April 21, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below.

Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, accused of treason and of discrediting the Russian army, stands inside an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing in Moscow, on April 17.

The UK government sanctioned a Russian judge and two other individuals it says are connected to the arrest of jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza.

In response to the move, which involves asset freezes and a travel ban, former Russian President and deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called Britain “our eternal enemy.”

Here are other headlines you should know:

Calls for aid: Ukraine’s foreign minister asked the EU to expedite more aid one week after the European Union approved a fund of approximately $1.1 billion to reimburse states that have sent ammunition to Ukraine. Dmytro Kuleba said he called on EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, “to help finalise discussions on the 2nd €1 billion ($1.12 billion) joint procurement tranche as soon as possible to ensure security in Europe.”

NATO developments: Ukraine has received a “green light” for close cooperation with NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday. Reznikov’s comments come on the heels of Stoltenberg’s remarks, reaffirming that Ukraine will eventually “become a NATO member.” The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning Friday about NATO’s “dangerous” statements regarding Ukraine joining the alliance. 

Military training: The US will begin training Ukrainian forces on how to operate Abrams tanks next month as it seeks to get them onto the battlefield against Russia before the end of the summer. US M1A1 Abrams tanks will be sent by mid-May to Grafenwoehr, Germany, where roughly 250 Ukrainians will undergo a 10-week training course with US troops, a US official told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The tanks are a long-awaited capability for Ukraine, which has been battling Russia for more than a year. In total, the US is providing 31 tanks, the size of one Ukrainian tank battalion. 

On the ground: A dancer with Odesa Opera has been killed while fighting on the front line, the ballet company has said. International Atomic Energy Agency experts at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have heard shelling nearly every day over the past week, the agency said in an update on Friday. At one point, they were told to shelter at the site because of the potential dangers, according to an update from IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning Friday about NATO’s “dangerous” statements regarding Ukraine joining the alliance. 

“NATO sets itself the goal of ‘defeating’ Russia in Ukraine, and to motivate Kyiv, it promises that after the end of the conflict, the country can be accepted into the alliance,” ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

It comes after NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg visited Kyiv on Thursday and said that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.”

Stoltenberg said he discussed a “multiyear support initiative” with President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that it would help Ukraine transition from Soviet-era equipment and doctrines to “NATO standards.” This would “ensure full interoperability with the alliance,” Stoltenberg said.

His visit and the statements about Ukraine joining NATO were met with pushback from Russia. The Kremlin reiterated on Thursday that preventing Kyiv from joining NATO is one of its key goals.

Stoltenberg also reaffirmed Friday during a meeting of allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany that Ukraine will join the military alliance. He told reporters all NATO allies have agreed Ukraine should be a member — but did not give a definitive date of when this would happen.

A view shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on March 29.

International Atomic Energy Agency experts at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have heard shelling nearly every day over the past week, the agency said in an update on Friday. 

At one point, they were told to shelter at the site because of the potential dangers, according to an update from IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.

The plant still relies on one functioning power line “for the external electricity it needs for reactors cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions,” Grossi added. Prior to the war, the plant had four such power lines.

In addition, due to the “significant reduction” of staff at the site, the plant “currently does not have a systematic maintenance and in-service inspection schedule,” Grossi said.

Some background: Russian forces continue to control the plant, which is the largest nuclear power station in Europe and sits in a part of the Zaporizhzhia region that Russia occupied after its invasion of Ukraine last February. The plant has frequently been disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid due to intense Russian shelling in the area, raising fears across Europe of a nuclear accident.

The IAEA announced in January that it would establish a continuous presence of nuclear safety and security experts at all of Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities, significantly stepping up its efforts to help prevent a nuclear accident during the current military conflict.

This week, CNN viewed a letter dated from March that the US Department of Energy sent to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy firm Rosatom, warning Russia not to touch sensitive nuclear technology the US has at the plant.

Soldiers of the Polish army install concertina wire at Poland's border with Russian exclave Kaliningrad on November 14, 2022 in Goldap, Poland.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large has warned of an “uncontrollable” arms race and emphasized the need for Russia to build up its tactical missile potential.

Mashkov also wrote “there is an obvious need for Russia to build up its tactical missile potential, to further increase the effectiveness of its use and to stockpile missile weapons in advance to effectively respond to any challenges to national security, including in Kaliningrad, where NATO set out to take Russian territory under the guns of American MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems]”. 

The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is an isolated but strategically significant territory on the Baltic coast.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, experts have feared that Kaliningrad could become a flashpoint in tensions between Moscow and Europe. It is Russia’s westernmost territory, and the only part of the country surrounded by EU states; Lithuania stands between it and Belarus, a Russian ally nation, while Poland borders it to the south.

In the article, Mashkov also said once the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty expires in 2026 there could be a “vacuum” in strategic stability.

