By This was CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine on April 27, 2023. See here for the latest updates.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia “won’t get away with this crime” after the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv was hit by a Rusian missile attack overnight.
The strike left at least one person dead and 23 injured, including a child, after a house, apartment building and historical building were significantly damaged. Ukraine says it believes Russian used four “Kalibr” cruise missiles to carry out the attack.
President Xi Jinping told his Ukrainian counterpart in a phone call yesterday that Beijing would send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties on resolving the conflict with Russia.
Commenting on the call, Zelenskyy said it was “long and meaningful” and that he believed it would “give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relation.”
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO announced more than $51 million in grants and education assistance for Ukraine.
The funding, from Google, Microsoft and the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, will be used for teacher development, mental health and psychosocial support, education planning, as well as the procurement and distribution of devices to conflict-affected students, according to a UNESCO release.
The agency expects nearly 7,000 school-aged children will benefit from this program.
— Amanda Macias
The Biden administration announced a first round of sanctions targeting Russia and Iran for engaging in hostage-taking and the wrongful detention of U.S. citizens abroad.
The U.S. sanctions take aim at Russia’s Federal Security Service, often known as the FSB, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization, or IRGC IO.
“Our action is a warning to those around the world who would wrongfully detain U.S. nationals, the potential consequences of their actions,” a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on a call with reporters.
The administration has identified at least two American citizens wrongfully detained in Russia and three in Iran along with one legal permanent U.S. resident.
During opening remarks before Monday’s U.N. Security Council meeting, U.S. 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 U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, both detained in Russia.
Thomas-Greenfield invited Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting.
“I want minister Lavrov to look into her eyes and see her suffering. I want you to see what it’s like to miss your brother for four years. To know he is locked up, in a Russian penal colony, simply because you want to use him for your own ends,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Whelan was arrested on espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in a Russian penal colony in 2020.
Read the full story here.
— Amanda Macias
Curators at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv display a variety of items left by Russian soldiers when they occupied areas around Kyiv during the first part of Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Russia ultimately retreated from the capital area, concentrating its land war in the east.
— Getty Images
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss additional ways to support Ukraine and to provide an update on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, among other shared concerns. Guterres will also meet with U.S. lawmakers.
Guterres’ meeting with Blinken comes on the heels of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to the United Nations. Lavrov presided over U.N. Security Council meetings, met with press and held a bilateral meeting with Guterres.
While at the U.N., Lavrov renewed threats of abandoning the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement that allows the safe wartime export of agricultural products from besieged Ukrainian ports.
— Amanda Macias
Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said he asked Pope Francis to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia, the Associated Press reported.
Shmyhal briefed reporters about his half-hour, private Vatican audience and said he also invited Francis to come to Ukraine. A Vatican statement did not detail the particular points of the talk, and noted that Shmyhal also met with the Holy See’s secretary of state and foreign minister, the AP reported.
Francis has repeatedly decried the war in Ukraine and has expressed a desire to visit both Ukraine and Russia to improve the prospects for peace. Shmyhal said that in his talks at the Vatican, he also discussed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s multi-point proposal for peace “and the steps the Vatican could take” in helping that plan become reality, according to the AP report.
— Melodie Warner
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Andrey Guryev, the president of the Russian Fertilizer Producers Association, at the Kremlin.
The meeting comes as Moscow renews threats of abandoning the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement that allows the safe wartime export of agricultural products from besieged Ukrainian ports.
Since the deal was signed in July, more than 900 ships carrying nearly 29 million metric tons of agricultural products have departed from Ukraine’s war-weary ports.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at the U.N. that the agreement is currently one-sided since Russian fertilizers have not been able to transit the same way Ukrainian grain has.
“It was not called the grain deal it was called the Black Sea Initiative and in the text itself the agreement stated that this applies to the expansion of opportunities to export grain and fertilizer,” Lavrov told reporters during a press conference at the U.N. on Tuesday.
“That’s not the deal we agreed to on July 22,” he added. Lavrov said there are dozens of Russian cargo vessels carrying some 200,000 tons of fertilizer stuck at European ports.
— Amanda Macias
The State Department approved a foreign military sale to Norway for MH-60 helicopters as allies look to restock their arsenals amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Lockheed Martin-made MH-60 helicopters and related equipment will cost an estimated $1 billion.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” the State Department wrote in a statement announcing the sale.
— Amanda Macias
Four ships carrying 162,032 metric tons of wheat left Ukraine’s ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Yuzhny-Pivdennyi ports.
The ships are destined for China, Turkey, Kenya and The Netherlands.
A day prior, Ukraine’s Navy said Russia suspended four vessels from moving to and from Ukraine’s ports.
Under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a humanitarian sea corridor, more than 900 ships carrying nearly 29 million metric tons of agricultural products have departed from Ukraine’s war-weary ports. Russia has previously said that it would not recognize an extension of the deal, which could expire in mid-May.
— Amanda Macias
Ukrainian armed forces train for a critical and imminent spring counteroffensive against Russian troops in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Bolstered by billions of dollars worth of American and European military and economic support, Ukrainian forces are aiming to retake significant territory captured by Russia last year, as well as parts of Crimea and the eastern Donbas, where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting since 2014.
