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Morning Headlines
Reuters: Russian Copper Company and Chinese firms have avoided taxes and skirted the impact of Western sanctions by trading in new copper wire rod disguised as scrap, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Kyiv Independent: Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on the international community to condemn the Iranian attack on Israel using the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the April 14 emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.
Bloomberg: US and UK sanctions on Russian metals will cement China as Moscow’s buyer of last resort for key commodities, and enhance Shanghai’s role as a venue to set prices for materials crucial to the global economy (archive).
AP News: More civilians died across Ukraine on Sunday as analysts warned that delays in U.S. military assistance would see Kyiv struggle to fight off Russian offensives.
ISW: Israel’s success in defending against large-scale Iranian missile and drone strikes from Iranian territory on April 13 underscores the vulnerabilities that Ukrainian geography and the continued degradation of Ukraine’s air defense umbrella pose for Ukrainian efforts to defend against regular Russian missile and drone strikes.
The Libya Observer: Russia has reportedly moved military equipment from its naval base in Tartus, Syria, to the port of Tobruk in eastern Libya, according to the Ukrainian website "Express Defence".
14.04.2024
Reuters: CME Group has suspended from its platform aluminium produced in Russia from April 13, the exchange said on Sunday, after the United States and Britain imposed new sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Euromaidan Press: Republican Congressman Mike Turner expects the House of Representatives to support a bill this week providing military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Reuters: U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday he would try to pass aid to Israel this week, after Iran's mass drone and missile attack, but did not say whether the legislation would also include assistance for Ukraine and other U.S. allies.
VoA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sunday decried Iran’s drone strikes on Israel, saying the “obvious collaboration” between Russia and Iran in “spreading terror” must be met with “a resolute and united response from the world.”
Reuters: Ukraine's top commander said on Sunday Russian forces aimed to capture the town of Chasiv Yar by May 9, setting the stage for an important battle for control of high ground in the east where Russia is focusing its assaults.
The Kyiv Independent: Over half of young French citizens would fight in Ukraine to defend France, according to a poll cited by Le Parisien.
WP: So many drones patrol the skies over Ukraine’s front lines — hunting for any signs of movement — that Ukrainian and Russian troops have little ability to move on the battlefield without being spotted, and blown up (archive).
WSJ: Washington wants to ensure Putin’s flagship liquefied-natural-gas project is ‘dead in the water’ (archive).
ISW's new Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment considers several most dangerous courses of action that could occur if Ukrainian forces continue to suffer from critical shortages in essential artillery, air defense, and other munitions and systems.
13.04.2024
The Kyiv Independent: Drone deliveries to the front lines in Ukraine since the start of 2024 are already three times higher than for all of last year, according to the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Vadym Sukharevskyi.
POLITICO: Germany agreed to send a Patriot air-defense system to Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, but Berlin hasn't relented on its refusal to provide Kyiv with Taurus cruise missiles.
Reuters: Hundreds took to the streets of Niger's capital on Saturday to demand the departure of U.S. troops, after the ruling junta further shifted its strategy by ending a military accord with the United States and welcoming Russian military ‘instructors’.
Kyiv Post: Ukraine has started building two US-designed reactors at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant in western Ukraine.
Reuters: The London Metal Exchange on Saturday banned from its system Russian metal produced on or after April 13 to comply with new U.S. and UK sanctions imposed for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions aim to restrict revenues for Russia from the export of metal produced by companies such as Rusal and Nornickel that help to fund its military operations in Ukraine.
The Telegraph: It is not a question of if Ukraine joins Nato, but when, the alliance’s second in command has told The Telegraph. Nato deputy secretary general Mircea Geoană said there was “absolutely no question” among the 32 allies over whether Ukraine should join but only when the conditions would be met.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian assault groups reached the northern outskirts of the village of Bohdanivka in Donetsk Oblast overnight on April 13, Ukraine's Defense Ministry reported.
The Guardian: Ukraine’s air defences are being overwhelmed by concentrated waves of Russian bombing aimed at its power stations, acknowledged a senior presidential adviser after the destruction of an entire plant on Thursday.
Reuters: Ukraine's army chief said on Saturday the situation on the eastern front had worsened in recent days as Russia has intensified its armoured assaults and battles rage for control of a village west of the devastated city of Bakhmut.
The Moscow Times: Military commissariats in the Moscow region have sent a flurry of letters to enterprises, demanding that they provide lists of their male employees eligible for reserve duty.
12.04.2024
AP News: China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine, according to a U.S. assessment.
ISW Special Report: The exhaustion of US-provided air defenses resulting from delays in the resumption of US military aid to Ukraine combined with improvements in Russian strike tactics have led to the increasing effectiveness of Russian missile and drone strikes against Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent: The European Council has approved a law on the prosecution of violation or circumvention of EU sanctions, mainly concerning the sanctions against Russia, the body's press service reported on April 12.
Bloomberg: Russian spy agencies have adopted more aggressive tactics in the Baltic region over the past year, including bomb scares, cyberattacks and election interference, the head of Estonian counterintelligence said (archive).
Reuters: The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with an additional 1 billion euros in military support this year, and has earmarked 3 billion euros for 2025, caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.
AFP: Russia on Friday summoned the French ambassador to Moscow to complain about "unacceptable" comments by French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, the Russian foreign ministry said. Sejourne said Monday that France had no interest in talking to the Kremlin.
The Guardian: As president, Donald Trump “made it very clear” that he thought Ukraine “must be part of Russia”, his former adviser Fiona Hill says in a new book about US national security under threat from Russia and China.
AP News: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced on Friday an investigation into suspected Russian interference in Europe-wide elections in June, saying that his country’s intelligence service has confirmed the existence of a network trying to undermine support for Ukraine.
Reuters: Russia expelled a Slovenian diplomat in a tit-for-tat retaliatory move after Ljubljana ordered a Russian diplomat to leave, Russia's foreign ministry said on Friday.
The Kyiv Independent: Russia is sending troops from far eastern military units, including its Pacific Fleet, to replenish personnel losses in Ukraine, Ukraine's military intelligence said on April 12.
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