4. UK to send Stormer armoured vehicles to Ukraine

Britain will send Stormer armoured vehicles fitted with anti-aircraft missile launchers to Ukraine, Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, announced on Monday.

“I can now announce to the House that we will be gifting a small number of armoured vehicles fitted with launchers for those anti-air missiles,” he told MPs in the House of Commons.

Mr Wallace added that British assessments showed around 15,000 Russian personnel had been killed in the conflict while 2,000 armoured vehicles including some 530 tanks had been destroyed, along with 60 helicopters and fighter jets.

5. Russia expels 40 German diplomatic staff in tit-for-tat move

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday that it had declared 40 German diplomatic staff “personae non-gratae” in a retaliatory move after Berlin expelled the same number of Russian diplomats.

In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said it had taken the decision after Germany on April 4 declared a “significant number” of officials at the Russian embassy in Berlin “undesirable”.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the expelled Russians had never actually done any diplomacy during their time in Germany, but rather “systematically worked against our freedom and the cohesion of our society.”

The expelled German diplomats by contrast had worked hard on bilateral relations despite difficult circumstances, she said in a statement, adding that the news had been expected.

“Russia is therefore harming itself with today’s expulsions” she said.