Russia Ukraine News Highlights | Ukraine’s foreign minister is describing the situation in Mariupol as dire and heartbreaking and says Russia’s continued attacks there could be a “red line” that ends all efforts to reach peace through negotiation.
Dmytro Kuleba tells CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the remaining Ukrainian military personnel and civilians in the port city are basically encircled by Russian forces.
He says the Ukrainians “continue their struggle” but that the city effectively doesn’t exist anymore because of massive destruction.
Kuleba says his country has been keeping up “expert level” talks with Russia in recent weeks in hopes of reaching a political solution for peace. But citing the significance of Mariupol, he echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in saying the elimination of Ukrainian forces there could be a “red line” that stops peace efforts.
This live blog session has ended. Stay tuned to MoneyControl for more updates.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates |
Ukraine hoping for EU candidate status in weeks: Zelensky
Ukraine is hoping to receive within weeks candidate country status for joining the European Union, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday as he met with the EU's envoy to Ukraine in Kyiv.
Zelensky handed the envoy, Matti Maasikas, two volumes in response to a membership questionnaire brought by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Ukraine this month.
"We believe that we will receive support for this work, become a candidate for admission, and then the next final stage will begin," Zelensky told Maasikas, according to a video of the meeting on social media.
"We really believe that this procedure will take place in the coming weeks," he said, adding that "our people ... mentally have been in Europe for a long time".
Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said that Ukraine was hoping to receive candidate status following a summit of EU leaders in June.
"Next, accession negotiations should begin, which should take place under an accelerated procedure.
"Ukraine will be in the EU," he wrote.
Ukraine has ramped up its bid to join the European Union since Russian forces invaded on February 24. (AFP)
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates |
EU slams 'indiscriminate' Russia bombing of Ukraine civilians: AFP
The European Union on Monday condemned the "indiscriminate" bombing of civilians by Russian forces in Ukraine, after deadly strikes hit the western city of Lviv.
"The EU condemns the continued indiscriminate and illegal shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure by Russian armed forces," said a statement by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
He noted "particularly heavy attacks" in the east and south of Ukraine and the ongoing offensive against the country's second city, Kharkiv.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates |
Putin honours brigade accused by Ukraine of 'war crimes':AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday bestowed an honorary title on a brigade accused by Ukraine of "war crimes" and mass killings in the town of Bucha.
The announcement was made on the 54th day of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, with thousands killed and 12 million people fleeing their homes or country in the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
A decree signed by Putin gave the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the title of "Guards" for defending the "Motherland and state interests" and praised the "mass heroism and valour, tenacity and courage" of its members.
In early April, the Ukrainian defence ministry said the unit occupied the town outside the capital Kyiv and committed "war crimes".
The Ukrainian defence ministry's Intelligence Directorate published the names, ranks and passports details of members of the brigade, saying they will face justice.
A majority of people in Bucha died from gunshot wounds, Ukrainian police said last week.
After the departure of Russian troops, bodies of men dressed in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied, were found scattered in the streets, according to AFP.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | World Bank says war to cut global growth, boosts financing target
The World Bank is reducing its global growth forecast for 2022 by nearly a full percentage point, to 3.2percent from 4.1 percent, due to the impacts from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, World Bank President DavidMalpasssaid on Monday.Malpasstold reporters on a conference call that the World Bank was responding to the added economic stresses from the war by proposing a new, 15-month crisis financing target of $170 billion, with a goal to commit about $50 billion of this financing over the next three months.Malpasssaid the biggest component of the bank's growth forecast reduction was a 4.1percent contraction in the Europe and Central Asia region -- comprising Ukraine, Russia and surrounding countries.Forecasts also are being cut for advanced and many developing economies because of spikes in food and energy prices caused by war-related supply disruptions,Malpasssaid
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine says first civilians killed in Lviv, fighters cling on in Mariupol
