As the war enters its 791st day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Fighting
At least six people were injured after Russia launched a missile attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Officials said the S-300 missiles caused damage to residential buildings, offices, a gas pipeline through the city centre and dozens of cars. Russia claimed to have struck a military dormitory.
Ukrainian intelligence sources told the Reuters news agency its drones had struck two Rosneft-owned oil depots in Russia’s Smolensk region, west of Moscow, as well as a major steel factory in the southern Lipetsk region. Russian regional officials said fires had broken out at the oil facilities following the attack, while a drone had come down in an industrial zone in the Lipetsk region. They did not say whether there was any damage.
Politics and diplomacy
The United States Congress passed a long-delayed $61bn aid package for Ukraine that was quickly signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the approval and said Ukraine would do its best to “make up” for the past six months as it has struggled to fend off better-equipped Russian forces. Zelenskyy said he was working closely with US officials to work out an incoming $1bn military package containing “exactly the weapons that our soldiers need”. He specifically mentioned Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), artillery, antitank weapons, high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) and air defence.
Zelenskyy said 16 Ukrainian children previously “deported to Russia” had been reunited with their families after mediation talks organised by Qatar. Kyiv has accused Russia of the forcible deportation of thousands of children from Ukrainian territories it has occupied.
Family, friends and army comrades gather to mourn Ukrainian army paramedic Nazarii Lavrovskyi who was killed on April 18 while helping to evacuate wounded troops from the front line in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine [Francisco Seco/AP Photo]
A court in Moscow ordered Timur Ivanov, one of Russia’s 12 deputy defence ministers, to be held in custody pending trial on charges of bribery. Ivanov was in charge of military construction projects and was known for his lavish lifestyle. The 48-year-old, who wore his military uniform in court, faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Ukraine’s SBU security service said it suspected Metropolitan Arseniy, a high-ranking cleric and head of the main Orthodox monastery in eastern Ukraine, of having “tipped off” Russian forces about Ukrainian army positions in the Kramatorsk district and promoted “pro-Kremlin narratives”. The priest faces as many as eight years in prison if convicted.
Ukraine stopped issuing new passports to some military-aged men overseas, according to amended legislation. The exact scope and period of the measure were unclear. Ukraine is expanding conscription to boost the number of troops on the battlefield.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy will sign an agreement next month with Ukraine and the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO to rebuild the city of Odesa and its cathedral, which was badly damaged by a Russian attack last July.
Weapons
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that the US had sent a “significant number” of long-range ATACMS to Ukraine and would “send more”. Sullivan was responding to reports in the US media that the missiles had been sent, and used twice. The long-range ATACMS has a range of 300km (186 miles).
Baguio, Philippines – Inside an unlit bathroom, Windel Bolinget gently tips a pail of water over his head, careful to minimise the sound of splashing on the tiled floor.
A well-known activist leader in the mountainous Cordillera region in the northern Philippines, the 49-year-old spends most of his days between several undisclosed refuges.
Bolinget tries to stay invisible indoors, not leaving unless absolutely necessary and avoiding making any noise that might draw attention.
“I have normal routines with some extraordinary effort,” he said.
On the rare occasions that he spends with his family in their own home, he follows the same protocol.
At night, whether Bolinget is there or not, his wife and four children wake up whenever any of their six dogs bark. They monitor security cameras and step into the street, worried that armed men might have come for him. Nearby households do the same, knowing that the man they’ve called a friend for decades has been branded a “terrorist” by the Philippine government, which wants him behind bars.
“We need to be able to smell danger, have the emergency contacts at the ready, and be able to tell if we’re being tailed in a public place,” he said.
Bolinget is chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), an activist coalition of Indigenous people’s groups. He and three other CPA leaders Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa, Steve Tauli, and Sarah Abellon-Alikes were designated “terrorists” by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) on July 10, 2023.
Citing “probable cause” of engagement in “organised violence,” the ATC, led by executive officials, claims the CPA and the four individuals are part of the country’s long-running Communist armed rebellion.
