Russia fired two missiles into Kyiv on Thursday during a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow pressed an assault in the east that drew new US pledges of military and humanitarian aid.
The rockets shook the central Shevchenko district in Ukraine's capital and one of them struck the lower floors of a 25-storey residential building, injuring at least 10 people, Ukrainian officials said. Reuters witnesses reported hearing two explosions, but their cause could not be independently verified. There was no Russian comment on the blasts.
Russia withdrew its invading forces from near Kyiv in early April after failing to capture the city, which has since hosted visits by top officials from the United States and its European allies. But Thursday's blasts, heard soon after Guterres completed talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, highlighted concerns that Kyiv still remains vulnerable to Russian heavy weaponry.
"There was an attack on Kyiv ... it shocked me, not because I'm here but because Kyiv is a sacred city for Ukrainians and Russians alike," Guterres told Portuguese broadcaster RTP when asked about the blasts. Zelenskyy said the blasts "prove that we must not drop our vigilance. We must not think that the war is over."
Guterres' discussions with Zelenskyy focused in part on evacuating Ukrainian fighters and civilians holed up in a steel plant in the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol, Russia's main target in the eastern Donbas region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to UN and Red Cross involvement in evacuating the plant during talks in Moscow with Guterres on Tuesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia is part of peace talks with Ukraine, but senior Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak denied that this was the case.
"At present, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations are actually discussing on a daily basis via video-conferencing a draft of a possible treaty," Lavrov said in comments to China's official Xinhua news agency published on the Russian foreign ministry's website on Saturday.
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"The talks' agenda ... includes, among other things, the issues of denazification, the recognition of new geopolitical realities, the lifting of sanctions, the status of the Russian language," Lavrov said, without elaborating.
But Podolyak was dismissive, saying Lavrov had not attended a single negotiating round, and that Ukraine did not need lessons in "denazification" or use of the Russian language from those who had attacked and occupied Ukrainian towns and cities. In remarks cited by the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he said that "the issue of global international sanctions against the Russian Federation is not discussed at all" within the framework of the Russia-Ukraine negotiations. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday spoke to UK PM Boris Johnson about the war and 'blocked' Mariupol. Informing about the conversation in a tweet, Zelenskyy said, “I keep in touch with BorisJohnson. Spoke about the situation on the battlefield and in the blocked Mariupol. “Discussed defensive support for Ukraine and the necessary diplomatic efforts to achieve peace.”
A Russian missile strike on Odesa airport has damaged the runway and it can no longer be used, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday. (Reuters)
Ukraine carried out a prisoner exchange with Russia on Saturday, with seven soldiers and seven civilians coming home, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a online posting. One of the soldiers was a woman who is five months' pregnant, she added. She did not say how many Russians had been transferred.
The two nations have swapped prisoners several times during the conflict that began with Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, and on Thursday Ukraine said Russia had handed over 33 soldiers. (Reuters)
Ukrainian police said on Saturday they had found the bodies of three civilian men in the Bucha district north of Kyiv, bound and in some cases gagged, with several gunshot wounds that police said indicated they had been tortured.
Kyiv says more than 1,000 bodies have been discovered in or around Bucha, where it alleges systematic abuse by Russian forces who occupied the area for several weeks in an abortive attempt to seize the capital. Moscow rejects the allegation.
In a video posted on YouTube, Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Nebytov said bullet wounds in the men's extremities showed they had been tortured, adding: "Finally, each of the men was shot in the ear". The video also contained images purporting to show the grave and the bloodied bodies, with faces blurred out. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment on Nebytov's account. (Reuters)
The governor of Russia's western Kursk region said several shells were fired on Saturday at a checkpoint near its border from the direction of Ukraine. Speaking in a video posted on his Telegram channel, governor Roman Starovoit said that there were no casualties or damage.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron has conveyed to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy his “wish to actively work to re-establish the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine during his second mandate,” in coordination with allies, the presidential Elysee Palace says. Macron assured Zelenskyy in their hourlong conversation Saturday that “military material” and humanitarian assistance would keep flowing to Ukraine, the Elysee said.
