Finland will officially become a member of the NATO military alliance at a ceremony in Brussels Tuesday. Finland submitted a joint application for membership alongside Sweden shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Poland has delivered “several” MiG-29 fighter aircraft to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit Poland on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Moscow on “espionage” charges has filed an appeal against his arrest, according to Russian state news. The US has called for the journalist’s “immediate release.”
On the ground, eastern Ukraine continues to face relentless Russian assaults, with shelling killing at least six people in the city of Kostiantynivka.
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The preventive detention hearing for Daria Trepova, who was detained in connection with the explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, will take place on Tuesday at Basmanny District Court in Moscow, according to Russian state news agency Vesti.
Russian authorities detained Trepova, 26, claiming she was involved in the blast that killed well-known military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a café in St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Greenfield said she is not surprised if the Russians asked the foreign minister to come to UNSC headquarters in New York but also said council does work beyond Ukraine.
“We haven’t decided yet on what our attendance levels will be, but we intend to carry out the business of the Security Council during this month. The Security Council does more than Ukraine. We work on many issues, and we again expect that Russia will carry their presidency in a professional way, but when they don’t, we will stand ready to call them out,” Greenfield said.
Vasily Nebenzya, Russian ambassador to the United Nations, dismissed concerns that Russia could fairly be the president of the Security Council for April during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
He said there were no complaints in February 2022 when Russia was last president of the council, while Russia invaded and pointed out that the US was president of the council in 2003 — the year Iraq was invaded.
The ambassador said as long as world order is maintained, there will not be any change in UN procedures that might lead to a change in Russia’s status.
Russia took over presidency on Saturday of the UN’s top security body, which rotates every month.
Here are the latest headlines:
Newly published video shows moment of explosion that killed Russian journalist: The video shows the moments running up to an explosion that killed Russian military journalist Vladen Tartovsky in a St Petersburg café on Sunday. The 25-second video shows Tartovsky putting a statuette given to him at the event into a box after passing the microphone to another man. He places the statuette back into the box and then covers it with what appears to be paper wrapping. As he presses down the paper, there is an explosion.
More than 500 children have been killed in Ukraine since the war began, UNICEF says: At least 501 children have been killed in Ukraine since February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, said Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Another tragic milestone for Ukraine’s children and families,” Russell tweeted on Monday. Russell warned the real figure is “likely far higher” than the numbers verified by the UN agency.
Finland’s official accession to NATO is historic, alliance chief says: NATOSecretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it will be historic when the military alliance raises the Finnish flag for the first time at its headquarters on Tuesday after it was announced that Finland was joining the alliance. “This is a historic week. Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as the 31st member of NATO, making Finland safer and our alliance stronger. We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at NATO Headquarters,” Stoltenberg said, speaking in Brussels Monday.
Ukraine receives first tranche of $2.7 billion from new IMF program, finance minister says: Ukraine has received the first tranche of $2.7 billion from a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko tweeted Monday. The IMF regularly makes emergency loans to countries in crisis. On Friday, the IMF approved a new four-year extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of around $15.6 billion as part of a $115 billion total support package for Ukraine.
Ukraine war has cost $2.6 billion in damage to heritage and cultural sites, UNESCO says: The war in Ukraine has cost an estimated $2.6 billion of damage to heritage and cultural sites in the country, the UN cultural body UNESCO said in a recently published report. The report, which covers one year of war in Ukraine between February 24, 2022, and February 24, 2023, was a joint assessment conducted by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations.
Ukrainian military says dozens of enemy attacks along the front lines have been repelled: The Ukrainian military has reported little change to the front lines but heavy fire from Russian forces at various parts of the front line in the Donetsk region. The General Staff said that more than 45 enemy attacks had been repelled over the past day, with the focus on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka. It said there were 17 air strikes and more than 20 strikes by multiple launch rocket systems.
Newly published video shows the moments running up to an explosion that killed Russian military journalist Vladen Tartovsky in a St Petersburg café on Sunday.
Tatarsky died when a blast tore through the cafe where he was appearing as a guest of a pro-war group called Cyber Front Z. Prior Russian media reports suggested that Tatarsky may have been killed by a device hidden in a figurine presented to him by a woman before the blast.
The 25-second video shows Tartovsky putting a statuette given to him at the event into a box after passing the microphone to another man.
He places the statuette back into the box and then covers it with what appears to be paper wrapping. As he presses down the paper, there is an explosion.
In the last two seconds of the video, Tartovsky is pixillated, but the rest of the scene is not.
