The war in Ukraine, year 2, day 62. Ukraine prepares the offensive, Russia is frightened and threatens the West with nuclear attacks

UPDATE 3:21 – Al Jazeera: Britain and France support ban on state-funded athletes from Russia and Belarus

The sports ministers of the United Kingdom and France have asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban athletes funded by the governments of Russia and Belarus, which are considered responsible for war crimes in Ukraine, according to Al Jazeera.

UPDATE 2:54 – ICC and Europol sign an agreement to strengthen cooperation

The International Criminal Court (ICC) and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) signed a working agreement in The Hague on 25 April. The parties aim to strengthen “cooperation and encourage the exchange of information, knowledge, experience and expertise”.

UPDATE 02:00 – Wimbledon 2023 organizers will donate money to Ukraine and cover all expenses of Ukrainian tennis players

One pound from every ticket sold will be invested in helping Ukraine. The entire tournament is expected to raise around £500,000. Ukrainian tennis players will be compensated for their expenses during the tournament.

In addition, the organizers reminded about the prohibition of the Russian and Belarusian flags and other symbols of these countries, including in the stands during the matches. The tournament will not be broadcast on Russian television, and the Russian mass media will not be accredited.

UPDATE 01:00 – A Ukrainian drone attacked a Russian surveillance complex

The Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Service has released a video showing a drone strike against a Russian surveillance complex on the east bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.

The intelligence service wrote on Telegram that the Russian surveillance station at the Kakhovka hydropower plant, at a distance of more than 6 kilometers, was destroyed.

The video is dated April 24, but CNN cannot confirm when the operation took place.

UPDATE 00:00 – Zelensky reports that more than 60 Ukrainian cultural sites were destroyed by the Russians

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “more than 60 museums and galleries in different regions of our country were also destroyed or damaged by the occupiers” since the beginning of the invasion.

Zelenski also said that a church was also destroyed in the southern region of Kherson. “This church became one of the hundreds of churches and houses of prayer destroyed by the Russian bombings,” the president said.

SUMMARY OF DAY 61, YEAR 2 OF THE WAR – Russia is frightened by the counter-offensive that the Ukrainians are preparing and resorts to nuclear threats

The Putinist regime in the Kremlin fears that it could very quickly lose control over Crimea and Donbas. The Ukrainians show signs of preparing a counteroffensive that could go down in the annals of military history.

The number of threats and warnings with nuclear weapons that are part of the Russian propaganda agenda to intimidate the West has increased.

First there was Vladimir Iermakov, director of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Department of the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, who warned that “If the United States continues on its current course of confrontation with Russia, by steadily escalating the stakes in the direction of a slide toward a direct armed conflict, then the fate of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) may be a foregone conclusion”.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, says that the red line has been crossed.

The vice-president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, was not slow to threaten the West with explosions with a temperature of 5,000 kelvins, with a speed of 350 meters per second and a pressure of 3,000 kg per square meter, with an ionizing radiation and electromagnetic pulse.

In short, all Russian officials are afraid that Ukraine will launch a counteroffensive as soon as possible.

Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, gave the signal, asking EU member states to accelerate the delivery of ammunition to Ukraine.

Western officials and military analysts argue that Russia will not be able to withstand the Ukrainian counteroffensive, especially after demonstrating that it does not have operational aircraft after the incident in Belgorod, when a Russian plane dropped ammunition over an area populated by Russian civilians.

The loss of Crimea and Donbas could mean the end of the Putinist regime.