Russia is testing ICBM – the night update without pictures

Selenskyj appeals to perseverance

Given the difficult situation at the front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on his compatriots to persevere. “We are now in a phase of the war where it is important for our society and our partners not to lose a sense of the road ahead,” Zelenskyy said in his evening video message on Tuesday.

In Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where the situation is particularly tense, the notorious Russian mercenary group Wagner reported on their own successes. In Russia itself, a law was passed that should make it much easier for the state to recruit men for the front.

“The road is still ahead of us”

“Compared to last year, it is now quieter in many places,” says Zelenskyj. “But that doesn’t mean you can ignore the war somewhere or focus less on helping the state,” he told the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian head of state stressed that it is far from time to “rest on our laurels”: “The road is still ahead of us.”

More than a year after the start of the Russian offensive war, the Ukrainian army is currently under pressure, especially in the east around the city of Bakhmut, where fighting has been going on for months.

Moscow announces testing of an ICBM

Russia says it is testing an ICBM. In the southern region of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, a long-range ballistic weapon was successfully fired from a ground-based missile system at the Kapustin Yar training area on Tuesday, the defense ministry in Moscow announced Wednesday evening. The training warhead would later hit a test site in neighboring Kazakhstan in Central Asia, the message said — and further: “Its purpose was to test ICBMs’ promising combat equipment.”

Especially since the offensive war against Ukraine began more than a year ago, international observers have repeatedly accused Russia of building military threats. Moscow recently caused a stir by announcing that it would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. However, these are shorter-range weapons than ICBMs.

The current developments in the live ticker:

Russian mercenaries: Bakhmut captured more than 80 percent

According to their own statements, the Russian Wagner mercenary unit has recently seized more territory in the city, which was home to about 70,000 people before the start of the war. “In Bakhmut, the majority, more than 80 percent, is under our control,” the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a video published by a Russian military blogger. The information cannot be independently verified. Ukraine repeatedly declares that it will repel Russian attacks on Bakhmut.

Russians are more easily called up for military service

In Russia, it will be much easier for men to be called up to fight against Ukraine in the future than it was in the past. The convocation notices no longer have to be handed over in person, but can be delivered electronically through the state service portal “Gosuslugi”, the State Duma deputies decided.

The upcoming third and final lecture and a signature from Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin are considered a formality. As a result of the changes, a conscript is registered electronically and can no longer leave the country before being presented to the conscription office. Observers feared that the new method would prepare a new mobilization for war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected this.

The US Secretary of Defense was notified of a data breach on April 6

According to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, he learned about the data breach in Secret Service documents about the war in Ukraine last Thursday. “I was first notified of the reports of unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified material on the morning of April 6,” Austin said in Washington. Since then, he has consulted daily with his ministry’s senior staff and immediately took action across departmental boundaries. “We have referred the matter to the Justice Department, which has opened a criminal investigation.”

Apparently, secret documents from US agencies about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine have been circulating on the Internet for weeks. American media have been reporting sensitive material about both warring parties for days without publishing the documents themselves. It is unclear who published the documents that were circulated on pro-Russian channels weeks ago. (con/sda/dpa)