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Here’s where things stand in the Ukraine conflict
- The 3am GMT deadline set by Moscow for Ukrainian soldiers in the besieged city of Mariupol to “surrender or die” has passed, with no reports from the Ukrainian or Russian sides if the city has fallen fully to Russian control. On Saturday, the Russian defence ministry said it had cleared urban areas of Ukrainian forces, and the remaining defenders were trapped in a steelworks.
- The Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the situation in Mariupol as “inhuman” and called on the West to prove more arms . “The successes of our military on the battlefield are really significant, historically significant. But they are still not enough to clean our land of the occupiers,” he said.
- Russian forces have renewed missile strikes on Kyiv and intensified shelling of Kharkiv, in an apparent strategy to hobble Ukraine’s defenses ahead of an expected full-scale Russian assault in the east. Explosions were heard in the early hours on Sunday in Kyiv. Russia had warned it would step up its missile bombardment following the sinking of its battleship Moskva.
- Russian air defence units have reportedly brought down a military transport plane carrying Western arms outside Odesa.
- The Ukraine president warned that the world “needs to prepare” for the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons. On Saturday, the mayor of Trostianets, a city in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, claimed that authorities have found the remains of chemical weapons including Sarin in the village of Bilka, which had been occupied by the Russians. The allegation has not been verified.
- Russia’s foreign ministry barred entry to the country for Johnson and other British government politicians and members in response to the government’s “hostile action” including sanctions. The Kremlin said it would expand restrictions against British politicians over what it calls a “wave of anti-Russian hysteria.”
Updated
The mayor of Trostianets, a city in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, has claimed that authorities have found the remains of chemical weapons in the village of Bilka, which had been occupied by the Russians.
Speaking to Ukrainian radio, Mayor Yuriy Bova claimed that they had found evidence of sarin and other poisonous substances.
“We found the remains of chemical weapons in the village of Bilka - sarin and other substances. We discovered ampoules. The Security Service of Ukraine is currently working on this,” he said.
The Guardian could not verify the allegation.
Last week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned that Russia was preparing “a new stage of terror” that could involve the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Some reports that began to circulate last week on social media that a “toxic substance” had been used on the residents of the besieged city of Mariupol, causing respiratory problems, but they could not be corroborated and experts have expressed scepticism at the claims that chemical weapons have been deployed.
Last week, Liz Truss, the British foreign secretary, said the UK was urgently investigating the allegations of chemical weapons while a Pentagon spokesperson said the reports “if true, are deeply concerning”.
Russian forces accelerated scattered attacks on Kyiv and western Ukraine on Saturday despite Moscow’s pivot toward mounting a new offensive in the east, reports Associated Press.
Stung by the loss of its Black Sea flagship and indignant over alleged Ukrainian aggression on Russian territory, Russia’s military command had warned of renewed missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital.
Smoke rose from the capital on early Saturday as Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike that killed one person and wounded several. The mayor advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to return.
“We’re not ruling out further strikes on the capital,” Klitschko said. “If you have the opportunity to stay a little bit longer in the cities where it’s safer, do it.”
It was the second strike in the Kyiv area this week. The Russian missiles hit the city just as residents were emerging for walks, foreign embassies planned to reopen and other tentative signs of the city’s prewar life started resurfacing, following the failure of Russian troops to capture Kyiv and their withdrawal.
A community kitchen set up by World Central Kitchen, which is run by celebrity chef Jose Andres to feed people in disaster zones, was among the buildings hit in the strikes, wounding four of their staff.
An update I hoped I’d never have to make. I’m at a @WCKitchen restaurant in Kharkiv, where less than 24 hours ago I was meeting with their amazing team. Today, a missile stuck. 4 staff were wounded. This is the reality here—cooking is a heroic act of bravery. #ChefsForUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/AyU4fUnA61
— Nate Mook (@natemook) April 16, 2022
Updated
For those catching up on today’s developments, here is what we know so far on day 53 of the invasion
Russian news agency TASS is reporting that Russian air defence units have brought down a military transport plane carrying Western arms outside Odessa.
“Near Odessa Russian anti-aircraft defence forces have shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane, which was delivering a large shipment of arms supplied to Ukraine by Western counties,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov told them on Saturday.
In addition, according to Konashenkov, operational and tactical aviation destroyed 67 areas of concentration of Ukrainian military personnel and hardware in the past 24 hours.
Updated
The mayor of Irpin, on the western edge of Kyiv, says more than 70% of buildings in the town have been damaged or destroyed by Russian forces, according to the Kyiv Independent.
In a Telegram post Oleksandr Markushin said a UN study based on satellite data showed 115 buildings were completely destroyed, 698 were significantly damaged, and 187 were partially damaged.
This is Hannah Ellis-Petersen who will be looking after the live blog for the next few hours
Updated
Bloomberg is reporting that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has travelled to Kyiv in a bid to restart peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
The report, based on unnamed sources, said Abramovich had met with Ukrainian negotiators in an attempt to rescue the flagging talks. Abramovich, who has close links to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has been acting as an unofficial mediator between Moscow and Kiev.
Putin has said in recent days that the talks were at a “dead end”, while Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier today that talks would be terminated if Russia followed through on its threat to eliminate the defenders of the besieged city of Mariupol.
When the war began, tens of thousands of Russians fled their home country. Fuelled by rumours of forced mobilisation and border closures, the unusual exodus was led by highly educated workers, often travelling to smaller countries.
But as the war enters its third month with no end in sight, the hurried decisions that many Russians made to flee have hit the hard realities of emigration abroad. While many Russians have left for ever, others have been drawn back to care for ailing parents, manage businesses, keep their families together or simply to make ends meet.
Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer have this report on the dilemma facing many Russians living abroad.
The EU’s forthcoming sixth round of sanctions on Russia will target oil and banks, in particular Sberbank, Reuters reports.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that the planned sanctions would include Russia’s largest bank, which has already been targeted by the US and UK for sanctions.
“We are looking further at the banking sector, especially Sberbank, which accounts for 37% of the Russian banking sector. And, of course, there are energy issues,” she said.
The EU has so far spared Sberbank because it, along with Gazprombank, is one of the main channels for payments for Russian oil and gas, which EU countries have been buying despite the conflict in Ukraine.
She also said that the EU was working on “clever mechanisms” so that oil could also be included in the next sanctions. “The top priority is to shrink Putin’s revenues,” she said.
