April 7, 2024
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 04:49 Netherlands: Kiev gets 24 F-16 fighter jets +++
The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with more than 20 F-16 fighter jets. The first deliveries should begin this year, explains Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren. “In total, we will transfer 24 F-16 fighter jets. They will be handed over to Ukraine as soon as everything is ready. This timing depends on the training of Ukrainian pilots and technical personnel, and of course also on the infrastructure,” said the Dutch Minister. Danish jets would be delivered first, then Dutch ones.
+++ 03:57 Zelensky is pushing for an early Swiss peace summit +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes that he and the Federal President of Switzerland, Viola Amherd, will be able to set a date for a peace summit in Switzerland in the next few days. “We assume that we will have 80 to 100 countries,” Zelenskyi said on Ukrainian television. That is the number of countries that he believes would be able to at least try to persuade Russia to a fair peace. The Russian side said that such a meeting would be pointless if it did not take part. Kiev has been planning the global peace summit for a while and had said Russia would not be invited.
+++ 02:29 Two-sided shelling in Donetsk: dead and injured +++
According to official reports, at least five civilians were killed by Russian artillery fire in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office in the region said a minor was among the victims in the Pokrovsk district. Two people were also injured. Residential buildings in several towns were hit. Pokrovsk County is located just a few kilometers from the front, west of Donetsk. On the other hand, the authorities in the regional capital Donetsk, which is occupied by Russian troops, report eleven people injured by Ukrainian shelling. Two children were among the injured, writes the head of the Russian-annexed Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, on his Telegram channel. Nine residential buildings were damaged in different parts of the city.
+++ 01:23 Pro-Russian candidate wins presidential election in Slovakia +++
Peter Pellegrini, who belongs to the pro-Russian camp, wins the runoff election for the presidency in Slovakia. After 99.8 percent of the votes were counted, the former head of government came to 53 percent. The pro-Western candidate Ivan Korcok accounts for almost 47 percent. In the first round of voting two weeks ago, the ex-foreign minister was just ahead of Pellegrini. Pellegrini’s victory will strengthen Prime Minister Robert Fico’s push for greater control over the media, weakening of anti-corruption laws and less aid to Ukraine. The defeated Korcok was supported by the pro-Western liberal opposition.
+++ 00:05 Strack-Zimmermann: Taurus debate “catastrophe for Ukraine” +++
The chairwoman of the Defense Committee, Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, calls the party-political discussion about a delivery of Taurus cruise missiles a “catastrophe for Ukraine”: With the system, Russian supplies could have been interrupted “at an early stage,” says the FDP. Politician for the “Lübecker Nachrichten”. The ten-month discussion ensures “that the Russians will also prepare for this and move their supply routes from the Kerch Bridge in Crimea to another route.”
+++ 23:22 Zelenskyj open to US arms aid on credit +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is open to the offer of US arms aid on credit. “We will accept any option,” Zelensky said in an interview on Ukrainian television. The idea of giving Ukraine the weapons on credit came from former US President Donald Trump, who is aiming to return to the White House in November. His party, the Republicans, has been blocking the release of an arms package worth $60 billion to Ukraine for months.
+++ 22:18 London: Russians may have shot down their own fighter jet over Sevastopol +++
Britain’s Defense Intelligence Agency reports that Russia likely shot down its own Su-27 fighter jet on March 28 due to Ukrainian attacks on the city of Sevastopol (Russian-occupied Crimea); this incident was reported by a Crimean Telegram channel. British intelligence notes that the Ukrainian attacks on targets in Sevastopol and the Russian Black Sea Fleet almost certainly resulted in local Russian air defenses being placed on high alert, so the incident may have been the result of friendly fire . According to the intelligence service, there have been previously unconfirmed reports of similar cases of friendly shelling, usually after a series of actions by Ukraine against Russian forces in territory illegally occupied by Russia. “There is a realistic possibility that this is not a technical problem, but that the increased pressure and tension among the Russian air defense forces, triggered by fear of further Ukrainian action, causes them to inadvertently kill their own pilots and attack aircraft,” the report said.
+++ 21:49 More than 13,000 Ukrainian children have been deprived of their parents since the start of the war +++
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, more than 13,000 children have become orphans or lost their parents, says Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, more than 13,000 children have been given the status of orphans or children without parental care. These are children who were orphaned in various ways or whose parents are in captivity or in a Russian prison “Every year in Ukraine, at least 4,000 children are left without parental care,” explains Zholnovych. Before the guardianship authority determines their legal status, these children are usually placed in orphanages or homes. However, instead of being accommodated in special facilities, it is also possible to live with relatives.
You can read all previous developments here.