Russia launching ‘big attack’ as Zelensky lowers conscription age – Ukraine war live

A court in Russia on Monday ordered a detained Russian-American journalist to be held in jail for two more months pending investigation and trial, in a further step in the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent and free speech.

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct. 18 and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent while collecting information about the Russian military. Later, she was also charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military.

A court in Tatarstan Monday ordered her to remain behind bars at least until June 5.

Russia is preparing to launch a “big attack” this summer that could plummet Ukraine into crisis, high-ranking Ukrainian military officers have warned.

The officers who served under General Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief of armed forces, told POLITICO that Russia is gathering resources and is likely to “launch a big attack around August” but warned it could be sooner.

One of the military sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “There’s nothing that can help Ukraine now because there are no serious technologies able to compensate Ukraine for the large mass of troops Russia is likely to hurl at us.

“We don’t have those technologies, and the West doesn’t have them as well in sufficient numbers.”

NATO is debating a plan to provide more predictable military support to Ukraine in coming years as better armed Russian troops assert control on the battlefield, the organization’s top civilian official said Wednesday.

“We strongly believe that support to Ukraine should be less dependent on short-term, voluntary offers and more dependent on long-term NATO commitments,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before chairing a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Brussels.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 to help replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war. A shortage of infantry combined with a severe ammunition shortfall has helped hand Russian troops the initiative.

Russia said that NATO had returned to a Cold War mindset as the alliance marks its 75th anniversary this week.

“Today, in relations with Russia, the bloc has returned to Cold War settings,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.

She said NATO has no place in the “multipolar world” that Moscow says it seeks to build in order to end U.S. dominance, but that it remains the focus of Russian attention.

President Vladimir Putin launched what he called his “special military operation” in Ukraine in 2022 with the stated aim of preventing NATO from expanding its footprint close to Russia. But the war has served to galvanise the alliance, which has expanded to 32 members by admitting Finland and Sweden.

NATO foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss proposals that would give the alliance a more direct role in coordinating the supply of arms, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine.

Western governments say they are helping Ukraine fight for its survival in the face of Russia‘s invasion. Zakharova said NATO’s history was “full of aggressive adventures that brought wars and destruction to many nations”, and its anniversary was no cause for celebration.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Tuesday to track down the masterminds of the Moscow concert hall attack that left 144 people dead in the worst assault on Russian soil in two decades, and urged the country’s law enforcement agencies to tighten security at mass gatherings.

Putin has repeatedly sought to link the March 22 attack to Ukraine and the West despite the Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility and Kyiv‘s vehement denial.

Speaking at a meeting with top officials of the Interior Ministry that oversees the nation’s police force, Putin said it is important to determine “not only the perpetrators of this outrage, but all links in the chain and its beneficiaries.”

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country’s support for Ukraine was unwavering during a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said.

Zelensky said in a post on X he briefed Kishida on the battlefield situation and emphasized the need to step up sanction pressure on Russia and create a mechanism for confiscating frozen Russian assets.

“Prime Minister Kishida said he would like to express heartfelt respect for the courage of President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine, and that Japan will not waver in its position of standing together with Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.

Winged explosives weighing up to 1,500 kilograms – and nicknamed the ‘building destroyer’ – have had a devastating impact wherever they have been used, writes Tom Watling. Kyiv is battling them as best it can but needs Western allies to step up and provide more weapons, air defences and ammunition:

In a Ukrainian stronghold near the front line, less than 20 miles from the eastern city of Donetsk, a winged bomb is seen hurtling towards a multistorey building.

The 1,500-kilogram explosive hits the structure in the town of Krasnohorivka, erupting into a fireball before engulfing the whole building in a plume of grey and black smoke.

The camera, filming from several hundred metres away, shakes as the ground beneath it rocks from the aftereffects of the explosion.

NATO foreign ministers met on Wednesday to discuss how to put military support for Ukraine on a long-term footing, including a proposal for a 100 billion euro ($107 billion) five-year fund and a plan seen as a way to “Trump-proof” aid for Kyiv.

The proposals by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg would give the Western alliance a more direct role in coordinating the supply of arms, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine as it fights Russia‘s invasion, diplomats say.

The plans will be discussed during a two-day meeting in Brussels that will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and prepare for a July summit of alliance leaders in Washington.

“We need to shift the dynamics of our support,” Stoltenberg said as he arrived at the Brussels meeting.

“We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul, so that we rely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments. Less on short-term offers and more on multi-year pledges.”

He declined to confirm levels of funding and said the aim was for a decision to be taken at the July summit.

Ukraine on Wednesday lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The new mobilization law came into force a day after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed it. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed it last year.

It was not immediately clear why Zelenskyy took so long to sign the measure into law. He didn’t make any public comment about it, and officials did not say how many new soldiers the country expected to gain or for which units.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will soon meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

At the meeting, Lavrov and Wang will discuss Ukraine and the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, among other issues, Zakharova told a weekly briefing.

The meeting could lay the groundwork for a trip to China that Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to make in May. Five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last month that Putin would hold talks there with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in what could be the Kremlin chief’s first overseas trip of his new six-year presidential term.