Indigenous activist Windel Bolinget lives his life in the shadows after being designated a ‘terrorist’ by the government [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera]
Under the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) of 2020, the authorities can arrest people identified as “terrorists” without a warrant, restrict travel, freeze assets, conduct surveillance and issue new court decisions to restrict their movements without explaining why. Some individuals who have previously been labelled “terrorists”, communists or enemies of the state have later been found dead. Some 89 extrajudicial killings of activists have taken place since June 2022 when Ferdinand Marcos Jr became president.
According to the human rights group Karapatan, 51 people are currently designated as “terrorists”.
The designation marks a step up from the more common red-tagging, where activists are linked to the armed rebellion in a bid to justify a crackdown. In the past, all four CPA leaders have been slapped with cases relating to their alleged involvement with rebels. All of which, including a “shoot to kill” order on Bolinget, have been dismissed in court.
Critics have described the ATL as the second coming of martial law in the Philippines.
For the last nine months, the CPA leaders have lived in relative seclusion apart from court hearings to contest the ATC decision.
“We want to prove the facts and question the basis of the designation,” said Baguio City Councilor Jose Molintas, lawyer to the four alleged “terrorists”.
Karapatan’s Cristina Palabay said the law “institutionalises the ATC’s mandate to act as judge and jury in implementing its draconian crackdown. It not only threatens and harasses activists, but also puts their lives at risk.”
Life in terror
On social media, the Bolinget and Taggaoa families were branded terrorists as early as 2020.
Pictures of their children, some of whom are under the age of 18, have been paraded as the offspring of “terrorists” by trolls and even law enforcement personnel. Taggaoa’s daughter Kara, a labour rights activist in Manila, was also arrested in 2022 over a robbery that allegedly took place during a demonstration.
Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa spent four months moving between safe houses after she was designated a ‘terrorist’ [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera]
Joel Egco, spokesperson for the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict, issued a warning to dissenters earlier this year: “Before we charge you (with terrorism), surrender now!”
In such an atmosphere, the CPA leaders live in constant fear for their family’s safety. Bolinget says some friends and relatives have cut ties, fearful that associating with them could be considered criminal.
“I’m an enemy of the state, an open target. The state wants to isolate me from the family, it’s easier for them that way,” he said.
Bolinget led one of the 37 Supreme Court petitions against the ATL back in 2020, flagging potential human rights abuses.
“All our fears came true and I have become a living testament that to be deemed a terrorist is to be treated worse than a criminal,” he said.
The designation is also affecting their health. Bolinget and Taggaoa have been experiencing more frequent stomach trouble and must convince their doctors to see them at inconvenient times.
Taggaoa feels “so sickly all the time. The doctors said it’s stress-induced.”
Bolinget blames the lack of sleep for his poor health. “One-half of your brain is always awake and alert. I’m always on edge, like my temper is going to boil any minute,” he said.
Constant alarm
When Taggaoa was arrested in January 2023, she was not worried. She, Bolinget and five others had been charged with rebellion after allegedly joining an armed raid.
“I knew right away it was fake and I could prove this in court,” she told Al Jazeera. The case was dropped that May. But a couple of months later, she discovered she had been designated by the ATC when the decision was published in a national newspaper.
Taggaoa spent the next four months hopping between safehouses and reminding her family back home to lock all doors and stay vigilant.
In January, Marcos Jr said he wanted the Philippines‘ swift exit from the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog for money laundering and terrorist financing.
To do this, Marcos announced accelerated “action plans to combat money laundering and counterterrorist financing, and to file cases against violators”.
Living without access to personal and business funds has been a particular challenge as Taggaoa had to let go of her small general store.
Cristina Palabay, head of local human rights group Karapatan, which says 51 people are currently designated as ‘terrorists’ [File: Maria Tan/AFP]
The accounts of Taggaoa’s husband, a university professor, were also frozen so he was unable to meet the loan payments on his car and had to make special arrangements to receive his salary.
Taggaoa believes the designation is a new tactic, designed to neutralise opponents after other methods have failed.
“They harass you and press you to side with the government. And if you refuse, eventually they’ll be calling you a terrorist,” Taggaoa said.
Throughout 2022, military officers tried to persuade Taggaoa and her relatives to “cooperate” with them.
Coming home from school, her teenage nephew was even accosted by soldiers who, she says, pressured him into stealing Taggaoa’s files and flash drives.
Courtroom confusion
Legal challenges have also proved difficult.
