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Summary
Here is a comprehensive re-cap of where things stand:
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy voiced concerns that Russian forces could use chemical weapons in Ukraine but did not confirm whether they had been used in his daily video address late on Monday. “Today, the occupiers issued a new statement, which testifies to their preparation for a new stage of terror against Ukraine and our defenders,” he said. “One of the mouthpieces of the occupiers stated that they could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol. We take this as seriously as possible.”
- Earlier on Monday evening, Ukrainian authorities claimed Russia dropped a drone carrying a toxic substance on the south-eastern city of Mariupol. Ivanna Klympush, a Ukrainian MP and chair of the parliamentary committee on integration of Ukraine to the EU, said the unknown substance was “most likely” chemical weapons. The reports are so far unconfirmed.
- The Ukrainian Azov Regiment, a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, accused Russia of using chemical weapons of an “unknown origin”, dropped via an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on civilians in Mariupol. Azov leader Andriy Biletsky told the Kyiv Independent that three people had signs of chemical poisoning but there appears to be no “disastrous consequences” for their health.
- UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said work was underway to verify details of the alleged attack, adding: “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account.” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby added that he was aware of the reports but “cannot confirm at this time”.
- More than 10,000 civilians have died in Mariupol, the city’s mayor has said. Vadym Boychenko said the death toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave bodies “carpeted through the streets” in an interview with the Associated Press.
- Zelenskiy partly blamed the Ukrainian loss of life on western nations that had not sent weapons to bolster the war effort. “Unfortunately, we are not getting as much as we need to end this war sooner,” he said. “Time is being lost. The lives of Ukrainians are being lost … And this is also the responsibility of those who still keep the weapons Ukraine needs in their armoury.”
- Ukrainian authorities are warning people not to go near what they say are landmines being dropped on Kharkiv. Zelenskiy also spoke of “hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects” including mines and unexploded shells left by Russian forces in regions in Ukraine’s north.
- The gruesome task of exhuming the bodies of Ukrainian victims from mass graves in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv started on Monday. More than 5,800 cases of alleged war crimes against Russian forces are under investigation, Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, told CNN.
- Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion, and the UN has verified the deaths of 142 children, though the number is almost certainly much higher, the UN children’s agency said Monday.
- The United Nations has increasingly heard accounts of rape and sexual violence in Ukraine and called for an investigation into violence against women and increased protection for Ukrainian children. Sima Bahous, UN Women executive director, told the UN security council: “The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags.”
- Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights said she had recorded horrific acts of sexual violence by Russian troops in Bucha and elsewhere, including a case in which women and girls were kept in a basement for 25 days, the New York Times reported. Nine of those victims are now pregnant, according to the ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova.
- Three people were killed and eight civilians wounded by Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the region’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
- Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv came under heavy shelling on Monday, resulting in multiple casualties, mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Among the casualties in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was the death of one child, the region’s mayor said.
- Prominent Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr has been detained in Moscow on charges of disobeying police orders, his lawyer told the independent news outlet Sota Vision on Monday evening.
- France’s foreign ministry has declared six more Russian agents “operating under diplomatic cover” as persona non grata. The six agents are being accused of working against France’s “national interest” after an investigation, Reuters reports.
- Russian forces are focusing on the Donbas region, the US Pentagon said, but have not launched an offensive yet. “They’re repositioning, they’re refocusing on the Donbas,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Western officials said they expected Russia to try to “double or perhaps even treble” its forces in Donbas as it shifts forces from Kyiv and elsewhere in the coming weeks.
- Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are readying themselves for a “last battle” to control the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s armed forces said.
- The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, held “direct, open and tough” talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Monday. In a statement, Nehammer – the first EU leader to meet with Putin since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine – was quoted as saying that it was “not a friendly meeting”.
- Moscow said it will not pause its military operation in Ukraine before the next round of peace talks. In an interview with Russian state television, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he saw no reason not to continue talks with Ukraine but insisted Moscow would not halt its military operation when the sides convene again.
Russia is receiving munitions and military hardware sourced from Iraq for its war effort in Ukraine with the help of Iranian weapons smuggling networks, according to members of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias and regional intelligence services with knowledge of the process.
RPGs and anti-tank missiles, as well as Brazilian-designed rocket launcher systems, have been dispatched to Russia from Iraq as Moscow’s campaign has faltered in the last month, the Guardian has learned.
An Iranian-made Bavar 373 missile system, similar to the Russian S-300, has also been donated to Moscow by the authorities in Tehran, who also returned an S-300, according to a source who helped organise the transport.
Using the weapons-trafficking underworld would signal a dramatic shift in Russian strategy, as Moscow is forced to lean on Iran, its military ally in Syria, following new sanctions triggered by the invasion of Ukraine.
Read the full story below.
US state department spokesperson Ned Price said there has been “credible information” that Russia may have been “preparing to use [chemical] agents” as part of an effort to weaken and incapacitate the city of Mariupol.
Earlier today, Ukrainian authorities alleged Russia dropped a drone carrying a toxic substance on the southeastern city.
Speaking CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday night, Price said:
Before today, there was credible information available to us that the Russians may have been preparing to use agents, chemical agents, potentially tear gas mixed with other agents, as part of an effort to weaken, to incapacitate the Ukrainian military and civilian elements that are entrenched in Mariupol, using these agents as part of an effort to weaken those defences.
We shared that information with our Ukrainian partners. We are going to be in direct conversations with them to try and determine what exactly has transpired here, and as soon as we gain additional fidelity, we’ll be in a better position to say what this was or what this may have been.
Referring to Russia’s planned offensive on the Donbas, Price said the US was continuing to supply Ukraine with military aid.
“Russia will be strategically defeated and we’ve already laid the groundwork for that,” he added.
"Russia will be strategically defeated and we've already laid the groundwork for that." - State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks with CNN's @jaketapper about the US' partnership with Ukraine and sanctions on Russia. pic.twitter.com/faZbQjzAuA
— CNN (@CNN) April 12, 2022
Updated
Russian forces have reportedly seized a cargo ship docked in the port of Mariupol along with those on board, Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman said.
Lyudmyla Denisova said 18 Ukrainians and one Egyptian were taken off the ship, named the Smarta, in an update on herTelegram channel late on Monday.
All contact with the crew has reportedly been lost.
The Liberian-flagged ship docked in Mariupol on 21 February, days before the Russian invasion, on its way to Turkey and had been unable to put to sea again, Denisova added.
Here are some of the latest images to come out of Ukraine today as rescue workers continue to clear the debris and work to find civilians trapped by fallen buildings.
Ukraine’s finance ministry has welcomed the creation of a special new account set up by the International Monetary Fund to give bilateral donors and international organisations a secure way to send financial resources to war-torn Ukraine.
The IMF’s executive board approved creation of the new account on Friday after the Canadian government proposed disbursing up to $1 billion Canadian dollars through the vehicle, which is to be administered by the IMF.
The account will allow donors to provide grants and loans to help the Ukrainian government meet its balance of payments and budgetary needs and help stabilise its economy as it continues to defend against Russia’s deadly invasion.
“Donors will benefit from the IMF’s tested infrastructure to quickly deliver authenticated payments,” the IMF said.
Going through the global lender will allow donations to Ukraine to be frozen in the event of a Russian takeover of power in Ukraine, experts say.
Donors will deposit reserve currencies or Special Drawing Rights, the IMF’s own reserve currency, into the new account, which will then disburse these resources as grants or loans into Ukraine’s SDR account at the fund.
One source familiar with the plans told Reuters additional donations were expected for both the IMF account and a separate World Bank account set up for Ukraine during next week’s spring meetings of the two global financial institutions.
Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion, and the United Nations has verified the deaths of 142 youngsters, though the number is almost certainly much higher, the UN children’s agency said Monday.
Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s emergency programs director, said having 4.8 million of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children displaced in such a short time is “quite incredible.” He said it is something he hadn’t before seen happen so quickly in 31 years of humanitarian work.
“They have been forced to leave everything behind — their homes, their schools and, often, their family members,” he told the UN Security Council. “I have heard stories of the desperate steps parents are taking to get their children to safety, and children saddened that they are unable to get back to school.”
Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, claimed Russia has taken more than 121,000 children out of Ukraine and reportedly drafted a bill to simplify and accelerate adoption procedures for orphans and even those who have parents and other relatives.
He said most of the children were removed from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol and taken to eastern Donetsk and then to the Russian city of Taganrog.
Fontaine said UNICEF has heard the same reports, but added that “we don’t have yet the access that we need to have to be able to look and verify and see if we can assist.”
He said that of Ukraine’s displaced children, 2.8 million are in Ukraine and 2 million more are in other countries. At the same time, he said, nearly half the estimated 3.2 million children still in their homes in Ukraine “may be at risk of not having enough food,” with those in besieged cities like Mariupol facing the most dire situation.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy voiced concerns that Russian forces could use chemical weapons in Ukraine but has not confirmed whether they have already been used.
In a national address late on Monday, Zelenskiy said Russia claimed its forces could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol and he was taking the allegations seriously.
The Ukrainian leader said it showed Russia’s “preparation for a new stage of terror” against Ukraine.
Summary
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy voiced concerns that Russia forces could use chemical weapons in Ukraine but did not confirm whether they had been used in his daily video address late on Monday. “Today, the occupiers issued a new statement, which testifies to their preparation for a new stage of terror against Ukraine and our defenders,” he said. “One of the mouthpieces of the occupiers stated that they could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol. We take this as seriously as possible.”
- Earlier on Monday evening, Ukrainian authorities said Russia dropped a drone carrying a toxic substance on the southeastern city of Mariupol. Ivanna Klympush, a Ukrainian MP and chair of the parliamentary committee on integration of Ukraine to the EU, said the unknown substance was “most likely” chemical weapons. The reports are so far unconfirmed.
- The Ukrainian Azov Regiment, a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, alleged Russia used chemical weapons of an “unknown origin” dropped via an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on civilians in the southeastern city of Mariupol. Azov leader Andriy Biletsky told the Kyiv Independent that three people have signs of chemical poisoning but there appears to be no “disastrous consequences” for their health.
- UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the people of Mariupol. “We are working urgently with partners to verify details,” she said “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account.” Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby added that he was aware of reports but “cannot confirm at this time”.
- More than 10,000 civilians have died in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the city’s mayor has said. Vadym Boychenko said the death toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave bodies “carpeted through the streets” in an interview with the Associated Press.
