Here is a summary of today's events:
“Our spirit does not give up,” Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an Easter message. “There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” Zelenskiy wrote to Ukrainians on social media, following Russian missile strikes on the country overnight.
Zelenskiy was in Bucha today alongside prime minister Denys Shmyhal and several foreign ambassadors to mark two years since the city and surrounding areas’ were liberated from a brutal month-long occupation by Russia at the start of the war. The Ukrainian leader laid a lamp at the town’s Wall of Remembrance, which names the 509 civilians who have so far been identified of those killed during Bucha’s occupation.
Russia launched 16 missiles and 11 drones at Ukraine in an overnight air attack, Ukraine’s air force said. In a statement on Telegram, the air force said it had managed to down nine of the drones and nine of the missiles. It did not identify their targets.
The Russian air force conducted a massive strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and gas industry overnight, the Russian defence ministry said. Thousands in Ukraine’s Odesa region were temporarily left without power after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility.
Ukraine launched ten Czech-made Vampire rockets at the Russian border region of Belgorod, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence. And Ukrainian shelling killed a woman in the village of Dunayka, Belgorod Oblast, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
France will deliver hundreds of old armoured vehicles and new surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine in its war against Russia. French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu told a French newspaper that president Emmanuel Macron had asked him to prepare a new aid package, which will include old but still functional equipment, as well as new missiles.
Protesters in Kyiv are calling for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war from the notorious Azov brigade. Relatives and friends of captured soldiers, some dressed in military clothing, waved placards at passing traffic. The Azov brigade has often been criticised for its links with Nazism and the far-right.
Russia launched a “counter-terrorism operation” regime in the southern region of Dagestan, detaining three people by Sunday morning. “Security agencies detained three bandits who were planning a number of terrorist offences. During the inspection of the places where the criminals were detained, automatic weapons, ammunition and an improvised explosive device ready for use were found,” Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said, according to Russian news agencies.
Updated
AP provides some more detail on president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Bucha today.
Zelenskiy was in Bucha alongside prime minister Denys Shmyhal and several foreign ambassadors, to commemorate the second anniversary of the area’s liberation from Russian forces.
The Ukrainian leader laid a lamp at the town’s Wall of Remembrance, the president’s website said. The monument names the 509 civilians who have so far been identified of those killed during the occupation, which lasted just over a month.
Bucha’s name has come to evoke savagery by Moscow’s military since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Ukrainian troops who retook the town two years ago today found the bodies of men, women and children on the streets, in gardens and homes, as well as buried in mass graves. Some bodies showed signs of torture.
Updated
Ukraine shelling kills woman in Russian border village
Ukrainian shelling killed a woman in the Russian border village of Dunayka, the latest in a series of deadly cross-border attacks by Kyiv, AFP reports, citing the local governor.
“The village of Dunayka, in the Graivoron urban district, came under Ukrainian fire. To much grief, a civilian was killed,” governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media.
“She died of her wounds on the spot before the ambulance crew arrived. I express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” he added.
Dunayka, in Belgorod oblast, is about four miles from the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian forces launched over a dozen drone and artillery strikes at the region in the past 24 hours, Gladkov said.
Russian authorities said yesterday they had evacuated five thousand children from the border territory following weeks of deadly strikes that killed over a dozen people.
Updated
Protesters in Kyiv are calling for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azov brigade.
Relatives and friends of captured soldiers, some dressed in military clothing, waved placards at passing traffic.
At its inception in 2014, the Azov brigade included far-right volunteers, some with neo-Nazi affiliations. In recent years the brigade has been fully integrated into the Ukrainian military, though some have suggest fits far-right links and symbolism have remained.
Speaking to commemorate the liberation of Bucha, which took place two years ago today, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of Ukraine’s war with Russia: “This is a war for our state’s right to exist, as well as for everyone’s right to life. This is a war for the dignity of our people and every nation seeking its own destiny”.
Bucha was the scene of a savage occupation by Russian forces for just over a month at the start of the invasion. After Ukraine retook the city and surrounding areas, hundreds of bodies of civilians were found, some in mass graves.
“The bodies of our people, which were found on the streets of Bucha, demonstrated that no one in the world can stay away from this battle,” Zelenskiy said. “Because it is here, in Ukraine, through the defense our people, our lives, and our state, that humanity is prevailing.
“To unleash such aggressions against others, Russia first destroyed its own morality and turned violence and hatred into its ideology. Such systems do not simply stop. They are brought to a stop by force. Unity stops them. Determination and an understanding of what they want to destroy is what stops them. I thank everyone in the world who really helps us.”
This is a war of global significance. This is a war for our state's right to exist, as well as for everyone's right to life. This is a war for the dignity of our people and every nation seeking its own destiny. This is a war to prevent anyone from daring to become a beast toward… pic.twitter.com/q9wXjqlw5H
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 31, 2024
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has boasted of its strikes against Russian ships in the Black Sea this month.