Ukrainian authorities said a Russian missile attack killed seven people in Lviv on Monday, the first civilian victims in the western city, while its forces were preventing Russia from taking full control of the port city of Mariupol in the east where the situation was "extremely difficult". Lviv governor Maksym Kozytskyy said preliminary reports suggested four hits on Lviv, which is just 60 km (40 miles) from the Polish border -- three strikes on warehouses that are not currently being used by the military, and another on a car service station. "It was a barbaric strike at a service station, it's a completely civilian facility," he told a news conference. Andriy Sadoviy, mayor of Lviv, said the youngest victim among the seven killed was aged 30. The blast also wounded 11 and shattered windows of a hotel housing Ukrainians evacuated from elsewhere in the country, he added. "Seven peaceful people had plans for life, but today their life stopped," the mayor said. Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists. It rejects what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities and says Ukraine has staged them to undermine peace talks. Western capitals and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russian forces capture Kreminna in east Ukraine: Kyiv
Russian troops on Monday captured the east Ukraine town ofKreminna, local authorities said, asKyiv'sarmed forces launched salvos on Russian forces in the nearby settlement ofRubizhne."There was a major attack in the night" from Sunday to Monday inKreminna, the Lugansk regional governorSergiyGaidaysaid in a statement on social media."The Russian army has already entered there, with a huge amount of military hardware ... Our defenders have retreated to new positions," he added.Kreminna, with a pre-war population of nearly 20,000 people is around 50kilometres(31 miles) northeast of Kramatorsk, the region's administrativecentre, and is a strategic target for invading Russian forces.Rubizhne, which is under control from Russian forces, was under intense fire from Ukrainian artillery and mortars, AFP journalists reported.Powerful explosions could be seen inRubizhne, sometimes followed by fires and plumes of white or black smoke.Russian forces have stepped up their offensive to capture the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine having pulled back troops deployed around the capitalKyivat the beginning of the invasion in late February.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Serbia accuses Ukraine and unnamed EU country of Air Serbia bomb hoaxes
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused Ukraine and an unidentified EU country of being behind a series of hoax bomb threats against Air Serbia planes. Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February, more than a dozen Air Serbia flights have been forced to return to Belgrade or Moscow due to bomb threats, and Belgrade's airport was evacuated at least three times. "Foreign (intelligence) services of two countries are doing that. One is an EU country, and Ukraine is the another one," Vucic said late on Sunday, without providing evidence. In a statement, Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, dismissed Vucic's remarks as "baseless" and "untrue". He also said Ukraine was disappointed with Serbia's refusal to join EU sanctions against Russia. "We call on Belgrade to stand up for the truth and fully join in support of Ukraine and in upholding the values on which united democratic Europe is founded," it said. Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas and oil. It refuses to impose sanctions against the Kremlin and it maintains regular flights to Moscow. "We are continuing these flights literally out of principle, because we want to show that we are a free country and we make our own decisions," Vucic said. "Do not decide for us when to cancel flights."
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Vladimir Putin discusses Russia-Ukraine talks, Middle East with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Monday. They also talked about "the problems of the Middle East settlement in the context of escalating tensions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem", the Kremlin said. Last Friday, at least 152 Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli riot police inside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the latest outbreak in an upsurge of violence that has raised fears of a slide back to wider conflict.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Italy reopens embassy in Kyiv
Italy on Monday reopened its embassy in Kyiv, becoming the latest country to return diplomats to the Ukrainian capital after Russian troops withdrew from the region.Italy had moved its diplomats to the western city of Lviv after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.But after Russia withdrew its forces from around the capital and northern Ukraine, ahead of an expected assault on the east of the country, diplomatic missions have been trickling back to the city.Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday that Madrid would reopen its embassy in the "coming days" after staff were relocated to Poland.Turkey has moved its embassy in Ukraine back to Kyiv after relocating it to Chernivtsi near the Romanian border.France announced last week that its embassy would return to Kyiv from the western city of Lviv.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia hits targets across Ukraine, fighters cling on in Mariupol
Russia said on Monday it had hit hundreds of military targets in Ukraine overnight, destroying command posts with air-launched missiles, while authorities in the western city of Lviv, which had escaped heavy bombardment, said a missile attack killed seven. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement it had destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv, in the south and east of the country. It added that the Russian air force had launched strikes against 108 areas where Ukrainian forces were concentrated and Russian artillery struck 315 Ukrainian military targets overnight. Driven back by Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive in the two eastern provinces known as the Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at other targets, including the capital, Kyiv. It is now trying to take full control of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks and which would be a huge strategic prize, linking territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014. Ukrainian authorities said missiles struck military facilities and a car tyre service point in Lviv, which is just 60 km (40 miles) from the Polish border.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | More than 4.9 million Ukrainians flee war: UN