France has so far sent 615 tons of equipment and aid, including generators for hospitals, ambulances and food. France has been coy about its contribution in defensive weapons, but Macron recently mentioned Milan anti-tank missiles and a delivery of truck-mounted Caesar cannons among “consequential equipment.” “This support will continue to strengthen,” the French president told Zelenskyy, according to the Elysee.
Macron was re-elected president of France six days ago. During his first term, Macron held numerous conversations with both Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin since Russia's invasion Feb. 24. (AP)
Russian forces have stolen "several hundred thousand tonnes" of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Ukraine's deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday.
Speaking to Ukrainian national TV, Taras Vysotskiy expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5 million tonnes of grain stored in occupied territory could also be stolen by Russian forces. Ukraine's foreign ministry accused Russia on Thursday of stealing grain in territory it has occupied, an act it said increased the threat to global food security.
Agriculture minister Mykola Solskyi said grain theft had increased in the last two weeks. "I personally hear this from many silo owners in the occupied territory. This is outright robbery. And this is happening everywhere in occupied territory," the ministry quoted Solskyi as saying. (Reuters)
For nearly a week in April, Mariia Pachenko took a respite from her studies in besieged Ukraine to share its plight with fellow college students in New York. Soon after, the 18-year-old faced a wrenching decision: Return to her war-torn country or wait out the conflict as hopes for a diplomatic remedy dimmed by the day.
Pachenko and a handful of other Ukrainian students recounted the war's human toll and the perilous trip through Russian-occupied territories to make it to the National Model United Nations conference, relishing the opportunity to foster “communication between young people across the world because it's so important to share ideas, to express your thoughts on the relevant political issues and to try to find the solutions.” But despite urgent calls to end the Russian invasion, diplomacy has made little progress in the real world.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Moscow and Kyiv to take “whatever urgent steps” to stop the fighting, but the lack of dialogue between the two governments has been disconcerting for Pachenko — now in France for the foreseeable future — and her peers in the widening diaspora of Ukrainians fleeing bombs, tanks and violence. (AP)
Never mind forging swords into ploughshares; a Ukrainian businessman is turning scraps of wreckage from a downed Russian fighter plane into souvenir key fobs and selling them abroad to support the war effort.
"Many of my friends tell me '$1,000 - nobody will give you this for this piece of metal, it's crazy," said Iurii Vysoven, founder of "Drones for Ukraine".
"In the morning, I woke up and understand on my phone (that) it's already $20-30,000 collected, and we see this constant flow of messages of people asking questions and telling (that) they want to donate more, they tell us it is an incredible idea."
The aircraft is a Russian Su-34 two-seater tactical fighter-bomber that the Ukrainian military says it shot down over the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, early in March, when Russian forces were trying to capture and hold the area. (Reuters)
Dialogue between Moscow and Washington on strategic stability is formally "frozen", the TASS news agency cited a Russian foreign ministry official as saying on Saturday.
Vladimir Yermakov, head of nuclear non-proliferation and controls at the foreign ministry, told TASS those contacts could be resumed once what Russia calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine was complete. (Reuters)
Russia's foreign minister says Moscow has evacuated over 1 million people from Ukraine since the war there began. The comments Saturday by Sergey Lavrov in an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua come as Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcefully sending Ukrainians out of the country. Lavrov said that figure included more than 300 Chinese civilians.
Lavrov offered no evidence to support his claim in the interview. Lavrov also said that negotiations continue between Russia and Ukraine “almost every day.” However, he cautioned that “progress has not been easy”.
Lavrov in part blamed “the bellicose rhetoric and inflammatory actions of Western supporters of the Kyiv regime” for disrupting the talks. However, Russian state TV nightly has had guests suggest that Moscow use nuclear weapons in the conflict. (AP)
Russian forces pounded Ukraine's eastern Donbas region on Saturday but failed to capture three target areas, Ukraine's military said, while Moscow said Western sanctions on Russia and arms shipments to Ukraine were impeding peace negotiations.
