Key Developments
Israel deploys 15,000 soldiers and military police in West Bank and Jerusalem ahead of Ramadan, including 5,000 reservists, 24 battalions, 20 Border Police companies, and two special forces units.
Hamas’s Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson rules out any breakthrough in ceasefire talks, and describes Israel’s position as “deceptive.”
Abu Obaida warns that Israel’s campaign of starvation against Palestinians in Gaza is affecting Israeli captives, some of whom “suffer from hunger, malnutrition and dehydration.”
Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades announces names of four out of seven Israeli captives who died “due to the aggressive Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip.”
25 Palestinian children have died of malnutrition and dehydration since March. The total death toll in Gaza surpasses 31,000 people, 72 percent of whom are women and children.
Gaza City municipality says Israel destroyed a one-million-meter square of roads in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza City municipality needs heavy vehicles and fuel supplies to clean rubble and nearly 70,000 tons of rubbish.
Rescue teams transfer 37 bodies of Palestinian martyrs and 118 injured people to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah overnight.
U.S. to send army vessel to Eastern Mediterranean to deliver aid and supplies to Gaza.
Wafa reports that Israeli bombing of tents of displaced Palestinians killed 15 people in Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis.
Spain is considering recognizing a Palestinian state by 2027, according to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
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Daily Wrap Up April 12, 2023
Under the cut:
Russia has tightened its conscription law before a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks, including introducing electronic military draft papers. The lower and upper houses of parliament rushed through legislation that will make it significantly harder for Russians to dodge the draft while automatically banning registered conscripts from leaving Russia.
The United States imposed a large tranche of sanctions on more than 100 people and entities around the world for their ties to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian and Spanish defense ministers have denied claims that NATO troops are fighting against Russian armed forces in Ukraine, refuting allegations that emerged from a leak of highly classified Pentagon documents.
The World Bank will provide Ukraine with an additional $200 million in aid to restore its energy infrastructure, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported on April 12.
Ukraine's upcoming counteroffensive has been delayed due to a combination of factors, including weather, slow equipment deliveries, and an insufficient amount of ammunition, the Washington Post reported on April 12. The long-awaited counteroffensive is seen as a critical juncture to take back Ukrainian territory under Russian control, and failure to do so could push Ukrainians to the negotiating table, the Washington Post wrote.
Russia has tightened its conscription law before a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks, including introducing electronic military draft papers.
The lower and upper houses of parliament rushed through legislation that will make it significantly harder for Russians to dodge the draft while automatically banning registered conscripts from leaving Russia.
The changes were pushed through with little public debate, fuelling speculation that Russia plans to announce a second wave of mobilisation, something the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the changes were intended to improve the military registration system and had “nothing to do with mobilisation”.
“When the special military operation began, you and I saw that in some places we had a lot of mess in the military recruitment offices,” he told journalists on Wednesday.
That is exactly the purpose of this legislative initiative: to clear up this mess and to make it [the system] modern, effective and convenient for citizens.
In September last year, Russia’s first mobilisation since the second world war caused unparalleled chaos and anger across the country. More than 300,000 men were conscripted to fight in Ukraine, while an even larger number are believed to have fled Russia.
Under the new legislation, call-up papers will be deemed to be served as soon as they appear on Gosuslugi, a government portal widely used by Russians to pay bills, and will be considered officially received by a prospective draftee after one week, whether or not it has actually been received.
-via The Guardian
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The United States imposed a large tranche of sanctions on more than 100 people and entities around the world for their ties to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Wednesday’s sanctions are the latest action meant to diminish Moscow’s abilities in its war in Ukraine and punish those who are supporting it, including through helping Russia to evade existing sanctions.
Sanctions on Russian billionaire and associates: The latest sanctions target a wide network tied to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who is already under sanction in multiple countries, and were taken in coordination with the United Kingdom.
According to the US Treasury Department, Usmanov "is one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires" who "holds significant interests in the metals and mining, telecommunications, and information technology sectors."
He is "known to be close to multiple U.S.-designated, senior Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Dmitry Medvedev, current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former President and Prime Minister of Russia," according to a statement.
Sanctions on international companies and a bank: The US also imposed sanctions on companies based in China, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, which the US Treasury Department said is supporting Russia’s military industrial complex in defiance of existing sanctions.
The Treasury also sanctioned the International Investment Bank, "a Russia-controlled financial institution" in Budapest, as well as its Moscow-based subsidiary and several former and current executives.
"The IIB’s presence in Budapest enables Russia to increase its intelligence presence in Europe, opens the door for the Kremlin’s malign influence activities in Central Europe and the Western Balkans, and could serve as a mechanism for corruption and illicit finance, including sanctions violations,” according to the Treasury Department.
