Ukraine latest: Don’t doubt Ukraine’s ability to win, top U.S., Kyiv diplomats say

The war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has passed a grim one-year milestone, with mounting military and civilian deaths.

As fighting rages in and around Bakhmut, Western nations have raised their military support for Ukraine to the highest level yet, with commitments to send main battle tanks.

Read our in-depth coverage. For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.

Xi, Putin signal unity against U.S. in joint statement

Kishida tells Zelenskyy G-7 will stay united on Ukraine support

Xi wins Putin’s backing on Taiwan, plays peacemaker on Ukraine

‘Fear for our families’: A year of Putin’s war through the eyes of Ukrainians

Price of an invasion: Self-exiled Russians face uncertain future in Georgia

Note: Nikkei Asia decided in March 2022 to suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code. Entries include material from wire services and other sources.

Here are the latest developments:

Tuesday, April 11 (Tokyo time)

11:55 p.m. India has restarted a joint air exercise with the U.S. last held in 2019, likely aiming to send neighboring China a message as tensions over their border smolder.

The bilateral Cope India exercise is taking place in the states of West Bengal in eastern India and Uttar Pradesh in the north, the Indian Air Force said this week. The event, which dates to 2004, includes exchanges between specialists on both sides along with air drills. Read more.

11:45 p.m. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says he and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had affirmed American support for Ukraine and “vehemently rejected” attempts to cast doubt on its capacity for battlefield victory.

10:40 p.m. The International Monetary Fund warns that a flare-up in financial turmoil, on top of persistent inflation, adds uncertainty to a fragile global economy.

“With the recent increase in financial market volatility, the fog around the world economic outlook has thickened,” the IMF says in its latest World Economic Outlook as the fund and the World Bank launch spring meetings this week in Washington.

“Uncertainty is high and the balance of risks has shifted firmly to the downside so long as the financial sector remains unsettled,” the IMF adds. Read more.

Monday, April 10

11:30 p.m. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into the leak of dozens of classified documents about the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times reports.

“The Department of Defense continues to review and assess the validity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media sites and that appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh says.

“An interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on U.S. national security and on our allies and partners,” Singh adds.

The highly classified documents, which officials have said appear mostly authentic, cover a range of topics mainly relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

10:00 p.m. Belarus seeks assurances from Russia that it would be defended in case of an attack, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko says.

“We need full security guarantees from our brotherly Russia,” state run BelTA reports Lukashenko as saying during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Minsk.

Lukashenko accuses Western nations of reneging on 1990s agreements to protect former Soviet republics like Ukraine and Belarus in exchange for the removal of their Soviet-era nuclear weapons.

“You know, of course, that Western states have trampled all these treaties, agreements and statements and there is no security,” he says.

7:30 a.m. Pope Francis appeared to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country’s invasion of Ukraine in his Easter message to the world on Sunday. Francis, 86, presided at a solemn Easter day Mass in a sunny St. Peter’s Square after unseasonal cold forced him to skip an outdoor service on Friday — a precaution following his hospitalization for bronchitis at the end of March. There, he spoke of “the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped,” and prayed to God for peace. “Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia,” he said. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Francis has at least twice a week referred to Ukraine and its people as being “martyred” and has used words such as aggression and atrocities to describe Russia’s actions.

6:15 a.m. The recently leaked classified U.S. military documents indicate that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet nearly shot down a British surveillance plane last September off the coast of Crimea, The Washington Post reports. The leaked material cites a “near-shoot down” of an RC-135 reconnaissance plane, an incident that could have drawn the U.S. and its NATO allies directly into the Ukraine war.

U.K. Defense Minister Ben Wallace disclosed the incident to the British House of Commons in October, but had attributed the Russian jet’s missile firing to a “technical malfunction” and did not describe the incident as a near-shootdown.

Saturday, April 8

5:00 a.m. Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich has been charged with spying for the U.S. in Russia, Tass reports, citing a Federal Security Service official.

