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Morning Headlines
The Kyiv Independent: Trump called Russia's deadly attack against Sumy on April 13 "terrible" but claimed Moscow made a "mistake," without elaborating on how he came to the conclusion.
FT: Germany is willing to send Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine, the country’s chancellor-in-waiting has said, as he stressed the need to put Kyiv on the front foot and force concessions from Putin (archive).
CNN: New satellite images show what could be North Korea’s biggest warship ever – possibly more than double the size of anything in leader Kim Jong Un’s naval fleet.
ISW: Ongoing milblogger complaints about the Russian military's conduct of the war in Ukraine reinforce ISW’s assessment that Russian tactics will degrade Russia’s manpower and materiel resources and contribute to slowing Russian advances along the frontline.
13.04.2025
CNN: Russian ballistic missiles ripped through the busy center of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy on Sunday, officials said, killing at least 34 people and striking terror into residents who were out enjoying Palm Sunday and attending morning church services. It was the deadliest attack of the conflict this year. Two children were among the scores of people killed in the strikes on the city’s center, while 117 people were wounded.
The Kyiv Independent: Russia deployed cluster munitions in its deadly Palm Sunday missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said on April 13.
The Kyiv Independent: Russia attacked the southern city of Kherson with artillery and drones on April 13, killing three people and injuring two others, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported.
The Guardian: The UK and its G7 allies are considering tightening the “meaningless” cap on Russian oil export prices after Trump’s trade war caused global oil markets to crash.
The Moscow Times: Estonian authorities said Saturday that they will not allow an oil tanker believed to belong to Russia's "shadow fleet" to pursue its journey until it has resolved various legal and safety issues.
Reuters: Trump said on Saturday that talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine may be going OK, but "there’s a point at which you just have to either put up or shut up." Trump made the comment to reporters a day after he showed frustration with Russia and told it to "get moving" on reaching a deal.
The Kyiv Independent: Turkey will host a Black Sea security meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives on April 15-16, Turkish media outlets reported on April 13.
ISW: Russian forces are likely delaying negotiations on a general ceasefire in order to continue making gains along the frontline in Ukraine and continue devastating long-range strikes against Ukrainian defense industrial and civilian areas in order to intimidate civilians and undermine Ukraine's ability to defend itself against future Russian aggression.
12.04.2025
BBC: Russia's ambassador to the UK has not denied allegations that Russian sensors have been hidden in seas around Great Britain in an attempt to track UK nuclear submarines.
RBC-Ukraine: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov admitted that NATO had never given Russia any written guarantee regarding the alliance's eastward expansion.
The Guardian: The US has demanded control of a crucial pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe, according to reports, in a move described as a colonial shakedown.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces are regrouping and preparing for renewed assault in the Kharkiv Oblast, according to Ukraine’s Operational-Strategic Group of Forces “Khortytsia.”
Politico: NATO is concerned that Russia is seeking to deploy nuclear weapons in space, a development that could threaten the thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth that are crucial to defense as well as people's daily lives, the alliance's chief said.
Bloomberg: Spain proposed setting up a new defense fund to provide non-refundable grants to beef up Europe’s defense lines and provide support for Ukraine using Russia’s immobilized central bank assets (archive).
The Kyiv Independent: At a briefing marking Ukraine’s Gunsmith Day, Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin said the country increased cruise missile production eightfold in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Norway will allocate 10 billion Norwegian kroner (approx. $937 million) in 2025 to help equip and train a Ukrainian military brigade, Defense Minister Tore O. Sandvik announced on April 11 during a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.
Reuters: U.S. and Ukrainian officials met on Friday on a U.S. proposal to gain access to Ukraine's mineral wealth, a source with knowledge of the matter said, adding that prospects for a breakthrough were scant given the meeting's "antagonistic" atmosphere.
ISW: Russian forces are currently attempting to advance throughout the frontline in northern, eastern, and southern Ukraine, although they appear to be prioritizing the Toretsk and Novopavlivka directions.
11.04.2025
Reuters: Less than 48 hours after dining with a negotiator sent by Putin in Washington last week, Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy leading talks with Moscow, sat down with Trump in the White House and delivered a clear message. The fastest way to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, said Witkoff, was to support a strategy that would give Russia ownership of four eastern Ukrainian regions it attempted to annex illegally in 2022.
The Moscow Times: Moscow city authorities are ramping up efforts to recruit contract soldiers for the war in Ukraine following several months of relative quiet, the independent Vyorstka news website reported, citing sources in the city government and city agencies.
Euromaidan Press: Ukrainian intelligence has uncovered Russia’s modern version of barrier troops – using drones to execute their own retreating soldiers near Torske, as commanders sacrifice waves of poorly-trained conscripts in an increasingly desperate bid to capture northern Donetsk Oblast.
Reuters: More than one hundred Chinese citizens fighting for the Russian military against Ukraine are mercenaries who do not appear to have a direct link to China's government, two U.S. officials familiar with American intelligence and a former Western intelligence official said. Chinese military officers have, however, been in the theater behind Russia's lines with Beijing's approval to draw tactical lessons from the war.
Bloomberg: Lithuania is preparing the legal framework for national sanctions on Russia should the European Union fail to extend its own restrictions later this year due to a Hungarian veto (archive).
The Moscow Times: Finland’s parliament voted unanimously in favor of a proposed ban on Russians from buying property and exerting “hostile influence” on the country, the Finnish Defense Ministry said Friday.
CNN: Peace is out of reach for Ukraine due to Putin’s ongoing aggression, European defense ministers stressed Friday, even as the United States pushed ahead with talks with Moscow.
The Kyiv Independent: The Netherlands is allocating 150 million euros to boost Ukraine's air defenses, while Lithuania intends to allocate 20 million euros for ammunition purchases, the two countries' defense ministers said on April 11.
Euronews: Ukraine's key allies from across the globe have announced €21 billion in new military support at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group held in NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday. The group, once exclusively led by the US but now led by Germany and the UK, comprises 51 nations and partners.
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