Sanctions on organizations that target children: In addition, the US State Department is sanctioning two Russian entities "that support Russia’s efforts to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine through the militarization and indoctrination of schoolchildren: The All Russian Children's And Youth Military Patriotic Public Movement Youth Army, and the State Budgetary Educational Institution of Additional Education of the Republic of Crimea Crimea Patriot Center,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
According to the State Department, the so-called youth army was created by Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and is "responsible for militarizing and propagandizing schoolchildren in occupied areas of Ukraine."
The "Crimea Patriot Center" is "an organization whose objective is to provide youth with a ‘military-patriotic education’ in order to prepare them for service in the Russia’s Armed Forces," it said.
-via CNN
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Ukrainian and Spanish defense ministers have denied claims that NATO troops are fighting against Russian armed forces in Ukraine, refuting allegations that emerged from a leak of highly classified Pentagon documents.
“It is totally false that there are NATO troops in Ukraine,” Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said Wednesday at a joint news conference in Madrid with her visiting Ukrainian counterpart.
“It’s not true that there are NATO personnel in Ukraine,” with the exception of military attachés, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said.
Responding to a question about the document leak, Reznikov said it "has a lot of data that’s not true (and) is no longer current. The beneficiary of this operation is Russia or its allies or sympathizers," adding that he is confident that Ukraine’s US allies will work to "neutralize this leak and avoid this in the future."
Ukraine has "full confidence in our in our American allies" in spite of the leak, he said. From Spain’s perspective, Robles said the unity of NATO and European Union allies remains strong and Russia will "not achieve a break in that."
Update on tanks: Robles said Spain’s first shipment of six modern battle tanks for Ukraine will leave soon via ship and should arrive in the war-torn country by the end of this month. Along with these six Leopard 2A4 tanks, Spain will also send 20 armored vehicles, she added. Spain will later send four more of the Leopard tanks "as soon as possible," after they are repaired.
Reznikov said Ukraine asked Spain for air defense systems, including combat jets, artillery rounds, and for training and technical advice in amphibious military operations, including undersea mine removal. The Ukrainian defense minister said he would meet with executives of Spanish arms makers on this visit. He and the Spanish defense minister were also expected to tour a military hospital in Madrid treating Ukrainian troops severely wounded in combat, including those whose limbs have been amputated.
-via CNN
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The World Bank will provide Ukraine with an additional $200 million in aid to restore its energy infrastructure, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported on April 12.
According to Shmyhal, who met with officials from the World Bank earlier in the day, the funds will be used for the reconstruction of the electricity grid and heat supply systems in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv oblasts.
Ukraine is collaborating with the World Bank to implement a war risk insurance project that aims to attract foreign investments before the war ends, Shmyhal added.
Russia has launched over 1,200 missiles and drones against Ukraine since October in an effort to destroy Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
In addition to causing damage to infrastructure, the attacks resulted in numerous casualties and forced blackouts to deal with the resulting energy deficits across the country.
During an evening video address in early March, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that although winter was over, the threat to Ukraine's energy infrastructure still remains.
-via Kyiv Independent
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Ukraine's upcoming counteroffensive has been delayed due to a combination of factors, including weather, slow equipment deliveries, and an insufficient amount of ammunition, the Washington Post reported on April 12.
The long-awaited counteroffensive is seen as a critical juncture to take back Ukrainian territory under Russian control, and failure to do so could push Ukrainians to the negotiating table, the Washington Post wrote.
According to the Washington Post, the recent U.S. intelligence document leaks are also complicating matters, given that they delve into details about the Ukrainian military, which could potentially force them to alter plans for the counteroffensive.
Reconnaissance missions are ongoing in Donetsk Oblast to "test" Russian defenses but that doesn't mean Ukrainian units are ready for a full offensive, a Ukrainian corporal told the Washington Post.
For a full offensive to move forward, Ukrainian military units need more heavy equipment, armored vehicles, and training.
According to a Ukrainian captain stationed outside of Bakhmut, an embattled city in Donetsk Oblast, newly-mobilized Russian troops were being brought in to dig reinforcements and did so with any material possible, "even trash," the Washington Post reported.
Speculation about the integrity of the leaked intelligence documents is ongoing. Ukraine officials dismissed the classified documents leak on April 7 as "fake."
Senior U.S. officials told the New York Times on April 7 that the leak prompted an investigation by the Pentagon.
National Security and Defense Council head Oleksii Danilov said on April 6 that “no more than five people” are filled in on Ukrainian plans for the counteroffensive.
-via Kyiv Independent
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