Russian occupational authorities in southern Ukraine said Saturday that Ukrainian forces were subjecting the city of Novaya Kakhovka to “intense artillery fire” that had cut off electricity. The shelling came the same day that authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea reported a drone attack on a fuel depot and as Kyiv prepares for a widely expected counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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9:36pm: Hundreds rally in Moscow to demonstrate support for war
Hundreds of Kremlin-loyal bikers under the banner of the Night Wolves motorcycle club took to the streets of Moscow Saturday for a "patriotic" rally across Europe.
The motorcade headed by club founder and leader Alexandre Zaldastanov, known as "The Surgeon", aims to complete the rally in Berlin by May 9.
Several participants at the rally waved Russian and Soviet flags. Some had the letter "Z" fixed to their bikes – a symbol of the "Russia's special military operation" in Ukraine launched in February 2022.
Dubbed "the roads of victory", the rally adopted the traditional slogan of the Russian offensive in Ukraine: "We do not let down our own".
4:52pm: Crimea fuel intended for Russia's Black Sea fleet, Ukraine intelligence official says
More than 10 tanks of oil totalling up to 40,000 tonnes were destroyed in the fire at a Crimean fuel storage facility. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the fuel was destined for use by Russia's Black Sea fleet. Meanwhile the Russia-installed government of Sevastopol, the port city of Crimea, said the loss "will not affect the supply of fuel to Sevastopol".
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3:42pm: Fire extinguished at Crimea fuel depot after Ukraine attack
A fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, caused by a drone strike, has been fully extinguished, the Moscow-installed governor there said on Saturday.
Experts had examined the site and "it became clear that only one drone was able to reach the oil reservoir", Mikhail Razvozhaev said on the Telegram messaging app. Another drone was downed, its wreckage found on the shore near the terminal, he added. Earlier he said no one was injured.
3:39pm: Ukraine shelling leaves five villages without power
Five Russian villages on the border with Ukraine were without power as a result of Ukrainian shelling, the governor of Russia's south-western Belgorod region that borders Ukraine said Saturday.
"The village of Novaya Tavolzhanka came under Ukrainian shelling today," Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
"The power lines are damaged," he said, adding that residents in the village and four others nearby were "without electricity".
3:27pm: Over 10 oil tanks destoyed by Crimea blast, Ukraine military intellegence says
A Ukrainian military intelligence official said on Saturday more than 10 tanks of oil products with capacity of around 40,000 tonnes were destroyed in an explosion on the Russian-occupied port of Sevastopol on April 29, RBC Ukraine reported.
The official, Andriy Yusov, did not claim Ukraine was responsible for the explosion in comments reported by RBC, instead describing the blast as "God's punishment" for a Russian strike on a Ukrainian city on Friday.
2:25pm: Russian authorities slams Poland over school seizure
Russia said that Poland impounding a school run by the Russian embassy in Warsaw on Saturday was a "blatant violation" of international agreements and warned of "harsh" consequences.
"We regard this as yet another hostile act by the Polish authorities and a blatant violation of the Vienna Convention of 1961," the Russian foreign ministry said.
It "goes beyond the framework of civilised interstate communication and will not remain without our harsh reaction and consequences for Polish authorities and Poland's interests in Russia", the ministry added.
1:45pm: Russian-occupied Southern Ukrainian city of Novaya Kakhova under 'intense fire’ amid counter-offensive preparations
Russian-installed authorities in southern Ukraine said Saturday that Ukrainian forces were subjecting the city of Novaya Kakhovka to "intense artillery fire" that had cut off electricity. This comes as Kyiv prepares for a widely expected counter-offensive against pro-Moscow forces.
Novaya Kakhovka is in the part of the southern Kherson region that Russia controls. It lies upstream the Dnipro River from Kherson, the regional capital from which Russia withdrew last November.
"Novaya Kakhovka and settlements around the district are under very intense artillery fire from the armed forces of Ukraine," the city's Russian-installed authorities said on Telegram. It added that the shelling left the city "without power."
10:40am: Russia’s Putin signs decree allowing deportation of annexed territories’ inhabitants without Russian passport
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree that gives people living in parts of Ukraine under Moscow's control a path to Russian citizenship but means those who decline or who do not legalise their status face potential deportation. The decree extends to four Ukrainian regions which Russia has claimed as its own and partially controls: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Kyiv says it will retake all four areas and has accused Moscow of trying to browbeat its citizens into accepting Russian citizenship.
The new decree sets out ways that Ukrainian citizens or those holding passports issued by Russia-backed breakaway republics, and who live in the four regions, can start the process of becoming Russian citizens or legalise their status with the Russian authorities.
But it also says that anyone who does not take such action by July 1 of next year will be regarded as a foreign citizen, something that will leave them at risk of being deported from territory that Russia considers its own.
The decree also allows the authorities to deport people from the four regions if they are deemed a threat to Russia's national security or take part in what the decree refers to as unauthorised protests.
9:50am: Huge fire starts at Crimea fuel depot after drone strike, pro-Moscow authorities says
A huge fire broke out on Saturday at a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the main port in Moscow-annexed Crimea, with the Moscow-installed governor saying it was the result of a drone attack. The fire was still burning but it had been contained and no one was injured, Mikhail Razvozhaev said.
Sevastopol is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet and has been hit by a series of drone attacks since the Kremlin's Ukraine offensive launched last year.
"A fuel reserve is on fire in the Kazachya Bay district" of the city, the Moscow-installed governor of the peninsula Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram in the early hours of Saturday. "According to preliminary information, it was caused by a drone strike."
He did not say whether the drone he cited as causing the fire was Ukrainian. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country is seeking to reclaim the peninsula during Russia's current full-scale invasion, and the city of Sevastopol has come under repeated air attacks since the start of the war.
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Key developments from Monday, April 24
Russia attacked cities across Ukraine early on Friday, killing at least 26 people, according to local officials. The deadly new attacks included a strike on a residential block in the historic city of Uman in central Ukraine. The barrage of almost two dozen missiles ended a weeks-long pause following the repeated Russian strikes that had aimed to paralyse Ukraine's energy grid during the winter months.
Ukraine said it downed 21 of 23 Russian missiles and two attack drones overnight.
The new strikes came as Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said his country's preparations to push back against entrenched Russian positions were almost complete.
NATO allies and partners have provided Ukraine with 1,550 armoured vehicles and 230 tanks to form units and help it retake territory from Russian forces, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