-
Zelenskiy in-part placed the responsibility for the lives of Ukrainian lives being lost on western nations who have not sent weapons to bolster Ukraine’s war effort. “Unfortunately, we are not getting as much as we need to end this war sooner,” he said. “Time is being lost. The lives of Ukrainians are being lost ... And this is also the responsibility of those who still keep the weapons Ukraine needs in their armoury.”
- Ukrainian authorities are warning people not to go near what they say are landmines being dropped on Kharkiv. Zelenskiy also spoke of “hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects” including mines and unexploded shells left behind by Russian forces in regions of Ukraine’s north.
- The gruesome task of exhuming the bodies of Ukrainian victims from mass graves in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv started on Monday.
- More than 5,800 cases of alleged war crimes against Russian forces are under investigation, Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, told CNN.
- Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion, and the United Nations has verified the deaths of 142 children, though the number is almost certainly much higher, the UN children’s agency said Monday.
-
The United Nations said it has increasingly heard accounts of rape and sexual violence in Ukraine and called for an investigation into violence against women and increased protection for Ukrainian children. Sima Bahous, UN Women executive director, told the UN security council: “We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence. The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags.”
- Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights said she had recorded horrific acts of sexual violence by Russian troops in Bucha and elsewhere, including a case in which women and girls were kept in a basement for 25 days, the New York Times reported. Nine of those victims are now pregnant, according to the ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova.
- Three people were killed and eight civilians wounded by Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the region’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
- Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv came under heavy shelling on Monday, resulting in multiple casualties, mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Among the casualties in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was the death of one child, the region’s mayor said.
- 4,354 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities using humanitarian corridors on Monday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
- Prominent Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr has been detained in Moscow on charges of disobeying police orders, his lawyer told the independent news outlet Sota Vision on Monday evening.
- France’s foreign ministry has declared six more Russian agents as persona non grata and operating under diplomatic cover. The six agents are being accused of working against France’s “national interest” following an investigation, Reuters reports.
- Russian forces are focusing on the Donbas region, the US Pentagon said, but have not launched an offensive yet. “They’re repositioning, they’re refocusing on the Donbas,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Western officials said they expected Russia to try and “double or perhaps even treble” its forces in Donbas as it shifts forces from Kyiv and elsewhere in the coming weeks.
- Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are readying themselves for a “last battle” to control the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s armed forces said.
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The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, held “direct, open and tough” talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Monday, warning that western sanctions would intensify as long as people kept dying in Ukraine. In a statement, Nehammer – the first EU leader to meet with Putin since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine – was quoted as saying that it was “not a friendly meeting”.
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However, Moscow said it will not pause its military operation in Ukraine before the next round of peace talks. In an interview with Russian state television, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he saw no reason not to continue talks with Ukraine but insisted Moscow would not halt its military operation when the sides convene again.
Updated
More than 10,000 civilians died in Mariupol, mayor says
More than 10,000 civilians have died in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the city’s mayor has said.
Vadym Boychenko said the death toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave the bodies of Mariupol’s people “carpeted through the streets” in an interview by phone on Monday with the Associated Press.
Boychenko also accused Russian forces of having blocked weeks of thwarted humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage there from the outside world.
Mariupol has been cut off by Russian attacks that began soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, and has suffered some of the most brutal assaults of the war.
Boychenko gave new details of recent allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces have brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the corpses of victims of the siege.
Russian forces have taken many bodies to a huge shopping centre where there are storage facilities and refrigerators, Boychenko said.
“Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” he said.
The mayor said he had several sources for his description of the allegedly methodic burning of corpses by Russian forces in the city but gave few further details.
Speaking to South Korean lawmakers via video link on Monday, Zelenskiy said “tens of thousands” of people had probably been killed in Mariupol. No independent verification of the death toll in the besieged south-eastern city is possible, but if a figure of this magnitude is confirmed it would be by far the highest death toll in any Ukrainian town or city since the war began.
Forces defending the besieged port city said their ammunition was running out. “Today will probably be the last battle,” the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces wrote on social media. “It’s death for some of us and captivity for the rest.”
Updated
Zelenskiy in-part placed the responsibility for the lives of Ukrainian lives being lost on western nations who have not sent weapons to bolster Ukraine’s war effort.
“Yes, Ukrainians are incomparably braver ... But when it comes to the necessary weapons, we still depend on the supply, on our partners.”
Unfortunately, we are not getting as much as we need to end this war sooner. To completely destroy the enemy on our land. And to fulfil those tasks that are obvious to each of our people. In particular, to unblock Mariupol.
If we got jets and enough heavy armoured vehicles, the necessary artillery, we would be able to do it. But...”
Zelenskiy said that although he is sure Ukraine “will get almost everything we need” he stressed that more military support needed to come soon.
Not only time is being lost. The lives of Ukrainians are being lost. Lives that can no longer be returned.
And this is also the responsibility of those who still keep the weapons Ukraine needs in their armoury. The responsibility that will forever remain in history.”
Russian troops 'left mines everywhere' as clean-up begins in north
Zelenskiy spoke of “hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects” including mines and unexploded shells left behind by Russian forces in regions of Ukraine’s north.
Security work is underway in the northern regions of our country, from where the occupiers were expelled.
First of all, it is mine clearance. Russian troops left behind tens if not hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects. These are shells that did not explode, mines, tripwire mines. At least several thousand such items are disposed of daily.
The occupiers left mines everywhere. In the houses they seized. Just on the streets, in the fields. They mined people’s property, mined cars, doors.
They consciously did everything to make the return to these areas after de-occupation as dangerous as possible.”
Zelenskiy continued to claim that the territory of Ukraine is now “one of the most contaminated by mines in the world” and called for the situation to also be considered as a war crime of Russian troops.
They deliberately did everything to kill or maim as many of our people as possible, even when they were forced to withdraw from our land. Without the appropriate orders, they would not have done it.”
Updated
Ukrainian authorities are warning people not to go near what they say are landmines being dropped on Kharkiv.
On Monday, security forces cordoned off an area in the east of the city as they cleared a number of small devices scattered across residential streets.
Lieutenant Colonel Nikolay Ovcharuk, head of the de-mining unit of the state emergency service, said the devices were plastic PTM-1M mines, which detonate using timers and which were widely used by Soviet forces in Afghanistan, Reuters reports.
“They have self-destructing timers,” he said as loudspeakers warned people not to approach the cordoned-off area where mine disposal teams were working.
Earlier, authorities issued a warning that Russian forces had been dropping “parachute bombs” on the city.
Residents said the devices had been dropped in the early hours of Monday morning. “Tonight at 1am we heard some strange sounds, something whistled and then it all dropped,” a local man who gave his name as Sergey said.
The Guardian could not independently confirm the type of device.
Kharkiv, a major city close to the northeastern border with Russia, has been under bombardment for weeks.
Zelenskiy voices concern over possible chemical weapons attack in 'new stage of terror'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy voiced concerns that Russia forces could use chemical weapons in Ukraine but did not confirm whether they had been used in his daily video address late on Monday.
Zelenskiy said Russia claimed its forces could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol and he was taking the allegations seriously.
Today, the occupiers issued a new statement, which testifies to their preparation for a new stage of terror against Ukraine and our defenders.
One of the mouthpieces of the occupiers stated that they could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol. We take this as seriously as possible.
“I want to remind the world leaders that the possible use of chemical weapons by the Russian military has already been discussed. And already at that time it meant that it was necessary to react to the Russian aggression much tougher and faster,” he added.
Updated
The Ukrainian Azov Regiment, a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, has also spoken of the unconfirmed reports that Russia used chemical weapons against Ukraine’s military and citizens late on Monday night.
The Regiment said the chemicals were of an “unknown origin” and dropped via an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on civilians in the southeastern city of Mariupol.
About an hour ago, Russian occupation forces used a poisonous substance of unknown origin against Ukrainian military and civilians in the city of Mariupol, which was dropped from an enemy UAV,” the Azoz Regiment posted on Telegram on Monday.
The victims have respiratory failure, vestibulo-atactic syndrome. The consequences of using an unknown substance are being clarified.”
Azov leader Andriy Biletsky told the Kyiv Independent that three people have signs of chemical poisoning but there appears to be no “disastrous consequences” for their health.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, tweeted about the alleged use of chemical weapons.
“ATTENTION! Chemical weapons are used against Ukrainian defenders in #Mariupol! russia openly crosses all boundaries of humanity and openly declares it, while Ukraine is still asking for heavy weapon,” he wrote.
The Guardian could not independently verify the claims.
ATTENTION
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) April 11, 2022
Chemical weapons are used against Ukrainian defenders in #Mariupol! russia openly crosses all boundaries of humanity and openly declares it, while Ukraine is still asking for heavy weapon #UkraineUnderAttack
⚡️⚡️Azov regiment: Russia used poisonous substance against Ukrainian troops in Mariupol.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 11, 2022
The substance has been distributed by a drone, and victims have shortness of breath and vestibulocerebellar ataxia.
It may be Russia's first known use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The gruesome task of exhuming the bodies of Ukrainian victims from mass graves in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv started on Monday as trucks filled with body bags of the dead transported them to sites for forensic analysis.
Among them was a Ukrainian soldier wearing camouflage, his shriveled hand raised; many others of the hundreds killed were civilians, including young children.
Elsewhere on the edges of the capital, mounds of destroyed and burned vehicles were piled on top of each other. Local residents climbed atop an abandoned and damaged Russian tank. A boy walked by unexploded Russian shells in the village of Andriyivka, on the outskirts of Kyiv.
All were evidence of the destruction and death left behind by the retreating Russian forces following a weekslong occupation.
Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, has also issued a statement on the unconfirmed reports of a chemical weapons attack in Mariupol.
We are aware of social media reports which claim Russian forces deployed a potential chemical munition in Mariupol, Ukraine. We cannot confirm at this time and will continue to monitor the situation closely.
These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine.”
Russia uses chemical weapons in attack on Mariupol: unconfirmed reports
Ukrainian authorities have said a Russian drone dropped a toxic substance on the southeastern city of Mariupol late on Monday night.
Ivanna Klympush, a Ukrainian MP and chair of the parliamentary committee on integration of Ukraine to the EU, said the unknown substance was “most likely” chemical weapons.
Klympush claimed the attack occurred around 10pm local time, writing on Twitter: “This morning Russians threatened to use “chemical troops” against Mariupol’s defenders.”
“Victims experience respiratory failure, vestib.-atactic syndrome.Most likely chem [chemical] weapons!” she added.
UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the people of Mariupol.
“We are working urgently with partners to verify details,” she said “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account.”
