April 25, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

A nighttime curfew has gone into effect in Kyiv from Monday to Friday this week because of Russia’s “provocative actions,” Oleksandr Pavliuk, the head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, said in a Telegram post Monday. 

The curfew will last from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time.

“We remind you that during the curfew it is forbidden to be on the street and in other public places, to move by transport or on foot,” Pavliuk said. 

Those involved in the work of critical infrastructure who have a special permit and ID are exempt, he said.

“During martial law, it is important to adhere to the requirements and decisions that are implemented on the ground. Such measures help protect the population from the provocative actions of the enemy,” Pavliuk added.

Russia’s foreign minister has insisted his country is striving to lower the risk of nuclear war, but said it was a real and serious danger. 

“It is real, and it cannot be underestimated,” Sergey Lavrov said in an interview aired on Russian television on Monday night.

Referencing a famous joint declaration by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, when the then-leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union agreed that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” Lavrov said the “inadmissibility of nuclear war” remained Russia’s “principled position.”

Collapsed agreement: Lavrov also suggested that current fears could be blamed on the West and its refusal to trust Russia. He highlighted the failure to find a successor to a 1980s’ treaty between the US and the Soviet Union that banned medium range nuclear weapons.

That pact collapsed in 2019, but the US had failed to act on Vladimir Putin’s offer of a continued suspension of the deployment of such weapons, Lavrov said.

“Our offer of a mutual moratorium has been rejected, even though we included in our proposal methods of verification. And the West’s main objections to this is that they just didn’t trust us,” he said.

According to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Lavrov told the Russian interviewer that Western countries were encouraging Ukraine to keep fighting – illustrated by Ukraine’s changing demands, he said. 

But he said he still believed the war would end with what RIA Novosti described as the “signing of a diplomatic document.”

While shadowing paramedics in Kharkiv, Ukraine, CNN’s Clarissa Ward and her team were forced to run for safety after getting caught in Russian shelling.

Watch the moment:

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02:46 - Source: cnn

Weeks after first occupying the major Ukrainian city of Kherson, Russian troops have taken control of the Kherson City Council, according to two members of the city government.

Kherson Mayor Igor Kolykhaev said on his Facebook that on Monday night, “armed men entered the building of the Kherson City Council, took the keys and replaced our guards with their own.” 

Addressing rumors that the Ukrainian flag that flew over city council had also been taken down, Kolykhaev noted that the flag was still flying over the building when he left.

Yuri Sobolevsky, Kherson regional deputy, described the incident on his Facebook page as a “seizure,” saying it was “unfortunately, quite expected.”  

“Kherson’s city hall was ‘allowed’ to function in a reduced format for a while, but that time seems to be over, too,” Sobolevsky continued

Two days ahead of Russia’s plans to stage a referendum in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed his people’s refusal to give their backing to Russia’s occupying forces.

“People [in occupied towns] have showed with their protest their attitude towards the occupiers; [they have] showed that Ukraine will definitely win,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Monday.

“Russia wants to stage a sham ‘referendum’ somewhere on our land? Even if they try, it will be as shameful as everything else that was “created” in Moscow to support the occupation of Ukraine,” he added.

Russia has announced it will hold a vote in the southern region of Kherson — which It has occupied since the opening weeks of the war — on Wednesday, in which people will be asked to approve the “independence” of a new entity called “the Kherson People’s Republic.”

Meanwhile, as the war enters its third month, Zelensky said Russia had fired more than 1,100 missiles at Ukrainian targets, in addition to “countless bombs and artillery.”

The Ukrainian president said 931 settlements in Ukraine had been liberated by Ukrainian forces after temporary occupation by Russian forces. 

In addition, since the start of hostilities some 9,781 Ukrainians had been presented with state awards for their defense of their country, and 142 people had been given a ‘Hero of Ukraine’ award.

“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 neighbours — you lose. If you want to restore the old empire, you lose. And if you go against the Ukrainians — you lose,” Zelensky said.

And he struck an upbeat note about Ukraine’s advance towards possible membership of the European Union, which has become a key goal for the Ukrainian leadership.

“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.”

There is not much left of Novotoshkivka, a small village about 16 miles — or 26 kilometers — southeast of Severodonetsk, new drone video published on Monday by the Russian-backed separatist government Luhansk People’s Republic shows.

