As Dmytro Kartavov and his family joined thousands of people trying to flee the bombed-out city of Mariupol, one additional obstacle awaited as Russian troops sought to identify anyone fighting with Ukrainian forces defending the city. “They stripped the men naked, looked for tattoos,” said Kartayov, a 32-year-old builder, who said the troops paid particular attention to men’s knees. “I work, I do repairs, naturally my knees – these are working knees. They say – (you) climbed trenches, dug, and the like.”
Speaking in a supermarket that has been turned into a reception centre in the Ukrainian-held town of Zaporizhzhia some 200 km from Mariupol, he told Reuters the family left the besieged city to the west, reaching the port of Berdyansk by bus before crossing into Ukrainian-held territory on foot.
READ | As Mariupol residents flee, Russian forces hunt for Ukrainian fighters
In 2001, when the internet was staring at a slew of regulations from across the globe, Clyde Wayne Crews, a researcher at libertarian think-tank Cato Institute, proposed the idea of ‘splinternet’ — an internet splintered into disparate realms controlled by different dispensations or powers. The fundamental proposal was to have more internets instead of having more regulations.
Over the past two decades, a splintering of internet has occurred in some limited ways. China’s ‘Great Firewall’ keeps American tech giants out while pushing online services developed indigenously. Russia, in 2019, passed the sovereign internet law — or the online Iron Curtain — that enabled the country to disconnect its internet from rest of the world.
EXPLAINED | Why the Russia-Ukraine war threatens to splinter the internet
The stream of anti-war letters to a lawmaker in St. Petersburg, Russia, has dried up. Some Russians who had criticized the Kremlin have turned into cheerleaders for the war. Those who publicly oppose it have found the word “traitor” scrawled on their apartment door. Five weeks into President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, there are signs that the Russian public’s initial shock has given way to a mix of support for their troops and anger at the West. On television, entertainment shows have been replaced by extra helpings of propaganda, resulting in a round-the-clock barrage of falsehoods about the “Nazis” who run Ukraine and American-funded Ukrainian bioweapons laboratories.
The United States will give Moldova $50 million to help it cope with the impacts of Russia's war against Ukraine, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during a visit to the former Soviet republic on Sunday.
She said the funding would support programs, training and equipment for border management, efforts to counter human trafficking, help to improve accountability and transparency in the justice sector, and combat corruption and cybercrime.
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Nearly 400,000 refugees have already fled Ukraine through Moldova, with about a quarter remaining in the country, since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Moscow says it is carrying out a "special military operation" that aims to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure. An emotional Irina Rygik, 30, who worked as a cleaner in Ukraine's Kharkiv, traveled to Moldova on March 27 with her 3-year-old daughter. Through a translator, she said her apartment building was bombed and she sheltered in the basement with her daughter until a neighbor offered to take them to Moldova. (AP)
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "despicable attacks against civilians" in Bucha and Irpin near Kyiv were evidence that Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine, and that Britain would step up sanctions and military aid in response.
"I will do everything in my power to starve (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war machine," Johnson said in a statement on Sunday. "We are stepping up our sanctions and military support, as well as bolstering our humanitarian support package to help those in need on the ground."
Russia's defence ministry denied Ukrainian allegations of attacks on civilians, saying footage and photographs showing dead bodies in Bucha were "yet another provocation" by Kyiv. (Reuters)
The European Union must discuss an import ban on Russian gas deliveries after Ukrainian and European officials accused Russian forces of committing atrocities near Kyiv, the German defence ministry said on Sunday.
"There has to be a response. Such crimes must not remain without a response," the ministry quoted Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht as saying in an interview. The tweet continued to cite Lambrecht as saying that EU ministers would also have to discuss an end to Russian gas deliveries. (Reuters)
BMW has halted production at two German factories. Mercedes is slowing work at its assembly plants. Volkswagen, warning of production stoppages, is looking for alternative sources for parts.