When the four appealed directly to the ATC for the designation to be removed in August 2023, it was immediately denied without a hearing.
“The ATC just relies on unverified intelligence reports. It merely accepts these as true and issues designations immediately, which is a violation of due process,” said Molintas, legal counsel to the four. As he was speaking to Al Jazeera, posters of him were being put up on city streets labelling him a “terrorist”, too.
Department of Justice spokesperson, lawyer Mico Clavano, defended the designation process, saying the ATL allows for it as a purely “executive act” without judicial involvement.
Therein lies the danger, according to Molintas.
“A person is supposed to be presumed innocent, not guilty, before his day in court,” he said. “A terrorism charge is different from ordinary red-tagging because it strips one of the right to due process.”
After the appeal was denied, Molintas shifted his attention by November 2023 to nullifying the ATL and the designation at the Regional Trial Court (RTC). Since then, the lawyer accused the government of trying to derail their efforts at each turn.
At three of the RTC hearings, armed men dressed in civilian clothing were seen inside the court. They were later identified as soldiers on active duty.
The anti-terrorism bill caused concerns that it would be used to suppress free speech and target government critics [File: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters]
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), argues that even if the court rules in favour of the four, they would still be considered “terrorists” outside Cordillera because the RTC presides “in only one part of the country”.
Some lawyers disagree.
“The OSG is wrong,” said Ephraim Cortez from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers. He asserts that the challenge at the RTC applies nationwide because it invokes constitutional powers to determine “grave abuse” in government decisions.
The RTC has set a further round of hearings on April 25.
Meanwhile, Taggaoa rarely leaves the house unless absolutely necessary. Her community research as well as her role as a parent have been severely compromised, and she dreads the same fate for her children.
“I think my life will be like this until our case is resolved,” she said, but while the “terrorist tag” has taken a toll on her family, there has been an unexpected benefit.
“We protect each other and it’s brought us closer together,” she said.
Sanchez says he will make an announcement on his political future next week.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said he will halt his public duties after a judicial investigation was launched into corruption allegations against his wife.
The Socialist leader said on Wednesday that while the allegations against his wife Begona Gomez were false, he was cancelling his public agenda until Monday, when he will appear before the media to announce his decision on his political future.
“I need to pause and think,” Sanchez wrote in a letter shared on his X account. “I urgently need an answer to the question of whether it is worthwhile… whether I should continue to lead the government or renounce this honour.”
Gomez, 49, does not hold public office and maintains a low political profile. She was accused by Manos Limpias, which describes itself as a union but mainly works as a platform pursuing legal cases, of using her position to influence business deals.
Manos Limpias, which translates as “Clean Hands,” is led by Miguel Bernad Remon, a figure within the far right.
The campaign group used a peculiarity of Spanish law that allows individuals or entities to take part in certain criminal cases even when they haven’t been directly harmed by the accused.
A court based in Madrid will consider the allegations and proceed with the investigation or toss it out. It did not provide further information and said that the probe was under seal.
When asked in parliament after the court’s decision whether he thought the judicial system was working, Sanchez replied: “On a day like today and after hearing the news, despite everything, I still believe in the judicial system of this country.”
Justice Minister Felix Bolanos called the new allegations “false”.
Deaths occurred when a small overcrowded boat carrying 112 people set out to cross the Channel and panic took hold.
British police say they have arrested three men over the deaths of five people including a child who died attempting to cross the English Channel from France.
The deaths occurred when a small overcrowded boat carrying 112 people set out to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and panic took hold among the passengers not far from the shore.
Rescuers picked up about 50 people, with four taken to hospital, but others stayed on the boat, determined to get to Britain.
Three men, two Sudanese nationals aged 22 and 19, and a South Sudan national aged 22, were detained on Tuesday night on suspicion of “facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally”, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
“This tragic incident once again demonstrates the threat to life posed by these crossings and brings into focus why it is so important to target the criminal gangs involved in organising them,” said NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Craig Turner.
“We will do all we can with partners in the UK and France to secure evidence, identify those responsible for this event, and bring them to justice.”
French police are also investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, alongside their British counterparts, the NCA said.
It said 55 people who were believed to have been on board the boat that arrived in Britain had also been identified.