Zelenskiy says peace talks at stake as Mariupol deadline approachs
As Moscow’s 03:00 (GMT) deadline for the remaining Ukrainian troops in Mariupol to surrender approaches, AFP reports that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said already faltering peace talks will be scrapped if Russia follows through on its threat to eliminate the defenders.
The elimination of our troops, of our men (in Mariupol) will put an end to any negotiations. We don’t negotiate neither our territories nor our people.
Updated
This is Michael Coulter taking up the blog for the next few hours. In the latest from the war in Ukraine, Russia is claiming that it is on the verge of taking complete control of the besieged city of Mariupol and has ordered the remaining defenders to surrender or die.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said troops were still holding out: “The situation is very difficult. Our soldiers are blocked, the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian crisis ... Nevertheless, the guys are defending themselves.”
Summary
Here’s where things stand in the Ukraine conflict as the live blog is handed over to my colleagues in Australia. Thanks for joining me this afternoon and this evening.
- Russia has resumed scattered missile attacks on Kyiv and western cities in Ukraine, with some civilian deaths reported in Kharkiv and in the capital. Russia had warned it would step up its missile bombardment following the sinking of its battleship Moskva.
- The port city of Mariupol appears close to falling into Russia’s control after a fierce battle for the city. The Russian defence ministry says it has cleared urban areas of Ukraine forces, and issued a ‘surrender or die’ ultimatum to remaining defenders it says are trapped in a steelworks.
- The Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ceded the situation in Mariupol remains “extremely severe” but has not acknowledged the city could fall. “The successes of our military on the battlefield are really significant, historically significant. But they are still not enough to clean our land of the occupiers,” he said.
- Zelenskiy spoke on Saturday afternoon with the British prime minister Boris Johnson, who praised the “bravery” of Ukraine’s defenders and promised to “continue to provide the means for Ukraine to defend itself.”
- The Ukraine president warned that the world “needs to prepare” for the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons. He told journalists in Kyiv “we shouldn’t wait for the moment” Russia used chemical or nuclear weapons. “[They] can use any weapon, I’m convinced of it,” he said.
- Russia’s foreign ministry barred entry to the country for Johnson and other British government politicians and members in response to the government’s “hostile action” including sanctions. The Kremlin said it would expand restrictions against British politicians over what it calls a “wave of anti-Russian hysteria.”
- The number of people evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors dropped significantly on Saturday from the day before. A total of 1,449 people were evacuated, fewer than the 2,864 who escaped on Friday.
- Pope Francis has condemned “the darkness and cruelty of war” in an Easter Saturday homily at the Vatican. Francis said his prayers were with four Ukraine politicians in the gathering, including the mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, and “for all those suffering.”
Russia orders Mariupol defenders to 'surrender or die'
Russia’s defence ministry has issued an ultimatum to Ukrainian forces still fighting in the besieged city of Mariupol to lay down their arms starting at 6am Moscow time (03:00 GMT) Sunday, the country’s Tass news agency said, reported by Reuters.
Russia claimed earlier that all urban areas in the city had been cleared of Ukraine forces, and that only a pocket of fighters, both Ukrainian and foreign, were blockaded in the Azovstal steel works. The lives of those who surrendered would be spared, the ministry said.
Tass quoted Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, director of the Russian national centre for defence management, as saying the situation in the plant was “catastrophic”.
Earlier Saturday, the Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy conceded the situation in Mariupol “remained extremely severe” but he did not address Russia’s claims to have cleared troops from the entire urban area.
The city has seen some of the worst fighting of the war, which has intensified since Russian forces withdrew from around the capital Kyiv and joined the offensive in the east of Ukraine
Updated
Prince Harry praised the courage of the Ukraine team at an opening ceremony for the Invictus Games in the Netherlands, where the Ukrainian competitors also received a standing ovation, AFP reports:
Your bravery and choosing to come and of being here tonight cannot be overstated.
You know we stand with you. The world is united with you and still you deserve more.
Harry was joined in The Hague by his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, who said “Glory to Ukraine,” in the country’s native language.
Ukraine was determined to send a team to the games, which were twice postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the Russian invasion. Its team of 19 was missing one participant, a paramedic, Yuliia Paievska, who is “in danger of death now” a team spokesperson said, because she was trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Harry, who founded the games for disabled military veterans after serving in the British army, said the Ukraine team had told him of their wish to attend “despite all odds... not simply to show your strength, but to tell your truth. The truth of what is happening in your country.”
Hello everybody and welcome to The Hague.... finally!
— Invictus Games Foundation 💛🖤+💜 (@WeAreInvictus) April 16, 2022
Listen to the Duke of Sussex' full speech from the Opening Ceremony of the @InvictusGamesNL The Hague 2020.
So, Invictus, are you ready? #IG22 pic.twitter.com/Bib2VXQ1E0
Let’s take a quick look at a few of the day’s more uplifting images from the Ukraine conflict. This one is a holiday celebration:
And this is compassion:
A musical interlude in Odesa:
And a moment’s rest for a young Ukrainian refugee at concert in the Netherlands:
And at a protest in London, suitcases represent the plight of the Ukrainian refugees:
Updated
Zelenskiy says world 'needs to prepare' over Russian nuclear threat
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is warning again that the world “needs to prepare” for the possibility of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin ordering the use of nuclear weapons in his country, according to AFP.
Speaking with Ukrainian journalists in Kyiv on Saturday, Zelenskiy said:
We shouldn’t wait for the moment when Russia decides to use nuclear weapons. We must prepare for that. [They] can use any weapon, I’m convinced of it.
Zelenskiy said anti-radiation medicine and air raid shelters would be needed.
The Ukraine leader had warned on Friday, in an interview that will air on CNN tomorrow morning, that he believes Putin would not hesitate to turn to tactical nuclear weapons if he felt things were going badly:
We should think not be afraid, not be afraid, but be ready. But that is not a question for Ukraine, not only for Ukraine, but for all the world, I think.
On Thursday, the CIA director William Burns said that Russia’s poor military performance raised the risk that Putin could deploy a nuclear weapon. He made his remarks in an address at Georgia Tech, reported by The Hill:
Given the potential desperation of Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.
Moscow has said it would use a nuclear weapon on Ukraine in the case of an “existential threat” against Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN in a recent interview.
Joe Biden, the US president, is “deeply concerned” about an escalation of the conflict to a point where nuclear weapons become possible, Burns said.
