Zelenskyy meets with troops in Donetsk; Moscow court denies WSJ reporter's appeal

The G-7 reemphasized the bloc's support for Ukraine and criticized Russia's threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, it said in a communique on Tuesday.

Any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia in Ukraine would face "severe consequences," the ministers said following their meeting in Karuizawa, Japan.

The G-7 also denounced Russia's "seizure and militarization" of Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant as a threat to nuclear security. Russia's repeated shelling of the plant last year raised concerns from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog about the risk of a major nuclear disaster.

The G-7 added it will continue to intensify sanctions against Russia and take action against third parties who assist Russian war efforts in Ukraine.

— Audrey Wan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will travel to New York next week to meet with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, according to a Reuters report.

While in town, Lavrov is slated to chair several U.N. Security Council meetings during the last week of April. Russia currently holds the one-month rotating presidency of the council.

Lavrov is also expected to provide an update on negotiations to extend the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative.

The humanitarian sea corridor, brokered in July, eased Russia's naval blockade and reopened three key Ukrainian ports. Ukraine and the U.N. pushed for a 120-day extension of the deal in March, but Russia has previously said that unless certain terms were met, the deal will expire in mid-May.

— Amanda Macias

NATO held its first-ever joint exercise with Finland since the nation joined the military alliance earlier this month. German and Portuguese ships participated alongside the Finnish navy in the exercise in the Gulf of Finland.

Finland submitted a bid to join the world's most powerful military alliance on the heels of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

— Amanda Macias

A work of world-renowned British street graffiti artist Banksy depicting a rhythmic gymnast is seen on a wall of a residential building, which was damaged during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in the town of Irpin, not far from Kyiv, Ukraine, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Two residential buildings in Irpin will be demolished after being badly damaged by shelling during the war. Graffiti by Banksy, which is placed on one of the buildings, is planned to be dismantled and preserved. On the house, Banksy depicted a gymnast with a ribbon. The girl seems to be standing on a sphere, which is symbolized by a hole in the wall that was formed as a result of shelling in the city.

— STR | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by phone with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Zelenskyy said in a new Telegram post.

He thanked the California Republican for the "bipartisan support of Ukraine by the U.S. Congress."

"I spoke about the course of hostilities and Ukraine's urgent defense needs in armored vehicles, long-range artillery, air defense and aircraft," said Zelenskyy. "I assured that Ukraine is willing to account for every dollar of American assistance."

McCarthy and Zelenskyy also discussed "the need to increase sanctions pressure on Russia and lower the price cap on Russian oil and gas."

The call comes a day before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hears testimony from Andriy Kostin, Ukraine's prosecutor general, on Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

— Christina Wilkie

Three ships left Ukraine's ports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations.

One ship departed the port of Odesa, carrying 37,300 metric tons of corn to Tunisia. The other two set sail from Yuzhny-Pivdennyi, carrying corn destined for Spain and China.

The humanitarian sea corridor eased Russia's naval blockade and reopened three key Ukrainian ports. Ukraine and the U.N. pushed for a 120-day extension of the deal in March, but Russia said that it may only acknowledge the extension for 60 days.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov shared a video of the French-made AMX-10 armored fighting vehicles, slated to make their combat debut with Ukraine's marines.

"We took it for a spin together with our warriors, and we agreed to call the AMX-10 the 'sniper rifle on the fast wheels,'" Reznikov said in a tweet.

"Thank you to my colleague Sebastien Lecornu and to [President] Emmanuel Macron with whom I had a chance to meet and to discuss our priorities and needs. And of course, thank you to all people of France for your strong support," he added.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited service members on the front lines in the country's Donetsk region.

"It is a pleasure for me to see you, shake your strong hands and know that you hold the future of Ukraine in your hands. I am proud to have this meeting. I am proud that there are such strong people in Ukraine," Zelenskyy said, according to a readout provided by the Ukrainian government.

"Things happen thanks to you. Take care. Our future depends on you," he added.

While in Donetsk, Zelenskyy also met with wounded troops in a local hospital dedicated to treating service members with combat-related injuries.

"Thank you for your service. I wish you a speedy recovery. All the best to you," Zelenskyy said, according to a readout of his visit. He also presented some troops with service medals.

