Russia's forced transfer of Ukrainian children amounts to genocide, the Council of Europe said Thursday in a resolution adopted by its parliamentary assembly. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the resolution as an "important" decision that will help "hold Russia and its leaders to account". Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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04:10am: Explosions reported in Kyiv - Interfax, Telegram channels
Explosions resounded in Kyiv and the region surrounding the capital early on Friday, Interfax Ukraine and local telegram channels reported.
There were no details on which targets had been struck after midnight or of damage and casualties. The city's military administration said anti-aircraft units were in operation.
Earlier reports said cities stretching from central Ukraine to southern Mykolaiv Region had been hit by explosions after air raid alerts were declared throughout the country.
9:32pm: Russia's forced transfer of Ukraine children 'genocide', Council of Europe says
Russia's forced transfer of Ukrainian children amounts to genocide, the Council of Europe said Thursday in a resolution adopted by its parliamentary assembly.
Calling for the safe return of the children to Ukraine, the parliament said "the documented evidence of this practice matches with the international definition of genocide".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the resolution as an "important" decision that will help "hold Russia and its leaders to account".
The deportation of Ukrainian children is one element of "Russia's attempt to erase the identity of our people, to destroy the very essence of the Ukrainian people", he said in his evening address.
7:25pm: Basketball star Griner urges US detainees in Russia to 'stay strong'
WNBA superstar Brittney Griner urged US detainees in Russia to "stay strong, keep fighting, don't give up" on Thursday in her first press conference since being released as part of a prisoner swap last year.
Speaking in Arizona as she prepares to resume her career with the Phoenix Mercury, Griner vowed to keep fighting on behalf of people wrongfully detained around the world.
Asked what her message would be for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and US citizen Paul Whelan, both held in Russia, Griner replied: "I would say to everyone that's wrongfully detained right across the world: 'Stay strong, keep fighting, don't give up'.
"Just keep waking up. Find a little routine and stick to the routine as best as you can. That's what helped me," she said.
3:14pm: Ukraine ask Pope's help in getting children back from Russia
Ukraine’s prime minister said he asked Pope Francis during a private Vatican audience Thursday to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken to Russia.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, briefing reporters on his half-hour audience with the pontiff, said he also invited Francis to come to Ukraine.
“I asked His Holiness to help us return home Ukrainians, Ukrainian children who are detained, arrested, and criminally deported to Russia,'' Shmyhal said.
The Vatican's brief statement on the audience did not go into particular points of the talks. It noted that Shmyhal met with the Holy See's secretary of state and foreign minister after his meeting with Francis
2:54pm: Russia's Prigozhin denies suspending artillery fire in Bakhmut
The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said on Thursday he had been joking when he said his men would suspend artillery fire in Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces on the other side of the frontline to show the city to visiting US journalists.
Wagner has been spearheading Russia's assault on Bakhmut since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, but Ukrainian forces have so far thwarted its attempts to take full control of the city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's founder, said in an audio message published on Thursday by his press service: "A decision has been taken to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists can safely film Bakhmut and go home."
2:33pm: Russia denies US consular visit to jailed journalist
Moscow said Thursday it had denied an upcoming consular visit to detained US journalist Evan Gershkovich in retaliation for Washington not issuing visas to several Russian journalists.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained last weekend that the United States had denied visas to Russian journalists due to travel with him to the UN headquarters.
"The US embassy was informed that its request for a consular visit on May 11 [...] to US citizen (Evan) Gershkovich, who was detained on charges of espionage, has been rejected," the Russian foreign ministry said.
1:45pm: Ukraine PM invites pope to visit, urges help with deported children
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Thursday invited Pope Francis to visit his country, during a meeting at the Vatican, where he also asked for help to return children forcibly taken to Russia.
"I invited His Holiness to visit Ukraine in person," Shmyhal told reporters at the Foreign Press Association in Rome a few hours after the papal audience.
He said he had discussed with the 86-year-old pope the peace plan proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war sparked by Russia's invasion last year. This included "discussing in a little more detail the different steps the Vatican could take" to help Kyiv achieve its goals, the prime minister said, speaking through an Italian translator.
1:35pm: Moscow does not plan nuclear escalation, but warns its patience not to be tested, Kremlin says
Russia does not intend to take the path of nuclear escalation in its standoff with the West over Ukraine but others should not test its patience, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
Her comments follow a flurry of warnings by senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, that Western military support for Ukraine is increasing the risks of a catastrophic nuclear conflict.
"We will do everything to prevent the development of events according to the worst scenario, but not at the cost of infringing on our vital interests," Zakharova told a regular news conference. "I do not recommend that anybody doubt our determination and put it to the test in practice," she added.
12:48pm: Russia’s Wagner says suspending artillery fire in Ukraine’s Bakhmut to allow US press tour
The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said on Thursday it was suspending artillery fire in Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces on the other side of the frontline to safely show the city to visiting US journalists.
Wagner has been spearheading Russia's assault on Bakhmut since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, but Ukrainian forces have so far thwarted its attempts to take full control of the city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's founder, said in an audio message published by his press service: "A decision has been taken to suspend artillery fire so that American journalists can safely film Bakhmut and go home."
12:07pm: Kremlin says US, France trying to undercut Russia's role in Armenia-Azerbaijan mediation
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the United States and France were trying to undermine Russia's own role in mediating a standoff between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Both Washington and Paris have expressed their readiness to help resolve the situation and Zakharova made her comments at a time when France's foreign minister is touring the wider South Caucasus region, with visits to both Baku and Yerevan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds for more than three decades over the breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and tensions have heightened in recent months after Baku began partially blockading the region's ethnic Armenian population.