For more than a year, the global auto industry has struggled with a disastrous shortage of computer chips and other vital parts that has shrunk production, slowed deliveries and sent prices for new and used cars soaring beyond reach for millions of consumers.
Now, a new factor — Russia's war against Ukraine — has thrown up yet another obstacle. Critically important electrical wiring, made in Ukraine, is suddenly out of reach. With buyer demand high, materials scarce and the war causing new disruptions, vehicle prices are expected to head even higher well into next year.
The war's damage to the auto industry has emerged first in Europe. But U.S. production will likely suffer eventually, too, if Russian exports of metals — from palladium for catalytic converters to nickel for electric vehicle batteries — are cut off. (AP)
Ukraine’s foreign minister called on the G7 on Sunday to impose “devastating” new sanctions on Moscow and accused Russia of carrying out a deliberate “massacre” in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv.
Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had retaken all areas around Kyiv and the mayor in Bucha, a liberated town 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, said that 300 residents had been killed by the Russian army. (Read more)
French and German leaders on Sunday joined in growing international condemnation of alleged war crimes and civilian killings committed by Russian forces in Ukrainian towns including Bucha near Kyiv. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed shock about the “terrible and horrifying footage that has reached us this weekend from Ukraine”.
“Dozens of shot civilians have been discovered in Bucha ... Streets littered with bodies. Bodies buried in makeshift conditions. There is talk of women, children and the elderly among the victims,' he said. He added that international organisations should be given access to the areas to independently document the atrocities.
French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned “in the strongest terms” the alleged “massive abuses'. He said France will work with Ukrainian authorities and the International Criminal Court “to ensure these acts don't go unpunished and that those responsible are being sent to trial and convicted'. (AP)
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says in a US television interview that Russian attacks in Ukraine amount to genocide. Zelenskyy told CBS' “Face the Nation” Sunday that there are more than 100 nationalities in Ukraine and “this is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities.
We are citizens of Ukraine and we don't want to be subdued to the policy of Russian Federation.” In an excerpt of the interview released by CBS before it aired, he says, “This is the reason we are being destroyed and exterminated. And this is happening in the Europe of the 21st century. So this is the torture of the whole nation.” (AP)
The governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said on Sunday that shelling had continued throughout the night and day, and described the situation in the region as "turbulent". Ukraine's military has said it believes that Russia has pulled forces from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions to move them to Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas for a new attack aiming to occupy all of both the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. (Reuters)
The Ukrainian military says Russian troops have completed their pullback from the country's north. The military's General Staff said in Sunday's statement that Russian units have withdrawn from areas in the country's north to neighbouring Belarus, which served as a staging ground for the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian military said its airborne forces have taken full control of the town of Pripyat just outside the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the section of the border with Belarus. It posted a picture of the Ukrainian soldier putting up the country's flag with a shelter containing the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986 seen in the background. (PTI)
Germany on Sunday condemned the killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha and called for fresh EU sanctions against Russia, news agency AFP reported.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, "The images from Butscha are unbearable. Putin's rampant violence is wiping out innocent families and knows no bounds."
"Those responsible for these war crimes must be held accountable. We will tighten sanctions against Russia," she added.
The mayor of a Ukrainian city on the northern outskirts of Kyiv on Sunday showed journalists dead bodies in an area that, he said, Chechen fighters controlled during the month that Russian forces occupied the city.
The mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk, showed a Reuters team two corpses with white cloth tied around their arms which - the mayor said - was what residents were forced to wear by fighters from Chechnya, a region in southern Russia that has deployed troops to Ukraine to support Russian forces. One corpse appeared to have his hands bound by the white cloth, and to have been shot in the mouth.
"Any war has some rules of engagement for civilians. The Russians have demonstrated that they were consciously killing civilians," Fedoruk said. (Reuters)
India's position on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has been steadfast and consistent, President Ram Nath Kovind has said, emphasising that the current global order is anchored in international law, UN Charter, and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.