— Amanda Macias

Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, called a Russian judge's decision to uphold the detention of Evan Gershkovich "disappointing."

Earlier Tuesday, a Moscow court rejected Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's appeal against pre-trial detention, meaning he will be held in a former KGB prison until at least May 29.

Latour and Tucker released a statement addressed to their colleagues after the development:

Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 on espionage allegations and, if convicted, the 31-year-old journalist could face a 20-year prison sentence under Russian law.

The Biden administration and The Wall Street Journal have denied allegations that Gershkovich has ever worked on behalf of the U.S. government as a spy.

— Amanda Macias

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to Sweden and Germany this week to discuss additional ways to support Ukraine with allies and partners.

While in Germany, Austin will host another meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of nearly 50 countries supporting Ukraine's military needs, has met several times since it was formed last April.

Among the topics to be discussed at Ramstein Air Base will be Ukraine's desire for modern fighter jets for its fight against Russia.

— Amanda Macias

The United Nations has confirmed more than 8,534 civilian deaths and 14,370 injuries in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor more than a year ago.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher because the armed conflict can delay fatality reports.

"These figures are just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the casualties resulted from the Russian forces' use of wide-impact explosive weaponry in residential neighborhoods," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said last week during a speech before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

— Amanda Macias

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post contains a graphic image of death in the city of Kherson.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit was made public on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had shelled a market in the center of the city of Kherson, killing one and injuring at least seven, according to a report on Yahoo News. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin reported that Putin had visited troops at a military base in the wider Kherson region.

— Getty Images

Ukraine is rejecting reports that Russian inspectors have restarted inspections of export ships under the Black Sea grain deal.

"Nothing has been resolved. There are no inspections," Reuters quoted an unnamed Ukrainian official as saying.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian state news agency RIA cited a Russian foreign ministry official saying that Russian inspections of grain ships leaving Ukraine had restarted.

A deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain was renewed in mid-March for at least 60 days — just half of the intended period — after Russia warned that any further extension beyond mid-May would depend on the removal of some Western sanctions.

Ukraine, an agricultural powerhouse, was one of the world's top exporters of grain and other produce like corn and sunflower oil before Russia's invasion. A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports caused a spike in prices of those goods worldwide and stoked fears of food crises in parts of the developing world.

— Natasha Turak

Romania's ruling Social Democrat party (PSD) said it plans to request that the country's governing coalition enact a temporary ban on Ukrainian grain imports, which would make it the latest in a group of Eastern and Central European countries to put bans on the produce.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia recently put bans on Ukrainian grain in an effort to shield domestic producers from being undercut by the cheaper produce, as leaders from those countries — some of whom are Ukraine's most vocal supporters — face pressure and protest from their own grain farmers.

"PSD will ask the governing coalition to make a political decision to enable ... the government to issue the decree," Romania's PSD said in a statement.

"At the same time, Romania must continue to support Ukraine by facilitating the transit of farm products to other European Union states or to Black Sea commercial routes," it said.

— Natasha Turak

Switzerland's government said it was working to seriously implement and enforce sanctions on Russia, after G7 ambassadors expressed concerns that Russians could take advantage of Swiss privacy laws and other loopholes to hide large sums of money in offshore assets.

"We adopted the (EU) sanctions and of course we take this completely seriously and we are simply doing everything that can be done in order to enforce them seriously," Swiss President Alain Berset said during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

He also stressed his country's condemnation of Russia for its war, and support for Ukraine.

The G7 letter sent to the Swiss Federal Council this week said the group of nations was concerned that "law enforcement officials are blocked from investigating illicit financial structures … because of privacy protections," and that Swiss officials "were unable to freeze assets under protections for dual nationals, legal residents, those with legal ties to Swiss entities, or those holding indirect beneficial ownership. We share a concern that these loopholes to legal action put Switzerland at reputational risk."

Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said the concerns were baseless.

— Natasha Turak

A Moscow court rejected Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's appeal against pre-trial detention, meaning he will remain held in a former KGB prison until at least May 29, Reuters reported.

Lynne Tracy, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, visited Gershkovich in prison Monday and reported that he was in good health.

