- US President Joe Biden called on Russia to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, as the paper’s editorial board said Washington should expel Russia’s ambassador to the US in retaliation.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in an hours-long contradictory address to his nation, called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and also said he was threatening a “third world war” while defending his country’s possession of Russian nuclear weapons.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country faces “existential threats” to its security and development from “hostile states” in a foreign policy report for President Vladimir Putin.
- The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund has reportedly approved a four-year, $15.6 billion financial package for Ukraine to help the country with emergency financing.
- Slovakia plans to increase production of critical ammunition and artillery shells for Ukraine, Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad told reporters while traveling in Kiev. The country recently delivered the Kub air defense system and the first of 13 promised Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets.
- Wimbledon said it would accept Russian and Belarusian tennis players as “neutral” athletes, after banning the players last year following the invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the decision “immoral.” “Has Russia stopped its aggression or crimes? No, only Wimbledon decided to meet two accomplices in the crime,” he added in a post on Twitter.
Fight
- Ukraine’s military leadership accused Russian forces of refocusing on civilian targets because they could achieve little success on the battlefield, attacking the city of Zaporizhzhia and other places with ballistic missiles. At least six Russian missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv late Thursday night.
- The advance of Russian troops in the suburbs of the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut “has been halted – or almost halted,” the director of Ukrainian military publication Defense Express said.
- The head of Wagner’s mercenary forces, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Ukrainian forces were suffering “serious losses” in Bakhmut. On the messaging app Telegram, Prigozhin said: “No, the Ukrainian army is not running away anywhere. The Ukrainian army is fighting bloody battles and defending Artemivsk [Bakhmut] at the cost of very serious losses.”
- Ukrainians gathered with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Bucha to mark one year since the city was liberated from Russian occupiers who left behind evidence of atrocities. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s fierce resistance to the invasion prevented Russia from committing more such crimes in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.