Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
France Election
Whew…and a collective sigh was breathed across Europe as Emmanuel Macron defeated the far right candidate Marine Le Pen to put on hold on five more years in office as French President in Europes second largest economy.
Had Le Pen won, she would have led France out of the EU and challenged France’s membership in NATO just at a time unity is critical in fighting for Ukraine.
Putin and Peace
The Russia leader Vladimir Putin is now said to reject peace talks with Ukraine and favours a continued land grab in Ukraine, especially following the sinking of the Moskva war ship by Ukrainian cruise missiles, and accusations Putin is a war criminal.
That doesn’t seem like much of a surprise, as there is no sign of a pause on the ground as Russian missiles rain down on Ukrainian cities and Russian forces continue to push in eastern Ukraine and the south.
U.S. and Ukraine
US diplomats will return to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when the two met in Kyiv on Sunday. The announcement came as Blinken and Defense Sec. Austin became the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since the invasion began.
The Embassy in Kyiv will not reopen, but diplomats will return to Ukraine, and likely be in the western city of Lviv.
The U.S. also promised more $300m in foreign military financing and a $165 million sale of ammunition.
Bryansk Oil Tanks
Russia was hit today by a major fire following huge explosions at an oil storage depot in Bryansk city, in a suspected strike by Ukraine.
A second unconfirmed blaze was reported at a military base in the area where a military unit of the 120th arsenal of the Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate is located.
These incidents inside Russia are pivotal potentially, because they escalate the conflict dramatically giving Russia pretence for counter strikes. And because they are inside Russia, the Russian authorities tend to deny them taking place.
On April 1, 2 helicopters attacked another oil storage facility inside Russia, which the Ukrainians later denied they had struck.
Ukraine is not likely to admit this fire either, but it may hamper Russias ground offensive which relies on fuel from Bryansk.
The War
And briefly, Russia made no major gains over the weekend in its ground offensive in Ukraine.
Russian forces continue to fire on the steel plant in Mariupol where Ukrainian fighters and civilians are sheltering under ground and running out of food and ammunition. Russia refused to allow civilians to leave.
The UK Ministry of Defense Briefing says the siege of the steel plant is tying up and tiring many of the Russian units, that might have been used to push Russia’s advance in the Donbas.
In general the Russian’s have not had a ‘break through’ moment in seizing the Donbas area which is a quest of the Kremlin’s before the May 9 Victory Day Parade in Moscow.
And the Kremlin has ordered compensation for the families of soldiers killed in Ukraine should now be administered by the army, instead of by civilian authorities, and is seen as a way of hiding true casualty figures.
A total of 5,133,747 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the UN refugee agency said.
The figure marks an increase of 48,387 from Thursday the UNHCR said.
Some 1,098,000 Ukrainians have left the country during April so far, compared with 3.4 million for the whole of March.
Women and children account for 90% of those who fled abroad, with men aged 18 to 60 eligible for military call-up unable to leave.
Have a good Monday everyone. We appreciate your subscriptions, and especially the paid ones! We will be writing more this week as events dictate. Watch for the Putin UN meeting this week. And of course developments in eastern Ukraine.
Dana Lewis