More than 6,000 people have arrived in the UK this year via small, overloaded boats – usually flimsy inflatable dinghies – that risk being lashed by the waves as they try to reach British shores.
The deadly crossing on Tuesday took place just hours after Parliament passed a bill paving the way for asylum seekers who arrive in Britain without permission to be deported to Rwanda.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak argues the policy will deter people from making the dangerous cross-Channel journey.
Critics say the plan to deport people to Rwanda rather than handle asylum seekers at home is inhumane, citing concerns about the East African country’s own human rights record and the risk that asylum seekers may be sent back to countries where they would be in danger.
More than 120,000 people – many fleeing wars and poverty in Africa, the Middle East and Asia – have reached the UK since 2018 by crossing the English Channel in small boats on journeys organised by people-smuggling gangs.
Last year, 29,437 asylum seekers made the crossing with one in five of them from Afghanistan, according to the Refugee Council.
Hezbollah dismisses Israeli claim that it has killed half of the group’s commanders in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military says it hit dozens of targets in southern Lebanon while the Lebabese armed group Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli border village as fighting continues to escalate.
The Israeli military said the strikes in the area of Aita al-Shaab, about 3km (1.9 miles) inside the Lebanese border, hit around 40 targets including storage facilities and weapons in an area it said was used extensively by Hezbollah forces.
“There is continuous offensive action by [Israeli military] forces in all of southern Lebanon as well as in other parts of Lebanon. The operational results are very impressive,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on Wednesday following an operational meeting at the military’s Northern Command.
Gallant said half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon had been killed by Israeli forces, a claim rebuked by the Iran-backed group.
A Hezbollah official dismissed the assertion as “completely worthless” and aimed at boosting Israeli morale. He said the group regularly published pictures and biographical details of its members killed in the fighting.
Israeli strikes have killed some 250 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon since October, in addition to a further 30 killed in Israeli strikes in neighbouring Syria. More than 70 civilians have been killed in Lebanon and 18 people including soldiers and civilians were killed in Israel.
The movement held a funeral on Wednesday for senior commander Hussein Azkoul, who was killed earlier this week by Israeli forces. Speaking at the funeral, senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah praised Azkoul for playing a role in developing Hezbollah’s drone and missile capabilities and taking the battle with Israel into “a new phase”.
The Israeli strikes came a day after Hezbollah launched a drone attack on Israeli military bases north of the Israeli coastal city of Acre, its deepest strike yet in the hostilities that have flared in parallel to the Gaza war.
Hezbollah on Wednesday fired Katyusha rockets on the community of Shomera in response to Israeli strikes on Lebanese villages including one the previous day on Hanin, which killed at least two people including an 11-year-old girl.
Though the latest hostilities have been the worst in years, the violence has largely been confined to areas at or near the Israeli-Lebanese border, with Israel occasionally striking deeper into the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon’s east.
Portrait of Miss Lieser, a painting of a young woman left unfinished due to Klimt’s death, was long believed to be lost.
A portrait of a young woman by Gustav Klimt that was long believed to be lost has been sold at an auction in Vienna for 30 million euros ($32m).
The Austrian modernist artist started work on the “Portrait of Miss Lieser” in 1917, the year before he died, and it is one of his last works. Bidding started at 28 million euros ($29m), and the sale price on Wednesday was at the lower end of an expected range of 30-50 million euros ($32m to $53m). The buyer was not identified.
Im Kinsky, the auction house handling the sale, said that “a painting of such rarity, artistic significance, and value has not been available on the art market in Central Europe for decades”.
The intensely coloured painting was auctioned on behalf of the current owners, Austrian private citizens whose names were not released, and the legal heirs of Adolf and Henriette Lieser, one of whom is believed to have commissioned the painting.
It is not entirely clear which member of the Lieser family was the model.
People take pictures of Gustav Klimt’s painting Lady with a Fan as it is displayed at Sotheby’s auction rooms in London [File: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP]
Klimt left the painting, with small parts unfinished, in his studio when he died of a stroke in early 1918 and it was given to the family who had commissioned it, according to the auction house.
The Jewish family fled Austria after 1930 and lost most of their possessions.
It is unclear exactly what happened to the painting between 1925 and the 1960s, a period that includes the Nazi dictatorship. Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938.
