Russian plane bombs own city – explosion in Belgorod
06.20 a.m.: The Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border was rocked by a massive explosion on Thursday evening. A Russian plane is to blame. According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, a Russian Air Force Sukhoi-34 fighter jet lost ammunition while flying over Belgorod. “An abnormal discharge of Luftwaffe ammunition has occurred,” it said. Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russian military planes have regularly flown over Belgorod.
According to local officials, the explosion tore a huge crater about 20 meters in diameter in the city center and injured two women. One of the women was taken to the hospital for a head injury and the other was treated at the scene.
Selenskyj calls for an invitation to join NATO in July – Boris Pistorius: Wrong timing
12:10 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on NATO to clear the way for his country’s admission to the western military alliance at its summit in July. Neither in Ukraine, nor in Europe, nor in NATO would the majority of the population understand if Kiev did not receive a “well-deserved invitation,” Zelensky said in his daily video address on Thursday evening. He had previously received NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Kiev for the first time since the Russian war of aggression began almost 14 months ago.
The meeting was not just about defending Ukraine, but about “defending the entire rules-based international order and protecting life,” said the President. Hardly anyone is currently contributing more to Euro-Atlantic security than the Ukrainian soldiers. Kiev therefore “did everything to ensure that our request was fulfilled”. Several members of the alliance have reservations about Ukraine’s admission.
The next NATO summit of heads of state and government will take place in Lithuania on July 11 and 12. Finland will also be there for the first time as a new NATO member, which had given up its decades of non-alignment because of Russia’s war of aggression. Sweden’s application for membership based on the same considerations is currently being blocked by Turkey and Hungary.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius assumes that a decision on Ukraine’s entry into NATO will only be made after Russia’s war of aggression has ended. “The door is open a crack, but this is not the time to decide now,” said the SPD politician on Thursday evening on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”. To do this, you have to “first ward off this conflict, this attack, and then in the new era you have to weigh up this step carefully”. It’s not a question “that you just meet out of solidarity” because the step has an effect. “You have to decide with a cool head and a warm heart and not the other way around.”
Governor: Explosion in Russian border town
Friday, April 21, 00:09: A heavy explosion accidentally triggered by a Russian fighter jet has shaken the city of Belgorod, not far from the border with Ukraine. “A huge crater with a radius of 20 meters has formed at the intersection of one of the main roads,” said the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, on Thursday evening. Two women were injured. The Defense Ministry in Moscow later admitted that a Russian warplane dropped a bomb over the city.
“On April 20, 2023 at around 10:15 p.m. Moscow time (9:15 p.m. CET), a Su-34 aircraft of the Luftwaffe was unplanned shooting down over the city of Belgorod,” said a statement from the Authority. Investigations are therefore ongoing. In the surrounding blocks of flats, windows were broken by the explosion, it said. According to Gladkow, residents were accommodated at the hotel for the night. It will be checked whether load-bearing walls in the buildings have been damaged. Several cars were badly damaged and power poles were cut.
Belgorod is close to Ukraine, against which Russia has been waging a war of aggression for the past 14 months. Attacks against Ukrainian territory are also launched from Belgorod. At the same time, the region itself has become increasingly the target of shelling in recent months.
US leak: Wagner mercenaries have asked China for weapons
5:47 p.m.: According to a leaked US intelligence report, the Russian mercenary group Wagner asked China for arms deliveries earlier this year – apparently without success. Representatives of the Wagner Group requested “ammunition and equipment” in China in early 2023, the “Financial Times” quotes from the previously unpublished document. But as of early January, China “had not sent any weapons to (Wagner), even for testing purposes, and had no contact with (Wagner) regarding arms shipments,” it said.
Neither the Russian nor the Chinese government has commented on this so far. The United States had repeatedly warned that China could supply weapons to Russia. So far, however, there are no indications of concrete deliveries. Wagner’s direct request to China indicates that Beijing had some confidence in Moscow’s willingness to arm itself, according to The Times.
Ukrainian national debt rises to almost 80 percent of GDP
5:12 p.m.: The economic slump caused by the war and new loans caused Ukraine’s national debt to rise to almost 80 percent of economic output last year. Specifically, the state and state-guaranteed debts have risen from 48.9 percent in the pre-war year 2021 to 78.5 percent, the Ministry of Finance in Kiev said on Twitter on Thursday.
The direct national debts at home and abroad have only increased from 79 to 92 billion euros, it said. At the same time, however, the Ukrainian economy collapsed after the Russian invasion last year. The economic output of the attacked Eastern European country for the whole of 2022 has now been estimated by the ministry at the equivalent of around 146 billion euros – which is roughly comparable to Saxony or Hamburg.
Stoltenberg: Nato will Ukraine-Discuss accession at summit in July
2:20 p.m.: During a surprise visit to Kiev, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that he intends to discuss Ukraine’s accession to the western military alliance at the Vilnius summit in July. “The future of Ukraine is in the Euro-Atlantic family, the future of Ukraine is in NATO, all allies agree on that,” Stoltenberg said on Thursday. The issue will be “high on the agenda” during the July summit.
The priority of the military alliance is to ensure that Ukraine prevails in the war against Russia, the NATO chief said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. For his part, he called for his country to be invited to join NATO as soon as possible. In view of the great support among the member countries for Ukraine’s accession, it was “time to make the appropriate decision”.
Zelenskyy also asked NATO to help Kiev overcome the “reluctance” of some member states to supply certain weapons to Ukraine. It is about long-range weapons, modern aircraft, artillery and armored vehicles, explained Zelenskyj.
NATO Secretary General arrives in Kiev for a surprise visit
9:59 a.m.: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the defense alliance.
During his first visit since the Russian invasion almost 14 months ago, the Secretary General honored the fallen Ukrainian soldiers on the outer wall of the central St. Michael’s Monastery.
Stoltenberg has been a tireless supporter of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression and has continually campaigned for new arms deliveries to the Ukrainian armed forces.
At a summit meeting of the eastern alliance states in Warsaw, Stoltenberg recently advocated showing Russia its borders once and for all. “We must not allow Russia to continue undermining European security,” said the Norwegian at the time. One must “break the cycle of Russian aggression” and ensure “that history does not repeat itself”.
Flash of light over Kiev causes confusion
08.03: A flash of light across the sky has caused confusion in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Around 10:00 p.m. local time (9:00 p.m. CEST) on Wednesday, “the glow of a flying object was observed in the sky over Kiev,” said the head of the Kiev military administration, Serhiy Popko, in the online service Telegram. An AFP journalist observed a flash in the sky, which was not followed by thunder or any other sound. Popko said that according to “initial information” the crash of a satellite from the US space agency Nasa was responsible. However, NASA itself rejected this shortly afterwards.
At the beginning of the week, NASA announced that the Rhessi satellite, weighing around 300 kilograms, was scheduled to enter the earth’s atmosphere. However, the US space agency said in a statement published on Thursday night that this had not yet happened at the time the flash was observed. The crash of the satellite was not planned until around 2:50 a.m. on Thursday, and no other satellite entered the atmosphere on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian Air Force had said in connection with the flash of light that it had to do with the crash of a “satellite” or “meteorite”. According to Popko, the head of military administration, anti-aircraft defenses were activated in Kiev, but without firing.
Ukraine repels Russian drone strikes
08.03: According to the General Staff in Kiev, Ukraine has repelled numerous Russian drone attacks. 21 of 26 Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones were shot down within 24 hours, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Thursday morning in Kiev.
In addition, the Ukrainian armed forces reported 55 Russian ground attacks, which had been withstood. The fighting was therefore concentrated in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, where the heavily contested city of Bakhmut is located.
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