Thank you for following today’s coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We will be closing this liveblog but you can catch all the latest developments on our new blog launched below.
Russia is strengthening its border security and checkpoints in the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine, Ukraine’s general staff has said in its morning update.
On Monday large fires broke out at two oil depots in the city of Bryansk, less than 100 miles from the border with Ukraine, in what was thought to be a potential act of sabotage by Kyiv.
Russia was still blockading Ukrainian forces in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the general staff said, and was also carrying out aerial surveillance in the region of Odesa, an important port on the Black Sea coast and the main base for Ukraine’s navy.
It said six enemy attacks had been repelled in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine, and that four tanks and five artillery systems were destroyed among other equipment.
Оновлені дані Міноборони на 06.00 26 квітня pic.twitter.com/2R8GQ0IKUU
— Верховна Рада України (@verkhovna_rada) April 26, 2022
Ukraine’s postal service says it plans to issue a new stamp to honour the Antonov-225 Mriya (Mriya means “dream” in Ukrainian), which was the world’s largest cargo plane before it was destroyed in an attack on Hostomel airport near Kyiv just after Russia launched its invasion.
The stamp was designed by 11-year-old Sofia Kravchuk, who took part in a competition before the war in which children were asked “What is Ukraine for me?”, Ukrposhta said in a post on its Telegram channel.
Ukrposhta plans to soon issue a postmark called "the Ukrainian dream (mriya)," dedicated to Mriya, the world's largest airplane destroyed by the Russians
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 26, 2022
This illustration was created before the war by an 11-year old Sophia Kravchuk from the Volyn oblast pic.twitter.com/2MdVcaceTk
Two weeks ago Ukrainians began queuing up to buy the postal service’s latest stamp, showing a Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to the Russian Black Sea cruiser the Moskva.
The stamp was inspired by Roman Hrybov, who infamously told the flagship “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!” when its crew asked him and his fellow border guards on Snake Island, south of the port of Odesa, to surrender in the early hours of the Russian innvasion. The phrase has since gone global.
Updated
The US has launched a new web portal which will allow a US-based sponsor to apply for Ukrainian refugees and their immediate family members to stay in the US for up to two years.
The programme, called Uniting for Ukraine, was announced by president Joe Biden last week and foresees the arrival of up to 100,000 Ukrainians.
Would-be sponsors have to fill out a form and will then be vetted by US authorities to “protect against exploitation and abuse, and ensure that they are able to financially support the individual(s) whom they agree to support,” according to the web portal.
It also warns that Ukrainians arriving in the country without a valid visa or pre-authorisation may be denied entry and told to apply through the programme.
The 193 members of the UN General Assembly are to vote Tuesday on a resolution that would require the five permanent members of the Security Council to justify their use of the veto in future, AFP reports.
The news agency writes:
Discussions of veto reform are rare and controversial, but have been revived by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Directly targeting the US, China, Russia, France and the UK – who are the only holders of the veto right – the measure would “make them pay a higher political price” when they opt to use their veto to strike down a Security Council resolution, said an ambassador from a country that does not have the veto, and who asked to remain anonymous.
Critics call the measure, introduced by Liechtenstein, a “simple procedural reform.”
But it is not yet clear if the reform would push the five permanent members to use the veto less, or if it would create even more vetoes as permanent members propose controversial texts they know their rivals will to veto only to force them to justify their stance publicly.
First proposed more than two years ago, the measure provides for the General Assembly to be convened within 10 working days after a permanent member uses a veto “to hold a debate on the situation as to which the veto was cast,” according to the text.
Around sixty countries have joined Liechtenstein in co-sponsoring the reform, including the US – a rapid rally of support that caused widespread surprise at the UN.
Britain and France will vote for the reform, even though they abstained from co-sponsoring it.
Neither Russia nor China were among the sponsors of the text, either. A diplomat from one of the two countries, who asked not to be named, criticised the move, saying it will “divide” the UN even further.
The head of Ukraine’s state rail company says that one railway worker was killed and four injured by Russian missile strikes on five Ukrainian railway stations on Monday, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian forces had meanwhile repelled five Russian attacks and killed just over 200 Russian servicemen, according to the Ukrainian military command in the southern and eastern sectors. Five tanks were also destroyed, along with eight armoured vehicles, it said in a statement.
Russia has accused Kyiv of preventing civilians trapped with Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks from leaving the besieged industrial centre despite a ceasefire announcement, AFP reports.
The news agency writes:
The defence ministry had said it would allow a civilian evacuation from Mariupol’s sprawling steel plant, which has been sheltering the remaining Ukrainian resistance in the southeastern port city, on Monday.
But the Russian army on Monday evening said no one used the proposed humanitarian corridor.
“The Kyiv authorities have again cynically undermined this humanitarian operation,” it said in a statement, accusing the Ukrainian government of “indifference” towards its citizens.
Russian troops “from 14:00 Moscow time (1100 GMT) on April 25, 2022, will unilaterally stop any hostilities, withdraw units to a safe distance and ensure the withdrawal of” civilians, the defence ministry had said.
It said the civilians – women, children and the Azovstal staff – would be taken “in any direction they have chosen”.
It added that the Ukrainian side should show “readiness” to start the humanitarian evacuations “by raising white flags”.
According to the ministry, this information would be communicated to those inside Azovstal “via radio channels” every 30 minutes.
Russia last week said it had gained full control of the strategic eastern Ukrainian city, except for the huge Azovstal industrial area.
President Vladimir Putin ordered a blockade of the steelworks, where hundreds of civilians are reportedly sheltering with Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, had earlier said the UN should be the “initiator and guarantor” of any agreement with Russia on evacuating civilians from the steel plant.
Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram:
Today, the Russian side once again announced the existence of a corridor for civilians to leave Azovstal. This could be believed if the Russians had not destroyed humanitarian corridors many times before.
A humanitarian corridor must be opened “by the agreement of both sides”, Vereshchuk said.
A corridor announced unilaterally does not provide security, and therefore is not a humanitarian corridor.
She said Ukraine had “appealed” for the UN secretary general, Antonoi Guterres, to be “the initiator and guarantor of the humanitarian corridor from Azovstal for civilians”.
Representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be present when any humanitarian corridor was established, she said.
US set to host talks on arming Kyiv at German airbase
Officials from more than 40 countries are set to gather at Germany’s Ramstein airbase on Tuesday, for US-hosted talks expected to focus on how to arm Kyiv against a Russian onslaught in eastern Ukraine.
The gathering will be led by US defense secretary Lloyd Austin following his meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday.
US army general Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters traveling with him that a key goal of the talks was to synchronize and coordinate mounting security assistance to Kyiv that includes heavy weaponry, like howitzer artillery, as well armed drones and ammunition, according to Reuters.
The next several weeks will be very, very critical. They need continued support in order to be successful on the battlefield. And that’s really the purpose of this conference.”
Driven back by Ukrainian forces from a failed assault on Kyiv in the north, Moscow has redeployed its troops into the east for a ground offensive in two provinces known as the Donbas.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, assess that Russia will rely heavily on artillery strikes, trying to pound Ukrainian positions as Moscow moves in ground forces from multiple directions to try to envelop and wipe out a significant chunk of Ukraine’s military.
But the United States also estimates many Russian units are depleted, with some operating with personnel losses as high as 30% - a level considered by the US military to be too high to keep fighting, officials say.
US officials cite anecdotes like Russian tanks with sole drivers and no crew and substandard equipment that is either prone to breakdowns or out of date.
British assessments showed that around 15,000 Russian personnel had been killed in the conflict while 2,000 armoured vehicles including some 530 tanks had been destroyed, along with 60 helicopters and fighter jets, defence secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday.
Russia has so far acknowledged only 1,351 troops killed and 3,825 wounded.
Updated
A suggestion by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov that the world is at risk of descending into a third world war only means that Moscow “senses defeat in Ukraine,” his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba has said in a tweet.
Russia loses last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine. Thus the talk of a ‘real’ danger of WWIII. This only means Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine. Therefore, the world must double down on supporting Ukraine so that we prevail and safeguard European and global security.
Russia loses last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine. Thus the talk of a ‘real’ danger of WWIII. This only means Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine. Therefore, the world must double down on supporting Ukraine so that we prevail and safeguard European and global security.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 25, 2022
Kharkiv, in north-eastern Ukraine, is the country’s second city and was among the first targets of Russian forces when they launched their invasion two months ago – it has been under constant attack since then.
On Monday four people died and nine were wounded as a result of shelling in the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synegubov, the region’s governor told Ukraine’s public broadcaster, according to Reuters. Here are a selection of recent images from the city:
Updated
The fate of Europe and of global security is being decided in Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelesnkiy has said in his latest nightly address, which on Monday marked the beginning of the third month of the war.
Everyone in the world - and even those who do not openly support us - agree that it is in Ukraine that the fate of Europe, the fate of global security, the fate of the democratic system is being decided. And above all, it is being decided what life in the center and east of our continent will be like and whether there will be life at all ...
In all Ukraine’s cities and communities, Russia has shown what it really wants and can bring to Europe. What it can bring to Chișinău, Tbilisi, Helsinki, Vilnius, Warsaw, Prague, all the cities and countries that Russian state propagandists have long openly identified as alleged enemies for Moscow.
