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Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
Key developments
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States and its allies of bringing the world to a “dangerous threshold.” In a speech at the U.N. Security Council in New York on Monday, Lavrov said the United States and the “collective West” are undermining global multilateralism by imposing their own rules on the rest of the world, and he criticized their support for Ukraine. At the same forum, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Russia’s war is inflicting massive devastation on Ukraine.
- Paul Whelan’s sister demanded that the Kremlin free her brother. Speaking with the support of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, Elizabeth Whelan, the detained American’s sister, said her brother has been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia since 2018 for “a crime he did not commit.” Paul Whelan, a former Marine, has been “held as a pawn and victim of Russia’s descent into lawlessness,” she added. Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich were detained in Russia on espionage charges. U.S. officials have repeatedly disputed the accusations.
- A Russian former police officer was sentenced to seven years in prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine over the phone to his friends, the AP reported. Semiel Vedel, the former officer, was accused of describing Russia as a “murderer country” and saying that it had suffered significant losses in Ukraine. The prosecutor made the case that Vedel’s phone conversations were public — and thereby subject to a law that criminalizes spreading information about the war that runs counter to official statements made by the Russian Defense Ministry — because they were being monitored by a third party: an investigator.
- If Russia wins and Ukraine falls, Central Europe “may well be next,” wrote the leaders of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In a letter published in Foreign Affairs, they appealed to the United States and other allies to continue support for Ukraine. Defeating Russia in Ukraine will reduce the chances that the United States and its allies have “to spill their own blood and further treasure later,” they added.
- Sweden is expelling five Russian diplomats, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Sweden has called up Russia’s ambassador … and informed him that five people who are employed at the embassy have been asked to leave the country as a result of activities that are incompatible with the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement that was reported by Reuters. Swedish state television company SVT noted that the move had come after a joint investigation by Nordic reporters into Russian operations in the North Sea; earlier this month, Norway expelled 15 Russian diplomats.
Battlefield updates
- A Russian missile attack in Kharkiv killed two, including an employee of a history museum hit in the strike, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The strike wounded at least 10 others, he said Tuesday. “There are still people under the rubble,” he said in a Telegram post. He accused Moscow of “doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”
- Russia’s daily casualty count dropped in April, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update Tuesday. Russia’s average daily casualty rate has fallen by about 30 percent after “exceptionally heavy” casualties from January to March, it said. “Russia’s losses have highly likely reduced as their attempted winter offensive has failed to achieve its objectives, and Russian forces are now focused on preparing for anticipated Ukrainian offensive operations,” it added…..