By This was CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine.
NATO foreign ministers are gathering in Brussels, where the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is proposing a five-year, 100 billion euro ($107 billion) military and fund for Ukraine. It is not yet clear where the money would come from.
The U.K.’s Foreign Minister David Cameron meanwhile is urging member states to invest more in defense and increase industrial production, saying it is necessary if the alliance wants Ukraine to defeat Russia.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s air defenses shot down four Iranian-made Shahen drones fired from Russia overnight, its air force said in a statement.
Photos published via Getty Images on Wednesday show people reacting to Russian shelling in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine and a military band performing to commemorate the 34th anniversary of raising the Ukrainian flag in western Lviv.
— Sam Meredith
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office sent official requests for information to the U.S., France, Germany and Cyprus over its suspicion of Western states’ potental involvement in terror attacks inside Russia, state news outlet Tass reported, citing a statement from the government office.
Tass reported that the office was prompted to send the inquiries following requests from members of Russia’s State Duma to investigate potential foreign involvement in terror attacks including the attack at Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall in late March which killed at least 144 people, as well as the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.
In its statement, Russia’s top prosecution body said it hoped that “our colleagues in these countries will earnestly consider the requests and fulfill their obligations under the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, which involve investigating the information provided, facilitating efforts to obtain evidence necessary for probes, and ensuring that punishments be duly carried out.”
— Natasha Turak
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is pressing for the alliance to be more directly involved in the delivery of military aid to Ukraine.
Speaking at the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Stoltenberg said the organization will examine how it can take on a greater role in coordinating weapons and other equipment for Kyiv — something that has thus far been the purview of a U.S.-led contact group.
“Ukraine has urgent needs — any delay in providing support has consequences on the battlefield as we speak,” Stoltenberg told the meeting’s attendees. “So we need to shift the dynamics of our support.”
“We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for long haul so that we rely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short term offers and more on multiyear pledges,” he said, declining to provide specifics but adding that a multi-year financial commitment would also be part of the plan.
“NATO allies provide 99% of all military support to Ukraine,” he said. “So doing more under NATO would make our efforts more efficient and more effective.”
— Natasha Turak
Ukraine’s defense minister thanked Finland for a 188 million euro ($202.5 million) military aid package the Nordic country announced for Kyiv, detailing the two countries’ latest cooperation in a post on X.
“I am grateful to our Finnish partners and Minister @anttihakkanen for another military aid package for Ukraine valued at up to €188 million,” Rustem Umerov wrote in his post. “We also strengthened our defense cooperation: today, Ukraine and Finland signed an agreement on security cooperation and long-term support.”
“Finland will provide long-term military and financial assistance and step up political, financial, humanitarian, and reform cooperation,” the post read. “Together, we are stronger. Thank you for your steadfast support.”
— Natasha Turak
Ukraine’s new law lowering the military mobilization age from 27 to 25 went into effect on Wednesday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the legislation a day prior. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved the law in May 2023.
The lowered mobilization age “is one of many measures that Ukraine has been considering in an ongoing effort to create a sustainable wartime force-generation apparatus,” and “will support the Ukrainian military’s ability to restore and reconstitute existing units and to create new units,” the U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War wrote in a report.
“Ukraine will need to equip any newly mobilized military personnel with weapons, and prolonged US debates about military aid to Ukraine and delays in Western aid may impact the speed at which Ukraine can restore degraded and stand up new units,” the report said, adding that Western-provided equipment remains the “greatest deciding factor” in the Ukrainian military’s combat abilities.
— Natasha Turak
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with his Danish counterpart Lars Løkke Rasmussen during a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, and thanked him for his government’s support in a post on X.
“I began my day at NATO HQ in Brussels by meeting my Danish colleague and friend @LarsLoekke. I am grateful to Denmark for its excellent support for Ukraine: military aid, investment, recovery, and other assistance,” the post read.
“We discussed Ukraine’s priority needs in military aid, particularly air defense systems and missiles. I am also pleased that Denmark is working on a new military aid package to bolster our defense.”
— Natasha Turak
NATO has returned to a Cold War state of mind, Russia’s foreign ministry said as the alliance’s leaders are meeting in Brussels during the week of the organization’s 75-year anniversary.
“Today, in relations with Russia, the bloc has returned to Cold War settings,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told press, according to a translation by Reuters.
Zakharova said NATO has no place in a “multipolar world,” and that its 75th birthday is no reason to celebrate, Reuters reported.
— Natasha Turak
British Foreign Minister David Cameron urged NATO allies to commit more to defense spending and production as the coalition expands.
He will deliver a speech to that affect as NATO foreign ministers gather in Brussels.
“Seventy-five years after its creation, we are celebrating a NATO that has never been stronger or more important, especially following Sweden’s accession last month,” Cameron said in pre-prepared remarks published on the U.K. foreign office website.
“With Ukraine closer to NATO than ever, we must sustain the critical support Ukraine needs to win the war,” Cameron said. “Allies need to step up and spend more on defense in the face of continued Russian aggression and a more dangerous world.”
— Natasha Turak
Ukrainian air defenses shot down four Russian drones overnight in the eastern Donetsk region, the country’s military said.
“On the night of April 3, 2024, the enemy attacked the Donetsk region with three S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles and launched 4 Shahed-136/131 UAVs from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk area of the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian state news outlet Ukrinform quoted the country’s air force as saying in a statement.
“Mobile fire groups” intercepted the Iranian-made Shahed drones in the regions of Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, and Cherkasy, the statement added.
— Natasha Turak
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday will reportedly propose a 100 billion euro ($107 billion) military aid fund for Ukraine, the duration of which would be five years.
The package would allow the transatlantic alliance to aid Ukraine more directly, Reuters reported, citing five unnamed diplomats.
— Natasha Turak
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed a bill to cut the mobilisation age for combat duty to 25 from 27, the parliament’s website showed.
— Reuters
Admiral Alexander Moiseyev was confirmed on Tuesday as the new head of Russia’s navy.
Moiseyev took on the role in an acting capacity two weeks ago. Local media reported that his predecessor, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, was fired following a series of successful Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea.
While Ukraine does not have its own navy, Kyiv has targeted Russian warships on the Black Sea multiple times since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, and last month claimed to have destroyed a Russian landing ship.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Moiseyev’s appointment on a conference call Tuesday, according to a Reuters report. He also presented the appointment of Vice Admiral Konstantin Kabantsov as commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet, and Vice Admiral Sergei Pinchuk as commander of the Black Sea fleet.
— Jenni Reid
Ukraine strikes Russian major oil refinery; Zelenskyy signs bill lowering mobilization age to 25