The Russians were trying to capture the areas of Lyman in Donetsk and Sievierodonetsk and Popasna in Luhansk, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in a daily update. "Not succeeding - the fighting continues," it said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in remarks published early on Saturday, said lifting Western sanctions on Russia was part of the peace talks, which he said were difficult but continued daily by video link.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24 that sanctions needed to be strengthened and could not be part of negotiations. He said on Friday there was a high risk the talks would end because of what he called Russia's "playbook on murdering people". (Reuters)
Russia has been forced to merge and redeploy depleted and disparate units from failed advances in northeast Ukraine, a British military update said on Saturday."Shortcomings in Russian tactical coordination remain.
A lack of unit-level skills and inconsistent air support have left Russia unable to fully leverage its combat mass, despite localised improvements," the military tweeted. "Russia hopes to rectify issues that have previously constrained its invasion by geographically concentrating combat power, shortening supply lines and simplifying command and control," it said. (Reuters)
Two Ukrainian women whose husbands are defending a besieged steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol are calling for any evacuation of civilians to also include soldiers, saying they fear the troops will be tortured and killed if left behind and captured by Russian forces.
"The lives of soldiers matter too. We can't only talk about civilians," said Yuliia Fedusiuk, 29, the wife of Arseniy Fedusiuk, a member of the Azov Regiment in Mariupol. "We are hoping that we can rescue soldiers too, not only dead, not only injured, but all of them."
She and Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband, Denys Prokopenko, is the Azov commander, made their appeal in Rome on Friday for international assistance to evacuate the Azovstal plant, the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the strategic and now bombed-out port city. (AP)
Russia said on Saturday that its artillery units had struck 389 Ukrainian targets overnight, including 35 control points, 15 arms and ammunition depots, and several areas where Ukrainian troops and equipment were concentrated.
Russia's defence ministry said that its missiles had hit four ammunition and fuel depots. (Reuters)
Their earliest memories are of fleeing bombs or hearing whispers about massacres of other Jews, including their relatives. Sheltered by the Soviet Union, they survived.
Now elderly and fragile, Ukraine’s Holocaust survivors are escaping war once more, on a remarkable journey that turns the world they knew on its head: They are seeking safety in Germany.
For Galina Ploschenko, 90, it was not a decision made without trepidation. “They told me Germany was my best option. I told them, ‘I hope you’re right,’ ” she said. (Read more)
Russian forces have stolen "several hundred thousand tonnes" of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Ukraine's deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday.
Speaking to Ukrainian national TV, Taras Vysotskiy expressed concern that most of what he said was 1.5 million tonnes of grain stored in occupied territory could also be stolen by Russian forces.
Ukraine's foreign ministry accused Russia on Thursday of stealing grain in territory it has occupied, an act it said increased the threat to global food security. (Reuters)
As bombs and missiles littered streets, residents fled many Ukrainian towns in search of safety. Over 11 million people have fled from their homes in the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations, leaving behind abandoned towns (also known as ghost towns).
Ukrainian forces fought to hold off Russian attempts to advance in the south and east, where the Kremlin is seeking to capture the country's industrial Donbas region, and a senior US defence official said Moscow's offensive is going much slower than planned.
While artillery fire, sirens and explosions were heard Friday in some cities, the United Nations sought to broker an evacuation of civilians from the increasingly hellish ruins of Mariupol, where the mayor said the situation inside the steel plant that has become the southern port city's last stronghold is dire. (AP)
Ukraine will return to the field for the first time since the Russian invasion when it plays a friendly against German club Borussia Mönchengladbach on May 11 ahead of a crucial World Cup qualifier.
The Ukrainian Football Association said on Friday it will assemble the team for a training camp in Slovenia from Monday.
Bundesliga club Gladbach said the proceeds from the game would go to charity efforts focused on Ukraine and Ukrainians abroad and that citizens of the country would get free entry. (Read more)
Ukraine will soon stamp out fuel shortages, even though Russian forces have damaged a number of oil depots, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday. This week, Russia struck Ukraine's main fuel producer, the Kremenchuk oil refinery, as well as several other large depots.