Unlike many other leading powers, India has not yet criticised Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and it abstained from the votes at the UN platforms in condemning the Russian aggression. India has been pressing for the resolution of the crisis through diplomacy and dialogue.
Interacting with young students at the prestigious Institute of International Relations here on Saturday, President Kovind said that India is deeply concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine. “India's position on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has been steadfast and consistent,” he said. (PTI)
A leading rights group said on Sunday it had documented what it described as "apparent war crimes" committed by Russian military forces against civilians in Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement saying it had found "several cases of Russian military forces committing laws-of-war violations" in Russian-controlled regions such as Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv.
The statement, published in Warsaw, came one day after dead civilians were found lying scattered through the streets of the Ukrainian country town of Bucha, three days after the Russian army pulled back after a month-long occupation of the area 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Kyiv. The Russian defence ministry in Moscow did not immediately reply to a request for comment when asked on Sunday about the bodies found in Bucha and the HRW statement. (Reuters)
Several Russian rockets have hit Ukraine's Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, Anton Gerashchenko, an aide to the country's interior ministry, said on Sunday. Gerashchenko said in a social media post that local authorities had reported the attack.
Russian forces have attacked Ukraine's southern ports including Odesa, Mykolaiv and Mariupol as they try to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea and establish a land corridor from Russia to Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized in 2014. (Reuters)
Two blasts were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine on Sunday, two witnesses told Reuters, days after Russian authorities accused Ukrainian forces of striking a fuel depot there. The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear. (Reuters)
Ukraine on Sunday claimed that the killing of civilians in Bucha was a "deliberate massacre" by the Russian troops.
Ukraine's foreign Minister in a tweet said, "Bucha massacre was deliberate. Russians aim to eliminate as many Ukrainians as they can. We must stop them and kicking them out.
"He also demanded the G7 countries to impose new 'devastating' sanctions immediately, including oil, gas and coal embargo; closing of all ports to Russian vessels and goods and also to bar all Russian banks from SWIFT.
Allegations of attacks against civilians during Russia's invasion of Ukraine must be investigated as war crimes, Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said, adding that the UK would fully support any such move by the International Criminal Court.
"As Russian troops are forced into retreat, we are seeing increasing evidence of appalling acts by the invading forces in towns such as Irpin and Bucha," Truss said in a statement, referring to places near Kyiv.
"Their indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians during Russia's illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine must be investigated as war crimes." Russia has previously denied targetting civilians and rejected allegations of war crimes in what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine. (Reuters)
Lithuanian film director Mantas Kvedaravicius was killed on Saturday in Ukraine's Mariupol, a city whose fate he had documented for many years, according to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's information agency and a colleague.
"While trying to leave Mariupol, Russian occupiers killed Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius," the agency tweeted on Sunday. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
"We lost a creator well known in Lithuania and in the whole world, who until the very last moment, in spite of danger, worked in Russia-occupied Ukraine," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Sunday. Kvedaravicius, who was to turn 46 this year, was best known for his conflict-zone documentary "Mariupolis", which premiered at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival. (Reuters)
As Ukraine said its forces had retaken all areas around Kyiv, the mayor of a liberated town said 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army, and victims were seen in a mass grave and still lying on the streets.
Ukrainian troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion on Feb 24. At Bucha, a town neighbouring Irpin just 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, Reuters journalists saw bodies lying in the streets and the hands and feet of multiple corpses poking out of a still-open grave at a church ground.
After more than five weeks of fighting, Russia has pulled back forces that had threatened Kyiv from the north to regroup for battles in eastern Ukraine. 'The whole Kyiv region is liberated from the invader,' Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar wrote on Facebook on Saturday. (Reuters)
Russia missiles struck "critical infrastructure", most likely a fuel depot, near Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa in the early hours of Sunday but there were no casualties, officials in the city said. Odesa, on the Black Sea coast, is a key Black Sea port and the main base for Ukraine's navy. It has been a focus for Russian forces because if it is taken it would allow Moscow to build a land corridor to Transdniestria, a Russian-speaking breakaway province of Moldova which hosts Russian troops.