1/2 #RU 1,5hr ago used unknown substance in #Mariupol. Victims experience respiratory failure,
— Ivanna Klympush (@IKlympush) April 11, 2022
vestib.-atactic syndrome.Most likely chem.weapons!This is red line beyond which 🌎 must destroy economy of despotism.We demand full embargo on all fuels from #RU &heavy weapons 2UA now!
Reports that Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the people of Mariupol. We are working urgently with partners to verify details.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) April 11, 2022
Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account.
Updated
Summary
- Three people were killed and eight civilians wounded by Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the region’s governor said.
- Prominent Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr has been detained in Moscow on charges of disobeying police orders, his lawyer told an independent news outlet.
- Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights said she had recorded horrific acts of sexual violence by Russian troops in Bucha and elsewhere, including a case in which women and girls were kept in a basement for 25 days.
- Joe Biden and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, pledged collaboration over Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv came under heavy shelling today, resulting in multiple casualties, mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a televised interview.
- SocGen, the French bank, has announced it is ending its Russian activities.
- The United Nations has increasingly heard accounts of sexual violence and rape in Ukraine, including new testimony today from La Strada-Ukraine, a human rights organization.
- Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, has said he told Vladimir Putin that “all those responsible” for war crimes must be brought to justice.
French bank Société Générale ending business in Russia
Société Générale (SocGen), the French bank, has announced it is ending its Russian activities, making it the first big western bank to take such a step, the Associated Press reports:
SocGen is also selling its entire stake in Rosbank to a company linked to a Russian oligarch, costing the French bank some 3bn euros ($3.3 billion). Rosbank is a heavyweight in the Russian banking sector, and Société Générale was the majority shareholder.
“After several weeks of intensive work,” the bank said in a statement, it had signed an agreement with Russian investment fund Interros Capital to sell all of its stake in Rosbank as well as its insurance subsidiaries in Russia. Interros is one of the largest funds in the country, which holds assets in heavy industry and metallurgy.
Updated
Today’s meeting between Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, and Vladimir Putin seems to have gone as badly as expected. It lasted 75 minutes and is being depicted by Vienna as “tough and direct”. In the meeting, Nehammer raised Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s readiness for in-person talks with the Russian president, but Putin gave “no reply whatsoever”, ignoring the issue, an Austrian official told the Guardian. Instead, Putin talked about the “Istanbul track” negotiations, which have failed to produce any progress so far.
“Putin seems to be massively caught up in the ‘logic of war’ and acts accordingly,” the Austrian official said.
More reading here:
Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, has shared more details about her war crimes investigations in a CNN interview, saying her office was building “more than 5,800 cases”. She told host Jake Tapper:
We are still exhuming the dead bodies from the mass grave. Actually, what we see, now, we see a lot of war crimes, actually, it is not only war crimes. Now we can say ... a lot of crimes against humanity.”
Earlier in the day, her office released this statement outlining child casualties, CNN noted:
As of April 11, 2022, according to official data from juvenile prosecutors, more than 525 children were casualties in Ukraine as a result of the armed invasion of our country by the Russian Federation. 183 children died and more than 342 were injured. These figures are not final, as work is underway in places of active hostilities in the temporarily occupied and liberated territories.”
In her follow-up interview, Venediktova suggested those numbers were an undercount, because they did not account for victims in places like Mariupol, which were under Russian occupation.
Reuters has more details on testimony from the United Nations, which has increasingly heard accounts of rape and sexual violence in Ukraine.
Sima Bahous, UN Women executive director, told the UN security council:
We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence. The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags.”
Kateryna Cherepakha, president of La Strada-Ukraine, a human rights organization, also said her group’s hotlines had received calls accusing Russian soldiers of nine cases of rape, involving 12 women and girls. She told the council, according to Reuters:
This is just the tip of the iceberg. We know and see - and we want you to hear our voices - that violence and rape is used now as a weapon of war by Russian invaders in Ukraine.”
The UN said last week that its human rights monitors were working to verify allegations of sexual violence by Russian soldiers, including claims of gang rape and rapes in front of children. The UN further said it was investigating claims that Ukrainian forces and civil defense militias had committed acts of sexual violence; Ukraine’s UN mission did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on those allegations. Russia has repeatedly denied attacking civilians.
Ukraine’s UN ambassador also told the security council that its prosecutor general’s office was launching a “special mechanism of documentation” for cases involving sexual violence.
Updated
Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights said she had recorded horrific acts of sexual violence by Russian troops in Bucha and elsewhere, including a case in which women and girls were kept in a basement for 25 days, the New York Times has reported.
Nine of those victims are now pregnant, according to the ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova.
Horrific cases of sexual violence by Russian troops in Bucha and other places: a group of women and girls were imprisoned in a basement of a house for 25 days.
— Cliff Levy (@cliffordlevy) April 11, 2022
Nine of them are now pregnant, Ukraine’s ombudswoman for human rights said.https://t.co/FYhGozkIHh
Denisova has urged the UN human rights commission to “take into account these facts of Russian war crimes in Ukraine”, adding:
The level of brutality of the army of terrorists and executioners of the Russian Federation knows no bounds.”
In Bucha’s Month of Terror, the New York Times lays out horrifying details and images of the “campaign of terror and revenge against civilians” as Russia’s advance on Kyiv was stalled.
For more on the casualties in Bucha, check out my colleague Luke Harding’s recent dispatch:
Europol, the EU’s policy agency, said today it had launched an operation targeting the assets of Russian individuals and companies, the AFP reports:
The agency, based in The Hague, launched the operation dubbed “Oscar” jointly with EU member states, as well as Eurojust and Frontex. The operation aims to “facilitate partners’ exchange of information and intelligence and provide operational support in a number of financial investigations targeting criminal assets and circumvention of the EU economic sanctions related to Russia’s military aggression,” Europol said in a statement.
The EU’s border agency Frontex “will contribute to the operation by enhancing the scrutiny of the persons who are crossing EU’s external borders and fall under the scope of the sanctions”, the statement said.
Operation Oscar will continue for at least a year and includes a number of separate investigations, Europol said.
In its statement, Europol said it would also provide financial support to the relevant national authorities and would help provide forensic and technical expertise and support for investigations, the AFP said. Eurojust, the judicial counterpart to Europol, will also be offering legal assistance and other supports.
Three people were killed and eight civilians wounded by Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, reports Reuters.
Three people were killed and eight civilians were wounded on Monday by Russian strikes on Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk, the region’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the governor’s account of the attack.
Prominent Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. has been detained in Moscow on charges of disobeying police orders, his lawyer told the independent news outlet Sota Vision on Monday evening.
Kara-Murza’s lawyer Vadim Prokhorov told Sota that he will spend the night at the Khamovniki police precinct in central Moscow where he was brought to shortly after his detainment.
The opposition activist faces up to 15 days in jail or a fine.Kara-Murza is a veteran Kremlin critic who says he was deliberately poisoned in Moscow in 2015 and 2017 as retaliation for his lobbying efforts to impose U.S. and EU sanctions against Russian officials accused of human rights abuses.
A close friend of Boris Nemtsov, who was shot and killed in 2015, Kara-Murza nearly died from kidney failure in the first incident.Kara-Murza has been a vocal opponent of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launching an anti-war committee together with other Russian leading opposition figures.
He has also been one of the few oppositionists who still travel to Russia, as many have fled the country out of safety concerns.Hours prior to his detainment, Kara-Murza went on CNN where he described the Kremlin as a “regime of murderers.”
Updated
Top officials at the United Nations have said that women and children in Ukraine need more protection, reported AFP.
UN officials also called for an investigation into violence against women during its invasion of Ukraine and increased protection for Ukrainian children.
Sima Bahous, director of the UN women’s agency, spoke on her concerns during a meeting with the Security Council today:
This war must stop. Now...We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence. These allegations must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability.
Bahous, who recently visited the region, also said “mass displacement with the large presence of conscripts and mercenaries, and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians, has raised all red flags.”
Russia has rejected accusations of abuse through the Ukraine invasion.
Read an article from the Guardian’s Andrew Roth and Shaun Walker about Russian soldiers looting throughout Ukrainian territories they occupy:
When Russian soldiers left the village of Novyi Bykiv after a month of occupation, Natalia Samson returned to her house to find they had stolen her perfumes, jewellery, some wine, a scooter, a novelty cushion and a collection of old coins.
A few days later she ventured into the village school, where she works as the deputy headteacher, and discovered the Russians had taken most of the computers, the projectors and other electronic equipment.
In the headteacher’s office, an opened pair of scissors had been inserted into a plasma screen that was left behind, apparently in an attempt to ensure that what could not be stolen was instead destroyed.
“People saw them simply loading everything on to Ural trucks, everything they could get their hands on,” said Samson, shaking her head in disbelief. A dozen houses on the village’s main street had been looted, as well as all the shops. Other villagers reported losing washing machines, food, laptops and even a sofa...
Read the full article here.
4,354 people evacuated from Ukraine using humanitarian corridors today, reports Reuters.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk shared the number today online, with evacuations coming from cities across the country.
About four million chickens were killed at a poultry farm in the Kherson region as Russian shelling cut off power supplies to the farm, reports NEXTA:
About four million chickens were killed at Chornobayivska poultry farm in Kherson region, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Lyudmyla Denysova said.
As a result of Russian shelling, the power supply was interrupted, leaving the farm without the ability to feed its poultry.
About four million chickens were killed at #Chornobayivska poultry farm in #Kherson region, #Ukrainian human rights commissioner Lyudmyla Denysova said.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 11, 2022
As a result of #Russian shelling, the power supply was interrupted, leaving the farm without the ability to feed its poultry. pic.twitter.com/pNbyobdnYF
Ukraine officials have accused Russia of holding civilians, including journalists, in Russian prisons, reports Reuters.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a televised statement that many civilians are being imprisoned:
We have many priests, journalists, activists, mayors, and in general civilians who are in prisons, not, for example, even on the territory of Ukraine, but in (the) Kursk, Bryansk, Rostov (regions of Russia)... They are forcibly held...
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.
Russian forces are focusing on the Donbas region, says the US Pentagon, but have-- not launched an offensive yet, reports AFP.
Russian forces are reinforcing around the Donbas, notably near the town of Izyum, but have not yet launched an offensive to seize control of the disputed region of eastern Ukraine, Pentagon officials said Monday.
“They’re repositioning, they’re refocusing on the Donbas,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Kirby said a convoy of vehicles had been observed heading for Izyum but “it’s not clear to us how many vehicles are in this convoy and what exactly they’re bringing.
