LONDON – The top British diplomat said that the Western allies should send tanks, planes and other heavy weapons to Ukraine, saying “inaction would be the biggest provocation.”
NATO countries supply Ukraine with military supplies, including missiles and armored vehicles. But so far, they have been reluctant to send fighters for fear of escalating the conflict.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said it was “a time for courage, not caution”. Despite Trusse’s call for planes, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were “no plans” for the United Kingdom to send planes to Ukraine.
Trus also said Russia’s attack on Ukraine should be a signal for the awakening of international institutions. She called for a new focus on “military power, economic security and deeper global alliances”.
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KEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– Russia reduces natural gas for 2 NATO countries in escalation
– European nations accuse Russia of “blackmailing” natural gas
– AP interview: The head of the UN nuclear organization wants access to the headquarters of Ukraine
– EXPLANATOR: What is behind the shutdown of natural gas in Russia?
Follow all AP stories about Russia’s war against Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
BOSTON – Cyberattacks by state-backed Russian hackers have destroyed data in dozens of organizations in Ukraine and created a “chaotic information environment,” Microsoft said in a report released Wednesday.
Nearly half of the destructive attacks were against critical infrastructure, many times simultaneously with physical attacks, the report said.
A senior Ukrainian cybersecurity official, Viktor Jora, told reporters at a briefing Wednesday that cyberattacks against telecommunications sometimes coincide with artillery and other physical attacks.
Microsoft estimates that threat groups related to Russia are “pre-positioning the conflict as early as March 2021” by hacking networks to gain footholds that they could later use to gather “strategic and combat intelligence or to facilitate future destructive attacks. “
During the war, Russian cyberattacks “at times not only impaired the functions of target organizations, but sought to disrupt citizens’ access to reliable information and vital services and shake confidence in the country’s leadership,” the company’s digital security department said. in the 20-page report.
The Kremlin’s cyber operations have had an impact on technical service disruptions and chaotic information environments, but Microsoft is unable to assess their wider strategic impact, the report said.
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ATLANTIC City, New Jersey – US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday that Russia’s war against Ukraine “screams” that the world should stop importing oil and gas from Russia and switch to other forms of energy instead.
At an international forum on offshore wind energy in Atlantic City, Granholm said the United States and its energy industries were “military-based” and called for a rapid acceleration of renewable energy, including offshore wind.
Her comments were backed by Kadri Simson, the European Commissioner for Energy, who noted that Europe had recently committed to a large-scale withdrawal from Russian fossil fuel imports and considered wind energy an important part of the transition.
Their comments came when Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same with other countries, drastically escalating its opposition to the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders have condemned the move as “blackmail”.
Germany and Italy are among the largest consumers of Russian natural gas in Europe, but are already taking steps to reduce their dependence on Moscow.
“Russia is waging war in Ukraine and the imperative to move away from Russian oil and gas, the world to move away from Russian oil and gas is shouting that there is an imperative to electrify,” said Granholm, a former Gov. governor. “Offshore wind is just a huge component of that.”
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UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations says its humanitarian office is mobilizing an experienced team from around the world to co-ordinate the complex evacuation of civilians from the besieged steel plant in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle on the involvement of the UN and the ICRC in the evacuation of the plant during a nearly two-hour one-on-one meeting on Tuesday. The vast Azovstal complex, almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks, is the last pocket of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. It is estimated that about 2,000 soldiers and 1,000 civilians were hidden in bunkers under the destroyed structure.
UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters on Wednesday that the UN was trying to turn the Guterres-Putin agreement in principle “into a detailed agreement and an on-the-spot agreement”.
“Ultimately, what we want is to make sure that a ceasefire is observed, which will allow us to move people safely,” he said.
Huck said UN officials were holding follow-up discussions Wednesday with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv “to develop an operational framework for the timely evacuation of civilians.”
He said the exact moment depended on the outcome of discussions between the UN humanitarian service and the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow, as well as between UN crisis coordinator for Ukraine Amin Awad and authorities in Kyiv, where Guterres will meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Green on Thursday.
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OTTOVA, Ontario – The Canadian government said on Wednesday it had imposed sanctions on more than 200 people loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.
Russian forces have supported separatist rebels in the Donbas region for eight years since Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Canadian sanctions focus on Russia’s renewed attempt to annex areas of Donbass, targeting people trying to support the next phase of Russia’s two-month war against Ukraine.
“Canada will not stand idly by and watch President Putin and his accomplices try to redraw Ukraine’s borders with impunity,” Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie said in a statement. “International law must be respected.”
Canada’s Global Affairs, the government department that manages the country’s diplomatic relations, said the new measures target 11 senior officials and 192 other members of the People’s Councils of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk to support Putin’s attack in the region.
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WASHINGTON – The White House says President Joe Biden will tour a Lockheed Martin facility that makes weapons systems, such as Javelin anti-tank missiles, which the administration is providing to Ukraine to defend against a two-month invasion of Russia.
Biden plans to visit the facility in Alabama on May 3.
Javelin is a manned long-range anti-tank missile that can be carried by one person. The United States says it has provided several thousand of Ukraine’s systems.
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MADRID – Russia announced on Wednesday that it was withdrawing from the UN World Tourism Organization just hours before the assembly’s meeting voted to suspend its membership due to the invasion of Ukraine, officials said.
UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili made the announcement on his official Twitter account. He said it was the first UN body to deal with Russia’s membership.
The organization continued and approved the suspension of a special meeting in Madrid on Wednesday, where the organization is headquartered.
“Putin’s (Russia’s President Vladimir’s) military offensive is an attack on the UN’s founding principles and the values that tourism represents, such as peace, prosperity and universal respect for and observance of human rights,” Spanish Industry, Trade and Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said in a statement. statement after the decision.
The resolution of the meeting included a clause according to which the suspension can be lifted if a change in the policy of the Russian Federation is noted.
Spain was one of 22 European countries to promote the proposal.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aaland said on Wednesday that the Scandinavian country’s position “as a stable, predictable and long-term energy supplier for the European market is becoming increasingly important”.
“This is underlined by what is happening now on the part of Gazprom,” Aasland told the Norwegian news agency NTB.
The state-controlled Russian giant said it was cutting off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday because they refused to pay in Russian rubles, as President Vladimir Putin demanded.
Russia has threatened to do the same with other countries, drastically escalating its opposition to the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders have condemned the move as “blackmail”.
Norway exports about 95% of its gas through an extensive underwater pipeline network connecting it to terminals in Germany, Britain, France and Belgium. Last month, Denmark decided to resume construction on the Danish section of the Baltic Pipe, which will connect Poland with Norwegian gas fields.
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MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised the Russian parliament that the goals of the country’s military operation in Ukraine will be achieved.
Addressing both houses of parliament on Wednesday, Putin said: “I want to emphasize once again that all the tasks of the special military operation we are conducting in Donbass and Ukraine, launched on February 24, will be unconditionally fulfilled.
This, he said, “will ensure the security of residents” of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine …
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