Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Sweden announces more Ukraine military aid worth $1.6b

Sweden announced a new military aid package to Ukraine worth 16 billion crowns ($1.59 billion) on Monday, the biggest package to date from the Nordic country, saying it wanted to help Kyiv strengthen its position in talks on ending the war. The bulk of the package, nine billion crowns, will consis

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Sweden announces more Ukraine military aid worth $1.6b
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 31, 2025 20:18
Updated :
Mar 31, 2025 20:18

Sweden’s Minister of Defence Pal Jonson attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on the eve of a NATO defence ministers’ meeting at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium Feb 12, 2025. Photo : Reuters

Sweden announced a new military aid package to Ukraine worth 16 billion crowns ($1.59 billion) on Monday, the biggest package to date from the Nordic country, saying it wanted to help Kyiv strengthen its position in talks on ending the war.

The bulk of the package, nine billion crowns, will consist of new equipment that will be purchased in processes led by the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, Defence Minister Pal Jonson told a press conference.

Around five billion crowns will be financial donations for Ukraine’s defence industry.

“We are now at a critical stage of the war. Our focus is now on supporting Ukraine as much as possible so that they can get into a position of strength during these negotiations,” he said.

Jonson said all European countries now need to increase their support to Ukraine. “More need to do more.”

Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has sought to broker a ceasefire to end fighting in the three-year-old war in Ukraine.

Jonson, asked at the press conference if Europe has the financial and production capacity to take on more of the responsibility if the United States scales down, said: “I’m slightly more concerned with the defence industrial production than the financial resources.”

“The EU alone has an economy eight times as big as Russia, so if there is a will, there is a way for extensive support. The limitation has been the defence industrial production in Europe which has been adapted to peacetime,” he said.

The government has said Sweden will ramp up aid to Ukraine this year, boosting the 2025 budget allocation to 40 billion crowns from 25 billion projected earlier, to aid Kyiv’s fight against Russian invasion.​

 

[Saif]

EU top diplomat urges Russia to agree Ukraine ceasefire, with US pressure

Europe’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas urged Russia on Monday to show goodwill and agree on a ceasefire in Ukraine. She said “giving back Ukrainian children that have been deported to Russia” and “releasing prisoners of war” were examples of gestures Russia could make to s

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EU top diplomat urges Russia to agree Ukraine ceasefire, with US pressure
REUTERS
Published :
Mar 31, 2025 18:04
Updated :
Mar 31, 2025 18:04

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas speaks during a press conference, on the day of Weimar Triangle meeting on Ukraine at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Madrid, Spain, March 31, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Juan Medina

Europe’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas urged Russia on Monday to show goodwill and agree on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

She said “giving back Ukrainian children that have been deported to Russia” and “releasing prisoners of war” were examples of gestures Russia could make to show goodwill.

Speaking before a meeting of European foreign ministers in Madrid to discuss the war in Ukraine, she also called on the United States to apply pressure on the Kremlin to put an end to the three-year-old conflict.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Russia owed a clear response to the U.S. on whether it wants to go on a peace path at all.

U.S. President Donald Trump is becoming increasingly frustrated about the lack of movement in his efforts to broker a peace deal, after he adopted a more conciliatory stance towards Russia which was met with wariness by his European allies.

As for a deployment of peacekeeping troops in Ukraine that France and Britain have been working on, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said it was up to the Ukrainian government to decide when and if to allow foreign troops on its soil.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says it cannot accept U.S. proposals on Ukraine ‘in current form’

Russia cannot accept U.S. proposals to end the war in Ukraine in their current form because they do not address problems Moscow regards as having caused the conflict, a senior Russian diplomat said, suggesting U.S.-Russia talks on the subject had stalled. The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Se

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Russia says it cannot accept U.S. proposals on Ukraine ‘in current form’
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 01, 2025 23:19
Updated :
Apr 01, 2025 23:19

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump talk during a bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. Photo : REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Files

Russia cannot accept U.S. proposals to end the war in Ukraine in their current form because they do not address problems Moscow regards as having caused the conflict, a senior Russian diplomat said, suggesting U.S.-Russia talks on the subject had stalled.

