Ukraine updates: Russia claims capture of village in Donetsk

US President Joe Biden promised that tens of billions of dollars of much-delayed military aid would be "quickly" sent to Ukraine.

In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Biden undertook to get things going as soon as the Senate approves a massive national security aid package that includes $61 billion for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said he and Biden also discussed "Russia's air terror using thousands of missiles, drones and bombs" including a strike on the Kharkiv TV tower just minutes before they spoke. He noted a strike on a television tower in Ukraine's Kharkiv, which happened minutes before their conversation.

The long-delayed military aid package of $61 billion was already cleared by the House of Representatives and is aimed to support Ukraine's defenses against Russian aggression.

A Russian airstrike on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, hit television broadcasting infrastructure, causing signal disruptions, according to a regional governor.

"At the moment, there are interruptions in the digital TV signal," governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

"During the alarm, the employees were in a shelter. There were no casualties," he added.

AFP reports that the strike severely damaged the TV tower. Photos and videos showed the top of the tower breaking off and grey smoke billowing from the structure.

Kharkiv is often the target of Russian attacks because of its proximity to the Russian border.

Meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign and defense ministers said they were urgently looking at how to provide more air defense to Ukraine, but they stopped short of concrete pledges of the Patriot systems that Kyiv values most.

With Russia having stepped up air attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure and cities, EU governments are under pressure to supply Kyiv with more protective systems.

The ministers said the US House of Representatives' vote over the weekend to approve a major Ukraine aid package should not lead to complacency on their part.

But countries with US-made Patriots, which Ukraine already uses and values for their ability to shoot down fast-moving ballistic missiles, were noncommittal Monday. 

Officials said it was hard for countries to part with Patriots because they are an integral part of national defense.

Meanwhile, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said the so-called Ramstein Group of countries providing military assistance to Ukraine would meet at the end of the week. 

That meeting would provide another opportunity for governments to announce air defense donations to Kyiv.

A military court in Moscow has sentenced Meta Platforms spokesman Andy Stone to six years in prison for "publicly defending terrorism. The sentence was handed down in absentia, Russian news agencies reported.

Meta itself is listed as an extremist organization in Russia, and its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram have been banned in the country since 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Interfax cited the defendant's lawyer, Valentina Filippenkova, as saying that the sentence would be appealed. "I asked for an acquittal," she was quoted as saying.

Russia's Interior Ministry opened a criminal investigation into Stone late last year, without disclosing specific charges.

RIA cited state investigators as saying Stone had published online comments that defended "aggressive, hostile and violent actions" towards Russian soldiers involved in what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

The widow of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has warned of Russian President Vladimir Putin's unpredictability.

In an interview with German news ageny, dpa, Yulia Navalnaya said the possibility that he could use nuclear weapons at some point cannot be ruled out.

"We don't know what to expect from him. "He probably would do it," she said.

Navalnaya compared it to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, saying she had not expected Putin to attack back then, given the strong ties between the two countries.

"But he decided to do it. He frightens people, keeps them in fear. Nobody knows what Putin is going to do next," she said.

Navalny, a long-standing and staunch opponent of Putin, died in a prison camp in the Arctic Circle in Siberia on February 16.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda said his country was ready to accept nuclear weapons from other NATO members, responding to Russia's move of its nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus. 

Duda made the comments in an interview published in the Polish tabloid Fakt on Monday.

Late last year Russia deployed tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, the first time Moscow has based arms outside Russia in decades

"If there were a decision by our allies to deploy nuclear weapons within the nuclear sharing also on our territory in order to strengthen the security of NATO's eastern flank, we are ready," Duda said. 

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who shares Duda's views on national security, later told journalists that he needs to discuss this suggestion with him urgently.

Duda has previously spoken of Poland's openness to nuclear sharing within NATO. Under NATO nuclear weapons sharing, the US has nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey to deploy and store.

Poland is a staunch supporter of neighboring Ukraine as it fends off Russia's full-scale invasion, now in its third year.

The situation for Ukraine on its front line is likely to deteriorate steadily in the coming weeks, said the head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov in an interview with the Ukrainian service of the BBC.

His assessment comes as outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russian troops, who have gained ground in recent months and are expected to soon step up their offensive.

"In our opinion, a rather difficult situation awaits us in the near future," Budanov said.

According to Budanov, it will be a difficult period for the Ukrainian forces on the front in mid-May, early June.

"But it is not catastrophic and we need to understand that. Armageddon will not happen, as many people are now saying," he said. 

Russia has in recent weeks regularly claimed new gains in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has struggled for months with a growing ammunition shortage, but that is expected to improve in the coming weeks.

The United States on Saturday finally approved a $61 billion (€57 billion) military aid package to help fight Moscow. 

EU foreign and defense ministers are meeting in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss continued support for Ukraine along with as well as extending sanctions aginst Iran.

Several of the ministers expressed their relief following the passing of a long-delayed aid package for Ukraine by the US Congress.

"This isn't just a good and important moment for Ukraine, but it's also an important moment for the safeguarding of peace in Europe," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. 

She welcomed the breakthrough in the US Congress, saying the EU and US — as Ukraine's two biggest supporters — were once again on the same page.

Baerbock also called on allies to contribute more to Ukraine's aerial defense amid increased Russian rocket and drone attacks. asking governments "to look into their stocks and see how air defense support can be expanded."

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also welcomed the US aid package, saying "We dodged a historic bullet."

 

Russia's Ministry of Defense on Monday said forces had captured the eastern village of Novomykhailivka in Russian-annexed Donetsk.

Russia's defense ministry said in a post on Telegram that troops had "liberated" the village and "improved the tactical situation along the front line."

Ukraine's military leadership on Monday morning said that Russian forces had made 23 attempts to break through defensive lines in areas around Georgiyivka, Novomykhailivka, Vodyane and Urozhayne but had been contained.

Ukraine is battling with dwindling resources and manpower in its defensive effort against Russia's continued invasion.

Over the weekend, US lawmakers approved  $61 billion (€57 billion) in military and financial aid for Ukraine however Western experts believe that it could be weeks before any difference is seen on the battlefield.

Its its latest analysis of the situation in Ukraine, US think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said Russian forces would likely intensify ongoing offensive efforts along with missile and drone strikes in the coming weeks, in order to exploit the closing window of Ukrainian material contraints.

Amid the shortages on the battlefield, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also warned that Russia could be plotting a summer offensive.

Ukraine's head of military intelligence said in an interview published on Monday that the situation on the frontline would worsen in the coming weeks for Ukraine.

"In our opinion, a rather difficult situation awaits us in the near future," Kyrylo Budanov told the BBC's Ukrainian service.

"But it is not catastrophic and we need to understand that. Armageddon will not happen, as many people are now saying," he said.

kb,dh/lo (AFP,  AP, dpa, Reuters)