Here is where things stand on Thursday, April 10:
Fighting
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Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, injuring at least 12 people, authorities said.
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The Ukrainian air force said that Russia launched 145 drones during its overnight attack. The air force shot down 85 drones and another 49 did not reach their targets likely due to the electronic warfare countermeasures, it said. It did not specify what happened to the remaining 11 drones.
- Russian drone attacks targeted three Ukrainian cities of Kramatorsk, Dnipro and Kharkiv, injuring at least 22 people, of which at least seven were in hospital. The strikes also sparked a fire and damaged houses and cars.
- Moscow said it was investigating the killing of eight civilians by Ukrainian soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region, which was held by Ukraine forces at the time of the reported deaths.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 29 over the southern Rostov region and 69 over the Krasnodar region. No injuries were immediately reported. However, almost 50 buildings were evacuated due to the threats posed by the drones.
- The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said a member of Kyiv’s military was sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing military intelligence to Russia.
Ceasefire
- Kremlin Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of continuing to attack Russian energy infrastructure daily, despite the mutually agreed 30-day moratorium on energy strikes.
- Moscow’s Defence Ministry said Ukraine carried out four energy attacks on Ukraine in the past day. The Kremlin also accused Ukraine’s drones of attempting to strike a compressor station serving the TurkStream pipeline that sends gas from Russia to Turkiye via the Black Sea.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Britain and France are convening a meeting of defense ministers from around 30 countries on Thursday to press ahead with plans to deploy troops to Ukraine to police any future peace agreement with Russia.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said talks with the United States on a minerals-for-security deal would take place next week.
- Ukraine has finalised its position and developed its vision for a future minerals deal with the US, Kyiv’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said. The minister said Ukraine would soon finalise the composition of a delegation that would travel to Washington to discuss the agreement further.
- A document revealed by the media shows that the Ukrainian government had allocated $2.7m to engage consulting services to advise on a minerals deal draft plan.
- Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of US forces in the Asia Pacific region, confirmed that two men captured by Ukraine while fighting for Russia were of Chinese origin. He also said any Russian success offensively in Europe would empower China in its own offensive ambitions.
- Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence has information about 155 Chinese nationals fighting for the Russian military against Ukraine, and that the real number is likely to be much higher. He accused Russia of dragging Beijing into the war.
- China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said claims of Chinese citizens fighting alongside Russia in significant numbers “have no basis” and said it was verifying reports of Chinese nationals being captured while fighting in Ukraine. Beijing’s spokesperson for the ministry, Lin Jian, also asked citizens to stay away from areas of armed conflict.
- On Thursday, China warned parties in the Ukraine war against making “irresponsible remarks” after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Beijing knows that Chinese citizens are being recruited by Russia to fight in the conflict.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on allegations that Chinese soldiers were fighting with Moscow’s troops against Ukraine.
- The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Moscow’s attacks on Kyiv had increased since talks on a ceasefire to end the war were floated by the US.
- Zelenskyy told reporters that Ukraine’s offensive in Russia’s Belgorod region was to prevent Moscow from stepping up pressure on Ukraine’s border region.
- Russia and the US are holding talks in Turkiye on normalising the work of their diplomatic missions, after the war in Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
