
Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live Updates: A series of explosions were heard early Sunday morning and smoke was seen in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, a Reuters witness said. The Russian defence ministry said missile strikes by its military destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities in near the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa on Sunday. The ministry said the facilities were used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the city of Mykolaiv. (Reuters)
On Saturday, Ukrainian forces seized back all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched the invasion, amid fears that Russian forces left booby-trapped explosives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops retaking areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv are not allowing Russians to retreat without a fight, but are “shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.” Ukraine’s troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv since Russia pulled back from the area this week, Ukrainian officials said. “The whole Kyiv region is liberated from the invader,” Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Malyar, wrote on Facebook.
Russia’s talks with a “hostile” Ukraine have not been easy, but the main thing is that they are continuing, RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday. “Ukraine is a very difficult country, very difficult for us. In its current state it is hostile towards us,” the agency cited him as telling Belarus television. Russia and Ukraine have held several rounds of negotiations, both in Turkey and by video conference.
Russia’s talks with a “hostile” Ukraine have not been easy, but the main thing is that they are continuing, RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday. “Ukraine is a very difficult country, very difficult for us. In its current state it is hostile towards us,” the agency cited him as telling Belarus television. Russia and Ukraine have held several rounds of negotiations, both in Turkey and by video conference.
“The main thing is that the talks continue, either in Istanbul or somewhere else,” said Peskov, adding that the negotiations were “not easy”.
First came the warnings, in messages among friends and families and on social media, to stock up on vital drugs in Russia before supplies were affected by crippling Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. Then, some drugs indeed became harder to find at pharmacies in Moscow and other cities.
“Not a single pharmacy in the city has it now,” a resident of Kazan told The Associated Press in late March about a blood thinner her father needs. Experts and health authorities in Russia say the drug shortages are temporary — due to panic- buying and logistical difficulties for suppliers from the sanctions — but some remain worried that high-quality medicines will keep disappearing in the Russian market.
“Most likely there will be shortages. How catastrophic it will be, I don’t know,” said Dr. Alexey Erlikh, head of the cardiac intensive care unit in Moscow Hospital No. 29, and a professor at the Moscow-based Pirogov Medical University. (AP)
The Russian defence ministry said missile strikes by its military destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities in near the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa on Sunday. The ministry said the facilities were used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the city of Mykolaiv. (Reuters)
The towering memorial, erected on the battlefield where the Russian imperial army routed Hungarian troops, mourns Russia’s 1849 victory over “brave homeland defenders.” It is a reminder of how, for centuries, the Hungarian psyche has been shaped and scarred by the specter of Russian domination. “There has been a constant fear of Russia,” said Gyorgy Miru, a history professor in Debrecen, a Hungarian city near the border with Ukraine where the battle took place. Read the NYT story here
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that seven buses will attempt to go closer to Mairupol to help evacuating people. The buses will come with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). (Reuters)
Russian forces that were intent on overwhelming Kyiv, Ukraine, at the war’s start with tanks and artillery retreated under fire across a broad front Saturday, leaving behind them dead soldiers and burned vehicles, according to witnesses, Ukrainian officials, satellite images and military analysts. The withdrawal suggested the possibility of a major turn in the six-week war: the collapse, at least for now, of Russia’s initial attempt to seize Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and the end of its hopes for the quick subjugation of the nation.
Moscow has described the withdrawal as a tactical move to regroup and reposition its forces for a major push in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. While there are early indications that the military is following through on that plan, analysts say it cannot obscure the magnitude of the defeat. Read more
The UK military intelligence on Sunday said that "despite ongoing Russian efforts to diminish Ukrainian air defence capability, Ukraine continues to provide a significant challenge to Russian Air and Missile operations." As a result, Russian aircraft are still vulnerable to short and medium range air defence systems, it tweeted.
As Ukraine claimed its forces had retaken all areas around Kyiv, the mayor of a liberated town said 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army, and victims were seen in a mass grave and still lying on the streets.
Ukraine's troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion.
At Bucha, a town neighbouring Irpen, just 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, Reuters journalists saw bodies lying in the streets, and the hands and feet of multiple corpses poking out of a still open grave at a church ground. After five weeks of fighting, Russia has pulled back forces that had threatened Kyiv from the north to regroup for battles in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russian naval forces continue to blockade the Ukrainian coast on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, preventing resupply by sea, British military intelligence said on Sunday. Russia retains the capability to attempt an amphibious landing, but such an operation is likely to be increasingly high risk due to the time Ukrainian forces have had to prepare, the Ministry of Defence tweeted
"Mines within the Black Sea pose a serious risk to maritime activity," it said.The report said the origin of the mines was unclear and disputed but that they were almost certainly the result of Russian naval activity in the area, demonstrating how its invasion of Ukraine is affecting neutral and civilian interests. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. (Reuters)
A top American Congresswoman has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for trying to broker peace between the United States and Russia on Ukraine and hoped that his efforts would be helpful in restoring peace in the region.
