April 27, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine’s NATO allies have delivered almost all the combat vehicles they promised Kyiv, the head of the alliance said Thursday. 

“More than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine have already been delivered,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. 

“That means over 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, including vast amounts of ammunition. In total, we have trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian armored brigades. This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory.”

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Thursday he has invited Pope Francis to visit the country and that Kyiv's peace formula was discussed during talks at the Vatican earlier in the day. 

Speaking at a news conference in Rome, Shmyhal said various aspects of support for Ukraine were also discussed. 

He reiterated that a Chinese delegation will be arriving in Ukraine following the call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, but didn't provide additional details about the delegation.

Xi and Zelensky spoke by phone on Wednesday, in their first known conversation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Moscow reacted to the conversation by saying it welcomes all contacts that can bring an end to the conflict.

The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, has spoken to Ukraine's most senior military commander, Valerii Zaluzhny, in a telephone call, the government in Kyiv said in a Thursday statement.

The call also included US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, according to the statement. 

Yermak and Zaluzhny "emphasized the importance of continuing active support of the Ukrainian army by partners, including the supply of weapons and ammunition," it said.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has spoken about public expectations of a counteroffensive against Russian forces, in an interview with news outlet RBC Ukraine.

Reznikov said that Ukrainian successes in the Kharkiv region, and in the city of Kherson, meant that the public now believed a victory for Ukraine’s troops was possible. “They want the next victory. It's normal… (these) expectations of success,” he said. 

Ukraine has made efforts to conceal the start of any counteroffensive, as CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh wrote earlier this week. Reznikov’s deputy, Hanna Maliar, has previously said that the counteroffensive will not be announced. 

Later in the interview, Reznikov said Ukraine’s priority was to bolster its Soviet-era air defenses: “The country must survive, and for this purpose, air defense is number one. We have a Soviet system that is running out of missiles.” 

“This is not a sprint distance... We are running a marathon. I can't say how many kilometers we are from the finish line,” he added

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that he welcomed the conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky that took place on Wednesday, but noted that Beijing still hasn’t condemned Russia’s invasion. 

“I welcome the call between President Zelensky and President Xi. I think it’s important also that China gets a better understanding of Ukrainian perspectives. This doesn’t change the fact that China has not been able to condemn Russia’s illegal war, illegal invasion of Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference in Luxembourg. 

He added that, “NATO allies have expressed strong support to President Zelensky’s peace plan, which includes of course, full respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.” 

Xi and Zelensky spoke by phone on Wednesday, in their first known conversation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelensky, who has long expressed interest in speaking with Xi, said he had “a long and meaningful phone call” with the Chinese leader that lasted for an hour. “We discussed a full range of topical issues of bilateral relations. Particular attention was paid to the ways of possible cooperation to establish a just and sustainable peace for Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a statement.

“There can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises,” said Zelensky.

In a readout, China’s Foreign Ministry quoted Xi as telling Zelensky that “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the political basis of China-Ukrainian relations.” Xi also reiterated Beijing’s point that China’s “core position” on the Ukraine conflict is to “promote peace and talks.”

An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol has reported that Russian troops are fortifying their defenses around the city. 

“The occupiers continue to dig in and build echelon defenses around Mariupol,” Petro Andriushchenko said in a Telegram post.

“Now they are getting wood to build dugouts. Yesterday, for the first time, military trucks went in large numbers to the Mangush district and partially in the direction of Berdiansk. They were full of wood for the construction of fortifications.” 

Andriushchenko also claimed that, this week, Russian-backed troops had “begun resettling in empty houses in villages north of Mariupol” in order to defend it. 

CNN is unable to independently verify these claims. 

Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, is located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region and has been under direct Russian control since May 2022.

Recent satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows Russian forces have emptied out a key base in northern Crimea. 

The facility, near the village of Medvedivka and close to the border with the region of Kherson, housed a significant number of Russian armor. 

Imagery from the European Union’s Sentinel 2 satellite from January 21, 2023 shows a large footprint of Russian equipment. Higher resolution Maxar images from February 11, 2023 reveals dozens of armoured vehicles, including tanks and artillery pieces. 

Newer imagery taken by the EU’s Sentinel 2 satellite reveals that most of those vehicles are no longer present at the base. 

It wasn’t immediately clear why Moscow had relocated the equipment or where to, but earlier in the month, Russian-installed officials in Crimea had signaled they expected a Ukrainian counteroffensive to target the peninsula. 

Maxar imagery from February 11 to February 16 shows a large concentration of defensive structures near Medvedivka, including a network of trenches and wedge-shaped anti-tank concrete barriers known as dragon’s teeth. One Maxar image from January 3 shows the fortifications were much smaller at the beginning of the year. 

In light of Aksyonov’s comments, experts have suggested the withdrawal of Russian military equipment from the base in Medvedivka may be related to defensive operations ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

One police officer was killed and another injured in an explosion at an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol on Thursday, local authorities said.

According to the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, who is not currently in the city himself, the explosion occurred at a residential building where individuals who worked at Russian-backed law-enforcement agencies lived. 

Zaporizhzhia's regional military administration said it has recorded more than 80 Russian attacks on the region in the past day, according to a statement released on Thursday. 

Yurii Malashko, head of the Zaporizhzhia region military administration, said there were "83 attacks on peaceful towns and villages," consisting of 69 artillery attacks, seven air attacks, five UAV drone attacks and two attacks from a Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS.

Malashko described "chaotic shelling" in Orikhiv, Preobrazhenka, and Novodanylivka, which resulted in the deaths of two men in their 40s.

"Unfortunately, two men born in 1976 and 1979 were killed," the statement said. 

Aerial strikes also hit residential buildings in the Huliaipole district, a town in the Zaporizhzhia region on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, but no casualties or injuries have been recorded there.