The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggest Moscow and Washington have so far been unable to bridge differences which President Vladimir Putin raised more than two weeks ago when he said U.S. proposals needed reworking.

They come as U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be growing increasingly impatient with what he has suggested might be foot-dragging over a wider deal by Moscow.

Trump in recent days has said he is “pissed off” with Putin and has spoken of imposing sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking a deal.

Ryabkov, a specialist in U.S.-Russia relations, said Moscow was not yet able to move forward with a deal however.

“We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can’t accept it all in its current form,” Ryabkov was quoted by state media as telling the Russian magazine “International Affairs” in an interview released on Tuesday.

“As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict. It is completely absent, and that must be overcome.”

Putin has said he wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, and the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited. Kyiv says those demands are tantamount to demanding its capitulation.

‘VERY COMPLEX’

Asked about Trump’s latest remarks about wanting Putin to do a deal on Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Tuesday that Moscow was “continuing our contacts with the American side”.

“The subject is very complex. The substance that we are discussing, related to the Ukrainian settlement, is very complex. This requires a lot of extra effort.”

Russia also said on Tuesday it was fully complying with a U.S.-brokered moratorium on attacking Ukraine’s energy facilities.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state TV that Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had briefed Putin on alleged Ukrainian violations during a meeting of Russia’s Security Council on Tuesday. Russia passed a list of the violations to U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lavrov said.

Before the weekend, Trump had taken a more conciliatory stance towards Russia that has unnerved the United States’ European allies as he tries to broker an end to the conflict in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

But in recent days, and amid lobbying by Europeans such as Finland’s president urging him to hold Russia to account, he has adopted a tougher tone.​

 

[Saif]

French, UK military chiefs discuss support with Ukraine

British and French military chiefs travelled to Kyiv this week to discuss strengthening the Ukrainian army and ways to support the war-torn country after any end of hostilities with Russia, France’s Thierry Burkhard said on Saturday.

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French, UK military chiefs discuss support with Ukraine
Agence France-Presse . Paris, France 06 April, 2025, 00:31

British and French military chiefs travelled to Kyiv this week to discuss strengthening the Ukrainian army and ways to support the war-torn country after any end of hostilities with Russia, France’s Thierry Burkhard said on Saturday.

On Friday, Burkhard and British chief of the defence staff Tony Radakin held talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky and defence minister Rustem Umerov.

French president Emmanuel Macron and British prime minister Keir Starmer are spearheading European efforts to send a ‘reassurance force’ to Ukraine after any end to the war sparked by Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Ukraine has said Russia does not want a ceasefire.

The visit to Kyiv by the French and British military chiefs came on the same day that a Russian ballistic missile strike on Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rig killed at least 18 people, among them nine children, authorities said.

Zelensky called the meeting with Burkhard and Radakin ‘fundamental’.

‘We are discussing presence on the ground, in the sky and at sea. We are also discussing air defence. And some other sensitive things,’ he said on Friday evening without elaborating.

‘We will be meeting at the level of our military every week. Our partners already have a lot of understanding of what Ukraine needs,’ he added.

Burkhard, the chief of staff of France’s armed forces, said on Saturday they had discussed ‘reassurance options’ to be provided by an international coalition.

‘Together, we want to guarantee a lasting and solid peace in Ukraine, an essential condition for the security of the European continent,’ he said on X.

The goal of the joint trip was to ‘maintain determined support’ for the Ukrainian army which would allow it to continue to fight against Russian forces, he added.

Another goal was to ‘define a long-term strategy for the reconstruction and transformation of the army,’ he added.​

 

[Saif]

Russian missile strike kills one, injures three in Kyiv, Ukraine says

A Russian missile attack on Kyiv killed one man and injured three other people overnight, causing damage and fires in several districts in the biggest such attack on Ukraine for weeks, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday. The strike was the first large-scale attack using missiles and drones since t

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Russian missile strike kills one, injures three in Kyiv, Ukraine says
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 06, 2025 21:00
Updated :
Apr 06, 2025 21:00

Vendors put their wares on display at a flea market as smoke rises from a nearby site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Apr 6, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Thomas Peter

A Russian missile attack on Kyiv killed one man and injured three other people overnight, causing damage and fires in several districts in the biggest such attack on Ukraine for weeks, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

The strike was the first large-scale attack using missiles and drones since the US said late last month it had negotiated two ceasefire accords with Russia and Ukraine, including one that would halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said ongoing attacks showed Russia did not want to end the three-year-old war.

