Meanwhile, Russia’s top diplomat warned against provoking World War III, with the West offering more military assistance to Ukraine, and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated.”
Follow our blog below to see how events unfolded on Tuesday 26 April:
Tuesday’s key points:
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in Moscow to meet with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to push for a Ukraine ceasefire.
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Representatives from more than 40 countries are meeting in Germany to discuss Ukraine-related defence issues. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin pledged that Ukraine’s allies will “keep moving heaven and earth” to help Kyiv.
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Germany set to authorise the delivery of “Cheetah” type tanks to Ukraine , a major turning point in the cautious approach Berlin has taken to sending military supplies to Ukraine.
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Threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated,” says Russia’s top diplomat.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, pushed back on Twitter: “Russia loses last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine.”
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Russia unleashed a string of attacks against rail and fuel installations deep inside Ukraine on Monday.
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The US is pushing to get more weaponry into Ukraine, having approved a $165 million sale of ammunition and more than $300 million in financing.
16:24
16:10
Zelenskyy adviser warns about Russian intentions in Transnistria
A key adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned about Russia’s intentions in Transnistria, saying that they’re trying to “destabilize” the breakaway region.
Transnistria is a pro-Russian enclave in eastern Moldova, sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. Russian troops have been stationed there since the early 1990’s ostensibly as peacekeepers.
Security incidents on Monday and Tuesday this week have prompted the region’s president to impose “red level” anti-terrorist security measures; while the US has warned amid the war in Ukraine that Russia could launch “false-flag” attacks in nearby nations as a pretext for sending in troops.
15:37
Finland’s foreign minister: ‘probably no difference between Finland and Sweden on NATO’
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto says his country and Sweden both have their own internal processes when it comes to making a decision on whether to apply for NATO membership, but that it would be good if both countries submitted applications at the same time.
Speaking at a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Helsinki, Haavisto said that there was “great symbolic significance” when Finnish President Sauli Niinistö meets the King of Sweden during a state visit in May, but that “one cannot rush ahead of events, as both countries have their own internal process.”
“Of course, it has a great symbolic significance when the President meets the King of Sweden,” he said, referring to media reports in Sweden and Finland on Monday afternoon that the week beginning 16 May would be the likely time for the Nordic neighbours to make a joint bid for NATO membership.
Foreign minister Haavisto also said that Finland had complied with a Ukrainian request not to disclose the exact details of what military hardware was supplied in the most recent package of aid from the Finns. It has been speculated in Finland that they may have supplied Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems which were acquired by the Finns from Russia in the mid-1990s but which are no longer in active use by the Finnish military.
Russia to expel Swedish diplomats
Russia has announced the expulsion of three Swedish diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of three of its own diplomatic staff by the government in Stockholm earlier this month, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the ministry said the move was also in response to Sweden’s military support for Ukraine and “the cover-up of crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the civilian population of Donbass and Ukraine”.
On 5 April Sweden announced that it was expelling three Russian diplomats, with the Swedish foreign minister, Ann Linde, saying at the time that “it is absolutely clear that they are involved in illegal espionage activities in Sweden”.
As a result, she said, they were not working in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Responding to Tuesday’s expulsions, Ann Linde wrote on Twitter that Russia’s actions are “unjustified and disproportionate.”
“By expelling Western diplomats, Russia is blocking its international isolation,” she says.
“Sweden will respond appropriately to Russia’s unwarranted actions.”
14:50
Abnormal radiation levels at Chernobyl, says IAEA chief
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has described radioactivity levels at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine as abnormal.
“The level of radioactivity is absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous,” Grossi told reporters on a visit to the site on Tuesday.
Thousands of Russian tanks and troops rumbled into the forested Chernobyl exclusion zone in the early hours of 24 February, churning up highly contaminated soil from the site of the 1986 accident that is still the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
For more than a month, Russian soldiers bunked in the earth within sight of the massive structure built to contain radiation from the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
14:25
Russia is “ready to cooperate” with UN, says Russian foreign minister
Russia is “ready to cooperate” with the United Nations to relieve the civilian populations in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a press conference in Moscow with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday.
“Our main goal is to protect civilian populations. We are ready to cooperate with our United Nations colleagues to alleviate the suffering of civilian populations,” he said.
Guterres, meanwhile, called upon Kyiv and Moscow to work together with the UN to open humanitarian corridors for those trying to flee the fighting.
14:21
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity, says UN Secretary General
UN Secretary General António Guterres, speaking at a news conference in Moscow with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, pushed back against Russia’s characterisation of the conflict in Ukraine.
“According to the Russian Federation, what is taking place is a special military operation with the objectives that were announced,” he said.
“According to the UN, in line with resolutions passed by the General Assembly, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity and against the charter of the United Nations.”
Guterres also called for investigations into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
13:43
Turkey’s Erdogan urges Putin to come to the negotiating table
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart.
The call comes in the wake of Turkish diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis over Russia’s war in Ukraine, including by hosting Ukrainian and Russian negotiators for talks in Istanbul late last month.
The Turkish presidency said in a statement Tuesday that Erdogan proposed taking the “Istanbul process to the level of leaders, a crucial threshold in the Russia-Ukraine negotiations.” It sought to continue the “positive progress of the Istanbul talks” toward peace.
Talks stalled after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of committing war crimes. Putin later said peace efforts were at a dead end.
Ankara, which maintains close ties to both Kyiv and Moscow, has presented itself as a neutral broker in a bid to end the fighting.
(AP)
12:56
UN chief pleads for Ukraine ceasefire ‘as soon as possible’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded on Tuesday for a ceasefire in Ukraine “as soon as possible,” during his first trip to Moscow since the start of the Russian offensive.
“What interests us a lot is to find the means to create the conditions for an effective dialogue, to create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible”, said Guterres ahead of talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
It is possible to have a “serious dialogue on how to best work to minimize the suffering of people”, he said, adding that the situation in Ukraine is “complex, with different interpretations of what is happening there.”
Lavrov said the pair would discuss “the situation around Ukraine that acts as a catalyst for a great number of problems which had piled up over recent decades in the Euro-Atlantic region.”
Guterres will be received by Russian President Vladimir Putin, after his meeting with Lavrov.
(AP/AFP)
