April 24, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

By Kathleen Magramo, Helen Regan, Alicia Wallace and Mike Hayes, CNN

Updated 2:06 a.m. ET, April 25, 2023
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2:29 a.m. ET, April 24, 2023

Russia threatens to end key grain deal if G7 bans exports to its country

From CNN's Mariya Knight

Commercial vessels including vessels which are part of Black Sea grain deal wait to pass the Bosphorus strait off the shores of Yenikapi in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 31, 2022.
Commercial vessels including vessels which are part of Black Sea grain deal wait to pass the Bosphorus strait off the shores of Yenikapi in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 31, 2022. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

Russia is threatening to terminate the Black Sea grain deal, viewed as critical for solving the world hunger crisis, if Group of Seven nations ban exports to the country.

Such a ban could be part of the ever-evolving set of sanctions the allies have leveled against Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and deputy chair of Russia's security council, implied in a Telegram post Sunday that Russia would answer a new export ban by halting the flow of "goods that are the most sensitive for G7."

“In this case, the grain deal will end for them as well as many other things that they need," Medvedev wrote.

What the alliance says: The G7 called for the “extension, full implementation and expansion” of the Black Sea grain deal in a statement published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan on Sunday. 

"We condemn Russia's attempts to use food as a means of destabilization and as tool of geopolitical coercion and reiterate our commitment to acting in solidarity and supporting those most affected by Russia's weaponization of food," the G7 ministers said in the statement adding they "will continue to design restrictive measures against Russia to shield population in need from unintended consequences by ensuring food and fertilizers are carved out.”

Some background: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to a suspension of grain shipments in the Black Sea and a crisis on the global food market. 

Ukraine and Russia, brokered by the UN and Turkey, established the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022 to guarantee safe passage for ships carrying grain and oilseeds – some of Ukraine's most important exports.  

Shipments have been stop-and-start during the deal, with each side accusing the other of sabotaging the operation at times.

Russia has "once again" blocked 50 ships carrying "urgently needed" Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said on April 17. 

12:12 a.m. ET, April 24, 2023

Russian foreign minister set to chair UN Security Council meeting as tensions rise with US

From CNN's Darya Tarasova, Duarte Mendonca and Kylie Atwood

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, don't plan to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations Security Council meeting Lavrov is chairing Monday, according to Russian officials.

Tensions continue to rise between Russia and the United States over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and deepening diplomatic rows.

"There are no such plans. By and large, we do not have an agenda with the Americans for discussion at the ministerial level at the moment," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Sunday, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Spat over visas: Moscow has ramped up its rhetoric in a diplomatic dispute with Washington leading up to the meeting.

Russia “will not forgive” the US for not issuing visas to Russian journalists to travel to the US and cover Lavrov's remarks, the foreign minister told journalists in an interview Sunday.

Russian state media indicated Moscow will take retaliatory steps against US reporters.

"The United States should have no doubt that American journalists will experience maximum discomfort after Washington's refusal to issue US visas to the pool of Russian journalists to work at UN events in New York," a diplomatic source said, according to the TASS news agency.

CNN has reached out to the US State Department for comment but has not heard back.

Russia and the UN: This month, Russia is head of the UN Security Council — the very body where members have slammed Moscow for its invasion of Ukrainebecause of procedural rules that see each member state rotate through leadership of the council alphabetically.

While the leadership position doesn't allow Moscow to make unilateral decisions for the body, it has used its post to maneuver meetings on Ukraine and portray the US and other Western countries as making false accusations against Russia.

In addition to chairing Monday's meeting, Lavrov is set to meet with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in New York this week. The leaders are expected to discuss the Black Sea grain deal.

CNN's Richard Roth contributed to this report.