Russia's defence ministry said missile strikes by its military destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities near Odesa on Sunday, adding that the facilities were used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the city of Mykolaiv.
Vladyslav Nazarov, an officer of Ukraine's South Operational Command, said on Telegram: "Russia began with a missile strike. The Odesa region was among the priority targets. The enemy continued its vile practice of strikes against critical infrastructure." "Smoke is visible in some areas of the city. All relevant systems and structures are working ... No casualties reported." (Reuters)
Russia’s talks with a “hostile” Ukraine have not been easy, but the main thing is that they are continuing, RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday.
“Ukraine is a very difficult country, very difficult for us. In its current state it is hostile towards us,” the agency cited him as telling Belarus television. Russia and Ukraine have held several rounds of negotiations, both in Turkey and by video conference.
“The main thing is that the talks continue, either in Istanbul or somewhere else,” said Peskov, adding that the negotiations were “not easy”.
First came the warnings, in messages among friends and families and on social media, to stock up on vital drugs in Russia before supplies were affected by crippling Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. Then, some drugs indeed became harder to find at pharmacies in Moscow and other cities.
“Not a single pharmacy in the city has it now,” a resident of Kazan told The Associated Press in late March about a blood thinner her father needs. Experts and health authorities in Russia say the drug shortages are temporary — due to panic- buying and logistical difficulties for suppliers from the sanctions — but some remain worried that high-quality medicines will keep disappearing in the Russian market.
“Most likely there will be shortages. How catastrophic it will be, I don’t know,” said Dr. Alexey Erlikh, head of the cardiac intensive care unit in Moscow Hospital No. 29, and a professor at the Moscow-based Pirogov Medical University. (AP)
The Russian defence ministry said missile strikes by its military destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities in near the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa on Sunday. The ministry said the facilities were used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the city of Mykolaiv. (Reuters)
The towering memorial, erected on the battlefield where the Russian imperial army routed Hungarian troops, mourns Russia’s 1849 victory over “brave homeland defenders.” It is a reminder of how, for centuries, the Hungarian psyche has been shaped and scarred by the specter of Russian domination. “There has been a constant fear of Russia,” said Gyorgy Miru, a history professor in Debrecen, a Hungarian city near the border with Ukraine where the battle took place. Read the NYT story here
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that seven buses will attempt to go closer to Mairupol to help evacuating people. The buses will come with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). (Reuters)
Russian forces that were intent on overwhelming Kyiv, Ukraine, at the war’s start with tanks and artillery retreated under fire across a broad front Saturday, leaving behind them dead soldiers and burned vehicles, according to witnesses, Ukrainian officials, satellite images and military analysts. The withdrawal suggested the possibility of a major turn in the six-week war: the collapse, at least for now, of Russia’s initial attempt to seize Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and the end of its hopes for the quick subjugation of the nation.
Moscow has described the withdrawal as a tactical move to regroup and reposition its forces for a major push in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. While there are early indications that the military is following through on that plan, analysts say it cannot obscure the magnitude of the defeat. Read more
The UK military intelligence on Sunday said that "despite ongoing Russian efforts to diminish Ukrainian air defence capability, Ukraine continues to provide a significant challenge to Russian Air and Missile operations." As a result, Russian aircraft are still vulnerable to short and medium range air defence systems, it tweeted.
As Ukraine claimed its forces had retaken all areas around Kyiv, the mayor of a liberated town said 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army, and victims were seen in a mass grave and still lying on the streets.
Ukraine's troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion.