CNN has geolocated and confirmed the authenticity of the video.

Novotoshkivka was a very dense but small village in the Luhansk oblast, in eastern Ukraine; it only stretches about half a mile long, and a third of a mile wide. 

Now, fighting in the new war between Russian and Ukrainian forces have left it completely destroyed. Russian backed separatists claim the Ukrainians blew it up when they retreated from their positions in the village.

Serhiy Hayday, the Luhansk regional administrator, confirmed Ukrainian forces there had retreated but claimed on his Facebook page that the Russians had decimated the village through repeated airstrikes.

In remarks made on Ukrainian television Monday, Hayday said that the Russians “keep razing everything to the ground.”

“Unfortunately, there are almost no houses left in Novotoshkivka. Our [troops] retreated a little, but not much, because there was no longer anything to hold on to, there was nowhere to keep the defense,” he said.

Novotoshkivka had been the site of intense fighting over the last week. At the time, the Ukrainian government and Luhansk regional administration said Russian forces there had been repelled after repeatedly trying to take over the village.

The White House says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s declaration the US wants to “see Russia weakened” is in line with the administration’s long-held goal to prevent Moscow from consuming Ukraine.

“I think what Secretary Austin, in his press conference, was referring to was if you go back about two months ago, remember President Putin gave a speech where he talked about the aspirations — his aspirations, the aspirations he had for the Russian military — which were to degrade Ukraine, subsume Ukraine, to take over their sovereignty, their territorial integrity,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday during a news briefing.

“What Secretary Austin was talking about is our objective to prevent that from happening,” she went on. “Obviously right now the war is in Ukraine. We’re proud of the Ukrainians’ success, their efforts to fight back, to push back on the Russian military, thanks to their bravery and also to our support.”

“We are also looking to prevent them from expanding their efforts and President Putin’s objectives beyond that too,” she continued.

More on Austin’s comments: Speaking after visiting Kyiv on Sunday, Austin outlined some of the United States’ goals as the country continues to support Ukraine’s efforts in the war.

“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,” Austin said at a news conference at an undisclosed location in Poland near the Ukrainian border following the trip to Kyiv. 

Psaki said the comment was in line with the administration’s views of the conflict.

“I would say it’s consistent with our view, and the President’s view, and Secretary Austin’s view that we are going to do everything we can to push back on President Putin’s aspirations to subsume Ukraine, to take over their territorial integrity and their sovereignty, and aspirations he had as of two months ago to go beyond that,” she said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin took the train from Poland to meet with Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Kyiv on Sunday.

“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,” he said in a tweet Monday along with two photos of his travel.

View the tweet here:

The Defense Ministry in Ukraine has described explosions that took place in the Transnistria region of neighboring Moldova as a “planned provocation” by the Russian secret services.

The ministry’s defense intelligence department said in a statement on its Telegram channel that three days before the incident, the leaders of the breakaway region “were already preparing for it and took care to install a secure and comfortable bunker” at the Ministry of State Security, which was damaged in 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,” it said.

What Russia is saying: Earlier Monday, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported a series of explosions were heard around the building of the Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol, the capital of the separatist statelet of Transnistria in Moldova.

A correspondent for Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported explosions, saying that powerful booms were heard on the scene and that windows in neighboring houses were damaged. Traffic near the ministry building was blocked, the agency reported.

Russia has maintained a contingent of troops inside Transnistria since the early 1990s. Last week, a top Russian general said Russia intended to establish “full control” over southern Ukraine in the second phase of its invasion of Ukraine, adding that control over Ukraine’s south would give Russian forces access to Transnistria. 

CNN’s Nathan Hodge contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian officials and the Russian Defense Ministry have reported another day of heavy fighting in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said on Ukrainian television Monday that the Russians “keep razing everything to the ground.”

He referred to a village on the frontlines, Novotoshkivka, which now lies in ruins.

“Unfortunately, there are almost no houses left in Novotoshkivka. Our [troops] retreated a little, but not much, because there was no longer anything to hold on to, there was nowhere to keep the defense,” he said.

Drone video from the area showed that much of the village has been destroyed.