In a post on X, Ukraine’s MoD said it sunk a Russian patrol ship on 5 March and damaged four more – three large landing ships and a reconnaissance ship – on 24 March.
The Guardian was unable to independently verify Ukraine’s claims. Earlier this month, Ukraine released footage purporting to show the sinking of the patrol ship, the Sergei Katov.
March was a bad month for the russian Black Sea Fleet.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 31, 2024
On March 5, Magura V5 naval drones attacked the patrol ship "Sergei Kotov". The ship suffered damage to the stern, right, and left sides.
On March 24, the Ukrainian Air Force successfully struck "Yamal", "Azov", and… pic.twitter.com/ywJw8BKGzd
Updated
Easter celebrations have been taking place across Ukraine despite the war:
Russian tourists, shunned by more traditional skiing resorts have been descending on North Korea to hit the slopes. More than 200 Russian tourists have visited the pariah state so far this year in total across three trips in February and March. Pjotr Sauer reports on why Pyongyang is has opened its arms to Russian visitors.
Gliding down pristine, untouched mountain runs, Olga Shpalok said she was “getting 100% satisfaction”.
After a full day of skiing, the Russian designer from Vladivostok wound down with a visit to her hotel’s well-equipped spa and sauna.
“They said it was very hard to get into the country. But fate smiled upon us,” she said.
Shpalok was part of the first group of foreign tourists to visit North Korea since it shut down its borders at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
In early February, she travelled to the country with 100 other Russian tourists on a four-day skiing trip summed up by the Russian embassy as “Pyongyang opens its doors”.
More than 200 Russian tourists have visited North Korea so far this year in total across three trips in February and March. Their interviews and accounts give a rare insight into life in Kim Jong-un’s regime.
Closely watched by government “minders”, who restricted what they could see and where they could go, the Russian tourists described spending time in otherwise empty luxurious ski resorts. Some said they felt deep unease over the poverty and total control they witnessed.
Russia’s access to the pariah state is no coincidence. It comes at a time when the two countries have been moving closer at an unprecedented pace, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea has emerged as Russia’s largest supplier of weapons, shipping artillery shells, missiles and other equipment for Moscow’s continuing war. In exchange, Russia appears to be sending North Korea food, raw materials and parts used in weapons manufacturing, bypassing international sanctions imposed on the country.
The Russian tourist groups visiting North Korea illustrate another way Moscow can help Pyongyang. Before the pandemic, an estimated 5,000 westerners visited North Korea every year as part of pricey tours but since Covid-19 the borders have been sealed.
Read the full piece here:
A 19-year-old man was killed by Russian air attacks overnight in the Kharkiv region, according to local officials.
The man was killed in the village of Borova, close to Izyum, Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.
Lunchtime summary
It’s just gone 2.30pm in Kyiv and Moscow. Here’s a roundup of today’s developments:
Russia launched 16 missiles and 11 drones at Ukraine in an overnight air attack, Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday morning. In a statement on Telegram, the air force said it had managed to down nine of the drones and nine of the missiles. It did not identify their targets.
The Russian air force conducted a massive strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and gas industry overnight, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday. Thousands in Ukraine’s Odesa region were temporarily left without power after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility.
Ukraine launched ten Czech-made Vampire rockets at the Russian border region of Belgorod, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence. One woman was injured when a fire broke out following the attack, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
“There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote in an Easter Sunday message to Ukrainians on social media, following Russian missile strikes on the country overnight. Pope Francis called for a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine in his Easter message: “In calling for respect for the principles of international law, I express my hope for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine: all for the sake of all,” he said.
France will deliver hundreds of old armoured vehicles and new surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine in its war against Russia. French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu told a French newspaper that president Emmanuel Macron had asked him to prepare a new aid package, which will include old but still functional equipment, as well as new missiles.
Russia launched a “counter-terrorism operation” regime in the southern region of Dagestan, detaining three people by Sunday morning. “Security agencies detained three bandits who were planning a number of terrorist offences. During the inspection of the places where the criminals were detained, automatic weapons, ammunition and an improvised explosive device ready for use were found,” Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said, according to Russian news agencies.
Updated
Pope Francis led some 30,000 people in Easter celebrations, AP reports, appealing for a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, as well as a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Peace is never made with weapons, but with outstretched hands and open hearts,” Francis said, to applause from the wind-swept crowd below.
Francis said his thoughts went particularly to people in Ukraine and Gaza and all those facing war, particularly the children who he said had “forgotten how to smile.”
“In calling for respect for the principles of international law, I express my hope for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine: all for the sake of all,” he said.
