Russia-Ukraine War Highlights: Russia bars UK PM Boris Johnson from entering country over ‘hostile action’

Russian forces resumed scattered attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond Saturday in an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the whole country remains under threat despite Russia's pivot toward mounting a new offensive in the east.

Stung by the loss of its Black Sea flagship and indignant over what it alleged were Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, Russia's military command had warned a day earlier of renewed attacks on Ukraine's capital and said it was targeting military sites.

Associated Press reporters documented civilian deaths in strikes this week on the eastern city of Kharkiv, and each day brings new discoveries of civilian victims in a war that has shattered European security. In the Kyiv region alone, Ukrainian authorities have reported finding the bodies of more than 900 civilians, most shot dead, after Russian troops retreated two weeks ago.

Smoke rose early Saturday from eastern Kyiv as Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike on the the city's Darnytski district. He said rescuers and paramedics were at the scene, and information about possible deaths would be provided later. The mayor advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to return for their safety. (PTI)

Russian forces shelled an oil refinery in the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Saturday, and a large fire erupted, a regional governor reported. Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said it wasn't the first time the refinery was targeted and accused the Russians of trying to “exhaust” local emergency services. He underlined there was no fuel at the refinery at the time of the attack and “the remains of oil sludge” were burning.

Ukraine's presidential office reported Saturday that missile strikes and shelling over the past 24 hours occurred in eight regions: Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv in the east, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kirovohrad in the central Ukraine and Mykolaiv and Kherson in the south.

The strikes underlined that the whole country remained under threat despite Russia's pivot toward mounting a new offensive in the east. In Kharkiv, nine civilians were killed and more than 50 were wounded on Friday, while in the wider region two were reported dead and three wounded, according to the report. (Reuters)

The handmade sign on the gate warns "The cemetery is mined. Danger." but residents of the formerly occupied town of Trostyanets in northern Ukraine still come to visit the fresh graves of family killed in the war.

The graveyard in this town in Sumy region has only been partly made safe since Russian forces planted mines there as they pulled back in early April, cemetery manager Olena Matvienko said. "De-mining teams came later and de-mined it partially. Then they didn't go further inside," Matvienko said on Saturday, standing in the cemetery where a number of gravestones were shattered or riddled with bullet holes.

Some areas were still dangerous for people, she said.  Even so mourners gathered around different graves, some clutching bunches of spring flowers. (Reuters)

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's key advisor and head of Ukraine’s negotiating team, Mykhailo Podolyak on Saturday expressed frustrations at the progress of weapons transfer from the European Union. Podolyak took to Twitter and said that the EU is not providing the weapons "Ukraine asked for." He also said that the weapons are taking too long to arrive. 

'Democracy won’t win from playing this game. needs weapons. Not in a month. Now,' he added.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person died and several more were wounded in the Saturday morning airstrikes on the Darnytski district of the capital, as Russian forces resumed scattered attacks on the capital in western Ukraine.

“Our air defence forces are doing everything they can to protect us, but the enemy is insidious and ruthless,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.

The attacks, which the Russian Defense Ministry said targeted an armored vehicle plant in the Ukrainian capital, was an explosive reminder to Ukrainians and their Western supporters that the whole country remains under threat despite Russian forces pivot to the east, where a new offensive is feared. (AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "gave a positive assessment" of joint work in the OPEC+ format during a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday. They also discussed the situation in Ukraine and Yemen, the Kremlin said. (Reuters)

One person was killed and 18 wounded when a Russian missile hit one of the central districts of Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region on Saturday, the regional governor said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. (Reuters)

Ukraine's richest man has pledged to help rebuild the besieged city of Mariupol, a place close to his heart where he owns two vast steelworks that he says will once again compete globally.

Rinat Akhmetov has seen his business empire shattered by eight years of fighting in Ukraine's east but remains defiant, sure that what he calls "our brave soldiers" will defend the Sea of Azov city reduced to a wasteland by seven weeks of bombardment. For now, though, his Metinvest company, Ukraine's biggest steelmaker, has announced it cannot deliver its supply contracts and while his financial and industrial SCM Group is servicing its debt obligations, his private power producer DTEK "has optimised payment of its debts" in an agreement with creditors.