At Bucha, a town neighbouring Irpen, just 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, Reuters journalists saw bodies lying in the streets, and the hands and feet of multiple corpses poking out of a still open grave at a church ground. After five weeks of fighting, Russia has pulled back forces that had threatened Kyiv from the north to regroup for battles in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russian naval forces continue to blockade the Ukrainian coast on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, preventing resupply by sea, British military intelligence said on Sunday. Russia retains the capability to attempt an amphibious landing, but such an operation is likely to be increasingly high risk due to the time Ukrainian forces have had to prepare, the Ministry of Defence tweeted
"Mines within the Black Sea pose a serious risk to maritime activity," it said.The report said the origin of the mines was unclear and disputed but that they were almost certainly the result of Russian naval activity in the area, demonstrating how its invasion of Ukraine is affecting neutral and civilian interests. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. (Reuters)
A top American Congresswoman has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for trying to broker peace between the United States and Russia on Ukraine and hoped that his efforts would be helpful in restoring peace in the region.
On Friday, Modi conveyed to visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that India stands ready to contribute in any way to the peace efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and called for early cessation of violence in that country.
"Well, I think that right now he (Modi) is trying to broker a peace between Russia and America with Ukraine. I think that's a very positive goal to have. We (India and US) have strong economic ties, we have strong peace ties, and we have strong similar values, I would say we have the same form of government," Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney told PTI in an interview. (PTI)
The accounts of resistance in the small garrison town of Vasylkiv have already taken on the sheen of legend. There are reports of Russian transport planes shot down, paratroopers hunted in the woods and even an unknown Ukrainian pilot nicknamed the Ghost of Kyiv defending the skies.
Hyperboles aside, the people of this quiet provincial town of tree-lined streets and low-rise buildings dating back to the Russian empire managed to fight off Russian troops in the critical opening days of the war, preventing Russian forces from capturing strategic bases that could have allowed the nation’s capital, Kyiv, to be encircled. Read the NYT story here
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said a team with three vehicles and nine staff members had planned to get into Mariupol, scene of some of the war's worst attacks, on Saturday to evacuate residents. The Red Cross said it could not carry out the operation Friday because it did not receive assurances the route was safe. City authorities said the Russians blocked access to the city.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday evening the team, which departed Zaporizhzhia in the morning, was "spending the night en route to Mariupol and are yet to reach the city.” Around 100,000 people are believed to remain in the city on the Sea of Azov, down from a prewar population of 430,000, and facing dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine.
The Mariupol city council said earlier Saturday that 10 empty buses were headed to Berdyansk, a city 52 miles (84 kilometers) west of Mariupol, to pick up people who managed to get there on their own. About 2,000 made it out of Mariupol on Friday, city officials said. (AP)
A Russian group that monitors political arrests says 208 people were detained in demonstrations held Saturday across the country protesting Russia's military operation in Ukraine. The OVD-Info group said demonstrations took place in 17 Russian cities, from Siberia to the more densely populated west.
More than 70 people were were detained in Moscow and a similar number in St. Petersburg, the organization said. Video released by another group that monitors protests, Avtozak, showed some detainees being led to police prisoner transports as they smiled and carried flowers. Others were shown to be more harshly forced into the transports, bent over with their arms pinioned behind them. Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has cracked down heavily on dissent, even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. (AP)
Lithuania has stopped importing natural gas from Russia as of April and will be able to rely instead on deliveries from other countries to meet its energy needs, the country’s president announced Saturday, saying the move was an example for other European Union members.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU had been looking for ways to reduce its dependency on Russian fossil fuels, including coal and oil, but especially gas. Nearly 40% of the bloc’s total natural gas came from Russia. But since Moscow ordered tanks into Ukraine on Feb. 24, member states have been more actively seeking ways to cut their gas needs.
“If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do it too,” Gitanas Nauseda, Lithuania’s president, said on Twitter on Saturday. (New York Times)
This is Radio Ukraine calling. A new Prague-based internet radio station has started to broadcast news, information and music tailored to the day-to-day concerns of some 300,000 refugees who have arrived in the Czech Republic since Russia launched its military assault against Ukraine. In a studio at the heart of the Czech capital, radio veterans work together with absolute beginners to provide the refugees with what they need to know to settle as smoothly as possible in a new country.
