Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed that the “real” threat of a third world war still exists, in interviews with Russian media, although he said peace talks would continue and an agreement would eventually be signed. He said supplies of Western arms to Ukraine meant the NATO alliance was “essentially engaged in a war with Russia.”
Around 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion began, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said. Speaking in Parliament Monday afternoon, he added that 2,000 armored vehicles had been destroyed or captured, including 530 tanks. Russia is said to have lost more than 60 helicopters and fighter jets.
The UK will send a small number of Stormer missile launchers to Ukraine and the total amount of military aid could rise to £500m ($637m). Britain has deployed 5,361 light anti-tank weapons (NLAWs) and 200 Javelin anti-tank missiles and will provide 250 Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles.
Five train stations in central and western Ukraine were hit by Russian airstrikes within an hour on Monday. Oleksander Kamyshin, head of Ukraine Railways, said five train stations came under fire, causing an unspecified number of casualties, as most of Ukraine was under an unusually long airstrike alert for two hours Monday morning.
Russia should be “weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. said after he and Foreign Minister Antony Blinken visited Kyiv and pledged another $713 million to help Ukraine in its war effort. Blinken said Russia has “failed” its war goals while Ukraine is succeeding. He added that the US had adopted a strategy of “massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure on Russia” from across NATO.
The Russian foreign ministry said it had expelled 40 German diplomats in retaliation after Berlin expelled the same number of Russian diplomats. Russia’s foreign ministry said it made the decision after Germany on April 4 declared a “significant number” of officials at the Russian embassy in Berlin “undesirable”.
A senior Russian diplomat was quoted as saying that a ceasefire in Ukraine is not a “good option”. and claimed that Kyiv could use it to “stage provocations”. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said: “Ukraine is undermining our efforts to open humanitarian corridors, so we don’t see a ceasefire as a good option now.”
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the shelling of a government building in Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region was a “planned provocation” by Russia. “Obviously, this case is one of several provocative measures being organized by the FSB [the Russian security service] to foment panic and anti-Ukrainian sentiment,” the defense ministry’s intelligence branch said, according to CNN.
Sweden and Finland have agreed to simultaneously submit applications for membership to the US-led NATO alliance as early as the middle of next month. Local media reported. The story was circulated by Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, and Swedish government sources appeared to confirm the news to domestic media.
A statue in Kyiv, erected as a sign of solidarity between Ukraine and Russia, is to be torn down, according to the city’s mayor. The bronze statue, which shows two workers standing side by side, will be taken down on Tuesday. A second sculpture is veiled. They were both installed in 1982 and lie under the People Friendship Arch near the Dnieper.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has joined an EU-backed team investigating crimes in Ukraine in an unprecedented move. Karim Khan QC announced on Monday that the ICC has become a participant of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) whose members are Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The JIT covers international cooperation in criminal matters under the auspices of Eurojust, the EU agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters.