By This has been CNBC’s live blog covering updates on the war in Ukraine. [Follow the latest updates here.]
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the arrest of Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira in connection to the Pentagon leak investigation.
Teixeira, 21, is accused of leaking classified U.S. intelligence documents related to the war in Ukraine. He is a member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, officials told NBC News.
FBI took Teixeira into custody without incident on Thursday, according to Garland. He will be making an initial appearance in Massachusetts.
The source behind the trove of classified Pentagon documents leaked to social media that have become the biggest U.S. intelligence breach since Edward Snowden worked on a U.S. military base, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
The Post said it also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public.
Germany has approved Poland’s request to transfer five Soviet-designed fighter jets to Ukraine, the German Defense Ministry said in an Associated Press report.
Russia’s Parliament passed legislation requiring the digitization of the country’s draft registry, in a move that will harvest more of Russians’ data and intensify control over the population, analysts say. Many Russian lawmakers and military bloggers have been pushing for more aggressive mobilization efforts and enforcement for some time.
The bloody battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut continues, with Russian forces gaining more ground and claiming to have the city almost entirely surrounded. Ukrainian commanders reject that claim.
First lady Jill Biden hailed Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska for her strength and determination amid Russia’s war for Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People of 2023.”
I met the first lady last Mother’s Day in a small town near the edge of her country, just a few months after Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression began. Instinctively, we embraced—two mothers, two nations, coming together for peace.
She could take her family and flee. What mother would blame her? Yet, she stays. She stays because freedom and democracy deserve defenders. She stays to show the world that heart and hope can make even the largest tyrant seem small. She stays for her children—for their future, and the future of all Ukrainians.
Read Biden’s full profile of Zelenska here.
— Amanda Macias
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency reiterated calls for relevant parties to establish a security perimeter around Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“We are living on borrowed time when it comes to nuclear safety and security at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Unless we take action to protect the plant, our luck will sooner or later run out, with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment,” IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said in a statement.
Grossi said that IAEA experts present at the facility continue to regularly hear shelling in the area. He added that the experts also reported that two landmine explosions occurred near the nuclear power plant earlier this month.
Russian forces seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, in the days following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
— Amanda Macias
The Ukrainian Ministry of Sports said it will prohibit its national sports teams from participating in competitions where athletes from Russia or Belarus are represented.
The ban extends to the Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as non-Olympic athletic competitions.
“In case of violation of the order, the teams may be deprived of their status as ‘national’,” the ministry wrote, according to an NBC News translation.
For months, the Ukrainian government has called on the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “228 Ukrainian athletes and coaches died during the year of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy juxtaposed the terror in his country with the upcoming games by saying, “if the Olympic sports were killings and missile strikes, then you know which national team would occupy the first place.”
— Amanda Macias
The United Nations said it will make adjustments to ensure that communications “are as safe as possible” after leaked Pentagon documents indicated the U.S. was monitoring the phone calls of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“We take whatever measures we can take. But the need to respect the inviolability of UN communications applies to every member state,” UN Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric said during a daily press briefing.
Dujarric said that Guterres was not surprised “that people are spying on him and listening to his private conversations.”
“He’s been in politics and a public figure for quite some time. So he’s not surprised,” Dujarric added.
According to a BBC report referencing an alleged leaked document, the U.S. monitored Guterres’s discussions and found that he was “undermining broader efforts to hold Moscow accountable for its actions in Ukraine.”
The Biden administration has previously said it was unable to verify the validity of the trove of leaked classified documents.
— Amanda Macias
The Pentagon provided a military service record of the suspect behind the leak of highly classified U.S. intelligence documents.
Jack Douglas Teixeira is a current member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard and was stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base, according to the service record, obtained by NBC News.
Teixeira holds the rank of Airman 1st Class and entered service on Sept. 26, 2019. His latest job title, according to the service record, is cyber transport systems journeyman.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference that the FBI took Teixeira into custody and that the 21-year-old will have an initial appearance at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The classified Pentagon documents that were leaked online revealed details of U.S. intelligence on Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, among other national security matters.
— Amanda Macias
President Joe Biden said the United States and its allies in the European Union and NATO are stronger than ever, due in part, to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I’ve known Putin for over 25 years. Putin thought the world would look the other way, was confident he would break NATO and the European Union; the unity of Western nations would fracture and fall at the moment of testing,” Biden said during a speech before the Irish Parliament, referencing the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“That’s what he thought, but he was wrong. He was wrong on every point, on every front,” Biden said.
“Today we’re more united and more determined than ever to defend the values that make us strong,” he added.
— Amanda Macias
One ship carrying 41,500 metric tons of corn left Ukraine’s ports of Odesa destined for Spain.
