05/04/2023
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 00:15 Selenskyj drives to The Hague +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in the Netherlands. A Dutch government plane landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport coming from Helsinki. The TV station NOS shows footage of the landing and the motorcade driving towards The Hague with a strong police escort. According to media reports, Zelenskyj will meet Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren there. A visit to the International Criminal Court is also on the agenda.
+++ 23:18 Finnish newspaper circumvents Russian censorship with Counter-Strike +++
A Finnish newspaper hides information and reports about the war in Ukraine in the worldwide popular online game Counter-Strike. The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports that she has found a way to circumvent media censorship in Russia. Counter-Strike allows players to create custom maps that anyone can download and use. “So we built a Slavic town called Wojna, which means war in Russian,” explains Antero Mukka, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief. In the basement of one of the city’s buildings, the technicians of “Helsingin Sanomat” hid a room where players can find reports in Russian made by the newspaper’s war correspondents in Ukraine. They covered the walls of the digital space with articles and photos documenting events such as the massacres in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Irpin. It is “information that is not available in the Russian state’s propaganda apparatus,” said Mukka.
+++ 22:11 Selenskyj travels to the Netherlands +++
According to media reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on his way to the Netherlands. The news agency ANP and the TV channel NOS reported that he flew out of Helsinki on the Dutch government plane in the evening. It is Zelenskyi’s first visit to the Netherlands and it was not previously announced. According to reports, Selenskyj is to give a speech this Thursday. The government in The Hague has not yet confirmed the reports. The Netherlands has so far provided Ukraine with military aid of around 1.2 billion euros for its defense against Russia’s war of aggression.
+++ 21:47 Russian armed forces are said to have installed explosives in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant +++
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Russian military has planted explosives in the fourth power block of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. This is what former Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko writes on Twitter.
+++ 21:17 death toll in the Cherson region continues to rise +++
According to official sources, at least 19 people were killed by Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson. At least twelve people died in the regional capital of Cherson alone, the prosecutor said. 47 others were injured. Three electricians died north of the city and another civilian north-east from Russian fire. 16 deaths had previously been reported.
+++ 20:57 USA puts together another military aid package with anti-tank weapons and missiles +++
The US government has announced new military aid for Ukraine worth 300 million US dollars (a good 271 million euros). This is ammunition for weapon systems such as the HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and artillery shells, said the US State Department. The United States is also sending anti-tank weapons, missiles and small arms to Kiev. The package also includes “trucks and trailers for transporting heavy equipment, as well as spare parts and other essential field equipment.” This will allow Ukraine to continue defending itself against Russian incursion.
You can read the developments of the previous day here.