Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 423 of the invasion ukraine

NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has said he is “confident” that Ukraine is ready to reclaim more territory as Kiev prepares for a new offensive against the invading Russian army. Stoltenberg, when asked by reporters in Germany whether Ukraine had what it takes to successfully carry out the offensive, said: “I believe they will now be in a position to be able to liberate even more land.” He also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the NATO summit in July and stressed the need to support Ukraine’s battlefield logistics.

US Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking classified defense documents to a small group of gamers, posted sensitive information months earlier than previously known and to a much larger chat group., The New York Times has reported. In February 2022, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, a user profile matching Teixeira’s began posting secret intelligence on the Russian war effort to a previously anonymous chat group of about 600 members on the social platform Discord. The Pentagon declined to comment on the new report.

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest in absentia of Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozaev List of “foreign agents”, Government news agency Riya has given this information, Grozaev is Russia’s lead reporter for the Bellingcat news outlet, and played a key role in the investigation into the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Germany, Poland and Ukraine signed a deal on Friday for a hub to repair Leopard tanks used in Ukraine to fight Russian forces, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told a meeting of allies at Ramstein airbase said in. He cautioned against any early invitation to Ukraine to join NATO. The parties agreed on how to finance such a hub, which would cost €150m-€200m a year and could begin operations in late May.

International support for Ukraine is “strong and true”, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, as he began a meeting in Germany with allies to discuss further support for Kiev. Austin confirmed that the US is helping train nine Ukrainian “Storm” brigades for retaliatory strikes and stressed the need to “strengthen” and “harden” Ukraine’s air defense system. Austin said: “Our support for the forces of independence in Ukraine is strong and true. At today’s Contact Group meeting, we will focus on three key issues: air defense, ammunition and enablers.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov tweets about the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in RamsteinGermany, saying that Ukraine is “de facto already a part of the alliance’s security space” has reached “unprecedented levels of interoperability”.

A Moscow court has issued an arrest warrant for Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, accusing the spy chief of organizing “terrorist attacks” inside Russia, state-owned news agency RIA reported. RIA cited the court as saying that Budanov was accused of crimes related to terrorism and arms trafficking. The move against him was announced “in absentia”, in an apparent acknowledgment that Budanov could not be immediately detained.

The Canadian government announced C$39m (£23.26m) in new military aid to Ukraine, including 40 sniper rifles, 16 radio sets and a donation to a NATO fund to help with the war. The latest round of Canadian aid, which also includes ammunition for rifles, was announced by Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand at Ramstein Airbase in Germany, where NATO defense officials met to discuss further military supplies for Ukraine. met for

Britain has imposed sanctions on five people linked to the arrest of Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was jailed for 25 years this week. Elena Lenskaya, a judge who approved Kara-Murza’s arrest, along with Denis Kolesnikov and Andrei Zadachin, the investigators involved in Kara-Murza’s arrest, will all be affected by sanctions. FSB agents Alexander Samofal and Konstantin Kudryavtsev, who followed Kara-Murza on several trips before he was poisoned in 2015, will also be cleared.