On the ground: CNN reports from Zaporizhzhia as buses carrying evacuees from Mariupol begin to arrive
Refugees from Mariupol and nearby towns arrive in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on Friday, April 1. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
After authorities encountered several issues in evacuating civilians from Mariupol, they were finally put on buses in the city of Berdyansk and headed to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia on Friday, according to the Mariupol city council. And moments ago, the buses started arriving at the destination.
CNN's Ivan Watson, who is on the ground, said officials are vetting people and their documents before letting them off the buses.
"Then there's an entire system of volunteers, city government officials, aid workers who will greet people. Almost everybody I've spoken to says their home has been destroyed in Mariupol," Watson said.
Some men said they were asked to remove their shirts at Russian military checkpoints, and they were checked for tattoos that the Russian forces could believe would help identify if they were part of Ukrainian military, Watson said.
A passenger on the bus said "an 18-year-old boy was seen with tattoos and was immediately hooded by the Russian troops and thrown into an armored personnel carrier and taken away," Watson reported.
"Not only have people here endured bombardment, siege, hiding in basements, seeing their homes destroyed, perhaps seeing neighbors hurt or killed, but then when they finally get to escape, they have to undergo interrogation and searches by the same military that destroyed their city and their homes in the first place," he added.
All of the vehicles arriving have been branded with the Red Cross logo to try to ensure they cannot be attacked on the road, Watson reported.
Here's a look at the countries Ukrainian refugees have fled to
From CNN’s Benjamin Brown
Roughly 4 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in late February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said Wednesday.
The refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine include at least 203,000 third-country nationals, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday.
More than 2.3 million of the Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland, while hundreds of thousands have fled to neighboring countries including Romania, Moldova and Hungary, according to data from the UN.
Grandi has previously called the exodus of refugees from Ukraine "the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II."
The graphic below details the travel patterns of Ukrainian refugees to nearby countries:
Note: CNN cannot determine final destinations of refugees at this time, these are estimates of travel through neighboring countries.
CNN's Sana Noor Haq, Sharon Braithwaite, Nadine Schmidt contributed reporting to this post.
5:01 p.m. ET, April 1, 2022
Some think "it’s a video game": A military expert discusses foreign fighters defending Ukraine
From CNN's Sara Sidner
Two foreign fighters from the UK are seen as they prepare to depart to the front line at the main train station in Lviv, Ukraine on March 5. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)
They left the safety of their homes in places like Clearwater, Florida; Brighton, England; and Quebec, Canada, to join the fight to defend Ukraine against Russia.
These foreign volunteers — mostly men, often military veterans — walk the lonely road over the border into Ukraine, sometimes passing hundreds of mothers and children fleeing their bombed-out country.
They are signing up for a fight but their own countries' armies will not be there to back them up.
“We’re just trying to help protect freedom — simple as that,” Mike, who only wanted to use his first name, told CNN at the Przemyśl, Poland, train station. He is just one of the foreign fighters on his way to the border crossing with five others.
Foreign fighters have began streaming into Ukraine days after the war began but little is known about the impact they may be making.
One military analyst said it all depends on who is showing up to fight.
“There's some highly skilled people coming in. But then there's also people come in who have no idea of what they're doing,” Retired Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis told Sara Sidner on "Big Picture" streaming on CNN+. “That can mean chaos”.
Davis says he has learned there are fighters who arrived on the ground that “literally think it's like a video game."
"They don't understand the danger they're getting into … and they also don't have equipment they need. They don't have weapons, there's like one weapon for 20 guys,” he said, adding that he agrees with the official guidance from the United States that recommends Americans do not go to Ukraine at this time.
4:35 p.m. ET, April 1, 2022
At least 53 historic and religious sites damaged in Ukraine since Russian invasion began, UNESCO says
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy in London
A satellite image shows the aftermath of an airstrike on the Mariupol Drama theater in Mariupol, Ukraine on March 19. (Maxar Technologies/AP)
At least 53 historic and religious sites in Ukraine have been damaged since the Russian invasion began, according to UNESCO.
UNESCO alongside its sister agency UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) has set up "a system to monitor the state of conservation of the main Ukrainian sites and monuments via satellite imagery," according to a UNESCO spokesperson.
"To date, we have been able to verify damage to at least 53 cultural sites," the spokesperson continued. This encompasses 29 religious' sites, 16 historic buildings, 4 museums and 4 monuments, according to the organization.