More on the treaty: Russian President Vladimir Putin said in February he was suspending his country’s participation in the treaty with the United States, imperiling the last remaining pact that regulates the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.

The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years, meaning the two sides would soon need to begin negotiating on another arms control agreement.

Former Russian President and deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called Britain “our eternal enemy” after the UK government imposed sanctions on Russian individuals.

The UK government sanctioned a Russian judge and two other individuals it says are connected to the arrest of jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza. The sanctions involve asset freezes and a travel ban.

Some background: On Monday, Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of high treason and other charges.

It came after he publicly condemned Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Kara-Murza was initially detained one year ago, hours after an interview with CNN in which he criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “regime of murderers.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley talks to the media after the meeting of the 'Ukraine Defense Contact Group' at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday.

While the Ukrainian military “continues to perform very well” in its fight against Russia, the Russian military lacks will and morale, US Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday.

Milley said Russia is “expending significant manpower for very little gain,” and tightening its conscription laws as they “indiscriminately feed their citizens into the chaos of war.”  

Alexey Moskalyov sits in a courtroom in Yefremov, Tula region, Russia, on March 27.

A Russian court has dismissed a case that sought to restrict the rights of 13-year-old Masha Moskalyov’s parents, after both the teen and her father drew attention from Russian authorities for their criticism of the war in Ukraine.

Officials briefly placed Masha in an orphanage after her father, Alexey Moskalyov, who was raising Masha alone, was charged with “discrediting the Russian military” for expressing anti-war sentiments online.

But the Commission on Juvenile Affairs in the city of Yefremov — located in Russia’s Tula region south of Moscow — dropped the case against her parents Wednesday, according to independent human rights organization OVD-Info.

A lawyer with OVD-Info, Vladimir Biliyenko, said in a statement Friday that protecting Alexey’s parental rights was an important moral victory. Biliyenko, who represents the father, thanked “all caring people who worried about this family.”

Russian officials say Masha is now with her mother: An official on the Commission on Juvenile Affairs said they had been making arrangements with Masha’s relatives while the teen was in the orphanage, according to OVD-Info.

Now she is in her mother’s care and has resumed her studies, said the official, Svetlana Davydova, according to the human rights group.

“Thus, today the reasons that were indicated in the lawsuit on the restriction of the rights of parents have been eliminated,” it quoted Davydova as saying.

More background: In April 2022, Masha drew a picture of Russian missiles being fired at a Ukrainian family and wrote “No to war” and “Glory to Ukraine” during her art class, according to Russian independent news outlet, Mediazona. Her school subsequently called the police.

Almost a year later, a Russian court sentenced Alexey Moskalyov to two years in prison over his online posts critical of the invasion of Ukraine. That sentence came down in March 2023.

Alexey escaped house arrest on the eve of the verdict but was tracked by the authorities and detained in Belarus two days later. Last week, Russian state media reported Belarusian law enforcement agencies had handed him over to Russia.

His current location is unknown.

A US Army M1A1 Abrams battle tank during the Combined Resolve 17 multinational training exercise at the Hohenfels Training Area in Hohenfels, Germany, on June 8.

The US will begin training Ukrainian forces on how to operate Abrams tanks next month as it seeks to get them onto the battlefield against Russia before the end of the summer.

US M1A1 Abrams tanks will be sent by mid-May to Grafenwoehr, Germany, where roughly 250 Ukrainians will undergo a 10-week training course with US troops, a US official told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. 

The tanks are a long-awaited capability for Ukraine, which has been battling Russia for more than a year. In total, the US is providing 31 tanks, the size of one Ukrainian tank battalion. 

Though the US had originally said it would send the newer M1A2 versions of the tanks, officials said in March that the Ukrainians would instead get the M1A1, dramatically accelerating the timeline for delivering the tanks.  

In addition to tanks being provided by the US, Ukraine will also be receiving German Leopard 2 tanks and British Challengers. The armored capability is likely to make a difference on the battlefield for embattled Ukrainian troops, but the impact won’t be immediate due to the timeline for training — not to mention the significant logistical demands to keep the tanks up and running.

Training status: Roughly 8,800 Ukrainian troops have already finished combined arms training in Germany and returned to Ukraine, Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesperson for US Army Europe and Africa, said in a statement Friday. Currently, there are approximately 2,250 Ukrainian conducting combined arms training in Germany. 

Austin met with allied officials again on Friday as part of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany. The group has provided more than $55 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, Austin said. 

Tanks repair hub: Germany, Poland and Ukraine also signed an agreement Friday to set up a hub in Poland to repair the Leopard 2 battle tanks, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters.

Pistorius said that all parties agreed on how to finance it and said that operating the hub could start at the end of May.  

CNN’s Nadine Schmidt in Berlin contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov attends the fourth meeting of Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the US Air Base in Ramstein, Germany, on April 21.

Ukraine has received a “green light” for close cooperation with NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday.

“I’m happy to have a green light for our close cooperation with NSPA, NATO’s procurement agency. This will include the National Procurement Review and best-in-the-league advice to [Ukraine’s Defense Ministry],” Reznikov tweeted following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

The meeting in Ramstein on Friday brings together Ukrainian officials and their counterparts from the coalition known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

“We need excellent defense procurement both to win the war and to be efficient in the future,” he said.

Reznikov’s comments come on the heels of Stoltenberg’s remarks, reaffirming that Ukraine will eventually “become a NATO member.”

One week after the European Union approved a fund of approximately $1.1 billion to reimburse states that have sent ammunition to Ukraine, Ukraine’s foreign minister has asked the EU to expedite a second tranche of aid.

In a tweet Friday, Dmytro Kuleba said that during a call with the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, he thanked him “for all the EU’s defence assistance, including the latest €1 billion for immediate ammo needs.”

Kuleba said he called on Borrell “to help finalise discussions on the 2nd €1 billion ($1.12 billion) joint procurement tranche as soon as possible to ensure security in Europe.”

In turn, Borrell said in a tweet Friday that “the urgency is clear” and that the EU is looking to deliver ammunition quickly.

Remember: The EU’s decision earlier this month implemented the first part of an agreement made by its members on March 20 to speed up the delivery and joint procurement of artillery ammunition, which Ukraine is burning through rapidly in its defense against Russia’s invasion.  

The measure covers existing stocks “or from the reprioritisation of existing orders” in the period from February 9 to May 31, 2023, the EU said.

CNN’s Sarah Dean contributed reporting to this post.

Sand bags and steel barricades are placed in a road leading up to the Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in downtown in Odesa, Ukraine, on March 5, 2022.

A dancer with Odesa Opera has been killed while fighting on the front line, the ballet company has said.

Rostyslav Yanchyshen, 31, was killed “while performing a combat mission,” the company, based in Ukraine’s southern port city, said on its Facebook page.

“For more than ten years, Rostyslav served at the Odesa Opera, and in the first days of the war he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine to heroically defend Ukraine, which he loved above all else! As a result, the artist’s ballet flats were replaced by army boots, and the music of his favorite performances was replaced by the sounds of mortar fire,” the opera said.

The opera said that one of Yanchyshen’s most striking roles was that of a soldier dying, in the ballet “Trymai” (“Hold”).

Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture paid tribute to Yanchyshen, calling his death an “unspeakable loss” in a Facebook post.

Vadym Krusser, also a ballet dancer and Yanchyshen’s friend, told CNN that “he was a very positive person. There were no bad situations for him, he always looked for the positive in everything. It was his personal decision to go to the front.”

“Last time I talked to him was a few months ago. He was as positive as ever.”

Krusser added, “We had a minute of silence before we started work and many colleagues just couldn’t hold back the tears.” 

Bulgarian investigative journalist and lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat Christo Grozev gives a speech during a conference at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, France, on September 5.

Russian investigators have asked the Lefortovo Court of Moscow to arrest the Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev in absentia, alleging the “illegal crossing of the border of the Russian Federation,” according to official news agency TASS, citing court officials.

Last year, Russia’s interior ministry put Grozev on Russia’s wanted list.

Grozev, who is Bulgarian, was the key figure in investigating Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent by FSB operatives in 2020. His investigation for Bellingcat exposed the identities of an FSB group that poisoned Navalny in August 2020.

The journalist has also reported extensively on Russia’s involvement in a number of high-profile international crimes, including the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine and the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the United Kingdom. Moscow has repeatedly denied any responsibility for either attack.

Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, on April 17.

The UK government has sanctioned a Russian judge and two other individuals it says are connected to the arrest of jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza.

“The UK is sanctioning Elena Lenskaya – a judge who approved Vladimir Kara-Murza’s arrest, along with Denis Kolesnikov and Andrei Zadachin – investigators involved in the arrest of Mr Kara-Murza,” it said in a statement Friday.

The sanctions involve asset freezes and a travel ban.

“Russia’s treatment and conviction of Vladimir Kara-Murza once again demonstrates its utter contempt for basic human rights,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in the statement.

“The UK will continue to support Mr Kara-Murza and his family. I call on Russia to release him immediately and unconditionally,” Cleverly added.

Key context: On Monday, Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of high treason and other charges.

It came after he publicly condemned Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Kara-Murza was initially detained one year ago, hours after an interview with CNN in which he criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “regime of murderers.”

Ukrainian officials and allies met Friday in Ramstein, Germany, as part of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. During the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed that Ukraine will join the military alliance. All NATO allies have agreed the country should be a member, he added.

On Thursday, the secretary general was in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He said the two discussed NATO’s strong support for Ukraine and that Zelensky had accepted his invitation to attend the NATO summit in Lithuania in July.

