The UN is conducting a fact-finding mission in response to requests from both Russia and Ukraine after 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an explosion at a barracks in separatist-controlled Olenivka. The warring nations have blamed each other for carrying out the attack. Ukraine claims it was a special operation planned in advance by the Kremlin and carried out by Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group. Russia’s defense ministry, however, claims the Ukrainian military used US-supplied rockets to hit the prison. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wants to talk directly with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the hope that China can use its influence with Russia to end the war. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, Zelenskiy said: “It is a very powerful state. It is a strong economy. So (it) can affect Russia politically, economically. And China is [also a] permanent member of the UN Security Council”. So far, China has refused to condemn the Russian invasion, and its president, Xi Jinping, has told Putin he will support Russia’s “sovereignty and security.” The US Senate has ratified Finland and Sweden’s membership in NATO, voting 95-1. The US is the 23rd member state to ratify the biggest expansion of the 30-member alliance since the 1990s as it responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “This historic vote sends an important message about America’s continued, bipartisan commitment to NATO and to ensuring our alliance is ready to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. All 30 NATO members must ratify membership before Finland and Sweden can join. Ukraine is withdrawing its 40 peacekeepers from the NATO-led mission in Kosovo, which totals 3,800, according to Ukrainian news. In March, Zelensky issued an order for all missions to return to Ukraine to support the war. A Russian official in Ukraine has claimed that Ukrainian forces are using Western weapons to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is now controlled by Russian forces and used as a military base, according to Reuters. But US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Ukrainian forces were not firing at Russian forces “to avoid a terrible accident with the nuclear plant”. Reuters was unable to verify battlefield accounts from either side of the war. The first cargo of grain to leave Ukraine under a deal to ease Russia’s naval blockade has arrived in Turkey. The Razoni, registered in Sierra Leone, left the port of Odessa for Lebanon on Monday as part of a deal brokered by Turkey and the UN. The ship has been inspected by members of the joint coordination center and is now expected to move through the Bosporus strait “soon.” Ukraine’s president has played down the significance of his country’s first grain export shipment since the Russian invasion, saying it carried a fraction of the crop Kyiv needs to sell to help save its battered economy. In dramatic comments, Zelensky, via video to students in Australia on Wednesday, said more time was needed to see if more grain shipments would follow. The UN has said there have been more than 10 million border crossings to and from Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion of the country on February 24. Figures compiled by UNHCR indicate that 6,180,345 individual refugees from Ukraine are now registered across Europe. Ukraine’s neighbors have received the largest single numbers. Poland has 1.25 million refugees. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has come under fire for a one-on-one meeting he had with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after he traveled to Moscow on holiday to meet him. Schröder told German media in a lengthy interview that he had nothing to apologize for over his friendship with Putin, whom he met last week during a visit to the Russian capital. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted Russia had no reason to hold up the return of a gas turbine for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. The turbine has been stranded in Germany after being serviced in Canada in an escalating standoff that has seen that flows to Europe are gradually decreasing, to just 20% of capacity.
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Russia may have fabricated evidence of Olevinka strike, US says
US officials believe Russia is working to fabricate evidence about last week’s deadly raid on the Olevinka detention center that killed 53 prisoners of war in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine. A U.S. official with knowledge of the intelligence findings told The Associated Press that the classified information — which was recently downgraded — indicated that Russian officials might plant munitions from medium-range artillery missile systems, or Himars, as evidence that the systems provided by the US in Ukraine were used in the attack. Russia is expected to take action as it expects independent researchers and journalists to eventually gain access to Olenivka, the official added. Shell fragments that Russia claims came from Himars missiles near a destroyed barracks in Olenivka. Photo: AP The US Senate approved near-unanimous bipartisan approval of Finland and Sweden joining NATO on Wednesday, calling the expansion of the Western defense bloc “shampoo” for US national security and a day of reckoning for Vladimir Putin. The 95-1 vote in favor of the candidacy of two European countries that, until Russia’s war against Ukraine, had long avoided military alliances, took a crucial step toward expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the 73-year-old mutual defense pact. between the United States and democratic allies in Europe. Joe Biden, who has been the main player rallying global financial and material support for Ukraine, has sought quick entry for the two previously militarily non-aligned northern European countries. Read more here: Ukraine is seeking an opportunity to speak directly with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to help end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the South China Morning Post. In an interview with SCMP, the Ukrainian leader urged China to use its enormous political and economic influence in Russia to end the fighting. “It is a very powerful state. It is a strong economy,” Zelensky said in the report. “So it can influence Russia politically, economically. And China is [also a] permanent member of the UN Security Council”. Zelensky told SCMP that Ukraine had formally requested a conversation with Xi, but so far had been unsuccessful.
Summary and welcome
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is what we know so far.
The UN is conducting a fact-finding mission in response to requests from both Russia and Ukraine after 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in an explosion at a barracks in separatist-controlled Olenivka. The warring nations have blamed each other for carrying out the attack. Ukraine claims it was a special operation planned in advance by the Kremlin and carried out by Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group. Russia’s defense ministry, however, claims the Ukrainian military used US-supplied rockets to hit the prison. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wants to talk directly with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the hope that China can use its influence with Russia to end the war. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, Zelenskiy said: “It is a very powerful state. It is a strong economy. So (it) can affect Russia politically, economically. And China is [also a] permanent member of the UN Security Council”. So far, China has refused to condemn the Russian invasion, and its president, Xi Jinping, has told Putin he will support Russia’s “sovereignty and security.” The US Senate has ratified Finland and Sweden’s membership in NATO, voting 95-1. The US is the 23rd member state to ratify the biggest expansion of the 30-member alliance since the 1990s as it responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “This historic vote sends an important message about America’s continued, bipartisan commitment to NATO and to ensuring our alliance is ready to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. All 30 NATO members must ratify membership before Finland and Sweden can join. Ukraine is withdrawing its 40 peacekeepers from the NATO-led mission in Kosovo, which totals 3,800, according to Ukrainian news. In March, Zelensky issued an order for all missions to return to Ukraine to support the war. A Russian official in Ukraine has claimed that Ukrainian forces are using Western weapons to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is now controlled by Russian forces and used as a military base, according to Reuters. But US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Ukrainian forces were not firing at Russian forces “to avoid a terrible accident with the nuclear plant”. Reuters was unable to verify battlefield accounts from either side of the war. The first cargo of grain to leave Ukraine under a deal to ease Russia’s naval blockade has arrived in Turkey. The Razoni, registered in Sierra Leone, left the port of Odessa for Lebanon on Monday as part of a deal brokered by Turkey and the UN. The ship has been inspected by members of the joint coordination center and is now expected to move through the Bosporus strait “soon.” The Ukrainian president dismissed the significance of his country’s first grain export shipment since…
