A summary of today's developments
Ukrainian forces are working to strengthen defensive lines and positions along the border with Belarus and Russia, the defence ministry has said, citing Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of Ukraine’s armed forces.
More than 30 children have returned to Ukraine and reunited with their families after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to the Ukrainian organisation Save Ukraine. “Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation,” it said.
Russia’s campaign to break down Ukraine’s unified energy system within the past winter period has “highly likely failed”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. Large-scale long-range attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have become rare since early March, it said.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence provided the latest figures on the conflict. It said 177,680 Russian troops have been killed and 7,020 armoured combat vehicles have been destroyed.Ukrainians have been marking the first anniversary of a missile strike on Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, which killed at least 58 people, including several children. The attack took place on 8 April 2022, when the station was packed with women, children and elderly people waiting to be evacuated.
The Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said a missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia. An adviser to Aksyonov was cited as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties have been reported.
A Ukrainian government minister is due to visit India on Monday and will seek humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during Russia’s invasion, the Hindu newspaper said on Saturday. Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzhaparova, will make the first visit to India by a Ukrainian government minister since Russia’s invasion.
The US justice department has launched an investigation into the possible release of Pentagon documents. Documents posted on several social media sites including Twitter appear to detail US and Nato aid to Ukraine, but may have been altered or used as part of a misinformation campaign.
RT France has been put into liquidation by a French court, the organisation’s former president said.
The French arm of Russia’s RT broadcaster’s accounts were frozen over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Xenia Fedorova, RT France ex-president, tweeted: “The court of Nanterre took the decision to put RT France into liquidation - a media outlet which has not pleased Emmanuel Macron since its launch and which was sanctioned by the EU a year ago as [a preventative measure] due to the conflict in Ukraine.”
Fedorova added that more than 100 employees will be made redundant.
The EU banned Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik in March 2022 in a bid to crack down on disinformation over the war in Ukraine.
The funeral of the prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed when an explosion tore through a St Petersburg cafe last Sunday, has taken place in Moscow today.
Dozens of mourners including Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private mercenary Wagner group, turned out for the service, with many carrying red flowers.
Investigators in Russia have charged Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old St Petersburg resident, with terrorist offences over Tatarsky’s killing.
Moscow and Kyiv have pointed the finger at each other over the attack.
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Ukraine’s ministry of defence with the latest figures on the conflict.
It said 177,680 Russian troops have been killed and 7,020 armoured combat vehicles have been destroyed.
"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching."
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 8, 2023
Thomas Jefferson
Total combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to April 8, 2023: pic.twitter.com/Z1TUHuSN2S
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Mykola Kuleba, the founder of the humanitarian organisation Save Ukraine, has provided an update after 31 children were reunited with their families in Ukraine this week after a long operation to bring them back from Russia where they had been taken from occupied areas during the war.
“Now the fifth rescue mission is nearing its completion. It was special regarding the number of children we managed to return and also because of its complexity,” Kuleba said.
A grandmother who had been due to reunite with two of her grandchildren died suddenly on the trip and the children had to remain in Russia, Kuleba, Ukraine’s former commissioner for children’s rights, told a media briefing in Kyiv.
He said all of the children who had been brought back to Ukraine by Save Ukraine had said no one in Russia was trying to find their parents in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
“There were kids who changed their locations five times in five months, some children say that they were living with rats and cockroaches,” he said.
The children were taken to what Russians called stays in summer camps from occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Kherson regions, Kuleba said.
Moscow, which controls chunks of Ukraine’s east and south, denies abducting children and says they have been transported away for their own safety.
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Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Ukrainian forces are working to strengthen defensive lines and positions along the border with Belarus and Russia, the defence ministry has said, citing Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of Ukraine’s armed forces.
More than 30 children have returned to Ukraine and reunited with their families after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to the Ukrainian organisation Save Ukraine. “Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation,” it said.
Russia’s campaign to break down Ukraine’s unified energy system within the past winter period has “highly likely failed”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. Large-scale long-range attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have become rare since early March, it said.
Ukrainians have been marking the first anniversary of a missile strike on Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, which killed at least 58 people, including several children. The attack took place on 8 April 2022, when the station was packed with women, children and elderly people waiting to be evacuated.
The Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said a missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia. An adviser to Aksyonov was cited as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties have been reported.
A Ukrainian government minister is due to visit India on Monday and will seek humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during Russia’s invasion, the Hindu newspaper said on Saturday. Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzhaparova, will make the first visit to India by a Ukrainian government minister since Russia’s invasion.
The US justice department has launched an investigation into the possible release of Pentagon documents. Documents posted on several social media sites including Twitter appear to detail US and Nato aid to Ukraine, but may have been altered or used as part of a misinformation campaign.
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Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidency’s office, held a call with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to discuss protecting Ukrainian children, a statement released by his office said.
The pair “discussed the issue of protecting the rights of Ukrainian children and holding Russia accountable for crimes committed against them”, Yermak tweeted.
Had an online call with the prominent human rights defender and @ClooneyFDN co-founder Amal Clooney. Discussed the issue of protecting the rights of 🇺🇦 children and holding Russia accountable for crimes committed against them. pic.twitter.com/beAb5dZEIR
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) April 8, 2023
The statement continued:
According to official data alone, at least 20,000 children have been forcibly removed by the Russian military from the temporarily occupied territories (of Ukraine), separated from their parents and forcibly transferred to Russian families.
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Ukraine to boost defences along border with Belarus
Ukrainian forces are working to strengthen defensive lines and positions along the border with Belarus and Russia, the defence ministry has said.
The ministry, citing Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of Ukraine’s armed forces, posted to Facebook:
The expansion of the system of engineering barriers in the areas bordering Belarus and Russia is ongoing. Anti-tank minefields are being created in tank accessible areas and probable paths of pushing the enemy deep into our territory which are roads, forest lanes, bridges, power lines, etc.
Nayev added that Ukrainian engineering units have equipped several dozens of mine fields using more than 6,000 anti-tank mines in the past week. Ukrainian soldiers were working “around the clock, despite the weather conditions”, he said.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, met with his Belarusian counterpart and close ally, Alexander Lukashenko, for talks in Moscow on Wednesday. Moscow is Minsk’s closest political and financial backer.
Lukashenko allowed Putin to use the territory of Belarus as a launch pad for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Last month, Putin announced that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the news wires from Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared Iftar with Ukrainian Muslim soldiers observing Ramadan on Friday, in what he said would become an annual “new tradition of respect”.
The Ukrainian leader said he participated in the first “official” Iftar alongside representatives of the Muslim clergy and leaders of the Mejlis, the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars.
Addressing participants at the dinner, Zelenskiy said “we affirm that Ukraine values every person, values every community”, adding that “diversity is part of Ukraine’s character”.
Ukraine marks anniversary of Kramatorsk station attack
Ukrainians have been marking the one-year anniversary of a missile strike on a Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, which killed at least 58 people, including several children.
Ukrainians honored victims of 🇷🇺missile attack at Kramatorsk train station that happened last year.
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) April 8, 2023
On April 8, 2022, at 10:28 a.m., the Russian army shelled the train station, where thousands of civilians were waiting to be evacuated. At least, 58 people died, 121 were injured. pic.twitter.com/epGdn5OOu6
The attack took place on 8 April 2022, when the station was packed with women, children and elderly waiting to be evacuated. The authorities had urged residents to leave the region before an expected Russian military assault.
More than 100 people were wounded in the strike, Human Rights Watch said. Many lost limbs.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at the time that it was a deliberate attack on civilians using a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile. The US also blamed Russia, saying it believes it used a short range ballistic missile. Russia has denied responsibility.
The Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said a missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea.
Russian state-run 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 have been reported.
The claims have not been independently verified.
More than 30 children have returned to Ukraine and reunited with their families after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to the Ukrainian organisation Save Ukraine.
In a post on Twitter, the organisation said:
Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation.
The children are now safe “but in need of psychological and physical recovery”, it continued.
Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation. They are now safe but in need of psychological and physical recovery.
— Save Ukraine (@SaveukraineUs) April 7, 2023
Follow the updates💛💙 pic.twitter.com/dXGN5FTHp9
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Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president, has said the aim of a leak of classified US military documents that offer a partial snapshot of the war in Ukraine was to “divert attention, cast doubts & mutual suspicions, sow discord”.
Posting to Twitter, Podolyak said Russian secret services were behind the release of the documents, which were posted on several social media sites and may have been altered as part of a misinformation campaign.
The aim of secret data "leaks" is obvious: divert attention, cast doubts & mutual suspicions, sow discord.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) April 8, 2023
It's an ordinary game of ru-secret services. To take open briefings, add fake info or certain parts of interceptions & publish them on social networks legalizing the "leak"
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the news wires from the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
Russian bid to degrade Ukraine's energy system 'likely failed', says UK's MoD
Russia’s campaign to break down Ukraine’s unified energy system within the past winter period has “highly likely failed”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence says in its latest intelligence update.
Large-scale long-range attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have become rare since early March 2023, it says.
The report goes on to say that Ukraine’s energy situation “will likely improve” with the arrival of warmer weather.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 8 April 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 8, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/tAWpOI90dc
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/HuTX7k2Vrm
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Four people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the regional military administration, said.
He posted to Telegram:
On April 7, the Russians killed four residents of Donetsk region: three in Bohorodychne and another one in Torske. One civilian in the region was injured.
Russia lost elections to three United Nations bodies this week, a sign that opposition to its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago remains strong.
Associated Press reports that the votes in the 54-member UN economic and social council (Ecosoc) follow approval of six non-binding resolutions against Russia by the 193-member UN general assembly. The latest – on 23 February, the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion – called for Moscow to end hostilities and withdraw its forces and was adopted by a vote of 141-7 with 32 abstentions.
In the Ecosoc votes, Russia was overwhelmingly defeated by Romania for a seat on the commission on the status of women. It lost to Estonia to be a member of the executive board of the UN children’s agency, Unicef. And it was defeated by Armenia and the Czech Republic in secret ballot votes for membership on the commission on crime prevention and criminal justice.