The counteroffensive is critical for Ukraine to show U.S. and Western donors that it can win on the battlefield and reverse Russian gains, and hence deserves continued support.
– Getty Images
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it had rejected a request from the U.S. embassy to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in response to Washington’s refusal to grant visas to a group of Russian journalists.
The ministry said it had summoned a senior U.S. diplomat to hand over a formal note of protest against a decision by the United States to not grant visas to a group of Russian journalists meant to accompany Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations in New York this week.
Gershkovich, the U.S. reporter, was arrested last month and accused by Russia of espionage, a charge he has denied. The United States has designated him as wrongfully detained.
Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had rejected a U.S. request to pay him a consular visit on May 11. It said it was considering other retaliatory measures against Washington over the U.N. visa snub, something which Lavrov said at the time Moscow would neither forgive not forget.
Moscow was particularly angered by the U.S. move because it was its turn to chair the U.N. Security Council.
“It was particularly emphasised (to the U.S. diplomat) that such sabotage, intended to prevent normal journalistic work, would not go unanswered,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.
— Reuters
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the West of being behind the planning for Ukraine’s forthcoming counteroffensive.
“The West openly states that it will do everything possible to make the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces, which is planned for the near future, a success,” Zakharova told reporters Thursday.
“That is to say, as you can imagine, they do not even hide that they are behind all this military planning, not only tactical guidance, which we have repeatedly talked about, but also the ongoing disposition [of forces] according to their strategic plan,” she added, Russian state news agency TASS reported in comments translated by Google.
It’s unclear when or where Ukraine’s counteroffensive will start exactly but retaking territory in the east and south, where Russian forces partially occupy several regions, is their key goal.
Zakharova also claimed that representatives of Western countries had been demanding that the Russian side suffer the maximum possible losses, “once again are loudly confirming their direct involvement in the conflict.”
Ukraine’s Western allies in NATO have repeatedly warned that Russia must not be able to win in its armed aggression against Ukraine, fearing that it could embolden Moscow to go further and try to retake other former Soviet states. Still, NATO has said it does not want a direct confrontation with Russia.
NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has frequently described the war as “the most dangerous situation in Europe since World War Two.”
— Holly Ellyatt
NATO allies and partners have delivered almost all their promised combat vehicles to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
“More than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have already been delivered. That means over 1,550 armoured vehicles, 230 tanks, and other equipment, including vast amounts of ammunition,” he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“In total, we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armoured brigades. This will put Ukraine in the strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” he said at a news conference with Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.
— Reuters
The Kremlin welcomed a call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, saying it welcomes everything that can help end the conflict with Ukraine.
“We are ready to welcome everything that can bring the end of the conflict in Ukraine closer and, in fact, Russia’s achievement of all its goals,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s press secretary, told reporters Thursday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
“We are ready to welcome this. As for the very fact of communication, this is a sovereign matter of each of these countries and absolutely a matter of their bilateral dialogue,” Peskov said.
Peskov was also asked whether Xi discussed Kyiv’s peace plan proposals when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in March. One of Kyiv’s main proposals is the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, with annexed Crimea and other territories returned.
“No, this was not discussed,” Peskov replied.
— Holly Ellyatt
Political opposition and activism within Russia has always been fraught with risks but it has become increasingly impossible in recent years, with political analysts saying it is now “extremely dangerous” to oppose the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Being a politician and openly against war and Putin’s rule in Russia is close to impossible,” Anton Barbashin, a Russian political analyst and the editorial director of online journal Riddle Russia, told CNBC.
“All of the opposition political leaders are either in jail or under restrictive measures or outside of the country. I would not say opposition is dead. Opposition is fully illegal,” he noted.
The oppression of political opposition figures in Russia is nothing new. A number of high-profile Russian businessmen and opposition politicians critical of the Kremlin and Putin have been harassed, detained, disappeared or been imprisoned over the last two decades.
Some accuse the Russian state of trying to poison them, while others have died in suspicious circumstances. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement in such cases.
Political analysts note that the repression of Russian opposition figures, and civilians, has become a more urgent matter for the Kremlin with the invasion of Ukraine.
Read more on the story here
Russian forces had established “sandbag fighting positions” on the roofs of reactor buildings at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant by March 2023, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.
Russia seized control of the power plant, Europe’s largest, in March last year. However, the ministry believes this is the first time the reactor buildings have been integrated in tactical defense planning.
“Russia has likely constructed these positions because it is increasingly concerned about the prospects of a major Ukrainian offensive,” said the ministry.
The ministry included an image purportedly showing defensive positions constructed from sandbags on reactor buildings. The plant at Zaporizhzhia is highly contested with both Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of endangering the safety of the facility.
The ministry believes the move highly increases the chances of damage to the plant’s safety systems if fighting takes place around it, although it said “direct catastrophic damage” to the reactors is unlikely.
— Audrey Wan
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia “won’t get away with this crime” after the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv was hit by a Russian missile attack overnight.
The strike left at least one person dead and 23 injured, including a child, after a house, apartment building and historical building were significantly damaged. Ukraine says it believes Russian used four Kalibr cruise missiles to carry out the attack.
