Russia-Ukraine war updates for Sunday April, 10

Ukraine’s economic output will likely contract by a staggering 45.1% this year as Russia’s invasion has shuttered businesses, slashed exports and destroyed productive capacity, the World Bank said on Sunday in a new assessment of the war’s economic impacts.

The World Bank also forecast Russia’s 2022 GDP output to fall 11.2% due to punishing financial sanctions imposed by the United States and its Western allies on Russia’s banks, state-owned enterprises and other institutions.

The World Bank’s Eastern Europe region, comprising Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, is forecast to show a GDP contraction of 30.7% this year, due to shocks from the war and disruption of trade.

For Ukraine, the World Bank report estimates that over half of the country’s businesses are closed, while others still open are operating at well under normal capacity. The closure of Black Sea shipping from Ukraine has cut off some 90% of the country’s grain exports and half of its total exports.

— Reuters

A Ukrainian official said the number of deaths from the attack on the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine rose to 57 people and 109 injuries over the weekend.

The strike came as hundreds of civilians were waiting to board trains departing the eastern part of the country.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, also said that at least four civilians were killed due to Russian shelling in the east.

A senior U.S. Defense official said the devastating attack on the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine was carried out by a Russian short-range ballistic missile fired from inside Ukraine.

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share new details the Pentagon has gathered about the war, added that the U.S. believes the missile was a Russian OTR-21 Tochka, also known as an SS-21 “Scarab” missile. The SS-21 is a Russian-made mobile, short-range, single-warhead ballistic missile with a warhead payload of about 1,000 pounds.

— Amanda Macias

The president of the European Commission said the questionnaire she handed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during her visit to Kyiv represents a very important step forward.

Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Ukraine’s response will enable her to decide whether to recommend the nation as a candidate to join the European Union.

The process normally takes years, but she has said Ukraine’s application could take just weeks to consider. She said Ukrainians “belong to our European family, without any question.”

“Yesterday, somebody told me: “You know, when our soldiers are dying, I want them to know that their children will be free be and be part of the European Union,” von der Leyen said. “They are in an extraordinary situation, where we have to take unusual steps.”

“One thing is clear for me: After this war, when Ukraine will be rebuilt, when we support Ukraine in reconstructing this country, this will be accompanied by reforms. So, it is an extraordinary way to shape the country and to go down the path towards the European Union.”

— Associated Press

Russia has reportedly appointed a new commander to oversee its war on Ukraine, according to a U.S. official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Russia has now turned to one of its most experienced military officers, Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, the official told AP.

Citing reports, NBC’s Molly Hunter explained on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd that the 60-year-old general has a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and is “apparently one of Putin’s favorites.”

“What we know is that he was the one who called in many of the airstrikes and is accused of calling in many of the airstrikes on residential buildings in Syria, on hospitals, accused of atrocities, of carrying out Russia’s scorched earth policies,” Hunter said.

“This really fills a power vacuum, that apparently Russia has been missing a key battlefield commander,” she added. “And this comes as this shift focuses to the east of the country.”

— Lauren Thomas

A Ukrainian delegation warned U.S. officials in Washington this week that security assistance packages are not arriving quick enough in the besieged country, a plea that comes amid Western security claims that the Kremlin will soon intensify its military campaign.

“The six-year-old boy who is visiting his mother’s grave in his backyard does not want to hear about bureaucracy as an excuse for not delivering weapons to Ukraine,” Daria Kaleniuk, who runs Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, a national organization that assists Ukraine’s parliament and prosecutor’s office.

“This is an extraordinary situation where extraordinary measures have to be done. Lift your bureaucracy, lift it now. The president of the United States has huge power, Congress has huge power. We know it’s possible,” she added.

Earlier in the week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also made a plea to NATO allies to catalyze the delivery of their arms commitments.

“Either you help us now, and I’m speaking about days not weeks, or your help will come too late,” Kuleba told reporters at NATO’s headquarters on April 7.

– Amanda Macias

A small number of Ukrainian soldiers departed the United States today after receiving weeks of side-by-side training with American service members.

The Ukrainian troops were participating in a pre-scheduled training at the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School, a program run by the U.S. Special Operations Command, in Biloxi, Mississippi, when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

The Ukrainians received training on patrol craft operations and communication systems, as well as additional advanced tactical training on systems the U.S. recently agreed to provide to Ukraine, including Switchblade drones.

The Switchblades, dubbed “kamikaze” drones, are equipped with cameras, navigation systems and guided explosives. The weapons can be programmed to strike targets that are miles away automatically, or can loiter above a target until engaged by an operator to strike.

Deploying Switchblades to the fight in Ukraine could be the most significant use of the weapons in combat, as it is not clear how often the U.S. military has used the killer drones on the battlefield.

— Amanda Macias

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Twitter that he plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.

This would be the first face-to-face meeting between Putin and a European Union leader since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

“I’m going to meet Vladimir #Putin in Moscow tomorrow,” Nehammer wrote. “We are militarily neutral, but [have] a clear position on the Russian war of aggression against #Ukraine. It must stop! It needs humanitarian corridors, ceasefire & full investigation of war crimes.”

Nehammer added that he has briefed other European “partners” regarding his visit, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan as well as Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

This comes after Nehammer visited Ukraine and met with Zelenskyy on Saturday.

Austria has been providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine during the war. Nehammer, a conservative, has said he wants to show Zelenskyy his support.

— Lauren Thomas

The White House said that President Joe Biden is planning to press Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a tougher stance on Russia’s Ukraine invasion.

The two will meet virtually on Monday, according to Press Secretary Jen Psaki, where they will discuss cooperation on a range of issues including ending the Covid-19 pandemic, countering the climate crisis and strengthening the global economy.

India’s neutral stance on the war in Ukraine has raised concerns around Washington while earning the praise of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He recently applauded India for not judging “the situation in its entirety, not just in a one-sided way.”

India has also recently purchased advanced Russian air defense systems, a move which could theoretically lead to U.S. sanctions.

In a statement released Sunday, Psaki said Biden will talk in the meeting about how Russia’s war on Ukraine is destabilizing the global food supply and commodity markets. She said Biden will also address the need to…