26 minutes ago
Yellen expects to mobilize G7 members next week as the war in Russia drags on
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrives in Washington, DC on April 20, 2023 to address Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Anna Moneymaker | News from Getty Images | Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to urge members of the world’s largest economies to coordinate fiscal action related to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Yellen, who will attend the meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors in Japan, will ask her counterparts to continue their engagement on Ukraine while holding Russia to account, according to a Finance Ministry statement.
Yellen is also expected to provide an update on the G7 coalition price cap for Russian energy.
– Amanda Macias
27 minutes ago
Zelenskyy meets with investment firm BlackRock to discuss efforts to restore Ukraine’s economy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a session of Ukraine’s Parliament amid the Russian attack on Ukraine February 7, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | Portal
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the management of the US investment company BlackRock.
“The parties discussed the details of setting up an investment fund to restore Ukraine’s economy with the participation of public and private capital,” read a selection of the meeting provided by Kyiv.
BlackRock agreed to support services related to the Ukraine Development Fund, an initiative aimed at mobilizing private and public capital for large-scale business projects in Ukraine.
“It is a historic moment, if not the greatest opportunity to unite the private and public sectors at a time when technological innovation can become a catalyst for further development,” said Philipp Hildebrand, Vice Chairman of BlackRock, according to Kyiv.
– Amanda Macias
33 minutes ago
Zelenskyy meets with bipartisan lawmakers in Ukraine
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky posed during a meeting with De Croo and Rutte (both not pictured) on the situation in Ukraine and European support for the country in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday May 04, 2023 .
Dirk Wäm | AFP | Getty Images
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers including MPs Joe Wilson (RS.C.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), as well as the Permanent Representative of the United States to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe or OSCE, Michael Carpenter.
Zelenskyy said such visits to Ukraine were “a strong signal of support from the United States,” and thanked US lawmakers for their bipartisan support and continued security assistance.
Zelenskyi briefed lawmakers on the battlefield, discussed additional security packages, and shared Kiev’s perspective on expanding the grain corridor and the threats to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
– Amanda Macias
2 hours ago
Milley speaks with a Ukrainian counterpart after a string of Russian airstrikes
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley looks on during a news conference following a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group during a two-day meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers at NATO Headquarters in Brussels February 14, 2023.
Kenzo Tribouillard | AFP | Getty Images
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, spoke with the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
“They discussed the unprovoked and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and exchanged perspectives and assessments,” reads a Pentagon readout of the call.
Milley also took the opportunity to tell Zaluzhnyi that the US will continue to exercise its unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
– Amanda Macias
2 hours ago
Defense minister meets with Polish Pentagon counterpart over ways to help Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (R) and Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of Defense Marius Blaszczak listen to national anthems at a welcoming ceremony on the steps of the Pentagon May 5, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Almond Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with his Polish counterpart at the Pentagon to discuss further ways to help Ukraine.
Austin last met with Mariusz Blaszczak, Poland’s defense minister, in Germany two weeks ago during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
Austin thanked Blaszczak for hosting US troops in Poland to train Ukrainian soldiers.
Blaszczak told Austin he expected Warsaw to continue its support for Kiev until the end of the war. He also said he expects Poland to continue buying weapons and equipment from the US
– Amanda Macias
3 hours ago
Ukrainian and Russian delegates clash ahead of Black Sea Grains Initiative meeting
Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Marikovski landed multiple blows to the head of a Russian official after his flag was ripped from his hands.
Source: Servant of the People’s Party Press Service via Portal
Russian and Ukrainian officials were separated during a physical altercation ahead of a meeting on extending the Black Sea Grains Initiative, an accord that established a humanitarian sea corridor amid Russia’s naval blockade of Ukrainian ports.
Moscow has previously said the deal was unilateral and has threatened to hold off on extending the scheme. The agreement expires in mid-May, according to Russian officials.
A scuffle broke out on Thursday when Valery Stavitsky snatched a Ukrainian flag from his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksandr Marikovski. according to SkyNews.
Marikovski, a Ukrainian MP, snatched back the flag and shoved the Russian delegate and landed several punches, the Associated Press reported.
Bystanders separated the men and said, “No fights, please.” Marikovski replied, “It’s our flag. We will fight for this flag,” read an Associated Press translation of the brief altercation.
More than 900 ships carrying nearly 30 million tons of agricultural products have left Ukraine’s war-weary ports as part of the UN-backed grain deal.
– Amanda Macias
4 hours ago
A ship leaves the Ukrainian port of Odessa as part of the UN-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative
Grain corridor traffic of Istanbul on April 18, 2023 in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Cemal yurts | Getty Images
A ship carrying 32,300 tons of corn left the Ukrainian port of Odessa for Tunisia as part of the Black Sea Grains Initiative.
