• It is the 783rd day of war in Ukraine.
• Xi meets Sholz in Beijing: 4 points proposed to “reduce” the Ukrainian crisis
• Zelensky signs the law on mobilization: thousands of Ukrainians on the front
• Peskov: «Olympic truce? Kiev could use it to rearm”
• Aiea: «The attacks jeopardize the security of the Zaporizhzhia power plant»
08.22 am – Denmark allocates a new 300 million package for Ukraine
The Danish government has announced the allocation of a new military aid package to Ukraine worth 2.2 billion crowns (around 295 million euros). The money will go to the development of the maritime potential of Ukrainian forces, as well as drones and the production of missile spare parts. This was reported by the Danish Ministry of Defense. Funds from the new package will go, among other things, to the Ukrainian defense industry for the purchase and free transfer of weapons and ammunition, unmanned aerial vehicles and the production of missile parts in cooperation with the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, as well as for significant help in the maritime sphere.
07.56 am – BBC: «50 thousand Russian soldiers died in the war in Ukraine»
The toll of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine has surpassed the 50,000 mark: the count in the second year of the war was almost 25% higher than in the first. The update was created by BBC Russia and the independent media group Mediazona. In the second year of fighting, more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died. «The overall budget is 8 times higher than Moscow’s official admission. The number is likely to be much higher”, writes the BBC, speaking of a “meat grinder strategy”, i.e. the way in which Moscow sends waves of soldiers to advance relentlessly to try to wear down the Ukrainian forces.
07.32 am – Suslov, Kremlin advisor: «We are winning on the field, but the territories are not enough for us. Ukraine must be neutral”
(by Paolo Valentino) (…) Dmitry Suslov directs the Center for European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and is one of the Kremlin’s most popular foreign policy advisors.
At what point is the war?
«The situation of the forces on the ground has now evolved decidedly in a direction favorable to Russia, which prevails in every aspect, weapons, soldiers, advantage of the initiative. The only field where there is a certain balance is drones. And this situation is not destined to change even in the medium term. Even if the US were to release the famous 60 billion in military aid to Kiev blocked by Congress, the West would not be able to compensate for Russian military production for years to come.” (…)
07.23 am – Explosions and fires at the Russian military airport in Crimea
The monitoring group Crimean Wind reports that during the night there were explosions and large fires in and near the Russian military airport of Dzhankoy, in Crimea, a peninsula unilaterally annexed by Moscow ten years ago. Ukrainian media show the image of the flames at the airport posted by Crimean Wind. According to residents, the explosions occurred before the air raid alert was announced. «The VIIRS/Suomi NPP satellite recorded six outbreaks of powerful fires at the Russian military airport Dzhankoya. The time of recovery was 3.41 am Moscow time,” says Crimean Wind.
07.21 am – What Russia really wants in Ukraine
(by Gianluca Mercuri) Germany asks China to «stop Putin». But that of Chancellor Scholz in Beijing, writes Mara Gergolet, is above all a business trip: «He brought with him such a delegation of CEOs (Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, BASF, Bayer), it is clear to everyone what Berlin means by de-risking: a move away from China to be carried out as late as possible.”
There diplomatic solutionIn short, it’s far away. Dmitrij Suslov, one of the Kremlin’s most listened to foreign policy advisors, tells Paolo Valentino with brutal clarity that, with the Ukrainians in obvious difficulty, the Russian bar is high: in addition to the “recognition of Russian control over the conquered territories”, Moscow he wants «a neutral status for Ukraine, therefore an end to any talk of NATO membership and strict limits on the size of its armed forces».
Paolo Valentino comments: «This is why the hypotheses of a ceasefire or negotiation formulated, even with the best intentions, by parts of the Western establishment, at this stage make no sense: today it is Putin who does not want any negotiations that are not in its terms.”
06.56 am – Russia instills panic in Kharkiv to encourage an evacuation of the city
Russia’s increasingly frequent attacks on Kharkiv, the city located in the north-eastern part of Ukraine, are a way to force local residents to evacuate the town. This is what we read on the US information agency “Bloomberg” which cites its own Ukrainian and Western sources according to which the recent Russian attacks aimed at destroying energy infrastructures appear to be “a coordinated effort to create conditions that make Kharkiv uninhabitable”. At the same time, the Russian Armed Forces are taking advantage of the moment when Ukraine lacks artillery ammunition and air defense missiles. According to «Bloomberg» sources, however, this activity implemented by the Kremlin would be a classic act of disinformation that is regularly applied in a military context: in this case, the Russians’ objective would be to convince the Ukrainian authorities to arrange for the eviction of civilians from the city, to prevent it from being surrounded first by Moscow’s armed forces.
06.52 am – Suslov. «The territories are not enough, the objective is the neutrality of Kiev»
«Russia is not fighting this war for territories but for guarantees and ironclad security agreements. Ukraine must be absolutely neutral. The minimum acceptable for an armistice would be a return to the Istanbul communiqué of April 2022, with the additional recognition of Russian control over the conquered territories. That document established a neutral status for Ukraine, therefore the end of any talk of NATO membership and strict limits on the size of its armed forces.” Dmitrij Suslov, director of the Center for European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and one of the Kremlin’s most listened to foreign policy advisors, said this in an interview with Corriere della Sera. «The Kremlin considers these preconditions indispensable for an armistice. For this reason, the chances of a truce in the foreseeable future are very low. For us, Ukraine must be truly neutral. Maintaining the current level of cooperation between Kiev and the West after a truce would be a defeat for Russia,” he added. As for the progress of the conflict on the field «the situation of the forces on the ground is now decidedly favorable to Russia, which prevails in almost every aspect, weapons, soldiers, advantage of the initiative. The only field in balance perhaps are drones. This situation is not destined to change even in the medium term. The overall internal picture is disastrous for Kiev: demographically, economically, socially and even politically. Zelensky’s popularity is declining, there is growing distrust and instability. The only institution that Ukrainians still trust is the armed forces.”
05.45 am – China’s representative to the United Nations Fu Cong explicitly condemns the Russian invasion
China’s new permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong presented a copy of his credentials to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday. Fu left his post as Chinese ambassador to the European Union on March 29 after 15 months marked by a progressive deterioration of bilateral relations triggered by the war in Ukraine and trade disputes. At the United Nations he replaces Zhang Jun, who ended his mandate at the end of March. Fu took office as head of China’s diplomatic mission to the EU on December 16, 2022, amid nervousness in Brussels over Beijing’s lack of explicit condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Fu openly addressed the topic in an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper, published in Hong Kong, on December 23, 2022, in which he declared that the invasion had put his country “in a very difficult position” and relations with Europe are being put to the “severe test”.
04.30 am – For Zelensky, China can really contribute to peace
“We are also actively working to ensure that the first global peace summit in June delivers results. I am grateful to all the leaders and states who expressed their willingness to participate in it over the last week.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says so on X. The June summit will be held in Switzerland. «I would also like to thank in particular the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his leadership and for the international communication on the topic – he continues – as well as for the signals we have received from Beijing. China can truly contribute to the restoration of just peace in Ukraine and international stability. The summit in Switzerland represents a real opportunity for all of us to ensure that the United Nations Charter, its purposes and its principles begin to work in practice.”
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