???? Live: Ukraine’s war-ravaged economy shrank almost 30% in 2022

Issued on: 13/04/2023 – 09:47

9:15am: Russian father of girl who drew anti-war pictures ‘extradited’ from Belarus

Alexei Moskalyov, a Russian man who was jailed for “discrediting the Russian army” after his daughter Masha drew anti-war pictures at school has been extradited from Belarus to Russia, state-owned news agency RIA reported, citing a Belarusian official.

9:05am: Ukraine’s GDP fell 29.1% in 2022

Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 29.1% in 2022 as Russia’s full-scale invasion battered the economy, the state statistics service has said.

Russia’s invasion has killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions, damaged heavy industry, the power grid and the agriculture sector, and resulted in the loss of swathes of land in the south and east. Ukraine now has only highly restricted access to the Black Sea ports that are vital for grain and metals exports, the mainstays of Ukraine’s export-led economy.

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The economy ministry said earlier this year that exports had fallen 35% in 2022 from the year before, and that physical volumes were down 38.4%. Ukraine’s grain crop fell to 53 million tonnes in 2022 from a record 86 million tonnes in 2021 due to the invasion.

Another key part of economy, the metals sector, reduced steel production by almost 71% after several leading plants were destroyed or occupied.

6:30am: US, Ukraine say many war secrets safe from intel leaks

Ukraine’s leaders say they don’t see a major US intelligence leak as gravely damaging future offensives. A key reason: They have long held back on sharing their most sensitive operational information, doubting Washington’s ability to keep their secrets safe.

Ukrainian and US officials said this week that only Ukrainians know some battle plans and other operational information, not the Americans, their most important ally. That means the leak of secret military documents, including some assessing Ukraine’s battlefield strengths and weaknesses against Russia, may not have been enough – so far – to change the course of the war.

“If military operations are planned, then only a very narrow circle of people know about the planning of the special operation,” Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Wednesday on Ukrainian television. “The risk of leaks is very minimal” for the most important war matters.

Meanwhile, Russia is making clear that it is avidly studying each spilled secret. “Quite interesting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the leaks.

3:15am: Leaker of US intelligence is gun enthusiast in his 20s, says Washington Post

The person who leaked US classified documents prompting a national security investigation is a gun enthusiast in his 20s who worked on a military base, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing fellow members of an online chat group.

The person shared classified information to a group on the instant messaging platform Discord of about two dozen men and young boys who shared a “mutual love of guns, military gear and God”, the Post said.

The Post based its report, which did not name the person, on interviews with two members of the Discord chat group. Discord said in a statement earlier on Wednesday that it was cooperating with law enforcement.

• Key developments from Wednesday, April 13:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denounced Russian “beasts” after a video surfaced on social media purporting to show the decapitation of a Ukrainian prisoner of war.

The grisly footage, which prompted outrage and condemnation from UN and EU officials, came as Washington reaffirmed its confidence in Ukraine’s military “capability” after a leaked trove of highly sensitive documents appeared online. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military rejected as untrue a Russian claim to have captured more than 80% of the eastern battleground city of Bakhmut, claiming that Kyiv’s forces controlled “considerably” more than a fifth of the war-ravaged city.

>> Read our live blog for all of yesterday’s developments as they unfolded

 (FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)