"Queues and rising prices at gas stations are seen in many regions of our country," Zelenskyy said in a nightly video speech. "The occupiers are deliberately destroying the infrastructure for the production, supply and storage of fuel.
"Russia has also blocked our ports, so there are no immediate solutions to replenish the deficit," he added. "But government officials promise that within a week, maximum two, a system of fuel supply to Ukraine will be at work that will prevent shortages." (Reuters)
Lifting sanctions imposed on Russia is part of peace negotiations between Moscow and Ukraine, which are "difficult" but continue daily, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published early on Saturday.
"At present, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations are actually discussing on a daily basis via video-conferencing a draft of a possible treaty," Lavrov said in comments to China's official Xinhua news agency published on the Russian foreign ministry's website.
Ukraine and Russia have not held face-to-face peace talks since March 29, and the atmosphere has soured over Ukrainian allegations that Russian troops carried out atrocities as they withdrew from areas near Kyiv. Moscow has denied the claims. (Reuters)
The United Nations doggedly sought to broker an evacuation of civilians from the increasingly hellish ruins of Mariupol on Friday, while Ukraine accused Russia of showing its contempt for the world organization by bombing Kyiv when the UN leader was visiting the capital.
The mayor of Mariupol said the situation inside the steel plant that has become the southern port city's last stronghold is dire, and citizens are "begging to get saved." Mayor Vadym Boichenko added: "There, it's not a matter of days. It's a matter of hours." (AP)
Some 1.02 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine into Russia since February 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published early on Saturday.
That number includes 1,20,000 foreigners and people evacuated from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics.
Lavrov, in comments to the Xinhua news agency and published on the Russian foreign ministry's website, also reiterated that Nato's vocal support of Ukraine stands in the way of reaching a political deal to end the conflict. (Reuters)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged a rapid halt to fighting in Ukraine on Friday and said they will work together to improve humanitarian conditions there.
“The Ukraine war must be stopped immediately and we agree to create a conducive situation so that negotiations and a peaceful solution can be reached quickly” Widodo said after meeting with Kishida in Jakarta. Indonesia is Kishida's first stop on an eight-day trip that will also take him to Vietnam, Thailand, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine "shook the foundations of the international order, including in Asia, and it must be strongly condemned,” Kishida said. Kishida and Widodo also discussed Indonesia's role as current chair of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations. “We will use Indonesia's leadership of the G-20 as a catalyst for a humanitarian response and world economic recovery,” Widodo said. Widodo announced Friday that he has invited both Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the G-20 leaders' summit in Bali in November.
He said Putin agreed to attend but it was unclear whether it would be in person or virtually. It was not immediately known whether Zelenskyy would attend. Widodo also said he rejected a request from the Ukrainian leader for weapons from Indonesia. (AP)
A former US Marine was killed alongside Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia, his relatives told news outlets in what's the first known death of an American citizen fighting in Ukraine. Rebecca Cabrera told CNN her 22-year-old son, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed on Monday while working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine.
Cabrera said her son was working as a corrections officer in Tennessee and had signed up to work with the private military contractor shortly before fighting began in Ukraine on February 24. She told CNN he agreed to go to Ukraine.
“He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn't come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn't have to be involved in it,” she said. (AP)
Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, says the war with Russia has not changed her husband but only revealed to the world his determination to prevail and the fact that he is a man you can rely on. Zelenska, in an interview published Friday in the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, also said she has not seen her husband, 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, since Russia invaded Ukraine.
When Zelenska woke up on Feb. 24, the day the war began, her husband was already awake and dressed. He told her simply: “It's started,” and left for the office in Kyiv, she recalled. “Since Feb. 24, I have been seeing my husband just like you — on TV and on the video recordings of his speeches," she said.