11:50am: Moscow welcomes Xi-Zelensky call on Ukraine war but says Russian aims remain the same
The Kremlin said on Thursday it welcomed anything that could bring the end of the Ukraine conflict closer when asked what it thought of a phone call a day earlier between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But the Kremlin said it still needed to achieve the aims of what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
The Chinese and Ukrainian leaders on Wednesday spoke for the first time since Russia sent its troops into Ukraine in February last year, fulfilling a longstanding goal of Kyiv which had publicly sought such talks for months.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was familiar with the details of what the two leaders had discussed and said their stances on the conflict were well known.
"We are ready to welcome anything that could hasten the end of the conflict in Ukraine and Russia achieving all the goals it has set itself," Peskov said of their phone call.
11:30am: Western allies have delivered almost all the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine, NATO chief says
NATO allies have delivered almost all of their promised combat vehicles to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, among them 1,550 armoured vehicles and 230 tanks.
"More than 98 percent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have been delivered," said Stoltenberg, as he spoke at a news briefing alongside Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.
Stoltenberg also welcomed the call between Xi and Zelensky, although he noted it did not change the fact that China had still not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
10:50am: Blast kills police officer in Russia-controlled Melitopol
A blast on Tuesday killed a police officer in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Russian authorities said, in the latest in a series of such attacks.
Melitopol, with a pre-war population of around 150,000 people, was captured early after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year and now lies some 65 kilometres (40 miles) behind the frontline further north.
"Today at about 5:15 am (0200 GMT) there was an explosion at the entrance of an apartment building in Melitopol," the local branch of the Russian interior ministry said. "Two policemen were injured and hospitalised. Subsequently, one of them died," it added.
Melitopol is in Zaporizhzhia, one of four regions -- along with Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kherson -- that Russia claimed to have annexed last year despite not having full military control over them.
10:45am: Russian court fines Wikipedia 2 million roubles for not deleting 'deleting content' on military
A Russian court on Thursday fined the WikiMedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, two million roubles (US$24,510) for not deleting what it said was "banned content" related to the Russian military, Interfax reported.
8:10am: Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Mykolaiv kills one, wounds 23
One person was killed and 23 people, including a child, were wounded in a Russian missile strike on an apartment block and houses in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Thursday, officials said.
"At night, Russia bombarded Mykolaiv with four Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Sea," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram app. "The high-precision weapons were aimed at private houses, a historic building, and a high-rise building. For now, we know about one dead and 23 wounded, including a child."
Regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said the emergency services put out several fires caused by the missile debris and that they were clearing the rubble.
3:10am: Russians pound frontline positions in Bakhmut, Ukraine military says
The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, in a report on Facebook, said fighting gripped Bakhmut and nearby areas. It said Russian forces had failed to advance on two villages to the northwest. At least a dozen localities came under Russian fire.
Separately, Serhiy Cherevatiy, spokesman for Ukraine's eastern group of forces, told national television on Wednesday that in the past 24 hours, Russian forces had attacked 324 times using artillery and multiple rocket launchers.
"The Russians are destroying buildings in Bakhmut to prevent our soldiers from using them as fortifications," Cherevatiy said.
10:07pm: Kyiv wants to get China 'on side'
After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, FRANCE 24's Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg commented on the two leaders' first conversation since the Russian invasion.
"Ukrainians are just very very diplomatic with the Chinese; they can be extremely sharp-tongued sometimes with their Western allies, but with the Chinese it's very much the standard diplomatic language," Cragg noted. "The Ukrainians, I think, still hope that China's role in this conflict could be a positive one. They fear that China might start arming the Russians [...] so they want to get the Chinese on side, partly with a view to a possible mediation; partly of course they are also thinking about the contribution that China will be able to make to the eventual reconstruction of Ukraine after hostilities cease.
"But it has to be said that the page China is currently on is very much not the one that the Ukrainians would like it to be on," Cragg added.
8:55pm: US, Europe looking at ways to improve Ukraine's grain exports
US and European officials on Wednesday toured Ukraine's southern port of Izmail that's important in bringing Ukrainian grain to the world – and could become critical if a deal with Russia to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports expires.
From Izmail, which has been upgraded since the start of the war with the help of US and other funding, grain is taken by barge down a branch of the Danube through Romania to its Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onward.
US Ambassador Bridget Brink told AP after looking over the port facilities with Ukrainian and EU officials, as well as Ukrainian grain companies, that they were exploring ways to increase the exports from Danube ports.
8:28pm: EU welcomes Xi-Zelensky talks
Brussels welcomed Wednesday's conversation between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, thought to be their first call since Russia invaded Ukraine.
"It is an important, long overdue first step by China in exercising its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council," said European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.
"China's leadership needs to use its influence to bring Russia to end its war of aggression, restore Ukraine's territorial integrity and respect its sovereignty, as a basis for a just peace."
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Key developments from Tuesday, April 26
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had had a “long and meaningful” phone conversation on Wednesday, their first known contact since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed a new ambassador to Beijing on Wednesday after his first call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since Moscow's invasion.
Ukraine's military will get the weaponry it needs in time for an upcoming counter-offensive against invading Russian forces, the top US general in Europe told Congress on Wednesday.
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Wednesday that he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for life, as authorities set the stage for a new trial against the Kremlin's leading critic.
Ukraine has repatriated 44 prisoners of war from Russian custody, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Wednesday.
Russia warned Wednesday that "no progress" had been made towards meeting the conditions it has set for extending a Ukraine grain exports deal aimed at easing the global food crisis.
Germany and Britain intercepted three Russian military reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the German air force said on Wednesday.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