Hayday said Russian forces were still trying to break through in the neighboring towns of Rubizhne and Popasna. “They don’t get anything there. But they throw huge forces there. And shelling is carried out there around the clock.”

Hayday also said that the Russians had “damaged the electricity substation that powered the entire region.”

Further west, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that four command posts and one ammunition depot near the town of Sloviansk had been destroyed. Russian forces have been targeting Sloviansk and nearby Kramatorsk as they try to reach the borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It also said another Ukrainian military target — in the town of Novogrodovka — had been hit. 

The Russians have amassed forces around the town of Izium, which they occupied at the beginning of April, but have made little progress since. Ukrainian officials reported fighting around the nearby village of Zavody Monday. 

The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said the “enemy continues to carry out offensive operations in the Eastern Operational Zone to defeat the Joint forces, establish full control over the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and maintain the land route with the occupied Crimea.”

Russian forces struck five railway stations in central and western Ukraine on Monday morning as part of a campaign to “systematically destroy railway infrastructure,” according to the chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine’s state railway company. The rail system has become a vital cog in the country’s war effort, ferrying essential supplies in, and desperate civilians out of harm’s way.

Russia has made only “minor advances” since shifting their focus to taking control over the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Monday. “Without sufficient logistical and combat support enablers in place, Russia has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough,” said the MoD on Twitter.

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine war:

Day after day, Maria Shtern gets into her rusty Lada car and drives the rutted roads of eastern Ukraine.

Shtern, 21, has been volunteering for more than five years on the frontlines of Ukraine’s conflict with Russia – first with its proxies in the Donbas region, now with its military.

On this sunny spring Monday, in a uniform of camouflage cargo pants and hemp leaf bucket hat, she’s delivering food and medicine to homes to the village of Mykolaivka.

“Many people just do not understand that what was in 2014 in Slovyansk and what can happen now are two very different scenarios,” she told CNN.

Every day, Shtern tries to put herself out of a job, telling her patrons to evacuate.

“I am asking people a specific question: Are you ready to hear your children crying and saying, ‘Mom, I’m scared to die?’” she said.

As the Russian military closes in, and commercial supply lines stop, Shtern’s deliveries of food and medicine are the only lifeline for many people. The Russians have captured Izium, a nearby urban center, and their artillery is bombarding the town of Lyman, just a few miles down the road.

She weaves though the chicanes of checkpoints, past the husks of buildings destroyed in 2015, and alongside gardens blooming with tulips planted long before people even in this war-torn region could have imagined a full-scale war with Russia.

“There is the expression, ‘Who else but us?’ It all comes from the heart. When you realize that your own home could be taken away from you and you could be killed, or your friends and your family could be killed — you simply have no choice but to do it, she told CNN.”

In Mykolaivka, each resident is faced with the same decision every day: stay or go.

The torment is visible in a woman who approaches us and yells that she has no idea what will happen, but she cannot leave.

“My elderly grandmother, who is 80 and can hardly walk, I can’t leave her. Do you understand? It’s my family. Don’t you have families at home that you can’t leave behind? Not under any circumstances,” she tells CNN.

Natalia Maligon is among the residents who have had enough and have chosen to leave.

“My sister woke up this morning and said we had to leave,” she explains as her twin nieces run between the elder branches. “We didn’t want to leave until the last minute, but then something made her want to. So we had to.”

Olha Konovalova contributed reporting to this post.

The European Union has evacuated around 200 Ukrainian patients requiring urgent medical care from Ukraine and neighboring countries to hospitals in other European nations, European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said on Monday. 

Speaking to journalists in Brussels, Ujvari said: “As the war continues, and the population of Ukraine continues to migrate out of the country, the health care systems in neighboring countries are under a great deal of pressure.” 

Following requests from Poland, Slovakia, Moldova and also Ukraine, the EU has transferred Ukrainian patients who need specialized medical help to hospitals in “11 different European countries,” Ujvari explained.  

The transfer of patients has been supported the EU’s first dedicated medical evacuation plane, which has been operational since March. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is currently on a plane en route to Moscow, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said Monday.

Guterres will be “received” by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and will have a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He is also scheduled to travel to Kyiv and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday. 