Zelenskyy responded to the latest strike on Telegram, commenting that Russia “never ceases to prove that the main goal of this war is terror and the destruction of Ukrainians and everything Ukrainian.”
“At night, Russia shelled Mykolaiv with four Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Sea. High-precision weapons were aimed at private houses, a historic building and a high-rise building,” he said.
Russia “will not get away with this yet another crime against humanity,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “there will be accountability for everything.”
Russia has repeatedly said it does not target civilian infrastructure, despite multiple instances of civilian buildings being struck during missile and drone attacks.
— Holly Ellyatt
At least one person died and 23 were injured, including a child, following an overnight Russian missile strike on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.
One private house was destroyed while a high-rise residential building and historical building were significantly damaged, a spokesperson from the Ukrainian army’s Operational Command South said on Facebook.
Russian forces fired four “Kalibr” missiles fired from the Black Sea direction that used “terrain features and trajectory changes to complicate detection,” the spokesperson said, according to a NBC News translation.
A fire caused by the missiles was extinguished and the dismantling of damaged buildings is ongoing, he added.
CNBC was unable to immediately verify the details within the report.
— Audrey Wan
Ukraine’s Navy said Russia suspended four vessels from moving to and from Ukraine’s ports.
“As a result, today 4 vessels, including vessel AKDENIZ-M, which has been chartered by the World Food Program of the United Nations to deliver wheat to Ethiopia, were unable to leave the ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdenny and had to wait for additional time for their passage to be approved,” Ukraine’s Navy wrote on their official Facebook page.
Under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a humanitarian sea corridor, more than 900 ships carrying nearly 29 million metric tons of agricultural products have departed from Ukraine’s war-weary ports.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov renewed Moscow’s threats of abandoning the deal on Tuesday following meetings at the United Nations.
Read more about Moscow’s demands for renewing the Black Sea Grain Initiative here.
— Amanda Macias
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the country is pushing for weapons production facilities to be moved into the country from France, Germany, Poland and the UK.
“Our defense industry is gaining momentum even now when the war continues. We are interested in localizing the production of such military equipment in Ukraine, which we receive from our partners,” Zelenskyy said via video conference during a meeting on Ukraine’s reconstruction, according to an NBC News translation.
Zelenskyy added that Ukraine is already investing in several new production facilities for its own weapons and ammunition.
— Amanda Macias
The White House said it has not seen evidence that China has agreed to provide Russia with lethal weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
“We still have seen no indication that the People’s Republic of China has moved in that direction and again, we reiterate that we don’t believe it would be in their best interest to do so,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on a call with reporters.
Kirby’s comments came on the heels of a call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese President Xi Jinping. He added that the U.S. did not have advanced knowledge of the call but added that, “These are two sovereign leaders, and we’re glad to see that they did talk.”
Clarification: This post has been updated to state that the U.S. has not seen evidence of China providing or moving to provide Russia with lethal weapons
— Amanda Macias
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymry Zelenskyy’s office, said on Telegram that Russia returned 42 Ukrainian servicemen in the latest prisoner swap.
Yermak said that two Ukrainian civilians were also returned.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on its official Telegram channel that 40 troops were returned by Ukraine.
“All those released are being provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance,” the ministry added.
— Amanda Macias
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni urged European allies to quickly start the negotiations needed to grant Ukraine’s full European Union membership bid, the Associated Press reported.
“The smartest way to thank Ukrainians for what they are doing is to accelerate their chance of being part of the European institutions. We need to acknowledge Kyiv’s enormous efforts to reform its system and bring it closer to targets required by the EU Commission,” Meloni said in the AP report.
Rome hosted a bilateral conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction, which attracted over a thousand Italian and Ukrainian businesses, said Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to the AP.
A World Bank report has estimated it will cost Ukraine $411 billion over the next 10 years to recover and rebuild from the war, according to the AP report.
— Melodie Warner
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a “long and meaningful” phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
“I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relation,” Zelenskyy added in a comment on Twitter.
Ukraine has been waiting for an audience with Xi since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and particularly after Xi’s recent visit to Moscow in March.
China is seen as one of the few countries that could influence Russia to end its military aggression against Ukraine although despite its calls for peace, Beijing is widely seen as allied with Moscow in terms of its anti-Western ideological perspective and opposition to a perceived U.S. hegemony in global affairs.
China said Wednesday that during the phone call with Zelenskyy, Xi had said he will send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties on reaching a cease-fire and an end to the conflict.
— Holly Ellyatt
China will send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties on resolving the crisis there, President Xi Jinping told his Ukrainian counterpart on Wednesday, Chinese state media reported.
Xi made the remarks during a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, state broadcaster CCTV said.
China will focus on promoting peace talks, and make efforts for a ceasefire as soon as possible, Xi told Zelenskyy, according to the report.
Xi said in early April he was willing to speak with Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy had repeatedly asked Xi to meet him, including after the Chinese leader visited Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month.
— Reuters
China will send representatives to Ukraine for talks; Kyiv praises ‘long and meaningful’ call with Xi