Updated
Summary
It’s just after 11pm on Saturday in Kyiv, and here’s a quick catch-up of where things stand:
- Boris Johnson and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke by phone to discuss the deteriorating situation in Mariupol. The port city has seen an onslaught from the Russian military, which says Ukraine fighters have been “cleared” from urban areas.
- Pope Francis has condemned “the darkness and cruelty of war” in an Easter Saturday homily at the Vatican. Francis said his prayers were with four Ukraine politicians in the gathering, including the mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, and “for all those suffering.”
- The Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer said the Russian president Vladimir Putin was living “in his own world” in an interview to air on US television Sunday. Nehammer, the first western leader to meet with Putin since the Ukraine conflict began, said he thinks Russia’s president “believes he is winning the war.”
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Russia’s foreign ministry barred entry to the country for Johnson and other British government politicians and members. The move was in response to the government’s “hostile action” including sanctions against senior Russian officials, the ministry said in a statement.
- The Kremlin will expand restrictions against British politicians over what it calls a “wave of anti-Russian hysteria”. Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng, Nadine Dorries, James Heappey, Nicola Sturgeon, Suella Braverman and Theresa May have been named alongside Boris Johnson.
- Following Russia’s decision to bar Johnson and other British government politicians and members from entering the country, the UK government said: “We remain resolute in our support for Ukraine”.
- Russia targeted a Ukrainian missile factory following the sinking of its Black Sea flagship. The Vizar factory, near Kyiv’s international airport, produced Neptune cruise missiles, at least one of which Ukraine says were used to sink the Moskva warship.
- A key adviser to the Ukrainian president took to Twitter to express frustrations at the progress of the weapons transfer from the European Union. Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine hasn’t received “the ones we asked for” and they “take too long to arrive”.
- One person has been killed and several left fighting for their lives after missile strikes hit Kyiv earlier today. On Telegram, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that air defences were trying to protect people, but the “enemy is ruthless”.
- The number of people evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors dropped significantly on Saturday from the day before. A total of 1,449 people were evacuated, fewer than the 2,864 who escaped on Friday. Five of Saturday’s nine humanitarian corridors were from the east, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling.
Pope condemns 'darkness and cruelty of war' in Easter address
Pope Francis spoke of the “horrors, darkness and cruelty of war” as he was joined by the mayor of the Ukraine city of Melitopol and three Ukraininan lawmakers at an Easter Saturday homily in St Peter’s Basilica, the Associated Press reports.
The pontiff invoked “gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war” during his address, and noted that while “many writers have evoked the beautify of starlit nights, the nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death.”
Directly addressing the Melitipol mayor Ivan Federov and Ukrainian lawmakers Maria Mezentseva, Olena Khomenko and Rustem Umerov, he said:
In this darkness of war, in the cruelty, we are all praying for you and with you this night. We are praying for all the suffering. We can only give you our company, our prayer
Francis did not refer directly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has called for an Easter truce in order to reach a negotiated peace.
On Easter Sunday, he will celebrate mass in the late morning in St Peter’s Square and later give a speech from the basilica balcony.
Updated
A superyacht owned by the sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska appears to have reached the sanctuary of Turkish waters, apparently eliminating the risk of its seizure by western nations seeking to punish allies of Vladimir Putin.
According to Reuters, the 73m (240ft) Clio arrived in a bay near the southwestern Turkish resort of Gocek on Saturday.
Deripaska, founder of Russian aluminium giant Rusal, has been sanctioned by the US, EU and the UK, despite speaking out against the war in Ukraine.
The vessel arrived off the coast of of the Aegean coastal province of Mugla on Saturday, Reuters said, and the Cayman Islands-flagged vessel remains at anchor in a bay off Gocek.
Photograph: Yoruk Isik/Reuters
Turkey, which relies heavily on Russian energy imports and tourists, has emerged as a safe haven for Russians fleeing sanctions.
Two superyachts linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the former Chelsea FC owner who made a surprise appearance at Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Istanbul this month, previously docked in Turkish ports.
Oligarchs tied to the Putin regime have become understandably anxious about protecting their assets in the face of aggressive western sanctions.
On Thursday, German federal police said they had seized the world’s largest superyacht, the £458m ($600m) Dilbar, in Hamburg after determining it was owned by the sister of the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
Austrian chancellor Nehammer: ‘Putin believes he is winning the war’
Vladimir Putin “believes he is winning the war” in Ukraine, the Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer has said, in an interview to be aired in the US on Sunday.
Nehammer on Monday became the first western leader to meet with the Russian president since the conflict began in February, claiming he told Putin in their Moscow meeting that he was “losing the war morally” and “all those responsible” for war crimes must be brought to justice.
In excerpts from Nehammer’s interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, which will be broadcast in full on Sunday morning, the Austrian leader said he believed Putin was living “in his own world”.
I think he is now in his own war logic, you know? He thinks the war is necessary for security guarantees for the Russian Federation. He doesn’t trust the international community. He blames Ukrainians for genocides in the Donbas region. So while he is now in his own world, I think he knows what is going on now in Ukraine.
[But] I think he believes he is winning the war.
Zehammer was asked by Meet the Press host Chuck Todd about Putin’s reaction to the war crime allegations.
He told me that he will cooperate with an international investigation, on one hand, and on the other hand, he told me that he doesn’t trust the western world. So this will be the problem now in the future.
I think international trust [in] the United Nations, an international investigation, is necessary. So it was a tough discussion between each other. But I tried to convince him that, for example, the former Yugoslavian war showed us that international investigation is useful to prosecute the war criminals.
You can see excerpts of Zehammer’s NBC interview here.
And read more about his trip to Moscow to see Putin here:
Russia is claiming that all urban areas of Mariupol, the besieged port city that has been subjected to some of the fiercest aggression of the war so far, have been cleared of Ukrainian forces, Reuters reports.
In a bulletin issued Saturday evening, the Russia defence ministry said its forces had also blockaded a few fighters in the Azovstal steelworks.
Defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a statement that as of today, Ukrainian forces in Mariupol had lost more than 4,000 fighters, and another 1,464 had surrendered.
The entire urban area of Mariupol has been completely cleared. Remnants of the Ukrainian group are currently completely blockaded on the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant.
Their only chance to save their lives is to voluntarily lay down their arms and surrender.
There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the statement.
Moscow said the total number of what it called “irretrievable losses” suffered by Ukraine totaled 23,367 people but did not provide any evidence and did not say whether this included only those who had died or who had also been injured.