The vessel sails by way of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations. The humanitarian sea corridor eased Russia’s naval blockade and reopened three key Ukrainian ports. Ukraine and the UN pushed for a 120-day extension of the deal in March, but Russia said that it may only acknowledge the extension for 60 days.
So far, more than 750 ships have sailed from Ukrainian ports since the deal launched.
— Amanda Macias
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meeting in Washington.
Yellen reiterated that the Biden administration would continue to invest in Ukraine’s security for as long as Russia continues its war.
“Make no mistake, the United States has stood with Ukraine since day one of this war and we will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Yellen said in opening remarks with Shmyhal.
“We have disbursed significant economic support since the start of the war and will provide more in the upcoming months. This is in addition to our security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine,” Yellen added.
Yellen said that the financial assistance from the U.S. “comes with important safeguards to ensure that it is used effectively and delivers for the people of Ukraine.”
— Amanda Macias
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland officially announced the arrest of 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking classified U.S. intelligence documents related to the war in Ukraine.
Teixeira is a member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, officials told NBC News.
FBI took Teixeira into custody Thursday without incident, according to Garland. He will be making an initial appearance in Massachusetts.
“Today the Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information. Teixeira is an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard,” Garland said in a statement. “FBI agents took Teixeira into custody earlier this afternoon without incident. He will have an initial appearance at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. I want to thank the FBI, Justice Department prosecutors and our colleagues at the Department of Defense for their diligent work on this case. This investigation is ongoing. We will share more information at the appropriate time. “
Read the full story here.
— Amanda Macias, Riya Bhattacharjee
Authorities identified Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, as the suspect behind the trove of leaked documents, a law enforcement official confirmed to NBC NEWS.
The classified Pentagon documents were found online last month and revealed details of U.S. intelligence on Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, among other national security operations.
President Joe Biden said earlier on Thursday that officials appeared to be nearing a breakthrough in their investigation into who leaked the documents online.
Read the full story here.
— Amanda Macias
U.S. officials have identified the person suspected of leaking classified government documents as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, NBC News reported.
Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said they have been tracking Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, for some time and that an arrest is imminent. The New York Times first identified Teixeira as the suspect on Thursday.
—Chelsey Cox
Russia’s Ambassador to the United States called on the State Department to process the visa request of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ahead of a meeting at the United Nations in New York.
Lavrov is slated to chair several UN Security Council meetings during the last week of April. Russia currently holds the one-month rotating presidency of the UN Security Council.
Anatoly Antonov said the visa request was submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow at the end of March. “However, not a single entry permission has been granted so far,” Antonov said, adding that the embassy canceled a visa appointment on March 31 without providing an explanation.
“We urge Washington to immediately issue visas for our delegation, as well as for our journalists. Failure to do that is a violation of the United States’ obligations as the host country of the UN headquarters,” he said.
Antonov added that the U.S. must also grant flight permissions for the Russian delegation “without any conditions or restrictions.”
— Amanda Macias
Germany approved Poland’s request to transfer five Soviet-designed MiG 29 fighter jets Germany previously owned to Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country already had provided four MiG-29 jets to Ukraine, with four more in the process of getting handed over and another six being prepared, according to the AP report.
Germany itself has not supplied Ukraine with jets.
— Melodie Warner
The European Union will launch an 11th wave of sanctions on Russia and seek to crack down on efforts to evade economic penalties introduced in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a top EU official told CNBC Thursday.
“Europe has rolled out 10 packages of sanctions. We will have another package,” Mairead McGuinness, EU commissioner for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union, told CNBC’s Joumanna Bercetche at the International Monetary Fund’s spring meeting in Washington, D.C.
EU countries have been in talks about drawing up a fresh round of sanctions against Russia in recent weeks and McGuinness confirmed an 11th package of measures is on its way.
Read the full report here.
— Ryan Browne
The Biden administration is looking at expanding how it monitors social media sites and chatrooms after U.S. intelligence agencies failed to spot classified Pentagon documents circulating online for weeks, according to a senior administration official and a congressional official briefed on the matter.
The possible change in the intelligence-gathering process is just one potential shift as officials scramble to determine not only how the documents leaked but also how to prevent another damaging incident.
President Joe Biden and other officials were dismayed when they learned the documents had been online for at least a month. Some documents may have appeared as early as January, according to Bellingcat, the open-source investigative group.
Read the full report here.
— NBC News
Among the latest revelations from leaked Pentagon documents that have been circulating on social media are details of infighting in the Russian government, the New York Times reported.
NBC has not independently verified the report, and the Times concedes that it has not been able to authenticate the documents in question. NBC’s reporting on the previous batch of documents that appeared online suggested that some of them may have been altered.
“The depth of the infighting inside the Russian government appears broader and deeper than previously understood, judging from a newly discovered cache of classified intelligence documents that has been leaked online,” the Times wrote.