Zelenska said the couple's two children were with her but she did not disclose their location. She accused Russia of trying to carry out a genocide against the Ukrainian people and expressed her sympathy with the more than 11 million Ukrainians who have been forced to flee their homes. (AP)
Companies and countries were at odds over Moscow's rouble-for-gas payment system on Friday, while European officials promised more guidance on whether buying Russian gas can comply with sanctions and Russia said it saw no problem with its plan.
Russia cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland on Wednesday after they refused to abide by the demand issued in a Russian presidential decree last month for gas payments in roubles, prompting concerns other countries could be the next to be hit.
Germany, which imports around half of its gas from Russia, said on Friday energy companies can open special accounts with Gazprombank to pay for Russian gas, without breaching sanctions if transferring euros or dollars to them fulfils their contractual obligations. It did not specify whether companies could do this and also open a rouble account, as requested by Russia, without being in breach of EU sanctions. (Reuters)
Ukraine, along with dozens of other countries, has written to the World Health Organization's regional chief calling for an urgent meeting on the impact of Russia's invasion on health, a letter obtained by Reuters on Friday showed. The letter sent this week by Ukraine's diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the WHO is headquartered, is signed by some 38 other members of the agency's European region, including France, Germany and Britain.
It is addressed to Europe regional director Hans Kluge and calls for him to call an urgent meeting "no later than 9 May". The letter also suggests that Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus address the matter at a meeting of the World Health Assembly in May.
The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters is also seeking comment from Russia, which is one of 53 members of the WHO's European region. (Reuters)
Germany is looking into sending self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, a security source told Reuters on Friday. Berlin was in talks with the Dutch government on the issue, the source said (Reuters)
Ukraine's banking system posted a net loss in the first quarter after lenders had to transfer over $730 million of their earnings in local currency to reserves to cover possible future losses linked to the war, the central bank said on Friday. Losses totalled 160 million hryvnias ($5.42 million) in January-March compared with a profit of 10.9 billion hryvnias in the same period last year, it said in a statement.
"The general decline in business activity and falling demand for loans and banking services will continue to have a negative impact on banks' profitability," it said. (Reuters)
Head of the European Union's (EU) Frontex border agency, Fabrice Leggeri, offered his resignation on Friday, news agency AFP reported. A figurehead for impenetrable European frontiers, Leggeri was frequently accused of tolerating illegal "pushbacks" of migrants.
Frontex's board would weigh Leggeri's offer to step down the same day, a French source told AFP, "following an investigation into his management of the agency by Olaf", the European Anti-Fraud Office.
"I can confirm that he has offered his resignation," which "opens the possibility of a new start" for Frontex, a German government spokesman said at a regular press conference in Berlin. (AFP)
Poland and the Czech Republic will ask the European Commission for new funds to help them deal with an influx of refugees from Ukraine, the Polish prime minister said on Friday.
"We have agreed on a joint application to the European Commission for new funds to support war refugees," Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference, adding that the intiative would be presented soon. (Reuters)
Russia killed a journalist from the US-backed broadcaster Radio Liberty by a missile attack on Kyiv during a visit to the Ukrainian capital by the secretary-general of the United Nations, the broadcaster said on Friday.
Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said the body of producer Vira Hyrych had been found on Friday morning in rubble after Thursday's attack destroyed the bottom two floors of a residential building. It said Hyrych had worked for Radio Liberty since 2018.
"She was going to bed when a Russian ballistic missile hit her apartment in central Kyiv. Russia's barbarism is incomprehensible," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said. "We call on media organizations to condemn the murder of Vira and all other innocent Ukrainians." (Reuters)
The Russian rouble rose against the euro to the highest in more than two years on Friday and headed towards 70 to the dollar in Moscow trade before paring some gains, supported by capital controls as the central bank cut interest rates again.
The Bank of Russia cut its key interest rate by 300 basis points for the second time this month, to 14%, as it tries to stimulate more lending in the economy in the face of high inflation, surprising analysts who had forecast a smaller reduction.
