Ukraine Update…479 days into the Russian move on Ukraine….Quiet on the Ukraine Offensive

• In Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior officials from NATO member nations held a second day of defense ministerial meetings in Brussels, as Ukraine continued its counteroffensive against Russian occupation forces. Austin cited the Ukraine war in pressing NATO allies to meet defense spending commitments. Speaking at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, he urged NATO allies to invest in weapons and munitions, and replace those donated to Ukraine.
• Russian forces likely fired on boats with aid workers in the flooded Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday, injuring a Western aid worker, according to witnesses. Visuals shared on Twitter and with The Washington Post by American video journalist Dylan Burns show a group with two boats — one red and the other white — that are later seen coming under fire in a drone video.
• The Post confirmed that the boats Burns had photographed before the attack were the same as those in the drone video based on physical markings and time stamps of the visuals provided by the journalist. The Telegram video was initially geolocated to a river running through Kherson, which was corroborated by The Post. John Jones, the aid worker, suffered injuries to his upper thigh and lower abdomen, Burns said, but is recovering in a hospital and plans on returning to his work once he is discharged.
• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Friday a potential NATO-Ukraine Council. Though the upgrade from “NATO-Ukraine Commission” would give Ukraine the ability to convene meetings and raise concerns, it still falls far short of the full NATO membership, which would confer mutual protection under Article 5 of the alliance’s charter.
• The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog concluded a visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine late Thursday and said his team would continue monitoring the site to help prevent a “nuclear accident.” Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the impact of flooding from a breach of the Kakhovka dam, which has reduced reservoir levels, remains a risk to the cooling of the Russian-controlled plant’s shutdown nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuel. But he noted that the station could operate safely for “some time.” He urged both sides not to attack the plant.

• Sweden will probably not join NATO before the alliance’s gathering next month, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake, said in an interview with Axios. Turkey maintains its opposition to Sweden’s membership, saying Stockholm has been too lenient toward militant Kurdish groups, which Ankara views as threats. Flake, a former Republican senator from Arizona, said U.S. lawmakers have withheld the sale of F-16s to Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, to pressure Ankara to ease its demands against Sweden.
• Ukraine accused Russia of continuing to deport children from occupied areas into Russia. The National Resistance Center of Ukraine, a government agency, said Thursday that 150 children in Luhansk were “illegally transported” to the Kuban region of southern Russia this month. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Russia of abducting 260,000 Ukrainian children, and in March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights over the war crimes of “unlawful deportation” and “unlawful transfer” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.
• Russia is offering financial bonuses for the destruction of foreign-made tanks and equipment,according to its Defense Ministry. The ministry on Friday listed German-made Leopard tanks and NATO- or U.S.-supplied armored vehicles among its list of “enemy military equipment” that Russian service members would receive “special payments” for destroying. More than 10,000 service members have received payments since the war began, the ministry said….

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