The staff of 10 combines people who have fled Ukraine in recent weeks with those who have been living abroad for years. No matter who they are, their common goal is to help fellow Ukrainians and their homeland facing the brutal Russian invasion. Read more
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said that Ukrainian troops retaking areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv are not allowing Russians to retreat without a fight, but are “shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.”
“What is the goal of the Russian troops? They want to seize the Donbas and the south of Ukraine,” he said. “What is our goal? To defend ourselves, our freedom, our land and our people.”
“Thanks to this resistance, thanks to the courage and resilience of our other cities, Ukraine has gained invaluable time, time that is allowing us to foil the enemy’s tactics and weaken its capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. (AP)
Ukraine's deputy prime minister says 765 residents managed to make it out of Mariupol in private vehicles on Sunday while a team of humanitarian workers is yet to reach the hard-hit city. Iryna Vereshchuk said the residents reached Zaporizhzhia, a city 140 miles (226 kilometres) to the northwest. (AP)
Authorities in the tiny breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova denied "absolutely untrue" claims Saturday by Ukraine that Russian troops based there are massing to conduct "provocations" along Ukraine's border. Earlier Saturday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russian troops already in Transnistria were preparing for "a demonstration of readiness for the offensive and, possibly, hostilities against Ukraine."
"The information disseminated by the General Staff of Ukraine is absolutely untrue," Transnistria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that leaders have repeatedly "declared the absence of any threat to Ukraine. (AP)
Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had seized back all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched the invasion. As Russian troops regrouped for battles in east Ukraine, towns surrounding Kyiv bore scars of five weeks of fighting. Dead civilians laid scattered over streets, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of leaving behind mines. Read here
A series of explosions were heard and smoke was seen in Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa in the early hours of Sunday, a Reuters witness said. There was no official information about the attack. (Reuters)
The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces on Saturday said the intensity of Russian air and missile strikes had diminished, adding that Moscow continued to withdraw units through the north of Ukraine.In a Facebook post, the general staff also said retreating Russian forces were deploying mines on roads and in some settlements. (Reuters)
Maksim Levin, a photographer and videographer who was working for a Ukrainian news website and was a long-time contributor to Reuters, was killed while covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He leaves behind his wife and four children. His body was found in a village north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 1, the news website LB.ua where he worked said on Saturday.
Levin, born in 1981, was a documentary film maker who had contributed to Reuters’ coverage of the country since 2013.He had been working in the village of Huta Mezhyhirska. There had been heavy shelling in that area. Read more
On Saturday, Ukrainian forces seized back all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched the invasion, amid fears that Russian forces left booby-trapped explosives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops retaking areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv are not allowing Russians to retreat without a fight, but are “shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.” In his Saturday night video address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine knows Russia has the forces to put even more pressure on the east and south of Ukraine. (AP)
Wladimir Klitschko, a Ukrainian former boxing champion whose brother is the mayor of Kyiv, heaped praise on Germany for its help after meeting officials in Berlin in an effort to drum up more support for his country.
Klitschko and his brother Vitali, also a former boxing star, have strong ties to Germany, having spent most of their professional careers there. But they have previously accused Berlin of failing to do enough to help Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.
In a video shot outside the Bundestag and posted on his Twitter feed, Wladimir Klitschko said he had been able to see for himself during his two-day visit that the two nations were "truly brothers and sisters figuratively now" and he would never forget Germany's support. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian soldiers of deliberately mining areas in northern Ukraine as they withdraw or are pushed out by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine says its troops have retaken control of more than 30 towns and villages in the Kyiv region since Russia announced this week it would scale down its operations around the capital to focus on battles in the east. "In the north of our country, the invaders are leaving. It is slow but noticeable. In some places they are being kicked out with fighting. Elsewhere they're abandoning the positions themselves," Zelenskyy said in a video address released on Saturday, without citing evidence."They are mining all this territory. Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people."