2:48 a.m. ET, April 24, 2023

Why it’s taking months for Western battle tanks to make it to the front lines in Ukraine

From CNN's Brad Lendon

Leopard 2 6A4 tanks are driven onto a cargo ship at the port of Santander, bound for Poland and subsequently for Ukraine, in Santander, Spain, on April 21.
Leopard 2 6A4 tanks are driven onto a cargo ship at the port of Santander, bound for Poland and subsequently for Ukraine, in Santander, Spain, on April 21. (Vincent West/Reuters)

Six Leopard 2 tanks left Spain and are set to reach Ukraine in less than a week, Spanish Minister of Defense Margarita Robles said this weekend. The United States, meanwhile, will start training Ukrainian forces on its Abrams tanks next month, seeking to get them on the battlefield against Russia before the end of the summer.

But even with shipments and training underway, the fighting vehicles donated by NATO allies to Ukraine will not have an immediate impact on its war with Russia, experts warn.

Steep learning curve: Modern main battle tanks are complicated pieces of weaponry. Looking formidable and rugged on the outside, much of their effectiveness on the battlefield comes down to sophisticated electronic and computer systems at their core. Those systems find targets and train the tank’s main gun on them.

Maintaining the tanks, repairing them and supplying the parts necessary requires detailed training all the way from the crews in the vehicles to the logistics trail supporting them, hundreds or maybe thousands of miles from the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

“I would say the ability to train Ukrainian soldiers to support any tanks they are given is almost more important than the type of tank they use,” said Nicholas Drummond, a defense industry analyst specializing in land warfare and a former British Army officer.

Logistical challenges: In addition to the time needed to train fighters, the tanks need to be maintained, officials said, which means managing the supply chain.

Because the Abrams is American-made, for example, it has “a very long logistics tail stretching back to the US,” said Drew Thompson, visiting senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Key components that wear out or are damaged in battle will need to be replaced with US parts, which would have to be sent to a repair depot in Ukraine or possibly Poland, which is in the process of acquiring its own fleet of Abrams.

Thompson said the Pentagon is good at solving difficult logistical issues, “but the risk is high to both the US and Ukraine.”

“Being able to support Leopards from a European logistics base is definitely preferable,” Thompson said, referring to the model of tanks employed in 13 European countries.

The sheer number of Leopards available makes the support process easier, according to Drummond, who is an adviser to the manufacturer of the German tanks. More than 4,000 of the tanks are in service, and that means “spare parts are readily available from multiple sources,” he said.

CNN's Al Goodman, Duarte Mendonca, Haley Britzky and Heather Chen contributed reporting to this post.

3:03 a.m. ET, April 24, 2023

Ukraine will draw inspiration from Arlington National Cemetery to create its own memorial in Kyiv

From CNN's Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood

Yulia Laputina gives a speech in Lviv, Ukraine on April 12.
Yulia Laputina gives a speech in Lviv, Ukraine on April 12. (Olena Znak/SOPA Images/Sipa/AP)

For Yulia Laputina, Ukraine’s minister of veterans affairs, a visit to Arlington National Cemetery was a deeply moving experience.

“I really appreciated this incredible memorializing and respect for the people who defended your country,” Laputina, who is a veteran herself, told CNN Thursday.

Ukraine plans to draw inspiration from Arlington as the country works to create its own version of a memorial and military cemetery in its capital city of Kyiv, she said.

“It will be the memorial not only for those people who will be buried there from the battles of Russian-Ukrainian war, for the heroes, but also it will be the memorial for all of the defenders of our country when Ukraine was fighting for the independence in different historical periods,” she said.

On Thursday, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, announced the city council had “started the procedure for establishing the National Military Memorial Cemetery,” and had allocated land for its creation. According to his post on Facebook, the cemetery is nearly 250 acres.

Ukraine’s creation of a military cemetery is just one initiative that the war-torn nation plans to undertake to honor and support its veterans – a population that will grow immensely due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. There are expected to be around four million veterans and family members by the time the war comes to an end, Laputina said.

About 80% of the half million veterans that were registered with the veterans affairs office when the most recent conflict began have gone back to the battlefield, she told CNN.

The minister came to Washington, DC, to discuss best practices and to urge specific funding from the US government to help support her office’s efforts.

The United States has given billions of dollars in direct budgetary support to Ukraine, but none of the money is specifically allocated for veterans affairs, Laputina said.

Read more here.