More than 4.9 million Ukrainians have fled their country following the Russian invasion, the UN said Monday as it warned of the risks of women and child refugees being exploited.UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, said 4,934,415 Ukrainians had left the country since Russia invaded on February 24 -- a figure up 65,396 on Sunday's total.The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) says nearly 215,000 third-country nationals -- largely students and migrant workers -- have also escaped toneighbouringcountries, meaning more than five million people in all have fled Ukraine since the war began.It is one of the fastest-growing displacement and humanitarian crises ever.Women and children account for 90 percent of those who escaped, with men aged 18 to 60 eligible for military call-up and unable to leave.Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have been forced from their homes, including those still inside the country."Refugees from Ukraine, the vast majority women and children, face increased risks of sexual exploitation, abuse and human trafficking,"UNHCRsaid.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine-related price jolts threaten Cuba's already tepid recovery
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is making Cuba's three-year-old foreign exchange crisis worse as import costs jump, undermining an incipient recovery and threatening more hardship for residents, according to economic experts and businessmen.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine shows video of detained Putin ally calling for prisoner swap
Ukrainian security services on Monday published a video showing ViktorMedvedchuk, a detained pro-Russia Ukrainian tycoon and politician, calling to be exchanged for Ukrainian forces fighting in the besieged port city of Mariupol."I want to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President VladimirZelenskyto exchange me for Ukrainian defenders and residents of Mariupol," he said in the video, wearing black clothes and looking directly into the camera.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine says 'powerful' Russian strikes kill 7 in Lviv
A series of "powerful" Russian strikes on military infrastructure in Lviv on Monday left several dead and ignited blazes in the west Ukraine city that has been spared fierce fighting.A resident of Lviv told AFP they could see thick plumes of grey smoke rising above residential buildings and air raid sirens sounded throughout the city during and after the strikes."At the moment, we are able to confirm that seven people have died. We also know that 11 people are injured. A child is among them," the Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said in an update on the strikes on social media."Three victims are in critical condition," he added.He said that four Russian missiles, which initially were reported to have claimed six lives, had targeted Ukrainian military infrastructure and that a car tyre centre had also been struck."The facilities were severely damaged," Kozytsky said in an initial post, adding later that unused warehouses had been struck.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Kremlin says Ukraine is not consistent when it comes to peace talks
The Kremlin on Monday accused Ukraine of constantly changing its stance when it comes to issues that have already been agreed at peace talks. "Contacts continue at an expert level within the framework of the negotiation process", Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "Unfortunately the Ukrainian side is not consistent in terms of the points that have been agreed", he said. "It is often changing its position and the trend of the negotiating process leaves much to be desired." Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called "a special military operation." Ukrainian forces have mounted fierce resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Air strikes hit western Ukraine as Russia forces mass in the east
Air strikes killed at least six people in Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Monday, as Russia pounded targets across the country while massing forces for an expected all-out assault in the east. The "powerful" air strikes in the west came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of wanting to "destroy" the entire eastern region of Donbas near the border with Russia. During its latest briefing, Russia's defence ministry said it had hit over a dozen military targets with air strikes at various locations across Ukraine. Following the attack on Lviv, black smoke billowed from the gutted roof of a car repair shop above the railway tracks in the northwest of the city as air raid sirens wailed."Fires were set off as a result of the strikes. They are still being put out. The facilities were severely damaged," the Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said on social media. In the south, Russia continued its push to capture the besieged city of Mariupol where the last remaining Ukranian forces in the strategic port prepared for a final stand.Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the strategic port city, defying a Russian ultimatum issued Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender.Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on February 24."The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said."There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end," he told ABC's "This Week"."We will not surrender."