The Ukraine president Voldymyr Zelenskiy has said his country’s total military losses since the conflict began in February total “up to 3,000 troops.” There is no way to independently verify the competing claims.
Read more here:
The number of people evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors dropped significantly on Saturday from the day before, Reuters reported.
On Saturday, a total of 1,449 people were evacuated, fewer than the 2,864 who escaped on Friday, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said in an online post, according to the news agency.
Ukraine briefly closed the humanitarian corridors in midweek, fearing Russian attacks on fleeing civilians.
Johnson and Zelenskiy discuss situation in Mariupol
Boris Johnson, who has been banned from entering Russia, spoke with the Ukraine president Volydymyr Zelenskiy by phone on Saturday afternoon, and heard an update about the Russian onslaught on Mariupol, the Press Association is reporting.
According to a Downing Street spokesperson:
The prime minister paid tribute to the bravery of Ukrainian forces who continue to valiantly defend their country’s freedom.
President Zelenskiy updated the prime minister on the situation in Mariupol, and the prime minister said he saluted Ukrainian resistance in the city.
The pair discussed the need for a long-term security solution for Ukraine, and the prime minister said he would continue to work closely with allies and partners to ensure Ukraine could defend its sovereignty in the weeks and months to come.
The prime minister updated President Zelenskiy on new sanctions from the UK that came into force last week, and said the UK would continue to provide the means for Ukraine to defend itself, including armoured vehicles in the coming days.
The prime minister said international support for Ukraine only grew stronger and that he remained convinced Ukraine would succeed and Putin would fail.
The Kremlin said earlier it will expand restrictions against British politicians over what it calls a “wave of anti-Russian hysteria”.
Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng, Nadine Dorries, James Heappey, Nicola Sturgeon, Suella Braverman and Theresa May have been named alongside Johnson, Liz Truss and Ben Wallace on the list of politicians banned from entering Russia.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement:
This list will be expanded shortly by including more of British politicians and members of the parliament in it, who keep inflaming the anti-Russian hysteria, push the collective west towards the use of the language of threats with Moscow and are engaged in a dishonest encouragement of Kyiv’s Neo-Nazist regime.
Read more here:
Updated
This is Richard Luscombe in the US taking over the blog for the next few hours. My Guardian colleague Pjotr Sauer has just tweeted these first video images from the Russian defence ministry that it says shows rescued members of the Moskva crew in the Crimean Black Sea port of Sevastopol.
First footage of the rescued Moskva crew in Sevastopol. No information yet regarding casualties pic.twitter.com/OSSOVHHNg2
— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) April 16, 2022
Russia’s Black Sea flagship missile cruiser sank on Friday while being towed to port after an explosion caused by an unexplained fire, the Russian defence ministry has said, after Ukraine said it had hit the ship with a missile or missiles.
Here’s a reminder of the warship’s fate:
• This post was amended on 17 April 2022 to add more detail about the source of the footage.
Updated
The head of the Russian navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, has met with crew members from the sunken missile cruiser Moskva and said they would continue to serve in the navy, Tass news agency said.
Russia said on Thursday the Moskva had sunk after an ammunition explosion.
Ukraine said it hit the vessel, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, with a missile.
As Russia’s war nears its third month with no end in sight, the hurried decisions that many Russians made to flee have hit the hard realities of emigration abroad, particularly at a time of closed borders and banking sanctions. While many Russians have left for ever, others have been drawn back to care for ailing parents, manage businesses, keep their families together or simply to make ends meet.
A 102-year-old man who raised thousands of pounds for Covid-19 relief during the pandemic has held a minute’s silence at his home alongside refugees from Ukraine.
Dabirul Islam Choudhury, who was awarded an OBE for raising 420,000 after Captain Sir Tom Moore inspired him to walk laps of his garden in Bow, east London while fasting for Ramadan, welcomed Ukrainian refugees to his home on Saturday.
Choudhury, who is fasting again, led 102 seconds of silence in the garden to support Ukrainian refugees and raise money for the charitable initiative Ramadan Family Commitment.
People from countries all over the world, including Bangladesh, Canada, India, Pakistan and Turkey tuned in to the live stream to take part in the event.
Choudhury and members of his community then spoke to refugees about the war in Ukraine in the garden.
In the besieged port of Mariupol, Russian troops pressed their advances, hoping to make up for their failure to capture Kyiv by seizing their first big prize of the war, Reuters reports.
“The situation is very difficult” in Mariupol, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Ukrainska Pravda news portal.
“Our soldiers are blocked, the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian crisis...Nevertheless, the guys are defending themselves.”
A group of local musicians who formed a street orchestra to boost spirits in Ukraine performed for passers-by in Dnipro.
Responding to Saturday’s announcement by the Russian foreign ministry, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Putin is a war criminal and I will not shy away from condemning him and his regime.
“Scotland is determined to take the strongest possible action to isolate and penalise his regime, and do everything possible to support the people of Ukraine.
We must make sure that those on the side of freedom and democracy work together to ensure Putin’s regime, and his network of oligarchs, are as isolated as possible.
“International condemnation - not just in words but in actions - against Russia must be as strong as possible.
“It falls to every leader to choose a side in this unprovoked aggression. I am clear that I stand with Ukraine and against Putin. And Scotland is clear - we all stand with Ukraine.”
Updated
Catch up
- Russia’s foreign ministry barred entry to the country for Boris Johnson and other British government politicians and members. The move was in response to the government’s “hostile action” including sanctions against senior Russian officials, the ministry said in a statement.
- The Kremlin will expand restrictions against British politicians over what it calls a “wave of anti-Russian hysteria”. Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng, Nadine Dorries, James Heappey, Nicola Sturgeon, Suella Braverman and Theresa May have been named alongside Boris Johnson.
- Following Russia’s decision to bar Boris Johnson and other British government politicians and members from entering the country, the UK government said: “We remain resolute in our support for Ukraine”.
- Russia targeted a Ukrainian missile factory following the sinking of its Black Sea flagship. The Vizar factory, near Kyiv’s international airport, produced Neptune cruise missiles, at least one of which Ukraine says were used to sink the Moskva warship.
- A key adviser to the Ukrainian president took to Twitter to express frustrations at the progress of the weapons transfer from the European Union. Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine hasn’t received “the ones we asked for” and they “take too long to arrive”.
- One person has been killed and several left fighting for their lives after missile strikes hit Kyiv earlier today. On Telegram, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that air defences were trying to protect people, but the “enemy is ruthless”.