Russia's defence ministry did not reply to a request for comment on the allegations. Reuters could not independently verify the allegations. (Reuters)
A Red Cross convoy heading to Mariupol was set to try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast.
* Ukrainian forces continue to advance against withdrawing Russian forces in the vicinity of Kyiv, British military intelligence said.
* Russian missiles hit two cities in central Ukraine, damaging infrastructure and residential buildings, the head of the Poltava region said.
* Russia's defence ministry said high-precision air-launched missiles had disabled military airfields in Poltava and Dnipro.
* Maksim Levin, a photographer and videographer who was working for a Ukrainian news website and was a long-time contributor to Reuters, was killed while covering the war.
* Heavy battles are coming up in Ukraine's eastern and southern regions and for the besieged city of Mariupol in particular, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.
* Seven humanitarian corridors to evacuate people from Ukraine's besieged regions are planned for Saturday, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
* As Dmytro Kartavov and his family joined thousands of people trying to flee Mariupol, one additional obstacle awaited as Russian troops sought to identify anyone fighting with Ukrainian forces defending the city. (Reuters)
As Dmytro Kartavov and his family joined thousands of people trying to flee the bombed-out city of Mariupol, one additional obstacle awaited as Russian troops sought to identify anyone fighting with Ukrainian forces defending the city.
"They stripped the men naked, looked for tattoos," said Kartayov, a 32-year-old builder, who said the troops paid particular attention to men's knees.
"I work, I do repairs, naturally my knees - these are working knees. They say - (you) climbed trenches, dug, and the like."
Speaking in a supermarket that has been turned into a reception centre in the Ukrainian-held town of Zaporizhzhia some 200 km from Mariupol, he told Reuters the family left the besieged city to the west, reaching the port of Berdyansk by bus before crossing into Ukrainian-held territory on foot. On the way, Kartavov said Russian soldiers checked men for signs they had been fighting with Ukrainian forces. (Reuters)
Ukraine's railways are struggling with a backlog of grain wagons on the country's western border as traders look for alternative export routes after Russia's invasion blocked off the main Black Sea ports, analyst APK-Inform said on Saturday.
Ukraine was the world's fourth-largest grain exporter in the 2020/21 season, according to International Grains Council data, with most of its commodities shipped out via the Black Sea.But with war raging along much of the coast, traders are scrambling to transport more grain by rail.
APK-Inform said Ukrainian Railways had opened 12 terminals for traders, but wagons were backing up and the railways would need two or three weeks to process them and send to consumers.
"Traders are continuing to search for the possibility of redirecting exports to the EU by rail or via Romanian ports, but the key barriers remain limited bandwidth logistics ability and its high cost," APK-Inform said. (Reuters)
Maksim Levin, a photographer and videographer who was working for a Ukrainian news website and was a long-time contributor to Reuters, was killed while covering Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He leaves behind his wife and four children.
His body was found in a village north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 1, the news website LB.ua where he worked said on Saturday.
Levin, born in 1981, was a documentary film maker who had contributed to Reuters' coverage of the country since 2013.He had been working in the village of Huta Mezhyhirska. There had been heavy shelling in that area.
The prosecutor general's office in Ukraine said Levin was "killed by servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces with two shots from small arms". This could not be independently verified. (Reuters) Read more
Heavy battles are coming up in Ukraine's eastern and southern regions and for the besieged city of Mariupol in particular, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Saturday.
Speaking on national television, Arestovych said Ukrainian troops around Kyiv had retaken more than 30 towns or villages in the region and were holding the front line against Russian forces in the east."Let us have no illusions - there are still heavy battles ahead for the south, for Mariupol, for the east of Ukraine," he said. (Reuters)
At least 35 people have been confirmed killed as a result of Tuesday's rocket strike on the regional administration building in Ukraine's southern port city of Mykolaiv, Governor Vitaliy Kim said in an online post on Saturday.
