This is the situation on Saturday, April 22, 2023:
Diplomacy and law
- Russia has announced the expulsion of more than 20 German diplomats following the removal of Russian embassy staff from Germany. According to Russian state media, Berlin cut ties with Moscow.
- Jack Teixeira, the US Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified documents about the war in Ukraine to a small group of gamers, had posted confidential material to a much larger chat group months earlier than previously known, the New York Times reported. citing online posts it had seen.
To fight
- The Russian Defense Ministry has reported the capture of three more city blocks by Russian forces fighting in the western part of the devastated Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
- At least five Russian missiles struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and surrounding districts late Saturday night, causing damage to civilian buildings, local officials said. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said one rocket hit a house in Kotliary village, while another started a major fire in the town.
- Seventeen apartment buildings in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border have been evacuated after an explosive device was found on Thursday at the site where a bomb was accidentally dropped by a Russian warplane on Thursday. Russia has acknowledged that one of its Su-34 bombers accidentally caused the explosion.
- According to Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, the son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov fought alongside Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine. Peskov’s son, Nikolay Peskov, who lived in the UK for several years and is also known as Nikolai Choles, previously told the Moscow tabloid KP that he had fought in Ukraine because he considered it his duty.
Aid and economy
- A shipment of Russian fertilizer seized by Latvia last year is being shipped to Kenya by the UN’s World Food Programme, Latvia said. It was not immediately clear whether Russia approved the shipment.
- Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz has held talks with Exxon Mobil Corp, Halliburton and Chevron about projects in Ukraine, the Financial Times reports.