Gershkovich has denied the espionage charge, Tass reports, adding that the official described the journalist’s case as “top secret.”

Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, was detained last week during a reporting trip to Ekaterinburg in Russia’s Ural Mountains region. President Joe Biden and other American officials have said Gershkovich has been wrongfully detained and have called for his release.

On Friday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement that “Russian authorities have failed to present any credible evidence to justify their fabricated charges.”

12:30 a.m. Chinese President Xi Jinping has told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that a “political settlement” is the only correct way out of the Ukraine crisis, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.

Xi and Macron held an informal meeting in Guangzhou.

China never handles the situation in Ukraine out of self-interest but always stands for fairness and justice, Xi told Macron, according to the ministry’s readout. All parties concerned should shoulder their responsibilities, meet each other halfway, and create conditions for a political settlement, he said.

Friday, April 7

4:21 p.m. The Russian ruble tumbled on Friday to its lowest levels against the dollar and the euro since April 2022, breaching 90 per euro. Traders said the ruble was under pressure due to a host of problems including the sale of Western assets to domestic investors, which stoked demand for dollars, while lower prices for oil in March cut export revenues. The ruble is the third worst performing currency in the world, year to date, behind only the Egyptian pound and the Argentine peso, according to Reuters calculations.

3:11 p.m. Russia has seized the west bank of the Bakhmutka River, endangering a key Ukraine supply route, in its push to regain control of the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, the British defence ministry said on Friday. “Russia has made further gains and has now highly likely advanced into the town centre … Ukraine’s key 0506 supply route to the west of the town is likely severely threatened,” the ministry said on Twitter.

4:47 a.m. Russia’s refusal to give consular access to detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is “inexcusable,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says.

“We need to get consular access to Evan,” he tells reporters.

12:30 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko did not discuss deploying strategic nuclear weapons to Belarus at their meeting in Moscow on Thursday, Interfax reports, quoting Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov says that the deployment of American nuclear weapons at bases in Europe is of concern to Russia and that Moscow would respond “appropriately” to these challenges.

Lukashenko said recently that Belarus is ready to host both strategic and tactical nuclear weapons.

Putin and Lukashenko did discuss security cooperation at their Moscow talks. The two countries are preparing a “Security Concept” document that Putin says will outline goals for cooperation “in light of growing tensions on our states’ external borders and the sanctions and information war against us,” Tass reports.

Thursday, April 6

11:55 p.m. European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen says she has encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to “reach out to” Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“It was interesting to hear that President Xi reiterated his willingness to speak to Zelenskyy when the conditions and time are right,” von der Leyen says in Beijing after her meeting with the Chinese leader. “I think this is positive.”

She says she welcomes some of the principles put forward by China on the situation in Ukraine.

“This is notably the case on the issue of nuclear safety and risk reduction and China’s statement on the unacceptability of nuclear threats or the use of nuclear weapons,” she says.

Von der Leyen reiterates the EU’s firm line against supplying Russia with lethal weapons.

“I want to be very clear on that: Arming the aggressor is a clear violation of international law,” she says. “The aggressor should never be armed. This would significantly harm the relationship between the EU and China.”

10:00 p.m. Ukraine is not abandoning the city of Bakhmut, says the head of Russia’s private Wagner militia, adding that more support from regular military forces will be necessary for further advances.

Yevgeny Prigozhin says the capture of the city, which Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said would let Russia advance further into eastern Ukraine, was still some way off.

“It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere,” Prigozhin says on his Telegram channel.

8:19 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macron urges Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to help persuade Russia to hold negotiations toward ending the war in Ukraine, as the two leaders met in Beijing.

“We need to find a lasting peace that respects internationally recognized borders and avoids any form of escalation,” Macron says. “I believe that this is also an important issue for China, as much as it is for France and for Europe.”