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Air strikes hit western Ukraine as Russia forces mass in the east
Air strikes killed at least six people in Ukraine's western city of Lviv on Monday, as Russia pounded targets across the country while massing forces for an expected all-out assault in the east. The "powerful" air strikes in the west came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of wanting to "destroy" the entire eastern region of Donbas near the border with Russia.During its latest briefing, Russia's defence ministry said it had hit over a dozen military targets with air strikes at various locations across Ukraine.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | 200,000 risk losing jobs in Moscow over sanctions: Mayor
Around 200,000 employees of foreign companies in Moscow could lose their jobs due to sanctions over Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, the city's mayor said on Monday."According to our estimates, about 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a blog post.He said authorities had last week approved a $41-million programme to support employment in the Russian capital."First of all, the programme is aimed at employees of foreign companies that have temporarily suspended their operations or decided to leave Russia," Sobyanin said.Hundreds of mainly Western companies have announced the suspension of their activities or their departure from Russia after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.Sobyanin said the newly approved programme was expected to support more than 58,000 people who have lost their jobs. Around 12,500 of them will undergo retraining, he added.People in between jobs will be offered to get involved in public works in a number of city organisations, parks and elsewhere, Sobyanin added.Economists believe that the worst economic impact of debilitating Western sanctions is still to come and expect Russia to plunge into a deep recession.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Spain to reopen embassy in Kyiv, says PM
Spain will reopen its embassy in Kyiv "shortly," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, the latest country to return its diplomats to the Ukrainian capital after the withdrawal of Russian forces.The country's diplomatic delegation was evacuated from the Ukrainian capital to Poland shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24."We will reopen the Spanish embassy in Kyiv in Ukraine shortly, in the coming days, as another show of the commitment of the Spanish government, of Spanish society, with the people of Ukraine," Sanchez said during an interview with private television Antena 3.Spain is providing support to Ukraine through military equipment, humanitarian aid and by welcoming Ukrainian refugees.Turkey has moved its embassy in Ukraine back to Kyiv after relocating it to Chernivtsi near the Romanian border.France announced last week that its embassy would return to Kyiv from the western city of Lviv.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia says it launched mass strikes on Ukrainian military overnight
Russia said on Monday it had launched mass strikes overnight on the Ukrainian military and associated military targets, using its air force, missile forces, artillery and air defence systems to hit hundreds of targets across its southern neighbour. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that air-launched missiles had destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including five command posts, a fuel depot and three ammunition warehouses, as well as Ukrainian armour and forces. It said those strikes took place in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the port of Mykolayiv, and that the Russian air force had launched strikes against 108 areas where it said Ukrainian forces and armour were concentrated. In other areas, the defence ministry spoke of destroying 12 Ukrainian strike drones and tanks and of using Iskander missiles to destroy four arms and equipment depots in the Luhansk, Vinnytsia and Donetsk regions. Russia, which sent troops into Ukraine on February24, has pledged to continue what it calls "a special military operation" to degrade the Ukrainian military and root out people it calls dangerous nationalists, until it has met all its objectives.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Kyiv halts evacuations for second day over Russian shelling
Ukraine said Monday it was halting for a second consecutive day the evacuation of civilians from frontline town and cities in the east of the country, accusing Russian forces of blocking and shelling escape routes."Unfortunately, today, April 18, there will be no humanitarian corridors. In violation of international humanitarian law, the Russian occupiers have not stopped blocking and shelling humanitarian routes," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | UK: Mariupol resistance hinders Russian plans
Britain’s defense ministry says the continuing siege of Mariupol is tying up Russian forces and slowing its advance ahead of a planned major offensive in eastern Ukraine. In a daily intelligence update, Britain’s military says “concerted Ukrainian resistance has severely tested Russian forces and diverted men and materiel, slowing Russia’s advance elsewhere.”
The Sea of Azov port city has been devastated in weeks of Russian pummeling. Britain says “large areas of infrastructure have been destroyed” and there are “significant” civilian casualties. Britain accuses Russia of using similar tactics of all-out war on civilian areas that it deployed in Chechnya and Syria, despite Russian claims at the start of its invasion “that Russia would neither strike cities nor threaten the Ukrainian population.”
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | At least 6 killed, 8 injured in Russian strikes on Lviv: governor
Russian strikes on the western Ukraine city of Lviv on Monday left at least six people dead and eight more injured, the regional governor said, in a rare fatal attack on the city near the border with Poland. "At the moment we are able to confirm that six are dead and eight injured. A child was among the victims," the Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said on social media
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Troops inflict 'deliberate terror': Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond. “Torture chambers are built there,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. “They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities.”
Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine. In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said.
“This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians,” he said. He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine “will begin in the near future.” Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. “Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies,” Zelenskyy said. “All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions.”
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine-returned students seek govt help for admission in Indian medical colleges
The students who were evacuated from war-torn Ukraine and their parents gathered atJantarMantarhere on Sunday and sought the government’s intervention to ensure they are accommodated in Indian colleges.The students held placards that read: “Help all IndianMBBSstudents of Ukraine” and “Save the career of Indian students”.Thousands of students from India studying in various medical colleges in Ukraine had to abandon their courses and return home after Russian forces launched an offensive against the country.
Last month, aPILwas filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions on the issue of admission and continuation of studies in the country of Indian medical students who were evacuated from Ukraine.The plea also sought directions to the Centre to provide a medical subject equivalency orientationprogrammefor admitting them in the Indian curriculum.
The Indian Medical Association has also recommended to Prime MinisterNarendraModithat such students should be accommodated in Indian medical colleges as a one-time measure.In a letter to PMModion March 4, theIMAhad said that such students should be permitted to go to Indian medical colleges for the remainder of theirMBBScourses through an “appropriate disbursed distribution”, but it should not be seen as an increase in the annual intake capacity.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Explosions rock Ukraine, bodies line streets of Mariupol
Authorities reported multiple explosions in western and southern Ukraine on Monday as Russian forces claimed near full control of the strategic southern port city of Mariupol following almost two months of bloody fighting. After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv.
In the regions of Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, authorities reported multiple explosions early on Monday. According to media outlet Suspilne, two people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk attacks. Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy said there had been five missile strikes on the city. It was unclear if there were any casualties there. In Kyiv, a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts on the left bank of the Dnipro river. Local authorities were yet to provide any official information on their cause.
Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. "This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians," he said late on Sunday. Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities as staged to undermine peace talks. It calls its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia says ammunition factory near Kyiv destroyed by missile strike
Russian armed forces destroyed an ammunition factory near Kyiv, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday. "Overnight, high-precision air-launched missiles destroyed an ammunition factory near the town of Brovary in Kyiv region," Konashenkov said.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Lviv mayor says 5 missiles struck city
Multiple explosions believed to be caused by missiles have struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, according to witnesses there. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine has been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country, and is considered to be a relatively safe haven. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Facebook that five missiles struck the city and that emergency services were responding to the blasts.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Syrian fighters ready to join next phase of Ukraine war
During a visit to Syria in 2017, Vladimir Putin lavished praise on a Syrian general whose division played an instrumental role in defeating insurgents in the country’s long-running civil war. The Russian president told him his cooperation with Russian troops “will lead to great successes in the future.” Now members of Brig. Gen. Suheil al-Hassan’s division are among hundreds of Russian-trained Syrian fighters who have reportedly signed up to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, including Syrian soldiers, former rebels and experienced fighters who fought for years against the Islamic State group in Syria’s desert.
So far, only a small number appears to have arrived in Russia for military training ahead of deployment on the front lines. Although Kremlin officials boasted early in the war of more than 16,000 applications from the Middle East, U.S. officials and activists monitoring Syria say there have not yet been significant numbers of fighters from the region joining the war in Ukraine.
Analysts, however, say this could change as Russia prepares for the next phase of the battle with a full-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine. They believe fighters from Syria are more likely to be deployed in coming weeks, especially after Putin named Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, who commanded the Russian military in Syria, as the new war commander in Ukraine.
Though some question how effective Syrian fighters would be in Ukraine, they could be brought in if more forces are needed to besiege cities or to make up for rising casualties. Dvornikov is well acquainted with the multiple paramilitary forces in Syria trained by Russia while he oversaw the strategy of ruthlessly besieging and bombarding opposition-held cities in Syria into submission. “Russia is preparing for a greater battle” in Ukraine and Syrian fighters are likely to take part, said Ahmad Hamada, a Syrian army defector who is now a military analyst based in Turkey.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Missiles cause multiple explosions in western Ukrainian city
Witnesses say multiple explosions believed to be caused by missiles struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early Monday. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine have been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country, and the city was considered to be a relatively safe haven. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Facebook that five missiles struck the city and that emergency services were responding to the blasts.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | `No surrender': Ukrainians fight on in Mariupol steel plant
Braced for an all-out Russian assault in the east, Ukraine vowed to "fight absolutely to the end” in strategically vital Mariupol, where the ruined port city's last known pocket of resistance was holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. With missiles and rockets also battering other parts of the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian soldiers of carrying out torture and kidnappings in areas they control.
