Western media continue to report about the war in Ukraine: on April 1, the media covered Britain's intentions to provide Kyiv with more weapons, a report investigating the health of bloodthirsty dictator Vladimir Putin, and the IAEA and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the near future.
In addition, the EU warned China about the consequences of helping Russia, drew attention to India's rapprochement with Moscow, and Europeans have begun to stock up on drugs for radiation and chemical attacks.
offers an up-to-date review of what European and American media are reporting, covering 37 days of active Russian invasion.
Britain: Putin is now a man in a cage
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Independent cites British defense secretary Ben Wallace as saying that the UK and its allies will send more weapons to Ukraine.
Bloodthirsty dictator Vladimir Putin will have to suffer the consequences of his actions, Wallace said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin "is now a man in a cage he built himself",
"President Putin is not the force he used to be. He is now a man in a cage he built himself," the minister stresses.
Russia is a lesser country rather than a greater country as a result of its leader knowingly and deliberately breaking international law by invading, he added.
Putin's disease: New investigation on cancer
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Sky News refers to Russia's investigative website Project Media that published a lengthy report with evidence related to Vladimir Putin's health. This is the issue that the Kremlin keeps secret, the outlet stresses.
The document describes Putin's various disappearances from public view since he came to power. During such "breaks", state television broadcast pre-recorded footage of his rallies and reports on phone calls.
The text covers his longstanding back problems — which have been linked to a fall from a horse he suffered and for which he is said to have undergone surgery.
The investigation also details official records it says show the president has increasingly been surrounded by a large number of doctors. For example, this happened at the end of 2019, when he was accompanied by about 13 reasons to his residence in Sochi. That time he was visited by a group of neurosurgeons.
The report details some of the individual medical specialists who have been documented as having spent time at the Kremlin leader’s residence. They include Yevgeny Selivanov, who was sent to stay with Mr Putin 35 times — for a total of 166 days.
Selivanov is an oncologist, who specializes in thyroid cancer.
While this is among the most treatable forms of cancer, it is an illness the report says the bloodthirsty leader has publicly shown an interest in.
The report goes on to cover his extended period of isolation in September, which appeared to cause confusion among his aides — since which time he has conducted many meetings at the other end of a very long table to his officials, or over video link.
IAEA chief is heading to Chernobyl NPP, and people are evacuated from Mariupol
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The BBC reports that Rafael Mariano Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will head a safety mission to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, after Russian troops were reported to have left the site.
He said it would be the first of several such missions in Ukraine. Grossi stated that Russian troops leaving the area was a step in the right direction, Reuters reports.
The IAEA chief said radiation levels were "quite normal" around the site. At the same time, some Russian troops were still in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl NPP on the morning of April 1, Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom reported.
The outlet also cited representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross as saying that they were already "running out of adjectives to describe the horrors in Mariupol."
The ICRC will act in a neutral intermediary role to lead the convoy out from Mariupol and to another Ukrainian city.
EU leaders warn China about helping Russia
The Guardian reports that EU leaders have called on China to help end the war in Ukraine after what they called a "frank" exchange of views with their Chinese counterparts.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the online meetings with the Chinese leadership, Prime Minister Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping, had taken place in a very sober atmosphere.
Photo: Getty Images
European Council president Charles Michel said:
Photo: Getty Images
Von der Leyen said they had warned Chinese leaders not to help Russia evade western sanctions.
Everyday, she said, China and the European Union traded almost €2bn of goods and services, while Chinese-Russia trade was only €330m euros a day.
Indian leader host Lavrov
Getty Images photo collage
The Guardian also reports that there’s been a strong diplomatic signal of Indian support for Russia today.
In particular, there is news that as well as meeting foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the trip of Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to India has included a meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi.
Modi has pointedly not met with any of the varying other foreign ministers who have visited India in the last couple of weeks while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been progressing.
Suhashini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor of the Indian outlet The Hindu, tweeted about it.
Europe is stockpiling medicines against radiation and chemical incidents
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The Telegraph reports that the European Union is stockpiling medicines and protective gear to protect against any potential chemical, nuclear and biological incidents amid escalations in the Ukraine war.
The hoarding, agreed on April 1 and expected to last weeks or months, is designed to expand reserves available to the EU population and partner countries, including Ukraine.
Supplies will also include decontamination equipment, gloves, masks and other material for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense, officials said.
Concerns about nuclear incidents in Ukraine partly prompted the move, with Vladimir Putin's troops seizing the defunct Chernobyl NPP and the active Zaporizhzhia nuclear site early in the invasion.
France, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, called for a plan to distribute potassium iodide tablets, which are used to protect people exposed to nuclear radiation.
Instead of an afterword. Europe promises Ukraine more weapons, is trying to persuade China if not to impose sanctions on Moscowia, then at least not to help the bloodthirsty state. Also, the civilized world has finally paid more attention to India, which has become too close to the Kremlin in recent weeks. It is not known whether the EU leaders were heard in Beijing and whether they will be heard at all without separate sanctions against the country.
The IAEA’s readiness to check the safety at the Chernobyl NPPt after the Russian invaders have left it and the agreement on evacuating Mariupol residents to safer territories is good news.
The Europeans seem to have been daunted by warnings about the risks of chemical attacks and radiation pollution that could spread to countries other than ours. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been experiencing these threats on a daily basis since the outbreak of the invasion, unable to fully provide medicines and protection to the regions where the hostilities are taking place, as well as to the occupied cities and villages.
At the same time, the investigation into the state of Vladimir Putin's health is interesting — at least his disease could be the beginning of the end of the bloody regime in Russia that would play into the hands of Kyiv. Ukraine has been fighting for its right to exist for 37 days.
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