Movements on Russian markets are affected by the rouble being propped up by capital controls, while stocks are trading with a ban on short selling and with foreign players barred from ditching shares in Russian companies without permission. At 1052 GMT, the rouble was up 1.6% to trade at 74.20 against the euro, after earlier touching 74.0525, its strongest level since March 2020. It was 1.4% firmer against the dollar at 71.09 , after earlier hitting a six-month high of 70.3075. (Reuters)
The Kremlin on Friday said that a proposal by US President Joe Biden to allow US officials to seize Russian assets and use the funds to support Ukraine would amount to illegal expropriation.
President Joe Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine, a proposal that would also let U.S. officials seize more Russian oligarchs' assets, give the cash from those seizures to Ukraine, and further criminalize sanctions dodging. (Reuters)
Norway will close its borders and ports to Russian trucks and ships, joining sanctions imposed by the European Union over the war in Ukraine, the Norwegian foreign ministry said on Friday. Russian fishing vessels, which often land their catch at ports in northern Norway, will receive exemptions from sanctions.
Norway's Arctic Svalbard archipelago, which operates under a 1920s treaty allowing expanded foreign access, will also be exempted, the ministry said. (Reuters)
Russia used a diesel submarine in the Black Sea to strike Ukrainian military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles, the first time Moscow has announced the use of its submarine fleet to hit its former Soviet neighbour.
The Russian defence ministry released a video showing a volley of Kalibr missiles emerging from the sea and soaring off into the horizon - to what the ministry said were Ukrainian military targets. This is the first time Russia's military has reported using submarine strikes against Ukrainian targets, Interfax news agency reported on Friday. (Reuters)
Russia said on Friday that its forces had destroyed the production facilities of a space-rocket plant in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with high precision long-range missiles.
"The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine," the defence ministry said. "High-precision long-range air-based weapons destroyed the production facilities of the Artem rocket and space industry enterprise in the city of Kyiv." (Reuters)
Britain said on Friday it was sending experts to help Ukraine with gathering evidence and prosecuting war crimes, with a team due to arrive in Poland in early May.
Ukraine says it is investigating some 7,600 potential war crimes and at least 500 suspects following Russia's February 24 invasion of its neighbour.
'Russia has brought barbarity to Ukraine and committed vile atrocities, including against women. British expertise will help uncover the truth and hold (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's regime to account for its actions,' Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. (Reuters)
The "Battle of Donbas" remains Russia’s main strategic focus in Ukraine, Britain's defence ministry said on Friday, but it has suffered significant losses for limited territorial gains.
Moscow regards winning the "Battle for Donbas" as crucial if it is to achieve its stated aim of securing control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Britain's defence ministry said. "Fighting has been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, with an attempted advance south from Izium towards Slovyansk," the ministry said on Twitter. (Reuters)
Mountainous and remote, the Greek-Bulgaria border once formed the southern corner of the Iron Curtain. Today, it's where the European Union is redrawing the region's energy map to ease its heavy reliance on Russian natural gas.
A new pipeline — built during the Covid-19 pandemic, tested and due to start commercial operation in June — will ensure that large volumes of gas will flow between the two countries in both directions to generate electricity, fuel industry and heat homes.
The 180-km project is the first of several planned gas inter-connectors that will allow eastern European Union members and countries hoping to join the 27-nation bloc access to the global gas market. (AP)
Two British volunteers working to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine have been captured by the Russian military there, according to the organisation for which the men worked.
The non-profit Presidium Network said the two men had been detained by Russian forces at a checkpoint south of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Monday. There was no immediate comment from the British foreign ministry.
"The foreign office is doing all it can to support and identify these two people," British trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News. (Reuters)
Ukraine hopes on Friday to evacuate civilians who are holed up in a vast steel works with the last fighters defending the southern city of Mariupol.
