Zelenskyy praises the effectiveness of Ukrainian weapons – the nightly update without photos

Ukraine continues to prepare offensively

After the arrest of a suspect for releasing classified US documents about the war in Ukraine, Kiev continues to prepare for an offensive against Russian invaders. The military leadership is developing its plan according to the situation at the front, Secretary of the National Security Council Oleksiy Danilov said on Ukrainian national television. “Everything is decided at the last minute when the final decisions are made,” he said on Thursday. Ukraine previously downplayed the damage from the US leak.

The US federal police FBI arrested a 21-year-old member of the US military in North Dighton, Massachusetts, who allegedly published documents about the war in Ukraine on the Internet. The man was taken into custody in connection with the “unauthorized removal, storage and disclosure of classified information,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in Washington on Thursday. He is a member of the National Guard and his name is Jack T. He is said to have led a chat group on the Discord platform popular with video gamers and published the explosive documents there.

Secret documents from US agencies – supposedly from the CIA and the Pentagon – about the Russian offensive war against Ukraine have been circulating on the Internet for weeks: information about arms shipments, assessments of what is happening in the war. But also details of alleged American espionage against partners. It was unclear what is authentic and what might have been edited. For the US government, however, the matter is somehow inconvenient. Questions arise about how trustworthy Americans are, how well they protect their secrets and those of their partners, and how loyal they are to allies.

Officials in Kiev initially claimed that the documents were not genuine, but a typical forgery by Russian secret services. Russia’s goal is to use disinformation to torpedo the planned spring offensive to liberate Moscow-held territories. The Moscow Kremlin, on the other hand, described the information as interesting and saw it as new evidence of US and NATO involvement in the war. Both sides had stressed that the publication would not change their respective war goals.

The main advantage for Moscow, according to American media, is that the secret documents also contain information about the communication channels of informants in the Russian ranks to the secret services. As a result, these sources themselves could now be endangered. Russia can now plug leaks, it said.

Zelenskyj praises the effectiveness of Ukrainian weapons

In his video address on the anniversary of the shelling and sinking of the Russian warship “Moskva”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the effectiveness of his own missiles. A year ago, on April 13, Neptun missiles showed how professionally Ukraine’s military-industrial complex works, Zelensky said. He had therefore decreed that the date would be celebrated as Arms and Defense Industry Day in the future. Ukraine sank the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet a year ago and celebrated it as a great triumph in the war.

Ukraine can now produce “everything from grenades to missiles, from artillery shells to drones,” Zelensky said. But they also look forward to the delivery of weapons promised by partners.

The German Defense Minister does not see a change of course for Western fighter jets

For example, Ukraine receives MiG-29 fighter jets from former GDR stocks from Poland. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius sees no change of course regarding the delivery of Western fighter jets after the federal government gave the green light to hand over the jets to Ukraine. Anything that helps quickly is important, the SPD politician said in Bamako, Mali’s capital, on Thursday.

“It’s about MiGs because they can be used immediately by the Ukrainian armed forces, because they are known, because they can be flown immediately, because both maintenance and repair and maintenance can be done almost seamlessly and seamlessly,” Pistorius said. “All this does not apply to Western aircraft, especially the ones we have in Germany. Therefore, this debate does not arise for us. »

Pistorius, who continued his journey in West Africa, announced that formal written confirmation to the Polish government for permission to re-export to Ukraine would go out on Friday. An application that only arrived in Berlin on Thursday was approved within hours. These are planes that Germany gave to Poland in 2003. The Bundeswehr had taken over from former stocks of the GDR’s National People’s Army (NVA).

EU sanctions against Russian mercenary group Wagner

The European Council has added the Russian mercenary group Wagner to its sanctions list for its “active” involvement in Russia’s offensive war in Ukraine. The measure was justified in Brussels on Thursday evening by undermining the actions of the Wagner group and threatening “the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”. In addition, the European Council imposed sanctions on the Russian media organization Ria Fan, part of the Patriot Media Group, whose board of directors is headed by the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

What will be important on Friday

In eastern Ukraine, fighting continues over the strategically important city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. According to Prigozhin, Moscow’s troops control about 80 percent of the city, which has been largely destroyed. However, the Ukrainian armed forces are not giving up, Prigozhin said. He claimed that 32,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in fighting in the region alone. There is no information about this from Ukraine. (sda/dpa)