People gather outside a shopping centre destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 14, 2022. (Reuters)Russia-Ukraine War News Live Updates: More than 900 Ukrainian civilians were found in the Kyiv region following the withdrawal of Russian troops, the regional police chief said in a briefing on Friday. Head of Kyiv’s regional police force Andriy Nebytov said the bodies had been abandoned on the streets or given temporary burials, AP reported. Citing police data, he said it indicated 95% of the casualties were from sniper fire and gunshot wounds.
Ukraine’s defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk Friday said that for the first time since the start of its invasion, Russia used long-range bombers to attack the port city of Mariupol. He stated that with ongoing street fighting, the situation in Mariupol is hard. Mentioning that active fighting is ongoing around Illich Steel and Iron Works in Mariupol’s port area, he claimed Russia is concentrating its force on capturing Rubizhne, Popasna and Mariupol.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Defence Ministry Friday claimed to have hit a military target in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with cruise missiles overnight. The target was identified as the Vizar plant, according to Reuters, which makes and repairs anti-ship missiles. Russia has vowed to intensify its attack on the city after it alleged that Ukrainian forces have destroyed residential buildings in its Bryansk region. On Friday morning, explosions were heard in Kyiv and other cities such as Kharkiv and Kherson.
A view shows a residential building destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 14, 2022. (Reuters)
The bodies of more than 900 civilians were discovered in the Kyiv region following the withdrawal of Russian forces, the regional police chief said in a briefing Friday. Andriy Nebytov, the head of Kyiv's regional police force, said the bodies had been abandoned in the streets or given temporary burials. He cited police data indicating that 95% of the casualties had died from sniper fire and gunshot wounds. ``Consequently, we understand that under the (Russian) occupation, people were simply executed in the streets,'' Nebytov said. ``The number of killed civilians has surpassed 900 _ and I emphasize, these are civilians, whose bodies we have discovered and handed over for forensic examination.'' He added that more bodies were being found every day, under the rubble and in mass graves. --AP
Ukraine has agreed to receive 13 billion yen in financial support from the Japanese government and also signed an agreement for 500 million Canadian dollars in support from Canada, Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on Friday.
"These are funds to finance our primary needs .... We are negotiating assistance at all levels with everyone who can help," he said in a televised video address.
Smashed tanks in the mud, destroyed buildings and mourning families mark a recaptured east Ukrainian village whose residents are contemplating the price both they and their former Russian occupiers have had to pay.
Ukrainian soldiers last month retook Husarivka, an agricultural village with a peacetime population of 500-600 around 150 km southeast of Kharkiv city, after heavy fighting following the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. --Reuters
Ukraine's defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on Friday that for, the first time since the start of its invasion, Russia used long-range bombers to attack the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Motuzyanyk said Russia was concentrating its efforts on seizing the cities of Rubizhne, Popasna and Mariupol. --Reuters
Ukraine defence ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk on Friday stated that with ongoing streetfighting, the situation in Mariupol is hard. Stating that active fighting is ongoing around Illich Steel and Iron Works in Mariupol’s port area, he claimed Russia is concentrating its force on capturing Rubizhne, Popasna and Mariupol.
Ukraine on Friday said 7 people were killed and over two dozen injured in a Russian attack on civilian evacuees in east, AFP reported.
Russia's foreign ministry on Friday warned of unspecified 'consequences' if Finland and Sweden join NATO, news agency AFP reported.
The Russian rouble firmed slightly towards 80 against the dollar on Friday and stock indexes declined, while shares in gold producer Petropavlovsk underperformed the broader market in Moscow trade and at one point fell more than 20% on the day.
Russian shares in Petropavlovsk, which is also listed in London, extended sharp losses suffered on Thursday after the company said it was considering putting itself up for sale, following sanctions on Russia and the risk of countermeasures.
Petropavlovsk shares were down 17% at 8.45 roubles ($0.11) apiece as of 0749 GMT.
Shares in Russia's largest lenders Sberbank and VTB, both sanctioned by the west, slid around 0.7% the day after a central bank official said it was quite possible that the Russian banking sector would lose half of its capital. (Reuters)
Amidst heavy shelling in Lysychansk, a resident of Ukraine celebrated her 55th birthday, wishing for "peace for everyone".
The Russian Defence Ministry Friday said that it has destroyed a group of up to 30 Polish mercenaries from a private military unit.
It has also vowed to step up its attack on Kyiv in view of the Ukrainian forces committing "sabotage" on Russian territory.
The Russian Defence Ministry has claimed that its S-400 defense systems have shot down a Ukrainian MI-8 helicopter, which was allegedly used to attack the Klimovo village in the Bryansk region of Russia on Thursday, Reuters quoted state media as saying.