The auction house says there is no evidence that the painting was confiscated then, but also no proof that it was not. It ended up with the current owners through three successive inheritances.
In view of the uncertainty, the current owners and the Liesers’ heirs drew up an agreement to go forward with the sale under the Washington Principles, which were drafted in 1998 to assist in resolving issues related to returning Nazi-confiscated art.
Visitors stand in front of Klimt’s painting of Amalie Zuckerkandl in the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle, central Germany [File: Jens Meyer/AP]
Last year, a late-life masterpiece by Klimt, called Lady with a Fan, sold for 85.3 million British pounds ($108.4m), making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe.
Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II sold at a New York auction in 2006 for $87.9m, and his landscape Birch Forest sold at Christie’s in New York in 2022 for $104.6m.
Two more of his portraits are reported to have sold privately for more than $100m.
Food insecurity worsened around the world in 2023, with about 282 million people suffering from acute hunger due to conflicts, particularly in Gaza and Sudan, according to United Nations agencies and development groups.
Extreme weather events and economic shocks added to the number of those facing acute food insecurity, which grew by 24 million people compared with 2022, according to a global report on food crises from the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) published on Wednesday.
The report, which called the global outlook “bleak” for this year, is produced for an international alliance bringing together UN agencies, the European Union and governmental and non-governmental bodies.
The year 2023 was the fifth consecutive one with a rising number of people suffering acute food insecurity – defined as when populations face food deprivation that threatens lives or livelihoods, regardless of the causes or length of time.
Much of last year’s increase was due to the report’s expanded geographic coverage and deteriorating conditions in 12 countries.
More geographical areas experienced “new or intensified shocks” while there was a “marked deterioration in key food crisis contexts such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip”, Fleur Wouterse, deputy director of the emergencies office within the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), told the AFP news agency.
Brink of starvation in Gaza
About 700,000 people, including 600,000 in Gaza, were on the brink of starvation last year, a figure that has since climbed yet higher to 1.1 million in the war-ridden Palestinian territory.
Since the first report by the Global Network Against Food Crises covering 2016, the number of food-insecure people has risen from 108 million to 282 million, Wouterse said.
Meanwhile, the share of the population affected within the areas concerned has doubled from 11 percent to 22 percent, she added.
Volunteers deliver food to families in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip [File: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]
Protracted major food crises are ongoing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen.
“In a world of plenty, children are starving to death,” wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the report’s foreword.
“War, climate chaos and a cost-of-living crisis – combined with inadequate action – mean that almost 300 million people faced acute food crisis in 2023,” he said, adding that “funding is not keeping pace with need”.
Call for end of hostilities
For 2024, progress will depend on the end of hostilities, said Wouterse, who stressed that aid could “rapidly” alleviate the crisis in Gaza or Sudan, for example, once humanitarian access to the areas is possible.
Worsening conditions in Haiti were due to political instability and reduced agricultural production, “where in the breadbasket of the Artibonite Valley, armed groups have seized agricultural land and stolen crops”, Wouterse said.
Lorena Jean Denise feeds her 19-month-old son David, one of several malnourished infants and toddlers who are being treated at the Centre Hospitalier de Fontaine, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti [File: Octavio Jones/Reuters]
The El Nino weather phenomenon could also lead to severe drought in West and Southern Africa, she added.
According to the report, situations of conflict or insecurity have become the main cause of acute hunger in 20 countries or territories, where 135 million people have suffered.
Extreme climatic events such as floods or droughts were the main cause of acute food insecurity for 72 million people in 18 countries, while economic shocks pushed 75 million people into this situation in 21 countries.
“Decreasing global food prices did not transmit to low-income, import-dependent countries,” said the report.
At the same time, high debt levels “limited government options to mitigate the effects of high prices”.
The situation improved in 2023 in 17 countries, including the DR Congo and Ukraine, the report found.
Hundreds of thousands of Argentines have taken to the streets to voice outrage at cuts to higher public education under budget-slashing President Javier Milei, protest organisers say.
Joined by professors, parents and alumni from the 57 state-run universities in the economic crisis-riddled South American country, students rose up on Tuesday “in defence of free public university education”, they said.
