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Morning Headlines
Reuters: China is providing moorage for a U.S.-sanctioned Russian cargo ship implicated in North Korean arms transfers to Russia, according to satellite images obtained by Reuters, as U.S. concerns grow over Beijing's support for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
AP News: Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski is to give a speech to parliament on Thursday in which he will lay out the government’s vision at a historically crucial moment with war across the border in Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian troops will be able to boost the effectiveness of their long-range attacks inside Russia as an influx of Western military aid aims to help Kyiv shape the war "in much stronger ways," the head of the U.K. military said in an interview with the Financial Times.
ISW: The arrival of long-range ATACMS missiles in sufficient quantities will allow Ukrainian forces to degrade Russian logistics and threaten Russian airfields in deep rear areas, although months of delay may have provided the Russian military time to offset the potential operational impacts that ATACMS will afford Ukraine.
More News
POLITICO: The Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time in the two-year war — and Kyiv has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines.
AP News: Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, calling it “a dirty spectacle” that cherry picks weapons of mass destruction from all other weapons that should also be banned.
Bloomberg: National security advisors and senior officials from around the world are set to meet in Doha this weekend to discuss plans for a summit on Ukraine’s conditions for a settlement with Russia, according to people familiar with the matter (archive).
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 24 that Russia is preparing to disrupt a global peace summit set to take place in Switzerland in June.
Reuters: The European Commission is expected to propose sanctions on ships delivering North Korean military equipment to Russia as well as tankers that flout the G7 price cap on Russian oil, European Union sources said on Wednesday.
POLITICO: The German judiciary launched two preliminary investigations on Wednesday against MEP Maximilian Krah from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party over alleged payments from Russia and China for his work in the Parliament.
The Moscow Times: The arrest of a senior defense official on bribery suspicions signals Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s diminishing status and the rising influence of the security services, two sources in the Russian government and a person close to the Kremlin told MT.
Bloomberg: The arrest on bribery charges of one of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s closest allies has weakened his position ahead of a potential government shuffle by Putin, according to people with knowledge of the situation (archive).
Two unrelated sources of IStories close to the FSB said that the real reason for the arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov is state treason.
FT: The Ukrainian army has come under rare criticism from military analysts for allegedly bungling up a troops rotation that allowed Russia to capture 5km of land, highlighting the strains Kyiv’s forces are under as they await the arrival of fresh US aid (archive).
Bloomberg: France is asking the European Union to set up a new sanctions regime to target Russian disinformation and election interference operations worldwide (archive).
Reuters: President Joe Biden signed a hard-fought bill into law on Wednesday that provides billions of dollars of new U.S. aid to Ukraine for its war with Russia.
The United States will send a substantial security package to Ukraine, including badly needed air defense systems and artillery rounds, the White House said Wednesday.
France 24: Russia and Ukraine have agreed in a Qatari-brokered deal to exchange almost 50 children displaced by Moscow's invasion, the Kremlin's "children's rights commissioner" Maria Lvova-Belova announced in Doha Wednesday.
Reuters: A criminal case against the governor of Moldova's region of Gagauzia has been sent to court, prosecutors said on Wednesday, setting up the prospect of the Kremlin ally being tried on charges of channelling funds from Russia to a pro-Moscow party.
POLITICO: Ukrainian drones destroyed two fuel storages in Russia’s Smolensk region in the early hours of Wednesday, a Ukrainian law enforcement official familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
Defence Blog: The United Kingdom has included Paveway IV laser-guided bombs in its latest military aid package to Ukraine, marking the first instance of such assistance.
The Guardian: The UK has been accused of “helping Russia pay for its war on Ukraine” by continuing to import record amounts of refined oil from countries processing Kremlin fossil fuels.
European Commission has disbursed the second instalment of exceptional bridge financing to Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility, amounting to €1.5 billion.
Reuters: A Russian court has ordered the seizure of funds in JPMorgan Chase bank accounts in Russia, court filings showed on Wednesday, in a lawsuit filed by state-owned bank VTB as it seeks to regain funds blocked abroad.
worth mentioning
NATO puts on a show of force in the shadow of Russia’s war
Russia pushes its largest private bank to redomicile at home
Russia does not rule out LNG exports stagnating in next 4 years
Russian warmongers still hold highest French award
The French Riviera still welcomes Russian politicians and oligarchs
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