What did 13 April 2022 reveal about Kyiv's allies and Moscow's threats?
A look back at a day of Baltic and Polish solidarity in Kyiv, a new US arms package and sharpened Russian warnings.
What did the political picture look like on 13 April 2022, seven weeks into Russia's full-scale invasion? Three strands converged: visible European solidarity in Kyiv, a larger flow of Western weapons, and Russian warnings aimed at both Ukraine's leadership and its suppliers.
Solidarity in the capital
On 13 April 2022, the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (Andrzej Duda, Gitanas Nausėda, Egils Levits and Alar Karis) were reported to have arrived in Kyiv and met Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A day earlier, on 12 April, they had been reported at the Mariinsky Palace, in a visit meant to send a strong signal of shared European solidarity with Ukraine and to discuss continued political and military support. The leaders also visited sites of alleged war crimes in nearby Borodianka.
The trip carried a diplomatic subtext. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had also proposed travelling with the Polish and Baltic presidents, but Kyiv considered that visit unwelcome. This was believed to be because of his close ties with Russia in earlier political posts.
Weapons and the risk calculus
The same day, the United States announced a further $800m (€740m) in weapons, ammunition and other security assistance for Ukraine. The package included 11 Mi-17 helicopters, 18 155mm howitzers, 300 more Switchblade drones and radar systems able to track incoming fire and pinpoint its source. Some Biden administration officials had judged such help too risky in terms of escalation only a few weeks earlier, so the package marked a shift in what Washington was prepared to send.
The need was visible on the battlefield. On 11 April, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, described intense fighting and bombardment throughout the day in besieged Mariupol. President Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that the siege could be lifted with proper military weaponry. He had also said the city was completely destroyed, with a death toll in the tens of thousands. On 12 April, a five-hour battle in the Polohy district of the Zaporizhzhia region ended with Russian reinforcements forcing back local territorial defence units that had taken part of the area, according to a regional military administration spokesman, Colonel Ivan Arefiev.
Moscow's warnings
Russia's response on 13 April was blunt. Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said US and NATO vehicles carrying weapons on Ukrainian territory were legal military targets. Separately, Russia's defence ministry said it would begin to target Ukrainian decision-makers, including Zelenskyy, and command centres in Kyiv if Ukrainian forces continued to attack Russian territory. Taken together, the statements addressed both the supply of arms and the leadership in the capital, on the same day the aid package was announced and foreign presidents were in Kyiv.
The language of genocide
The rhetoric around the war had also shifted. On 12 April, US President Joe Biden used the word genocide for the first time to describe events in Ukraine, speaking at an event in Iowa. Zelenskyy called the gesture the true words of a true leader; he had first used the word himself on 3 April about the massacre in Bucha. On 13 April, Colombian President Iván Duque, replying in an interview to Biden's description, said that what was happening in Ukraine was genocide and must stop, calling it madness. The report added that this came after Colombia raised energy production to help meet Western demand once all supplies from Russia were cut off.
Domestic front
On 12 April, Zelenskyy reported on Telegram that Viktor Medvedchuk, described as a key pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and oligarch, had been detained in a Security Service of Ukraine special operation. Zelenskyy said he planned to use Medvedchuk in a future exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
What the day showed
The events of 12 and 13 April show a war being fought on several levels at once: on the ground in Mariupol and Polohy, in the arms deliveries that Ukraine's president said were needed, and in the diplomatic choreography of who visited Kyiv and who was kept away. Allied support became more visible and more substantial, and Russia answered with explicit threats against Ukraine's leaders and against foreign weapons shipments.
