Thirty-one children have been brought back to Ukraine after being illegally taken to Russia from territories occupied by Moscow, the Save Ukraine charity said on Saturday. In the eastern city of Kramatorsk, Ukrainians laid flowers at the central train station one year after a Russian missile strike killed scores of people and injured more than 160. Read our live blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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6:13pm: 31 Ukrainian children returned from Russia, Save Ukraine charity says
Thirty-one children have been brought back to Ukraine after being illegally taken to Russia from territories occupied by Moscow, a charity said Saturday.
"Today we are welcoming home 31 more children who have been illegally taken by Russians from occupied territories," Mykola Kuleba, head of the Save Ukraine charity, wrote on social media.
The children had been taken from the pro-Western country's northeastern region of Kharkiv and the southern region of Kherson, said Save Ukraine, which fights against what it says are illegal deportations of Ukrainian children.
2:44pm: Ukrainians mourn scores killed at rail hub one year ago
Ukrainians in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Saturday laid flowers at a small memorial at the central train station one year after a Russian missile strike hit the transport hub, killing scores.
>> Residents of Ukraine's Kramatorsk left behind after train station strike halts evacuations
A slow trickle of residents approached a small plaque topped with flowers and children's toys at the station.
They crossed themselves, standing or kneeling silently or crying.
The strike on April 8 last year killed 61 people and injured more than 160 in one of the single deadliest attacks of the war, which targeted civilians fleeing Russia's advance.
1:30pm: Hundreds turn out for funeral of Russian military blogger
Hundreds of supporters including Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of mercenary outfit Wagner, turned out Saturday for the funeral of a high-profile Russian military blogger killed in a bombing attack.
Last week an explosion ripped through a café in Russia's second city St Petersburg, killing 40-year-old Vladlen Tatarsky, who was known for his staunch anti-Ukraine stance.
>> St Petersburg café killing exposes Russia’s security woes
At a Kremlin ceremony announcing the annexation of four Ukrainian regions last September, Tatarsky recorded himself saying: "We will defeat everyone. We will kill everyone. We will rob everyone as necessary. Just as we like it."
Mourners, some carrying flowers, gathered at the prestigious Troyekurovskoye cemetery in western Moscow amid a beefed-up police presence.
11:02am: Local governor says missile fired from Ukraine shot down over Crimean town
A missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea, the Russian head of Crimea's administration said on Saturday.
"A missile launched from Ukraine was shot down over Feodosia," Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram. FRANCE 24 could not immediately verify the claim.
Russia's TASS news agency quoted an adviser to Aksyonov, Oleg Kryuchkov, as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties had been reported.
10:36am: Ukraine minister to visit India for talks
A Ukrainian minister will visit India from Sunday in the first face-to-face talks between the two countries since Russia's invasion last year.
India imports much of its military hardware from Russia. New Delhi is walking a balancing act between, on the one hand, its increased security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region with Western countries amid rivalry with China, and, on the other hand, its continued reliance on Russia for defence and oil imports. While it has called for an end to hostilities in Ukraine, India has refused to condemn the invasion.
>> Ukraine war exposes splits between Global North and South
Emine Dzhaparova, Kyiv's first deputy foreign minister, will "exchange views on the current situation in Ukraine" with a senior member of India's foreign ministry, according to an Indian government statement.
8:04am: Russia likely behind US military document leak, US officials say
Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of several classified US military documents posted on social media that offer a partial, month-old snapshot of the war in Ukraine, three US officials told Reuters on Friday, while the Justice Department said separately it was investigating the leak.
The documents appear to have been altered to lower the number of casualties suffered by Russian forces, the US officials said, adding their assessments were informal and separate from the investigation into the leak itself.
The US officials spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter and declined to discuss the documents in any detail.
An initial batch of documents circulated on sites including Twitter and Telegram, dated March 1 and bearing markings showing them classified as "Secret" and "Top Secret."
Later on Friday, an additional batch appearing to detail US national security secrets pertaining to areas including Ukraine, the Middle East and China surfaced on social media, The New York Times reported.
Former senior Pentagon official Mick Mulroy told The New York Times the leak was “a significant breach in security” that risks adversely affecting Ukraine's military planning.
10:18pm: Zelensky hosts iftar, slams Russian ‘repression’ of Crimea Muslims
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday criticised Russia’s treatment of the Muslim-minority Tatar community in Kremlin-controlled Crimea and vowed to recapture the peninsula from Russia during a first official state iftar.
“Russia’s attempt to enslave Ukraine ... began exactly with the occupation of Crimea, exactly with repressions against Crimean, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar freedom and of Crimean Muslims,” he told Ukrainian Muslim leaders and ambassadors from Muslim countries.
Russia wrested control of the Black Sea territory from Ukraine in 2014 and pushed through a referendum on the annexation that was condemned as fraudulent and illegitimate by Ukraine and its Western allies. The Tatar community, which accounted for 12-15 percent of Crimea's 2 million residents, largely boycotted the 2014 vote.
Key developments from Friday, April 7:
Russian investigators on Friday formally charged American journalist Evan Gershkovich with “espionage in the interests of his country”, the state-run TASS news agency said. Gershkovich, who works for the Wall Street Journal, has denied the charges.
China and France support all efforts to restore peace in Ukraine on the basis of international law and the principles of the UN Charter, and oppose armed attacks on nuclear power plants, presidents Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement Friday that was reported by China’s official Xinhua News agency.
>> Read our live blog for all of yesterday’s developments as they unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)