Even as the war was ongoing he said, “we are demonstrating that we will give free Ukraine more opportunities for development than Russia can give not only to the occupied part of our territory, but also to its own territory, its own state.”
We are accelerating our movement to the European Union as much as possible. We have already passed a historic moment, an important stage - with the receipt and answering a special questionnaire, which was provided to each country before they acquired the status of a candidate for EU membership.
Even now, when the war is still going on, we are creating the necessary base for the reconstruction of Ukraine. These are international agreements of various levels, this is the creation of special funds for the reconstruction of our state.
He added:
Russia can spend enormous resources to support the war. To oppose even the whole free world. It can take away from its people everything that could develop Russia itself, and direct this potential to destroy the lives of neighbors.
But the lessons of history are well known. If you are going to build a millennial Reich, you lose. If you are going to destroy the neighbors, you lose. If you want to restore the old empire, you lose. And if you go against the Ukrainians, you lose.
He also said that 931 settlements had been de-occupied since the invasion.
Many cities and communities are still under the temporary control of the Russian army. But I have no doubt that it is only a matter of time before we liberate our land.
The Ukrainian grain harvest is likely to be down by 20% this year on last year due to reduced sowing areas following the invasion, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has warned in its latest intelligence update on the conflict.
It noted:
Ukraine is the fourth largest producer and exporter of agricultural goods in the world. Reduced grain supply from Ukraine will generate inflationary pressures, elevating the global price of grain.
High grain prices could have significant implications for global food markets and threaten global food security, particularly in some of the least economically developed countries.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 25 April 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 25, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/GTz05lanun
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/cTCajm8Y7p
UN's Guterres could be falling into Kremlin 'trap' with Moscow visit, Ukrainian FM warns
Ukraine’s foreign minister is urging UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to press Russia for an evacuation of the besieged port of Mariupol when he visits Moscow on Tuesday, calling it something the world body is capable of achieving.
But foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba also told the Associated Press in an interview Monday he was concerned that by visiting Moscow before travelling to Kyiv, Guterres could be vulnerable to falling into a Kremlin “trap”.
Many other foreign officials were trapped visiting Moscow and played around just to show the supremacy of Russian diplomacy and how great they are and how they dictate the world how to behave,” he said.
Guterres “should focus primarily on one issue: evacuation of Mariupol,” Kuleba said, referring to the the seaside city where an estimated 100,000 people are trapped while a contingent of Ukrainian fighters hold out against Russian forces in a steel mill where hundreds of civilians also are taking shelter.
“This is really something that the UN is capable to do. And if he demonstrates political will, character and integrity, I hope that will allow us to make one step forward,” he said.
Kuleba spoke a day after US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defense secretary Lloyd Austin met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, the highest-level American visit to the capital since Russia invaded on 24 February.
They told Zelenskiy the US would provide more than $300 million in foreign military financing and had approved a $165 million sale of ammunition.
Kuleba praised the visit and called them representatives of “the country that did more than any other country in the world” for Ukraine.
Kuleba emphasized the need for the West to speedily provide weapons needed by Ukraine to win the war and stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from going “deeper into Europe.”
You know, every conversation about weapons starts with us saying ‘we need this.’ And the initial answer is ‘we don’t think you need exactly this ... Let us reflect on it.’ It takes some time for partners to reflect, but the problem is that the war continues here.
In the end, we do get what we need, and then we start getting it in sufficient quantities. But time has been lost. This is the main issue that needs to be addressed, and we were very open with our in particular American counterparts and also with other countries on that. Start doing things fast.
Although Ukraine and Russia have held talks on ending the war since its early days, Kuleba said he thought anything lower than discussions between Zelenskiy and Putin would bring little resolution.
On his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Kuleba said: “I don’t think he’s ready for a serious conversation.”
He added that he didn’t think Russia is ready to find “solutions at the negotiating table.”
But if I see that they change this attitude and they are ready to seriously look for mutually acceptable solutions, I will overcome my disgust and sit down with him and talk” Kuleba said.
The sooner president Putin agrees to meet with president Zelenskiy, the more likely it will be to bring the moment of the end of the war closer.
“I don’t give a 100% guarantee, but I have confidence in my president. I understand that he’s prepared for that conversation and he knows how to negotiate. The longer president Putin escapes this meeting, the (more) likely it is that he is focused entirely on the war scenario.
He reiterated Zelenskiy’s position that an escalation in Mariupol would ruin chances of negotiating with Russia.
We sent a very clear message: If you want to kill those people or you want to take them in as prisoners and humiliate, that will be it. That will be the red line,” he said. “But it’s not enough to keep things as they are. It’s really important to evacuate all of them, to save them.
A series of precision strikes on five railway stations in central and western Ukraine within one hour on Monday was a “likely effort” to disrupt Ukrainian reinforcements and western aid shipments, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis.
The strikes, which the US-based think tank said were “an abnormal number of precision missile strikes for one day”, may also have been meant to demonstrate Russia’s ability to hit targets in western Ukraine after a surprise visit to Kyiv by US secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defense Lloyd Austin, it said.
However it also noted that:
Russian precision strike capabilities will remain limited and unlikely to decisively affect the course of the war; open-source research organization Bellingcat reported on April 24 that Russia has likely used 70% of its total stockpile of precision missiles to date
The think tank said that local Ukrainian counterattacks had retaken territory north of the southern city of Kherson while Russian forces continue to make “little progress in scattered, small-scale attacks in eastern Ukraine”.
Ukrainian forces are successfully halting Russian efforts to bypass Ukrainian defensive positions around Izyum [in the eastern province of Kharkiv], and Russian forces are struggling to complete even tactical encirclements. Local Ukrainian counterattacks in Kherson Oblast are unlikely to develop into a larger counteroffensive in the near term but are disrupting Russian efforts to completely capture Kherson Oblast and are likely acting as a drain on Russian combat power that could otherwise support Russia’s main effort in eastern Ukraine.
Other key takeaways from Monday include:
- Russian forces resumed ground attacks against Mariupol’s Azovstal Steel Plant in the last 24 hours. Russian officers may assess they will be unable to starve out the remaining defenders by May 9 (a possible self-imposed deadline to complete the capture of Mariupol). Russian forces will likely take high casualties if they resume major ground assaults to clear the facility.
- Russian forces are accelerating efforts to secure occupied Mariupol but will likely face widespread Ukrainian resistance.
- Russian forces are preparing for renewed attacks to capture the entirety of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine after minor losses in the past 48 hours.
- Russian forces likely conducted a false flag attack in Transnistria (Russia’s illegally occupied territory in Moldova) to amplify Russian claims of anti-Russian sentiment in Moldova, but Transnistrian forces remain unlikely to enter the war in Ukraine.
#Russian forces conducted precision missile strikes against five #Ukrainian railway stations in central and western Ukraine on 4/25 in a likely effort to disrupt Ukrainian reinforcements to eastern Ukraine and Western aid shipments.
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) April 25, 2022
Read the latest: https://t.co/K1uqxV1WKv pic.twitter.com/bgv2vl4CiJ
Summary
If you’re just joining us, here’s a summary of the most recent developments in Ukraine, where the time is 2am:
- About 15,000 Russian troops have been killed since start of the invasion, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace has said. Speaking in parliament on Monday afternoon, he added that alongside the death toll, 2,000 armoured vehicles had been destroyed or captured, including 530 tanks. Russia is believed to have lost more than 60 helicopters and fighter jets.
- Wallace also confirmed that the UK will send a small number of Stormer missile launching vehicles to Ukraine, and that the overall amount of military aid could rise to £500m. The UK has sent 5,361 NLAWs, 200 Javelins and will provide 250 Starstreak anti-air missiles.
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Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that there remains a “real” danger of a third world war, in interviews with Russian media. He also said that deliveries of western weaponry to Ukraine mean that the Nato alliance is “in essence engaged in war with Russia”.
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Russia’s foreign ministry said it had expelled 40 German diplomatic staff in a retaliatory move after Berlin expelled the same number of Russian diplomats. In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said it had taken the decision after Germany declared a “significant number” of officials at the Russian embassy in Berlin “undesirable” on 4 April.
- A senior Russian diplomat has been quoted as saying that a ceasefire in Ukraine would not be “a good option” as Kyiv may use it to “stage provocations”. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, said: “Ukraine is undermining our efforts to open humanitarian corridors so we don’t think a ceasefire is a good option now.”
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The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said the shelling of a government building in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria was a “planned provocation” by Russia. “Obviously, this case is one of a number of provocative measures organized by the FSB [the Russian security service] to instill panic and anti-Ukrainian sentiment,” the ministry’s defense intelligence department said, according to CNN.
- Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit simultaneous membership applications to the US-led Nato alliance as early as the middle of next month, Nordic media reports. The story was broken by Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, and Swedish government sources appeared to confirm the news to domestic media in the country.
- Five railway stations in central and western Ukraine were hit by Russian airstrikes in the space of one hour on Monday. Oleksander Kamyshin, the head of Ukrainian Railways, said five train stations came under fire causing an unspecified number of casualties, as most of Ukraine was placed under an unusually long air raid warning for two hours on Monday morning.