6:00 a.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says during a trip to Warsaw that Poland will help form a coalition of Western powers to supply warplanes to Kyiv, adding that Ukrainian troops were still fighting for Bakhmut in the east but could withdraw if they risked being cut off. Neighboring Poland is a close ally of Ukraine and helped galvanize support in the West to supply main battle tanks to Kyiv. During Zelenskyy’s visit, Poland announced it would send 10 more MiG fighter jets on top of four provided earlier. “Just as your (Polish) leadership proved itself in the tank coalition, I believe that it will manifest itself in the planes coalition,” Zelenskyy said in a speech at a square in Warsaw on Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 5

10:07 p.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanks Poland for its “historic” help as he visits the country, saying Warsaw should become a key partner in the vast reconstruction effort needed once Russia’s invasion ends.

Warsaw has played a leading role in persuading allies to provide Kyiv with heavy weaponry. President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday that Poland will supply Ukraine with 14 MiG-29 fighter jets.

“You have stood shoulder to shoulder with us, and we are grateful for it,” Zelenskyy said after being awarded the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor. “I believe that these are historic relations, a historic result and historic strength between our countries.”

9:54 p.m. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Turkey on Thursday and Friday for talks with counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says.

2:30 p.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in neighboring Poland on Wednesday, a Polish presidential aide said, beginning an official visit to a close ally that has galvanized Western military and political support for Kyiv. The visit, which was announced this week by Poland but has not been officially confirmed by Kyiv, comes with Ukraine planning to conduct a counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months to recapture occupied land in its east and south. “I can say that President Zelenskyy has crossed the Polish border,” Marcin Przydacz told a private broadcaster on Wednesday.

7:00 a.m. The U.S. will send Ukraine about $500 million in ammunition and equipment and spend more than $2 billion to buy an array of munitions, radar and new weapons to help Kyiv counter drones in the coming months. The aid, which will be taken from military stockpiles so it can be in the war zone quickly, includes “ammunition for U.S.-provided HIMARS” multiple rocket launchers, “air defense interceptors, and artillery rounds that Ukraine is using to defend itself,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. The package includes at least two new weapons systems that are designed to counter drones — especially the Iranian-made Shahed, which Russia has heavily used in attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Tuesday, April 4

10:00 p.m. Russian investigators charge Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old woman, with terrorism offenses over the killing of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a bomb blast in St. Petersburg. Tatarsky, a cheerleader for Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was killed on Sunday in a cafe where he was due to talk.

9:53 p.m. Finland formally joins NATO as Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto completes the accession process by handing over an official document to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg notes that Russian President Vladimir Putin had cited the alliance’s expansion as one justification for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “He is getting exactly the opposite. … Finland today, and soon also Sweden, will become a full-fledged member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said.

The Kremlin has threatened “countermeasures,” saying Russia will bolster its military in the country’s west and northwest.

Helsinki’s accession roughly doubles the length of the border that NATO shares with Russia and ends an era of military nonalignment for Finland that began after the country repelled an invasion by the Soviet Union during World War II. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Finns to seek security under NATO’s collective defense pact.

8:27 p.m. Hundreds of residents of the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk turn out to mourn four-time world kickboxing champion Vitalii Merinov after he was killed in action fighting Russian troops. Merinov, 32, died in a hospital last week after he was wounded in the eastern region of Luhansk, claimed and partially controlled by Russia.

8:20 a.m. The West is trying to drive a wedge between Russia and China by talking about their unequal relations and Moscow’s dependence on Beijing, Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty news website published on Tuesday, Reuters reported. He said 10 hours of talks last month between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping had propelled the “strategic partnership” between Moscow and Beijing beyond “an exclusively bilateral context.”

“Naturally we have a sense of comradeship and readiness to stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of each other’s fundamental interests,” Lavrov said, adding, “We see this as an attempt to cast a shadow on our successes, to drive a wedge into the friendship between Moscow and Beijing.”

12:45 a.m. The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of organizing the murder of Maxim Fomin, a prominent war blogger who wrote under the name Vladlen Tatarsky, by bomb in a St. Petersburg cafe, saying Ukrainian intelligence services had help from supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Russian police arrest Darya Trepova, a Russian woman who confesses in a video that she handed Fomin a figurine in his likeness that exploded shortly afterward, killing him. The official Tass news agency says more than 30 people were injured in the attack.

