– The head of NATO calls on allies to mobilize. “It is not too late for Ukraine to win” in the war against Russia, Jens Stoltenberg assured Thursday, provided that the West keeps their promises to provide it with more weapons. “In recent months, NATO allies have not provided the support” they had promised, he regretted, in a speech given at an awards ceremony in Berlin on transatlantic ties.
– Ukrainian attacks. In the territories occupied by Russia, two people died in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Zaporizhia region and two others in Ukrainian artillery fire in the Kherson region, according to the Russian occupation authorities. In Russia itself, a Ukrainian drone injured four civilians traveling aboard a bus, including a 14-year-old teenager, in the village of Kurkovichi, in the Bryansk region, according to its governor Alexandre Bogomaz.
– Russian strikes. Three people were killed and four injured in a Russian missile strike on the village of Udachne and three others in those of Kurakhivka, Novooleksandrivka and Otcheretino, according to the regional prosecutor’s office and Governor Vadim Filachkin. All these localities are located in the Donetsk region, where most of the fighting is concentrated.
– Putin soon to visit China. The Russian president indicated Thursday that he planned to go to China for an official visit during the month of May. This will be the first visit abroad, since his re-election in March, of Mr. Putin, who has been the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court since March 2023 for the “deportation” of Ukrainian children. Beijing and Moscow have intensified their economic, diplomatic and military cooperation in recent years and their “strategic partnership” has been consolidated since the offensive in Ukraine launched at the end of February 2022.