Russian investigators formally charged the American journalist with espionage on April 7. Gershkovich denies the charges and says he was working as a journalist, not for the U.S. government.

Russia's Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in late March that it had detained Gershkovich and had opened an espionage case against the 31-year-old. 

Gershkovich's detention marked the first time an American journalist has been detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.

— Natasha Turak

Ukraine will try to unblock exports of food and grain through Poland in a second day of talks in Warsaw on Tuesday after some of its staunchest allies in central Europe imposed bans on its products.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have recently banned imports of Ukrainian grains and produce to protect their markets from an influx of cheaper supply.

Ukraine's exports via these countries have risen due to Russia's invasion, which has blocked some of its Black Sea ports.

Bottlenecks caused by slowed rail shipments or a lack of railcars have exacerbated the problem, trapping large quantities of Ukrainian grain in Central Europe which has lowered prices and hurt sales by local farmers, turning up the heat on governments.

Poland's ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party faces an election this year and counts on rural areas for support.

Ukraine and Poland began talks on Monday over Warsaw's ban, which went further than others by stopping Ukrainian grain and food in transit.

Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus told public radio station PR1 on Tuesday that talks were set to continue.

In Hungary, officials were checking shipments of Ukrainian grain at the border, only allowing transit deliveries to pass, MTI news agency cited Marton Nobilis, the Agriculture Ministry's state secretary for the food industry and trade policy, as saying.

Hungary and other countries in central Europe have joined together in pushing for an EU-wide solution.

The EU has criticised Poland, Hungary and Slovakia for putting individual bans in place. EU envoys were set to discuss the bans on Wednesday, according to a senior EU official, who said low global prices and demand meant grain was staying in the bloc rather than being sold on.

The bans come as a deal allowing Ukraine to export millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea is set to expire on May 18.

Russian demands have left the prospect of an extension of the deal uncertain. The combined impact of the bans and failure to agree an extension would strand millions of tonnes of grain inside Ukraine, a major agricultural producer that generate a substantial part of its gross domestic product from grain and food sales.

— Reuters

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow and Beijing should expand their military cooperation as he held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, in Moscow on Tuesday.

Shoigu congratulated Li on his recent appointment as Chinese's defense minister and said:

"I am convinced that your extensive experience of interaction with the Russian Federation will contribute both to the development of the armed forces of the PRC [People's Republic of China] and to the expansion of military cooperation between our countries," Shoigu said, according to news agency RIA Novosti.

"I look forward to the closest and most fruitful cooperation with you in the spirit of unbreakable friendship between our countries, peoples, and also the armed forces of Russia and China," Shoigu said.

Shoigu said Russia appreciated Li choosing Russia as the location of his first foreign trip in the role. Russia and China have been cultivating deeper political and military ties in recent years and Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow last month.

Heavy fighting has continued along the front line in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Britain's Defense Ministry said Tuesday, but it noted that Russia could be concentrating its forces on capturing Bakhmut now.

"There is a realistic possibility that Russia has reduced troop numbers and is decreasing offensive action around Donetsk city, most likely to divert resources towards the Bakhmut sector," the ministry said in an intelligence update on Twitter.

The U.K. said Russian regular units and mercenary forces belonging to the Wagner Group "continue to make creeping advances" in Bakhmut and that "the front line in the town centre largely follows the main railway line."

"Ukraine is generally holding Russia's envelopment from the south along the line of Korsunskovo Street, the old main road west out of town," the ministry said.

For both sides, the exact sequencing of any major drawdown of their units around Bakhmut has become a critical question, the ministry noted, with "Ukraine wanting to free-up an offensive force while Russia likely aspires to regenerate an operational reserve."

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a rare trip to meet Russian military commanders and troops fighting in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

Putin reportedly visited the headquarters of troops located in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, a region partially occupied by Russian forces, where he was briefed on the military situation there by air force and army commanders.

On arriving at the headquarters, Putin reportedly said, "I don't want to distract you from your direct duties related to command and control, so we are working here in a business-like manner, briefly, but concretely," news agency Tass reported.

"It is important for me to hear your opinion on how the situation is developing, to listen to you, to exchange information," Putin said.