US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after Wednesday’s votes:
This is a clear signal from Ecosoc members that no country should hold positions on critical UN bodies when they are in flagrant violation of the UN charter.
A Ukrainian government minister is due to visit India on Monday and will seek humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during Russia’s invasion, the Hindu newspaper said on Saturday.
India, which holds the presidency of the G20 bloc this year, has declined to blame its old ally Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and has sought a diplomatic solution while boosting its purchases of Russian oil.
Reuters also reported that Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzhaparova, will make the first visit to India by a Ukrainian government minister since Russia’s invasion. She would call on India to send a “strong message for peace” to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who is due to visit India in July for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit and is due back in September for a G20 summit, the newspaper said.
Citing diplomatic sources, it reported:
Ukraine has requested India for more humanitarian aid, including pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and energy equipment, to repair power infrastructure damaged during the war, and both sides are also expected to discuss the delivery of such support.
India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During the talks, Dzhaparova would expand on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point peace formula, and call on India to add its “crucial global voice” to building a consensus in its favour, the paper said.
Casualties and power outages as Russia bombards annexed provinces
Russian forces used ground- and air-fired missiles, rocket launchers and weaponised drones to bombard the provinces of Ukraine it has illegally annexed but doesn’t fully control, causing casualties, building damage and power outages on Friday.
Associated Press reported that the Ukrainian military said Russian forces launched 18 airstrikes, five missile strikes and 53 attacks from multiple rocket launchers between Thursday and Friday mornings.
Russia was concentrating the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing on the cities and towns of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka in Donetsk province, according to the statement from Ukraine’s general staff.
Most of Friday’s battlefield reports concerned the four Ukrainian provinces Russia annexed in September: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Also in Donetsk province, Russia launched a missile attack on the city of Sloviansk, destroying residential buildings, while one civilian was wounded during fighting in Bakhmut.
Donetsk’s regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Friday that 15 cities and villages on the front line were shelled in the region. The Moscow-installed mayor of Donetsk city, Aleksei Kulemzin, said Ukrainian shelling killed one person and wounded six.
Russia’s defence ministry reported inflicting dozens of casualties on Ukrainian forces and destroying drones and other Ukrainian weapons and combat vehicles in several battlefront hotspots in the annexed provinces.
In southern Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson province, seven people were wounded in 24 hours, the regional governor said on Friday. Writing on Telegram, Oleksandr Prokudin said Russia had carried out 46 attacks there, including seven on the regional capital, also called Kherson, with heavy artillery and aircraft fire.
A 10-year-old girl, a three-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman were wounded on Friday in Russian shelling of the village of Stanislav in the province, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said.
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and I’ll bring you the latest developments.
Russian forces have reportedly bombarded the provinces of Ukraine it illegally annexed but doesn’t fully control, causing casualties, building damage and power outages on Friday.
The strikes came as three civilians were killed and 17 wounded over the previous 24 hours in Russian artillery, missile and aerial attacks on 114 settlements in nine regions, the Ukrainian defence ministry said.
More on the battlefield reports shortly. In other developments:
The US Justice Department has launched an investigation into the possible release of Pentagon documents that were posted on several social media sites including Twitter and appear to detail US and Nato aid to Ukraine, but may have been altered or used as part of a misinformation campaign. Associated Press reported that the documents were labelled secret and resembled routine updates the US military would produce daily. Reuters reported three unnamed US officials said Russia or pro-Russian elements were likely behind the leak and that the documents provided a month-old snapshot of the war and appeared to have been doctored to play down Russian losses.
Russian Federal Security Service investigators formally charged Evan Gershkovich with espionage but the Wall Street Journal reporter denied the charges and said he was working as a journalist, Russian news agencies reported on Friday. Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war.
The Ukrainian military said it had downed a Russian Su-25 ground attack jet near Marinka. A video showed a big explosion as the plane slammed into the ground, with its pilot descending on a parachute. The Russian military did not confirm the plane’s downing, AP reported.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has threatened to abandon a landmark grain deal with Ukraine if obstacles to Moscow’s exports remained. The agreement last July allows Ukraine to export grain through a safe corridor in the Black Sea. “If there is no further progress in removing barriers to the export of Russian fertilisers and grain, we will think about whether this deal is necessary,” Lavrov told a news conference in Ankara alongside his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Friday.
Ukraine has said Russia is concentrating all its efforts on capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, where it described the situation as “difficult” but said it was holding out. The UK Ministry of Defence said earlier that Russian forces had “highly likely” advanced into Bakhmut’s town centre and seized the west bank of the Bakhmutka River, severely threatening Ukraine’s key supply route to the west.
Ukraine can resume exporting electricity after a six-month gap, given the success of repairs carried out after repeated Russian attacks, the energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said on Friday. Last October, Ukraine halted exports of electricity to the European Union – its main export market for energy since the war began – following Russia strikes on energy infrastructure. “The most difficult winter has passed,” Halushchenko said.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has 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. Speaking on Friday outside the centre of the capital, Zelenskiy said Ukraine was beginning a new tradition of hosting an official iftar, the meal breaking the daily fast during the month of Ramadan.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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