al jazeera
Why is Hungary not backing EU sanctions on Russian oil?
As the European Union tries to impose sanctions on Russian oil over the
war in Ukraine, Hungary has emerged as one of the biggest obstacles to unanimous support needed from the bloc’s 27 member nations.
Russia’s invasion at ‘bit of a stalemate’: US intel official
Russia’s war in Ukraine is at a “bit of a stalemate” top US intelligence officials have said.
“The Russians aren’t winning and the Ukrainians aren’t winning and we’re at a bit of a stalemate here,” Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He said that so far, between eight and 10 Russian generals have been killed.
Baerbock, Hoekstra meet Kyiv’s mayor
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her Dutch counterpart, Wopke Hoekstra, have met with the mayor of Kyiv.
During discussions with Vitali Klitschko, Baerbock said Germany “was on the side of Ukraine” and was “doing everything to ensure” life could go on in the country’s liberated cities.
After talks at the city’s town hall, Klitschko took both delegations on a tour of the capital. Earlier on Tuesday, Baerbock, the first German Cabinet member to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, reopened her country’s embassy in Kyiv.
US House to vote on $40bn Ukraine aid package Tuesday: Pelosi
The US House of Representatives will vote on a $40bn military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine on Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said.
The legislation is expected to pass the House and then the Senate within the coming days and go to the White House for Biden to sign into law, easing fears of an interruption in the supply of military assistance to Kyiv
Partial gas transit flow suspension will not hit domestic market, Ukraine says
Ukraine’s suspension of Russian natural gas flows through the Sokhranivka route should not have an impact on the domestic Ukrainian market, state energy firm Naftogaz head Yuriy Vitrenko has told Reuters.
Biden hosts Italian PM for Ukraine talks
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Biden have stressed transatlantic unity on responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at a White House meeting.
“The ties between our two countries will always be strong and, if anything, this war in Ukraine has made them stronger,” Draghi said.
Putin “thought he could divide us. He failed,” Draghi told Biden. “We stand together.”
Ukraine: Gas flows to Europe could fall by a third if Russia does not change route
Gas flows to Europe via Ukraine could fall by a third unless Russia switches to using a different route after Kyiv said it would suspend the flow of natural gas through a transit point, state energy firm Naftogaz head Yuriy Vitrenko has said.
GTSOU, which operates Ukraine’s gas system, said earlier that it would suspend flows via the Sokhranivka route from Wednesday, declaring “force majeure,” a clause invoked when a business is hit by something beyond its control.
Ukraine says Russia taking transit gas, sending it to separatist regions
The head of Ukraine’s gas system operator has said Russian occupying forces have started taking gas transiting through Ukraine and sending it to two Russia-backed separatist regions in the country’s east, the Reuters news agency reported.
The operator’s CEO Sergiy Makogon made the comment, without citing evidence, after Ukraine said it would suspend the flow of gas through a transit point which it said delivers almost a third of the fuel piped from Russia to Europe through Ukraine.
First president of Ukraine dies: Kyiv mayor
Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of post-Soviet Ukraine, has died, the mayor of Kyiv has said.
“Today the first president of independent Ukraine passed away,” Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram, praising Kravchuk for “talent, a strong character and knowledge”.
Russia says Ukrainian attempts to recapture Snake Island fail
Russia says it has repelled Ukrainian efforts to reclaim Snake Island in the Black Sea.
The Russian defence ministry said Russian forces had inflicted heavy losses on Ukraine in terms of men, vessels and aircraft.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said earlier that Ukraine was not trying to retake the island.
Al Jazeera was unable to verify the claims.
Zelenskyy calls for more weapons deliveries
Zelenskyy has told Maltese lawmakers that despite pleas, Ukraine has not received the amount of weapons it would need to unblock the siege of Mariupol and free the city.
Zelenskyy said defenders “still continue their resistance in the plant of Azovstal. We are using all possible diplomatic instruments to rescue them, but Russia doesn’t allow for any of the proposed options. We have asked our partners to provide weapons in order to unblock Mariupol and rescue both civilians and military personnel”.
But he said the amount of weapons needed has not been provided. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian cities and towns have been hit by 2,250 missiles during the two-and-a-half-month invasion. “The bombardment doesn’t stop, neither during the day, nor the night,’’ he said.
EBRD says it will spend 1bn euros in Ukraine this year
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will spend one billion euros ($1.053bn) in Ukraine in 2022, the bank’s president Odile Renaud-Basso has said.
She said the package was aimed at helping the Ukrainian economy and added in comments on the sidelines of the bank’s annual meeting in Morocco that the lender was willing to do more.
Russia’s Gazprom says Ukrainian proposal to switch gas flows to new entry point is impossible
Russian energy giant Gazprom has said it is not technologically possible to switch gas transfers to Ukraine to a new entry point, as Ukraine’s gas system operator GTSOU was proposing.
GTSOU earlier said it would declare force majeure on the transportation of Russian gas through the Sokhranivka entry point, with flows stopping on May 11, and proposed transferring capacity to another location, Sudzha.
Russia two weeks behind schedule in Ukraine’s east and south: US official
Russia is about two weeks behind schedule in its invasion of Ukraine’s Donbas region along with the south of the country, a senior US defense official has said.
“We would assess that he’s easily two weeks or even maybe more behind … where he thought he wanted to be in the Donbas and in the south,” the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters.
As Black Sea supplies fall, India sells record wheat
India has exported a record 1.4 million tonnes of wheat in April, four trade sources have said, providing some relief to grain markets as buyers scramble for alternatives to Black Sea supplies hit hard by the war in Ukraine.
April is the first month of the fiscal year. India, the world’s second-biggest wheat producer, exported a record seven million tonnes of the grain in fiscal 2021-22.
India is the only major supplier of wheat at this time of year, and its exports of the grain have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
These soldiers are from a country whose president is a Jew Zelensky. Orthodox churches are also being destroyed in this country. Synagogues are not touched. Surprisingly, it turns out that Jews get along well with the Bandera Nazis.