“It does seem to be a mix of personnel-carrying vehicles as well as armored vehicles and maybe some artillery,” he said.
The Pentagon spokesman underscored that the Ukrainian military has been fighting Moscow-backed separatists in the Donbas region since 2014.
“The Ukrainians have been for eight years - and still are - fighting over that,” he said. “And they show no signs of being willing to give that territory up.”
A senior US defense official said earlier Monday that the United States does not believe a “new offensive” in the Donbas region has begun yet.
“We still assess that while there is fighting going on they (the Russians) are working to reinforce their capabilities and to add to it,” the official said...
Updated
More on the expulsion of six Russian diplomats in France: France’s General Directorate of Internal Security discovered the operation by Russian diplomats happening in France, reports NEXTA:
The General Directorate of Internal Security after a lengthy investigation revealed a covert operation conducted by the Russian secret services on the territory of France, according to a statement of the Foreign Ministry. As a result, six Russian agents were exposed.
The General Directorate of Internal Security after a lengthy investigation revealed a covert operation conducted by the #Russian secret services on the territory of #France, according to a statement of the Foreign Ministry. As a result, six Russian agents were exposed.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 11, 2022
Here is a statement from France’s foreign ministry on the decision to expel six Russian diplomats today, reported by Reuters:
Following a very long investigation, the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) revealed on Sunday April 10 a clandestine operation carried out by the Russian intelligence services on our territory...
Six Russian agents operating under diplomatic cover and whose activities proved contrary to our national interests have been declared persona non grata...
The foreign ministry did not provide any more elaboration into what the “clandestine operation” entailed.
France’s foreign ministry has declared six more Russian agents as persona non grata and operating under diplomatic cover, reports Reuters.
The six agents are being accused of working against France’s “national interest” following an investigation, Reuters further reports.
‼️ The #French Foreign Ministry declared six more #Russian diplomats persona non grata. pic.twitter.com/ItjDMFLZcF
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 11, 2022
Last week, France expelled 35 Russian diplomats as apart of a joint response with other European countries.
This story is developing-more details to come.
150,000 Mariupol residents are reportedly being allowed to flee the besieged city after Ukraine negotiators secured safe passage, according to a top Zelenskiy adviser.
From Foreign Policy’s Jack Detsch:
NEW: Ukrainian evacuation buses from Mariupol have allowed 150,000 residents to flee the besieged port city after [Ukraine] negotiators managed to secure safe passage: top Zelensky advisor
Local officials estimate over 10,000 Mariupol residents have died during Russia’s 42-day siege
NEW: Ukrainian evacuation buses from Mariupol have allowed 150,000 residents to flee the besieged port city after 🇺🇦 negotiators managed to secure safe passage: top Zelensky advisor
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) April 11, 2022
Local officials estimate over 10,000 Mariupol residents have died during Russia's 42-day siege
Previously, civilians were only able to escape the port city via personal transport.
Zelensky advisor Oleksii Arestovich said in a televised interview that residents of Mariupol could only leave by personal transport before.
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) April 11, 2022
Updated
Summary
It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv came under heavy shelling today, resulting in multiple casualties, mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Among the casualties in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was the death of one child, the region’s mayor said.
-
The bodies of seven people have been recovered from the rubble of two destroyed high-rise housing blocks in the town of Borodianka near Kyiv, Ukraine’s state emergencies service said. The recovered bodies pushed the total death toll there to 19 people found in the rubble, it said in a statement.
- Tens of thousands of people have most likely been killed in Russia’s assault on the south-eastern city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said. Speaking in a video address to the South Korean parliament, Zelenskiy said “Ukraine needs support for its military, including planes and tanks”.
- Ukrainian forces are readying themselves for a “last battle” to control the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, a statement on the Facebook page of the 36th marine brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces said. Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said Ukrainian forces were still holding out in the port of Mariupol.
- Moscow will not pause its military operation in Ukraine before the next round of peace talks, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said. Speaking in an interview with Russian state television, Lavrov said he saw no reason not to continue talks with Ukraine but insisted Moscow would not halt its military operation when the sides convene again.
- Western officials said they expected Russia to try and “double or perhaps even treble” its forces in Donbas as it shifts forces from Kyiv and elsewhere in the coming weeks. The first of those forces had begun to redeploy via Belarus, but the whole exercise would take “some considerable time” and it was unclear how many units could be effectively brought back into battle.
- The US president, Joe Biden, spoke with Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, stressing the countries’ shared values as the US pushed India to take a harder line against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Modi called the situation in Ukraine “very worrying” and said he has spoken with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appealing to both of them for peace.
- The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, held “direct, open and tough” talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow today. In a statement, Nehammer – the first EU leader to meet with Putin since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine – was quoted as saying that it was “not a friendly meeting”.
- Russia’s defence ministry claimed it has destroyed a S-300 anti-aircraft missile system near Dnipro which had been supplied to Ukraine by an unspecified European country. The claim has been described as disinformation by Slovakia’s prime minister, Eduard Heger, whose country donated an S-300 system last week.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today as I hand over to my colleague, Gloria Oladipo, who will continue to bring you all the latest news from the war in Ukraine.
The bodies of seven people have been recovered from the rubble of two destroyed high-rise housing blocks in the town of Borodianka near Kyiv, Ukraine’s state emergencies service said.
More than 200 rescue workers have been scrambling to find missing residents since Ukraine retook Borodianka after Russian troops began pulling back from the region late last month, Reuters reports.
The recovered bodies pushed the total death toll there to 19 people found in the rubble, the state emergencies service said in a statement.
John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, has been giving the daily US update on the war in Ukraine. He confirmed that the US believes Russia has withdrawn all its units from around Kyiv and Chernihiv into Belarus and then east into Russia.
He said the US believes those units could be refitted and resupplied and then sent into eastern Ukraine.
“We have seen some early indications that the Russians are in fact trying to resupply and reinforce their efforts in the Donbas,” Kirby said.
He referred to images of a column of Russian vehicles heading south towards the town of Izyum. “We believe that these are the early stages of a reinforcement effort by the Russians in the Donbas,” he said.
It’s not clear to us how many vehicles are in this convoy and what exactly they’re bringing. It does seem to be a mix of personnel-carrying vehicles as well as armoured vehicles and maybe some artillery, maybe some enabling capabilities.
Kirby had no confirmation on Russian claims to have struck Ukraine’s recently-acquired S-300 anti-aircraft system.
“We have seen the Russians hit airfields in the last couple of weeks... just over the last day or so,” he said.
What exactly they’re targeting at those fields is not perfectly clear to us, but I would just say this about Ukrainian air defence: they still have a lot of their air defence capability available to them. They have been asking for more, and so we are working with allies and partners to help get long-range air defence systems into Ukraine.
As for the newly-appointed Russian commander, Alexander Dvornikov, who has a history of targeting civilians in Syria, Kirby said he could not speculate on what Dvornikov’s intentions in Ukraine were, but added:
He and other senior Russian leaders have shown in the past .. their disregard for avoiding civilian harm, their utter disregard in many ways for the laws of war, law of armed conflict, and the brutality with which they conduct and prosecute their operations.
We can certainly say by what we’ve seen in the past, that we’re probably turning another page in the same book of Russian brutality.
Updated
Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, has said he told Vladimir Putin that “all those responsible” for war crimes must be brought to justice and warned that western sanctions would intensify as long as people kept dying in Ukraine.
After becoming the first western leader to hold face-to-face talks with the Russian president since the invasion of Ukraine, Nehammer said his trip to Moscow was not “a visit of friendship” and that the two had had a “direct, open and hard” conversation.
“I mentioned the serious war crimes in Bucha and other locations and stressed that all those responsible have to be brought to justice,” Nehammer said in a statement.
Russian media reported that the meeting, which took place at Putin’s official Novo-Ogaryovo residence just outside Moscow, was behind closed doors at Austria’s request. Speaking before the meeting began, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the two would discuss “the situation around Ukraine”, but declined to give further details. Peskov said he could not exclude that gas would be discussed as this was “very, very relevant for the Austrian side”, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
The meeting came as EU foreign ministers discussed targeting Russian oil in the next round of sanctions, while Joe Biden held talks with Narendra Modi, in which the US president was expected to press India’s leader not to increase imports of Russian crude.
UN ‘increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence’ against women in Ukraine
Sima Bahous, director of the UN women’s agency, has called for an investigation into Russia’s violence against women during its invasion of Ukraine, AFP reports.
Speaking at a meeting of the security council in New York, Bahous said:
This war must stop. Now.
We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence. These allegations must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability.
The combination of “mass displacement with the large presence of conscripts and mercenaries, and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians, has raised all red flags”, she said.
There was also an increased risk of human trafficking at border crossings, with young women and unaccompanied teenagers at particular risk, she added.
They were there before the war.
— UK at the UN 🇬🇧 (@UKUN_NewYork) April 11, 2022
They remain there during.
They will be there to pick up the pieces.
At #UNSC, 🇺🇳@unwomenchief applauds the resilience of 🇺🇦#Ukraine's women's organisations and urges that women must be part of the crisis response and efforts towards peace. pic.twitter.com/rkgtcA2HK5
Also at the security council meeting, the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said what is happening to women and children during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “horrific beyond comprehension”.
Thomas-Greenfield said:
When men like President Putin start wars, women and children get displaced, women and children get hurt. Women and children get raped and abused and women and children die.
Since the start of Russia’s “unprovoked” war against Ukraine, Russia has bombed orphanages and maternity hospitals, she continued.
We’ve seen mass graves with dead children stacked on top of each other.
When men like President Putin start wars, women and children get displaced.
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) April 11, 2022
Women and children get hurt.
Women and children get raped and abused.
And women and children die. pic.twitter.com/rwc2kD0F2U
Updated
Multiple casualties, including one child, after shelling of Kharkiv, mayor says
Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv came under heavy shelling today, resulting in multiple casualties, mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a televised interview, Reuters reports.
Among the casualties in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was the death of one child, the region’s mayor said.
When asked about the risk of a new Russian assault on the city, Terekhov said that Ukrainian forces were focused and ready to defend the city.
Updated
Russia has claimed it targeted Ukrainian air defence systems in airstrikes overnight which completely destroyed the airport in the eastern city of Dnipro. Another attack wounded five people in the town of Zvonetsky, according to Ukrainian officials.
Emergency workers were also combing through an infrastructure facility in the town of Zvonetsky that was attacked on Monday. Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said casualty figures would be given at a later point.