The Kharkiv Art Museum is seen damaged by shelling on March 8. (Oleksandr Lapshyn/Reuters)
The northeastern city of Kharkiv has suffered the most damage with 18 damaged sites including the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, the Kharkiv Art Museum and the Drobytskyi Yar Holocaust Memorial.
Also on the list are the Drama Theater in the besieged port city of Mariupol which was devastated by Russian bombing on March. In the northern city of Chernihiv, St. Catherine's Church, an elaborate gold domed church is also among the damaged sites.
So far key landmarks in the capital Kyiv have escaped largely unscathed, with one notable exception being the church, Voznesens'ka Tserkva, Church of Ascension.
None of the seven UNESCO World Heritage sites located in Ukraine have been damaged by hostilities, according to the UNESCO list. The agency is "working with the Ukrainian authorities to list the priority sites and define the terms of this deployment," the spokesperson added.
As an additional safeguard, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay sent a formal letter to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov "reminding him of the obligations of the Russian Federation and providing him with the location data of Ukrainian World Heritage sites so that they can be protected from any bombing," the spokesperson said.
3:07 p.m. ET, April 1, 2022
Russia-Ukraine talks enabled a prisoner swap, Ukrainian negotiator says
From CNN's Nathan Hodge in Lviv
Talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul earlier this week led to a prisoner swap between the two sides of Friday, said David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation.
"Thanks to the agreements reached in Turkey, today, we've accomplished a successful exchange of prisoners of war," Arakhamia said on Telegram. "We've managed to bring back 86 of our servicemen, 15 of them — women. The state will fight to the end for each of our citizens!"
4:41 p.m. ET, April 1, 2022
Citizens in Mariupol are hiding in bomb shelters and rationing small amounts of food, deputy mayor says
From CNN's Jason Kurtz
Lyudmila, 71, and Viktor, 63, cook food at the entrance to the basement of an apartment building in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine on March 30. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
Sergei Orlov, the deputy mayor of Mariupol, detailed the scene in the besieged port city as Ukrainian officials try to help those still inside and evacuate citizens who have fled to surrounding areas.
“The city is totally destroyed. City is like ruins … we’re upset, not because of infrastructure, but because of people. So we do not know how to help our citizens who are suffering inside the city,” he said during an interview with CNN's Ana Cabrera. “Russia does not allow to solve any humanitarian issue, to transfer any humanitarian help and to make evacuation of our citizens for many days.”
The official explained where things stand in evacuation efforts and the most recent mission to evacuate Mariupol citizens who are in nearby areas.
"Once again, I want to clarify, there is no solution to reach Mariupol, either humanitarian help, either evacuate citizens," Orlov noted. "We are talking about evacuating Mariupol citizens who are in Berdyansk, who are near Mariupol, nearest villages...who reached Berdyansk themselves either by walking, either on private cars. A lot of Mariupol citizens made evacuation themselves and it's about 30-50,000 Mariupol citizens that are in Berdyansk and nearest villages at the moment."
"So this mission helps us and made possible to evacuate Mariupol citizens from Berdyansk to Zaporizhzhia. It's very good. It's absolutely necessary," he said, noting that 45 buses were evacuated with more than 2,000 citizens, including 710 children.
With regards to those still in Mariupol, among the most pressing concerns is nutrition, said Orlov, as aid groups including the Red Cross have struggled to reach the city with food and supplies.
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team traveling to Mariupol said Friday that they were unable to reach the besieged city to help facilitate the safe passage of civilians. The team is planning on trying to make the trip to the besieged city again on Saturday.
“I cannot even describe in words how life looks like in Mariupol,” he said. Citizens “cannot eat … [it’s] common for us to have three dishes, but three dishes per week. So we eat on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. So we cannot even eat a lot.”
Mariupol estimates that more than 100,000 citizens are still in the city, all hiding in hopes of staying safe. The official said citizens are living "as mouses."
“All of them are living underground in shelters, bomb shelter in some spaces below, so just to have possibility to survive, not to be killed by airstrikes, by missiles, by shelling,” said Orlov. “They are sharing some food with each other, so it's typical food for a day is glass of water with … one or two cakes, one glass of soup in afternoon and also one glass of water and one cake in the evening.”
Orlov said reports of Russians forcibly taking residents, including children, are true.
“In the Mariupol territory, I mean mostly outskirts which Russia temporarily occupies. They force people to evacuate from here and even make deportation,” he said.
In a local hospital, meanwhile, Orlov says there are as many as 2,000 children without parents, a reality that wouldn’t have existed prior to the invasion.