Labour unions, opposition parties and private universities backed the protests in Buenos Aires and other major cities, such as Cordoba, in one of the biggest demonstrations yet against the austerity measures introduced since Milei took office in December.
Police said about 100,000 people turned out in the capital alone while organisers put the number at closer to half a million, who paralysed the city centre for hours.
A teachers union reported a million protesters countrywide.
Third-year medical student Pablo Vicenti, 22, told the Agence French-Presse news agency in Buenos Aires that he was outraged at the government’s “brutal attack” on the university system.
“They want to defund it with a false story that there is no money. There is, but they choose not to spend it on public education,” he said.
Milei won elections in November, promising to take a chainsaw to public spending and reduce the budget deficit to zero.
To that end, his government has slashed subsidies for transport, fuel and energy even as wage earners have lost a fifth of their purchasing power.
Thousands of public servants have lost their jobs, and Milei has faced numerous anti-austerity protests.
His government dismissed Tuesday’s protests as “political”.
After half a year of delays and debates, the US Congress has approved a $60.8bn military aid package for Ukraine, lifting the spirits of Kyiv’s forces this week as special operations destroyed Russian air defences, a long-range bomber, a unique ship, and oil refineries.
For weeks, everyday Ukrainians have watched their cities bombarded and power stations incinerated because of a lack of anti-missile defences. Overall, Ukraine has acquired a renewed sense of hope for the longer term, even as a minority believe their occupied lands can be entirely liberated.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to make small tactical gains in Ukraine’s east, clawing away fields and villages west of Avdiivka, but failing to make headway in the strategic town of Chasiv Yar.
The United States House of Representatives overrode months of resistance from Republicans allied with presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Saturday to vote for a $95bn defence supplement.
One hundred and one Republicans sided with all 210 Democrats to deliver a majority of 311, versus 112 Republicans who voted against. The bill cleared the Senate on Tuesday, April 23 with an overwhelming majority of 79, including 31 Republicans.
The bipartisanship was important, demonstrating that Washington was not deadlocked on a matter of national security, nor in thrall to Trump or Russian narratives.
“It’s a dangerous time. Three of our primary adversaries, Russia and Iran and China are working together … their advance threatens the free world and it demands American leadership,” said US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has been the target of intense criticism this year for not moving on a vote sooner.
US President Joe Biden requested the aid last October; Ukrainian troops have struggled to defend their airspace and hold their front line in the face of severe shortages of air defence missiles and artillery rounds.
“The impact [or Russian strikes] on the electricity system of Ukraine is very high,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday. “I cannot give you a precise figure because it is very appalling … It is one of the most important targets of the Russian attack. You know why: because electricity is needed for everything and for everybody.”
“Today we received the decision we were expecting: the package of American support. For which we fought so much. A very important package, which will be felt by our soldiers on the front lines, our cities and villages that suffer from Russian terror,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a statement.
One of the most important aspects of the new defence aid package is that it will for the first time include Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) with a range of 300km (186 miles). Ukraine has been requesting ATACMS for over a year.
Zelenskyy confirmed the news after speaking with Biden on Monday.
US Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Senator Mark Warner told CBS News that the missiles would be on their way to Ukraine “by the end of the week”. The new ATACMs put virtually all of Crimea within Ukraine’s striking range.
Zelenskyy also said the first US aid package since House approval of a supplemental spending package “will strengthen our anti-aircraft, long-range and artillery capabilities”.
Ukraine’s capabilities beyond a range of 150km (93 miles) have mostly been confined to slow-flying, easily intercepted drones of its own manufacture.
(Al Jazeera)
Russian reactions ranged from the cynical to the vitriolic.
“Due to political strife inside Washington, they are looking for different modalities to continue providing aid to Ukraine,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “It is about provoking Ukraine into further hostilities down to the last Ukrainian, putting guaranteed money in the pockets of the US.”
Peskov was referring to the fact that of the $60.84bn allocated to Ukraine, $23bn was to replenish US stocks already drawn down for shipment to Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian National Security Council and a close confidant of President Vladimir Putin, called it “a vote of joyful US b*******” on Telegram.