Reznichenko earlier said that the Dnipro attack had wounded one person, while rockets had sparked a fire that was eventually put out. A missile had also hit a building in the Pavlograd district, he added.
Separately, the head of the Dnipro region council, Mykola Lukashuk, said five staffers of the state emergency service had been wounded by the strike on the airport.
Russia said that it had targeted an S-300 air defence missile system transported to Ukraine by Slovakia last week, a claim denied by Slovakia. Kyiv has repeatedly begged its western allies for long-range air defence systems to help it against the Russian invasion.
Russian defence ministry spokesman Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov said the military used cruise missiles to destroy four launchers on the southern outskirts of Dnipro, as well as hitting such systems in the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions.
Dnipro, an industrial city home to 1 million people, has become a vital reception point for Ukrainians from further east who have been told to evacuate in the face of both Russian advances on the ground and intensifying airstrikes and artillery attacks.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk, also wrote on Telegram that a school and a high-rise apartment building had been hit on Monday in the city of Severodonetsk.
• This segment was amended on 12 April 2022 because the S-300 air defence missile system transported to Ukraine last week was from Slovakia, not Slovenia as an earlier version said.
Updated
Updated
Biden and Modi pledge collaboration over Ukraine
Joe Biden and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, were talking over a video link about the conflict in Ukraine and what the US president said is: “Our close consultation on how to manage the destabilising effects of this Russian war.”
The two leaders are in a private session, at which Biden is expected to raise US concerns over India’s perceived closeness to Moscow and its continuing investment in Russian oil and military systems.
But the mood was lighter as Biden and Modi presented a collaborative front in the public portion of their meeting, aired live on the White House website.
“At the root of our partnership is a deep connection between our people, a family of friendship and a shared value,” Biden said, as Modi appeared on a giant screen before him.
The people in Ukraine are suffering a horrific assault, including the tragic shelling in a train station last week that killed dozens of innocent children and women and civilians attempting to flee the violence. The United States and India are going to continue our close consultation on how to manage the destabilising effects of this Russian war.
Modi condemned Russian killings of Ukraine citizens and said India was “very worried” about the alleged atrocities in Bucha.
“We condemn the killings and have called for an independent inquiry,” he said, adding that India had contributed to the global effort to send help to Ukraine.
We have also emphasized the importance of the security of civilians in Ukraine and the unhindered supply of humanitarian assistance to them.
The press were asked to leave without the opportunity to ask questions, and the live feed went dark. It remains to be seen if Biden or Modi will make themselves available to reporters at the event’s conclusion.
For more live updates from the US, please follow our US politics blog.
Updated
Western officials said they expected Russia to try and “double or perhaps even treble” its forces in Donbas as it shifts forces from Kyiv and elsewhere in the coming weeks.
The first of those forces had begun to redeploy via Belarus, but the whole exercise would take “some considerable time” and it was unclear how many units could be effectively brought back into battle.
It is estimated that around 37-38 Russian battalion tactical groups, which have a composition of 800 at full strength, are now “combat non effective” leaving the Russian military with around 90.
Those numbers could eventually be augmented by some reservists, after Russia called up around 60,000, but these are likely to take some time to be ready for the frontline.
One official added:
The fact that Russia is looking at doing this gives an indication as to the impact of the massive casualties that they face.
Russian forces are said to be still employing similar tactics as seen in early phases of the war, driving down “in columns on the road,” which have proved vulnerable to Ukrainian counter attacks.
When ambushed the Russian force are frequently “unable to respond to the nature of that attack,” the official added, firing wildly and proving unable to pinpoint where the attackers are coming from.
The officials say this was largely due to the limited or in some cases non-existent preparation Russian forces had for the invasion. “It is still incredible to watch,” one said.
Summary
It is just past 7pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- Tens of thousands of people have most likely been killed in Russia’s assault on the south-eastern city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said. Speaking in a video address to the South Korean parliament, Zelenskiy said “Ukraine needs support for its military, including planes and tanks”.
- Ukrainian forces are readying themselves for a “last battle” to control the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, a statement on the Facebook page of the 36th marine brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces said. Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said Ukrainian forces were still holding out in the port of Mariupol.
- Moscow will not pause its military operation in Ukraine before the next round of peace talks, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said. Speaking in an interview with Russian state television, Lavrov said he saw no reason not to continue talks with Ukraine but insisted Moscow would not halt its military operation when the sides convene again.
- Russia is probably looking to “double or perhaps treble” the number of troops they have in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, a western official said. Meanwhile, a senior US defence official said the US believes Russia has started reinforcing its troops in Donbas.
- The Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, held “direct, open and tough” talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow today. In a statement, Nehammer – the first EU leader to meet with Putin since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine – was quoted as saying that it was “not a friendly meeting”.
- Russia’s defence ministry claimed it has destroyed a S-300 anti-aircraft missile system near Dnipro which had been supplied to Ukraine by an unspecified European country. The claim has been described as disinformation by Slovakia’s prime minister, Eduard Heger, whose country donated an S-300 system last week.
- The UK’s Ministry of Defence warned that Russia’s past use of phosphorus munitions in Donetsk “raised the possibility of their future employment in Mariupol as fighting for the city intensifies”.
Updated
Ukrainian commander says troops still holding out in Mariupol
Ukrainian forces were still holding out in the port of Mariupol, Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, Gen Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said.
In a statement on Facebook, Zaluzhnyi said:
Communication with the units of the defence forces heroically holding the city is stable and maintained.
We are doing the possible and impossible for the victory and the preservation of the lives of personnel and civilians in all directions. Believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine!
Ukraine is preparing for a new Russian mass assault on eastern territory, which Russia now says is its main objective, Reuters reports.
If Mariupol falls after nearly seven weeks of siege, it would be the first major city captured by Russia since its troops invaded Ukraine. Russian forces advancing from Crimea would be able to link up with forces from the east and focus their attention on encircling Ukraine’s main force in the area.
Updated
Russia looking to 'double or treble' forces in Donbas, western official says
The US believes Russia has started reinforcing its troops in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, a senior US defence official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US did not believe this was the start of a new offensive in the region.
Meanwhile, a western official said Russia is probably looking to “double or perhaps treble” the number of troops they have in Donbas, but that it would take “some considerable time” for Russia to reach that force level.
The official said:
The Russians have shown themselves to be not very effective in this invasion as to being able to use their numerical advantage effectively to actually bring about a decisive engagement.
From our Dan Sabbagh:
Russian forces still employing similar tactics as seen in early phases of the war 'in columns on the road' which are 'being unable to respond to the nature of that attack. Western officials blame poor preparations for invasion - 'It is still incredible to watch'
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) April 11, 2022
Updated
Austrian leader held 'very direct, open and tough' talks with Putin
Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer, held “direct, open and tough” talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow today, Reuters reports.
In a statement, Nehammer – the first EU leader to meet with Putin since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine – was quoted as saying:
This is not a friendly meeting.
Nehammer said his most important message to the Russian leader was that the war must end because “in a war there are only losers on both sides”.
A spokesperson for Nehammer said the meeting went ahead at Putin’s official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. Austrian media said it had ended after about 90 minutes.
Austrian foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, said earlier today that the chancellor would tell Putin that he “is isolating Russia, that he will lose this war morally, and that he is doing everything wrong that can be done wrong”.
Schallenberg added that the trip was aimed at pleading for humanitarian corridors to be set up to alleviate the “hell” the campaign had caused in Ukraine.
He said:
The corridors would be to evacuate civilians trapped in places such as the city of Mariupol, and for “international humanitarian organisations to be able to conduct their work
While Austria generally maintains closer ties to Moscow than many other EU countries, that has not been the case recently.
Nehammer has expressed solidarity with Ukraine over the Russian invasion and denounced apparent Russian war crimes there. His government has also joined other EU countries in expelling Russian diplomats from Vienna.
Updated
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, met with his Lithuanian counterpart, Ingrida Šimonytė, amid a backdrop of bombed-out apartment buildings and rubble in Borodianka, a town in the Kyiv region.
The two prime ministers tweeted about the visit, while Šimonytė said “no words could possibly describe what I saw and felt here”.
Held a meeting today with PM 🇱🇹 @IngridaSimonyte. Visited together #Borodianka, destroyed by russian troops. Genocide of rf against 🇺🇦 must be punished. Grateful to #Lithuania for joining the investigation of war crimes. #StopRussia together pic.twitter.com/ujHc6ksXWX
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) April 11, 2022
Today, my visit in Ukraine started in Borodyanka.
— Ingrida Šimonytė (@IngridaSimonyte) April 11, 2022
No words could possibly describe what I saw and felt here. pic.twitter.com/Z1Bz0FBrhT
Last week, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the situation in Borodianka was “much worse” than 15 miles (24km) away in Bucha.
In a video posted on Telegram, Zelenskiy said:
The work to clear the rubble in Borodianka has begun … it’s significantly more dreadful there. Even more victims from the Russian occupiers.
Updated
North Korea’s foreign affairs minister has denounced Russia’s suspension from the United Nations human rights council, calling it an “unreasonable act” led by the US and the west to maintain political hegemony, Reuters reports.
At a meeting of the UN general assembly on Thursday, 93 members voted in favour of the diplomatic rebuke while 24 were against and 58 abstained.
North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, Syria and Vietnam were among those who voted against the resolution.
The US’s UN ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, had launched the resolution to suspend Russia from the council as the world was still recoiling from images of mass graves and corpses strewn in the streets of Bucha following Russian soldiers’ retreat.
In a statement reported by the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, the minister said:
What the US is after ... is to isolate the independent countries, and forces challenging them at the international arena, so as to maintain its illegal and inhumane US-led hegemonic order.
The minister, who was not named, added that international organisations should not be “abused” as a means for the United States to put political pressure on countries, the agency said.
Updated
Russia claims to have destroyed several air defence systems in Ukraine over the weekend, the Associated Press reports, saying it appears to indicate a renewed push to gain air superiority and take out weapons Kyiv has described as crucial ahead of a broad new offensive in the east.
Moscow claims to have hit four S-300 missile launchers provided by a European country it didn’t name on Monday. Slovakia gave Ukraine such a system last week, but denies it has been destroyed. Russia has previously reported two strikes on similar systems in other places.
Moscow’s initial invasion has stalled on several fronts as it has met with stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces, who have prevented the Russians from taking the capital and other cities. The failure to win full control of Ukraine’s skies has hampered Moscow’s ability to provide air cover for troops on the ground, limiting their advances and likely exposing them to greater losses.