The Russian Defence Ministry has claimed that the Ilyich steel and iron plant in Mariupol, Ukraine’s second-largest steel-maker, has been “liberated” from Ukrainian forces, Reuters quoted the state media as saying.
Russia has been concentrating its war effort in the East, looking to take over the key port city of Mariupol.
Meanwhile, the Ministry also claimed that it has struck a military target on the edge of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with cruise missiles overnight. It stated they will be carrying out more strikes in the city.
Russia may be in default after it tried to service its dollar bonds in roubles due to Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, Moody's said, Moscow's first major default on foreign bonds since the years following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
Russia made a payment due on April 4 on two sovereign bonds - maturing in 2022 and 2042 - in roubles rather than the dollars it was mandated to pay under the terms of the securities.
Russia "therefore may be considered a default under Moody's definition if not cured by 4 May, which is the end of the grace period," Moody's said in a statement on Thursday.
"The bond contracts have no provision for repayment in any other currency other than dollars."
Moody's said that while some Russian eurobonds issued after 2018 allow payments in roubles under some conditions, those issued before 2018 - such as those maturing in 2022 and 2042 - do not.
"Moody's view is that investors did not obtain the foreign-currency contractual promise on the payment due date," Moody's said. (Reuters)
The Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister has said that nine humanitarian corridors were agreed upon Friday to allow the safe evacuation of citizens.
Meanwhile, the Governor in Ukraine's Luhansk region has said that evacuation from six towns would be opened by bus and train.
Russian warship Moskva of the Black Sea fleet sank Thursday following a fire. While Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles, Russia has acknowledged the fire but not the attack.
Dwindling numbers of Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol are holding out against a siege that has trapped well over 100,000 civilians in desperate need of food, water and heating. David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, told AP in an interview Thursday that people are being “starved to death” in the besieged city.
Mariupol's mayor said this week that more than 10,000 civilians had died and the death toll could surpass 20,000, after weeks of attacks and privation carpeted the streets with corpses.
Mariupol's capture is critical for Russia because it would allow its forces in the south, which came up through the annexed Crimean Peninsula, to fully link up with troops in the Donbas region, Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland and the target of the coming offensive. (AP)
đź”´ In view of the military setbacks faced by Russia, CIA Director William Burns Thursday said that Putin may resort to using tactical or low-yield nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
đź”´ Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of launching airstrikes in Bryansk, a city in Russia.
đź”´ Major explosions were heard in the cities of Kyiv, Kherson and Kharkiv and the town of Ivano-Frankivs on early Friday morning.
đź”´ Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he will redirect his energy supplies eastwards as European countries try to find alternatives.
đź”´ The loss of the Moskva ship has been a major hit to Russian capabilities, as it could carry 16 long-range cruise missiles. Read more
Canada is sending soldiers to Poland to help with the care, co-ordination and resettlement of Ukrainian refugees in Poland, including some who will come to Canada.
Defense Minister Anita Anand announced the deployment of up to 150 troops Thursday.
More than 2.6 million Ukrainians have fled into Poland since the first Russian troops crossed into Ukraine on Feb. 24 and over 2 million more have fled into other surrounding countries.
Anand said the majority of the deployed troops will head to reception centers across Poland to help care for and register Ukrainian refugees. Another group is being sent to help co-ordinate international aid efforts.
Canada has deployed hundreds of additional troops to eastern Europe since Russia's invasion as the NATO military alliance seeks to both support Ukraine and prevent the conflict from expanding into a broader war. (AP)
Across Ukraine, kindergartens have been bombed, elementary schools have been converted into shelters and in some cities like Mariupol, their grounds have even become makeshift graveyards.
As the war tears at the social institutions of the country, education has been one of the major casualties. Parents, teachers and school administrators are scrambling to provide classes for the 5.5 million school-age children who remain in the country, as well as for thousands of others who have fled to other countries.
In many places, students are connecting with their normal classrooms online, if their hometown schools are still operating and they have access to the internet. But with such vast displacement of teachers and students, the paths to learning are circuitous: In some cases, teachers who relocated within Ukraine are instructing students who have already fled the country, through a school system that they both left behind. Read more
Chancellor Olaf Scholz surprised the world, and his own country, when he responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a 100 billion euro ($108 billion) plan to arm Germany, send weapons to Ukraine and end his nation’s deep dependence on Russian energy.
It was Germany’s biggest foreign policy shift since the Cold War, what Scholz called a “Zeitenwende” — an epochal change — that won applause for his leadership at home and abroad.
But six weeks later, the applause has largely ceased. Even as images of atrocities emerge from Ukraine since the invasion by President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Scholz has ruled out an immediate oil and gas embargo, saying it would be too costly. He is dragging his feet on sending 100 armored vehicles to Ukraine, saying that Germany must not “rush ahead.” There are new debates in the ruling coalition about just how to go forward with the massive task Scholz has laid out, let alone how fast. Read more