Ukraine updates: NATO chief makes surprise visit to Kyiv

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Thursday.

In his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, Stoltenberg paid his respects to soldiers who had died fighting Russian forces and inspected Russian military equipment that is on display in a central square in Kyiv.

"Now, when the majority of people in NATO countries and the majority of Ukrainians support the entry of our country into the alliance, it is time to take the appropriate decision," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said later during a joint press conference with Stoltenberg.

The NATO chief responded by saying that discussing Ukraine's accession to the alliance would be high on the agenda at the next NATO summit.

"Ukraine's future is in the Euro-Atlantic family, Ukraine's future is in NATO, all allies agree on that," he said.

Stoltenberg has invited Zelenskyy to take part in a NATO summit in July.

Kyiv launched a bid to join the alliance — a prospect that was seen as being one of the main reasons for Russia's invasion — after Moscow claimed it had annexed four regions of Ukraine under partial Russian occupation.

Zelenskyy also called on Stoltenberg to help drum up support for more advanced weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

"I addressed the Secretary-General with a request to help us overcome the reluctance of our partners regarding the delivery of certain weapons, namely long-range, modern aviation, artillery, armored vehicles," the Ukrainian president said.

Stoltenberg's visit comes as Ukrainian forces are preparing for their spring counteroffensive after Russia's attempt to make gains during winter, especially around the town of Bakhmut, proved largely unsuccessful.

NATO has pledged to support Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression.

Meanwhile, Russia reaffirmed its wartime goal of preventing the neighboring country from joining NATO.

Following the arrival of Stoltenberg in Kyiv, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia saw itself threatened by Ukraine's possible NATO membership "because otherwise this brings a serious, significant danger to our country, to its security."

Here are some of the other notable developments concerning Russia's war in Ukraine on Thursday, April 20:

Kyiv says it terminates land lease deal with Russian Embassy

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko on said the city had terminated the Russian Embassy's deal to lease land in the capital and wanted the property to be returned to the Ukrainian state.

Ukraine broke off relations with Russia after the February 2022 invasion. There are no Russian diplomats in the embassy building, which lies to the west of the city center.

"Today, Kyiv city council terminated the land lease agreement with the embassy of the aggressor-state — Russia," Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"It also appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding the return of the property of the 'diplomatic establishment' of the Russian barbarians to the Ukrainian state," he said.

In response, Russia's RIA news agency cited a Moscow source as saying that if Ukraine did nationalize the embassy building, Kyiv would automatically lose ownership rights to its diplomatic missions in Russia.

Lavrov visits Cuba, condemns US sanctions

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned US sanctions against Cuba as he visited the island during the last leg of a Latin American tour that took him to Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

During his meeting with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, Lavrov condemned the American economic sanctions on Cuba, and blasted the US for seeking to impose "its will on the world," according to a dispatch on the state media outlet Cubadebate.

Rodriguez, for his part, rejected what he called the "expansionist aspirations" of NATO and the sanctions imposed on Russia. Lavrov was expected to meet later today with recently reelected Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Estonia announces further military aid for Ukraine

Estonia has announced the delivery of more weapons to Ukraine ahead of talks in the German town of Ramstein on Western military aid to the war-torn country. 

The aid package includes 155-millimeter calibre artillery ammunition, the defense ministry in Tallinn announced. This is Estonia's contribution to an agreement by EU states to supply Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells. 

Estonia also wants to hand over night-vision equipment and ammunition for small arms to Ukraine.

On Friday, the Western allies plan to discuss further aid at the US air base in Ramstein in the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

German-Russian Petersburg Dialogue shuts down

The Petersburg Dialogue, a civil society forum between Germany and Russia, shuts down because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The general meeting decided to dissolve the NGO, its office announced. "The association is thus in the liquidation year and will be processed within the framework of the legal requirements," it said.

In 2001, Germany and Russia launched the annual Petersburg Dialogue format, a bilateral forum bringing together civil society groups, think tanks and decision-makers from the two countries. The aim was to maintain a dialogue with Russia via various channels.

Italy seeks to freeze assets of Russian who fled

Italy said it was seeking to freeze the assets of a Russian arrested in Milan at Washington's request who disappeared while under house arrest only to re-emerge in Russia.

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio was called to parliament to explain what happened with Artyom Uss, the son of a Siberian governor, Alexander Uss, who was detained in Italy on a US warrant in October. In evidence to MPs, Nordio did not explain how he escaped, saying only that an investigation was underway.

He went missing from his residence near Milan at the end of March, despite wearing an electronic tracking bracelet, the day after a judge ordered his extradition to the United States. On April 4, Uss announced he was back in Russia, giving no details of how he left.

Washington accuses Uss of taking part in illegal schemes to export US military technology to Russia. The US Justice Department said some of these had been "discovered on the battlefields of Ukraine."

Pentathlon opens door to Russians, badminton still against return

The badminton ruling body BWF will continue to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from its tournaments, while modern pentathletes from both countries will be allowed to participate in international events again.

The BWF said after a board meeting that it was not convinced that it was sensible to welcome back athletes from both countries in view of Moscow's war against Ukraine.

The modern pentathlon governing body UIPM, meanwhile, announced its "full support for a structured return" for individual athletes with Russia and Belarus passports to its competitions following a recent recommendation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Russians and Belarusians have been banned from most sports events since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But the IOC last month recommended that sports federations allow their return, as neutral athletes and under strict conditions.

Photo of pregnant Ukrainian woman wins World Press Photo contest

A photo of a pregnant Ukrainian woman being carried on a stretcher after Russian forces hit a maternity hospital in Mariupol has won the World Press Photo contest.

The photographer Evgeniy Maloletka was awarded the first prize by a jury in Amsterdam.