“Such attacks are Putin’s response to all international diplomatic efforts. Each of our partners - America, the whole of Europe, the whole world - has seen that Russia is going to continue to fight and kill,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Therefore, there can be no easing of pressure. All efforts should be made to ensure security and bring peace,” he said.

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, posted a video of firefighters trying to put out fires at badly damaged buildings.

Russian forces used ballistic and cruise missiles launched from both strategic bombers and naval fleets, as well as drones, during the overnight attack, Ukraine’s air force said.

Zelensky said that over the past week, Russia had launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones and more than 30 missiles of various types against Ukraine.

POLAND ON HIGH ALERT

Warnings from the air force of an attack including regions bordering Poland forced the neighbouring NATO-member country to scramble aircraft to ensure air safety.

Poland has been on high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck the southern Polish village of Przewodow in 2022, killing two people.

In Kyiv, several loud explosions were heard overnight.

Fires broke out in at least three districts of Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post.

“The body of a man killed in an enemy attack was found in Darnytskiy district (of Kyiv). He was on the street, near the epicentre of the explosion,” Klitschko said.

He added that two civilians had been taken to hospital after they were injured in Darnytskiy, on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River that splits the city.

The Sunday strikes on Kyiv came after officials in the southern region of Mykolaiv reported three people had been injured in Russian strikes. A day earlier, a Russian attack killed at least 19 people including nine children in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour. Thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

US President Donald Trump, who took office in January after pledging he would end the war in 24 hours, has sought to broker an end to the conflict.​

 

[Saif]

Russian troops push into Ukraine’s Sumy region

Russia said on Sunday that its troops had taken the village of Basivka in Ukraine's Sumy region, and were battering Ukrainian forces at a host of settlements in the area. More than two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv sent thousands of troops over the border into Russia's Kursk re

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Russian troops push into Ukraine’s Sumy region
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 06, 2025 19:52
Updated :
Apr 06, 2025 19:52

Russia said on Sunday that its troops had taken the village of Basivka in Ukraine's Sumy region, and were battering Ukrainian forces at a host of settlements in the area.

More than two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv sent thousands of troops over the border into Russia's Kursk region in August last year though a Russian offensive over recent months has pushed most of Ukrainian forces out of Kursk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested that Russian forces carve out a buffer zone along the border.

Russia's defence ministry said that it had taken the village of Basivka, just over the border from Sudzha, and had struck Ukrainian forces at 12 other points in the Sumy region.

It said that Russia had defeated Ukrainian units in the Russian settlements of Gornal, Guevo, and Oleshnya.

The pro-Ukrainian DeepState war map shows Ukraine in control of about 63 square kilometres (24 square miles) of Russian territory, down from as much as 1,400 square kilometres claimed by Kyiv last year.

Another 81 square kilometres of territory along the border - including Basivka - is classed by DeepState as of "unknown" control.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014, and most but not all of four other regions which Moscow now claims are part of Russia - a claim not recognised by most countries.

Russia controls all of Crimea, almost all of Luhansk, and more than 70 percent of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. It also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.​

 

[Saif]

Zelensky slams lack of US response to Putin truce rejection

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday lamented the lack of a US response to Russia’s refusal to agree ‘a full, unconditional ceasefire’ as two people were killed in Moscow’s latest aerial bombardment...

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Zelensky slams lack of US response to Putin truce rejection
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 08 April, 2025, 00:06

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday lamented the lack of a US response to Russia’s refusal to agree ‘a full, unconditional ceasefire’ as two people were killed in Moscow’s latest aerial bombardment.

Russia mounted a ‘massive’ missile and drone attack on Ukraine that also wounded seven people, Zelensky said, warning that Moscow was stepping up its aerial attacks.

Ukraine has agreed to an unconditional truce in the more than three-year-long war proposed by the United States but Russian president Vladimir Putin has refused to do so.