The fall of Mariupol, which has been reduced to rubble in a seven-week siege, would give Moscow its biggest victory of the war. But a few thousand fighters, by Russia's estimate, hold on to the giant, 11-square-kilometer (4-square-mile) Azovstal steel mill. “We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, “but we do not have intention to surrender.”
Many Mariupol civilians, including children, are also sheltering at the Azovstal plant, Mikhail Vershinin, head of the city’s patrol police, told Mariupol television. He said they are hiding from Russian shelling, and from any occupying Russian soldiers. Capturing the city on the Sea of Azov would free up Russian troops for the expected new offensive to take control of the Donbas, in Ukraine's industrial east. It also would allow Russia to fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory, since its attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, failed.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine says Russia wants to 'destroy' Donbas as Mariupol prepares final defence
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of wanting to "destroy" the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the last remaining forces in the strategic port of Mariupol prepared Monday for a final defence. Moscow is pushing for a major victory in the southern city as it works to wrest control of Donbas and forge a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea.
But Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the city, defying a Russian ultimatum Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender. Ukrainian authorities have urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. "Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas," Zelensky said in an evening statement.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Troops inflict 'deliberate terror': Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond. “Torture chambers are built there,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. “They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities.”
Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine. In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said.
“This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians,” he said. He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine “will begin in the near future.” Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. “Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies,” Zelenskyy said. “All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions.”
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine-returned students seek govt help for admission in Indian medical colleges
The students who were evacuated from war-torn Ukraine and their parents gathered atJantarMantarhere on Sunday and sought the government’s intervention to ensure they are accommodated in Indian colleges.The students held placards that read: “Help all IndianMBBSstudents of Ukraine” and “Save the career of Indian students”.Thousands of students from India studying in various medical colleges in Ukraine had to abandon their courses and return home after Russian forces launched an offensive against the country.
Last month, aPILwas filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions on the issue of admission and continuation of studies in the country of Indian medical students who were evacuated from Ukraine.The plea also sought directions to the Centre to provide a medical subject equivalency orientationprogrammefor admitting them in the Indian curriculum.
The Indian Medical Association has also recommended to Prime MinisterNarendraModithat such students should be accommodated in Indian medical colleges as a one-time measure.In a letter to PMModion March 4, theIMAhad said that such students should be permitted to go to Indian medical colleges for the remainder of theirMBBScourses through an “appropriate disbursed distribution”, but it should not be seen as an increase in the annual intake capacity.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | UK says Russia committed to compelling Ukraine to abandon its Euro-Atlantic orientation
Russia is committed to compelling Ukraine to abandon its Euro-Atlantic orientation and asserting its own regional dominance, even as Moscow's operational focus has shifted to the east of its neighbouring country, British military intelligence said on Sunday. Russian forces were continuing to redeploy combat and support equipment from Belarus towards eastern Ukraine, including to locations close to Kharkiv and Severodonetsk, the UK Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin. Russian artillery continues to strike Ukrainian positions throughout the east of the country where Russia plans to renew its offensive activity, the bulletin added.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia says ammunition factory near Kyiv destroyed by missile strike
Russian armed forces destroyed an ammunition factory near Kyiv, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday. "Overnight, high-precision air-launched missiles destroyed an ammunition factory near the town of Brovary in Kyiv region," Konashenkov said.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia demands Ukrainian surrender in Mariupol
Russia gave holdout Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum on Sunday to lay down arms in the pulverised southeastern port of Mariupol which Moscow said its forces nearly completely controlled in what would be its biggest capture of the nearly two-month war. Several hours after the 0300 GMT deadline there was no sign of compliance by Ukrainian fighters holed up in the vast Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov.
