An explosive device derailed a Russian freight train in a region bordering Ukraine for a second straight day Tuesday ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Kyiv. Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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9:05pm: US to send air-launched rockets to Ukraine in next aid package, say sources
The US plans to announce as soon as Wednesday a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $300 million that will for the first time include a short-range air-launched rocket taken from US excess stocks.
The Hydra 70 rockets are a 2.75 inch diameter air-launched, unguided rocket made by General Dynamics. The rockets are typically loaded in to a circular, 19 tube rocket launcher pod that is attached beneath the wing of aircraft or helicopters.
The package also includes more 155 millimeter Howitzer cannons but does not say if they are self-propelled or towed by a truck.
8:19pm: Sabotage causes freight train to derail in Russia region close to Ukraine
Sabotage caused a freight train to derail in Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine on Tuesday, said Russian Railways, adding around 20 wagons had come off the track.
It said in a statement the derailment had been caused by "unauthorised interference," without providing further details. A train derailed in the same region on Monday after an explosion, the local governor said.
Bryansk region governor Alexander Bogomaz said the derailment was caused by an "explosive device" on the tracks.
There have been many reports of sabotage on railways in Russia since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive, but this week is the first time officials confirmed attacks on this scale
8:12pm: EU to boost artillery shell targets to 1 million a year as Ukraine saps ammo
The EU will put forward a plan to boost its production capacity of artillery shells to one million a year, officials said Tuesday, as it scrambles to arm Ukraine and refill its own stocks.
After decades of underinvestment, Europe's defense industry is struggling to adapt to a surge in demand sparked by Russia's war on its pro-Western neighbour.
The plan from the European Commission – to be unveiled Wednesday – proposes using 500 million euros ($550 million) from the EU budget to bolster ammunition production in the bloc.
3:36pm: Melitopol's residents and its pro-Ukrainian mayor relocated to Zaporizhzhia
In the early hours of Thursday, April 27, an explosion rocked Melitopol, one of the largest Russian-occupied cities in Ukraine. It’s believed to be the work of Ukrainian partisans who have been engaged in active and violent resistance to the Russian occupation of the city.
Several pro-occupation city officials have already been killed or seriously wounded in apparent homegrown blasts since Russian forces entered the city in February 2022, forcing the pro-Ukrainian mayor and his team to leave. They relocated to Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital.
FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg, Catalina Gomez and Illia Dyadik report:
3:15pm: Denmark pledges $250 million in military aid for Ukraine
Denmark will donate military equipment and financial support to Ukraine worth 1.7 billion Danish crowns ($250 million), the Nordic country's Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on Tuesday.
The minister also said Denmark will reduce its military presence in Iraq starting in early-2024 and instead focus on the Baltic countries, offering NATO a battalion to defend the region.
The battalion is expected to consist of between 700 and 1,200 soldiers, and is expected to be deployed in Latvia between four and six months every year.
1:58pm: Kremlin says it is not aware of Pope's peace mission for Ukraine
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it knew nothing about a Vatican peace mission for Ukraine.
Pope Francis said on Sunday that the Vatican was involved in discreet efforts to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and that it was also ready to help repatriate Ukrainian children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied land.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Moscow had no information about the initiative.
1:40pm: Kremlin says German involvement in Ukraine conflict is growing due to arms supplies
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Germany's involvement in the Ukraine conflict was growing by the day and that Berlin had no way of ensuring that weapons it had provided to Ukraine would not be used against Russian territory.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said German-supplied weapons were already being used in the Donbas region, which Russia has declared its own, a step Ukraine and the West have dismissed as illegal.
12:01pm: Russian Defence Minister Shoigu says arms production on the rise
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that Russia had taken measures to accelerate arms production to meet the demands of its campaign in Ukraine, and was successfully attacking Ukrainian depots storing Western arms, Russian news agencies reported.
Shoigu said the army had all the weapons it needed for use on the battlefield in 2023, but called on a major rocket producer to urgently double its output of high-precision missiles, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
11:49am: Top UN trade official to travel to Moscow this week
Top United Nations trade official Rebeca Grynspan is expected to travel to Moscow this week, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, amid a diplomatic push to ensure a deal allowing for the safe export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports is renewed.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year, has repeatedly said it will not allow the deal to be extended beyond May 18 unless Western countries removes obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports.
10:57am: Talks on Black Sea grain export deal reportedly set for Wednesday
Talks on a UN-brokered deal that allows the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain are scheduled for Wednesday, with all sides in the negotiations involved, a senior Ukrainian source said on Tuesday.
"Talks are scheduled for tomorrow. All parties [...] hopefully there will be results," the source, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year, has signalled it will not allow the deal agreed last July to continue beyond May 18 because a list of demands to facilitate its own grain and fertilizer exports has not been met.
10:28am: Russian advance in Bakhmut 'seems to have stopped'
"Yesterday, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of the land army in Ukraine, said that the Ukrainian armed forces had managed to take back some positions inside Bakhmut [and] had launched a small counter-offensive there. I'm not seeing that reflected on the maps that are drawn up by various independent observers, but the Russian advance seems to have stopped yesterday," FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reported from Ukraine's Vinnytsia. "They haven't taken any more territory in Bakhmut. Perhaps the Ukrainians there did claw something back. Everything there is very fluid; fighting is continuing in the city centre.
"The overall picture in Bakhmut, though, over the past two weeks, has been one of a slow but steady Russian advance – but only in the city centre," Cragg continued. "They haven't managed to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the western outskirts of the city that Ukraine still controls. They haven't managed to surround Ukrainian forces or put them in a situation where they wouldn't be able to get out."
6:56pm: Ukrainian forces shell village in Russia's Bryansk region, governor says
Ukrainian forces shelled a village in the Russian Bryansk region bordering Ukraine early on Tuesday, the local governor said in a social media post, a day after an explosion derailed a freight train in the region.
"In the morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the village of Kurkovichi in the Starodubsky municipal district." Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on his Telegram channel.
"There were no casualties. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out in one of the households. All emergency services are on site."
FRANCE 24 was not able to independently verify the report. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine. The military, however, reports daily on activities and troops movements in battlefield areas.
4:05am: Ukrainian defenders oust Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut, general says
Ukrainian units have ousted Russian forces from some positions in Bakhmut amid fierce battles, a top Ukrainian general said on Monday, as the White House believes that more than 20,000 Russian fighters have been killed in Ukraine since December.
"The situation (in Bakhmut) is quite difficult," Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander of ground forces, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
"At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions" in recent days, he said.
The 10-month-long battle for the eastern Ukrainian city has taken on a symbolic importance for both sides. It has become the fulcrum of a war that has seen little shift in front lines since late 2022, leaving both sides looking for a breakthrough.
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Key developments from Monday, May 1
A White House official said on Monday that more than 20,000 Russian troops were killed and another 80,000 wounded in five months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, particularly in Bakhmut.
This came after overnight Russian missile attacks on the eastern city of Pavlohrad killed two people and injured 40, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