Monday, April 3

9:32 p.m. Finland is expected to join NATO on Tuesday, becoming the 31st member of the world’s biggest military alliance.

All members must vote unanimously to admit a new country.

“This is an historic week,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says. The move will make “Finland safer and our alliance stronger.”

8:30 p.m. A prominent pro-invasion blogger who also criticized the Russian military is killed by a bomb at a St. Petersburg cafe in an apparent assassination. Maxim Fomin, who wrote as Vladlen Tatarsky, was meeting with supporters at a public event. Video shows him accepting a small statue in his likeness from a woman before an explosion rips through the venue. The blast also injures 25 people, 19 of whom were hospitalized.

The death is the highest-profile attack on a prominent war supporter inside Russia since August, when a car bomb killed Daria Dugina, daughter of an ultranationalist supporter of Vladimir Putin.

1:50 p.m. Russia plans to form a division of special-purpose submarines that will carry Poseidon nuclear-capable torpedoes as part of the country’s Pacific Fleet by the end of 2024 or first half of 2025, Reuters reports, citing Russia’s Tass news agency. Russia said in January that it had produced its first set of Poseidon torpedoes, four years after President Vladimir Putin announced the fundamentally new type of strategic nuclear weapon, confirming it would have its own nuclear power supply. In late March, Russia said the coastal infrastructure for the submarines that would carry the torpedoes will be finished on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Sunday, April 2

11:55 p.m. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, whom Russia has accused of spying, during a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the State Department says.

“Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Lavrov told Blinken that Gershkovich’s fate would be determined by a court. “It was emphasized that it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and the Western media to whip up a stir with the clear intention of giving this case a political coloring,” the ministry said.

Gershkovich was arrested Thursday, accused of gathering information about a Russian defense company that was a state secret.

Saturday, April 1

2:10 a.m. Belarus is ready to allow Russian strategic nuclear weapons to be deployed within its borders in addition to tactical nuclear weapons, President Alexander Lukashenko says.

“If we have to, Putin and I will bring strategic nuclear weapons here, too,” Lukashenko tells the nation and the parliament in an address, the state-run BelTA news agency reports.

“And those foreign scum, who are now trying to blow us up from the inside and from the outside, have to understand it,” he adds. “We will stop at nothing in defense of our countries, our states, and our peoples.”

Belarus confirmed this week that Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be deployed on its soil for the first time since the 1990s.

Lukashenko also says he is in control of Russian troops in Belarus.

“We, I am in control of these troops, who are located in the territory of Belarus,” BelTA quotes him as saying. “I’ve brought them here to train, equip, and teach how to work together if, God forbid, they have to do it.”

12:30 a.m. Great Wall Motor, China’s largest maker of sport utility vehicles, has seen revenue in Russia surge as Western and Japanese rivals have pulled back from a market hit by U.S.-led sanctions in response to the war in Ukraine.

The Chinese automaker’s revenue in Russia rose 73% on the year to reach 8.57 billion yuan ($1.25 billion) in 2022. Great Wall’s overall revenue grew less than 1% last year, as sales at home dropped 8%.

While China remains its mainstay, generating 80% of its total revenue, Russia is the company’s largest overseas market, far exceeding others including Australia, South Africa, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Read more.

Friday, March 31

10:00 p.m. Nobel Prize-winning Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov says he does not believe that American reporter Evan Gershkovich is a spy, Reuters reports.

“I know Gershkovich,” Muratov tells Reuters about The Wall Street Journal reporter. “I’ve met him two or three times over the last year. I know the practice exists of using journalists as spies, intelligence officers and ‘illegals’ [undeclared spies] — this is not that kind of case.”

