Ukraine Update…465 days into the Russian move on Ukraine…More Biden help for the Ukraine

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

• The Pentagon disclosed Thursday that it signed a contract to provide SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, nearly eight months after Elon Musk, the company’s mercurial owner, threatened to terminate access unless the U.S. government paid for it. The Defense Department withheld virtually all details about the agreement, including how much it will cost U.S. taxpayers and when the contract was signed.
• President Biden said “NATO is more energized and more united than it’s been in decades.” In commencement remarks at the Air Force Academy, Biden said: “It’s now even stronger with the accession of our newest ally, Finland, and soon Sweden, to the alliance soon as possible. It will happen. I promise you.” Sweden’s request to join has been held up by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won reelection in a runoff on Sunday.
• Kyiv residents were jolted awake shortly before 3 a.m. when air raid alarms went off, and the first explosion was heard within minutes. Although Ukraine’s air defense systems destroyed the targets, falling debris caused casualties and damage, Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Telegram. In Desnyansky district, a children’s hospital was damaged by falling debris. Authorities said an investigation was launched after a woman was killed when she and other local residents found their nearest shelter inexplicably closed. “It was chaos. My daughter was screaming. Everyone was screaming,” her husband said in an interview.
• The airstrikes came as Ukraine was ushering in Children’s Day, normally a joyful celebration in many former Soviet countries. But the death of a 9-year-old girl in the overnight attack, which injured one other child, caused “pain for all of us,” Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska wrote on Twitter. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said all Children’s Day events planned in the city had been canceled. At least 483 children have been killed and 989 wounded since the war began, Ukraine’s general prosecutor said Thursday, citing confirmed casualty figures. The true toll is expected to be much higher, authorities say.
• The town of Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod region was shelled multiple times in the early-morning hours, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. Eight people were injured, he later said, and a residential building was hit and caught fire. On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the wider situation in the region as “quite alarming.” Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday in a Telegram post that over 50 attackers in Belgorod had been killed, and multiple combatants’ vehicles destroyed.
• The United States “fully anticipate[s]” that Sweden’s accession to NATO will be complete by next month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday in Oslo. Turkey and Hungary have so far held up Sweden’s accession, even as they allowed applicant Finland to join the defense alliance. After meeting with NATO foreign ministers, Blinken said Ukraine can expect “a strong package of support” to be unveiled at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.

• Opposition figures within Russia may increasingly feel emboldened to speak out against the Kremlin, according to Britain’s Defense Ministry. Since the start of the war, Russian authorities have clamped down on free speech, criminalizing criticism of the invasion and fostering a climate of fear and denunciation. But recent public criticism of Russia’s defense chiefs by Wagner Group founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin may encourage “opposition figures to challenge taboo topics,” the ministry said. It cited an example from May 27, when “Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin appeared on Russia’s NTV channel and called for a new president to be elected in 2024, in order to rebuild normal relations with Europe.”
• More than 200 residents have been killed in the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, the city’s mayor, Oleksiy Reva, said in an interview with Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform. Despite Russia’s claims that its forces have captured the city, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Telegram that the southwestern outskirts and the entrance to the city remain under Ukrainian control.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for security guarantees for Ukraine while in Moldova for a summit of 47 heads of state and government. “I think security guarantees are … also important for Moldova, because Russia is carrying out aggression in Ukraine and there is a potential threat of aggression in other parts of Europe,” Zelensky said, according to a readout from his office. Moldova, a tiny republic bordering Ukraine, has accused Russia of plotting to overthrow its government, and Russia occupies the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria.
• Foreign ministers representing BRICS countries — including Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov — at a meeting Thursday in South Africa called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. The meeting comes ahead of a summit in August, when Russian President Vladimir Putin could make a rare wartime trip outside Russia. This has prompted questions about whether South Africa would extend immunity to the Russian president, who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in war crimes in Ukraine. South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it was “standard” practice to confer immunity “for all international conferences and summits” held in the country — though it added that such immunity would not “override any warrant that may have been issued by any international tribunal” against a conference participant. Putin has not yet said whether he will attend the summit.
• The U.S. State Department announced countermeasures to Russia’s “violations” of the New START Treaty. Putin announced that Russia would be suspending its participation in the treaty in February, saying that Western inspections of Russia’s nuclear arsenal ran counter to its strategic interests. On Thursday, the State Department outlined its response: the U.S. will withhold data and inspection access from Russia. “The United States continues to abide by the treaty’s central limits, and to fulfill all of its New START obligations that have not been included within these countermeasures,” reads the State Department announcement.

Amid unease in Moscow, Putin seeks to project calm after drone attack: The brazen drone attack targeting Moscow that damaged two residential buildings Tuesday marked a significant moment, with residents in the Russian capital experiencing consequences for the first time since the nation invaded Ukraine more than a year ago. But hours later, Russian leaders including Putin appeared before the media. downplaying the attack and seeking to project calm, report Francesca Ebel, Natalia Abbakumova, Samantha Schmidt and Isobel Koshiw…..

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