WAR IN UKRAINE: April 14, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: April 14, 2023
Ukraine remains adamant in its demand that Russia withdraw its troops from all its occupied lands, including the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. Meanwhile, Germany approved Warsaw’s request for Poland to transfer five Soviet-designed fighter jets to Ukraine - VOA
Russia said Thursday that the United Nations-brokered Black Sea grain deal would not be extended beyond May 18 unless the West removed a set of obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer, according to Reuters.
Ukraine’s defense and foreign ministers have stressed the need for NATO engagement -- including membership for Kyiv -- to safeguard security in their country and the entire Black Sea region, as Russian forces continued their assault on the city of Bakhmut and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine. "We need a system of guarantees that would make aggression from Russia impossible," defense chief Oleksiy Reznikov told a security conference in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on April 13. “There is no alternative to Ukraine's accession to NATO," he said - RFE/RL
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva kicked off a state visit to China in the country's financial hub of Shanghai as he seeks to position himself as a peace broker in the ongoing war in Ukraine while attempting to elevate Brazil's global status and boost economic ties with Beijing. key piece of Lula's outreach is courting political backing for his proposal that Brazil and other developing countries, including China, form a "peace club" to broker a deal to end the war in Ukraine, a conflict that has been rumbling on since 2014 before intensifying in February 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion. Beijing has also sought to play a role in ending the conflict. Both Lula and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira have said that peace talks will be a centerpiece of discussions with Xi, with Vieira saying earlier this week that "by the time Lula returns home, a group of mediator countries will have been created." Analysts, however, remain skeptical about the chances of Lula's peace proposal, which is unlikely to gain support from Kyiv and its backers given China's close ties with Russia and past comments from the Brazilian leader that Ukraine should cede Crimea -- which was forcibly annexed by Moscow in 2014 -- as a means to reach a deal. "Lula sees a critical juncture here and an opportunity to assert himself and revive Brazilian foreign policy in the process," Carlos Solar, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense and security think tank, told RFE/RL. "But for the 'peace club' idea to work, you need to be seen as a peace broker by both sides and Kyiv doesn't seem to view Brazil as impartial."