“I can’t help but wish the USA with all sincerity to dive into a new civil war themselves as quickly as possible,” Medvedev wrote. “Which, I hope, will be very different from the war between North and South in the 19th century and will be waged using aircraft, tanks, artillery, MLRS, all types of missiles and other weapons. And which will finally lead to the inglorious collapse of the vile evil empire of the 21st century – the United States of America.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova portrayed the vote as an attempt to bolster Biden ahead of the November presidential election.
“The agony of Zelenskyy and his inner circle is being dragged out, and ordinary Ukrainians are being forcibly driven to slaughter as cannon fodder,” she said in a statement. “Frenzied attempts to save Zelenskyy’s neo-Nazi regime are doomed.”
Her boss, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, told Sputnik News that Russia is not willing to engage in peace talks with Zelenskyy, and if talks were to take place, Russia would not agree to a ceasefire.
(Al Jazeera)
On April 16, independent reporters posted geolocated footage showing plumes of smoke rising from the Dzhankoy airfield in occupied Crimea. It wasn’t clear what had been struck or who had done it, but details emerged over several days of a highly successful Ukrainian remote operation.
The following day, images were posted of destroyed S-400 air defence missile launchers, and Zelenskyy confirmed the successful strike. On Thursday, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii posted nocturnal video of Ukrainian missiles striking the airbase, destroying what he said were four S-400 missile launchers, a missile control centre, three radars and airspace surveillance equipment.
“We’re doing everything possible to return to Crimea,” he said.
Ukraine has made a practice of striking Crimean military targets ever since it received ATACMs from the US, followed by Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles from France and the United Kingdom last year. With ranges of 80km (50 miles) and 150km (93 miles) respectively, they are the longest-range missiles Ukraine possesses.
The strategy is to make Crimea untenable for the Russian armed forces and all the evidence has shown that it is working. Russia has pulled back to Russian soil Sukhoi Su-34 and Sukhoi Su-35 aircraft that were based in Crimea until September 2022.
On Thursday, the UK’s defence ministry published satellite photos showing a Grigorovich-class guided missile frigate being loaded with missiles at Novorossiysk port. The port had previously lacked the infrastructure for vertical loading of such missiles, the UK said, meaning this was done exclusively at the Black Sea Fleet base at Sevastopol in Crimea. It provided further evidence of the redeployment of the fleet from Sevastopol after repeated strikes there.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence indicated Russia was moving its Kalibr missile-equipped ships from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea after repeated Ukrainian strikes.
Ukraine has followed a similar strategy at sea, striking Russian ships with naval surface drones. On Sunday, Ukraine’s special forces said they had damaged the Kommuna, the world’s oldest active military vessel, in service since 1915.
(Al Jazeera)
Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said the Kommuna was targeted because it was the only Russian ship in the Black Sea capable of conducting salvage operations and submarine maintenance.
He said Russia had other ships of this type, but they were too large to bring overland to the Black Sea.
“The Russian occupiers continue to cover their combat units with supply ships from the Black Sea Fleet. This tactic is almost new for them,” said Pletenchuk.
On Sunday, the governors of the Russian regions of Bryansk, Kaluga and Smolensk reported that drones had damaged energy facilities, and Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 50 Ukrainian drones over eight regions.
Ukraine’s special operations divisions revealed they had pooled resources to strike at refineries and fuel depots.
Ukraine scored one more long-range success.
On Friday, it shot down for the first time a Russian long-range Tupolev Tu-22 bomber, as it returned to base having released X-22 missiles against Ukraine. The plane crashed in the Stavropol region of Russia.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said the bomber had been downed at a range of 306km (190 miles). On the same day, Ukraine shot down two X-22 missiles for the first time.
“This is a turning point,” said Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Ilya Yevlash.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Radio Svoboda that the strike had already demonstrated that Russian tactics would change.
“Another [Tu-22] plane following him was forced to turn around. And this means that a number of missiles have not yet been launched over Ukraine.”
Along with US aid, the US Congress voted to seize $8bn in Russian immobilised assets held in US banks and send them to Ukraine, but the rest of Ukraine’s allies have not followed suit.
A meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) on the Italian island of Capri on Friday merely promised to find a legal formula to use some $300bn in Russian immobilised assets held in Ukraine-friendly countries by June.
Its communique said, “We will continue our work and advise ahead of the Apulia Summit [in June] on all possible avenues and feasible options … consistent with our respective legal systems and international law.”
