Truly historic day for Ukraine

The leaders of France, Italy, Germany and Romania met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday in Kyiv, where they pledged support for putting Ukraine on a path to membership in the E.U. and said they would continue to back Ukraine’s military efforts, despite suggestions to the contrary.

After the meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky said that: “Today is a truly historic day – Ukraine has felt the support of four powerful European states at once. And in particular support for our movement to the European Union. Italy, Romania, France and Germany are with us. All four leaders – Mr. Draghi, Mr. Iohannis, Mr. Macron and Mr. Scholz – support Ukraine’s candidacy.”

President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, who had been criticized in recent days over the perception that they were seeking to pressure Zelensky into peace talks with Russia, emphasized that their support was genuine. “We are and we will remain by your side in the long run to defend your sovereignty, your territorial integrity and your freedom,” Macron said. “This is our goal, we have no other, and we will achieve it.”

All four leaders expressed support for Ukraine’s E.U. candidacy, Macron said. Scholz added that “Ukraine belongs to the European family.”

The European leaders also visited Irpin, a Kyiv suburb where investigators are looking into reports of Russian atrocities during the war. Russia dismissed their trip as empty symbolism. Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian president, derisively called the leaders “European connoisseurs of frogs, liverwurst and pasta.”

The European Economic and Social Committee has adopted a resolution in support of Ukraine’s EU candidate status, as well as recommendations for the European institutions and governments of the EU member states to assist Ukraine in post-war reconstruction. The decision was supported by 200 Committee members, almost all participants in the plenary session, Ukrinform reported.

Yesterday “brother”, now “existential threat”

The Twitter administration has temporarily restricted the capabilities of the account of the head of Roscosmos DmitryRogozin for inciting hatred in a tweet about Ukraine. The administration of the social network demanded to remove the publication to lift the restrictions.

In a tweet, Rogozin argued that Ukraine "represents an existential threat to the Russian people, Russian history, Russian language and Russian civilization". “If we don’t do away with them, as, unfortunately, our grandfathers did not do away with them, we will have to die, but end up at an even greater cost to our grandchildren.”

Ukraine should negotiate from tough positions, as the Brits consider

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss updated the House of Commons on the Government's support for Ukraine.

“We cannot allow Ukraine to be pressured into giving up territory in a way that we would never accept ourselves. Through the G7 and NATO we are doing everything we can to strengthen Ukraine’s hand. We also need to make sure our Baltic friends and our Polish friends are involved,” she stated.

Ukraine will reclaim occupied territories, including Crimea

The Russian military expected Kyiv to fall within 12 hours of the February 24 invasion, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told CNN in an interview in Brussels.

A document was found on a Russian military officer who was killed in the invasion, which stated the Russian military objectives, Reznikov said.

“They thought they were going to be in the center of Kyiv in 12 hours,” he said the document stated.

“Frankly speaking, our partners in the different capitals of the world also were naive. They told us that invasion was imminent, and you will fall. You only have 72 hours. That's why they didn't give us heavy weaponry.”

Only after Ukraine liberated the Kyiv region in late March, did Western partners start to provide Ukraine with heavier weapons, he said. The new weapons will allow Ukraine to reclaim occupied territories, including Crimea.

U.S. chips found in Russian armament destroyed in Ukraine

Federal agents have begun questioning U.S. technology companies on how their computer chips ended up in Russian military equipment recovered in Ukraine.

Commerce Department agents who enforce export controls are conducting the inquiries together with the FBI, paying joint visits to companies to ask about Western chips and components found in Russian radar systems, drones, tanks, ground-control equipment.

In April, a group of researchers from the British Royal Joint Arms Institute found computer chips from 12 American companies, including Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and Onsemi, in Russian technology in Ukraine.

Many of the chips were made before the U.S. tightened export restrictions after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, but some of the hardware was made in 2020, according to The Washington Post.

Russian officials: International tribunal against Russian army is unacceptable

Speculation about the creation of an international tribunal for Russian soldiers is unacceptable and false. This was stated in the Russian embassy in the United States.

“We consider it unacceptable to speculate about the “new Nuremberg Tribunal” in relation to the Arab states, participants in the events on the territory of Ukraine. It’s a lie. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are protecting the population of Donbas from the Nazis,” the embassy’s telegram channel reports. The West promotes misanthropic ideas, the Russian embassy noted.