- Russia should be “weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine”, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said after he and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, visited Kyiv and pledged a further $713m to help Ukraine in its war effort. Blinken said Russia was “failing” in its war aims, while Ukraine was succeeding. He added that the US had put in place a strategy of “massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia” across Nato members.
- A statue erected to show solidarity between Ukraine and Russia in Kyiv is to be taken down, according to the city’s mayor. The bronze statue showing two workers standing stand-by-side will be dismantled on Tuesday. A second sculpture will be covered up. They were both installed in 1982 and lie underneath the People Friendship Arch near the Dnieper River.
- The office of the prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) has joined an EU-backed team investigating crimes in Ukraine in an unprecedented move. Karim Khan QC announced on Monday that the ICC had become a participant in the joint investigation team (JIT), whose members are Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The JIT involves international cooperation in criminal matters under the auspices of Eurojust, the EU agency for criminal justice cooperation.
Western military aid means Nato 'in essence engaged in war with Russia', Lavrov says
More from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who also spoke to state television in an interview that was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website.
In it, he said that deliveries of western weaponry to Ukraine mean that the Nato alliance is “in essence engaged in war with Russia” and Moscow views these weapons as legitimate targets, according to Reuters.
“These weapons will be a legitimate target for Russia’s military acting within the context of the special operation,” Lavrov said.
“Storage facilities in western Ukraine have been targeted more than once (by Russian forces). How can it be otherwise?” Lavrov said. “Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.”
I’m Helen Livingstone, taking over the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine from my colleague Dani Anguiano.
Updated
Russian foreign minister warns of ‘real’ danger of world war three
Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agencies that Russia’s peace talks with Ukraine will continue, but that there remains a “real” danger of a third world war. The Russian foreign minister was critical of the Ukrainian president’s approach to peace talks, accusing him of “pretending” to negotiate and calling him a “good actor”.
“Good will has its limits. But if it isn’t reciprocal, that doesn’t help the negotiation process,” he said. “But we are continuing to engage in negotiations with the team delegated by Zelenskiy, and these contacts will go on.”
He said he was confident that “everything will of course finish with the signing of an accord”, but that “the parameters of this accord will be defined by the state of the fighting that will have taken place at the moment the accord becomes reality”.
Updated
The UK plans to send more medical aid to Ukraine, including ambulances, fire engines and medical supplies.
Ukraine will receive 22 new ambulances, as well as more than 44 fire engines with rescue equipment, thermal imaging cameras and thousands of items of protective clothing, from the UK, Reuters reports. The aid is intended to help emergency services in Ukraine deal with the aftermath of Russian attacks.
“We have all been appalled by the abhorrent images of hospitals deliberately targeted by Russia since the invasion began over two months ago,” Boris Johnson said. “The new ambulances, fire engines and funding for health experts announced today will better equip the Ukrainian people to deliver vital healthcare and save lives.”
The UK has given £200m in military aid to Ukraine, and that figure could rise as high as £500m. The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh has more on the UK’s military aid:
Updated
Ukrainian officials said the shelling of a government building in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria was a “planned provocation” by Russia.
CNN reports that the Ukrainian ministry’s defense intelligence department said the leaders of Transnistria “were already preparing for it and took care to install a secure and comfortable bunker” at the building, days before the explosions.
“Obviously, this case is one of a number of provocative measures organized by the FSB [the Russian security service] to instill panic and anti-Ukrainian sentiment,” the ministry said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the incident in which a series of blasts tore through a building belonging to the ministry of state security. A local TV station showed the windows and doors of the building in Tiraspol blown out and fire crews on scene. A senior Russian commander said last week that the goal of Russia’s new offensive was to seize control of southern Ukraine and gain access to Transnistria on the southern Ukrainian border.
State security HQ in Transnistria targeted in a hit-and-run rocket propelled grenade attack, a source in Tiraspol tells me. Transnistria is a pro-Russia, self-declared republic in Moldova with a long border with Ukraine. There are about 1,500 Russian troops stationed there. pic.twitter.com/fN4Msmy4Lz
— Simon Ostrovsky (@SimonOstrovsky) April 25, 2022
Russia seeks to reduce the “considerable” risk of nuclear conflicts, Sergei Lavrov, the country’s foreign minister, said in a TV interview that aired Monday.
“This is our key position on which we base everything. The risks now are considerable,” Lavrov told Russia’s state television, according to a report from Reuters. “I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real, and we must not underestimate it.”
Russia recently tested its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a nuclear-capable missile, a move Putin said would give Moscow’s enemies “food for thought”. The Pentagon said Russia had notified it ahead of the test launch, which the US military viewed as a routine test and not a threat to the US.
Updated
The US will probably impose further economic sanctions against Russia, the White House said on Monday.
“No one is safe from our sanctions,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said, according to Reuters. Psaki did not comment about a recent report by the Wall Street Journal that the US had not sanctioned the reported mother of three of Vladimir Putin’s children to avoid angering the Russian president.
I’m Dani Anguiano and I’ll be taking over our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for the next few hours.
Updated
Russia said today that two people were injured in a shelling of a village on Ukraine’s border, reports Reuters.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the region’s governor, said today that two people were injured in bombing of a village in Russia’s Belgorod region that borders Ukraine.
The governor of Belgorod Region in Russia - on the border with Ukraine - has said another village has been shelled. This time, 2 local people have been injured, he says, & homes have been destroyed. Earlier, the governor claimed shelling in another village had not injured anyone.
— Will Vernon (@BBCWillVernon) April 25, 2022
The US said today that new aid for Ukraine will likely be apart of a longer-term aid package that requires approval from US lawmakers, reports Reuters.
US president Joe Biden said last week that he would seek approval from Congress for a larger aid package after giving more than $800m in military aid to Ukraine, with the White House confirming today that additional aid given would be a part of a longer-term package.
The White House also said they could not confirm the maximum amount of aid that the US is willing to give Ukraine.
"I'm not in a position to put a cap on it at this point in time," replies @PressSec when asked about the maximum amount of aid US willing to supply to #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/XZu7NqtqqD
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 25, 2022
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted about his recent trip to Ukraine and atrocities committed by the Russian military today.
From Blinken via Twitter:
On our trip, [Lloyd Austin] and I took a train into Kyiv from Poland. We saw people on the streets and clear evidence that the battle for Kyiv has been won. But we know that’s in stark contrast to other parts of Ukraine, where the Russian military continues to commit atrocities.
On our trip, @SecDef and I took a train into Kyiv from Poland. We saw people on the streets and clear evidence that the battle for Kyiv has been won. But we know that’s in stark contrast to other parts of Ukraine, where the Russian military continues to commit atrocities. pic.twitter.com/pnLTsxU42l
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) April 25, 2022
Canada’s defence minister will travel to Germany and the US to discuss how to support Ukraine, reports Reuters.
Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand will travel to Germany and the United States this week to discuss support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, the Canadian government said on Monday.
Chief of Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre and Deputy Minister of National Defence Bill Matthews will travel to Germany with Anand on Monday, the Canadian government said in a statement.
The Canadian delegation will participate in meetings of the Ukraine Defense Consultative Group, hosted by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Tuesday, and later in the week will visit Washington to meet with U.S. defense officials at the Pentagon.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.
Updated
Here’s more on the US’ announcement of sending diplomats to Ukraine and reopening its embassy in Kyiv.
The US will begin by only sending ambassadors to Lviv on short trips versus fully reopening its embassy in Kyiv.
US officials have also confirmed that they hope to send diplomats to Kyiv, but have said that it depends on the security situation.
From Foreign Policy’s Robbie Gramer:
Asterisk on US diplomats returning to Ukraine:
— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) April 25, 2022
Unlike other countries reopening their embassies in Kyiv, the US will only begin by sending its peopel to Lviv on short trips
State hopes to eventually send them to Kyiv & reopen embassy but depends on security situation
While speaking to reporters today, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said: “We will have American diplomats back in Ukraine starting next week. … They’ll then start the process of looking at how we actually reopen the embassy itself in Kyiv.”
Blinken and defense secretary Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine over the weekend. They are the highest-ranking US officials to visit the country since the beginning of Russia’s invasion over two months ago, reports the Hill.
Updated
US officials have promised to reopen the embassy in Ukraine following a visit to the country over the weekend, reported Reuters.
From Reuters:
The United States has promised to reopen its embassy in Kyiv soon, as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine's capital and hailed its success so far against Russia's invasion https://t.co/U5zwpuTUZs pic.twitter.com/oxNZ1LXEfS
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 25, 2022
Updated
Ukraine’s defence minister said today that Ukraine has started to receive 155mm calibre artillery from the US and other partners.
From CNN’s Bianna Golodryga citing a report from the Financial Times:
Ukraine’s Defense Minister says Ukraine is already starting to receive 155mm calibre artillery — the standard Nato size — from the US and from other partners, including France. He predicts that longer-range weaponry will ‘fundamentally’ change fight with Russia.
Ukraine's Defense Minister says Ukraine is already starting to receive 155mm calibre artillery — the standard Nato size — from the US and from other partners, including France. He predicts that longer-range weaponry will ‘fundamentally’ change fight with Russia. - @FT
— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) April 25, 2022
Poland said today that it sent tanks to Ukraine, reports Reuters citing Poland prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
When asked if Poland sent tanks to Ukraine, Morawiecki responded “Yes,” declining to provide additional details on the number of tanks provided.
Morawiecki did respond to questions on if sending planes to Ukraine was still being considered, saying: “There is no such necessity, there are no such demands, there are no such requests.”
Last month, Poland said it was ready to send all its MiG-29 jets to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany and put them at the disposal of the US, but that offer was rejected by US officials.
French president Emmanuel Macron and US president Joe Biden agreed in a phone call today to “rapidly” have more detail discussions on a number of global issues, including the war in Ukraine, reports Reuters.
During today’s congratulatory phone call following Macron’s recent re-election, the two world leaders agreed that they should increase discussions on a number of “major global issues … And in particular on global issues related to the war in Ukraine such as food security,” according to a readout of the phone call.
“Biden conveyed his readiness to continue working closely with President Macron on our shared global priorities,” said the White House in a separate statement.
Updated
Summary
Here’s an update on key developments this evening as we move into Monday night in Ukraine.
- The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has confirmed that the UK will send a small number of Stormer missile launching vehicles to Ukraine, and that the overall amount of military aid could rise to £500m. The UK has sent 5,361 NLAWs, 200 Javelins and will provide 250 Starstreak anti-air missiles, Wallace told MPs.
- About 15,000 Russian troops killed since start of invasion, Wallace told UK MPs. Speaking in parliament on Monday afternoon, he said approximately 15,000 Russian personnel had been killed since the start of the war in Ukraine on 24 February. He added that alongside the death toll, 2,000 armoured vehicles had been destroyed or captured, including 530 tanks. Russia is believed to have lost more than 60 helicopters and fighter jets.
- Russia’s foreign ministry said it had expelled 40 German diplomatic staff in a retaliatory move after Berlin expelled the same number of Russian diplomats. In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said it had taken the decision after Germany declared a “significant number” of officials at the Russian embassy in Berlin “undesirable” on 4 April.
- A senior Russian diplomat has been quoted as saying that a ceasefire in Ukraine would not be “a good option” as Kyiv may use it to “stage provocations”. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, said: “Ukraine is undermining our efforts to open humanitarian corridors so we don’t think a ceasefire is a good option now.”
- Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit simultaneous membership applications to the US-led Nato alliance as early as the middle of next month, Nordic media reports. The story was broken by Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, and Swedish government sources appeared to confirm the news to domestic media in the country.
- A statue erected to show solidarity between Ukraine and Russia in Kyiv is to be taken down, according to the city’s mayor. The bronze statue showing two workers standing stand-by-side will be dismantled on Tuesday. A second sculpture will be covered up. They were both installed in 1982 and lie underneath the People Friendship Arch near the Dnieper River.
- The office of the prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) has joined an EU-backed team investigating crimes in Ukraine in an unprecedented move. Karim Khan QC announced on Monday that the ICC had become a participant in the joint investigation team (JIT), whose members are Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The JIT involves international cooperation in criminal matters under the auspices of Eurojust, the EU agency for criminal justice cooperation.
- The Russian defence ministry said it would open a humanitarian corridor earlier on Monday for all civilians to leave the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said Kyiv had not reached an agreement with Moscow on creating a humanitarian corridor and said the UN should act as the “initiator and guarantor” of any agreement with Russia on evacuating civilians from the plant.
- Five railway stations in central and western Ukraine were hit by Russian airstrikes in the space of one hour on Monday. Oleksander Kamyshin, the head of Ukrainian Railways, said five train stations came under fire causing an unspecified number of casualties, as most of Ukraine was placed under an unusually long air raid warning for two hours on Monday morning.
- Russia should be “weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine”, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said after he and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, visited Kyiv and pledged a further $713m to help Ukraine in its war effort. Blinken said Russia was “failing” in its war aims, while Ukraine was succeeding. He added that the US had put in place a strategy of “massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia” across Nato members.
Updated
Ukraine’s defence minister has said US support is the sign of a “true brotherhood” after a meeting in Kyiv.
Oleksii Reznikov said that support was not measured in money, but instead in “the saved lives of Ukrainians”.
It came as another $713m in support was announced during the visit by US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken.
This is more than partnership of state officials - this is true brotherhood.@SecDef@SecBlinken
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) April 25, 2022
🇺🇦🤝🇺🇲 pic.twitter.com/LDKZBuOIBs
Updated
Four people, including two children, were killed in eastern Ukraine on Monday.
The governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram that a nine-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were killed in the region where Russia is on the offensive.
Updated
The office of the prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) has joined an EU-backed team investigating crimes in Ukraine in an unprecedented move.
Karim Khan QC announced on Monday that the ICC had become a participant in the joint investigation team (JIT), whose members are Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. The JIT involves international cooperation in criminal matters under the auspices of Eurojust, the EU agency for criminal justice cooperation.
Khan said: “As I have stated since taking up my position as prosecutor, the effective exercise of the mandate of my office requires us to deepen cooperation and collaboration with all relevant actors. The Ukraine situation, in particular, demands collective action so as to secure relevant evidence and ultimately ensure its effective use in criminal proceedings.
“In recognition of this, my office takes a landmark step today in joining a JIT under the auspices of Eurojust for the first time.
“The JIT aims to facilitate investigations and prosecutions in the concerned states as well as those that could be taken forward before the international criminal court. Through its participation in the JIT, my office will significantly enhance its ability to access and collect information relevant to our independent investigations.
“Critically, we will be able to conduct rapid and real-time coordination and cooperation with the JIT partner countries.”
Updated
A statue erected to show solidarity between Ukraine and Russia in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is to be taken down, according to the city’s mayor.
The bronze statue showing two workers standing stand-by-side will be dismantled on Tuesday. A second sculpture will be covered up. They were both installed in 1982 and lie underneath the People Friendship Arch near the Dnieper River.
The arch will be renamed and lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
According to CNN, Vitali Klitschko, retired boxer-turned politician said: “This week we will dismantle a bronze sculpture of two workers, erected in 1982 ‘to commemorate the reunification of Ukraine with Russia,’
“The eight meters of metal of the so-called ‘friendship of two peoples’ will be removed from the center of Kyiv.”
Updated
Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit simultaneous membership applications to the US-led Nato alliance as early as the middle of next month, Nordic media reports.
The Finnish daily Iltalehti said on Monday that Stockholm had “suggested the two countries indicate their willingness to join” on the same day, and that Helsinki had agreed “as long as the Swedish government has made its decision”.
The Swedish newspaper Expressen cited government sources as confirming the report. The two countries’ prime ministers said this month they were deliberating the question, arguing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had changed Europe’s “whole security landscape” and “dramatically shaped mindsets” in the Nordic region.
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, said then that her country, which shares an 810 mile (1,300km) border with Russia, would decide whether to apply to join the alliance “quite fast, in weeks not months”, despite the risk of infuriating Moscow.
Her Swedish counterpart, Magdalena Andersson, said Sweden had to be “prepared for all kinds of actions from Russia” and that “everything had changed” when Moscow attacked Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly warned both countries against the move.
The Kremlin said it would be forced to “restore military balance” by strengthening its defences in the Baltic, including by deploying nuclear weapons, if the two countries decided to abandon decades of military nonalignment by joining Nato.
Updated
A government building in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria was shelled by a hand grenade launcher on Monday, the press service of the Russian-backed unrecognised state said on its Telegram channel.
According to Transnistrian officials, a building belonging to the ministry of state security was hit in the region’s capital of Tiraspol on Monday evening, with no immediate reports of injuries.
A number of images circulating on social media appeared to show smoke coming out of the broken windows of the government building. It was not immediately clear who was behind the apparent attack.
Last week, a senior Russian commander said the goal of Russia’s new offensive was to seize control of southern Ukraine and to gain access to Transnistria which lies on the southern Ukrainian border.
While military experts have said it was unlikely that Russian forces would be able to stage an offensive towards the border with Moldova at this moment, the statements nevertheless raised fears in Moldova over Russia’s intentions towards the small impoverished Eastern European nation.
With Moscow’s support, Transnistria fought a war against Moldova in the 1990s that left the territory with de facto independence and a garrison of around 1,500 Russian troops.
If confirmed to be linked to the war, it would be the first spillover of the conflict into another European country.
Updated
About 15,000 Russian troops killed since start of invasion, says UK
Speaking to MPs earlier this afternoon, the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said approximately 15,000 Russian personnel have been killed since the start of the war in Ukraine on 24 February.
Wallace said:
It is our assessment that approximately 15,000 Russian personnel have been killed during their offensive.
Alongside the death toll are the equipment losses and in total a number of sources suggest that to date over 2,000 armoured vehicles have been destroyed or captured.
This includes at least 530 tanks, 530 armoured personnel carriers and 560 infantry fighting vehicles.
Russia has also lost over 60 helicopters and fighter jets, Wallace added.
The offensive that was supposed to take a maximum of a week has now taken weeks.
A senior Russian diplomat has been quoted as saying that a ceasefire in Ukraine would not be “a good option” as Kyiv may use it to “stage provocations”, the Russian state-owned news agency Ria reports.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, was quoted as saying:
Ukraine is undermining our efforts to open humanitarian corridors so we don’t think a ceasefire is a good option now.