"Mariupol is a global tragedy and a global example of heroism. For me, Mariupol has been and will always be a Ukrainian city," Akhmetov said in written answers to questions from Reuters. (Reuters)

Russia's foreign ministry said on Saturday that it had barred entry to the country for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and 10 other British government members and politicians.

The move was taken "in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British Government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it would expand the list soon. (Reuters)

Ukraine is working with NATO member Turkey as much as possible for more support over Russia's invasion and understands - even though it is not happy with - the reality of Ankara's parallel ties to Moscow, a Ukrainian diplomat said.

Ankara has criticised the invasion and sold drones to Kyiv despite Russian objections. But it has also opposed Western sanctions against Moscow and maintained a careful rhetoric by refraining from accusing either country over the conflict, even amid reports of war crimes in parts of Ukraine.

'We would be happy if Turkey joined the sanctions' and cut flights from Russia. 'But we understand this reality,' the diplomat told foreign journalists on Friday on condition of anonymity. '...Instead of criticising Turkey we are working with the Turkish side as much as possible, and not demanding something that is improbable,' the person added, noting that it was still the only country that had managed to bring together Russian and Ukrainian officials for peace talks.

Turkey, which relies heavily on Russian energy imports and tourists, has emerged as a safe haven for Russians fleeing fallout from the sanctions, and many have invested in Turkish property. (Reuters)

Russia destroyed production buildings of an armoured vehicle plant in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and a military repair facility in the city of Mykolaiv, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying on Saturday.

The strikes were carried out by high-precision long-range weapons, it said.Russia also downed one Ukrainian SU-25 aircraft near the city of Izyum in Kharkiv Oblast of eastern Ukraine, said Interfax. (Reuters)

The governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine reported air strikes in the region Saturday morning.

Maksym Kozytskyy said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian Su-35 aircraft took off from the Baranovichi airfield in Belarus and carried out missile strikes in Lviv.

Ukraine's air defense system shot down four cruise missiles, Kozytskyy said. He didn't offer any details about possible casualties or damage. (AP)

For the people of Ukraine, the Russian invasion is a waking nightmare, and a humanitarian disaster on a terrifying scale. But the war is also fast becoming a matter of life and death for vulnerable people around the world. We have all seen the tragedy unfolding inside Ukraine: Cities flattened; people suffering and dying in their homes and in the streets; the fastest displacement crisis in Europe since the Second World War.

But beyond Ukraine’s borders, far beyond the media spotlight, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world. This crisis could throw up to 1.7 billion people — over one-fifth of humanity — into poverty, destitution and hunger on a scale not seen in decades. (Read more)

Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed for Saturday to evacuate civilians, including from the besieged city of Mariupol by private cars.

Vereshchuk said in a statement that five of the nine evacuation corridors were from Ukraine's Luhansk region in the east of the country, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling. (Reuters)

At least two civilians were killed and four wounded in Russian attacks across Ukraine, local officials said early Saturday.

One person was killed and three wounded in shelling in the eastern region of Luhansk, Governor Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post. A gas pipeline was damaged in Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, which were without gas and water, Gaidai said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

"Evacuate, while it is still possible," Gaidai said in a subsequent post, adding that buses were ready for those willing to be evacuated from the region. (Reuters)

Rescuers and medics were working on the site of an early Saturday blast on the outskirts of Kyiv, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said in an online post.

The explosion took place in Kyiv's Darnytskyi district, Klitschko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. It is the southeastern district of Kyiv, on the left bank of Dnipro river.Klitschko added that information on wounded is being confirmed. (AP)

Ukraine is sending top officials to Washington for next week's spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where discussion will focus on the Russian invasion and its impact on the global economy.

Coming to the gathering are Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko, according to a World Bank official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the visit had not been officially announced. (AP) 

A stamp depicting a Ukrainian soldier making an obscene hand gesture at the Russian Black Sea flagship Moskva has become a collector's item for Ukrainians who see it as a sign of "victory", reported news agency AFP. 