With their offensive in many parts of the country thwarted, Russian forces have relied increasingly on bombarding cities. The war has flattened many urban areas, killed thousands of people and left Russia politically and economically isolated.
Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian forces of committing atrocities, including a massacre in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, airstrikes on hospitals and a missile attack that killed at least 57 people at a train station.
Updated
Italy has seized properties worth about €105m (£87.79m, $114.45m) owned by the Russian former Formula One driver Nikita Dmitrievich Mazepin and his oligarch father, Reuters reports, citing two police sources.
The operation reportedly targeted a villa – known as Rocky Ram – in northern Sardinia. It is part of broader efforts aimed at penalising wealthy Russians linked to Vladimir Putin after the 24 February invasion of Ukraine by Moscow. Reuters says the driver’s PR manager has not yet commented.
Mazepin – who was fired in March by the US-owned F1 team Haas – has been included in an EU sanctions list along with his father, Dmitry, who the European Union’s official journal described as a member of Putin’s closest circle.
In recent weeks, Italian police have sequestered villas and yachts worth more than €900m from wealthy Russians who were placed on a European Union sanctions list following the Ukraine conflict.
The most valuable asset seized so far is a superyacht owned by billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, worth around €530m, which was impounded in the northern port of Trieste.
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Russia will not pause military operation in Ukraine for peace talks, Lavrov says
Moscow will not pause its military operation in Ukraine before the next round of peace talks, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said.
Speaking in an interview with Russian state television, Lavrov said Vladimir Putin had ordered military actions to be suspended during the first round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, Reuters reports.
Moscow’s position had changed since then, he said. Lavrov said he saw no reason not to continue talks with Ukraine but insisted Moscow would not halt its military operation when the sides convene again.
Lavrov said:
After we became convinced that the Ukrainians were not planning to reciprocate, a decision was made that during the next rounds of talks, there would be no pause so long as a final agreement is not reached.
The Russian FM last week accused Kyiv of presenting Moscow with an “unacceptable” draft peace deal that deviated from agreements the sides had previously reached. Kyiv dismissed Lavrov’s comments as a tactic to undermine Ukraine or divert attention from war crime accusations against Russian troops.
Also in the interview aired today, Lavrov said that calls by the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, for the bloc to continue arming Kyiv marked a “very serious U-turn” in European policy.
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Croatia has expelled 24 Russian embassy staff over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “brutal aggression”, the Croatian foreign ministry said.
In a statement, the ministry said the Russian ambassador was summoned in a protest over the “brutal aggression on Ukraine and numerous crimes committed (there)“.
It said:
The Russian party was informed about the reduction of administrative-technical staff of the Russian Federation’s embassy in Zagreb.
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, travelled by car, helicopter, military plane and train for his surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday, Downing Street said.
On his arrival in the Ukrainian capital, Johnson held talks with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for an hour, before they both went for a walk through the city including to Independence Square.
The two leaders returned for a full bilateral meeting over a dinner with their small teams, No 10 said.
From Times Radio’s Lucy Fisher:
NEW: Johnson & Zelenskyy dined together in Kyiv on Saturday.
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) April 11, 2022
On the menu was goats cheese salad & chicken soup, followed by roast beef, then cherry dumplings.
PM stayed 5 hours in Kyiv in total, having travelled there via road, helicopter, military plane & train.
Johnson took the ceramic rooster he was gifted by a Ukrainian woman back to Chequers, says No 10.
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) April 11, 2022
‘He is aware it has become a famous symbol of resistance’, his deputy spox adds, after he appeared bemused by the item.
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Here’s more from Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s address to the South Korean parliament earlier today, where he asked Seoul for any military aid it could provide just days after South Korea denied the request.
Speaking in a video address, Zelenskiy told South Korean lawmakers that “Ukraine needs support for its military, including planes and tanks”, adding:
South Korea can help Ukraine. South Korea has various defence systems that could defend against Russian tanks, ships, and missiles.
We would be grateful if South Korea could help us to fight Russia. If Ukraine can have these weapons, they will not only save the lives of ordinary people, but they’ll save Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of people have likely been killed in Russia’s assault on the south-eastern city of Mariupol, he also said.
Earlier on Monday, South Korea’s defence ministry said it had rejected a request by the Ukrainian defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, for anti-aircraft weapons, Reuters reports.
In a phone call on Friday, South Korea’s defence minister, Suh Wook, told Reznikov that any support of lethal weapons would be limited in light of South Korea’s security situation and its potential impact on military readiness, a ministry spokesperson said.
South Korea has consistently said it would not provide lethal weapons or deploy its military to support Ukraine.
It has provided humanitarian assistance worth $10m (£7.68m) to Ukraine and pledged last week to send another $30m (£23m). It has also provided non-lethal items including bulletproof helmets, medical kits and medicines.
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Today will be ‘last battle’ for Mariupol as ammunition is ‘running out’, Ukraine says
Ukrainian forces say they are readying themselves for a “last battle” to control the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, AFP reports.
In a statement on Facebook, the 36th marine brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces said:
Today will probably be the last battle, as the ammunition is running out.
After defending the port for 47 days and doing “everything possible and impossible” to retain control of the city, the marines said it had been “pushed back” and “surrounded” by the Russian army, adding:
It’s death for some of us, and captivity for the rest.
Russian forces have said fighting has recently centred around Mariupol’s Azovstal iron and steel works and in the port.
The marines said that is where “the enemy gradually pushed us back” and “surrounded us with fire, and is now trying to destroy us”.
The mountain of wounded makes up almost half of the brigade. Those whose limbs are not torn off return to battle.
The infantry was all killed and the shooting battles are now conducted by artillerymen, anti-aircraft gunners, radio operators, drivers and cooks. Even the orchestra.
It complained that there was a lack of support from Ukraine’s military leadership “because we’ve been written off”.
The south-eastern city of Mariupol has seen the most intense fighting since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine. Earlier today, the Ukraininan president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said tens of thousands of people had likely been killed in the city.
Zelenskiy told the South Korean parliament via video link:
Mariupol has been destroyed, there are tens of thousands of dead, but even despite this, the Russians are not stopping their offensive.
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German newspaper Die Welt has hired as a correspondent Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who broke on to a live news broadcast on Russian state television in protest against the Ukraine war, its owner Axel Springer said.
Ovsyannikova, 43, will report for the newspaper as well as for Die Welt’s TV news channel, including from Ukraine and Russia, Springer said.
The former editor at Russia’s state Channel One “defended the most important journalistic ethics despite the threat of state repression” with her on-air protest, Welt Group editor-in-chief Ulf Poschardt said in a statement.
Ovsyannikova was fined 30,000 roubles (£215) for violating protest laws after her extraordinary demonstration against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month.
Ovsyannikova burst on to the set of the live broadcast of the nightly news, shouting: “Stop the war. No to war.” She also held a sign saying: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” It was signed in English: “Russians against the war.”
She also released a pre-recorded video in which she expressed her shame at working for Channel One and spreading “Kremlin propaganda”.
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More than 20% of Russian soldiers confirmed dead during the war in Ukraine are officers, including 10 colonels, 20 lieutenant colonels, 31 majors and 155 junior officers, the BBC reports.
The BBC has been able to verify the identities of the 1,083 Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine, their deaths reported by local officials or Russian media.
The BBC World correspondent Olga Ivshina said evidence showed:
Russia has lost some of its best specialists, including elite spec. forces operators, highly skilled fighter pilots and some experienced commanders.
It takes 5 years and at least 10.000 USD to prepare an infantry lieutenant in Russia. For other specialties prices rise up to 60.000 USD per one young officer. It costs from 4 to 14 mln USD (and up to 14 years) to prepare a skillful fighter pilot.\4
— Olga Ivshina (@oivshina) April 11, 2022
In addition, about 15% of all confirmed Russian losses in Ukraine are paratroopers from units “which are considered elite of the Russian army”, she said.
Preparation of a paratrooper in Russia demands more money and time compared to an infantryman. So these are sensitive losses.
There are at least 15 GRU special forces operators (including 5officers) and 3 maroon berets (краповые береты) in the confirmed losses list.These take months or even years to train and educate.Test to get a maroon beret is considered to be one of the hardest in the military world pic.twitter.com/d8Rl6Ty41i
— Olga Ivshina (@oivshina) April 11, 2022
Hello from London, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
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Today so far …
- Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer is set to meet Vladimir Putin on Monday, the first European leader to meet the Russian president since Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February. In a tweet, Nehammer said Austria was “militarily neutral” but that it had a “clear stance on Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine”.
- Russia’s defence ministry claims it has destroyed a S-300 anti-aircraft missile system near Dnipro which had been supplied to Ukraine by an unspecified European country. The claim has been described as disinformation by Slovakia’s prime minister Eduard Heger, whose country donated an S-300 system last week.
- In his nightly address to the nation on Sunday night, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of having “lost connection with reality to a degree that they accuse us of committing what Russian troops have obviously done”.
- Tens of thousands of people have likely been killed in Russia’s assault on the south-eastern city of Mariupol, and over 300 Ukrainian hospitals have been destroyed, Zelenskiy told the South Korean parliament.
- Russia is likely to continue strikes on transport infrastructure “in order to disrupt the supply of goods to the places of hostilities”, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has said in its latest operational report.
- In its latest intelligence update on Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence warns that Russia’s past use of phosphorus munitions in Donetsk “raised the possibility of their future employment in Mariupol as fighting for the city intensifies”.
- Pro-Russian forces in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have said they will intensify their fight in eastern Ukraine.
- Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, has said there will be an offensive by Russian forces not only on Mariupol, but also on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities
- German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock says Germany has seen massive indications of war crimes in Ukraine.
- Norway is to extend its deployment of 200 troops in Lithuania until August.
- Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, has said the European Commission was working on details of an oil embargo on Russia as part of a possible next sanctions package
- France’s ambassador to Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins, has posted a picture from Lviv showing teams of forensic gendarmes that have arrived from France to assist local authorities in investigating war crimes.
- New Zealand will send a C-130H Hercules and 50-person team to Europe to distribute military aid to Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. I am handing you over to Léonie Chao-Fong.
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Pro-Russian forces in Donetsk have said they will intensify their fight in eastern Ukraine. Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, is quoted by the RIA news agency as saying:
Now the operation will be intensified. The more we delay, the more the civilian population simply suffers, being held hostage by the situation. We have identified areas where certain steps need to be accelerated.