‘We are waiting for the United States to respond — so far there has been no response,’ said Zelensky.

Russia claimed the capture of a village in Ukraine’s Sumy region in a rare cross-border advance, but Ukraine branded that as ‘disinformation’.

Earlier, Russia ‘launched a massive nationwide attack on Ukraine using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones’, said Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

Zelensky said ‘the number of Russian air attacks is increasing’, which he said proved that ‘the pressure on Russia is still insufficient’.

In Kyiv, explosions were heard in the night and a smoke rose up from the city on Sunday morning.

One person was killed and three people were wounded, the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, wrote on social media.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that ‘the body of a man killed in an enemy attack was discovered in Darnytsia district.’

A missile strike partially destroyed a building housing state foreign-language broadcasters, the Russian-language Freedom television channel reported, saying that its newsroom had been destroyed.

Emergency services said that fires broke out in non-residential buildings in Kyiv. In a nearby region, a man was burned when an attack sparked a house fire, the head of the military administration said.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 23 cruise and ballistic missiles and 109 drones during the night, the Ukrainian air force said.

The air force said it shot down 13 of the missiles and 40 drones while 54 others caused no damage.

In the southern Kherson region, a drone killed a 59-year-old man, while in the northeastern Kharkiv region, near the border with Russia, two people were wounded in an aerial bomb attack, regional officials said.

In the western region of Khmelnytsky, authorities said air defences destroyed a missile but falling fragments damaged a house and wounded a woman.

Over the past week, Russia has launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones, and over 30 missiles of various types on Ukraine, Zelensky said.

Russia’s defence ministry said troops ‘liberated’ the village of Basivka, close to the border with Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine quickly rejected the report.

‘The enemy continues its disinformation campaign regarding the seizure of settlements in Sumy region or the breakthrough of the border,’ Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, said.

French president Emmanuel Macron echoed Zelensky’s calls for a stronger response to Russia.

‘A ceasefire is needed as soon as possible. And strong action if Russia continues to try to buy time and refuse peace,’ Macron said on X on Sunday.

Russia continues ‘to murder children and civilians’, he added.

The latest attacks came two days after a missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people including nine children.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, denounced Russia’s ‘reckless disregard’ for human life in using ‘an explosive weapon with wide area effects’.

Russia on Sunday said it had struck a central artillery base and enterprises involved in producing drones.

It accused Ukraine of striking its energy infrastructure including a gas distribution facility in the Voronezh region.

US president Donald Trump is pushing the two sides to agree a partial ceasefire, but has so far failed to broker an accord acceptable to both sides.

The United States is also seeking better ties with Russia and Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev in an interview with state television said that the next US-Russian contacts could be ‘next week’, Russian news agencies reported.

Dmitriev last week became the most senior Russian official to visit Washington since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.​

 

[Saif]

Ukraine’s military chief says new Russian offensive has begun

Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said in an interview published on Wednesday that Russia had launched a new offensive on the northeast of the country, adding that a large increase in assaults was already being observed. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned earlier that Russia w

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Ukraine’s military chief says new Russian offensive has begun
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 09, 2025 19:32
Updated :
Apr 09, 2025 19:32

Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said in an interview published on Wednesday that Russia had launched a new offensive on the northeast of the country, adding that a large increase in assaults was already being observed.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned earlier that Russia was preparing an offensive on the two regions of Kharkiv and Sumy.

“I can say that the president is absolutely right and this offensive has actually already begun,” Syrskyi said in an interview with Ukrainian publication LB.

“For several days, almost a week, we have been observing almost a doubling of the number of enemy attacks in all main directions (on the frontline),” he said.

Moscow is close to fully pushing Ukrainian forces out of their foothold in Kursk region, which they held since last August and which lies over the border from Sumy region.

Zelenskiy said on Monday that Ukrainian forces were also present in the adjacent Russian region of Belgorod.

The war, the first year of which was marked by rapid Russian territorial gains followed by Ukrainian counter-attacks, has since become far more of a battlefield stalemate, with Moscow grinding out relatively small gains by attacking with wave after wave of infantry squads.​