On Friday, Modi conveyed to visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that India stands ready to contribute in any way to the peace efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and called for early cessation of violence in that country.
"Well, I think that right now he (Modi) is trying to broker a peace between Russia and America with Ukraine. I think that's a very positive goal to have. We (India and US) have strong economic ties, we have strong peace ties, and we have strong similar values, I would say we have the same form of government," Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney told PTI in an interview. (PTI)
The accounts of resistance in the small garrison town of Vasylkiv have already taken on the sheen of legend. There are reports of Russian transport planes shot down, paratroopers hunted in the woods and even an unknown Ukrainian pilot nicknamed the Ghost of Kyiv defending the skies.
Hyperboles aside, the people of this quiet provincial town of tree-lined streets and low-rise buildings dating back to the Russian empire managed to fight off Russian troops in the critical opening days of the war, preventing Russian forces from capturing strategic bases that could have allowed the nation’s capital, Kyiv, to be encircled. Read the NYT story here
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said a team with three vehicles and nine staff members had planned to get into Mariupol, scene of some of the war's worst attacks, on Saturday to evacuate residents. The Red Cross said it could not carry out the operation Friday because it did not receive assurances the route was safe. City authorities said the Russians blocked access to the city.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday evening the team, which departed Zaporizhzhia in the morning, was "spending the night en route to Mariupol and are yet to reach the city.” Around 100,000 people are believed to remain in the city on the Sea of Azov, down from a prewar population of 430,000, and facing dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine.
The Mariupol city council said earlier Saturday that 10 empty buses were headed to Berdyansk, a city 52 miles (84 kilometers) west of Mariupol, to pick up people who managed to get there on their own. About 2,000 made it out of Mariupol on Friday, city officials said. (AP)
A Russian group that monitors political arrests says 208 people were detained in demonstrations held Saturday across the country protesting Russia's military operation in Ukraine. The OVD-Info group said demonstrations took place in 17 Russian cities, from Siberia to the more densely populated west.
More than 70 people were were detained in Moscow and a similar number in St. Petersburg, the organization said. Video released by another group that monitors protests, Avtozak, showed some detainees being led to police prisoner transports as they smiled and carried flowers. Others were shown to be more harshly forced into the transports, bent over with their arms pinioned behind them. Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has cracked down heavily on dissent, even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. (AP)
Lithuania has stopped importing natural gas from Russia as of April and will be able to rely instead on deliveries from other countries to meet its energy needs, the country’s president announced Saturday, saying the move was an example for other European Union members.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU had been looking for ways to reduce its dependency on Russian fossil fuels, including coal and oil, but especially gas. Nearly 40% of the bloc’s total natural gas came from Russia. But since Moscow ordered tanks into Ukraine on Feb. 24, member states have been more actively seeking ways to cut their gas needs.
“If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do it too,” Gitanas Nauseda, Lithuania’s president, said on Twitter on Saturday. (New York Times)
This is Radio Ukraine calling. A new Prague-based internet radio station has started to broadcast news, information and music tailored to the day-to-day concerns of some 300,000 refugees who have arrived in the Czech Republic since Russia launched its military assault against Ukraine. In a studio at the heart of the Czech capital, radio veterans work together with absolute beginners to provide the refugees with what they need to know to settle as smoothly as possible in a new country.
The staff of 10 combines people who have fled Ukraine in recent weeks with those who have been living abroad for years. No matter who they are, their common goal is to help fellow Ukrainians and their homeland facing the brutal Russian invasion. Read more
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said that Ukrainian troops retaking areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv are not allowing Russians to retreat without a fight, but are “shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.”
“What is the goal of the Russian troops? They want to seize the Donbas and the south of Ukraine,” he said. “What is our goal? To defend ourselves, our freedom, our land and our people.”
“Thanks to this resistance, thanks to the courage and resilience of our other cities, Ukraine has gained invaluable time, time that is allowing us to foil the enemy’s tactics and weaken its capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. (AP)
Ukraine's deputy prime minister says 765 residents managed to make it out of Mariupol in private vehicles on Sunday while a team of humanitarian workers is yet to reach the hard-hit city. Iryna Vereshchuk said the residents reached Zaporizhzhia, a city 140 miles (226 kilometres) to the northwest. (AP)
Authorities in the tiny breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova denied "absolutely untrue" claims Saturday by Ukraine that Russian troops based there are massing to conduct "provocations" along Ukraine's border. Earlier Saturday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russian troops already in Transnistria were preparing for "a demonstration of readiness for the offensive and, possibly, hostilities against Ukraine."
"The information disseminated by the General Staff of Ukraine is absolutely untrue," Transnistria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that leaders have repeatedly "declared the absence of any threat to Ukraine. (AP)
Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had seized back all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched the invasion. As Russian troops regrouped for battles in east Ukraine, towns surrounding Kyiv bore scars of five weeks of fighting. Dead civilians laid scattered over streets, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of leaving behind mines. Read here