Having failed to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north since President Vladimir Putin's Feb. 24 invasion, the Russian military has refocused on the eastern Donbas region where Mariupol is the main port. The Russian Defence Ministry said its troops had cleared the urban area of Mariupol, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting and worst civilian suffering with bodies littering streets and thousands hunkered down in atrocious conditions underground.
The steelworks, one of Europe's biggest metallurgical plants with a maze of rail tracks and blast furnaces, has become a last stand for the outnumbered defenders. "The Russian Armed Forces offer the militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries from 06:00 (Moscow time) on April 17, 2022, to stop any hostilities and lay down their arms," the defence ministry said in a statement.
"All who lay down their arms are guaranteed that their lives will be spared," it said, offering the defending "remnants" a four-hour window to leave the plant without arms or ammunition. There was no immediate response from Kyiv to the ultimatum, though Ukraine's military said Russian air strikes on Mariupol continued along with assault operations near the port.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia on Saturday of "deliberately trying to destroy everyone" in Mariupol and said his government was in touch with the defenders. But he did not address Moscow's claim that Ukrainian forces were no longer in urban districts. He said killing his troops would put paid to peace efforts. "Our soldiers are blocked, the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian crisis... Nevertheless, the guys are defending themselves," he told the Ukrainska Pravda news portal.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine has asked G7 for $50 billion to cover budget deficit, says senior official
Ukraine has asked G7 nations for $50 billion in financial support and is also considering issuing 0% coupon bonds to help it cover a war-linked budget deficit over the next six months, the president's economic adviser Oleh Ustenko said on Sunday. Speaking on national television, Ustenko said these options were being actively discussed.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia calls increased NATO military activity in the Arctic worrying, warns of "unintended incidents"
Russia is worried about increased activity of NATO forces in the Arctic and sees risks of "unintended incidents" occurring in the region, TASS news agency cited Russian ambassador-at-large Nikolai Korchunov as saying on Sunday. In March, Finland and Sweden, which are both considering joining the U.S.-led military NATO alliance, conducted combined NATO military drills. The exercise was long planned, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 added intensity to the war game. Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a "special military operation".
"The recent increase in NATO's activity in the Arctic is a cause for concern. Another large-scale military exercise of the alliance was recently held in northern Norway. In our view, this does not contribute to the security of the region," Korchunov said. According to Korchunov, such activity raises the risk of "unintended incidents", which, in addition to security risks, can also cause serious damage to the Arctic ecosystem. He did not specify what type of incident he might be referring to.one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies warned NATO on Thursday that if Sweden and Finland joined NATO then Russia would deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in a European exclave.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukrainian prime minister says forces in Mariupol have not surrendered
Remaining Ukrainian forces in the southern port of Mariupol are still fighting and continue to defy a Russian demand that they surrender, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Sunday. "The city still has not fallen," Shmyhal told ABC's "This Week" program, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continue to control some parts of the city. Shmyhal said that he will attend the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week and will seek more financial assistance for Ukraine.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Luhansk region governor says shelling kills two, injures four in eastern town of Zolote
At least two people were killed and four have been injured on Sunday in the shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Zolote, the local governor said. "In one of the high-rise buildings, two floors were destroyed ... We have at least two dead citizens, four more wounded," said Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Volodymyr Zelenskyy implores world to respond to torture
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond. “Torture chambers are built there,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. “They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities.” Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine.
In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said. “This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians,” he said.
He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine “will begin in the near future.” Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. “Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies,” Zelenskyy said. “All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions.”
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine: Takeover of Mariupol could end talks
Ukraine’s foreign minister is describing the situation in Mariupol as dire and heartbreaking and says Russia’s continued attacks there could be a “red line” that ends all efforts to reach peace through negotiation. Dmytro Kuleba tells CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the remaining Ukrainian military personnel and civilians in the port city are basically encircled by Russian forces.
He says the Ukrainians “continue their struggle” but that the city effectively doesn’t exist anymore because of massive destruction. Kuleba says his country has been keeping up “expert level” talks with Russia in recent weeks in hopes of reaching a political solution for peace. But citing the significance of Mariupol, he echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in saying the elimination of Ukrainian forces there could be a “red line” that stops peace efforts.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine vows to fight to the end in Mariupol as ultimatum expires
Ukraine on Sunday vowed to fight to the end in Mariupol after a Russian ultimatum expired for remaining forces to surrender in the Black Sea port city where Moscow is pushing for a major strategic victory. "The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said hours after Moscow's deadline had passed for fighters holed up and surrounded in a sprawling fortress-like steelworks to surrender.
