Burned vehicles are seen at the destroyed part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, as smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal during heavy fighting, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 18, 2022. (AP)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live: Russian forces took control of Kreminna city in eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian troops withdrew from the city, the regional governor said on Tuesday as reported by Reuters. “Kreminna is under the control of the ‘Orcs’ (Russians). They have entered the city,” Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region said.
Russia-backed separatist forces are trying to storm the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol, the RIA news agency quoted separatist spokesperson Eduard Basurin as saying on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ukraine was for the third successive day unable to secure Russia’s agreement to establish any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians trapped in cities and towns, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Ukraine said Russia had started an anticipated new offensive in the east of the country, with explosions reported all along the front lines as well as attacks in other regions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had begun the “Battle of Donbas” in the east on Monday and a “very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive”.
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)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak to US President Joe Biden and other world leaders later on Tuesday to discuss toughening sanctions against Russia and further support for Ukraine, Johnson's spokesman said. (Reuters)
Ukraine has insufficient storage capacity even for its reduced 2022 grain harvest, the United Nations' World Food Programme said on Tuesday, with the country struggling to export existing stocks during the invasion by Russia.
Jakob Kern, the World Food Programme's emergency coordinator in Ukraine, cited estimates that 20% of planted areas in Ukraine will not be harvested in July and that the spring planting area will be about a third smaller than usual.
Ukraine is the world's fifth-biggest exporter of wheat and in the top three for maize, barley and sunflower seeds. Wheat production in 2021 was about 40 million tonnes, with another 50 million tonnes for the other three commodities. (Reuters)
Russian forces have taken control of the city of Kreminna in eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the city, the regional governor said on Tuesday.
"Kreminna is under the control of the 'Orcs' (Russians). They have entered the city," Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, told a briefing. (Reuters)
Greece has seized a Russian oil tanker off the island of Evia as part of European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, the Greek coast guard said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month the EU banned Russian-flagged vessels from the 27-nation bloc's ports, with some exemptions, as it adopted new sweeping sanctions against Russia.
The Russian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, was seized near Karystos on the southern coast of Evia, which lies just off the Greek mainland near the capital Athens. (Reuters)
The United States and other Western countries are doing everything to drag out Russia's military operation in Ukraine, the TASS news agency quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying on Tuesday.
"The increasing volume of foreign arms supplies clearly demonstrates their intentions to provoke the Kyiv regime to fight to the last Ukrainian standing," Shoigu was cited as saying. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will travel to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the coming days, a government source said on Tuesday.
Sanchez follows the footsteps of several other European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, and British and Czech premiers, who have travelled to Ukraine since Russia's invasion of the country in a show of support for its president and people.
Sanchez said on Monday Spain would reopen its embassy in Kyiv, which has been closed since Feb. 24. (Reuters)
Russia on Tuesday called on Ukrainian forces and foreign fighters holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to lay down their arms by noon Moscow time (2 pm IST) if they wanted to live.
Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian troops for weeks, has seen the fiercest fighting and most comprehensive destruction since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24. (Reuters)
Russian missile and artillery forces struck 1,260 targets in Ukraine overnight, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday.
Russian anti-aircraft forces downed a Ukrainian MiG-29 jet in the Donetsk region, the ministry said. (Reuters)
The Russian defence ministry said it downed a Ukrainian Mig-29 in Ukraine's Donetsk region, reports Reuters.
Russia-backed separatist forces are trying to storm the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol, the RIA news agency quoted separatist spokesperson Eduard Basurin as saying on Tuesday.
The separatists aim to "liberate" the facility as quickly as possible, RIA quoted another separatist, Denis Pushilin, as saying. (Reuters)
Ukraine was for the third successive day unable to secure Russia's agreement to establish any humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians trapped in cities and towns, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Tuesday.
"Today, April 19, unfortunately, there are no humanitarian corridors," Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook. She said intensive shelling continued in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has launched a new offensive. (Reuters)
New Zealand unveiled new sanctions on Tuesday targeting Russia's largest banks and financial institutions, in its response to the invasion of Ukraine.
"We are deeply concerned at the reports of brutality from Russian forces," Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement after the measures were announced. "New Zealand continues to condemn Putin's war and supports the International Criminal Court's investigations into the atrocities committed against the citizens of Ukraine." (Reuters)
The Ukrainian military's General Staff said Tuesday that Russian forces are focusing their efforts on taking full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.
It noted that a "new phase of war" began Monday when "the occupiers made an attempt to break through our defenses along nearly the entire frontline in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions."
It said in a statement issued early Tuesday that "the Russian military has continued to blockade and shell Mariupol and to deal missile strikes on other cities." (AP)
There are fields instead of city streets, farmsteads instead of apartment buildings. Open highways stretch to the horizon.
The battles in the north that Ukraine won over the past seven weeks raged in towns and densely populated suburbs around the capital, Kyiv, but the war is about to take a hard turn to the southeast and into a vast expanse of wide-open flatland, fundamentally changing the nature of the combat, the weapons at play and the strategies that might bring victory.
Military analysts, Ukrainian commanders, soldiers and even President Vladimir Putin of Russia acknowledge that a wider war that began with a failed attempt to capture the capital will now be waged in the eastern Donbas region.
In a series of photographs, AFP's Daniel Mihailescu captures the journey of a convoy of firefighting and relief vehicles, donated by France to Ukraine, arriving at the humanitarian hub of Suceava in Romania.
➡️ Russian forces have launched their long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine, attempting to push through defences along almost the entire front line in what Ukrainian officials described as the second phase of the war.
➡️ Zelenskyy said Russia had begun the "Battle of Donbas" in the east and a "very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive".
➡️ Ukrainian media reported explosions along the front line with shelling in Marinka, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Air raid sirens were also going off in main centres near the front.
➡️ The United States military expects to start training Ukrainians on using howitzer artillery in the coming days, a senior US defence official said.
➡️ At least 1,000 civilians are hiding in shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the city council said, adding that Russia was dropping heavy bombs on the Ukrainian-held factory. (Reuters)
There are no plans for US President Joe Biden to visit the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated in a briefing on Monday.
Ukrainian forces have struck a village near Russia's border with Ukraine, wounding one resident, the governor of the Russian province of Belgorod said on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear whether the strike on the village of Golovchino that figured in posts by governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on messaging app Telegram was carried out by artillery, mortars, missiles or was an aerial attack.
This month, Russia accused Ukraine, which it invaded in late February, of a helicopter attack on a fuel depot in Belgorod, as well as of shelling villages there several times, and firing missiles at an ammunition depot. (Reuters)
The Governor of Russia's Belgorod province says a village near the Ukrainian border has been struck by Ukraine, reports news agency RIA. (Reuters)
The United States is seeking to seize a superyacht suspected of belonging to a Russian oligarch that is docked in the Pacific island nation of Fiji, a restraining order filed on Tuesday by Fiji's director of public prosecutions showed.
The luxury vessel the Amadea is widely believed to be owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, sanctioned by the United States and European Union. The vessel arrived in Fiji a week ago after leaving Mexico 18 days earlier and crossing the Pacific.
Police are investigating. Authorities in various countries have seized luxury vessels and villas owned by Russian billionaires in response to sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a special military operation. (Reuters)