More to know: The well-known Russian blogger was killed in what appeared to be an audacious attack on a high-profile pro-Kremlin figure, officials said.
Authorities said they were treating the case as suspected murder.
At least 32 people were injured in the blast, with 10 people in serious condition, state media Ria Novosti reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Health.
Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya on Monday scoffed at concerns that his country could fairly be the president of the Security Council for April during the war in Ukraine.
Nebenzya pointed out that the US was president of the council in 2003 — the year Iraq was invaded.
He said there were no complaints in February 2022 when Russia was last president of the council, while Russia invaded.
The ambassador said as long as world order is maintained, there will not be any change in UN procedures that might lead to a change in Russia’s status.
Russia took over presidency on Saturday of the UN’s top security body, which rotates every month.
Ukraine has received the first tranche of $2.7 billion from a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said in a tweet Monday.
The IMF, which regularly makes emergency loans to countries in crisis, on Friday approved a new four-year extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of around $15.6 billion as part of a $115 billion total support package for Ukraine.
The program aims to “anchor policies that sustain fiscal, external, price and financial stability and support economic recovery, while enhancing governance and strengthening institutions to promote long-term growth in the context of post-war reconstruction and Ukraine’s path to EU accession,” the IMF said in a statement.
The program also helps Ukraine to carry out “more ambitious structural reforms,” it said.
The Extended Fund Facility (EFF) loan is the first major conventional financing program approved by the IMF for a country involved in a large-scale war, Reuters reported.
The risks to the arrangement are “exceptionally high,” said Gita Gopinath, first deputy managing director of the global lender.
“The success of the program depends on the size, composition, and timing of external financing on concessional terms to help close fiscal and external financing gaps and restore debt sustainability on a forward-looking basis under the baseline and downside scenarios,” she added.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday assured Moldova of Berlin’s support on its path to accession to the European Union as Moldovan and American officials allege Russia of trying to weaken the government in Chisinau.
“Moldova can be sure of our support on this path. I assured the President [Sandu] of this once again today. Moldova does not stand alone, but receives massive international support,” the German chancellor continued.
Scholz expressed “great concern” about reports of alleged Russian attempts to destabilize Moldova and said Germany would do its “utmost” to support Moldova in arming itself against “attempts of destabilization by Russia.”
In February, Moldova’s President Sandu accused Russia of planning to use “saboteurs who have undergone military training and are disguised as civilians” to destabilize the country — claims which were rejected by Russia’s foreign ministry as “unfounded.”
According to White House officials, the US believes that Russia is working to weaken the Moldovan government, as it continues to seek closer ties with the European Union.
“The sovereignty and territorial integrity of any state is inviolable. This requirement of the Helsinki Final Act and other agreements under international law was also signed by Russia. And it is still valid. Therefore, we do our utmost to support Moldova in arming itself against attempts of destabilization by Russia,” Scholz said.
Speaking at the same event, Sandu said that “it is very important, and I am happy that Moldova is a dialogue partner with Romania and Germany. The projects we are involved in together are very useful for our people and will strongly lead us to the accession (to the European Union).”
CNN’s Radina Gigova, Anna Chernova and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that the alliance has not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced late last month Moscow’s plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.
Stoltenberg described Putin’s announcement as a “pattern of dangerous, reckless nuclear rhetoric.”
“President Putin tries to use nuclear weapons as a way to prevent us from supporting Ukraine… intimidation, coercion to stop NATO Allies and partners for supporting Ukraine in their right to defend their own country,” he said.
NATO’s chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that Western allies have delivered more than $70 billion in military aid to Ukraine over the last year since the Russian invasion started.
“We do not know when this war will end. But when it does, we will need to put in place arrangements so that Ukraine can deter future aggression. And history does not repeat itself. We cannot allow Russia to continue to chip away at European security,” he said.
Stoltenberg added that allies have delivered 65 billion euros (around $70.7 billion) in military aid, and said he welcomed the recent arrival of modern battle tanks and other armored vehicles in Ukraine.
“This can make a real difference on the front lines and allow the Ukrainian forces to liberate more territory,” he said.
The NATO head affirmed that the alliance’s support is for the “long haul” and said, “we will discuss how we can step up our support, including by continuing to strengthen Ukraine’s armed forces and supporting the transition from Soviet-era to NATO equipment and doctrine.”
Stoltenberg also said allies must address other threats and challenges, citing instability, terrorism, and the growing influence of Iran, Russia, and China. He urged allies to invest more in defense to tackle all these wide range of issues.