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Zelenskiy: tens of thousands likely killed in Mariupol; 300 hospitals destroyed in Ukraine
Tens of thousands of people have likely been killed in Russia’s assault on the south-eastern city of Mariupol, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the South Korean parliament this morning.
“Mariupol has been destroyed, there are tens of thousands of dead, but even despite this, the Russians are not stopping their offensive,” Reuters quotes him saying in a video address this morning.
Other key lines from his address include Zelenskiy saying:
- Russia threatens Europe, not just Ukraine, and will not stop unless it is forced to stop.
- Russia has destroyed hundreds of pieces of Ukraine’s key infrastructure including at least 300 hospitals.
- Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers are being amassed for the next offensive.
- Ukraine needs more help if it is to survive the war.
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German foreign minister: 'massive indications of war crimes' in Ukraine
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock says Germany has seen massive indications of war crimes in Ukraine.
“We have massive indications of war crimes,” Reuters report she told reporters before a meeting with fellow European ministers in Luxembourg. “In the end, the courts will have to decide, but for us, it is central to secure all evidence.”
“As the German federal government, we have already made it clear that there will be a complete phase-out of fossil fuels, starting with coal, then oil and gas, and so that this can be implemented jointly in the European Union, we need a joint, coordinated plan to completely phase out fossil fuels to be able to withdraw as a European Union,” she added.
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Norway is to extend its deployment of 200 troops in Lithuania until August, according to a statement from the Norway defence ministry, Reuters reports.
France’s ambassador to Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins, has posted a picture from Lviv showing teams that have arrived from France to assist local authorities in investigating war crimes. He tweeted:
Proud to welcome to Lviv the detachment of technical and scientific gendarmes who came to assist their Ukrainian comrades in the investigations of war crimes committed around Kiev. France the first to provide such help. They will be at work tomorrow. Solidarity.
Fier d'accueillir à #Lviv le détachement des gendarmes techniques et scientifiques venu assister leurs camarades 🇺🇦 dans les investigations des crimes de guerre commis autour de #Kiev. La 🇫🇷 première à apporter une telle aide. Ils seront à pied d'œuvre dès demain. Solidarité 🇫🇷🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/3pX9LkPzeq
— Etienne de Poncins (@EdePoncins) April 11, 2022
Russia claims it has destroyed the S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems donated to Ukraine
Russia’s defence ministry claims it has destroyed S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems which had been supplied to Ukraine by a European country.
Reuters reports the ministry said that Russian sea-launched Kalibr missiles on Sunday destroyed four S-300 launchers which were concealed in a hangar on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro to the east of the country
Russia said 25 Ukrainian troops were hit in the attack. The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia did not say which European country had supplied the S-300 systems, however we know that Slovakia announced it had donated the system on Friday.
I would like to confirm that #Slovakia has provided #Ukraine with an air-defence system S-300. #Ukrainian nation is #bravely defending its sovereign country and us too. It is our duty to help, not to stay put and be ignorant to the loss of human lives under #Russia’s agression.
— Eduard Heger (@eduardheger) April 8, 2022
Russia’s claim has been dismissed overnight by Slovakia’s prime minister Eduard Heger.
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Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, has said the European Commission was working on details of an oil embargo on Russia as part of a possible next sanctions package, but that nothing has been decided.
He said he hoped it could be agreed by the EU’s 27 states as soon as possible but Reuters reports he gave no further details.
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Sean Ingle writes for us this morning on the impact that the war is having on sport, and the conundrum facing sporting authorities over how to handle Russian and Ukrainian athletes:
Last week it emerged that Wimbledon was ready to ban the world No 2 Daniil Medvedev over fears that his victory “could boost the Putin regime”. Previously the UK sports minister Nigel Huddleston had also suggested Medvedev and other Russians would have to give assurances they are not supporters of Putin to play.
But if you are a classical liberal, this demand might also make you a little queasy. Why, after all, should the sins of a country’s dictator lead to a sports star being punished? It feels like a violation of the laws of natural justice, especially when that player deliberately stays out of politics.
I was making this point to a chess insider when he interjected. Sport is torn down the middle on this, he said. But when you talk about natural justice, start by thinking about it from Ukraine’s side.
Why, he asked, should any Ukrainian – who is very likely to have been personally affected by the war, with perhaps family or friends dying – be asked, potentially, to play someone from Russia when their country remains under attack? Even if you strip the personal and emotive arguments from the debate, there is also a practical question: how ready will Ukrainian athletes be for competition when so many have had to flee or fight?
Read more of Sean Ingle’s piece here: Dilemma over Russian athletes threatens to tear sports down the middle
More European Union sanctions on Russia are an option, the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said when asked if the EU was ready to consider a Russian oil embargo in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Sanctions are always on the table,” Reuters reports he told the media as he arrived for a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. “Ministers will discuss which are the further steps,” he said.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba is warning western politicians that they may be subject to disinformation campaigns from Russia over the imposition of sanctions and the supply of arms to Ukraine. He has tweeted:
Russia knows arms supplies are essential for Ukraine and mobilizes all efforts to undermine them. Moscow prepared a massive info campaign targeting foreign media and politicians. Their troll factory may spam emails and flood comments with disinfo on Ukraine. Don’t fall for it.
Russia knows arms supplies are essential for Ukraine and mobilizes all efforts to undermine them. Moscow prepared a massive info campaign targeting foreign media and politicians. Their troll factory may spam emails and flood comments with disinfo on Ukraine. Don’t fall for it.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 11, 2022
Michael C Ryan was director of European security at the US mission to Nato during the Obama administration. He has been interviewed on Sky News in the UK and had this to say about the prospects for the war in Ukraine:
The Russians have clearly reassessed their objectives in the war and focused primarily on the east. Their major problem is that they have to reconstitute enough of what we refer to as combat power, the ability to fight effectively in the east, and then take on a very entrenched, very experienced Ukrainian force that has been preparing for them for a long time. So the next three weeks will be decisive. It will determine the outcome of the war.
Asked about the appointment of Russian Gen Alexander Dvornikov to the war, he said:
The Russians are medieval. They’re brutal. But they’re not stupid. And they’ve learned quite a lot about how the Ukrainians are fighting. So I believe the general will go back to classic Russian tactics.
They’ll do massive air and artillery assaults on the Ukrainian positions, before they throw a lot of tanks and a lot of soldiers at them. Which is going to be a difficult proposition for them, because we just don’t assess that they have the energy to be able to carry off that sort of campaign.
On where the situation leaves Russian president Vladimir Putin personally, he said:
His personal endgame has to be stay in power … because he doesn’t have a lot of other options once he leaves government in Russia. He has to play to the domestic audience, which means he has to come out of this with a victory.
Taking a land border, a land bridge, from the Donbas down towards the Black Sea, and enhancing the overall state of the Russians ability to claim that they’re supporting Russian speakers in Ukraine, I think will be enough of a victory for him. To consolidate his gains, achieve some level of sanctions relief through negotiation, and then wait out a few years and try again.
Philip Oltermann is in Pabradė, Lithuania for us. Here he reports on Nato’s latest exercises there:
About 30km west of the Belarusian border, the enemy’s tanks were rolling through the pine forests of Lithuania at speed until a makeshift obstacle made of barbed wire blocked their path. Soldiers carrying bolt cutters jumped out of the armoured vehicle at the front to clear the road.
Then, a deafening bang. In its rush to victory, the advancing party had neglected to check the sandy terrain underneath the roadblock for mines. Luckily, for them, this was merely a dress rehearsal for a showdown between Russia and the North Atlantic alliance.
No live explosives were used in Nato’s “Rising Griffin” manoeuvre at the Pabradė military base in eastern Lithuania. Instead, referees politely informed the tank commanders that their vehicles would have been ripped to shreds. The Russian enemy was being impersonated by American and Norwegian troops.
The western defenders may have notched up a tactical victory against an eastern aggressor on this sunny April morning, yet Nato’s security architecture has never looked more fragile than in the spring of 2022, especially when viewed from Lithuania, a country long considered the alliance’s achilles heel.
“Until last November, we had the Russian army quite far away from Nato’s borders,” said Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister. “Now the military activity is very close. To add to that, Lithuania lies between the territory of Belarus and the territory of Kaliningrad. Which puts us in a strategic situation that is, let’s say, interesting.”
Read more of Philip Oltermann’s report from Lithuania here: Nato’s ‘achilles heel’ – alliance conducts war games in nervous Lithuania
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In the UK, environment minister George Eustice has been interviewed on Sky News where he defended the UK’s record on accepting refugees from Ukraine. He said:
Obviously, it’s different for countries that are bordering the Ukraine, because people fleeing a war like this obviously will cross the nearest land border. That’s why countries like Poland and Hungary obviously are getting more of those refugees coming in.
But we have now issued visas under the two schemes. We’ve got, in particular, the sponsorship scheme to around 40,000 Ukrainians and around 12,000 of those are already here. We’ve made some changes, already making clear for instance, that those with a Ukrainian passport don’t need to attend an appointment in person. And I know that [interior minister] Priti Patel is looking very closely at whatever else can be done to remove any barriers.
According to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of Ukrainians who have fled the country since Russia invaded again on 24 February is 4.5 million.
- This is Martin Belam here in London, taking over from Helen Livingstone. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
There have been no successful major prosecutions over the last 30 years in Ukraine, with the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general dogged by accusations of corruption and inefficiency since the country declared independence. Now Iryna Venediktova, appointed to the role in 2019, is attempting to gather evidence of Russian war crimes.
More from Guardian correspondent Isobel Koshiw in Borodianka:
Surrounded by a scrum of reporters with a backdrop of bombed-out apartment buildings and rubble in Borodianka, a town in the Kyiv region, stood Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general.
Venediktova is carrying the weight of bringing almost 2,000 cases of war crimes committed by Russia’s occupying forces to court at home and abroad. Her office is the only body in Ukraine with the power to investigate. It is through her office that information relating to war crimes is being collected, investigations will be conducted and domestic and international cases will be built.
Reminiscent of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s trip to newly liberated territories outside Kyiv, Venediktova walked around Borodianka with her subordinates observing the damage, wearing an army flak jacket and baseball cap.
“I watched while the bodies were exhumed in Bucha,” Venediktova, who was appointed in 2019, said, describing one of the mass graves in the neighbouring town of Bucha, which is being investigated as a war crime.
Investigating war crimes is difficult. It involves teams of different experts who can collect and analyse physical, oral and open-source evidence that will stand up against the defence. International criminal law prosecutes individuals, not states, and so prosecutors must link the crime to the perpetrator.