"There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end," he told ABC's "This Week". Moscow has shifted its military focus to gaining control of the eastern Donbas region and forging a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea. Russia's defence ministry said there were up to 400 mercenaries inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant, calling on Ukrainian forces inside to "lay down their arms and surrender in order to save their lives". Moscow claims Kyiv has ordered fighters of the nationalist Azov battalion to "shoot on the spot" anyone wanting to surrender.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Shelling kills 18, injures scores in Kharkiv in past four days: Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Sunday. On Sunday, five people were killed and 20 were injured when a missile and artillery fire hit the city centre and the Saltivka suburb, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said earlier.
Reuters could not independently verify the number of people killed. Zelenskiy said in his nightly address that Russia's shelling on Kharkiv has been constant. "This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians," Zelenskiy said. Synyehubov said Ukraine's armed forces had successfully engaged in counter-attacks in the Kharkiv region, recapturing two villages fully and another partially.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine completes questionnaire for EU membership: Official
Ukraine has completed a questionnaire which will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on membership for Kyiv, Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, said. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen handed the questionnaire to Zelenskiy during her visit to Kyiv on April 8th, pledging a speedier start to Ukraine's bid to become a member of the EU following Russia's invasion of the country.
"Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side," Zhovkva told the Ukrainian public broadcaster Sunday evening. The European Commission will need to issue a recommendation on Ukraine's compliance with the necessary membership criteria, he added. "We expect the recommendation ... to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states."
Zhovkva added that Ukraine expects to acquire the status of a candidate country for EU accession in June during a scheduled meeting of the European Council meeting. The European Council is to meet June 23-24th, according to the Council's schedule on its website. "Next, we will need to start accession talks. And once we hold those talks, we can already talk about Ukraine's full membership in the EU," Zhovkva said.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia renews strikes on Ukraine capital, hits other cities
Russian forces accelerated scattered attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond Saturday in an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the whole country remains under threat despite Moscow's pivot toward mounting a new offensive in the east. 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. Officials in Moscow said they were targeting military sites, a claim repeated — and refuted by witnesses — throughout 52 days of war.
The toll reaches much deeper. Each day brings new discoveries of civilian victims of an invasion that has shattered European security. As Russia prepared for the anticipated offensive, a mother wept over her 15-year-old son’s body after rockets hit a residential area of Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine. An infant and at least eight other people died, officials said.
In the towns and villages just outside Kyiv, authorities have reported finding the bodies of more than 900 civilians, most shot dead, since Russian troops retreated two weeks ago. Smoke rose from the capital again 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 not immediately clear from the ground what was hit in the strike on Kyiv's Darnytskyi district. The sprawling area on the southeastern edge of the capital contains a mixture of Soviet-style apartment blocks, newer shopping centers and big-box retail outlets, industrial areas and railyards. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said an armored vehicle plant was targeted. He didn’t specify where the factory was located, but there is one in the Darnytskyi district.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | 'This land is in blood': A Ukraine village digs up the dead
On a quiet street lined with walnut trees was a cemetery with four bodies that hadn't yet found a home. All were victims of Russian soldiers in this village outside Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Their temporary caskets were together in a grave. Volunteers dug them up one by one on Sunday — two weeks after the soldiers disappeared.
This spring is a grim season of planting and replanting in towns and villages around Kyiv. Bodies given hurried graves amid the Russian occupation are now being retrieved for investigations into possible war crimes. More than 900 civilian victims have been found so far. All four bodies here were killed on the same street, on the same day. That’s according to the local man who provided their caskets. He bent and kissed the cemetery’s wrought-iron crosses as he walked to the makeshift grave.
The volunteers tried digging with shovels, then gave up and called an excavator. As they waited, they recounted their work secretly burying bodies during the monthlong Russian occupation, then retrieving them. One young man recalled being discovered by soldiers who pointed guns at him and told him “Don’t look up” as he dug a grave.
