LIVE UKRAINE. Ukrainian Agriculture Minister resigns after corruption allegations | War Ukraine and Russia

In Ukraine its Thursday at least ten people were killed by bombings by both sides. The local authorities have communicated this.

The Donetsk region, among others, is under heavy fire. It The Russian army is currently trying to force a breakthrough towards the city of Chasiv Yar. “The Russians continue to bomb the Donetsk region all day,” Governor Vadim Filashkin said on the Telegram messaging service. He reports a total of six deaths on Thursday evening.

In addition, are also two people killed in Ukrainian drone strikes on Novokarlivka village, in the southern region of Zaporizhia. The village is located in an area under the control of the Russian army.

“A civilian car was hit, killing a man and a woman,” said Yevgeny Balitsky, Zaporizhia’s Moscow-appointed regional leader. The couple leaves behind four children, Balitski also writes on Telegram.

Also in the neighboring Kherson regionwhich is partly occupied by Russia Ukrainian shelling occurred. Two people were killed, said Vladimir Saldo, head of Russia’s regional occupation administration. A gas pipeline was also damaged during the bombings, it is said.

The Ukrainian Minister of Agriculture Mykola Solskywho is accused of appropriating state land before joining the government, has his resigned. The chairman of the parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, reported this on Thursday.

“I ask you to accept my resignation as Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food,” read a handwritten letter that Stefanchuk published on Facebook. It parliament has yet to accept the resignation.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, there have been several cases of corruption surfaced in Ukraine, especially within the military. But usually it concerns civil servants in lower positions.

Mykola Solsky confirmed the report and said he “did the right thing.” He also said to be prepared to “continue working” if parliament refused his resignation.

The Danish government will further increase its military aid to Ukraine with an additional 4.4 billion Danish krone (590 million euros). With that comes the total Danish aid by 2028 8.7 billion euros. This was announced by Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen.

“Since the beginning of the war, Denmark one of the most active donor countries “, says Poulsen in a press release. “We must continue to do this. That is why I am pleased that a large majority of parties in the Folketing (Danish Parliament, ed.) support us by adding another 4.4 billion in additional aid for Ukraine.”

Artillery ammunition, Harpoon missile systems, tanks, drones and anti-aircraft defenses are part of the new Danish aid. Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy calls Denmark the fourth-largest donor of military aid to Ukraine.

After months of debate in the United States, President Joe Biden signed a package with 57 billion euros in military and economic aid for Ukraine earlier this week.

At least seven people were killed in Ukraine on Thursday due to bombings by both sides. The local authorities have communicated this.

The Donetsk region, among others, is under heavy fire. The Russian military is currently trying one to force a breakthrough towards the city of Chasiv Yar. “The Russians continue to bomb the Donetsk region all day long. Three more people have been killed,” Governor Vadim Filashkin said on the Telegram messaging service.

In addition, two people were also killed Ukrainian drone strikes on the village of Novokarlivka, in the southern region Zaporizhia. The village is located in an area under the control of the Russian army. “A civilian car was hit, killing a man and a woman,” said Yevgeny Balitsky, Zaporizhia’s Moscow-appointed regional leader. The couple leaves behind four children, Balitski also writes on Telegram.

Also in the neighboring region Cherson, which is partly occupied by Russia, Ukrainian shelling has taken place. Two people were killed, said Vladimir Saldo, head of Russia’s regional occupation administration. A gas pipeline was also damaged during the bombings, it is said.

Russia has “several dozen” tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Eastern European Belarus. This was reported by Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Belarus confirmed last summer that Russian nuclear weapons had arrived in the country. That was by the Russian forces previously used as a base during the invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Russia has emphasized that it does have nuclear weapons in Belarus under its own control. They probably represent only a fraction of Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which experts say consists of thousands of nuclear warheads.

Belarus is sometimes described as Europe’s last dictatorship and has close ties to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Lukashenko has ruled the former Soviet state since 1994.

Ukraine is stopped issuing new passports to men who living abroad and can serve in the army. According to new regulations, men between the ages of 18 and 60 can now only obtain a passport in Ukraine and no longer at an embassy or consulate.

An exception has been made for some, such as people with disabilities. A day earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Koeleba denounced the men who fled abroad to avoid serving in the army. “Residence abroad does not relieve a citizen of his or her duties to the home country,” he wrote on X.

Many Ukrainians have fled abroad because of the war. The Ukrainian armed forces are facing a shortage of troops to fight the better equipped and larger army of the Russians.

The United States has in recent weeks secretly sent long-range missiles to Ukraine to use against the Russians. Washington previously objected to this. It concerns the long-range missiles of the ATACMS type that were deployed twice by Ukraine this month, it appears.

According to a Foreign Affairs spokesperson, the missiles arrived in Ukraine this month. Last week on April 17, they were said to have been used for the first time in the attack on a Russian military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea. They have also been used against Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine.

President Joe Biden’s administration has long debated sending ATACMS long-range missiles, which have a range of 186 miles. The medium-range variant with a range of about 165 kilometers was delivered to Ukraine in September last year.

The US Department of Defense did not want to give away the missiles for its own preparedness. It was also feared that Ukraine would use it to attack Russian targets far inland.

According to an anonymous source, North Korea’s delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia was the turning point for the US. The missiles were then secretly sent as part of a military aid package that Biden approved in March. The US has now prepared a new billion-dollar package for Ukraine.

“The shipment took place at the direct request of President Joe Biden in February,” said Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesperson. “The inclusion of the missiles in this March package was not announced at the time in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at his request.”