Category World News

Following the recent capture of two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia against Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian leader made the comment at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday. Just days earlier, he claimed China was providing weapons and gunpowder to Russia.

Zelenskyy stated at the news conference that he requested that the Security Service of Ukraine provide more information to the Chinese side regarding the employees of the drone factory.

We think it could be that Russia allegedly stole these technologies by making a deal with these people outside of Chinese leadership terms, he said.

The information also lists the relevant Chinese drone-related technologies. According to the Ukrinform news site, he said, “I think it will be important for Beijing to see how their partners are working with them.”

According to the Reuters news agency, the president of Ukraine’s suggestion that Russia may have obtained drone technology from China without Beijing’s knowledge may indicate a lessening of Zelenskyy’s attitude toward Chinese people. China has vehemently denied involvement in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that it had called Chinese Ambassador Ma Shengkun to express its “grave concerns” about the facts surrounding Chinese citizens’ involvement in military action against Ukraine.

Zelenskyy previously claimed that at least 155 Chinese were engaged in combat with the Russian army, two of whom had recently been taken by Ukraine, and that he had “information” that China was providing arms to Russia.

The involvement of Chinese citizens in hostilities against Ukraine on the side of the aggressor state, as well as Chinese companies’ involvement in Russian production of military products, are grave concerns and go against the spirit of cooperation between Ukraine and China, according to the ministry’s statement.

Ukraine shares information about Chinese business owners and allies in the Russian War.

Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgen Perebyinis shared evidence that Russian companies are producing military equipment during a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Ma Shengkun. https: //t. co/S9Lt24l19D

The ministry claimed that the Ukrainian special services “sent the Chinese side” proof of these facts.

The deputy foreign minister called on Beijing to take steps to stop supporting Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which Beijing has repeatedly stated is untrue, according to the ministry.

China vehemently denied providing weapons last week.

According to a spokesman for the Chinese government, Lin Jian, the country strictly controls dual-use items and has never provided lethal weapons to any conflict party.

Following a steep decline in Tesla’s first-quarter profits, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced he will cut back on his work with Trump’s administration.

Musk, who oversees Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced on Tuesday that he would focus “far more” on running Tesla and reduce his work in the government from May to just one or two days per week.

In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Musk stated that the substantial work needed to put together the DOGE team and collaborate with the government to put the financial house in order is typically completed.

Following Musk’s remarks, which boosted investors concerned about the tech billionaire’s divided attention, Tesla shares increased by 4.6 percent in after-hours trading, down more than 40% since the start of the year.

Tesla reported a 71 percent decline in net profit for January-March, with income of $409 million compared to $ 1.39 billion the previous year, just hours after Musk made his remarks.

In response to consumer protests against Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration, Tesla’s global sales decreased by 13 percent over the same period.

In recent months, the electric carmaker has become a focal point for demonstrations against Trump’s policies, with charging stations, dealerships, and vehicles targeted in dozens of vandalism and arson attacks in various nations.

The business, which relies on parts from Mexico but produces cars for the US market, is also dealing with Trump’s 25% import tariff.

The world’s richest man, Musk, defended his work with DOGE in a conference call, claiming that it was aimed at preventing fraud and waste and putting “the country back on the right foot.”

On Wednesday, April 23, 2018, this is the situation:

Fighting

• In response to a large explosion at a storage facility for ammunition, a state of emergency was declared in the east of Moscow of Russia, according to the TASS state news agency, citing emergency services.
• Emergency personnel were present at the scene, according to Vladimir’s regional governor, Alexander Avdeev, who claimed the explosion took place when ammunition caught fire in a storage area at a military base in the Kirzhach district.
• Two aerial glide bombs were used by Russia to bomb Zaporizhzhia, a city in southern Russia. According to regional governor Ivan Fedorov, the attack left a 69-year-old woman dead and 24 people injured, including four children.
• 38 of the 77 attack drones launched by Russia early on Tuesday morning, according to Ukraine’s air force, with 31 of the drones failing to reach their targets, most likely as a result of electronic warfare, falling.

• Early on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials reported that overnight Russian drone attacks on east, south, and central Ukraine had caused damage to civilian buildings and businesses in the Poltava region and the Odesa region.
• At least three people were hurt overnight in Odesa by Russian drones, according to Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional administration, on his Telegram page. He claimed that a residential building in an overwhelmingly populated Odesa urban area, civilian infrastructure, and an educational facility were all destroyed.
• Regional governors posted messages on Telegram channels reversing Russian airstrikes against the Kyiv region and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
• According to a security source, Russian forces have taken control of the monastery St. Nicholas Belogorsky in Gornal, where Ukrainian troops had been stationed, according to a Russian news agency, TASS news agency. After ten days of bloody hostilities, Russian troops retaken the monastery, which Ukraine had deployed troops, artillery, and drone launchers, according to a Russian military Telegram channel.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, claimed that Russians were employing Chinese drones at a Russian production site and that Moscow may have “stolen” Chinese drone technology. The Ukrainian leader has already alleged that Beijing is providing Russians with weapons and gunpowder and that Beijing must stop engaging Russian forces in combat in Ukraine.
• The ambassador of China was called by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry and expressed “serious concern” over China’s involvement in the conflict on Russia’s side.