3:00 p.m. Japan bans Russia-bound exports of steel, aluminum and aircraft including drones in its latest sanctions imposed due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the country’s trade ministry said. The latest measure, which also prohibits Japanese entities from exporting a wide variety of industrial items such as construction machinery, ship engines, testing equipment and optical devices to Russia, will go into effect on April 7, the ministry said in a statement. The announcement comes days after Russia’s Defense Ministry said the navy had fired supersonic anti-ship missiles at a practice target in the Sea of Japan.

8:30 a.m. Turkey’s parliament ratifies Finland’s application to join NATO, lifting the last hurdle in the way of the Nordic country’s long-delayed accession into the Western military alliance. All 276 lawmakers present voted in favor of Finland’s bid. “This will make the whole NATO family stronger & safer,” NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter in welcoming Turkey’s action. Alarmed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland and Sweden abandoned their decadeslong policy of nonalignment and applied to join the alliance. Full unanimity is required to admit new members into the 30-member alliance, and Turkey was the last NATO member to ratify Finland’s accession.

1:15 a.m. While Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin agreed to deepen ties and forge closer cooperation in energy at their recent summit, Chinese state-owned oil company executives are maintaining a low profile toward Russia.

“Of course, Russia is a country with extremely abundant oil and gas resources,” CNOOC Chairman Wang Dongjin told reporters this week when asked about what the next step would be in Russia.

He said the company will “abide by the international rules and market principle” in selecting oil and gas procurement and investment.

“We are not going to designate a certain country or certain region, but the decision based on comprehensive evaluation,” he said. Read how other Chinese oil executives reacted.

Thursday, March 30

5:00 p.m. Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday that a reporter with the U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, had been detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage, the Interfax news agency reports. In a statement quoted by Interfax, the FSB said it had “stopped the illegal activities of U.S. citizen Gershkovich Evan, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, accredited at the Russian Foreign Ministry, who is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government.”

11:50 a.m. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has gravely violated the United Nations charter and international law. Big powers have the responsibility of maintaining stable and workable relations with one another, and the most worrying is the state of relations between the United States and China, Lee said at the Boao forum in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.

8:30 a.m. The U.S. military “has a long way to go” to beef up its munitions stockpiles and ensure the country is ready for any large-scale war, the top U.S. military officer tells Congress. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the war in Ukraine has underscored the heavy use of munitions that is required during any major conflict. He and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin faced repeated questioning from members of Congress this week about the impact the war is having on the Pentagon as it supplies Ukraine with much of the ammunition it needs to fend off the Russian forces.

5:45 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin may visit Turkey next month for the inauguration of the Russian-built Akkuyu nuclear power plant, Anadolu Agency reports, quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Putin may attend the April 27 event online or in person, Erdogan says. If he does travel to Turkey, it would mark a rare trip abroad for the Russian leader since the start of the Ukraine war.

5:41 a.m. As the official first day of the latest Summit for Democracy wrapped up Wednesday, the U.S. has announced international guidelines for curbing exports of technology that could be used by authoritarian nations to violate human rights.

The White House says the voluntary code of conduct is supported by 20 countries including Japan, South Korea, the U.K., Germany and France, and “commits subscribing states to better integrate human rights criteria in their export control regimes.”

It likely will be left to individual participants to decide what products and countries to target, but human rights groups have accused China and Russia of using surveillance technology for repression. Read more about the summit.

Wednesday, March 29

11:30 p.m. Russia has stopped providing the U.S. with all forms of notifications under the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, including warnings about ballistic missile test launches, Interfax reports, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

The announcement comes after Washington said it would withhold nuclear data from Moscow that is supposed to be exchanged twice a year. Earlier this year, Russia suspended its participation in the New START treaty.

Washington calls its decision not to provide data a “lawful countermeasure” meant to bring Russia back to participation, while Ryabkov says the U.S. has no right to make such a move without suspending participation in the treaty.

12:12 p.m. Russia began exercises with the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and several thousand troops, its defense ministry says, in what is likely to be seen as another attempt by Moscow to show off its nuclear strength.