Here’s the latest developments:

Ukrainian soldiers fire at targets on the front line in Donetsk, Ukraine, on April 18.

As the Russian offensive in the east continues, Moscow’s forces in the south – in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions – are on the defensive, according to Ukraine’s deputy defense minister.

“The east remains the epicenter. There, the enemy continues offensive actions in four directions simultaneously - Marinka, Avdiivka, Lyman, Bakhmut,” Hanna Maliar posted on Telegram.

“Thanks to our defenders, the enemy is not able to advance in most of them.”

Maliar said that the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut remained the hottest spot.

Elsewhere, she said, “the enemy tried to move in two more directions this week – Kupiansk [to the north in Kharkiv region] and Shakhtarsk [to the east].”

“But our soldiers repelled the attacks and the enemy did not advance.”

Maliar said that some settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv regions continue to be shelled. These northern regions border Russia and have frequently come under artillery and mortar fire.

Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov arrives to Moscow city court prior to a hearing in the trial of Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza on March 13.

The defense lawyer of the jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza has said he fled Russia before the verdict amid threats of prosecution.

Critic sentenced: Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian human rights advocate and Kremlin critic, was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison after publicly condemning Moscow’s war in Ukraine, in a decision that was condemned as politically motivated and draconian by the international community. He was sentenced on charges of high treason and other charges.

Threats of prosecution: Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov told Voice of America Tuesday: “I left Russia a few days before the verdict and the sentence were announced, and currently I am not in Russia.”

He said that he had received several threats of prosecution from the Russian authorities.

“Both the prosecutor and the judge found different reasons to say that not only should I be disbarred, but that the question of my own criminal prosecution should also be considered,” he said.

“I also got a warning from one particular politician who said one of the Prosecutor General’s deputies overseeing our case might be interested in the new one,” Prokhorov added.

Prokhorov has defended several prominent Russian dissidents and activists in court, including Ilya Yashin and the family of Boris Nemtsov after his murder.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the date of the Prokhorov’s interview with Voice of America. It was Tuesday not Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attends Ukraine Defense Contact group meeting at Ramstein U.S. Air Base, Germany, on April 21.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Western defense leaders are ready to build upon “impressive progress” while delivering opening remarks at the start of the 11th Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany on Friday.

“It’s been nearly one year ago since this group first met right here at Ramstein,” Austin added, “this contact group started from a place of moral clarity.”

“More than a year later, Ukraine is stall standing strong,” Austin said, adding that the group has provided more than $55 billion in security assistance.

Austin outlined the military equipment countries in the group have provided Ukraine, including ammunition and Leopard tanks. The group, formed in June 2022, consists of more than 40 countries. 

The Patriot missile defense system, which is highly effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles, is broadly seen as one of the most advanced and effective air defense systems.

Austin thanked fellow counterparts for their unwavering support, mentioning the European Union’s plan to increase the production and delivery of ammunition to Ukraine.

“This contact group is more united than ever,” Austin concluded, adding, “we will not let anything fracture our unity.”

Germany’s defense ministry said any decisions on its deployment of Patriot missile defense systems in Poland and Slovakia will be discussed with allies at Friday’s meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein.

Germany’s Funke-Media Group reported on Friday that Berlin planned to end the deployment of the systems in the two countries by the end of the year, citing a defense ministry spokesperson who said the nations had been informed about the plans.

“The statements on deployment plans of our Patriot squadrons in Poland and Slovakia referred to original plans,” Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius later said in a statement, adding that decisions were made “in close coordination with SACEUR (NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe) and always require a separate political decision.”

The Patriot missile defense system, which is highly effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles, is broadly seen as one of the most advanced and effective air defense systems.

Germany last year offered to deploy three of its Patriot missile defense systems to Poland after two people were killed by a stray in November.

NATO partner countries started to deliver the Patriot missile defense system to Slovakia in spring last year, shortly after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to help reinforce the defense of the alliance’s eastern flank.

Earlier this week, Germany confirmed it had delivered a Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine to support the country in their offensive against Russia’s war.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov attends Ukraine Defense Contact group meeting at Ramstein U.S. Air Base, Germany, on April 21.

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, has marked the beginning of a meeting in Ramstein, Germany, that brings together Ukrainian officials and their counterparts from the coalition known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

Reznikov tweeted a photograph of the start of the meeting Friday, with the comment: “Today, we mark the one-year anniversary of this format. On the agenda are an analysis of what’s been done, our strategy for 2023, current needs of the Armed Forces, and the distribution of assistance programs to all divisions of Ukraine’s Defense Forces. We feel the support of our partners, and we continue to strive for victory.”

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he expects NATO allies and partners to announce additional support for Ukraine, stressing the need for ammunition, spare parts, fuel, maintenance and repairs.