Norway and Denmark will cooperate to donate 8,000 artillery rounds to Ukraine, the Norwegian government announced in a statement on Monday.
“Norway donates the shells, while Denmark donates the associated fuzes, propellant bags and primer cartridges,” the statement said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted to the announcement, saying in a tweet that he was grateful for the donation.
The rounds will be “standard NATO 155 mm artillery ammunition and will supplement the Danish donation of 19 Caesar self-propelled howitzers,” Norway’s statement added.
Norway’s artillery shells will be delivered from the country’s armed forces’ own stock, according to the statement.
Norwegian defense minister Bjørn Arild Gram said “Ukraine has a significant need for artillery ammunition. Norway will contribute where we can. It is important for both Europe’s and Norway’s security that Ukraine succeeds in standing up to Russia’s attack.”
“The Ukrainians still have a great and urgent need for ammunition for their fight for freedom against Russia. Denmark, together with other EU and NATO countries, is in the process of accommodating with a number of different military contributions. Our cooperation with Norway is an important example of this,” the Danish acting defense minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said in the statement.
The Ukrainian military has reported little change to the front lines but heavy fire from Russian forces at various parts of the front line in the Donetsk region.
The General Staff said that more than 45 enemy attacks had been repelled over the past day, with the focus on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka.
It said there were 17 air strikes and more than 20 strikes by multiple launch rocket systems.
“In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy is trying to take full control over the city of Bakhmut and continues to storm it,” the General Staff said.
West of the city, Ukrainian defense forces repelled about 20 enemy attacks, according to the General Staff.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian Land Forces, posted on Telegram that in Bakhmut he had met with “soldiers and commanders who destroyed the myth of invincibility of the Wagner fighters and Russian paratroopers.”
Syrskyi referenced the possibility of a future counter-offensive, saying that “the forward movement of our entire army depends on what every soldier is doing right now on their section of the front.”
Some of the most intense fighting is to the northwest and west of the city of Donetsk – as the Russians continue months-long efforts to dislodge Ukrainian defenses in Avdiivka and Mariinka. The General Staff said that some 20 assaults had been repelled.
“There are also some operational successes of our military in the Donetsk area. Our military have taken some positions. They have taken a more strategic and favourable position,” said Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi, spokesperson for the military in that zone.
He also noted that Russian special forces had been introduced in the area.
“The enemy is trying to attack our positions between Avdiivka and Marinka. These attempts do not stop. It should be noted that the enemy has suffered quite significant losses,” Dmytrashkivskyi said.
He also claimed that the Russians “don’t have the same amount of equipment and, as they themselves say, they are on a ‘diet’ of ammunition for assaults.”
Social media video showed both sides engaged in heavy fire in the Avdiivka area, which the Russians have surrounded on three sides.
Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, claimed that Russian forces were still advancing in the Avdiivka direction.
“It is still premature to speak of encirclement, but the situation is being created, if not critical, then extremely difficult for the enemy… After clearing Kamianka, our units are moving further. There are difficulties both with the terrain, which must also be overcome, and there are also similarities with weather conditions. But these difficulties are mutual — both for the enemy and for us,” Pushilin said.
The war in Ukraine has cost an estimated $2.6 billion of damage to heritage and cultural sites in the country, the UN cultural body UNESCO said in a recently published report.
The report, which covers one year of war in Ukraine between February 24, 2022, and February 24, 2023, was a joint assessment conducted by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the United Nations.
UNESCO was in charge of the part of the report dedicated to culture and tourism.
Some $1.7 billion of that cost was distributed to “historic cities, buildings, and sites imbued with recognized cultural/social values,” $650 million to tourism facilities, $143 million to “movable cultural properties and collections, repositories of culture,” and $150 million to “buildings/workshops/ateliers dedicated to cultural and creative industries,” according to UNESCO.
The most impacted region in Ukraine was Kharkivska, which has suffered 30% of the total damage to its cultural assets, the report added.
UNESCO said that losses are estimated at around $15.2 billion, which includes revenue losses from tourism, art, sports, entertainment, recreation, cultural education, and creative and cultural industries.
UNESCO’s head Audrey Azoulay is currently in Ukraine, the organization told CNN on Monday.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it will be historic when the military alliance raises the Finnish flag for the first time at its headquarters on Tuesday.
“It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole,” Stoltenberg added.
Stoltenberg also spoke about Sweden’s bid to join NATO, saying Finland’s accession is “in itself something we should celebrate” but is also good for Sweden.