2:29 a.m. The International Olympic Committee issues recommendations for the gradual return to international competitions by Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals, with President Thomas Bach saying their participation “works” despite the war in Ukraine. The IOC Executive Board’s recommendations concern the return of those athletes to international competitions but not the 2024 Paris Olympics where a separate decision will be made.

1:54 a.m. Belarus confirms it will host Russian tactical nuclear weapons, saying the decision was a response to years of Western pressure, including sanctions and what it said was a military buildup by NATO member states near its borders. The statement from the foreign ministry was the government’s first since Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said Moscow will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and would build a nuclear weapons storage facility there.

Tuesday, March 28

5:30 p.m. Possible drone attacks against key energy infrastructure are a serious threat to Russia’s energy security, Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov says. Shulginov did not specifically mention Ukraine regarding the threat, but Russia says it has foiled a number of attempted Ukrainian drone attacks in recent months. “The key threat now is acts of illegal interference through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles,” Shulginov said during a roundtable discussion where he addressed the security of Russia’s energy facilities. Ukraine has not publicly acknowledged launching attacks against targets inside Russia.

1:30 p.m. Russia’s Defense Ministry says the navy fired supersonic anti-ship missiles at a practice target in the Sea of Japan. “In the waters of the Sea of Japan, missile ships of the Pacific Fleet fired Moskit cruise missiles at a mock enemy sea target,” it said in a statement on its Telegram account. The target, about 100 kilometers away, took “a direct hit from two Moskit cruise missiles.” The test-firing comes a week after two Russian strategic bomber planes, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, flew over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours in what Moscow said was a “planned flight.”

9:00 a.m. Ukrainian authorities said air defenses shot down Russian drones near Kyiv and falling debris set a nonresidential site ablaze but no casualties were found. Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said Russia had launched drones toward Kyiv but Ukraine’s air defense forces had identified and destroyed “all enemy targets” in the airspace around the capital. Drone wreckage fell in the western Kyiv district of Sviatoshyno, sparking a fire across a 200-square-meter area in a nonresidential building, he added.

3:37 a.m. Eighteen Leopard 2 battle tanks that were pledged by Germany to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia’s invasion have arrived in Ukraine. “I am sure that the Leopard 2 A6 battle tanks will make a crucial difference at the front,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says in a tweet.

Forty German Marder infantry fighting vehicles and two armored recovery vehicles also have reached Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing a security source. The German army trained Ukrainian tank crews as well as the troops assigned to operate the Marder vehicles for several weeks in northern Germany.

3:30 a.m. Diesel futures in Europe have plummeted from an all-time high in March 2022 as increased imports from Asia and the Middle East have alleviated concerns of a supply shortage from the Russian oil embargo. Read more.

12:57 a.m. The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “isn’t getting any better” as relentless fighting in the area keeps the facility at risk of disaster, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi warns Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ahead of Grossi’s visit to the plant and the IAEA staffers there this week, The Associated Press quotes him as telling Zelenskyy in their meeting that the situation remains tense because of the heavy military presence around the plant and a recent blackout, something that has occurred repeatedly since Russian forces took over last year.

Grossi tweets that he and Zelenskyy had a “rich exchange” on protecting the plant and its staff — and that he reiterated the IAEA’s “full support” for Ukraine’s nuclear facilities.

The plant’s six reactors are in shutdown, and it is receiving the electricity it needs to prevent a meltdown through just one remaining power line, the AP reports.

Monday, March 27

10:24 p.m. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets troops in southeastern Ukraine in the latest stage of a tour of front-line regions since a top Ukrainian general said a counterattack against Russian forces could come soon.

“I visited the command post of the ‘Zaporizhzhia’ operational group of troops,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Thank you for protecting our state, our homes, territorial integrity and life in Ukraine. I wish you good health. I wish you a great victory and it will definitely come true.”

5:50 p.m. Kazakhstan says it will require exporters to file additional documents when sending goods to Russia, following reports that Russian companies have been using local intermediaries to bust Western sanctions. Russia is Kazakhstan’s main trading partner and after the West barred sales of thousands of goods to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, some Kazakh businesses started purchasing such items and reselling them to Russian companies. The Astana government, however, has pledged to uphold the sanctions, and said on Monday that the new rules, effective from April 1 and applying to exports within the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, would reduce “underground” trade.