Rescue workers have continued to dismantle the rubble and search for victims after the strike blasted a hole through the side of the building in central Mykolaiv. (Reuters)
Pope Francis came the closest he has yet to implicitly criticising President Vladimir Putin over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying on Saturday a "potentate" was fomenting conflicts for nationalist interests.
Moscow says the action it launched on Feb. 24 is a "special military operation" designed not to occupy territory but to demilitarise and "denazify" its neighbour. Francis has already rejected that terminology, calling it a war.
"From the east of Europe, from the land of the sunrise, the dark shadows of war have now spread. We had thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a distant past," the pope said in an address to Maltese officials after arriving on the Mediterranean island nation for a two-day visit.
"However, the icy winds of war, which bring only death, destruction and hatred in their wake, have swept down powerfully upon the lives of many people and affected us all," he said. (Reuters)
Ukraine on Saturday said Russian forces were making a "rapid retreat" from northern areas around the capital Kyiv and the city of Chernigiv as the Red Cross prepared for a fresh evacuation effort from the besieged southern port of Mariupol. (AFP)
A Red Cross convoy heading to Mariupol will try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast.
* Ukrainian forces continue to advance against withdrawing Russian forces in the vicinity of Kyiv, British military intelligence said.
* Russian missiles hit two cities in central Ukraine, damaging infrastructure and residential buildings, the head of the Poltava region said.
* Russia's defence ministry said high-precision air-launched missiles had disabled military airfields in Poltava and Dnipro.
* Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out an air strike against a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod on Friday, an incident the Kremlin said could affect peace talks, but a top Kyiv security official denied responsibility.
* Seven humanitarian corridors to evacuate people from Ukraine's besieged regions are planned for Saturday, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
* Pope Francis said he was considering a trip to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
* Russia's space director said the restoration of normal ties between partners at the International Space Station (ISS) and other joint space projects would be possible only once Western sanctions against Moscow are lifted.
* Ukraine's economy shrank 16% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year and could contract 40% in 2022 as a result of Russia's invasion, the economy ministry said, citing preliminary estimates.
* The European Union is working on further sanctions on Russia but any additional measures will not affect the energy sector, the EU's Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said.
* British transport minister Grant Shapps said he has prevented the use of another private jet that has links to Russian oligarchs. (Reuters)
Brovary’s mayor said during a televised address on Friday evening that “Russian occupants have now left practically all of the Brovary district.” He added that the Ukrainian forces would begin working to clear the region of remaining Russian soldiers there as well as “military hardware, and possibly from mines”. The mayor said that many Brovary residents had already returned to the city, and that shops and businesses were reopening.
Earlier on Friday, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that satellite towns northwest of Kyiv were being targeted after Ukrainian fighters pushed back Russian troops, and that fighting had also taken place in Brovary. (Reuters)
Pope Francis said on Saturday that he was considering a trip to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Asked by a reporter on the plane taking him from Rome to Malta if he was considering an invitation made by Ukrainian political and religious authorities, Francis answered: "Yes, it is on the table". He gave no further details.
Francis has been invited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Ukraine's Byzantine-rite Catholic Church and Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican, Andriy Yurash. (Reuters)
Russia's space director said Saturday that the restoration of normal ties between partners at the International Space Station (ISS) and other joint space projects would be possible only once Western sanctions against Moscow are lifted.
Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, said in a social media post that the aim of the sanctions is to "kill Russian economy and plunge our people into despair and hunger, to get our country on its knees".
He added, "they won't succeed in it, but the intentions are clear". "That's why I believe that the restoration of normal relations between the partners at the International Space Station (ISS) and other projects is possible only with full and unconditional removal of illegal sanctions," Rogozin said. (Reuters)
Ukraine's economy shrank 16% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year and could contract 40% in 2022 as a result of Russia's invasion, the economy ministry said in a statement on Saturday, citing preliminary estimates.
"Areas in which remote work is impossible have suffered the most," it said. (Reuters)