- The battle for Mariupol is ongoing. If Moscow captures Mariupol, a city home to 400,000 people before the invasion, it would be the first big city to fall.
- Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Saturday, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, announced. Five of the nine evacuation corridors were from the east, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling.
I’ll now hand over the blog to my colleague Nadeem Badshah.
Another 40,000 people have fled Ukraine in 24 hours, AFP reports.
UNHCR’s representative in Ukraine, Karolina Lindholm Billing, said many of the nearly 5 million people who have fled Ukraine will not have homes to return to because they are damaged, destroyed or located in unsafe areas:
Housing is one of the areas of greatest concern. Although hundreds of thousands of people are now staying in temporary reception centres or with hosting families who have generously opened their homes ... longer term solutions need to be found.”
According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, 4,836,445 million Ukrainians have left the country since the Russian invasion on 24 February.
Updated
The Vatican’s decision to have the cross carried by Ukrainian and Russian families together during Good Friday’s Way of the Cross service has been called “inopportune and ambiguous’’ by Ukraine.
Two families, one Russian and one Ukrainian, were entrusted by Pope Francis with bearing the cross during the procession at Rome’s Colosseum, which represents the one Jesus carried up to Calvary.
The candlelight service, which takes place on the day marking Jesus’s crucifixion, two days before his resurrection on Easter Sunday, consists of the 14 Stations of the Cross, stages between the condemnation of Jesus to death and his burial. Normally, those who carry the cross from one station to the next reflect world events.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of Ukraine’s Byzantine-rite Catholic church, called their inclusion inopportune and ambiguous because it did not “take into account the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine”.
The original text of the meditation the two women had written spoke of death, loss of values, rage, resignation, and reconciliation despite bombings, Reuters has reported.
Shevchuk said the text, which had been approved by the Vatican, was:
Incoherent and even offensive, especially in the context of the expected second, even bloodier attack of Russian troops on our cities and villages.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, also expressed his unease and tweeted:
Ukraine embassy to Holy See understands and shares general concern in Ukraine and many other communities about idea to bring together Ukrainian and Russian women to carry Cross during Friday’s CrossRoad at Colosseum. Now we are working on the issue trying to explain difficulties of its realisation and possible consequences.
Francis has condemned the Ukraine war and according to Ansa, a visit by the pope to Kyiv has been discussed, if it can help achieve peace after the Russian invasion.
Updated
The parliament of Ukraine issued a warning on Saturday afternoon, saying Russia plans to launch a new deep fake with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
On Twitter, they said in a fictitious statement the president will allegedly express “his negative attitudes” towards Ukrainian cities.
❗️ WARNING
— Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - Ukrainian Parliament (@ua_parliament) April 16, 2022
Russia plans to launch a new deepfake with President @ZelenskyyUa.
In a fictitious statement, the president will allegedly express "his negative attitude towards Ukrainian cities, in particular to #Mariupol," according to the Center for Information Security.#StopPutin
Updated
The head of Ukraine’s negotiating team, and key adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has expressed frustration at the progress of the weapons transfer from the European Union.
Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter that after asking Europe for weapons, Ukraine hasn’t received “the ones we asked for” and they “take too long to arrive”.
1. Ukraine asks Europe for weapons.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) April 16, 2022
2. Europeans support the call for their governments.
3. 🇪🇺 gives 🇺🇦 weapons, not the ones we asked for.
4. Weapons take too long to arrive
Democracy won’t win from playing this game. 🇺🇦 needs weapons. Not in a month. Now.
Updated
'We remain resolute in our support for Ukraine', says UK government after entry ban
Following Russia’s decision to bar Boris Johnson and other British government politicians and members from entering the country, a UK government spokesperson has told the Guardian:
The UK and our international partners stand united in condemning the Russian government’s reprehensible actions in Ukraine and calling for the Kremlin to stop the war. We remain resolute in our support for Ukraine.”
Russia’s foreign ministry said the decision was made “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the UK government”.
Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng, Nadine Dorries, James Heappey, Nicola Sturgeon, Suella Braverman and Theresa May have also been banned.
Read more here:
Updated
Mayor of Kyiv warns residents who have left that it is not safe to return.
Earlier, we reported that Russia damaged a Ukrainian missile factory which produced Neptune cruise missiles, at least one of which Ukraine says were used to sink the Moskva warship.
The attack was widely regarded by both parties as the most significant revenge strike by the Kremlin after the sinking of Russia’s flagship vessel in the Black Sea, The Guardian’s Lorenzo Tondo writes.
On Saturday, after the attack on an armoured vehicle plant in the Ukrainian capital, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, warned residents that the time was not right to return:
Once again, I appeal to everyone: please do not ignore the air alarms. And those Kyivites who left earlier and are already going to return to the capital, I ask you to refrain from this and stay in safer places.”
Read more here:
How Zelenskiy’s team of TV writers helps his victory message hit home:
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s fortunes have been mixed. On the information front, however, Ukraine has offered a masterclass in message.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s speeches to his people, and his addresses to foreign parliaments around the world, have galvanised international support and shored up morale at home.
The writer of them is a 38-year-old former journalist and political analyst with fewer than 200 followers on Twitter. In an interview conducted via WhatsApp, Dmyro Lytvyn told the Observer the ideas behind the speeches were Zelenskiy’s:
The president always knows what he wants to say, and how he wants to say it. In the speeches, emotions are most important. And of course the president is author of emotions and the logic of the words.”
Lytvyn is part of the president’s inner team. He and his colleagues have been living and working at Bankova – Ukraine’s equivalent of the White House or Downing Street – since the first days of the invasion.
Read more from the Guardian’s Luke Harding here:
Updated
The west should absorb higher costs of living to help wean Germany off Russian oil, a former British army commander has said.
Gen Sir Nick Parker called on the public to “reprioritise”, saying they “would have to take more pain” in order to inflict adequate economic punishment on Russia for invading Ukraine, in an interview with the Telegraph.
His comments are unlikely to be well received by British citizens living amid a cost of living crisis that sees many pushed below the poverty line and forced to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children.
Updated
Ukraine’s richest man has pledged to rebuild the besieged city of Mariupol.
Rinat Akhmetov has seen his business empire shattered by eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
However, he remains confident that Ukraine’s “brave soldiers” will defend the Sea of Azov city, which has been reduced to a wasteland after seven weeks of bombardment from Russian troops.