— Natasha Turak
The Department of Defense is moving to further restrict access to sensitive information following a massive intelligence leak that’s disclosed classified U.S. government planning and assessments on Ukraine and a number of other countries.
“The Department of Defense say they have taken steps to further restrict access to sensitive information,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in response to reporting from the Washington Post that the leaks were disseminated in an online chat platform.
“Look, we are certainly reviewing the national security implications of the disclosure and I can add that to mitigate the impact the release of these documents have on our U.S. national security and also on our allies and partners as well, so this is something we are taking very seriously,” she said. “There is an ongoing investigation. DOD has taken steps to restrict access to these documents and definitely don’t want don’t want to get ahead of what is happening.”
— Natasha Turak
The source behind the trove of classified documents leaked to social media that have become the biggest U.S. intelligence breach since Edward Snowden worked on a U.S. military base, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
NBC has not independently verified the report, whose main source is a minor who was granted anonymity by the Washington Post. The Post said it also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public.
The minor communicated with the leaker for years on an invite-only group chat on the online gaming platform Discord, whose members, the Post wrote, were “united by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God.”
The Post reports that the leaker shared “what appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that [he] indicated he had brought home from his job on a ‘military base’,” the location of which he did not disclose.
The White House responded to the reporting, saying the Department of Defense has taken steps to further restrict access to sensitive information and that an investigation is ongoing.
— Natasha Turak
Russia’s headline inflation fell to 3.5% in March, down by 7.5% from the previous year, with the large contrast mainly due to Russia’s post invasion inflation spike in March of 2022, Goldman Sachs said.
Last month’s figure is below the Russian central bank’s long-run target of 4%, but Goldman analysts believe this level is temporary and will rise to approach 7% by the end of 2023.
“Looking forward, we think inflation is near its trough and that it will remain near 4% in Q2-2023. However, we expect base effects to slowly fade going forward … Adding to this are exchange rate pressures stemming from the weakening of the Ruble since November, which has depreciated more than 10% against the USD and around 12% vis-à-vis the RMB year-to-date,” Goldman wrote in a note Thursday.
“We forecast the weaker Ruble to eventually pass-through consumer prices, specifically the mostly imported non-food goods in Russia. From H2-2023 on, therefore, we forecast inflation to re-rise and stand close to 7% by year-end.”
— Natasha Turak
Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz said Russia has been ordered to pay it $5 billion in compensation for illegally seizing its assets in Crimea in 2014. The order came from The Hague’s Arbitration Tribunal in the Netherlands.
The ruling is a “key victory on the energy front,” Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said of the news. He added that he expects more wins for Ukraine. Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014.
“Despite Russia’s attempts to obstruct justice, the Arbitration Tribunal ordered Russia to compensate Naftogaz for losses of $5 billion,” Naftogaz said in a statement. “Russia must now comply with this decision in accordance with its obligations under international law.”
It’s not clear how Russia’s payment will be enforced, and the Russian government did not immediately respond to the ruling. But if Russia refuses to pay, Naftogaz said it could launch a “process of recognition and admission to enforce the award in the territory of those states where assets of the Russian Federation are located.”
— Natasha Turak
The Group of Seven advanced economies is not expected to update its price cap on Russian oil in the coming weeks amid contrasting views on whether the policy is truly denting the Kremlin’s revenues.
The G-7, alongside the European Union and Australia, decided late last year to impose a cap of $60 a barrel on Russian oil in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on Moscow. As part of the agreement, they said they would review this cap in mid-March.
However, despite calls to do so from several countries in Europe, the threshold was not revised last month even as oil prices fell from the levels seen in the two months prior to mid-March. If a revision had taken place, the $60 barrel level would likely have been reduced.
Read the full story here.
— Silvia Amaro
Ukraine’s gross domestic product dropped by nearly a third in 2022, which was dominated by Russia’s full-scale invasion that began on Feb. 24 of that year.
The GDP of the war-battered country fell by 29.1%, Ukraine’s state statistics service reported, although this was just slightly better than the government’s forecast of a 30% drop.
More than 8 million people have fled Ukraine as refugees, amounting to around 20% of the country’s population. Russia’s war has killed tens of thousands of people, devastated industries and destroyed and damaged vital energy infrastructure around the country.
Russia’s naval blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has also throttled the majority of Ukraine’s vital grain and produce exports, which comprise a significant portion of the world’s supply of soft commodities such as grain, corn, and sunflower seeds. Exports as a whole were down 35% in 2022 from the year before, Ukraine’s economy ministry said.
Still, Kyiv says GDP may grow 1% in 2023 due to improvements in the retail, transportation and construction sectors.
— Natasha Turak
The European Commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, has hailed the EU’s swift transition away from its dependency on Russian gas and said next winter will be less challenging.