Ukraine has been demanding the money be used to help it win the war, or at least rebuild after the war, but EU members are especially cautious about repercussions to European assets held in Russia, and reputational damage to the bloc that might lead other international investors to withdraw their assets.
Islamabad, Pakistan – The United States has warned Pakistan of the risk of sanctions after it promised greater security and economic cooperation with Iran during a visit by President Ebrahim Raisi.
The first Iranian president to visit the South Asian country in eight years, Raisi concluded his three-day trip on Wednesday as the neighbouring countries said they would increase bilateral trade to $10bn a year over the next five years, from the current $2bn.
Pakistan’s foreign office said the two sides additionally agreed to cooperate in the energy sector including trade in electricity, power transmission lines and the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.
The gas pipeline project has languished for more than a decade because of political turmoil and international sanctions.
The US Department of State on Tuesday cautioned the Pakistani government of engaging in business deals with Iran.
“We advise anyone considering business deals with Iran to be aware of the potential risk of sanctions. But ultimately, the government of Pakistan can speak to their own foreign policy pursuits,” spokesperson Vedant Patel said during a news briefing.
Foreign policy expert Muhammad Faisal said the United States threats of sanctions are merely meant to dissuade Pakistan and “increase the cost of doing business with Iran”.
“Any expansion of formal trade and banking activity between the two nations will be slow, as Pakistani banks are reluctant to do direct business with Iranian banks,” he told Al Jazeera.
A wide-ranging list of business-related activities with Iran can trigger US sanctions, and the regulations also bar business dealings with Iranian financial institutions.
The pipeline was to stretch more than 1,900km (1,180 miles) from Iran’s South Pars gas field to Pakistan to meet Pakistan’s rising energy needs.
Iran said it has already invested $2bn to construct the pipeline on its side of the border, making it ready to export. However, the project is yet to take off from the Pakistani side due to fears of US sanctions.
Pakistan indicated last month that it will try and seek a waiver from the US to construct the pipeline on its territory.
Washington’s efforts to restrict Iran’s income from oil and petroleum products go back decades. It has additionally sanctioned hundreds of entities and people in Iran – from the central bank to government officials – accused of materially supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and armed groups such as Palestine’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
The US and the United Kingdom this month imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran after its unprecedented attack on Israel, but the punitive measures were limited in scope and there have been questions over how effective the sanctions regime has been overall.
“Islamabad is cognisant of these constraints and both sides have been exploring ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions for expanding bilateral trade through barter system and border markets with the involvement of local chambers of commerce,” Faisal said.
Pakistan has little leverage
During his visit, Raisi met the country’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief General Asim Munir.
The visit came as the two countries try to repair their frayed relationship following heightened tensions in January when Iran launched attacks on Pakistani territory on what it said were bases of armed group Jaish al-Adl.
In less than 48 hours, the Pakistani military carried out strikes in Iran on what it said were “hideouts used by terrorist organisations”.
Yet, the implied threat of sanctions comes at a challenging time for Pakistan, which is mired in economic woes and is seeking financial help from its allies, including key partners such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the US, three countries that are considered rivals of Iran.
Sharif was in Saudi Arabia this month to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and is expected to travel to the kingdom again next week.
Kamran Bokhari, a senior director at the Washington, DC-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said Pakistan cannot afford to get caught in the middle of a conflict between the US and Iran.
“Those two countries are engaged in their own rivalry and Iran sees itself in ascendancy at the moment due to situation in the Middle East,” Bokhari told Al Jazeera, referring to Israel’s war on Gaza.
“The US wants to contain Iran and the tools it has are sanctions. Now Pakistan needs the US and Western goodwill to help it deal with its economic crisis,” he said, adding that it should “steer clear of any move that risks it”.
Pakistan must identify what’s best for its national interest if it is to successfully juggle its relationships with Iran and the US and “maintain engagement with both”, Faisal said, but it should focus on expanding trade and energy cooperation with Iran.
The future of the Pakistan-Iran relationship depends on Pakistan’s ability to use its limited leverage, said Bokhari.
“If the US tells Pakistan ‘You cannot do business with Iran’, then they should ask Washington ‘Could you instead help us in what we need?’” Bokhari said.
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