“It makes Sweden more integrated into NATO and makes Sweden even more safer,” Stoltenberg said, adding “at the same time we celebrate and enjoy that Finland is now full-fledged member, we should continue work to finalize the Swedish accession process.”
CNN’s Laurent Kent contributed to this report.
At least 501 children have been killed in Ukraine since February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, said Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Another tragic milestone for Ukraine’s children and families,” Russell said in a tweet on Monday.
Russell warned the real figure is “likely far higher” than the numbers verified by the UN agency.
Additionally, almost 1,000 Ukrainian children have been injured, “leaving them with wounds and scars - both visible and invisible - that could last for life,” she added.
The head of the United Nations nuclear agency, International Atomic Energy Agency, will travel to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in the Baltics Wednesday to discuss the safety of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a spokesperson for the agency told CNN.
“IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will visit Kaliningrad on Wednesday as part of his ongoing consultations aimed at ensuring the protection of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant during the military conflict,” the spokesperson said Monday.
The plant has been occupied by Russian forces since March of last year and is now run by the Russian atomic agency, Rosatom.
The situation at the nuclear plant has not improved, according to the IAEA chief, who visited the facility last week and cited increased military activity in the area.
Grossi during the visit said he was trying to formulate “realistic, viable proposals” that would be acceptable to both sides.
Twelve Ukrainian prisoners have been returned home from captivity – 10 military and two civilians, Ukraine says.
Five of them were seriously wounded, according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
The Russian decision showed “a blatant lack of interest in establishing further exchanges for particularly vulnerable categories of prisoners and civilian hostages,” the headquarters said.
Since the beginning of the invasion in February last year, 2,005 Ukrainians have been released from captivity, according to the headquarters.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said Monday that he “gave” the St. Petersburg cafe, where an explosion killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky on Sunday, to the Cyber Front Z group, which hosted an event at the cafe.
When asked to confirm whether he was the owner of the cafe, Prigozhin didn’t deny it, in comments published Monday by his holding company Concord on its VK social media page.
“Indeed, I gave the cafe to the patriotic movement Cyber Front Z, and they held various seminars there,” Prigozhin said.
Russia’s independent news outlet Fontanka is reporting that the cafe belongs to Prigozhin, on the basis of the Concord company’s ownership mentioned on the cafe’s receipt.
Prigozhin is the founder and sole owner of Concord, according to public records.
CNN has not been able to independently verify Prigozhin’s claims and whether he is the legal owner of the cafe.
In the same post, Prigozhin is also commenting on who may be behind the blast.
“I do not know the details of the incident now, I was only informed that, unfortunately, Vladlen Tatarsky died. I don’t know about the rest of the details,” Prigozhin said.
“Most likely, this tragedy happened at the seminar. As for the death of Darya Dugina, yes, everything is similar,” he said referencing the death of the daughter of ultra-nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin, who was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow last year.
“But I would not blame the Kyiv regime for these actions. I think that there is a group of radicals that is hardly related to the government. That’s what I would call it,” Prigozhin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declined to make any comment about the explosion that killed Russian military journalist Vladlen Tatarsky in St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Zelensky said while on a tour of the northern Chernihiv region, “About St. Petersburg. I’m not thinking what is going on in St. Petersburg, or in Moscow. They have to think. Russia have to think about their cities. I’m thinking about our country. And our cities.”
Russia has arrested an anti-war activist named Daria Trepova in connection with the explosion that killed Tatarsky and injured at least 32 others at a cafe on Sunday.
Trepova’s husband Dmitry Rylov told the independent Russian publication The Insider that he is convinced his wife “was really just set up and used.”
Some more context: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said Ukraine may be behind the explosion. “There is evidence that the Ukrainian special services may be involved in the planning of this terrorist attack,” Peskov said. However, no evidence has yet been presented about who carried out the bombing.
Ukraine has said little about the explosion, beyond blaming in-fighting in Russia.
Two independent organizations in Russia — the Libertarian party and Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation — have denied any association with Trepova.
The agency cited the press service of the Lefortovo court in Moscow, where he was taken into custody last week.
“The court received a complaint from Gershkovich’s defense against the choice of a preventive measure in the form of detention,” TASS reported.
No date for hearing the appeal has been set.
Gershkovich is currently being held in a pre-trial detention center at the notorious Lefortovo prison until May 29. He faces up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges.
It is the first time an American journalist has been detained on accusations by Moscow of spying since the Cold War.
Pope Francis has called for prayers for “the war-torn people” of Ukraine in a tweet on Monday, just days after he was discharged from a hospital after being treated for a respiratory infection.
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