9:30 a.m. NATO castigated Vladimir Putin over his nuclear rhetoric a day after the Russian president said he planned to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, escalating a standoff with the West. The plan is one of Russia’s clearest nuclear signals since the start of its invasion of Ukraine 13 months ago, and Ukraine called for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in response. “Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and irresponsible,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said on Sunday.

12:05 a.m. Ukraine demands an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Russia’s announcement is “yet another provocative step” that “undermines basic principles of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the architecture of nuclear disarmament and the international security system as a whole,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.

Putin had said that the stationing would not violate nonproliferation obligations and that the U.S. had been placing tactical nuclear weapons in Germany and other allied countries “for decades.” The U.S. and Russia are two of the Security Council’s five permanent members, all of which have veto power over its resolutions.

Sunday, March 26

10:00 a.m. The U.S. said it would “monitor the implications” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said, according to AP. “We remain committed to the collective defense of the NATO alliance.”

3:00 a.m. Putin says on state TV that he has struck a deal with Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on the latter’s territory. He says he was responding to the U.K.’s decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium. Russia falsely claimed these rounds have nuclear components.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long raised the issue of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which borders Poland, Putin says.

Russia will maintain control over the tactical nuclear weapons. Construction of storage facilities for them would be completed by July 1, Putin adds.

12:10 a.m. Russia has pardoned more than 5,000 former criminals who were released to fight in Ukraine with a mercenary group. “At the present time, more than 5,000 people have been released on pardon after completing their contracts with Wagner,” Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, says on Telegram.

The group, originally staffed by battle-hardened veterans of the Russian armed forces, took on a much more prominent role in the Ukraine war after the Russian army suffered a series of humiliating defeats last year.

Saturday, March 25

9 p.m. New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry says it has expressed concern to Beijing over any lethal aid to Russia. Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta conveyed the concerns during a four-day trip to China where she met her Chinese counterpart, her office says.

On the Ukraine war, Mahuta reiterated her government’s condemnation of Moscow’s “illegal invasion” to Qin Gang. She also told Qin’s predecessor Wang Yi, now the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, that peace and prosperity are the expectations of all parties, according to China’s official news agency Xinhua.

7:00 a.m. China has not yet provided Russia with weapons for the war on Ukraine, U.S. President Biden tells reporters.

“They haven’t yet,” Biden says in response to a question at a news conference alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “Doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t.”

“I don’t take China lightly. I don’t take Russia lightly. But I think we vastly exaggerate,” Biden says when asked about rising trade between the two countries.

3:30 a.m. The U.S. announces new sanctions against companies and people seen as enabling the Belarusian government to repress democracy.

U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also identifies a luxury Boeing 737 belonging to the government of Belarus and used by President Alexander Lukashenko.

Lukashenko “has exclusive access to [the plane] and other luxury aircraft and uses them for personal trips,” the OFAC says. He has also used it “with his family and other members of his entourage for international travel.”

Among the targets of the latest sanctions are two automobile plants that generate revenue for the Lukashenko regime, according to the OFAC. “As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.”

Friday, March 24

5:00 p.m. Russia’s central bank has extended a ban on retail investors buying shares in companies from what Russia deems “unfriendly” countries for another six months. Russia has labeled all countries that imposed sanctions on it over its military campaign in Ukraine — including the 27 members of the European Union — as “unfriendly” and leveled a range of financial countersanctions against them. The central bank said the ban on selling securities of companies from “unfriendly” countries to so-called unqualified investors would be carried forward until Oct. 1. The central bank says its measures are designed to protect Russian retail investors from the impact of sanctions.