“Before the war, before 24 of February, we evacuated all children without parents to Ukrainian-controlled territory … in Mariupol, we did not have children without parents. So if they find somehow 2,000 children without parents, how it's possible? So it's either their parents were killed by Russian, [or] they separated them,” he added.
Watch the interview:
2:35 p.m. ET, April 1, 2022
Missiles strike Odesa region, regional military head says
From CNN's Julia Presniakova in Lviv
Three Iskander missiles launched from the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea had struck a settlement in the Odesa region, said Maksym Marchenko, the head of the region's military administration.
"There are casualties," he added.
2:31 p.m. ET, April 1, 2022
International Red Cross team was unable to reach Mariupol and will try again tomorrow
From CNN’s Richard Roth and Artemis Moshtaghian
A man walks past a destroyed vehicle in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 1. (Reuters)
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team traveling to Mariupol said that they were unable to reach the besieged city to help facilitate the safe passage of civilians.
The update comes Friday via a statement, as nine ICRC team members — traveling in three vehicles — had to return to Zaporizhzhia due to conditions that “made it impossible to proceed” to Mariupol.
The team is planning on trying to make the trip to the besieged city again on Saturday.
“For the operation to succeed, it is critical that the parties respect the agreements and provide the necessary conditions and security guarantees,” the ICRC said.
The ICRC says it acts as a “neutral intermediary” with plans “to accompany the convoy out from Mariupol to another city in Ukraine.”
“Our presence will put a humanitarian marker on this planned movement of people, giving the convoy additional protection and reminding all sides of the civilian, humanitarian nature of the operation."
Additionally, the military governor of Ukraine's Donetsk region on Friday said Russian forces were not allowing humanitarian aid to reach the encircled city of Mariupol.
Pavlo Kyrylenko said in televised remarks that the city remains blockaded and that Russian forces "don't fulfill their promises" to allow the delivery of aid.
CNN staff in Lviv contributed reporting to this post.
3:06 p.m. ET, April 1, 2022
Russian forces "not strong enough" to attack Ukraine on all fronts, Ukraine’s top diplomat says
From CNN’s Emmet Lyons and Ken Olshansky
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (CNN)
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN Friday he believes a regrouping of Russian troops is happening as “they cannot sustain the pressure” to continue an assault on Ukraine from three fronts.
Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Kuleba said that the decision by Moscow to reduce military activity on the two fronts of Kyiv and Chernihiv came at a time when “Ukrainian forces started to successfully push them back from villages and small towns in the siege of Kyiv. The reason they said it was because they felt they cannot sustain the pressure and they cannot keep the front line around Kyiv.”
Kuleba said that it may be indicative of Russian President Vladimir Putin becoming more realistic about his military strategy. “I believe he already has become more real since I cannot imagine that the withdrawal of Russian forces from the north of Ukraine was not ordered by him,” the minister said.
“If we translate this recent movement into the human language, it literally means I do not have sufficient power to continue attacking Ukraine from three directions simultaneously. So I have to move part of my military strength to another direction to reinforce my army in that area,” he said.
"Whatever his picture of reality is, from the steps they are making on the ground, I can conclude that he has an understanding that his power, that he is not strong enough to continue attacking Ukraine from all corners and that's clear now," Kubela added.
But the foreign minister also said that he thinks the withdrawal of Russian forces may be an attempt to strategically prepare for an assault on Ukraine’s Donbas region.
“We see that some of their military unions are withdrawing back into the territory of Belarus, but at the same time we hear consistent messages and we also received intelligence that they're still looking at Donbas as a low-hanging fruit,” he told CNN. “They need to regroup resources and to prepare for the battle for Donbas.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday that two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters carried out an attack on a fuel storage facility in southern Russia. When asked on whether it was Ukraine who had carried out the attack, Kuleba said that he could not verify it.
When asked by Amanpour as to whether he is surprised more generally by Ukraine’s military capability in the air, Kuleba said that he has “trust in the people of Ukraine and in our armed forces and as foreign minister in our diplomacy. This is a war. They attacked us to destroy us and they reject our right to exist as a nation so it means that we will be fighting back by all means available to us within existing international laws of warfare."
“We are not getting tired of fighting for freedom, for independence and for values. So I hope that people in the West will not get tired of supporting us, as well,” he said.
“The only fatigue they have observed so far is the fatigue in the capitals who try to not to avoid the sanctions on Russia, but we are working with them and I hope I believe we will help them to overcome that fatigue,” Kuleba added.
