Ukraine Live Blog: ++Sweden announces new aid package++

Sweden wants to provide 1.2 billion euros worth of military aid to Ukraine. Construction of barracks for the German NATO brigade is progressing in Lithuania. All developments in the live blog.

Investigators searched the office of a former employee of the AfD’s top candidate for the European Parliament in Brussels, Maximilian Krah. According to sources in the investigative community, the authorities searched the offices of Guillaume P. in Brussels and Strasbourg, as well as his private residence in Brussels.

The Belgian prosecutor’s office said the investigation was linked to a Russian propaganda network around the Voice of Europe website and an alleged influence operation. According to Der Spiegel and the Czech newspaper Denik N, money is said to have flowed to European politicians to publish pro-Russian statements through the Prague-based portal. In this context, AfD MP and top candidate Kra and runner-up on the list Peter Baistrand have also been charged; a preliminary investigation against them is also underway. Both deny receiving Russian funds.

European Voice also mentions the name of Guillaume P., a former employee of Kra. The Frenchman worked in the office of German AfD MP Kra from 2019 to 2022. According to research by Der Spiegel, the alleged meeting between Kra and Best in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev with Viktor Mevedtschuk, head of the European Voice platform, took place during this period. In the past, the Frenchman has attracted attention for anti-Semitic remarks and images. In 2019, he was expelled from Marine Le Pen’s right-wing populist National Rally party for such incidents.

Russian attacks in several regions of Ukraine have killed at least six people, according to authorities. A rocket attack in the eastern Sumy region near the Russian border killed two people and wounded three others, local authorities said online on Wednesday.

The governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Vadym Filaschkin, reported three deaths and at least a dozen wounded. Several houses and civilian buildings there were damaged in several attacks. A Russian attack in the southern Ukrainian Kherson region left one person dead, according to the governor, Alexander Prokudin.

Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian attack on a hardware store in the city of Kharkiv last weekend has risen to 19.

Poland wants to re-impose a buffer zone on the EU’s external border after a soldier was attacked with a knife on a fence along the border with Belarus. What is needed is “a buffer zone of about 200 metres within which it is necessary for the Polish state to act effectively”, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during a visit to the border town of Dubice Czerkiven.

Poland and the European Union accuse Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of organizing migrants from the crisis zone to the EU’s external borders to put pressure on the West. In the summer of 2022, Poland protected the border with Belarus with a 5.5-meter-high fence and an electronic surveillance system.

According to Russian sources, prisoner exchanges have been suspended for months. The official TASS news agency reported the news, citing Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatjana Moskalova. Moskalova accused Ukraine of making “false demands.” The Kiev government has not yet issued a statement.

Polish authorities have apparently arrested a suspected spy. The 26-year-old Ukrainian citizen allegedly tried to obtain photos of military vehicles that were to be shipped to Ukraine. He allegedly asked a Pole to send the photos and promised a reward of 15,000 euros. Investigators accuse the Ukrainian of participating in the activities of a foreign BroadCast Unitedligence service. The suspect has been detained. He faces up to eight years in prison.

The Swedish government announced that it would provide Ukraine with an additional 13.3 billion Swedish kronor (1.2 billion euros) in military aid. “Sweden is supporting Ukraine with its 16th aid package, the largest of its kind to date,” said Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch.

The package includes the ASC 890 reconnaissance aircraft, the Rb 99 medium-range air-to-air missile, artillery ammunition and the Type 302 armored personnel carrier, among other things.

Russia shot down a Ukrainian drone over the southern Russian city of Armavir, according to local authorities. Russian anti-aircraft defenses thwarted the attack, regional governor Veniamin Kondratiev wrote on the messaging app Telegram. The town in the Krasnodar region, hundreds of kilometers from the border, is known for its radar station, which is an important part of Russia’s early warning system against missile attacks.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force announced on Telegram that it had destroyed 13 of 14 missiles fired during a nighttime Russian drone attack. The governor responsible said that in the central Kirovograd region, debris damaged power lines. Repair work is underway. Initially, no information about further damage was available.

In the European Union, cyberattacks by Russian-backed groups have increased significantly in recent months. Juhan Lepassaar, head of the European Cybersecurity Agency (Enisa), said the number of attacks on European infrastructure by politically motivated hackers doubled from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024. The main goal of these threat actors is to cause damage.

Le Passard said these methods of attack are usually tried first in Ukraine before expanding to EU countries. “This is part of Russia’s war of aggression, which they are waging not only in Ukraine but also digitally across Europe,” he said. In most cases, they will not succeed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the security agreements signed this week with three EU countries were very important. “These ten-year agreements do not mean that the war will continue for another ten years. They are strategic agreements, including the modernization and reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as humanitarian aid.”

His country currently needs help with air defense. Ukraine needs missiles, drones and information systems “like water in the desert,” he said during a visit to Lisbon.

The situation of Ukrainian frontline troops is considered difficult. A Czech initiative has raised hopes for the early supply of artillery ammunition. The first shipment is expected to arrive in June. Senior politicians from five European NATO countries reiterated their support during a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal in Prague.

The Lithuanian military believes that the development of military infrastructure for the accommodation of combat-ready Bundeswehr brigades is progressing smoothly. During an on-site inspection, Lithuanian Colonel Rimantas Jamalavichius, who is in charge of infrastructure construction, said that by 2025, barracks for German soldiers will be built at the military training area near Rudninkai, not far from the Belarusian border.

By the end of 2027, several shooting ranges and a large combat vehicle training area, as well as weapons depots and logistics areas will be built around the approximately 40-hectare construction area. “We recently received a confirmed request from Germany for infrastructure,” said Jamalavicius. Accommodation and sports facilities for up to 5,000 German soldiers will also be built on site. According to his assessment, the contract with the construction company could be signed in the summer. Actual construction is expected to begin by the end of this year. It is not yet clear what Lithuania will bear the costs for this.

To finance its costly war in Ukraine, Russia plans to increase taxes on high-income earners and businesses. The Finance Ministry’s plans include raising corporate taxes from 20% to 25% and raising tax rates on high-income earners. The increases would bring in around 27 billion euros a year, Interfax reported, citing the Ministry of Finance’s calculations.

Minister Anton Siluanov said the changes are aimed at creating a “fair and balanced tax system.” There are exceptions for soldiers fighting in Ukraine, according to the Finance Ministry. The changes are likely to be passed by parliament this year and take effect next year.

Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, government spending has significantly exceeded revenue. Russia’s budget deficit for 2022 and 2023 is about 68 billion euros. The deficit is expected to be about 17 billion euros this year.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to attack military positions on Russian territory. “We should allow them to neutralize military sites from which missiles were fired, basically from Ukrainian military sites,” Macron said yesterday after speaking with Chancellor Olaf Scholz at Meseberg Castle near Berlin. However, he clarified: “We should not allow other Russian targets to be attacked, including civilian facilities or other military targets, of course.”

This is the first time that the heads of state of a major NATO country have so clearly publicly supported the use of Western weapons to counter Russian positions. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has recently increased pressure to lift existing restrictions. On the other hand, Germany does not want countries such as Ukraine to use Western weapons to preemptively attack Russian missile bases – Ukrainian infrastructure is also under attack from there. The United States also announced yesterday that it would not give the green light for such attacks.

Belgium wants to deliver 30 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. The first batch of machines is scheduled to be delivered this year. Russian authorities reported the defense of a drone near Moscow. Tuesday’s developments are worth reading.