“It’s important that he [the Secretary-General] is able to talk clearly with the leadership on both sides and see what progress we can make. Ultimately, the end goal is to have a halt to fighting, and to have ways to improve the situation of the people in Ukraine, lessen the threat that they’re under and provide humanitarian aid towards them,” Haq said to reporters during an afternoon press briefing.

Haq also said that while Guterres has not spoken with United States President Joe Biden ahead of his upcoming trip to Moscow and Kyiv, he has spoken with other senior US officials.

“He has been speaking to senior US officials and indeed, many other senior officials by phone in recent days,” Haq said. “He talks to a number of different leaders. I wouldn’t characterize what their discussions are in any particular detail, but certainly, he is apprised of the viewpoints of most of the key governments in terms of what needs to be achieved.”

Haq declined to go into detail Monday about the sort of proposals Guterres is bringing to his meetings but noted that officials from both Ukraine and Russia accepted the itinerary. He added that there is no significance to the Secretary-General visiting Russia before visiting Ukraine. Travel plans remain in flux and it’s possible that Guterres will stop in a third country in between his meetings in Moscow and Kyiv, Haq said.

A senior official in Ukraine’s Interior Ministry says there has been a large explosion in the town of Kreminna in the Luhansk region, an area recently occupied by Russian forces.

Anton Gerashchenko said the explosion took place at an administrative building in the town. Ukrainian forces withdrew from Kreminna last week.

“As a result of a gas explosion in the city council’s building in Kreminna, no one survived,” he said on Telegram. 

“Simultaneously with the natural gas explosion in the building of the city council, there was a second explosion of domestic gas in the district police department, where a group of collaborators had gone for a meeting,” he said.

CNN cannot verify the number of casualties nor the origin of the explosion.

A deputy to Russia’s ambassador to the UN took to the stakeout podium at the UN Monday to say that a ceasefire in Ukraine is not a good option right now.

“We don’t think that ceasefire is a good option right now because the only advantage it will give it will give possibility for Ukrainian forces to regroup and to stage more provocations like Bucha,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia’s mission to the United Nations, said. “Frankly it’s not up to me to decide but I don’t see any reasons (this would be pursued) right now.”

He also alleged that Ukraine, with backing from the US, was preparing to deploy “chemical, biological, and tactical nuclear weapons” in a false flag operation, and claim that Russia had been responsible. 

The representative also said he did not think it was time for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Polyanskiy was speaking on the eve of the UN secretary general’s visit to Russia, where he will be received by President Vladimir Putin.

“Our ministry of defense keeps collecting information that the Kyiv regime backed by the US is preparing staged provocations in order to accuse the Russian armed forces of using chemical, biological, and tactical nuclear weapons,” Polyanskiy said. 

Remember: The US has denied that it has been developing chemical or bioweapons in Ukraine, noting that the biological research facilities it funds in Ukraine were created to help minimize the risk of old Soviet weapons left behind in the region. 
US officials have warned that Russia may be sowing disinformation about alleged US-backed bioweapons in advance of its own use of bioweapons in Ukraine.

Still, Polyanskiy gave several speculative scenarios in which he claimed a Ukrainian attack could happen. 

He urged the media to take note of specific locations so it “does not come as a surprise if an incident happens” adding “we have warned the world about it.”

“What has long been considered as unthinkable is now a realistic scenario plotted by the Kyiv regime, encouraged and supported by the USA,” he continued, parroting the accusations of Russian leaders.

He added “the US and its allies have a proven record of using (allegations of) weapons of mass destruction… to assault sovereign countries which do not want to succumb to their pressure,” referencing justifications US officials gave for previous military actions in Iraq and Syria.  

The Russian diplomat also denied that the Russians were responsible for the killing of civilians in Bucha where CNN found mass graves. 

US military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine could be at risk of being bogged down in the immigration battle brewing on Capitol Hill between Republicans and the Biden administration.

The Biden administration is expected to send another supplemental request to Congress this week for Ukraine after warning that money from the last package is nearly depleted. But, while there is broad support on Capitol Hill to give Ukraine more assistance, the path to passage is much more uncertain in the U.S. Senate.