The United Nations-backed humanitarian sea corridor has allowed more than 900 ships carrying more than 29 million tons of agricultural products to leave war-weary Ukrainian ports.
The deal was brokered in July by officials from Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations. Russia has previously said it would not recognize an extension to the deal, which could expire in mid-May.
The Ukrainian Navy has previously said that Russia is preventing ships from entering and leaving Ukrainian ports to weaponize food.
– Amanda Macias
5 hours before
The United Nations is “appalled and saddened” by a series of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine
A member of the mobile air defense group known as “Drone Fighters” checks on April 1.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine issued a statement saying he was “appalled and saddened” by the intensified series of Russian airstrikes over the past week.
“We are extremely concerned by the plight of civilians following nearly a week of nighttime airstrikes and attacks that have left dozens dead and injured,” the UN’s Matthew Hollingworth said in a statement.
He added that critical infrastructure had been destroyed, adding to the dire humanitarian situation.
– Amanda Macias
5 hours before
Air alerts are going off all over Ukraine
According to Ukrainian officials, many regions of Ukraine, including the capital Kiev, issued airstrike alerts on Friday.
Such warnings of Russian attacks have increased in recent days in Kyiv, which has been relatively stable compared to the eastern part of the country and typically sees fewer warnings than other areas.
— Michele Luhn
7 hours ago
Putin discussed preparations for Victory Day with the Security Council
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with Security Council members via video link in Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2023.
Mikhail Klimentyev | Sputnik | Portal
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed preparations for the May 9 Victory Day Parade at a meeting with his Security Council on Friday, RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the Kremlin.
Moscow has said the parade will go ahead as planned, despite its claims that Ukraine tried to kill Putin in a drone strike on the Kremlin in the early hours of Wednesday. Kiev has denied any involvement in the incident.
– Portal
10 hours ago
Flooding at Ukraine’s dam could threaten a major nuclear power plant, a Russian official says
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Karl Hof | Getty Images
Record high water levels at the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine could threaten the safety of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, a Russian official warned.
A breach of the dam would flood the power cable for pumping stations at the Zaporizhia power plant, Renat Karchaa, a consultant to Russian nuclear power company Rosenergoatom, told Russian media outlet Tass.
“The [would create] functional problems for the operation of the plant and risks for nuclear safety,” he said.
Russian forces took over the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of the country’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow and Kiev blame each other for the constant shelling of the plant, which they and other world leaders and the United Nations say that there is a serious risk of a nuclear crisis.
— Natasha Turak
12 hours ago
Wagner troops will leave embattled Bakhmut on May 10, leader says
A wreath topped with a sign reading ‘PMC Wagner. Blood. Honor. fatherland. Courage” is laid on a grave in a cemetery in the city of Yefremov, Tula region, on March 23, 2023.
Natalia Kolesnikova | AFP | Getty Images
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces would leave the devastated city of Bakhmut on May 10, and announced the withdrawal in a sudden statement that followed a dramatic video of Russia’s top defense officials being slammed.
“I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that we are obliged to lick our wounds on the 10th,” Prigozhin said in the statement translated by Portal.
“I draw Wagner units from Bakhmut because without ammunition they are doomed to die needlessly.”
Wagner has largely led the fighting in Bakhmut, the site of the longest and most violent battle of the war, but has complained about a lack of support and ammunition from Moscow. In early April, Prigozhin claimed his forces controlled more than 80% of the eastern city.
Ukraine has refused to give up the completely devastated city, often dubbed the “meat grinder,” because its officials say Russian control over it would give Russian forces much easier access to the rest of eastern Ukraine.
— Natasha Turak
12 hours ago
Bill Clinton says he believed in 2011 that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was “only a matter of time”.
Former US President Bill Clinton during an interview for an episode of “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations” at 92nd Street Y in New York, United States, on Thursday, May 4, 2023.
jeenah moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
That’s what former US President Bill Clinton said He announced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2011, saying he believed it was “only a matter of time,” according to a Financial Times article.
“Bill Clinton said he realized in 2011 that it was ‘only a matter of time’ before Vladimir Putin crossed over to Ukraine after a chilling discussion with the Russian President in Davos, Switzerland,” reads the FT post .
“During that encounter, Clinton said, Putin rejected a US-brokered deal agreed by his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, to respect Ukraine’s territory in exchange for Kiev giving up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal.”
