Here is where things stand on Tuesday, April 8:
Fighting
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its units intercepted and destroyed 19 Ukrainian drones overnight, of which 13 were destroyed over the Sea of Azov.
- The ministry also said Ukraine attacked Russia’s energy infrastructure six times in the past 24 hours despite a mutually agreed moratorium on energy strikes. It said the attacks hit power facilities and electrical substations in Russia’s Rostov, Voronezh and Bryansk regions, as well as in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Donetsk, parts of which Moscow controls.
- A Ukrainian drone suppressed by Russia’s air defence systems damaged railway tracks in the southwest Russian region of Krasnodar, regional authorities said.
- Russian troops took control of the Katerynivka settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the Defence Ministry.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied Ukraine’s allegations that Russia fired on civilian infrastructure after a deadly attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih that killed 20 people, including nine children.
- Russian forces mounted multiple attacks on villages around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said.
Ceasefire
- Russian President Vladimir Putin supports a ceasefire, but a “huge number” of questions remain unanswered, Peskov told reporters. He also said there was a common understanding between Russia and the United States that mutual contact should continue.
- US President Donald Trump said he was “not happy” with Russia for bombing Ukraine “like crazy”. However, he also said Kyiv and Moscow were “sort of close” on a deal.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said a team from Kyiv is scheduled to travel to Washington this week to discuss a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
- Kyiv initiated an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council for Tuesday after last week’s Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X, calling for a “robust international response to Russian atrocities”.
- For the first time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukrainian troops were present in Russia’s Belgorod region. “We continue active operations in the enemy’s border areas and this is absolutely justified,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