6:30 a.m. European Union leaders endorse a plan for sending Ukraine 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition within the next 12 months to help it counter Russia’s invasion forces. EU foreign and defense ministers approved the plan for a fast-track purchasing procedure earlier this week, and the leaders of the bloc’s 27 member nations gave it their political blessing at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. “Taking into account the security and defense interests of all member states, the European Council welcomes the agreement … to deliver ground-to-ground and artillery ammunition to Ukraine and, if requested, missiles,” the meeting’s conclusions on Ukraine read.

12:30 a.m. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto signs legislation making his country part of NATO. The move means Finland has completed national measures needed to join the Western military alliance, and is now just awaiting approval from Turkey and Hungary, the only two of NATO’s 30 existing members that have not ratified its bid.

On the same day in Turkey, a parliamentary committee approves Finland’s application, the state-run Anadolu Agency reports, bringing Helsinki a step closer to joining the alliance. Finland’s application could be ratified by the full Turkish assembly as early as next week.

Thursday, March 23

5:30 p.m. Any attempt to arrest President Vladimir Putin after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the Kremlin chief would amount to a declaration of war against Russia, Putin’s ally and former President Dmitry Medvedev says. “Let’s imagine — obviously this situation which will never be realized — but nevertheless let’s imagine that it was realized: The current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested,” Medvedev said. “What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation,” he said in a video posted on Telegram. “And in that case, all our assets — all our missiles, et cetera — would fly to the Bundestag, to the chancellor’s office.”

4:10 p.m. Russia says it has launched a military satellite into space from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. “On Thursday, March 23, at 09:40 a.m., a medium-class Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle carrying a spacecraft for the Russian Defense Ministry was launched from the Plesetsk launch site in Arkhangelsk Region by combat crews of the Space Forces,” the ministry said.

6:00 a.m. A World Bank report released on Wednesday puts the cost of Ukraine’s recovery and rebuilding from Russia’s invasion at $411 billion over the next decade, with the cost of cleaning up the war rubble alone at $5 billion. The report details some of the toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine: at least 9,655 civilians confirmed dead, including 461 children; nearly 2 million homes damaged; more than one of five public health institutions damaged; and 650 ambulances damaged or looted. In all, the World Bank calculates $135 billion in direct damage to buildings and infrastructure so far, not counting broader economic damage.

Wednesday, March 22

4:46 p.m. Three people have been killed in an overnight Russian drone strike on civilian infrastructure in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials say. The State Emergency Service says on the Telegram messaging app that two dormitories and an educational facility in the city of Rzhyshchiv had been partially destroyed in the attack. “Over 20 Iranian murderous drones, plus missiles, numerous shelling incidents, and that’s just in one last night of Russian terror against Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy writes on Twitter. Suggesting Russia did not want peace in Ukraine after almost 13 months of war, his post says: “Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes.”

4:30 p.m. Russia will always remain important for Europe, according to Austria’s foreign minister, who adds that to think otherwise is delusional. Alexander Schallenberg also defends the country’s second-biggest bank, Raiffeisen Bank International, saying it is unreasonable to single out the lender for doing business in Russia while so many other Western companies are doing the same. “To think that there won’t be Russia anymore and we can decouple in all areas is delusional,” Schallenberg tells Reuters, adding that while Austria will loosen ties this “can’t happen overnight.”

4:35 a.m. The Group of Seven nations are unshakable in their support for Ukraine, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tells Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Kishida, who will host G-7 leaders in Hiroshima this May, pledges $30 million in nonlethal aid for Ukraine. He is the last G-7 leader to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded it in February 2022. At a news conference after their meeting, the Ukrainian president called Kishida a strong defender of the international order and thanked Japan for its leadership. Zelenskyy said he intends to participate virtually in the G-7 summit. Read more.

1:20 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country will be forced to respond if the U.K. supplies depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, Interfax reports. Speaking after talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin claims the West is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says Russia would have a response to the provision of depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, which was announced by the British side as part of its military support. Depleted uranium is used for tank armor and armor-piercing bullets. While most of the radioactive material is gone from the metal, depleted uranium is “both a toxic chemical and radiation health hazard when inside the body,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

For earlier updates, click here.