A ceasefire would only “be an opportunity for Ukrainian forces to regroup and stage more provocations”, he claimed.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, earlier denied reaching a deal with Russia on evacuating civilians from the Azovstal steel works in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it had expelled 40 German diplomatic staff in a retaliatory move after Berlin expelled the same number of Russian diplomats.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said it had taken the decision after Germany declared a “significant number” of officials at the Russian embassy in Berlin “undesirable” on 4 April.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said the expulsion of German diplomats from Russia was “not justified”.
Writing on Twitter, she said:
Despite the increasingly adverse circumstances, our colleagues have worked in Russia with openness, honest interest and great commitment. Russia is thus further damaging itself.
In contrast, the expelled Russian diplomats in Berlin “did not spend a day in diplomatic service”, she said:
Their work threatened all who seek shelter with us - we could no longer tolerate this and will not do so in the future.
Die Ausweisung von 40 Diplomat*innen aus #Russland ist nicht gerechtfertigt. Unsere Kolleg*innen haben - trotz der immer widrigeren Umstände - mit Offenheit, ehrlichem Interesse und großem Einsatz in Russland gearbeitet. Russland schädigt sich damit weiter selbst. 1/2
— Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) April 25, 2022
Im Gegensatz zu ihnen waren die Angehörigen der 🇷🇺 Botschaft, die wir vor 3 Wochen ausgewiesen haben, keinen Tag im Dienst der Diplomatie tätig. Ihre Arbeit bedrohte alle, die bei uns Schutz suchen - das konnten wir nicht länger dulden und werden es auch in Zukunft nicht tun. 2/2
— Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) April 25, 2022
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has confirmed that the UK will be sending a small number of Stormer missile launching vehicles to Ukraine.
From our defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh:
Ben Wallace tells MPs UK will provide "a small number" of Stormer missile launcher vehicles to Ukraine...
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) April 25, 2022
...also promises to "offer a deployment" of an unspecified number of Challenger 2 tanks to Poland to "bridge the gap" between Warsaw donating T-72s and the arrival of new US made tanks
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) April 25, 2022
UK has sent 5,361 NLAWs, 200 Javelins and will provide 250 Starstreak anti-air missiles Wallace tells MPs.
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) April 25, 2022
Adds Treasury has agreed to fund "new for old replacement" + efforts being made with industry "to replenish as soon as we can".
In a statement to MPs, Wallace said:
Some of us in this House knew that behind the mask the Kremlin was not the international statement it pretended to be.
With this invasion of Ukraine all of Europe can now see the true face of President Putin and his inner circle. His intention is only to destroy, to crush, to rub out the free peoples of Ukraine. He does not want to preserve, he must not be allowed to prevail.
Ukrainians are fighting for their very lives and they are fighting for our freedoms. The president of Ukraine himself said it as much. If Russia stops fighting there will be peace, if Ukraine stops fighting there will be no more Ukraine.
He said Russia has so far “failed in nearly every one of its objectives”, adding:
In recognition of this failure the Russian high command has regrouped, reinforced and changed focus to securing Donetsk and Luhansk oblast.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin should leave all occupied territory in Ukraine including Crimea for true peace to be achieved, Wallace also suggested.
Summary
It’s just past 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- The Russian defence ministry said it would open a humanitarian corridor earlier on Monday for all civilians to leave the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said Kyiv had not reached an agreement with Moscow on creating a humanitarian corridor and said the UN should act as the “initiator and guarantor” of any agreement with Russia on evacuating civilians from the plant.
- Five railway stations in central and western Ukraine were hit by Russian airstrikes in the space of one hour on Monday. Oleksander Kamyshin, the head of Ukrainian Railways, said five train stations came under fire causing an unspecified number of casualties, as most of Ukraine was placed under an unusually long air raid warning for two hours on Monday morning.
- Large fires broke out early on Monday at two oil depots in the Russian city of Bryansk, less than 100 miles from the border with Ukraine, in a potential act of sabotage by Kyiv. Russian state media said the first fire occurred at a civilian facility in Bryansk holding 10,000 tons of fuel, followed by a second fire at a military fuel depot holding 5,000 tons.
- Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on bodies in mass graves north of Kyiv say they have found evidence some women were raped before being killed by Russian forces. One doctor who has been carrying out autopsies on residents from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka, said he had seen “a few cases which suggest that these women had been raped before being shot to death”.
- Russia should be “weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine”, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said after he and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, visited Kyiv and pledged a further $713m to help Ukraine in its war effort. Blinken said ‘Russia is failing’ in its war aims, while Ukraine is succeeding. He added that the US had put in place a strategy of “massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia” across Nato members.
- Russia has warned the US against sending more arms to Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, told Russian state television. Antonov said Russia had “stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine”.
-
Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit applications to join Nato at the same time, a Swedish newspaper has reported. Both countries have agreed to announce their applications in the week of 16 to 22 May, during Finland’s president Sauli Niinistö’s visit to Stockholm, according to reports.
- Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said the FSB spy agency had foiled what he cast as a Western plan to kill a prominent Russian journalist. Without providing evidence to support his claim, Putin accused the West of having “turned to attempts to kill Russian journalists”.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you as we unpack all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
A team from the UN nuclear watchdog is due to arrive tomorrow at Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will head up a mission of experts to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, it said.
Director General @RafaelMGrossi leads 1st full-fledged assistance mission of safety, security & safeguards experts to #Ukraine. Leaving Vienna, they will arrive at Chornobyl NPP on Tue to deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments & restore safeguards monitoring systems. pic.twitter.com/8nGbFKZ3dZ
— IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency (@iaeaorg) April 25, 2022
Sweden and Finland to apply for Nato membership at the same time – reports
Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit applications to join Nato at the same time, the Swedish newspaper Expressen reports.
Both countries have agreed to announce their applications in the week of 16 to 22 May, during Finland’s president Sauli Niinistö’s visit to Stockholm, according to Swedish government sources.
Updated
Here are the video clips of the plumes of smoke seen after fires break out at Russian oil depots. Videos posted on social media and satellite images on Nasa’s fire-tracking website appeared to show large fires in at least two locations in Bryansk. No immediate information was given as to the cause of the fires.
Putin claims FSB foiled western plot to kill pro-Kremlin journalist
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday said the FSB spy agency had foiled what he cast as a Western plan to kill a prominent Russian journalist.
“This morning, the Federal Security Service stopped the activities of a terrorist group that planned to attack and kill one famous Russian TV journalist … We have indisputable facts,” Putin said during a meeting with the country’s top prosecutors.
“After experiencing an information fiasco in Russia, the West has now turned to attempts to kill Russian journalists,” Putin added, without providing evidence to support his claim.
Shortly after Putin’s statements, Russian news agency Tass said that the security services had arrested Russian members of a neo-nazi group called National Socialism/White Power that was allegedly plotting to kill popular pro-Kremlin state television host Vladimir Solovyev on “orders” of Ukraine.
Tass said that the security services seized a number of weapons as well as eight Molotov cocktails and six pistols during the arrest of the group.
The FSB frequently claims to foil terror acts plotted by what they say are far-right groups acting on behalf of Ukraine, without providing much evidence to support their allegations. Days prior to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian security services also accused Ukraine of a number of attacks on Russian territory and the separatist-held Donbas, claims which were later debunked by independent journalists.
Putin on Monday further said that the West was attempting to destroy Russia from the inside.
“The task of splitting Russian society, destroying the country from the inside has come to the fore for the West, but their efforts will fail,” Putin said, adding that Russian society has “never been more united.”
Putin also accused the West of using foreign media organisations and social media to organize “provocations” against Russia’s armed forces.
Updated
Rebecca Solnit has filed her latest column for us, saying that Ukraine has taught us all a lesson in moral courage:
Ukraine matters for its own sake, of course, and there is a very direct war between imperialism and authoritarianism and self-determination being fought. But Ukrainians, even as they receive aid from around the world, are giving us all something, a crash course in human capacity and in other versions of human nature than we are usually offered. We in the US face our own neofascists and would-be authoritarians, as we around the world face a climate crisis brought on by fossil-fuel interests’ selfishness and shortsightedness. Reminding us of who human beings can be, what it looks like to stand on principle, why it’s worth fighting whether or not you believe you can win, is a gift Ukrainians have given us. They remind us who we can be, and in facing the other crises of our time, who we need to be.
Read more here: Rebecca Solnit – Ukraine has taught us all a lesson in moral courage
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said the United Nations should be the “initiator and guarantor” of any agreement with Russia on evacuating civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram:
Today, the Russian side once again announced the existence of a corridor for civilians to leave Azovstal. This could be believed if the Russians had not destroyed humanitarian corridors many times before.
A humanitarian corridor must be opened “by the agreement of both sides”, Vereshchuk said.
A corridor announced unilaterally does not provide security, and therefore is not a humanitarian corridor.
She said Ukraine had “appealed” for the UN secretary general, Antonoi Guterres, to be “the initiator and guarantor of the humanitarian corridor from Azovstal for civilians”.
Representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be present when any humanitarian corridor was established, she said.
Three Nato warships have arrived in the southwestern Finnish port of Turku to train with Finland’s navy, Reuters reports.
