Ukraine live briefing: Approval of Russia drops in virtually every part of the world, Gallup says

Approval of Russia’s global leadership abilities plummeted from 33 percent to 21 percent since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to “Rating World Leaders,” a report published Tuesday by Gallup, which conducted surveys in 137 countries. “Approval of Russia dropped in virtually every region of the world,” the surveys found.

Key developments

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States and its allies of bringing the world to a “dangerous threshold.” In a speech at the U.N. Security Council in New York on Monday, Lavrov said the United States and the “collective West” are undermining global multilateralism by imposing their own rules on the rest of the world, and he criticized their support for Ukraine. At the same forum, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Russia’s war is inflicting massive devastation on Ukraine.
• Paul Whelan’s sister demanded that the Kremlin free her brother. Speaking with the support of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, Elizabeth Whelan, the detained American’s sister, said her brother has been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia since 2018 for “a crime he did not commit.” Paul Whelan, a former Marine, has been “held as a pawn and victim of Russia’s descent into lawlessness,” she added. Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich were detained in Russia on espionage charges. U.S. officials have repeatedly disputed the accusations.
• If Russia wins and Ukraine falls, Central Europe “may well be next,” wrote the leaders of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In a letter published in Foreign Affairs, they appealed to the United States and other allies to continue support for Ukraine. Defeating Russia in Ukraine will reduce the chances that the United States and its allies have “to spill their own blood and further treasure later,” they added.

Battlefield updates

• A Russian missile attack in Kharkiv killed a museum employee, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The strike on a history museum wounded at least 10 others, he said Tuesday. “There are still people under the rubble,” he said in a Telegram post. He accused Moscow of “doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”
• Russia’s daily casualty count dropped in April, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update Tuesday. Russia’s average daily casualty rate has fallen by about 30 percent after “exceptionally heavy” casualties from January to March, it said. “Russia’s losses have highly likely reduced as their attempted winter offensive has failed to achieve its objectives, and Russian forces are now focused on preparing for anticipated Ukrainian offensive operations,” it added.

Global impact

• China’s Foreign Ministry said it respects the sovereignty of former Soviet states. The statement came after China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, said on France’s LCI news channel last week that former members of the Soviet Union “don’t have actual status in international law because there is no international agreement to confirm their sovereign status.” European lawmakers urged France’s foreign minister to declare the Chinese ambassador persona non grata over his remarks. In an open letter published by Le Monde, the signatories called the comments a threat to the security of France’s European partners. China and Russia are close allies.
• Pope Francis traveled to Hungary, with the Ukraine conflict on the agenda. The pontiff will leave Rome on Friday for a three-day trip to Ukraine’s western neighbor, where he is expected to address the war as well as migration and humanitarian issues in meetings with the country’s Catholic faithful and nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “It [also] will be a trip to the center of Europe, which continues to be battered by frigid winds of war, while the movement of so many people has put urgent humanitarian issues on the agenda,” he said ahead of the visit. Hungary, an E.U. member state, supports a sovereign Ukraine but has strong economic ties to Moscow and has refused to send weapons to Kyiv.
• Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary invasion is a war of aggression and conquest, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Lavrov and other Security Council members Monday. “One-hundred-forty-one U.N. member states have made it abundantly clear: Russia’s full-scale invasion was not about ‘self-defense,’” she said, referring to the countries that have denounced Russia’s aggression. “Russia simply wants to redraw international borders by force.”

From our correspondents