“We were expecting a terrible winter, a winter of recession and problems with energy supplies, blackouts,” he told CNBC’s Joumanna Bercetche in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. “We didn’t have recession and we were able to go out from dependency from Russian gas in eight months. I think, amazing results.”
Asked whether he believed the energy crisis was over, he said: “I think it will be a challenge also for next winter, maybe a less dramatic challenge than it has been in the past winter, because we should remember we had a more than 40% dependency from Russian fossil fuels, and this is now down around 7%.”
He said the EU would be refiling storage from the end of April without Russian gas and said it was important to diversify pipelines, noting increased Chinese demand following its lockdown reopening may bring liquefied gas prices up.
“More optimistically, the big, big challenge was last winter, next winter will also be challenging but we already know we were able to do something amazing,” Gentiloni said.
— Jenni Reid
Ukraine secured a $200 million World Bank grant to fund the restoration of its energy sector.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the funds will go toward rebuilding the power grid and heat supply systems in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy and cities in the Chernihiv region.
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in waves of air strikes, causing power outages for millions of people.
“Energy infrastructure has suffered $11 billion in damages over the last year and is one of the most critical areas where Ukraine needs urgent support,” World Bank Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde said in a statement. “We are grateful for strong partnership with Ukraine and development partners to support this critical sector and act fast.”
Shmyhal previously named energy as one of Ukraine’s key sectors for rebuilding the economy.
He added that Ukraine and the World Bank will intensify three projects in energy, transport infrastructure and health care as part of reconstruction.
Separately, Shmyhal also estimated Ukraine will need $14 billion this year for rapid reconstruction projects.
— Audrey Wan
The Kremlin passed legislation to improve its military mobilization efforts and crack down on draft dodgers, in a move that will harvest more of Russians’ data and intensify control over the population, a U.S.-based think tank reported.
“The Russian State Duma adopted a bill in its third reading on April 11 to create a digital unified register of Russian citizens eligible for military service,” the Institute for the Study of War wrote in its daily update.
“The unified register harvests Russian citizens’ personal identification information — including medical, educational, and residence history, foreign citizenship status, and insurance and tax data — from multiple Russian legal entities,” it said.
Those summoned cannot leave Russia and must show up at a military recruitment office within 20 days of their summons.
The new legislation “bans summoned individuals who are 20 days delinquent for reporting from driving vehicles, buying or selling real estate, and taking out loans,” the ISW wrote.
Many Russian lawmakers and military bloggers have been pushing for more aggressive mobilization efforts and enforcement for some time.
ISW wrote that it “previously forecasted that the Kremlin would marry Soviet-style societal control measures with big data and 21st-century information technology to intensify control over the Russian population after Russia used facial recognition, QR codes, and mobile device geo-tracking technology to enforce a draconian Covid-19 quarantine in 2020.”
— Natasha Turak
U.S. Senators Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., and country star Brad Paisley attended a news conference in front of destroyed Russian military equipment at the Mikhailovsky Square in Kyiv.
Paisley, who is an ambassador for Ukraine’s United24 fundraising campaign, performed acoustic versions of his own Ukraine-themed single “Same Here”, which he released in February on the war’s one-year anniversary, and a Ukrainian-language folk song.
Sen. Manchin said in a statement: “The level of patriotism, professionalism and sheer endurance of the Ukrainian people is inspiring. After this visit, I am even more convinced that defeating Vladimir Putin and ending his ruthless war against the Ukrainian people must remain our top priority.”
— Natasha Turak, Dimitar Dilkoff | AFP | Getty Images
Governors of international central banks, along with G-7 finance ministers, reiterated their support for Ukraine after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy virtually gave opening remarks before a Multilateral Development Bank roundtable meeting.
“Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues to cause immense human suffering and exacerbate global economic challenges including through adding to inflationary pressures, disrupting supply chains and heightening food and energy insecurity,” the finance leaders said in a joint statement. “We reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine and unity in our condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression.”
The leaders also praised efforts to hamper Russia’s ability to continue invading Ukraine through sanctions and other economic measures. They vowed to strengthen enforcement and take further actions, as needed.
—Chelsey Cox
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told the Washington Post that the country has registered more than 77,000 alleged war crimes committed by Russia.
According to Kostin, there are 150 indictments and 30 convictions “with regard to Russian War criminals [who] committed war crimes on Ukrainian lands.” Kostin told the newspaper that 305 alleged perpetrators have been notified of suspicion.
The alleged crimes “include not only murder … not only humiliation and rape, they also include the destroying of private property. They include forced deportation. They include forced detention of Ukrainians on occupied territories. They include looting on massive scale on the occupied territories,” Kostin said.
CNBC was unable to immediately verify these claims.
— Audrey Wan
Zelenskyy slams ‘beasts’ in gruesome beheading video; Kremlin calls footage ‘terrible’