The Latvian minelayer LVNS Virsaitis and minehunters Estonian ENS Sakala and Dutch HNLMS Schiedam will train with two minehunters from Finland’s coastal fleet, Finland’s defence forces said in a statement today.
The two-day exercise will prepare the Finnish ships to take part in Nato response forces and focus on “mine countermeasures and working in a multinational framework”, the statement said.
It comes as Helsinki considers the possibility of joining the military alliance amid increased tensions with neighbouring Russia. Earlier this month, the Finnish prime minister, Sanna Marin, said her country would take a decision in the next few weeks about whether to join Nato.
Updated
Large fires broke out early on Monday at two oil depots in the Russian city of Bryansk, less than 100 miles from the border with Ukraine, in a potential act of sabotage by Kyiv.
Russian state media said the first fire occurred at a civilian facility in Bryansk holding 10,000 tons of fuel, followed by a second fire at a military fuel depot holding 5,000 tons.
Bryansk, which is less than 100 miles north-east of the Ukrainian border, serves as a logistics base for Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Images posted on Russian social media showed columns of smoke rising from the facilities in the Russian city on Monday morning.
Military analyst Rob Lee said that the footage suggested the fire was “probably” caused by Ukrainian sabotage. “It sounds like something is flying through the air before the explosion. I think it was probably a Ukrainian attack, but we cannot be certain,” Lee said.
“The fact that it was two separate sites not far from the border is important,” Lee said, adding that the fires may have been caused by a Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile, which he said had the range to reach both targets if deployed near the Russian-Ukrainian border.
Lee added that if Ukrainian involvement was confirmed, the strikes were likely to have been conducted to “disrupt fuel supplies for the Russian military”.
In a statement on its website, the Russian emergency ministry only mentioned one of the fires, saying that a facility owned by oil pipeline company Transneft at 2am local time caught fire and there had been no need to evacuate any parts of the city of 400,000 people.
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has criticised world leaders for their “excuses and half-measures” and called for an EU embargo on Russian oil.
Writing on Twitter, Kuleba said:
If world leaders and businesses are serious about ending Russian war crimes, they must first deprive Putin of oil revenues. Enough excuses and half-measures while Ukrainians are being bombed, killed, tortured, and raped.
Russian oil is full of Ukrainian blood. Stop buying it!
The European Union needs a “real embargo” on Russia oil, Kuleba added.
Russia desperately tries to bypass the already imposed restrictions.
Let’s be clear: any blend containing any Russian oil should be treated as 100% Russian oil. Don’t let Russians cheat their way around restrictions.
If world leaders and businesses are serious about ending Russian war crimes, they must first deprive Putin of oil revenues. Enough excuses and half-measures while Ukrainians are being bombed, killed, tortured, and raped. Russian oil is full of Ukrainian blood. Stop buying it! 1/2
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 25, 2022
Ukraine says ‘no agreement’ on humanitarian corridor from Azovstal plant
Ukraine has not reached an agreement with Russia on creating a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
It comes after Russia announced a ceasefire to allow for civilians sheltering in the besieged Azovstal steel plant to leave.
Vereshchuk said on Telegram:
It is important to understand that a humanitarian corridor opens by the agreement of both sides.
A corridor announced unilaterally does not provide security, and therefore is not a humanitarian corridor.
Updated
Evidence some Ukrainian women raped before being killed, say doctors
Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on bodies in mass graves north of Kyiv say they have found evidence some women were raped before being killed by Russian forces, Lorenzo Tondo and Isobel Koshiw report.
“We already have a few cases which suggest that these women had been raped before being shot to death,” said Vladyslav Pirovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor who with a team of coroners has carried out dozens of autopsies on residents from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka who died during Russia’s month-long occupation of the area.
“We can’t give more details as my colleagues are still collecting the data and we still have hundreds of bodies to examine,” he said.
Pirovskyi’s team has been examining about 15 bodies a day, many of them mutilated. “There are many burnt bodies, and heavily disfigured bodies that are just impossible to identify,” he said. “The face could be smashed into pieces, you can’t put it back together, sometimes there’s no head at all.”
He said the bodies of some women they had examined showed signs that the victims had been killed by automatic gunfire, with upwards of six bullet holes in their backs.
Oleh Tkalenko, a senior prosecutor for the Kyiv region, said details of alleged rapes had been forwarded to his office, which is investigating circumstances such as locations and the ages of victims.
“Rape cases are a very delicate and sensitive matter,” Tkalenko said. “Forensic doctors have a specific task of checking the genitalia of female victims and looking for signs of rape.”
A foreign coroner working north of Kyiv who asked to remain anonymous said some bodies “are in such bad shape that it is not easy to find signs of rapes and sexual abuses. But we are collecting evidence in a few cases of women we believe had been raped before being murdered.”
Updated
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Monday it was opening a humanitarian corridor at 2pm (11am GMT) Monday for all civilians to leave the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
The defence ministry said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page:
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the formations of the Donetsk People’s Republic from 14:00 (Moscow time) on April 25, 2022 unilaterally cease any hostilities, units are withdrawn to a safe distance and ensure the withdrawal of the specified category of citizens in any directions they choose.
Ukrainian officials have said that up to 1,000 civilians are sheltering at the giant steel plant, and earlier blamed Russia for not holding their fire during previous attempts to establish humanitarian routes out of the city.
The Russian defence ministry on Monday also repeated its claims that “nationalists” were holding civilian hostages as “human shields” at the Azovstal plant:
If civilians are still at the metallurgical plant, then we demand that the Kyiv authorities immediately give the appropriate order to the commanders of nationalist formations for their release.
Updated
US 'wants to see Russia weakened', says defence secretary
Here’s more from the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, following his meeting with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters from an undisclosed location in Poland near the Ukrainian border, Austin was asked what the US now sees as success in Ukraine.
Austin replied:
We want to see Ukraine remain a sovereign country, a democratic country able to protect its sovereign territory.
We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.
It has already lost a lot of military capability. We want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.
Austin said he believed Ukraine could win the war if it had the “right equipment” and “right support”.
In terms of their ability to win – the first step in winning is believing that you can win. And so, they believe that we can win.
We believe that we – they – can win, if they have the right equipment, the right support, and we’re going to do everything we can and continue to do everything we can.
Updated
A Ukrainian refugee has been left homeless days after moving in with a host in Brighton who demanded money from her to pay for utility bills.
Olha, 36, who asked for her real name not to be used, moved in with her host who had registered with the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme. But she was told to leave when she said she was unable to pay the money her host demanded.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities source said it was not acceptable for hosts to demand money from Ukrainian guests. Hosts can claim £350 a month from a government fund to cover the costs of hosting Ukrainian refugees.
The deputy leader of Brighton and Hove city council, Hannah Clare, confirmed the council was aware of the case and condemned the government hosting scheme.
“The government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme has been badly put together. Among its flaws is the fact that there is no mechanism for councils to transfer a Ukrainian guest to an alternative sponsor when something like this happens,” she said.
Olha, who was working in finance and economics before the war started, matched with a British woman in her 60s via a Facebook group and had registered with the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme. She fled her home in Dnipro on 28 March and began a dangerous and harrowing journey out of Ukraine by car. She arrived in Brighton about two weeks later.
At first Olha thought things would go well with her host. She provided her with an evening meal when she arrived, but told her she would be expected to provide her own food after that.
But soon the host started demanding money and said Olha was costing her a lot in utility bills. “She contacted the utility companies, asked them how much she had spent that week and told me that since I had arrived her energy bills had gone up a lot and that I needed to pay her £50 per week for energy bills. She said if I didn’t want to pay her I had to leave,” said Olha.
“I felt so upset I thought it would have been better for me to stay at home in Ukraine so that I wouldn’t experience anything like this.”
Updated
Today so far …
-
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said ‘Russia is failing’ in its war aims, while Ukraine is succeeding. US president Joe Biden’s top diplomat was speaking at the Poland-Ukraine border after making a visit to Kyiv on Sunday to meet Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials.
- Blinken was accompanied by US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, who said the Ukrainians “can win if they have the right equipment, the right support”. The US pledged more assistance. American diplomats will begin returning to Ukraine this week, the US state department has said.
- Russia has warned the US against sending more arms to Ukraine. Washington ambassador Anatoly Antonov said “We stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine, and we demanded an end to this practice.”
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The Russian defence ministry has claimed that its armed forces have struck the Kremenchug oil refinery, to the north-west of Dnipro. The ministry claims the Russian air force struck 56 military infrastructure targets overnight. Russia is also claiming to have downed two Ukrainian drones flying over Russia’s Kursk region.
- Russia fired rockets at two towns in Ukraine’s central Vinnytsia region on Monday, causing an unspecified number of deaths and injuries, regional governor Serhiy Borzov reported. The head of Ukraine’s railways has said five train stations have come under fire in western and central Ukraine, and that casualties have been reported.
- Russian authorities have confirmed that oil storage tanks have caught fire at an oil depot in Bryansk, about 100km north of the Ukrainian border. The cause is unclear.
- Russia’s ministry of defence has suggested compensation for the families of dead servicemen be overseen by military rather than civilian officials, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has written in its latest intelligence update. “This likely reflects a desire to hide the true scale of Russia’s losses from the domestic population,” it wrote.
