would respond if Putin deploys a tactical nuclear device on the battlefield in Ukraine. Biden said in the interview that threats emanating from Russia could result in catastrophic “mistakes” and “miscalculation,” even as he declined to spell out how precisely the U.S. President Biden told CNN yesterday that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “rational actor” who nonetheless badly misjudged his ability to invade Ukraine and suppress its people. Henry Foy and Felicia Schwartz report for the Financial Times. “Countries have already provided some, but there is a shortage of production capacity,” said one of the officials, adding that some NATO members were facing years of delays for their own air defense platforms. and other powers are working to locate systems that could be moved, two senior western officials said, in the face of production shortages in the west and stretched inventories. Whilst officials agree on the need for more air defense systems, sourcing them quickly is challenging. NATO countries are struggling to identify and secure enough air defense systems to meet Ukraine’s demands for more equipment, western officials have said. Lara Seligman and Alexander Ward report for POLITICO. The events will include a meeting of the NATO defense ministers, as well as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a gathering of military leaders headed by U.S. Air defenses will form the “crux of the conversation tomorrow,” the first of two days of meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “We are now shifting again to air defense,” Ambassador Julianne Smith said in a briefing organized by her office, noting that in previous phases, NATO’s response centered on what Ukraine needed at specific moments of the war, namely munitions and coastal defense. ambassador to the alliance said yesterday.

Sending air defense systems to Ukraine will be top of the agenda at the gathering of NATO defense ministers in Brussels this week, the U.S. Joshua Berlinger and Tim Lister report for CNN. A tough price cap is needed for the exports of oil and gas from Russia – zero profit for the terrorist state,” he said. “We must block its energy sector with sanctions, break the stability of Russian revenues from oil and gas trade. Zelenskyy also reiterated his demand for Russia to be declared a terrorist state and for further sanctions. Zelenskyy’s plea comes amid one of the fiercest bombing campaigns that Russia has waged against Ukraine since invading in late February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday asked the Group of Seven nations to help Ukraine establish an “air shield” against aerial attacks. “This is going to sound brutal, but hope for peace goes by the name of Donald Trump.” Guy Chazan and Marton Dunal report for the Financial Times. Speaking at a panel discussion in Berlin, Orbán said President Biden had gone “too far” in calling Putin a war criminal and saying in March that he “cannot remain in power.” “That would make it very hard for to make peace,” Orbán said. and Russia, saying that only former president Trump could end the war in Ukraine. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán yesterday called for direct talks between the U.S. During a televised interview yesterday Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for a ceasefire “as soon as possible.” Wilhelmine Preussen reports for POLITICO. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday that potential talks between Russia and the West might be discussed during the meeting, which will take place on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on Wednesday, a Turkish official has said. Michael Schwirtz and John Ismay report for the New York Times. A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that Ukraine’s intelligence services had carried it out, and other senior officials have not denied Ukraine’s role. Kyrylo Budanov, bore personal responsibility. In a statement, the F.S.B said that Ukraine’s military intelligence service, the G.U.R., had masterminded the blast, saying that the agency’s commander, Gen. Five are citizens of Russia, according to the agency, the F.S.B., and the others are Ukrainian and Armenian. Russia’s domestic intelligence service has announced the arrest of eight people in connection with the bombing of the Kerch Bridge which linked Russia to Crimea.

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