Ceasefire

• At a press conference in Kyiv, President Zelenskyy stated that he was willing to accept even a partial ceasefire with Russia. “We are ready for reciprocal measures, and Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire,” he said.
• There is nothing to discuss, Zelenskyy added, adding that Ukraine would not grant recognition to any territories that had been temporarily occupied. Our constitution does not allow this.
• According to the Financial Times (FT), Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly offered to stop Russia’s current front-line invasion of Ukraine.
• Putin, according to the FT, made the suggestion earlier this month at a meeting with Steve Witkoff, the US ambassador. Putin indicated that he would accept to renounce Moscow’s claims to parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia, and that the US would accept that claim as Russian and prevent Ukraine from joining NATO in exchange.

• In light of reports in the media that President Trump has suggested accepting that the Russian-annexed territory in Ukraine’s Crimea be recognized as Russia, US envoy Witkoff will visit Moscow once more this week.
• State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce confirmed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio would not speak at talks with NATO to end the conflict in Ukraine later today. He had previously stated that he planned to travel to London.
• Following Trump’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the war, Europe has grown more worried about the overtures of the US president Donald Trump toward Moscow.
• Officials from Ukraine, the US, the UK, the United Kingdom, and Europe will take the helm of the peace talks in London, according to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

• According to Axios, the US anticipates a resolution to the conflict’s unofficial conclusion on Wednesday that includes the acknowledgment of Russian control of nearly all of Ukraine’s occupied areas. Axios claims that the US would lift sanctions against Russia since 2014 under the proposed proposal, which was presented last week, and that Ukraine would receive a small portion of Kharkiv from Russia.
• According to Axios, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is operated by the US and is owned by Ukraine, would be considered to be Ukrainian territory, and would also supply both Russia and Ukraine with electricity.

Aid

• Zelenskyy, the president, stated that Ukraine and the US were not discussing any new aid options.

Sanctions

• According to reports, the European Commission is considering whether to pass a law to forbid Russian companies from entering new agreements for fossil fuels and is developing legal remedies to stop Russian companies from violating existing gas supply agreements with Russia.

Regional security

• Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen announced that Denmark would invest about 4 billion crowns ($614 million) in the construction of 26 navy vessels for oil spill response, undersea cables surveillance, and patrolling. Following the severed of numerous underwater cables and the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Baltic Sea’s neighbors are on high alert for the investment.

Diplomacy

• Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, claimed that Moscow was trying to win over Ukraine with its Easter truce and that the US has not exhausted its “tools.”
• According to presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, the president will visit the late Pope Francis’ funeral service, according to Ukrainian news agency RBK-Ukraine. According to Lytvyn, Selenskyy and his wife Olena will travel to Rome together.
• Putin, who is wanted for his invasion of Ukraine in the International Criminal Court, won’t be present at the funeral, according to the Kremlin.

A federal judge has stated that US President Donald Trump illegally halted the operation of the Voice of America (VOA), a federally funded international news service created by Congress.

In a ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the Trump administration to restore the 83-year-old broadcaster’s capacity to the levels before Trump slashed funding and laid off scores of personnel.

In a March court filing stating that all 1,300 employees had been placed on administrative leave, lawyers for VOA said that the broadcaster seeks to report the news “truthfully, impartially, and objectively”, pushing back against claims from the Trump administration that it promotes a “leftist bias” and is insufficiently “pro-American”.

Judge Lamberth also ordered the administration to restore the capacity of two other broadcasters also funded by the federal Agency for Global Media, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, while those lawsuits progress.

The judge also denied a similar request for two additional networks, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Open Technology Fund.

Trump and his allies have wielded federal funds to dismantle programmes and agencies within the government that they dislike and compel greater ideological compliance from media organisations and universities under the premise of combatting what the administration portrays as “left-wing” views. Kari Lake, a close Trump ally, was also placed in charge of the Agency for Global Media.

The administration shuttered VOA in March, instituting funding cuts that Lamberth said reflected a “hasty, indiscriminate approach”.

A labour union representing workers at the Agency for Global Media celebrated the ruling as a “powerful affirmation of the role that independent journalism plays in advancing democracy and countering disinformation”.

VOA was first founded during World War II in an effort by the US government to counter Nazi propaganda and was later used to project pro-US views to countries around the world during the Cold War, a history that has led some to criticise the network as a means of promoting US interests around the world.

“That simple mission [delivering impartial news] is a powerful one for those living across the globe without access to a free press and without the ability to otherwise discern what is truly happening,” lawyers for VOA wrote.

Many other institutions created during the post-war era to project US political and cultural influence around the world, such as the humanitarian assistance agency USAID, have also come under attack by a Trump administration that sees them as ideological enemies or sources of bureaucratic bloat.