- Dozens of civilians who died during the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha were killed by tiny metal arrows from shells of a type fired by Russian artillery, forensic doctors have said. Fléchettes are an anti-personnel weapon widely used during the first world war.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin has sent his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron a message of congratulations after Macron won re-election to the French presidency.
- An active-duty South Korean marine who made an unauthorised overseas trip – reportedly an attempt to reach Ukraine – has been arrested after arriving back home, Seoul’s military has said.
- Latest UNHCR data reveals almost 5.2 million Ukrainians have fled the country.
- The OSCE, the world’s largest security body, has said it is “extremely concerned” after several of its Ukrainian members were believed to have been arrested in Russian-controlled territories in the country’s east.
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Russia announces ceasefire for civilians in Mariupol’s Azovstal plant
Russia’s defence ministry said its troops would halt hostilities to allow civilians to leave the Azovstal steel works in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Russian troops “from 14:00 Moscow time (1100 GMT) on April 25, 2022, will unilaterally stop any hostilities, withdraw units to a safe distance and ensure the withdrawal” of civilians, the defence ministry said in a statement.
It said the civilians will be taken “in any direction they have chosen”.
The ministry added that the Ukrainian side should show “readiness” to start the humanitarian evacuations “by raising white flags” at the plant.
It said this information will be communicated to those inside Azovstal “via radio channels” every 30 minutes.
Last week, Russia said civilians and Ukrainian fighters could leave the Azovstal plant on the condition that Ukrainian forces “raise white flags”.
Hello. 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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The assault on Ukraine has resonated around the world, and scattered refugees in its wake. Here are some of the images we’ve been sent on the newswires today showing the global impact.
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Russian ambassador to Washington warns US against sending more arms to Ukraine
Russia has warned the US against sending more arms to Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington told Russian state television.
“We stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine, and we demanded an end to this practice,” Reuters reports Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Antonov said an official diplomatic note had been sent to Washington expressing Russia’s concerns following US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s visit to Kyiv.
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Here is a video clip from US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s media briefing earlier today on the Polish border with Ukraine. He had just returned from Kyiv, where he had become the most senior US official to visit President Volodymyr Zelenskiy since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began.
The secretary of state said: “When it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding.”
Blinken was accompanied by US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, who said the Ukrainians “can win if they have the right equipment, the right support”.
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Russia fired rockets at two towns in Ukraine’s central Vinnytsia region on Monday, causing an unspecified number of deaths and injuries, regional governor Serhiy Borzov reported.
“Today, Vinnytsia region is once again under rocket fire (in) the towns of Zhmerynka and Kozyatyn. The enemy is attempting to hit critical infrastructure,” Reuters reports Borzov said in a video released on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia did not immediately comment on his remarks. The claims have not been independently verified.
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The Russian defence ministry has claimed that its armed forces have struck the Kremenchug oil refinery, which is to the north-west of Dnipro in Ukraine.
Reuters also reports that the ministry claims the Russian airforce struck 56 military infrastructure targets overnight.
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Despite the war in Ukraine, some diplomatic norms remain. Reuters is reporting that Russian president Vladimir Putin has sent his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron a message of congratulations after Macron won re-election to the French presidency yesterday.
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On Telegram, the governor of Luhansk Oblast Serhiy Haidai has posted details of damage he claims was caused by Russian military activity in the region yesterday.
On the Orthodox feast, a shell hits an apartment – from the Orthodox. This is a peculiarity of “Russian peace” – to kill and destroy without thinking, only by carrying out orders.
On Sunday, the entire region was shelled heavily by the Russians. Three high-rise buildings and four private houses were burned down. Several cars, including trucks, got into an accident or caught fire through enemy shelling. Thus, people were rescued not only from underneath the rubble, but from the crushed vehicles as well. The Russian army shelled an oil refinery in Lysychansk for the third time.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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Ukraine train chief: five railway stations hit in Western and Central Ukraine, casualties reported
There is a snap report from Reuters that the head of Ukraine’s railways has said five stations have come under fire in western and central Ukraine, and that casualties have been reported. Oleksander Kamyshin, the company’s chief, said the attacks took place in the space of an hour and details were being checked.
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In the long, narrow basement underneath Litsey 20, a school in Ivano-Frankivsk, western Ukraine, Serhiy Korneliyevych Hamchuk stands before a row of women and lays a Kalashnikov assault rifle down on the desk in front of him.
The 10 women, aged between 18 and 51, watch attentively as Hamchuk demonstrates how to load ammunition into the gun’s magazine, sliding the bullets into place one after another with his thumb. “Dobre,” he says. “Good. Who wants to try?”
The concrete walls of Litsey 20, one of the largest schools in Ivano-Frankivsk, are normally filled with the chatter of more than 1,200 students aged between six and 18. But with in-person teaching banned across Ukraine because of the war, the school is providing a different sort of education.
At the end of March, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, one of the largest cities in western Ukraine, announced that shooting ranges at five schools in the city – normally used by pupils in the Ukrainian equivalent of the Combined Cadet Force – would be reopened in order to teach civilians how to use firearms. Although open to all, the courses are primarily aimed at women.
Read more of Antonia Cundy’s report here: ‘Women need to be ready’ – the Ukrainian city where mums and daughters are learning to shoot
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted some images from his meeting with US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on his official Telegram channel. Zelenskiy says:
The visit of a delegation of high-ranking US officials to Kyiv at this crucial moment for the Ukrainian state is very valuable and important to us. We discussed with secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defence Lloyd Austin defence assistance, strengthening sanctions against Russia, financial support for Ukraine and security guarantees. Thank you to the United States for your unprecedented help!
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There are reports that Russia is claiming to have downed two Ukrainian drones flying over Russia’s Kursk region. The reports are from Reuters, which is citing the Russian Tass state news agency. The claim has not been independently verified. Russia’s Kursk region is to the north of Kharkiv in Ukraine.
US secretary of state Blinken: 'Russia is failing' in its war aims
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has been speaking at the Poland-Ukraine border about his meeting in Kyiv with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and officials from Ukraine including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba. Blinken told the media:
We had the opportunity to demonstrate directly our strong ongoing support for the Ukrainian government and for the Ukrainian people. This was, in our judgment, an important moment to be there. An important moment for Ukraine, for the war. An important moment to have face-to-face conversations in detail about the extraordinary support that we’ve provided – security, economic, humanitarian – as well as the massive pressure that we’ve been exerting on Russia, and then to talk in detail about how we carry that forward across all of those fronts.
I would say that, without putting words in his mouth, President Zelenskiy expressed a deep appreciation for President Biden’s leadership and for the incredible generosity and support of the American people. In turn, we expressed deep admiration for his leadership and for the extraordinary courage of Ukrainians in standing up to and pushing back this Russian aggression.
Blinken went on to say:
We had an opportunity as well to talk about where this goes from here. With the success that Ukraine has had, it’s also true that Russia continues to try to brutalise parts of the country. And the death and destruction that we continue to see is horrific.
But Ukrainians are standing up. They’re standing strong. And they’re doing that with the support that we have coordinated from literally around the world. The strategy that we’ve put in place, massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia, solidarity with more than 30 countries engaged in these efforts, is having real results. And we’re seeing that when it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing, Ukraine is succeeding.
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The visit of US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin to Kyiv had been kept tightly under wraps in advance for security reasons. Some images from the meeting have been sent to us via the newswires.
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The US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has just been speaking to the media at the Poland-Ukraine border. He has been meeting officials from Ukraine. He told reporters:
Our focus in the meeting was to talk about those things that would enable us to win the current battle and also build for tomorrow. We talked about security force assistance. And we talked about training.
He said that he will now be going on to a meeting tomorrow at Ramstein Air Base in Germany with other ministers and chiefs of defence.
- This is Martin Belam taking over the blog now from my colleague Helen Livingstone. You can email me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
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An active-duty South Korean marine who made an unauthorised overseas trip – reportedly an attempt to reach Ukraine – has been arrested after arriving back home, Seoul’s military has said, according to AFP.
More from the news agency:
The serviceman, whose identity was withheld, left South Korea without permission while on duty on 21 March, the Marine Corps said in a statement, adding that he was arrested immediately after returning home.
South Korea banned its nationals from travelling to Ukraine shortly before conflict broke out this year, citing safety concerns.
Active duty servicemen are specifically banned from any overseas trips without prior approval and leaving without permission is considered desertion, which is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
“We will take stern measures in accordance with laws and regulations after investigating why he had left his duty,” the Marine Corps said.
According to the Yonhap news agency, the man flew to Poland in an apparent attempt to join the Ukrainian army in its fight against Russia.
He was not, however, able to enter the war-torn country as access was denied at the Polish-Ukraine border, Yonhap reported.
The unidentified marine is widely believed to have uploaded a YouTube video on 9 April in which he said he had a “difficult time” in the South Korean armed forces.
“But I couldn’t help but act when I heard about Ukraine, where people are faced with a much more difficult situation,” he said in the footage, his face hidden from view.
