Closing summary
It is just past 8pm in Kyiv on Orthdox Easter Sunday, and that concludes today’s Ukraine war live blog. Thanks for following along. Here is a summary of the latest developments:
A row is brewing over Poland and Hungary’s decision to ban grain imports from Ukraine to protect their own agricultural sectors. Reuters reports that a European Commission spokesperson said unilateral action on trade by European Union member states was “not acceptable”.
Following Poland and Hungary’s decision, Bulgaria is considering a similar move. Local news agency BTA reported that the agriculture minister, Yavor Gechev, said the country was mulling over a ban on Ukrainian grain imports.
Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are fighting extraordinarily bloody battles in the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut, but pro-Kyiv forces are still holding on, Ukraine’s military has said.
The death toll from a Russian missile strike on the eastern Ukraine city of Sloviansk has risen to 11. A block of flats was badly damaged and rescue crews were continuing on Saturday to try to rescue people trapped underneath rubble.
Russian shelling in Kherson killed two women on Saturday, the Ukrainian president’s office said.
A Russian official has claimed four people were killed and 10 injured in Ukrainian shelling of a town in Russian-controlled Donetsk. Denis Pushilin said a seven-year-old girl was among those wounded in Yasynuvata.
Russia has been using drones to attack Ukrainian police in Kherson, according to the region’s police force. It said a police car was attacked in the Korabel area, injuring two officers and damaging the car, while in Beryslav one officer was injured and cars damaged.
A new international economic support package of $115bn (£93bn) is giving Ukraine more confidence it can prevail against Russian forces amid growing recognition the war could continue for longer than expected, the Ukrainian finance minister said on Saturday. Serhiy Marchenko said Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers assured him during International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week that they would support Ukraine for as long as needed.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Saturday. In two tweets, the Ukrainian president said they had discussed Macron’s recent visit to Beijing to meet China’s president, Xi Jinping.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, will visit Baghdad on Monday, his first trip to Iraq since Russia invaded Ukraine. Kuleba is expected to hold talks with the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and the foreign minister, Fuad Hussein.
YouTube is hosting videos that promote the Wagner group, the Russian private military company accused of war crimes, according to a report by the Sunday Times. Dozens of propaganda clips on the platform glorify the mercenary group, encourage viewers to join it, and even raise money for the paramilitary organisation. A YouTube spokesperson told the Sunday Times: “Content intended to praise, promote, or aid violent extremist or criminal organisations is not allowed on YouTube.”
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called for establishing a group of countries that are not involved in the Russia-Ukraine war in order to broker peace. Lula, who has criticised the role of the US and the European Union in the conflict, spoke of attempting to gather a group of leaders who “prefer to talk about peace rather than war”, citing China’s Xi Jinping and the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, both of whom he met this week.
Thousands of people gathered for a demonstration in Prague on Sunday, calling on the Czech government to resign over the country’s economic woes and its response to the Russia-Ukraine war. Chanting “resign” and “shame”, protesters called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine and urged the Czech Republic to leave Nato.
Updated
Thousands of people gathered for an anti-government demonstration in central Prague on Sunday, calling on the Czech government to resign over the country’s economic woes and its response to the Russia-Ukraine war, AFP reports.
Chanting “resign” and “shame”, protesters called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine and urged the Czech Republic to leave Nato.
The protest was organised by the non-parliamentary political party PRO, according to Reuters. PRO has criticised the centre-right government of the prime minister, Petr Fiala, for its handling of the energy crisis that has hit Europe since Russia’s invasion.
PRO has also accused the government of hurting freedom of speech amid efforts to counter disinformation.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Fiala’s government has supported Kyiv with substantial military and humanitarian aid.
Here’s a selection of images from the rally:
Updated