His company Metinvest, Ukraine’s biggest steelmaker, has since announced it cannot deliver its supply contracts. He also owns private financial and industrial company the SCM Group, and private power producer DTEK, in the country.
“Mariupol is a global tragedy and a global example of heroism. For me, Mariupol has been and will always be a Ukrainian city,” Akhmetov told Reuters.
“I believe that our brave soldiers will defend the city, though I understand how difficult and hard it is for them.”
According to Forbes magazine, Akhmetov’s net worth in 2013 reached $15.4bn. It currently stands at $3.9bn.
He said: “For us, the war broke out in 2014. We lost all of our assets both in Crimea and in the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas. We lost our businesses, but it made us tougher and stronger.
“I am confident that, as the country’s biggest private business, SCM will play a key role in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine,” he added.
Updated
One person has been killed and several left fighting for their lives after missile strikes hit Kyiv earlier today.
In an update on Telegram, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that air defences were trying to protect people, but the “enemy is ruthless”.
Russian generals, he said, had previously threatened the attack on the capital.
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Kremlin criticises 'anti-Russian hysteria' in UK
The Kremlin will expand restrictions against British politicians over what it calls a “wave of anti-Russian hysteria”.
Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng, Nadine Dorries, James Heappey, Nicola Sturgeon, Suella Braverman and Theresa May have been named alongside Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Ben Wallace on the list of politicians banned from entering Russia.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement:
This list will be expanded shortly by including more of British politicians and members of the parliament in it, who keep inflaming the anti-Russian hysteria, push the collective west towards the use of the language of threats with Moscow and are engaged in a dishonest encouragement of Kyiv’s Neo-Nazist regime.”
Read more here:
This is Jenn Selby taking over from my colleague Geneva Abdul for an hour.
Updated
The former cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has criticised the scheme to resettle refugees from Ukraine as “overly bureaucratic”, after he is thought to have become the first MP to welcome a Ukrainian family to Britain.
He described the process by which Maria, 40, and her two children, Bohdan, 15, and Khrystyna, 11, had got to the UK as “traumatic”. The children’s father has stayed in Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion, as is the law there.
Speaking on the Daily Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics podcast, he said:
Truth be told, it has been a bumpy start to the scheme. It’s taken too long to get visas, for us it took about three weeks to get all three visas approved.”
By Monday, about 16,400 people had arrived in the UK under Ukraine visa schemes, according to government figures, with 13,200 arriving under the Ukraine family scheme, and 3,200 under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Read more here:
Jonathan Freeland wrote for us on Friday on how British support for Ukraine would mean more without Boris Johnson:
In his rhetoric, Johnson stands with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But in his actions he declares his kinship with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and the others. He writes life-and-death laws which he then breaks, flagrantly and repeatedly. Next, he lies about his lawbreaking to parliament – the same parliament, remember, that he illegally suspended as one of his first acts in power.
None of this is in the past. This week, perhaps in an attempt to divert attention away from the Partygate scandal, he announced plans to ship those seeking asylum – including those ultimately found to have a just and fair claim to refuge – to faraway Rwanda, a dictatorship with a record on human rights so bad the UK government raised concerns just last year. It’s likely that the new policy is against the law, “a breach of the right to life, the right not to be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment and the right to be tried before conviction”, according to one legal scholar. But that did not hold Johnson back. On the contrary, he would like nothing more than a court battle, so he can pose as the people’s tribune, once again frustrated by those he pre-emptively referred to in his Rwanda announcement as “an army of politically motivated lawyers”.
The pattern is clear: contempt for the law, contempt for those tasked with upholding it. Johnson’s defenders say he must stay in office because of Ukraine. In fact, the war for that country, and the wider struggle it has come to represent, make it all the more urgent that he go.
Read more here: Jonathan Freeland – Johnson to stay because of Ukraine? Nonsense. The war makes it more urgent that he go
Today so far
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
- Russia’s foreign ministry barred entry to the country for Boris Johnson and other British government politicians and members. The move was in response to the government’s “hostile action” including sanctions against senior Russian officials, Reuters reports the ministry said in a statement.
- The Moscow Times’ Russian language service has been blocked in Russia over war coverage. The block came on Friday, after it published “what authorities call a false report on riot police officers refusing to fight in Ukraine,” the newspaper said.
- The battle for Mariupol is ongoing. If Moscow captures Mariupol, a city home to 400,000 people before the invasion, it would be the first big city to fall.
- Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Saturday, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, announced. Five of the nine evacuation corridors were from the east, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling.
- At least two Ukrainians were killed overnight in Russian airstrikes on cities in the east of the country. Officials reported fatalities in Poltava, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk, local media reported.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, and about 10,000 injured in the conflict. This compared to an estimate 19,000-20,000 Russian soldiers killed, he told CNN in an interview.
Updated
Boris Johnson barred from entering Russia, says the country's foreign ministry
Russia’s foreign ministry has barred entry to the country for Boris Johnson, foreign secretary Liz Truss, defence secretary Ben Wallace, and 10 other British government politicians and members, Reuters reports.
The move was taken “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials”, Reuters reports the ministry said in a statement.
Russia’s statement added it would expand the list soon.
Updated
The Moscow Times’ Russian language service has been blocked in Russia over war coverage, the newspaper says.
The English language service is still up and running with links to the Russian service, the newspaper’s founder Derk Sauer said on Twitter.
The block came on Friday, after it published “what authorities call a false report on riot police officers refusing to fight in Ukraine”, according to the newspaper. The newspaper said the Moscow Times Russia remains accessible abroad and while using a VPN.
Founded in 1992, the Moscow Times is Russia’s only independent English-language newspaper.
Russian Moscow Times service blocked within Russia. Our English language @MoscowTimes still up and running with link to Russian service. https://t.co/5EJNKmtHeD
— Derksauer (@derksauer) April 16, 2022
Updated
Production buildings of armoured vehicle plant have been destroyed in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, says Russia’s defence ministry.
A military repair facility was also destroyed in the city of Mykolaiv, reports the Interfax news agency, quoting Russia’s defence ministry.
Russia says the strikes were carried out by high-precision long-range weapons. Russia also downed one Ukrainian SU-25 aircraft near Kharkiv Oblast, in eastern Ukraine, Interfax reports.
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Here is a selection of some of the latest images that have been sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine and beyond.
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Russia targets Ukrainian missile factory following the sinking of its Black Sea flagship.