Ukraine marked Orthodox Easter Sunday yesterday, here are a selection of images from around the country:
After prime minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK would reopen its embassy in Kyiv this week, Sky News correspondent Deborah Haynes has evidence the operation is under way:
Evidence the UK embassy in Kyiv - @UKinUkraine - is getting ready to reopen. Spotted in the 🇺🇦capital already: 🇬🇧Defence Attache Tim Woods & his deputy. Their Ukrainian partners will be delighted! pic.twitter.com/qm83mQhDhi
— Deborah Haynes (@haynesdeborah) April 25, 2022
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Russia’s ministry of defence has suggested compensation for the families of dead servicemen be overseen by military rather than civilian officials, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has written in its latest intelligence update.
“This likely reflects a desire to hide the true scale of Russia’s losses from the domestic population,” it wrote.
It also said Russia’s decision to besiege rather than attack Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant “means many Russian units remain fixed in the city and cannot be redeployed. Ukraine’s defence of Mariupol has also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness.”
In the Donbas, meanwhile, Russia had made”minor advances” since shifting its focus to the region but, the update noted, “without sufficient logistical and combat support enablers in place, Russia has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 25 April 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 25, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/7NVrOfB161
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/OfcnHgGfR3
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Fire at Russian oil depot north of Ukrainian border
Russian authorities have confirmed that oil storage tanks have caught fire at an oil depot in Bryansk, around 100 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border.
The Emergency Situations Ministry in Bryansk said they received a fire report at 2 am Moscow time, the Russian news agency Tass reported, adding that first responders were at the scene. No information was given as to the cause of the fires.
Videos posted on social media and satellite images on Nasa’s fire tracking website appeared to show large fires in at least two locations in Bryansk.
Someone caught what appears to be the second explosion in Bryansk early this morning. Seems to be the one that hit the storage area. pic.twitter.com/0skf20TXoA
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 25, 2022
There is a large fire at an oil depot in Bryansk. https://t.co/0YwGd04tk6 pic.twitter.com/bV4w07f3da
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 25, 2022
Large column of fire trucks spotted heading towards #Bryansk earlier this morning… pic.twitter.com/IY3T0TJNsk
— Justin Peden 🇺🇦🦀 (@IntelCrab) April 25, 2022
A closer look at the area on NASA's FIRMS shows two groups of fires in Bryansk, Russia pic.twitter.com/0G5M2zxneD
— Brady Africk (@bradyafr) April 25, 2022
Zaporizhzhia is the only large city in south-east Ukraine under Ukrainian control but with 70% of the wider Zaporizhzhia region under Russian military control, there are fears that Moscow’s forces will attempt to take it.
Guardian reporter Isobel Koshiw went to visit the city as it prepares for a Russian advance:
Ukrainian reinforcements are moving towards the city and active fighting has begun in earnest. Ukrainian soldiers told the Guardian they had recently retreated from one town in the Zaporizhzhia region. Villages and towns about an hour’s drive from the city that were visited by journalists three weeks ago are no longer safe, according to the regional military administration.
“You can see for yourself people are out, going to work – the city is prepared but it won’t come to that,” said Ivan Ariefiev, the press secretary of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, at one of a series of war-related training courses being offered to the city’s teachers and journalists. Attenders, who are then expected to train the wider community, were taught how to load a gun, administer first aid and do a basic medical evaluation.
Despite the proximity of Russian troops, Ariefiev said, the regional military command was confident it could keep Russian forces at bay. “No one is being evacuated from the city itself,” said Ariefiev. “It’s only the evacuees from the south who are leaving for other places.”
In the newly dug maze of trenches outside Zaporizhzhia, the Guardian heard frequent incoming shells that soldiers said were landing 3km to 5km away. The group of soldiers who dug the trenches said they hoped these lines of defence would never be used and that Ukrainian soldiers farther south would withstand the attacks.
The soldiers who were not on the frontlines said they had a fraction of the medical and protective equipment they needed. For the whole platoon, they had just six tourniquets – a first aid essential that prevents blood loss. When asked if they thought the Russians would advance soon, they would only say they expected to fight.
“We just need arms from our western comrades and we’ll do it. The [Russians] have too much old Soviet equipment,” the platoon commander said. “In case you hadn’t noticed, they reached Kharkiv, Kyiv, encircled Sumy and Chernihiv – four huge regions – and we kicked them out. They were considered a powerful army, but we pissed on them.”
Read on here:
US diplomats to return to Ukraine after Blinken visit, State Department says
US diplomats will begin returning to Ukraine this week, the US State Department has said, after secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defense Lloyd Austin returned from a secretive visit to Ukraine to meet president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The top US envoys also promised more $300m in foreign military financing and have approved a $165 million sale of ammunition, according to Associated Press.
The news agency reported:
They also said Biden would soon announce his nominee to be ambassador to Ukraine and that American diplomats who left Ukraine before the war would start returning to the country this coming week. The US embassy in Kyiv will remain closed for the moment.
Zelenskiy had announced Saturday that he would meet with the US officials in Kyiv on Sunday, but the Biden administration refused to confirm that and declined to discuss details of a possible visit even though planning had been underway for more than a week.
Journalists who traveled with Austin and Blinken to Poland were barred from reporting on the trip until it was over, were not allowed to accompany them on their overland journey into Ukraine, and were prohibited from specifying where in southeast Poland they waited for the cabinet members to return. Officials at the State Department and the Pentagon cited security concerns.
Austin and Blinken announced a total of $713 million in foreign military financing for Ukraine and 15 allied and partner countries; some $322 million is earmarked for Kyiv. The remainder will be split among NATO members and other nations that have provided Ukraine with critical military supplies since the war with Russia began, officials said.
Such financing is different from previous US military assistance for Ukraine. It is not a donation of drawn-down US Defense Department stockpiles, but rather cash that countries can use to purchase supplies that they might need.
The new money, along with the sale of $165 million in non-US made ammunition that is compatible with Soviet-era weapons the Ukrainians use, brings the total amount of American military assistance to Ukraine to $3.7 billion since the invasion, officials said.
Zelenskiy had urged the Americans not to come empty-handed. US officials said they believed the new assistance would satisfy at least some of the Ukrainians’ urgent pleas for more help. New artillery, including howitzers, continues to be delivered at a rapid pace to Ukraine’s military, which is being trained on its use in neighboring countries, the officials said.
On the diplomatic front, Blinken told Zelenskiy that Biden will announce his nomination of veteran diplomat Bridget Brink to be the next US ambassador to Ukraine.
A career foreign service officer, Brink has served since 2019 as ambassador to Slovakia. She previously held assignments in Serbia, Cyprus, Georgia and Uzbekistan as well as with the White House National Security Council. The post requirements confirmation by the US Senate.
Blinken also told Ukraine’s foreign minister that the small staff from the now-shuttered US embassy in Kyiv, which has relocated to Poland from temporary offices in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, would begin making day trips to Lviv in the coming days.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the latest developments of the war in Ukraine, where the time is just after 7am.
Here are the latest developments:
- US diplomats will begin returning to Ukraine, the State Department has said, after secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defense Lloyd Austin returned to Poland from a visit to meet president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Ukraine. The US envoys also promised $322m in military financing for Ukraine, and agreed to the sale of $165m in non-US made ammunition compatible with Soviet-era weapons used by the Ukrainians.
- Russian officials have confirmed that oil tanks at a depot in the city of Bryansk, around 100 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, have caught fire. It is not clear what caused the fires, videos of which posted on social media showed huge flames and plumes of smoke against the night sky.
- Russia is planning a “staged referendum in the southern city of Kherson aimed at justifying its occupation”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence report. “The city is key to Russia’s objective of establishing a land bridge to Crimea and dominating southern Ukraine,” the ministry said.
- Igor Zhovkva, a top diplomatic adviser to Zelenskiy, has criticised UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’ upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, saying that Guterres does “not really” have the authority to speak on behalf of Ukraine.
- Zelenskiy has tweeted his congratulations to Emmanuel Macron for winning the French presidential election. He called Macron “a true friend of Ukraine”.
- Dozens of civilians who died during the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha were killed by tiny metal arrows from shells of a type fired by Russian artillery, forensic doctors have said. Fléchettes are an anti-personnel weapon widely used during the first world war.
- Latest UNHCR data reveals almost 5.2 million Ukrainians have fled the country. More than 1,151,000 Ukrainians have left during April so far, compared with 3.4 million in the month of March alone. Beyond that, the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates more than 7.7 million people have been displaced within Ukraine.
- The OSCE, the world’s largest security body, has said it is “extremely concerned” after several of its Ukrainian members were believed to have been arrested in Russian-controlled territories in the country’s east.
- In his Easter Sunday message, Zelenskiy said the religious festival “gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win”.
- Pope Francis has used the Orthodox Easter weekend to once again appeal for a truce in Ukraine “to ease the suffering of exhausted people”.
- Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, which Russia has been trying to take for two months. Although Moscow had earlier declared victory in Mariupol and said its forces did not need to take the factory, the Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces have resumed air strikes and are trying to storm the plant.
- Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdoğan and Zelenskiy have discussed Mariupol during a telephone call. Turkey is ready to give all possible assistance during negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday.
- The UN has called for an “immediate stop” to fighting in Mariupol so that civilians trapped in the city can be evacuated today.
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