“Before the war, the majority of Ukrainians did not trust the state,” said Venediktova. “There were grounds for this: the other general prosecutors and the way they behaved.”
The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general has been dogged by accusations of corruption and inefficiency since the country declared independence.
There have been almost no successful major prosecutions over the last 30 years, with the shooting of dozens of protesters in February 2014 in central Kyiv, the murder of two prominent Ukrainian journalists, the poisoning of Ukraine’s third president, and countless instances of state corruption and bribery all failing to result in convictions.
Ukrainian NGOs, state workers and civilians involved in gathering evidence to build the cases hope that things will be different this time because of how the war has penetrated the entire society. But doubts remain over whether the war will change Ukraine’s infamously murky judicial system by itself or whether civil society will need to exert pressure.
Read on below:
Joe Biden is set to hold a virtual meeting with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Monday, with the US president expected to press India not to increase its imports of Russian crude.
“President Biden will continue our close consultations on the consequences of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and mitigating its destabilizing impact on global food supply and commodity markets,” the White House said in a statement.
Lured by steep discounts following western sanctions on Russian entities, India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian crude oil since the country invaded Ukraine in late February. That compared with some 16 million barrels for the whole of last year, according to Reuters.
Biden has previously accused India of being the only “somewhat shaky” country in the Quad group of nations – which also includes Japan and Australia – regarding Ukraine. It has not so far imposed any sanctions on Russia.
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UK warns Russia may use phosphorus munitions in Mariupol
In its latest intelligence update on Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence warns that Russia’ past use of phosphorus munitions in Donetsk “raised the possibility of their future employment in Mariupol as fighting for the city intensifies.”
It also said Russian shelling had continued in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, “with Ukrainian forces repulsing several assaults resulting in the destruction of Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery equipment.”
“Russia’s continued reliance on unguided bombs decreases their ability to discriminate when targeting and conducting strikes while greatly increasing the risk of further civilian casualties,” it said.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 11 April 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 11, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/3RYc4QJBuG
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/p6jpNvs1eU
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Russian forces bombarded eastern Ukraine over the weekend ahead of an expected onslaught. In Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, at least 10 civilians were killed including a child.
New Zealand will send a C-130H Hercules and 50-person team to Europe to distribute military aid to Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced the deployment on Monday, along with $13 million in additional support, including $7.5m for weapons and ammunition procurement by the UK.
“Our support is to assist the Ukraine Army to repel a brutal Russian invasion ... such a blatant attack on a country’s sovereignty is a threat to all of us,” Ardern said.
“The global response has seen an unprecedented amount of military support pledged for Ukraine, and more help to transport and distribute it is urgently needed, and so we will do our bit to help.”
The aircraft would “join a chain of military aircraft from partner nations, travelling throughout Europe carrying much-needed equipment and supplies to key distribution centres, but at no point will they enter Ukraine, nor have they been asked to,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, has said there will be an offensive by Russian forces not only on the besieged port of Mariupol, but also on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, Reuters reported earlier.
“There will be an offensive ... not only on Mariupol, but also on other places, cities and villages,” Kadyrov said in a video posted on his Telegram channel.
“Luhansk and Donetsk – we will fully liberate in the first place ... and then take Kyiv and all other cities.”
Kadyrov, who has often described himself as Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “foot soldier”, said there should be no doubt about Kyiv. “I assure you: not one step will be taken back,” Kadyrov said.
Kadyrov has been repeatedly accused by the United States and European Union of rights abuses, which he denies. He announced he was in Ukraine alongside invading Russian forces in mid-March.
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Russia is likely to continue strikes on transport infrastructure “in order to disrupt the supply of goods to the places of hostilities”, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has said in its latest operational report.
It also said it was “possible” that Russian forces would carry out “provocative actions” in the Transnistrian region of Moldova “in order to accuse Ukraine of aggression against a neighbouring state”.
In Mariupol, Russian forces were continuing attacks on the port in the southwest and the Azovstal steel plant in the east, where Ukrainian defenders have reportedly been left isolated after Russian forces bisected the besieged city.
In his nightly address to the nation on Sunday night, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of having “lost connection with reality to a degree that they accuse us of committing what Russian troops have obviously done”.
They say about the murders in Bucha that it is not them, but allegedly us. Although it is obvious to everyone that people were killed while the Russian army controlled the city.
They say about the missile strike at Kramatorsk that it is not them, but allegedly us. Although it was their propagandists who announced this strike. Although missiles flew from the territory under their control. And about any of our destroyed cities, about any of our burned villages, they say the same thing, that it is not them either, but allegedly us ...
Do you know why this is so? Because it’s cowardice.”
He said Russian leaders were “afraid to admit that for decades they have been placing erroneous bets and spending enormous resources in support of absolute nobodies who they thought would be the future heroes of Ukrainian-Russian friendship. And these nobodies were skilful at only one thing – taking money out of Russia into their own pockets.”
In the coming week, he said Russia was preparing to launch “even larger operations” in Ukraine’s east.
They can use even more missiles against us, even more air bombs. But we are preparing for their actions. We will respond. We will be even more active in providing Ukraine with weapons. We will be more active in the international arena. We will be even more active in the information field.
He also said he was grateful for the recent change in Germany’s position towards the conflict.
I spoke today with Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz. About how to bring to justice all those guilty of war crimes. How to strengthen sanctions against Russia and how to force Russia to seek peace. I am glad to note that the German position has recently changed in favor of Ukraine. I consider it absolutely logical. Because this course is supported by the majority of the German people. And I am grateful to them. But I expect that everything we agreed on will be implemented. And this is very important,” Zelenskiy said.
Germany has been under pressure to wean itself off Russian energy and had also been criticised earlier in the war for its failure to supply weapons to Ukraine, a policy which has since been reversed.
At the end of last week, Scholz said his country would stop using Russian coal by the middle of this year and Russian oil by the end of the year.
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Austrian chancellor Nehammer set to meet Putin
Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer is set to meet Vladimir Putin on Monday, the first European leader to meet the Russian president since Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February.
In a tweet, Nehammer said Austria was “militarily neutral” but that it had a “clear stance on Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine”.
“It must stop! We need humanitarian corridors, a ceasefire and a complete investigation of war crimes.”
According to the news agency AFP, Nehammer plans to address alleged war crimes that took place in Bucha, outside Kyiv, during the visit.
The Austrian chancellor organised the meeting during a recent visit to Ukraine, a spokesperson said, adding that Nehammer wants “to do everything so that progress towards peace can be made” even if the chances are minimal.
On a visit to Ukraine this weekend, Nehammer toured Bucha, where mass civilian graves and street killings by Russian forces were discovered last week.
Ich werde morgen Vladimir #Putin in Moskau treffen. Wir sind militärisch neutral, hat aber eine klare Haltung zum russischen Angriffskrieg gegen die #Ukraine. Er muss aufhören! Es braucht humanitäre Korridore, einen Waffenstillstand & vollständige Aufklärung der Kriegsverbrechen.
— Karl Nehammer (@karlnehammer) April 10, 2022
Updated
Summary
Hello, this is Helen Livingstone bringing you the latest updates from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Here’s a roundup of the latest developments:
- Karl Nehammer, the Austrian chancellor, plans to speak about alleged war crimes in Bucha during his visit to meet Putin on Monday. Nehammer will be the first European leader to meet the Russian president since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
- Vladimir Putin has appointed a new general to direct the war in Ukraine as his military shifts plans after a failure to take Kyiv. Alexander Dvornikov gained prominence while leading the Russian group of forces in Syria. The general is likely to usher in a fresh round of “crimes and brutality” against civilians, the US said.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy hit back against Russian propaganda on war crimes, the invasion of Crimea and the downing of MH17, saying: “They say about the murders in Bucha that it is not them, but allegedly us, although it is obvious to everyone that people were killed while the Russian army controlled the city … The Russian militaries have already lied to the fact that even after more than six weeks of war, they claim that they did not hit any of the civilian objects. Do you know why this is so? Because it’s cowardice.”
- Zelenskiy welcomed talks with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on war crimes and sanctions against Russia, adding: “I am glad to note that the German position has recently changed in favour of Ukraine.” Germany has been under pressure to wean itself off Russian energy and had also been criticised earlier in the war for its failure to supply weapons to Ukraine, a policy that has since been reversed.
- Russian forces pounded eastern Ukraine with heavy shelling over the weekend, killing 10 civilians, including a child and wounding 11 others around Kharkiv. The airport in the east-central Ukrainian city of Dnipro was also destroyed.
- Joe Biden is set to hold a virtual meeting with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Monday, with the US president expected to press India not to increase its imports of Russian crude. Biden has previously accused India of being the only “somewhat shaky” country in the Quad group of nations – which also includes Japan and Australia – regarding Ukraine. It has not so far imposed any sanctions on Russia.
- Ukraine carried out the first staff rotation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in three weeks, the country told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Sunday. Russian troops left the power station north of Kyiv earlier this month but the site’s analytical laboratories for radiation monitoring were “destroyed and the analytical instruments stolen, broken or otherwise disabled”, Ukraine told the IAEA.
- Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, has said that there will be an offensive by Russian forces not only on the besieged port of Mariupol, but also on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Kadyrov, who has descrived himself as Putin’s “foot soldier”, said there should be no doubt about Kyiv: “I assure you: not one step will be taken back.”
- Nearly 3,000 people were evacuated on Sunday through humanitarian corridors, including 213 from Mariupol, said Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk.
- Pope Francis has called for an Easter ceasefire to allow for a push for peace in Ukraine, calling the war a “folly” that was leading to “heinous massacres” and “atrocious cruelty” against defenceless people.
- A total of 1,222 bodies have been found in the region around the capital, Kyiv, so far, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said. Ukrainian authorities are investigating 5,600 cases of alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops since the invasion began.
- Ukraine’s economy is expected to collapse by 45.1% this year, far worse than predicted, the World Bank reported in a dire forecast as the conflict drags on.
- The United Nations refugee agency calculates that more than 4.5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled Ukraine since the invasion began.
- Russian armed forces are seeking to strengthen troop numbers with personnel discharged from military service a decade ago, as losses mount.
- The White House has renewed its condemnation of the Russian targeting of Ukrainian civilians as war crimes, citing recent events including Friday’s missile strike on a railway station as “cruel and criminal and evil”. The death toll from Kramatorsk train station attack has risen to 57, Ukraine said.
- More than 3,500 pro-Ukrainian demonstrators took to the streets of Germany in response to a motorcade of about 600 pro-Russian protesters in 400 cars flying Russian flags.
Updated