The Vizar factory, near Kyiv’s international airport, was reported seriously damaged Friday, AFP reports.
Ukraine’s state weapons manufacturer says the plant produced Neptune cruise missiles, at least one of which Ukraine says were used to sink the Moskva warship.
Russia said it had used sea-based long-range missiles to hit the plant.
Andrei Sizov, the 47-year-old owner of a nearby wood workshop, told AFP:
There were five hits. My employee was in the office and got thrown off his feet by the blast. They are making us pay for destroying the Moskva.
Read more here on the sinking of the Moskva:
Updated
Stay or go?
The question was a difficult one for Ukrainian officials in occupied areas, when deciding whether to follow President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s lead after he made the decision to remain in Kyiv as Russia invaded.
Many local mayors and other officials remained in place, sometimes with deadly consequences, while others decided to flee.
In a few cases, mayors have expressed willingness to work with the Russians, and may face treason charges if Ukraine regains control over their towns.
In Melitopol, one of a string of cities in Ukraine’s south occupied by Russian troops without major battles in the first part of the invasion, the mayor, Ivan Fedorov, remained in place but refused to cooperate with the Russian military.
Eventually he was marched out of his temporary office with a bag on his head, held for six days and questioned by Russian security services, before being released as part of a prisoner exchange.
During occupation the main thing is to preserve life, and the people most in danger are the heads of the city. If the city is occupied, what should the mayor do, what should the team do? There was no single algorithm. Nobody gave us any orders. Everyone acted as they felt right.”
You can read more here:
Battle ongoing for Mariupol
Home to 400,000 people before Russia’s invasion, Mariupol has been reduced to rubble. Thousands of civilians have died and tens of thousands remain trapped.
Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said in a briefing that the Russians had not completely captured it but added:
The situation in Mariupol is difficult and hard. Fighting is happening right now. The Russian army is constantly calling on additional units to storm the city.”
If Moscow captures Mariupol, it would be the first big city to fall.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had captured the city’s Illich steelworks, but that report could not be confirmed. Ukrainian defenders are mainly believed to be holding out in Azovstal, another huge steelworks.
Both plants are owned by Metinvest – the empire of Ukraine’s richest businessman and backbone of Ukraine’s industrial east – which told Reuters on Friday it would never let its enterprises operate under Russian occupation.
You can read more here:
Hello, this is Geneva Abdul to take you through the next few hours of developments. Here’s the latest:
Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Saturday, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, has announced.
Reuters reports evacuation plans include civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol by private cars. Five of the nine evacuation corridors were from the east, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling.
Updated
The latest developments
- At least two Ukrainians were killed overnight in Russian airstrikes on cities in the east of the country. Officials reported fatalities in Poltava, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk, local media reported.
- Rescuers and medics are also on the scene of an airstrike on the outskirts of Kyiv. The city’s mayor said casualties were so far unknown. He urged people to heed air sirens.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, and about 10,000 injured in the conflict. This compared to an estimate 19,000-20,000 Russian soldiers killed, he told CNN in an interview.
- The captain of the Russian warship Moskva was killed during the attack that sank it, Ukraine claimed. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, said Anton Kuprin died during an explosion and fire onboard the ship.
- Ukraine is now bracing for revenge attacks for its hand in sinking the Moskva.
- US media has reported senior defence officials confirming the Russian warship, Moskva, was destroyed by Ukrainian missile strike.
- Western intelligence corroborates Ukraine’s account that two of its missiles sunk the warship, though Russia has provided an alternative explanation. Russian strikes targeted the factory near Kyiv where the Ukrainian missiles used to sink the flagship are made.
- Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal and top finance officials will visit Washington next week, according to reports. The delegation, also including finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko, are expected to have bilateral meetings with finance officials from Group of Seven countries and others, and would take part in a World Bank-hosted roundtable on the Ukraine conflict on Thursday.
- The German government says it plans to release more than a billion euros in military aid for Ukraine.
- More than 900 civilian bodies have been discovered in the region surrounding Kyiv after the withdrawal of Russian forces, local police said. Almost all of them were shot dead, indicating execution during the Russian occupation, it was claimed. Their number was far greater than previously thought. In Kharkiv, officials also said that 10 people, including baby were killed and 35 wounded following Russian air strikes.
- Zelenskiy, recently made a direct appeal to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, for Washington to designate Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism. The Washington Post first reported the news. It would be a rare and radical sanction. But Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.
- In his latest address, Zelenskiy once again pushed for more weapons, and more sanctions – so the war could end sooner. Zelenskiy also spoke about a return to “normal life” in some parts of the country – or efforts to regain normality amid the tragedy. In parts of Ukraine, Zelenskiy noted that four-fifths of Ukranian enterprises have returned to work in safe areas.
- Sweden and Finland said they were deliberating Nato membership. Tytti Tuppurainen, Finland’s minister for European affairs, said: “The people of Finland seem to have already made up their mind”. She added the decision was “highly likely” but “not made yet” pending discussions in parliament.
I’ll now hand over the blog to my colleague Geneva Abdul.
You can read our latest wrap here.
Updated
Information is slowly coming in about the overnight air strikes, with reports of two deaths and four people injured so far.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai says at least one person was killed and three wounded in the overnight strikes there.
“Evacuate, while it is still possible,” Gaidai said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding that busses were ready for those willing to be evacuated from the region.
He also said a gas pipeline was damaged in Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, which was without gas and water.
In an overnight attack on a small village near Poltava, the capital of the central Ukraine Poltava region, at least one person died and one was injured, according to the region’s governor, Dmytro Lunin.
Updated
Eastern Ukraine casualties, strikes on Kyiv reported
There are initial reports of casualties from Russian shelling in the east of the country, and potential casualties in the capital city, Kyiv. It follows local media reports of explosions in Lviv and Kyiv early on Saturday morning.
Local media has reported casualties in Poltava, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk due to Russian shelling, according to the Kyiv Independent. Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai said one person was killed, three wounded, and a gas pipeline had burst due to Russian shelling overnight in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
It said UNIAN news agency, citing Poltava Oblast Governor Dmytro Lunin, had reported that one fatality due to shelling in the region.
The Guardian has not independently verified the reports.
Kyiv has also come under fire, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a few minute ago on his official Telegram channel.
“The explosions took place in Darnytskyi district on the outskirts of the city. Rescuers and medics are currently working on the site. Data on the victims are being clarified.