It added that many Ukrainians were seen queueing for hours outside the central post office in Kyiv to get their hands on the limited edition stamps. 

Explosions were heard in the early hours on Saturday in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and the western city of Lviv, local media reported.

Air raid sirens were going off over most of Ukraine early on Saturday. There has been no official confirmation of the explosions. (Reuters)

More bodies are being found every day, under rubble and in mass graves, said Andriy Nebytov, the head of the Kyiv's regional police. He said that the largest number of bodies were found in Bucha, where there were more than 350.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that existing sanctions on Russia are "painful" but not yet enough to stop the Russian military.

Zelenskyy called for "the democratic world" to ban Russian oil. While US lawmakers and US President Joe Biden have enacted such a ban, Europe relies more heavily on Russian energy supplies, and the US has been working to keep India from stepping up its use of Russian energy.

"In general, the democratic world must accept that Russia's money for energy resources is in fact money for the destruction of democracy," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to his nation. (AP)

Oleh Synehubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv, said that the Russian shelling of a residential area in the city of Kharkiv resulted in seven deaths and caused injuries to 34 other people.

Russia's Ministry of Defense alleged its rockets had "eliminated up to 30 Polish mercenaries" in a strike on the village of Izyumskoe near Kharkiv. (Deutche Welle)

A week after Delhi sent its sharpest message to Moscow by abstaining on a resolution to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a “wide ranging discussion” with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and exchanged views on the global impact of the Ukraine conflict as well as the situation in Afghanistan and Myanmar.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday told CNN that between 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have died so far in the war with Russia and another 10,000 have been injured. (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)

? 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. 

? Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of launching airstrikes in Bryansk, a city in Russia.

? Major explosions were heard in the cities of Kyiv, Kherson and Kharkiv and the town of Ivano-Frankivs on early Friday morning.

? Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he will redirect his energy supplies eastwards as European countries try to find alternatives.

? 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

Making a distinction between Putin and Putinism, which fuses “anti-Westernism and anti-liberalism”, Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes in an Opinion column: “Putin may lose, but Putinism is ascendant as an ideology — now aligning itself with white supremacism, French chauvinism, Israeli right-wing assertion, Ottoman dreams, Chinese aggression or Hindutva aggression. They want to take down the West but what they really want to take down is liberalism.” Read here

The US ambassador to the United Nations Thursday blamed Russia for causing a food crisis all over the globe, news agency AP reported. 

In a UN Security Council meeting on Yemen, Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that the World Food Program identified it as one of the countries most affected by wheat price increases and lack of imports from Ukraine.

However, the Russian ambassador refuted her allegations, saying, "The main factor for instability and the source of the problem today is not the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, but sanctions measures imposed on our country seeking to cut off any supplies from Russia and the supply chain, apart from those supplies that those countries in the West need, in other words energy."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainians on Thursday they should be proud of having survived 50 days under Russian attack when the Russians "gave us a maximum of five."

In his late-night video address, Zelenskyy called it "an achievement of millions of Ukrainians, of everyone who on Feb. 24 made the most important decision of their life "to fight."

Zelenskyy gave an extensive and almost poetic listing of the many ways in which Ukrainians have helped to fend off the Russian troops, including "those who showed that Russian warships can sail away, even if it's to the bottom" of the sea.

It was his only reference to the Russian missile cruiser Moskva, which sank while being towed to port. (AP)

The war in Ukraine is prompting the International Monetary Fund to cut global growth estimates for both 2022 and 2023 as higher food and energy prices pressure fragile economies, the IMF’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said on Thursday. 

Georgieva said in a “curtain raiser” speech for next week’s IMF and World Bank spring meetings that the fund would downgrade its growth outlooks for 143 economies representing 86% of global economic output, but said most countries will maintain positive growth. 

Georgieva, who previously warned that the war would drag on growth this year, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “sending shockwaves throughout the globe” and dealing a massive setback to countries struggling to recover from the still-raging Covid-19 pandemic. Read more