It’s still not clear what vehicle Democrats would use to pass Ukraine aid, but one likely option would be to attach the aid to $10 billion in COVID-19 funding that is already moving through the Senate. Attaching Ukraine aid to money for COVID-19 testing and treatments, however, could put the critical wartime aid in the crosshairs of political infighting over immigration.

Where things stand on Covid relief: Before the recess, the $10 billion COVID-19 relief package stalled out after Republicans insisted they wouldn’t fast-track the process unless Democrats agreed to vote on an amendment that would block the administration’s decision to overturn Title 42, a Trump-era order that during the pandemic allowed both the Trump and Biden administrations to turn immigrants at the border back to their home countries immediately citing a public health crisis. That order is expected to be overturned at the end of May, but the decision faces stiff opposition from Republicans and some moderate Democrats who have warned the decision will cause an uptick of illegal crossings at the border.

In order to pass Covid-19 relief quickly before the recess, Republicans argued they wanted a vote to block the administration’s decision on Title 42. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wouldn’t give it to them.

Talks over how to pass both covid relief and Ukraine aid will begin Monday when lawmakers return to Washington. Schumer has also made it clear that he wants to include global vaccine funding in a Ukraine aid package. The vaccine funding wasn’t included in the $10 billion Covid package because of opposition from Republicans in the negotiations.

Why the Biden administration needs more money for Ukraine: The reason the Biden administration says it needs more money for Ukraine now is that the administration has used $2.45 billion out of the $3 billion in funding Congress authorized in Presidential Drawdown Authority funding as of April 22, according to a source familiar with the matter. Congress authorized $3 billion in that specific pot of money when they passed the omnibus spending bill in March.

Overall, Congress passed $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine when they passed their government funding package in March. That included increasing the specific pot of money the administration had at its discretion to spend for Ukraine to $3 billion.

But the pot of money is running out. After six weeks, the Biden Administration has used up all but about $50 million of a $3 billion pot. Lawmakers are already having preliminary discussions about writing and passing another supplemental aid package for Ukraine, but conversations are still preliminary, a Congressional aide said.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the administration does not want to run out of funding from the Presidential Drawdown Authority before another supplemental aid package is passed in Congress.

“We are getting close to the end of those funds, and so that’s why we are actively engaging with members of Congress,” Kirby told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon Friday. “We don’t want to get to a point [sic] where we’re in extremes, where we’ve actually run out of the authority and the funding to execute it. So we’re having those discussions.”

Last week, the top Republican of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, called for Congress to start writing a new supplemental aid package for Ukraine in a series of tweets.

Russia announced on Monday that it was expelling 40 German diplomats from the country in a retaliatory move to Berlin’s decision in early April to expel a “substantial number” of officials at the Russian embassy. 

Summoned by the Russian foreign ministry Monday, the German ambassador to Moscow was “met with strong protest in connection with the openly hostile decision of the German government,” the ministry said. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called Moscow’s decision to expel diplomats “unjustified.” 

In contrast to the German diplomatic staff declared as “persona non grata,” the members of the Russian embassy that [Germany] expelled three weeks ago “did not spend a day engaged in diplomatic service,” Baerbock said. 

“Their work threatened all who seek shelter with us — we could no longer tolerate this and will not do so in the future,” the foreign minister added.  

In early April, Baerbock had said that the expelled Russian officials had been “working against our freedom and against cohesion of our society here in Germany every day.” 

The West needs to make sure the cost for Russia for the war in Ukraine is “as high as possible,” Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told CNN on Monday.

“It is very important that we help Ukraine defend their own country and to make the cost for Russia, as high as possible, also in the battlefield,” Kofod said. “That is what we are doing and we will continue to do that.” 

Stopping Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine means European nations must impose further sanctions on Russia and send more military aid to Kyiv, he continued.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen promised on a visit to Kyiv Thursday to send more military assistance to Ukraine, increasing contribution by $87 million to around $144 million.  

Denmark will increase its natural gas production in the North Sea “for a limited time period,” to reduce its dependency on Russian energy imports, Frederiksen said on Tuesday, adding that the country is ultimately aiming to phase out its use natural gases to become independent of Russian supplies. 

“Everything is on the table from the Danish side. We are ready to do the most sanctions we can agree upon,” Kofod told CNN. “Of course, continuing to offer support to isolate Russia politically with our partners, but also the rest of the world — that is really what we had to.” 