Updated
Russia says it has hit Ukraine's energy infrastructure and gas production facilities
The Russian air force has conducted a massive strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and gas industry, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.
The ministry said that it used “high-precision long-range air-based weapons” and drones, Reuters reports.
“As a result of this strike, the operation of defence industry enterprises involved in the manufacture and repair of weapons, equipment and ammunition has been disrupted. All the goals of the strike have been achieved. The assigned objects were hit,” the ministry said.
Earlier today Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 16 missiles and 11 drones in an overnight air attack. In a statement on Telegram, the air force said it had managed to down nine of the drones and nine of the missiles.
France to send armoured vehicles and missiles to Ukraine
France will deliver hundreds of old armoured vehicles and new surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine in its war against Russia, Reuters reports.
In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, a French Sunday newspaper launched last year, French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said that president Emmanuel Macron had asked him to prepare a new aid package, which will include old but still functional equipment, as well as new missiles.
“The Ukrainian army needs to defend a very long front line, which requires armoured vehicles; this is absolutely crucial for troop mobility and is part of the Ukrainian requests,” he said.
He said France was looking at providing hundreds of VAB (Véhicule de l’Avant Blindé) front-line troop carriers in 2024 and early 2025.
AP reports that Ukraine launched ten Czech-made Vampire rockets at the Russian border region of Belgorod, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
One woman was injured when a fire broke out following the attack, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Updated
Thousands in Ukraine’s Odesa region were temporarily left without power after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility, AP reports the oblast’s governor, Oleh Kiper as saying.
About 170,000 homes were left with temporary power outages as a result of the attack, said Ukraine’s largest private electricity operator, DTEK.
The Ukrainian air force said that it shot down nine of the 11 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as nine out of 14 cruise missiles.
Updated
Ukraine is marking the second anniversary of the liberation of Bucha. Russia brutally occupied the city, which is only around 16 miles from Kyiv, at the start of its full-scale invasion. Russia killed hundreds of civilians and left them in mass graves, which were uncovered after Ukraine retook the area in March 2022.
The Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence update shows Russia attempting to beef up security at its Black Sea port of Novorossiysk to ward off Ukrainian attacks.
Novorossiysk has become an important port for the Russian Black Sea fleet because of the risk of Ukrainian attacks in its traditional port of Sevastopol.
Satellite images show Russia has positioned barges at the opening of Novorossiysk port. The MoD intelligence update says this is to defend against attack by Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessels, unmanned craft that have proved effective in attacks against Russian ships.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 31 March 2024.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 31, 2024
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/LUxw0AkKb8 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/19Ym79ET6k
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 31, 2024
Updated
Russia detains three in 'counter-terrorism operation' in southern Dagestan
Russia has imposed a “counter-terrorism operation” regime in the southern region of Dagestan, Reuters reports, detaining three people by Sunday morning.
Russia is on high alert following the mass shooting at a concert hall in Moscow on 22 March – the deadliest attack in the country in 20 years with at least 144 killed.
“Security agencies detained three bandits who were planning a number of terrorist offences. During the inspection of the places where the criminals were detained, automatic weapons, ammunition and an improvised explosive device ready for use were found,” Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said, according to Russian news agencies.
Earlier the committee said that suspected criminals had been blocked by security services in several flats in residential areas of the regional capital Makhachkala and one of the biggest cities in the republic – Kaspiysk.
There were no civilian casualties or losses among the law enforcement personnel, the committee said.
'We defend ourselves, we endure, our spirit does not give up,' Zelenskiy says in Easter message
“There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote in an Easter Sunday message to Ukrainians on social media, following Russian missile strikes on the country overnight.
“But we defend ourselves, we endure, our spirit does not give up and knows that it is possible to avert death. Life can prevail,” he said.
My greetings to Ukrainians and all Christians celebrating Easter today.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 31, 2024
It is a holiday that reminds us of the power of the spirit that will not allow darkness to prevail. It will not allow the will to be overshadowed. It unites families, nations, and continents.
Now there is… pic.twitter.com/kshpW71W34
Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Lviv region killed a man overnight, its governor said on Sunday.
Russian cruise missiles targeted critical infrastructure in the western Lviv region and “one man died as a result of the attack”, governor Maksym Kozytsky wrote on Telegram, AFP reports.
There “may still be people under the rubble” that rescuers were combing through, he said, adding that firefighters had extinguished a blaze that broke out at an administrative building damaged in the raid.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has described the conflict as a “holy war” against Ukraine.
The head of the church, Patriarch Kirill, intensified Kremlin rhetoric about Russia’s war in Ukraine and cast it as an existential and civilisational “holy war”. This is a significant inflection for Russian authorities who have so far carefully avoided officially framing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as any kind of war, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
In a new ideological and policy document, Kirill called Putin’s “special military operation” a holy war (Svyashennaya Voyna) and a new stage in the Russian people’s struggle for “national liberation ... in southwestern Russia,” referencing eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
Kirill argued that the war in Ukraine is a holy war because Russia is defending “Holy Russia” and the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the west, which has fallen into Satanism.