The woman in the photo, as well as her child, died a short time after the photo was taken.

"The deaths of both the pregnant woman and child encapsulate both much of this war and Russia's possible intent," jury chairman Brent Lewis said.

"As one member of the jury said, 'It's like they're trying to kill the future of Ukraine,'" he added.

Ukraine says it shot down 21 drones

Russia launched a wave of strikes against targets in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, including 26 unmanned Shahed-136 drones, of which Ukrainian air defenses downed 21, Ukraine's general staff said on Thursday.

Some of the Russian strikes hit their targets, which were both military and civilian according to Ukrainian forces. Civilian casualties were also reported.

Ukraine also said that it had fended off 55 ground attacks in the Donetsk region, including around the highly contested town of Bakhmut.

"Heavy fighting around Bakhmut continues," the general staff said.

Netherlands, Denmark pledge more Leopard 2 tanks

Another batch of advanced, German-made tanks has been pledged to Ukraine, this time, jointly, from Denmark and the Netherlands.

The Dutch and Danish delivery will include 14 Leopard 2 tanks, according to Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and acting Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.

The tanks will first be purchased from elsewhere and then refurbished before arriving in Ukraine, which is planned for the first quarter of 2024.

"It is absolutely crucial for the hope of a peaceful and secure Europe that we do not let the Ukrainians fight the battle alone," Poulsen, who was in Ukraine earlier this month, said.

As with all German-made weaponry, Amsterdam and Copenhagen will need approval from Berlin before the tanks are sold or donated, in this case, to Ukraine.

Germany had dragged its feet for months amid calls from Ukraine for the advanced tanks, but eventually agreed to send 18 of the tanks in January.

After training Ukrainian soldiers on how to use the new equipment, the heavy vehicles arrived in Ukraine in late March.

Spain, Poland, Finland and Portugal have also supplied or vowed to supply Leopard 2 tanks.

Russia's Lavrov praises Nicaragua's support during visit

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised Nicaragua as an ally during a visit to the Central American country.

The minister met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega during the visit.

"Westerners, under the auspices of such countries as the United States, try to unite as exclusive countries, try to proliferate their hegemony in conflicts such as, for example, in Ukraine," Lavrov said.

"We, with our Nicaraguan supporters, are going to fight against such tendencies and prevent such acts," he said.

Lavrov and Ortega also downplayed the impact of US sanctions.

"Today, the United States sanctioned three judges because they have applied justice against terrorists. We already have hundreds of fellow state officials sanctioned, but we are no longer afraid of that," Ortega said.

Lavrov said people "who are under sanctions in Russia say that it is a recognition of their progress in the protection of Russia's rights."

The comments come after the US Treasury Department announced that it had put three Nicaraguan judges on a sanctions blacklist over their role in stripping 316 Ortega opponents of their citizenship.

Flash over Kyiv causes confusion

A bright flash seen in the sky above the Ukrainian capital overnight was likely a meteorite, according to Ukraine's space agency.

Kyiv authorities said an air raid alert was sounded, but air defenses were not activated. 

The city's military administration initially said the burst of light may have been caused by a NASA satellite reentering the atmosphere.

But the US space agency denied involvement and said its satellite had still been orbiting at the time.

"We cannot identify what it was exactly, but our assumption is that it was a meteorite," Igor Korniyenko, the deputy head of a control center at Ukraine's space agency, was quoted by AFP as saying.

Kyiv claims Putin body double visited war zone

The Ukrainian government has cast doubts on reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently traveled to the war zone in Ukraine, saying it was a doppelganger that did so.

"That wasn't the real Putin," Ukraine's National Security Council Secretary Olexiy Danilov said on television.

"In order to talk to the real Putin, you need to self-isolate for 10 to 14 days," he said.

He said that the man in a Kremlin-released video that appears to show Putin getting out of a helicopter was "an ordinary double, of which there are several, as we know."

Danilov called Putin a "frightened man" and a "bunker grandpa," arguing that it was impossible for the Russian president to choose to visit the front.

The official did not provide any evidence that the figure in the video was a doppelganger.

According to a Kremlin statement on Tuesday, Putin met with troops fighting in the regions of Kherson and Luhansk.

This would be Putin's second trip to the war zone since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022.

Rebuilding efforts a 'clear message,' German deputy minister tells DW

Jochen Flasbarth, a deputy minister in Germany's Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, says that reconstruction efforts in Ukraine send a "clear message."

"At the moment, we are fixing problems. Wherever the Russians destroy something, it is going to be fixed," he told DW. "It's also psychologically a clear message to Ukraine, but also to Russia."

"We believe that the reconstruction has to be done strategically," he said. "We should avoid unnecessary doubling or tripling of efforts, or else we leave gaps, unfinanced gaps in other areas."

The deputy minister said that there were a "number of strategic areas" where reconstruction needed to start immediately, including the energy sector, traffic, transport and housing.

Flasbarth also spoke to DW on the issue of mines affecting farmers and agriculture in Ukraine.

"We are running risks that farmers, specifically smallholder farmers, leave business and might not return due to mines."

He said that risks also included "increased costs for inputs, for seeds, for fertilizers" and farmers facing "difficulties to sell their products on the global markets."

US charges 2 with violating Ukraine-related sanctions

A US businessman and a Belarusian citizen have been arrested in Florida and charged with violating US sanctions.

The alleged scheme involved purchasing over $150 million (‏€137 million) in steelmaking materials from an exiled Ukrainian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko, who is accused of funding Russian-backed separatist militants in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

"The Justice Department is relentlessly pursuing those who seek to evade sanctions imposed against the Russian regime and whose crimes enable the regime to continue its unjust, illegal war in Ukraine," US Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

dh, ab, sdi/sms, jcg (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)