“‘Vladimir Putin told me in 2011 – three years before he took Crimea – that he didn’t agree with the deal I made with Boris Yeltsin,’ the former US president recalled. ‘He said… ‘I don’t agree with that. And I don’t support it. And I’m not bound by it.’ And I knew from that day it was only a matter of time.’”
— Natasha Turak
12 hours ago
Wagner leader slams Russian defense chiefs over lack of ammunition
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the private military company Wagner
Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images
The leader of the Russian mercenary company Wagner Group delivered a scathing criticism of the Russian armed forces in a gruesome video in which he was filmed surrounded by the bodies of dead Russian soldiers.
“We have a 70% ammo shortage. Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is the [expletive] Ammunition?”
According to a Portal translation, Yevgeny Prigozhin yelled in the video, whose expletives were booed by Russian media.
The names referred to are Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
The video summed up a feud between Wagner and Russia’s top military that lasted many months.
Prigozhin said that those responsible would go to hell and that Wagner’s casualties would be a fraction of what they are if the forces had been properly supplied.
“These are Wagner boys who died today. The blood is still fresh,” Prigozhin said, according to Portal.
“You came here as volunteers and you die so you can get fat in your offices.”
— Natasha Turak
12 hours ago
Russian foreign minister says nations should stop talking to Zelenskyy after drone strike on Kremlin
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addresses the media during a news conference at the United Nations (UN) headquarters April 25, 2023 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | News from Getty Images | Getty Images
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that “any self-respecting country” would stop talking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after an attempted drone strike over the Kremlin that Moscow says was carried out by Ukraine.
“Regarding the terrorist attack on the Kremlin and the residence of the head of state, we have made our position clear. I think we should not wait for further incidents and provocations,” he said during a visit to India.
“Zelenskyy and his team are doing everything in the media space and in their practical steps to ensure that every self-respecting country refrains from speaking or communicating with them. That’s a fact,” Lavrov said.
Ukraine has claimed Wednesday’s drone strike was orchestrated by Moscow, while the US has dismissed Russian claims that Washington was behind it.
— Natasha Turak
21 hours ago
The intelligence chief warns that Russia and China are using the debt default to portray the United States as chaotic
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee to investigate global threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, May 4, 2023.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
The director of America’s top spy agency warned lawmakers Thursday that Russia and China will take advantage of a potential US default.
“It would almost be a certainty that they would try to seize the opportunity,” Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee when asked about the national security implications of leaving the US on the sidelines standing on a fiscal cliff.
Haines, who heads America’s 18 intelligence agencies, said Russia and China are trying to “highlight the chaos in the United States, our inability to function as a democracy.”
In February, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel warned that the federal government defaulting on its bills in a historic first will weaken America’s national security.
“The consequence of debt ceiling brinksmanship is a dangerous, self-inflicted wound that tells both our friends and enemies that we cannot be trusted. Such brinksmanship weakens our national security,” the former Pentagon chiefs wrote in a letter.
The former secretaries added that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be “watching to gauge the credibility of US economic power” as Washington spearheads efforts to provide security assistance to Kiev and coordinate global sanctions against Moscow.
Read the whole story here.
– Amanda Macias
Thu, May 4, 2023 5:05 p.m. EDT
The US denies any involvement in an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin
Russian police officers guard Red Square in front of the Kremlin May 3, 2023 in Moscow, Russia.
Contributor | News from Getty Images | Getty Images
The Biden administration issued another round of denials that it directed or aided Wednesday’s alleged drone attack on the Kremlin.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that the Kremlin’s claims of US involvement were “just lies.”
“We’re still trying to gather information about what happened and we just don’t have conclusive evidence one way or the other. I know there are many questions, but we just don’t have conclusive evidence. One thing I can tell you for sure is that the United States was in no way involved in this incident, which contradicts Mr. Peskov’s lies. That’s what they are, just lies,” Kirby said, referring to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Meanwhile, Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel refused to say whether US officials spoke to Russian counterparts about the attack.
“The United States was not involved or had any role at all,” Patel said, adding that the US “is still unable to confirm the authenticity of these reports.”
– Amanda Macias
Thu, May 4, 2023 3:47 PM EDT
US intelligence services do not know who is behind the Kremlin attack
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with government officials via video link April 19, 2023 at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia.
Gavriil Grigorov | Kremlin | Sputnik | via Portal
US Intelligence Director Avril Haines told lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not spending the night in the Kremlin following a drone strike on Wednesday.
Russia has claimed that Ukraine and the US were behind the alleged drone strike.
Haines told the Senate Armed Services Committee that intelligence agencies do not currently have enough information to determine who was behind the attack.
– Amanda Macias
12 hours ago