Photo: Twitter/Boris Johnson
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Foreign policy. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyi on Saturday. The UK PM announced a new package of financial and military aid, which includes 120 armored vehicles, new anti-ship missile systems, and ยฃ100 million in military equipment. The Prime Minister and the President after the meeting took a walk in downtown Kyiv.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Kyiv on Saturday, meeting President Zelenskyi. However, on Monday April 11, the Chancellor is going to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow. He will be the first EU leader to meet the Russian president face-to-face since Russia started the full-scale invasion in Ukraine on February 24.
The unrecognized Russian-backed Donetsk Peopleโs Republic โgovernmentโ has declared the activities of the OSCE SMM on its territory illegal and stated that the representatives of the Mission must leave the territory of the republic by April 30. The statement came out after a local resident working for the OSCE SMM was detained in the DPR for โactions incompatible with the mission’s mandateโ.
Estonia has started revoking visas for people who publicly use the letters โZโ and โVโ to support Russiaโs war in Ukraine, as well as St. George’s ribbons, while crossing the Estonian border from Russia. The owners of such symbols are sent for additional verification, during which officials decide how to proceed with them.
The global fundraising campaign Stand Up for Ukraine, held on Saturday in Warsaw, raised โฌ9.1 billion for Ukrainian refugees. The fundraising event raised โฌ1.8 billion to support internally displaced people inside Ukraine, and โฌ7.3 billion for refugees who have fled the country to neighboring states.
Following the Russian invasion into Ukraine, Sweden and Finland are considering joining NATO as soon as summer, The Time reports.
Cities under attack. Over the weekend at least 10 missiles were fired at the city of Dnipro. Dnipro airport was bombed for the second time. The premises of the building and infrastructure are completely destroyed as a result of the shelling. In Rubizhne, Luhansk region, Russian forces fired at and destroyed a tanker with nitric acid. Head of Luhansk region, Sergii Haidai, informed that there is no more remaining critical or any other infrastructure in the region, as all of it was destroyed during the shelling. However, the attacks continued on what remained from warehouses with food and civilian infrastructure. A massive explosion was recorded in Mykolaiv on Sunday. In the Kherson region Russia still plans to hold a so-called referendum to proclaim โKherson people’s republicโ. Currently, the โreferendumโ promo materials and questionnaire forms are printed in Nova Kakhovka’s printing houses, Ukraine’s General Staff reports. Meanwhile, local citizens took to the streets at the pro-Ukrainian rallies to resist the occupation. In Kherson, people gathered for a rally, but later when the Russian troops dispersed around the city it prevented people from joining the protest. In Nova Kakhovka, a sham pro-Russian rally took place with just a few of Russian flags.
Human rights. The third round of exchange of war prisoners took place on April 10, 2022 – 26 Ukrainians among them twelve servicepeople including a female officer, as well as 14 civilians, including 9 women, have been returned back from captivity, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. 1222 civilians were killed in Kyiv region over the time of Russian occupation confirmed by the General Prosecutor of Ukraine. Ombudswoman Liudmyla Denisova said that a camp for forced deportees from Ukraine had been set up in the Penza region of the Russian Federation. There are more than 400 Ukrainian citizens in the camp – mostly women and 147 children of all ages, including infants. Most of the similar camps are located around the region. Ukrainians who have been illegally arrested in the Kherson region and Melitopol are being taken to Crimean pre-trial detention centers, says Mustafa Dzhemilev Crimean Tatar leader and Ukrainian MP.
UN Women and CARE International report that the displacement and refugee flow from Ukraine is largely gendered, with women facing many challenges at the border and some groups of people, including women, men, boys and girls with disabilities, being unable to leave the country. This is in turn causing many emerging protection concerns, such as increased risks for gender-based violence (GBV), which disproportionately affect women and girls, especially those from vulnerable groups. This especially includes: (1) Safety concerns relating gender-based, conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and trafficking; (2) The increased need for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS). In the long run โโthe unemployment rates among all categories of the population will likely increase and continue pushing women into the unprotected informal sectors of the economy.
Sanctions. Border. Trucks from Russia and Belarus must leave the EU by April 16 without rights to enter the European Union. The decision is a part of a new package of EU sanctions. Previously activists fought for a ban on trucks to and from Russia and Belarus for almost a month on the Polish-Belarusian border. France. After the attack on Kramatorsk train station, France has announced readiness to proceed with a further ban on Russian oil, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told CNN.
Food security. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that global prices for basic foodstuffs like cereals, sugar and vegetable oils are higher than ever. This monthโs increase reflected a surge in world prices of wheat and coarse grains, largely driven by export disruptions from Ukraine due to Russiaโs attack and, to a lesser extent, the Russian Federation, the report states. The Ministry of Agriculture of Ukraine aims to ensure sowing of 80% of the agricultural lands. However, it all depends on the speed of demining of the lands in Chernihiv and Sumy region. In the pessimistic scenario, a preliminary 70% of the lands might be sown. The most critical factor at the moment is fuel and diesel supply. Though the Ministry tries to maintain the situation under control, however, the disruptions are quite likely, especially due to the active shelling of the oil depots by Russian troops.
Decolonisation. This week we continue our series of articles on decolonisation with the third article devoted to the film industry – โFifty Shades of (Neo)Colonialism in Russian Filmmakingโ. Yulia Kovalenko, a film critic and a Docudays UA programmer, explores how the Russian film industry served as a megaphone of Kremlin ideology and Russian culture altogether, as well as the suffocating neighborhood movie industry.
Reading corner.
- Opinion | How Russiaโs Invasion Upended the French Presidential Election | POLITICO
- Russian bombs rupture a Greek community fighting for its history | POLITICO. Mariupol and its neighborhood has been home to the ethnic Greek community for years. However, due to the war, the community is dispersed all-around running to save their lives.
- 40 Iconic Figures of Ukrainian Culture | PEN Ukraine. A list, composed of 40 of the most Iconic Figures of Ukrainian Culture with their short biography overviews includes innovative artists, treasured authors, and celebrated musicians. Among them are world-renowned painters, graphicists, architects and sculptors; poets, prose writers and playwrights; actors and filmmakers; composers and singers.
What to watch.
- My Ukrainian Journey. Waldemar Januszczak goes to Ukraine to see how Ukrainian art is being preserved in times of war.
Statistics:
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the total estimated losses of the Russian military as of 10 a.m., April 11, 2022: personnel โ around 19 500, tanks โ 725, APV โ 19235, artillery systems โ 347, MLRS โ 111, anti-aircraft warfare systems โ 55, fixed-wing aircraft โ 154, helicopters โ 137 soft-skinned vehicles โ 1387, boats and light speed boats โ 7, fuel tankers โ 76, operational-tactical level UAV โ 119, special equipment โ 25, mobile SRBM system โ 4. Also follow the interactive counter of Russian losses.
Every action counts, no contribution is too small!
- Support Okhmadyt, the biggest Kyiv-based childrenโs hospital, that is taking care of the wounded children.
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