The president was then seen asking military commanders to report on the situation in Kherson and nearby Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, which is also partially occupied.

It's rare for Putin to visit Russian troops in Ukraine, and this was the first visit by the president to the Kherson region. The last time Putin was seen in Ukraine was on March 19, when he purportedly visited Mariupol and Rostov-on-Don, where he also met military leaders.

— Holly Ellyatt

The White House called for regular and routine visits with detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

"Certainly we conveyed to him how hard we are going to continue to work his case," National security council spokesman John Kirby said on a conference call with reporters.

"We also conveyed that same message to his family," Kirby added.

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy said she visited Gershkovich at Lefortovo prison.

Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 on espionage allegations and, if convicted, the 31-year-old journalist could face a 20-year prison sentence under Russian law.

The Biden administration and The Wall Street Journal have denied allegations that Gershkovich has ever worked on behalf of the U.S. government as a spy.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian artillerymen prepare to launch artillery toward Russian positions on the frontline, in Donetsk region.

— Anatolli Stepanov | AFP | Getty Images

There's been an international outcry after a Russian court sentenced Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for treason, and other charges including spreading "false" information about the Russian army.

The U.S., U.K. and Germany condemned the sentence with London calling the conviction of Kara-Murza, an opposition politician, journalist, and human rights activist in Russia and a British dual national, "politically motivated."

The U.K's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has summoned the Russian ambassador Andrey Kelin, and said it would "make clear that the U.K. considers Mr Kara-Murza's conviction to be contrary to Russia's international obligations on human rights, including the right to a fair trial."

Britain's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said "Russia's lack of commitment to protecting fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, is alarming. We continue to urge Russia to adhere to its international obligations including Vladimir Kara-Murza's entitlement to proper healthcare."

The U.S. embassy in Russia said in a statement that "the court's decision today to sentence Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for expressing an opinion critical of the policies of his government is another terrible sign of the repression that has taken hold in Russia. We call for his immediate release."

Elsewhere, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement that the 25-year prison sentence was "another blow to the rule of law and civic space in the Russian Federation."

"No one should be deprived of their liberty for exercising their human rights, and I call on the Russian authorities to release him without delay," Turk said.

— Holly Ellyatt

A Moscow court on Monday jailed outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza for a quarter of a century after it found him guilty of treason and other offenses he denied, Reuters reported.

Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and an opposition politician who holds Russian and British passports, spent years speaking out against President Vladimir Putin and sought to have Western governments impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for purported human rights violations, Reuters reported.

State prosecutors had accused him of treason and of discrediting the Russian military after he criticized what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

In his final speech to the court last week, Kara-Murza had compared his own trial, which was held behind closed doors, to Josef Stalin's show trials in the 1930s and had declined to ask the court to acquit him, saying he stood by and was proud of everything he had said, according to Reuters.

— Melodie Warner

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with China's Defense Minister Li Shangfu on Sunday, marking the latest high-profile meeting between Russian and Chinese officials in recent months.

Footage of the meeting showed Putin shaking hands with Li and then sitting down at a table at which Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was also seen.

"We are working actively through our military departments, regularly exchange useful information, work together in the field of military-technical cooperation, and hold joint exercises," Putin said, Reuters reported.

Recent joint drills, he said, strengthened "the extremely trusting, strategic nature of our relations."

Russia's defense ministry said Friday that Li would make his first foreign trip to Russia on April 16-18 since his appointment to the post. The ministry said negotiations between Li and Shoigu would take place during the visit, which concludes Tuesday, and that the officials would discuss cooperation in the defense sphere and issues of global and regional security.

Putin's latest meeting with a senior Chinese official comes almost a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow in March in which the leaders reaffirmed their strategic cooperation. Putin also met one of China's top diplomats, Wang Yi, in February.

China's State Council released a statement Sunday saying Beijing is willing to work with Russia to deepen "strategic communication between the two militaries, strengthen multilateral coordination and cooperation, and make new contributions to the maintenance of world and regional security and stability."

— Holly Ellyatt

U.S. looks to hold Russian forces accountable for war crimes; West condemns Kremlin critic's 25-year jail sentence