Ukraine-Russia war live: US ‘rushing’ to provide Kyiv with new Patriot missiles, Pentagon says

Ukrainian duo heads to the Eurovision Song Contest with a message: We're still here

Even amid war, Ukraine finds time for the glittery, pop-filled Eurovision Song Contest. Perhaps now even more than ever.

Ukraine’s entrants in the pan-continental music competition — the female duo of rapper alyona alyona and singer Jerry Heil — set off from Kyiv for the competition on Thursday. In wartime, that means a long train journey to Poland, from where they will travel on to next month’s competition in Malmö, Sweden.

“We need to be visible for the world,” Ms Heil said at Kyiv train station before her departure. “We need to show that even now, during the war, our culture is developing, and that Ukrainian music is something waiting for the world” to discover.

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Arpan Rai27 April 2024 07:45

Russia files hundreds of drone patents as ‘global arms race’ ramps up

Drone patents have soared across the world amid a “new arms race” as the technology is applied increasingly on the battlefield, experts have warned.

Data from the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) showed that patents filed for technology relating to drones surged by 16 per cent between 2022 and 2023. This represented an increase from 16,800 in 2022 to 19,700 in 2023 – with China, Russia and the US among the top five countries developing the technology.

Marcel Plichta, a former analyst at the US Department of Defense, told The Independent that the scramble for patents marks a new global arms race for a new kind of warfare.

He said: “This is part of a new global arms race. It’s different to a more traditional arms race of tanks and rifles, and is spurred on much more by the tech sector – especially in Ukraine and Russia, where this sort of technology is being developed to get around attrition warfare, where it is difficult to make any real sort of progress.

Arpan Rai27 April 2024 07:15

Ukraine’s farm minister is the latest corruption suspect

A Ukrainian court ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that agriculture minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77m), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85m) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47m).

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Arpan Rai27 April 2024 06:45

Russia attacks Ukrainian energy facilities in early morning offensive

Russia attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in three regions in the early hours today, officials said.

The attacks damaged equipment and injured at least one energy worker, Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said.

Russian strikes targeted the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine and the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, Mr Galushchenko said on Telegram.

The number of missiles used by Russia in these attacks is not immediately clear.

Arpan Rai27 April 2024 06:03

Ukraine pushes to get military-age men to come home, its neighbours want to help

Ukraine’s foreign minister doubled down on the government’s move to bolster the pool of fighting forces by cutting off consular services to conscription-age men outside the country, saying it was a question of “justice.”

Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba yesterday said the policy would ensure men in Ukraine and those who have left were both treated fairly.

“It’s about justice – justice in the relationship between Ukrainian men abroad and Ukrainian men inside of Ukraine,” he said.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded in more than two years of fighting. Russia has also suffered heavy losses, but has vastly more conscripts to throw into the fight.

Poland, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians, has indicated it’s willing to help ensure military-age men go home. The defence ministry said in a statement that “Poland is ready to assist Ukraine due to the needs of the Ukrainian army,” and that bilateral talks would be needed to agree on the arrangements.

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Arpan Rai27 April 2024 05:46

Ukrainians don’t need to ration their ammunition, says US army chief

General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the $1bn weapons package cleared by the Biden administration for Ukraine will have a key benefit. “There’s some near-term effects,” said General Brown, who stood alongside defence secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon briefing.

“Now the Ukrainians don’t necessarily have to ration what they have because they know things are coming out of this package and there will be follow-on packages.”

The White House, earlier this week, approved the delivery of $1bn in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. Those weapons include a variety of ammunition, such as air defence munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds that are much in demand by Ukrainian forces, as well as armoured vehicles and other weapons.

That aid, however, will get to Ukraine quickly because it is being pulled off Pentagon shelves, including in warehouses in Europe.

Arpan Rai27 April 2024 05:27

US ‘rushing’ to get Patriot missiles to Ukraine

The Pentagon has said it is “rushing” to provide fresh arms supplies to Ukraine and specifically dispatching more Patriot air defence missiles and artillery ammunition, as it finalised a new $6bn aid package.

“Together we’ll continue to work on two tracks, rushing Ukraine the capabilities to meet its urgent battlefield needs and helping Ukraine to build the future force to stave off and deter Russian aggression over the longer term,” US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said in a news conference after a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine “Putin’s war of choice”.

He added: “On that first track, we pushed especially hard today to rush in more air defence systems and Interceptors. And on the second, this contact group is working with Ukraine to help it move forward — help it move toward a robust, efficient and self-reliant defence industry.”

Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that it will buy $6bn worth of new weapons for Ukraine including interceptors for the Patriot air defence system, the single largest assistance package president Joe Biden’s administration has provided.

This package has been provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) using funding appropriated by the national security supplemental which president Biden signed into law, the US Department of Defence said in a release.

This will include equipment to “augment Ukraine’s air defences, fires, and artillery, and to sustain capabilities previously committed by the United States”.

Arpan Rai27 April 2024 04:44

Ukraine pulls US-provided Abrams tanks from the frontline over Russian drone threats

Ukraine has sidelined US-provided Abrams M1A1 battle tanks for now in its fight against Russia, in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two US military officials said.

The US agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023 after an aggressive monthslong campaign by Kyiv arguing that the tanks, which cost about $10m apiece, were vital to its ability to breach Russian lines.

But the battlefield has changed substantially since then, notably by the ubiquitous use of Russian surveillance drones and hunter-killer drones. Those weapons have made it more difficult for Ukraine to protect the tanks when they are quickly detected and hunted by Russian drones or rounds.

Arpan Rai27 April 2024 04:17

US announces new Patriot missiles for Ukraine in $6bn aid package

The US will provide Ukraine additional Patriot missiles for its air defence systems as part of a massive $6bn additional aid package, defence secretary Lloyd Austin said.

At a Pentagon press conference following the meeting, Mr Austin said the US was working with allies to resource additional Patriot systems but did not commit to sending more US versions.

He said he has been speaking one-on-one with a number of his European counterparts in recent days to hash out this issue and others. “It’s not just Patriots that they need, they need other types of systems and interceptors as well,” Mr Austin said. “I would caution us all in terms of making Patriot the silver bullet.”

The US defence leader said he is asking allied nations to “accept a little bit more risk” as they consider what weapons to send to Ukraine.

A number of nations have expressed some reluctance to send Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine because most don’t have very many and they believe they need them for their own defence.

The missiles will be used to replenish previously supplied Patriot systems. The package also includes more munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and additional gear to integrate Western air defence launchers, missiles and radars into Ukraine‘s existing weaponry, much of which still dates back to the Soviet era.

As the largest tranche of USAI aid sent to date, the package also includes High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as Switchblade and Puma drones, counter drone systems and artillery.

Arpan Rai27 April 2024 03:55

Macron calls Europe ‘too slow’ in the face of global threats

In a nearly two-hour speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris, Mr Macron claimed the 27-member European Union (EU) was “too slow and lacks ambition” before demanding that the bloc does not become a “vassal of the United States”.

“Our Europe is mortal. It could die,” the French president said. “We are not equipped to face the risks. We must produce more, we must produce faster and we must produce as Europeans.”

Tom Watling reports:

Arpan Rai27 April 2024 03:46