"An operation is planned today to get civilians out of the plant," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said without giving details. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after meeting Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday that intense discussions were under way to enable the evacuation of the Azovstal steel plant, which has been pounded by Russian forces occupying Mariupol.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed "in principle" to UN and International Committee for the Red Cross involvement in evacuating the Azovstal plant. (Reuters)
Over two months after Russia invaded Ukraine under the guise of demilitarizing its neighbour, cities across Ukraine have been subjected to bombings, mass evacuations and gunfights as Russian troops attempted to wrest control of administrational offices and buildings. Thousands have been killed and injured, and over 11 million people have fled their homes, according to the United Nations.
From Bucha mass graves to the battle for Mariupol's steel mill, we look back at some of the key incidents from the past month. Read here.
The United States believes Russian intelligence was behind an April chemical attack on a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin, US news organizations reported on Thursday.
Dmitry Muratov, editor of the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has said that while he was on a train he was splashed with red paint containing acetone by an attacker who told him, "this is for you from our boys."
Muratov at the time posted photographs of his face, chest and hands covered in red oil paint, which he said badly burned his eyes because of the acetone. The New York Times and Washington Post both reported on Thursday that US intelligence agencies had concluded that Russian intelligence operatives orchestrated the attack, which took place on a Moscow-Samara train.
The US House gave final passage Thursday to legislation that would streamline a World War II-era military lend-lease program to more quickly provide Ukraine and other Eastern European countries with American equipment to fight the Russian invasion.
The measure, which passed by an overwhelming 417-10 vote, now goes to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.
The bill is the latest from Congress, which is steadily churning out resolutions and resources to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and help the country and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fight back. The Biden administration announced Thursday it will seek another $30 billion from Congress in military and humanitarian aid, on top of the nearly $14 billion Congress approved last month to help Ukraine fight the war. (AP)
They pull up soggy linoleum from their floors, and fish potatoes and jars of pickles from submerged cellars. They hang out waterlogged rugs to dry in the pale spring sunshine.
All around Demydiv, a village north of Kyiv, Ukraine, residents have been grappling with the aftermath of a severe flood, which under ordinary circumstances would have been yet another misfortune for a people under attack by Russia.
This time, though, it was a tactical victory. The Ukrainians flooded the village intentionally, along with a vast expanse of fields and bogs around it, creating a quagmire that thwarted a Russian tank assault on Kyiv and bought the army precious time to prepare defenses. (Read more)
The Union Budget 2022-23 received a great deal of attention even before the financial year began due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the consequent rise in inflation. There has been considerable speculation on whether the fiscal targets will be altered due to the evolving conditions. The government, however, is quite sure of the numbers and has not spoken about the need to revisit them. Let’s see how things have changed since February.
The course and length of the war are critical. The longer the conflict continues the greater will be the impact. While the government has adeptly managed the fiscal numbers in the last couple of years, this year will be particularly challenging considering the nature of the shock. (Read more)
Ukraine recently issued an apology after it posted a video featuring Japanese emperor Hirohito, along with the likes of Adolf Hiter and Benito Mussolini, to hit out at fascism.
A video that went up on Ukraine’s official Twitter handle condemned ‘ruscism’ or ‘rashism’, a portmanteau of Russia and fascism. After protests by the Japanese over the inclusion of Emperor Hirohito, the handle posted an edited version of the video, without the leader’s image. (Read more)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in the capital city of Kyiv on Thursday.
The two leaders spoke about the unfolding war, and later held a press conference in which Guterres condemned the atrocities committed in towns like Bucha, where evidence of mass killings of civilians was found after Russia retreated.
Authorities said the UN chief and his team were safe in the explosions that followed shortly after the press conference.
Drone images captured by news agency AFP show extensive damage at a residential complex in the Ukrainian town of Irpin, close to the capital Kyiv.
Russia fired two missiles into Kyiv on Thursday during a visit by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow pressed an assault in the east that drew new US pledges of military and humanitarian aid.
The rockets shook the central Shevchenko district in Ukraine's capital and one of them struck the lower floors of a 25-storey residential building, injuring at least 10 people, Ukrainian officials said.
Reuters witnesses reported hearing two explosions, but their cause could not be independently verified. There was no Russian comment on the blasts.