The patriarch asserted that the war in Ukraine will conclude with Russia seizing exclusive influence over the entire territory of modern Ukraine and the exclusion of any Ukrainian government that the Kremlin determines to be hostile to Russia.
Putin signs decree on spring military conscription
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, Reuters reports, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday.
All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.
In July Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27. The new legislation came into effect on 1 January 2024.
Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where many men go to great lengths to avoid being handed conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.
Opening summary
It has gone 10am in Kyiv and 11am in Moscow. This is our latest Guardian blog covering all the latest developments over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russia launched 16 missiles and 11 drones at Ukraine in an overnight air attack, Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday morning.
In a statement on Telegram, the air force said it had managed to down nine of the drones and nine of the missiles. It did not identify their targets.
For over a week, Russia has significantly stepped up an air strike campaign against Ukrainian energy facilities, causing significant damage and leaving Ukrainians fearing a return to the blackouts seen in the first winter of the full-scale war.
Here are the latest developments:
Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK, says five of its six plants have been damaged or destroyed with 80% of its generating capacity lost after two weeks of Russian attacks. The head of the firm says repairs could take up to 18 months. Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was carrying out “vile strikes” designed to cause the “bleeding” of Ukrainian energy. DTEK, which meets about a quarter of the country’s needs, has seen its thermal power stations and other facilities repeatedly hit by Russian missiles, drones and artillery in more than two years of war.
France’s defence minister said Paris would deliver “hundreds” of armoured personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles as part a new aid package to Ukraine in its war against Russia. “To hold such a extensive frontline, the Ukrainian army needs for example our VAB vehicles: it’s absolutely essential for troop mobility,” said Sebastien Lecornu. “We’re talking about hundreds of them for 2024 and early 2025,” he said. France is pushing defence companies to ramp up production to meet the needs of its own army and to ensure continued support to Ukraine after Kyiv warned its stocks of munitions are running low.
Russia maintains a significant quantitative advantage in the conflict, overmatching Ukraine in munitions and equipment numbers, according to the UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence report. Moscow is likely recruiting approximately 30,000 additional personnel a month and can highly likely continue to absorb losses and continue attacks aimed at wearing down Ukrainian forces. Russian forces also have maintained a gradual advance west of Avdiivka and in late March, almost certainly took control of two villages and are continuing to contest others in the area, according to the report.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Saturday Russian and Belarusian athletes “were not welcome” at the Olympics being staged in the French capital this year, according to Agence France-Presse. “I want to tell Russian and Belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris and to tell Ukrainian athletes and all the Ukrainian people that we support them very strongly,” Hidalgo said in a video posted by Ukrainian YouTube channel, United News. Hidalgo made her comments on a trip to Kyiv where she visited a training centre for Ukrainian athletes. Russian athletes can compete in the Paris Olympics, which run from 26 July until 11 August but only as neutrals.
In response, Moscow launched a furious tirade at the International Olympic Committee, arguing the IOC’s restrictions on Russian athletes amounted to “neo-nazism”. The IOC suspended Russia from the 2024 Games last year, but gave the green light for its athletes to compete as neutrals as long as they did not actively support the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine.
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, says Europe is entering a “prewar” era, cautioning that the continent is not ready and urging European countries to step up defence investment. Tusk’s comments came days after a Russian missile briefly breached Polish airspace during a major attack on Ukraine, prompting Warsaw to put its forces on heightened readiness. In an interview with a group of European newspapers reported by the BBC, Tusk said: “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past. It’s real and it started over two years ago.” Tusk has been using his platform to try to add a sense of urgency to Europe’s debates about defence and aid to Ukraine, amid fears about the future of American assistance and concerns about defence industrial capacity.
Foreign diplomats in Russia have laid flowers at the site of last week’s attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people. Those in attendance included ambassadors from the US, EU countries, Africa and Latin America. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said the “around 130 diplomatic missions” taking part included representatives of “unfriendly states.” An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest on Russian soil in years. The Kremlin, however, has insisted that Ukraine and the west had a role, something Kyiv has vehemently denied.
A Moscow court has ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of the late Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, and other dissidents to remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism. Antonina Favorskaya, also identified by court officials as Antonina Kravtsova, was arrested earlier this month. On Friday, Moscow’s Basmanny district court ordered that she remain in pre-trial detention at least until 28 May. The hearing was conducted behind closed doors at the request of the investigators, which was supported by the presiding judge. Favorskaya and her lawyer protested against the decision, the independent Russian news site Mediazona reported.
