Global Courant 2023-04-28 15:05:50
Russia fires sanctioned deputy defense minister, according to reports
Russia-sanctioned Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev has been fired, according to Reuters, which cited reports from a military blogger and a leading news website.
Dubbed the “Butcher of Mariupol,” Mizintsev was sanctioned by the West in June 2022 for orchestrating the siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol near the start of the war last year.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has been sanctioned by the West and dubbed the “Butcher of Mariupol”.
André Pain | Afp | Getty Images
He was later appointed as Deputy Defense Minister of Russia in September 2022, in charge of logistics and supplies.
His resignation was reported by a Russian military blogger, Alexander Sladkov, and by the RBC news site. According to Reuters, neither outlet gave a reason or explanation for his removal.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
— Karen Gilchrist
Ukraine completes counter-offensive strategy, defense minister says
Ukraine is finalizing plans for a counter-offensive against Russian forces, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday, noting it could be launched soon.
“As soon as God’s will, the weather and a decision from the commanders are there, we will do it,” Reznikov told an online news briefing, according to Reuters, without giving a specific timeline.
—Karen Gilchrist
At least 12 people have been killed in cities in Ukraine after large-scale airstrikes
Rescue workers work in the rubble of a damaged residential building in Uman, southern Kiev, on April 28, 2023, after Russian missile strikes targeted several Ukrainian cities overnight.
Sergey Supinsky | Afp | Getty Images
Russian rocket attacks on residential buildings in cities across Ukraine on Friday killed at least 12 people and injured many others, according to regional officials.
The airstrikes killed 10 people and injured 17 civilians in the central city of Uman, Ukraine’s interior ministry reported. The airstrikes hit 10 residential buildings.
In the city of Dnipro, a residential building was hit by Russian missiles, killing a woman and a child and injuring three civilians, the city’s mayor said.
The Kiev Regional Military Administration reported that 11 missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in the airspace, with debris hitting a residential building in the city of Ukrainka.
—Sam Meredith
Ukraine’s finance minister says Kiev must use China as leverage to win the war with Russia
Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told CNBC that the country should use China as leverage to end the conflict with Russia.
His remarks come shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese President Xi Jinping made their first phone call since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last February.
“I’m not entirely convinced that after this conversation we can highlight anything specific, but what I can really tell you is that it’s important to continue the dialogue between our countries,” Marchenko told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro.
“We really understand the importance of China and we really understand how important it is for us to create our own relationship with China and prevent China from (fully) supporting Russia.”
When asked if China can be seen as Ukraine’s best friend in the effort to find a compromise for peace, Marchenko replied: “Of course not. Our best friend is the United States, the G-7 countries and all our partners who support Ukraine.”
He added that Kiev “should use China as leverage to win this war”, and said the country should take every opportunity “to convince Russia to stop this bloody war in Ukraine”.
—Sam Meredith
Zelenskyy calls for global sanctions to be strengthened after another night of Russian terror
Reflecting on what he described as another night of Russian terror, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 10 residential buildings were damaged by rocket attacks in the central Ukrainian city of Uman.
He said at the time he shared his message via Twitter that seven people were killed while others were injured in the attacks.
“Evil can be stopped by guns – our defenders are doing it. And it can be stopped by sanctions – global sanctions need to be strengthened,” Zelenskyy said.
—Sam Meredith
At least five killed as Russian missile strikes hit cities in Ukraine
The rubble of a house after shelling on a settlement in the Russian-controlled area of Donetsk, Ukraine, on April 27, 2023.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
A spate of Russian missile strikes hit several cities in Ukraine early Friday, killing at least five people and injuring others, according to Ukrainian officials.
The barrage comes as analysts see the potential for a looming Ukrainian counter-offensive, with the Eastern European country backed by billions of dollars in Western military and economic support.
In Uman, Cherkasy oblast in central Ukraine, a rescue mission is underway after two cruise missiles hit residential and warehouse buildings, killing three people and injuring eight others, said Ihor Taburets, the head of the regional military administration of Cherkasy, via Telegram.
In the central city of Dnipro, the city’s mayor said a Russian missile strike killed a young woman and a child.
Air raid sirens were heard in Kiev after a Russian airstrike hit the capital for the first time in 51 days, according to the Kiev City Military Administration. There were no casualties among the civilian population; a local power line would have been cut due to falling debris.
—Sam Meredith
Russia’s defense minister says West wants to defeat Russia strategically and poses a threat to China through Ukraine
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that the West’s real goal in Ukraine is to strategically defeat Russia, pose a threat to China and maintain its own monopoly position, the state news agency RIA reported.
RIA quoted him as adding that “almost all” NATO countries had deployed their military capabilities against Russia.
— Reuters
The Kiev Museum displays artifacts left behind by Russian soldiers
Curators at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kiev display a variety of artifacts left behind by Russian soldiers as they occupied areas around Kiev during the early part of the 2022 Russian invasion.
Russia eventually withdrew from the metropolitan area and concentrated its land war in the east.
Exhibits of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Roman Pilipey | Getty Images
Visitors view exhibits of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Roman Pilipey | Getty Images
A man walks down the stairs next to exhibits of the Russian military on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Roman Pilipey | Getty Images
Boxes of Russian army meals, with Ukrainian text written on one of them, reading “The trophy. Its owner was eliminated by the Ukrainian forces”, are on display at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 26, 2023.
Roman Pilipey | Getty Images
Exhibited parts of military vehicles and items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Roman Pilipey | Getty Images
A museum employee sits next to the portraits of members of the “Azov” unit who died in Mariupol last year during the Russian attack, on the part of the exhibition dedicated to the defense of Mariupol’s Azov Stable on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the history of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Roman Pilipey | Getty Images
The US imposes sanctions on Russia and Iran for the wrongful detention and hostage taking of US citizens
American journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, stands in a defendant’s cage for a hearing on an appeal against his arrest at the Moscow City Court in Moscow on April 18, 2023.
Natalia Kolesnikova | Afp | Getty Images
The Biden administration announced a first round of sanctions against Russia and Iran for involvement in hostage-taking and wrongful detention of US citizens abroad.
The US sanctions target Russia’s Federal Security Service, often known as the FSB, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization, or IRGC IO.
“Our action is a warning to those around the world who would falsely detain US citizens of the potential consequences of their actions,” a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said during a telephone conversation with reporters.
The government has identified at least two US citizens wrongfully detained in Russia and three in Iran, along with one legal US permanent resident.
During the opening address for Monday’s UN Security Council meeting, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke directly to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan, both detained. in Russia.
Former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is being held on suspicion of espionage, in court following a verdict on extending his detention, in Moscow, Russia, February 22, 2019.
Shamil Zhumatov | Reuters
Thomas-Greenfield invited Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan’s sister, to a meeting of the UN Security Council.
“I want Minister Lavrov to look her in the eye and see her suffer. I want you to see what it’s like to miss your brother for four years. To know that he’s locked up, in a Russian penal colony, simply because you want to use.” him for your own purposes,” said Thomas-Greenfield.
Whelan was arrested in 2018 on espionage charges and sentenced in 2020 to 16 years of hard labor in a Russian penal colony.
Read the full story here.
— Amanda Macias
