According to a US-based military think tank, recent actions by occupying forces in the Kharkiv region point to Moscow’s intentions to annex all or a portion of a region that includes the second-largest city in Ukraine.
The US announced $368 million in humanitarian aid aimed at giving Ukraine access to food, clean water, and emergency medical care. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the Group of 20 nations were putting pressure on Russia to end its ban on Ukrainian grain exports. He specifically urged China to apply pressure to its ally so that it would back off.
Important Points
- Putin is about to stop producing gas, and Germany worries that it won’t.
- Germany’s Uniper, a victim of Russian gas curbs, seeks bailout
- blinking lights China Calls Out Russia and Supports CIA praised by Xi Jinping Biden for creating “a gigantic hole” in Putin’s playbook
- Germany Witnesses Release of Russian Pipeline Part in Gas De-Escalation
- Yellen travels to Asia alongside Russia Top of Mission Advertisement 3 with Oil Price Cap
In the Field
According to Russian media, Ukrainian forces used artillery rockets supplied by the West to attack Russian separatist positions in the cities of Alchevsk and Irmino in the Luhansk region. According to Zelenskiy on Saturday, Ukraine has been able to target Russia’s attack capabilities thanks to its high-precision weapons. According to the Ukrainian general staff, Ukraine stopped Russian forces from advancing in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. There have reportedly been airstrikes on mainly civilian targets in the Donetsk region, as well as in Mykolaiv and some of Kharkiv. West of Lysychansk, which Ukraine evacuated last week, and close to Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, Russia is stepping up an offensive. In Donestsk, close to Chasov Yar, Russia claimed to have shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet and struck a US weapons cache.
US Think Tank: Russia Plans to Annex Kharkiv Region (7:45 a.m.)
According to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, remarks by Russian-backed occupation authorities that the Kharkiv region is a “inalienable part of Russian land” suggest Moscow intends to annex part or all of the territory, which includes Ukraine’s second-largest city.
According to a report released on Saturday by a US-based think tank, the speed with which martial law and a civilian administration were imposed this month in occupied regions of the world demonstrates that “the Kremlin is aggressively pursuing the legitimization and consolidation” of the occupation administration’s authority “to support this broader territorial aim.”
Russian attention is on the E40 Highway in Donetsk, UK Says (7:30 a.m.)
According to an update from the UK military, Russian forces have probably made a few more minor territorial gains in the area of Popasna in the western part of Luhansk.
Russia “is likely to be an important objective as it attempts to advance through Donetsk oblast,” according to the UK, as it attempts to take control of the section of the E40 highway that connects Kharkiv to Donetsk via Izium.
Canada permits the return of a pipe component to Germany (10:40 p.m.)
The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given Siemens Canada permission to send Germany the repaired Nord Stream 1 turbines, ending a standoff over sanctions affecting the Russian natural-gas pipeline that is vital to the continent’s energy supplies.
In order to assist Europe in transitioning away from Russian oil and gas, Canada will “grant a time-limited and revocable permit,” according to a statement from a spokesman for the Ministry of Natural Resources.
In order to remove a justification for Russia to keep the conduit closed, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck publicly pleaded with Canada for the release of the equipment before Nord Stream 1 maintenance starts on Monday.
Zelenskiy Fires Others, Including Germany’s Envoy (6:16 p.m.)
According to orders posted on the presidential website, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed Andriy Melnyk, his ambassador to Germany, as well as ambassadors to Hungary, the Czech Republic, Norway, and five Asian nations, including India.
Zelenskiy claimed that the dismissals were “a normal part of diplomatic practice” and that the foreign ministry was putting together new candidates in his nightly address to the country.
Melnyk has drawn criticism in Germany for his vehement remarks and Twitter posts, such as when he criticized Olaf Scholz’s administration for delaying the delivery of modern weapons to Ukraine. Melnyk recently came under fire from Israel’s embassy in Berlin for allegedly downplaying the Holocaust in an interview, which he called “absurd.”
Zelenskiy meets the president of the French Senate (4:10 p.m.)
The president of Ukraine met with a group of upper house representatives and French Senate President Gerard Larcher. Post-war reconstruction and increased military assistance to Ukraine were among the topics discussed.
The Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, was in session when the French delegation was there.
Blinken Declares $368 Million in Aid to Humanity (2:17 p.m.)
According to a statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the US will give another $368 million in humanitarian aid to those impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to him, the funding consists of more than $80 million from the US Agency for International Development and nearly $288 million from the State Department. The money will be used to pay for supplies like food, clean water to drink, cash aid, security, easily accessible housing, emergency medical care, logistics, and humanitarian coordination.
According to Blinken, who is in Bali for the G-20 foreign ministers meeting, the additional funds bring the total amount of US humanitarian aid provided since the war began in February to over $1.28 billion.
Soldiers from Ukraine arrive in the UK for training (12:30 p.m.)
The initial group of Ukrainian soldiers taking part in a training initiative spearheaded by the UK has arrived in the country. The UK military announced that up to 10,000 troops will participate over the upcoming months.
According to the UK, the training will give volunteer recruits who have little to no military experience the abilities to be successful in frontline combat.
Blinken Criticizes China for Supporting Russia (10:54 a.m.)
Immediately following more than five hours of discussions with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the G-20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized Beijing for its support of Russia.
There is no such thing as being neutral when there is a clear aggressor, according to Blinken, who claimed he told Wang that China wasn’t neutral in the Ukraine war.
Blinken Criticizes China for Supporting Russia and Calls Xi Jinping Out
Russia Bombs Zelenskiy’s Residence (8:30 a.m.)
Early on Saturday, Russian troops shelled residences in Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine and the hometown of Volodymyr Zelenskiy. On Friday, the Ukrainian president paid a visit there.
According to Olexandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, ten missiles with fragmentation and cluster munitions were fired, most likely from a distance of more than 70 kilometers (44 miles).
According to him, a woman, 41, died and two more civilians were taken to a hospital with shrapnel wounds.
UN: Ukraine Shares Responsibility in Nursing Home Deaths, reports AP (6:17 a.m.)
According to a UN report, Ukraine’s armed forces share a significant amount of the blame for an attack on a nursing home in Stara Krasnyanka, Luhansk, in early March that resulted in the deaths of dozens of elderly and disabled patients.
A few days prior to the attack by rebels backed by the Kremlin, Ukrainian soldiers took up positions inside the facilities, making the structure a target, according to the UN.
Numerous patients who were bedridden and killed when fire swept through the nursing home as a result of Russia’s attack.
