WAR IN UKRAINE: April 25, 2023

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 426

  • The United States and Western allies took turns slamming Russia for its ongoing war in Ukraine and accused Moscow of trampling over the U.N. Charter, during a lengthy Security Council meeting chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "Our hypocritical convenor today, Russia, invaded its neighbor Ukraine and struck at the heart of the U.N. Charter," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, referring to the U.N.'s founding document that vows to preserve sovereignty, peace, justice and the prevention of war. "This illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most sacred principle: that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable," she said. "Today it's Ukraine, but tomorrow it could be another country, another small nation that is invaded by its larger neighbor," she added. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who sat next to Lavrov, criticized Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and said it was in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law. The conflict he said was "causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people and adding to the global economic dislocation triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic” - CNBC

  • In what was probably the most laughable line of the day out of the UN: after Russian journalists weren’t given the OK to come to US allegedly until last minute, the Kremlin’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, instructed western journalists “compensate for the loss of the presence of Russian journalists by trying to make your reporting objective.” This coming from the representative of a regime which locks up journalists on an industrial scale.

  • A drone loaded with 17 kilos of C-4 explosives was found on the outskirts of Moscow, Rusian state news agency TASS reported on April 24, quoting an unnamed source in law enforcement - RFE/RL

  • During a visit to Ukraine, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said she backed Kyiv's efforts to join NATO and the European Union "as soon as conditions allow."

  • Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their strategic positions in Bakhmut, a senior military commander has said after Russia claimed it had made advances in the city that has been the epicenter of a fierce monthslong battle for the control of the eastern Donetsk region.

Michael BociurkiwComment