Russia Ukraine War News Live: A view shows an ambulance car damaged by a military strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine April 16, 2022. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live: Authorities in Ukraine’s Western and Southern regions of Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk reported multiple explosions, while a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts in Kyiv, as Russia’s invasion of the country continues. 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. In Kyiv, a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts on the left bank of the Dnipro river.
Meanwhile, 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. He 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.
In other news, Ukrainian fighters holed up in a steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from the Russians and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port. Russia estimated 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at the hulking Azovstal steel mill.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives to take part in a global event titled 'Stand Up For Ukraine' at the Palace on the Isle in Royal Lazienki Park in Warsaw, Poland. (Reuters)
Spain will reopen its embassy in Kyiv in the coming days, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in an interview with the Antena3 TV network.
The Spanish embassy in Ukraine's capital was evacuated on February 24 when Russian troops invaded the country. The move comes after several other European countries, including France, recently announced they would move back their embassies to Kyiv.
Ukrainian authorities condemned Russian artillery attacks on cities in the northeast and the continuing siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, of which Moscow said it had taken almost full control, 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.
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. (Reuters)
Authorities in Ukraine's Western and Southern regions of Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk reported multiple explosions, while a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts in Kyiv, as Russia's invasion of the country continues.
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.
In Kyiv, a Reuters reporter heard a series of blasts on the left bank of the Dnipro river.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he spoke with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva about Ukraine's financial stability and the country's post-war reconstruction."We have clear plans for now, as well as a vision of prospects. I’m sure cooperation between the IMF & Ukraine will continue to be fruitful," Zelenskiy said in a tweet.
Georgieva confirmed the call in a tweet. "Thank you," she wrote, addressing Zelenskiy's twitter handle, "for the very good call today." She wrote support is "essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding a modern competitive #Ukraine". Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier he will attend the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week and will seek more financial assistance for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world 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. (AP)
The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians' estimate. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter.
An estimated 100,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war. "All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum.
Ukrainian fighters holed up in a steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from the Russians and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port.
The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless, 7-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscow's biggest victory of the war yet and free up troops to take part in a potentially climactic battle for control of Ukraine's industrial east.
As its missiles and rockets slammed into other parts of the country, Russia estimated 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at the hulking Azovstal steel mill, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is laced with tunnels. (AP)
US President Joe Biden says he's praying on Easter for those living in the "dark shadow" of war, persecution and poverty.
Biden released an Easter message Sunday in which he says he's also praying for peace, freedom and basic dignity and respect for all of God's children. Biden didn't say which war he had in mind, but the president has been deeply involved in trying to force an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AP)
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there had not been any recent diplomatic communications between Russia and Ukraine at the level of their foreign ministries and that the situation in the port of Mariupol, which he described as "dire", may be a "red line" in the path of negotiations."
Mariupol may be a red line", he told CBS News in an interview on Sunday.
Ukrainian soldiers resisted a Russian ultimatum to lay down arms on Sunday in the pulverised port of Mariupol, which Moscow said its forces had almost completely seized in what would be its biggest prize of the nearly two-month war. (Reuters)
A Ukrainian health official says that at least five people have been killed in the Russian shelling of Kharkiv.
Maksym Haustov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration's health department, said that another 13 residents were wounded by Sunday's shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city.
Rescuers have been working to help survivors after the shelling that hit residential and administrative buildings and caused fires. Officials said the centre of Kharkiv came under shelling by multiple rocket launchers. (AP)
The 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. "So there is no whole control" of Mariupol by Russian forces, Shmyhal said.
Shmyhal said that he and Ukrainian finance officials will seek more financial assistance this week during International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington. "We need more money for executing of our humanitarian and social obligations," Shmyhal said. "Now, only half of our economy is working. So we ask for financial support." Shmyhal added that Ukraine is currently running a budget deficit of about $5 billion per month. (Reuters)
The impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on India will be among the topics of discussion during the five-day Army Commanders’ Conference beginning Monday in the national capital. The conference will be addressed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on April 21.
“During the conference, the senior leadership of the Indian Army will review the operational situation along the active borders, assess threats in the entire spectrum of conflict and undertake analysis of capability voids to further focus on capability development and operational preparedness plans,” a Defence Ministry statement said. “Discussions on aspects pertaining to infrastructure development in border areas, modernisation through indigenisation, induction of niche tech and assessment on any impact of the Russia-Ukraine war are also scheduled.”
For 45 years, Lithuania and Russia both belonged to the Soviet Union. After gaining independence, Lithuania joined NATO in 2004. In recent years, tensions with Russia have been growing.
The Ukraine war is a wakeup call, says Lithuanian MP Laurynas Kasciunas. His country must be better armed to fend off a potential Russian attack, he told DW. “We only have a few years left to prepare, that’s why we need a bigger NATO presence as a major deterrent.”
Ukraine's Prime Minister said that the country will seek financial support at the IMF and World Bank meetings this week in Washington. (Reuters)
The Russian military has warned that Ukrainian troops refusing to surrender in the besieged port of Mariupol will be destroyed.
The Russian Defence Ministry gave the Ukrainians at Mariupol's giant Azovstal steel mill until 3 pm Sunday to surrender, saying that those who put down their weapons will be "guaranteed to keep their lives."
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov said the Ukrainian military command had banned its troops from surrendering. He said the Russian military received the information from intercepted communications. (AP)
As a grim reminder of the cost of war, organisers of a protest in Romania display items sprayed in red paint. According to the organisers, they symbolise the children killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The items were placed on the tarmac in front of the Russian embassy in Bucharest, Romania on April 16, 2022.
Nepal doesn’t boast strong economic ties to either Russia or Ukraine, but the war between those two countries has battered the Himalayan nation’s already feeble economy.
Skyrocketing fuel and food prices brought on by the conflict are hitting Nepal’s economy, which has already been weakened by a pandemic-induced loss of tourism, a fall in remittances, a widening trade deficit and depletion of foreign exchange reserves.
Even before the war, the country’s financial health was not sound, said Roshee Lamichhane, assistant professor at Kathmandu University. Lamichhane points to the drop in tourist arrivals and foreign investment, among other problems. “And the ongoing conflict has further aggravated the situation,” she told DW.
Pope Francis, marking an "Easter of war" Sunday urged leaders to hear the people's plea for peace in Ukraine and implicitly criticised Russia for dragging the country into a "cruel and senseless" conflict.
The 85-year-old pope made his comments in his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) address to about 50,000 people in St. Peter's Square after a long Mass. It was the first Easter since 2019 that the public was allowed to attend following two years of Covid-19 restrictions. (Reuters)
Russia is worried about the 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.
"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. (Reuters)
The capital of France maybe thousands of miles away from the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, but what happens in French voting stations this month could have repercussions there.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has close ties to Russia and wants to weaken the European Union and NATO, which could undercut Western efforts to stop Russia’s war on Ukraine. Le Pen is trying to unseat centrist President Emmanuel Macron, who has a slim lead in polls ahead of France’s April 24 presidential runoff election.