Once again, I appeal to everyone: please do not ignore the air alarms! And those Kyivites who left earlier and are already going to return to the capital, I ask you to refrain from this and stay in safer places.”
Air raid sirens are also again sounding in various cities and regions, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kryvyi Rih and Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk.
Updated
Ukraine’s armed forces has released its latest update on operations and developments over the last day, and intelligence on Russian activity.
“The main efforts of the enemy are focused on the regrouping and strengthening of troops, continuing the partial blockade of the city of Kharkiv and its shelling with artillery,” it said.
The report, shared on official Telegram channels, said Ukrainian forces had repelled 10 Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk territories in the last 24 hours, destroying three tanks, an armoured personnel carrier, two cars and three artillery systems. It said one Russian armoured personnel carrier was also captured.
It warned of an increased threat of missile strikes on Ukrainian defence and logistical infrastructure from Russian warships in the Black Sea armed with missiles.
“In the waters of the Sea of Azov, the enemy’s naval group continues to carry out tasks to block the port of Mariupol and provide fire support in the coastal direction,” it said.
The Armed Forces briefing reported “no significant changes” in the situation at Severodonetsk, where yesterday the head of its Civil Military Administration Oleksandr Striuk had reported heavy fire and the destruction of about 70% of the city. Only around 20,000 residents of the total 135,000 remain in the city, he said.
According to the Armed Forces statement Russian activity has been most concentrated in the direction of Slobozhansky and Donetsk. The briefing reported continued fighting in Slobozhansky, including Russian ground troops, airborne troops, and coastal troops of the Baltic and Northern fleets.
Russian forces were attempting to take control of the Luhansk settlements of Popasna - where the report said Ukrainian forces had been under constant fire, and Rubizhne, as well as to establish full control over Mariupol, it said. There was continued shelling “in most directions”.
Up to 22 battalions were at Izyum city, it said, noting the deployment of additional units. Izyum, a city on the Donetsk river and gateway to the Donbas, was the site of heavy fighting during the invasion, and the briefing flagged the possibility of intensified fighting in Izyum and in Barvinkove as Russian troops pushed towards Slovyansk. It also warned of intensified hostilities in Avdiivka, about 130km north of Mariupol.
“The enemy is expected to continue fighting to reach the administrative borders of Kherson region and will try to resume the offensive,” it said.
Explosions have been heard in the capital, Kyiv and the western city of Lviv, in the early hours of Saturday, local media has reported.
Air raid sirens had been sounding across cities covering the breadth of the country in the pre-dawn hours. Alarms rang out in Kyiv, as well as in Rivne, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy, Donetsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Poltava and Mykolaiv, according to official Ukrainian Telegram channels.
There has been no official confirmation of the explosions.
Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal and top finance officials will visit Washington next week, according to report by Reuters and the AP, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.
The delegation, also including finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko, will be there at the same time as the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Reuters said.
Shmyhal, Marchenko and Shevchenko are expected to have bilateral meetings with finance officials from Group of Seven countries and others, the report said, and would take part in a World Bank-hosted roundtable on the Ukraine conflict on Thursday.
The event will be the first chance for key Ukrainian officials to meet in person with a host of financial officials from advanced economies since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Thursday’s meeting will be more of a roundtable than a donors conference, although both the IMF and World Bank have set up separate accounts to be able to process and relay donations, and additional pledges are expected to be announced next week.
It will give officials a chance to discuss the physical devastation and economic consequences of the war, as well as the continued functioning of Ukraine’s banking and financial sector.
“Without support now, there will be no reconstruction in the future,” one of the sources said.
The World Bank had no immediate comment on the event.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, and about 10,000 injured in the conflict. This compared to an estimate 19,000-20,000 Russian soldiers killed, he told CNN in an interview.
- US media has reported senior defence officials confirming the Russian warship, Moskva, was destroyed by Ukrainian missile strike.
- The captain of the Russian warship Moskva was killed during the attack that sank it, Ukraine claimed. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, said Anton Kuprin died during an explosion and fire onboard the ship.
- Ukraine is now bracing for revenge attacks for its hand in sinking the Moskva. Western intelligence corroborates Ukraine’s account that two of its missiles sunk the warship, though Russia has provided an alternative explanation. Russian strikes targeted the factory near Kyiv where the Ukrainian missiles used to sink the flagship are made.
- Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal and top finance officials will visit Washington next week, according to reports. The delegation, also including finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko, are expected to have bilateral meetings with finance officials from Group of Seven countries and others, and would take part in a World Bank-hosted roundtable on the Ukraine conflict on Thursday.
- The German government says it plans to release more than a billion euros in military aid for Ukraine.
- More than 900 civilian bodies have been discovered in the region surrounding Kyiv after the withdrawal of Russian forces, local police said. Almost all of them were shot dead, indicating execution during the Russian occupation, it was claimed. Their number was far greater than previously thought. In Kharkiv, officials also said that 10 people, including baby were killed and 35 wounded following Russian air strikes.
- Zelenskiy, recently made a direct appeal to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, for Washington to designate Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism. The Washington Post first reported the news. It would be a rare and radical sanction. But Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.
- In his latest address, Zelenskiy once again pushed for more weapons, and more sanctions – so the war could end sooner. Zelenskiy also spoke about a return to “normal life” in some parts of the country – or efforts to regain normality amid the tragedy. In parts of Ukraine, Zelenskiy noted that four-fifths of Ukranian enterprises have returned to work in safe areas.
- Sweden and Finland said they were deliberating Nato membership. Tytti Tuppurainen, Finland’s minister for European affairs, said: “The people of Finland seem to have already made up their mind”. She added the decision was “highly likely” but “not made yet” pending discussions in parliament.
- Outgunned, outnumbered and surrounded by Russian forces, one of Europe’s biggest metallurgical plants has become Mariupol’s redoubt. The factory is “an enormous space” in which the Russians “simply can’t find” Ukrainian forces, Oleh Zhdanov – a military analyst based in Kyiv – told Reuters.
- Russia threatened to intensify its attacks on Kyiv if Ukrainian forces carry out any operations on Russian territory. A spokesperson for Moscow’s defence ministry said: “The number and scale of missile strikes against targets in Kyiv will increase in response to the Kyiv nationalist regime committing any attacks of a terrorist nature or sabotage on Russian territory.”
- Russia designated journalist and Youtuber Yury Dud and political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann as “foreign agents” today, a continuation of Russia’s crackdown on those critical of the Russian government within the country. Dud and Schulmann have both been publicly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