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday that approximately 15,000 Russian military personnel have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began according to British assessments.

Wallace told the House of Commons that more than 2,000 Russian armored vehicles, including over 500 tanks, had been destroyed in the war, along with 60 helicopters and fighter jets. 

Russia’s official casualty figures however are much lower than the UK estimate. The latest figures released by the Russian defense ministry on March 25 listed 1,351 of its military personnel killed in Ukraine and 3,825 wounded.

Wallace also told lawmakers that Britain will provide Ukraine with a “small number” of Stormer armored vehicles fitted with launchers for anti-air missiles. 

The “Stormer vehicles will give Ukrainian forces enhanced short-range anti-air capabilities both day and night,” he said. 

The US State Department approved a foreign military sale to Ukraine of $165 million worth of “non-standard ammunition” Monday, according to a release from the State Department. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the sale on April 24, the release said.

The move was relayed to the Ukrainians during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s trip to Kyiv over the weekend.

A senior Defense Department official told reporters on Sunday that “it’s the kind of ammunition that the Ukrainians still use because they had so many of their systems are ex-soviet.” 

“The proposed sale will improve Ukraine’s capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of its forces,” according to the State Department press release.

The announced sale is just one of several ways the US is providing Ukraine with military assistance. On Thursday, US President Joe Biden authorized another $800 million of military assistance to support Ukraine using presidential drawdown funding. 

Ukraine has requested to buy “various rounds of non-standard ammunition” including, but not limited to, “152mm rounds for 2A36 Giatsint; 152mm rounds for D-20 cannons; VOG-17 for automatic grenade launcher AGS-17; 120mm mortar rounds (non-NATO); 122mm rounds for 2Sl Gvozdika; BM-21 GRAD Rockets; 300mm rounds/rockets for MLRS “Smerch;” VOG-25 grenades for under barrel grenade launcher GP-25; 82mm mortar rounds; 125mm HE ammunition for T-72; 152mm rounds for 2A65 Msta; transportation; and other related elements of logistical and program support,” the release said.

Workers will dismantle a Soviet-era sculpture in central Kyiv commemorating the “friendship” between Russians and Ukrainians, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced Monday.

“This week we will dismantle a bronze sculpture of two workers, erected in 1982 ‘to commemorate the reunification of Ukraine with Russia,’” Klitschko said. “The eight meters of metal of the so-called ‘friendship of two peoples’ will be removed from the center of Kyiv.”

A rainbow-shaped titanium arch stretches over the monument, which is perched on a scenic overview. Klitschko said the arch — originally called the People’s Friendship Arch — will remain, but that it would be renamed and highlighted with the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Sunday, where they met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials, making them the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since Russia began its invasion.

Here are the key moments to come from this visit:

Blinken said US diplomats would return to Ukraine this week, a senior State Department official said, characterizing the move as a strong message of solidarity from the United States.

As part of the resumed US diplomatic presence in Ukraine, diplomats will “start with day trips into the Lviv” and “will graduate to potentially other parts of the country and ultimately, to resume presence in Kyiv,” according to a senior State Department official.

Austin: “We want to see Russia weakened” While in Kyiv, Blinken and Austin also met with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and Interior Minister Denys Monastrysky for an extended, roughly 90-minute bilateral meeting, the senior State Department official said. The defense minister outline some of the United States’ goals as the country continues to support Ukraine’s efforts in the war.

“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,” Austin said at a news conference at an undisclosed location in Poland near the Ukrainian border following the trip to Kyiv. “So it has already lost a lot of military capability. And a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.”

More aid to Ukraine Blinken and Austin discussed the Biden administration’s intention to provide $713 million in additional foreign military financing to Ukraine and allied European and Balkan partners, according to the senior State Department official and a senior Defense Department official.

US President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he will nominate Bridget Brink as US ambassador to Ukraine. The post that has been without a confirmed ambassador since Marie Yovanovitch was recalled in May 2019. Brink is the current US ambassador to Slovakia.

Blinken and Austin’s visit came as the first tranche of about 50 Ukrainians will complete artillery training in a country outside Ukraine, the defense official said. Another tranche of about 50 Ukrainians will also begin training soon, a defense official said.

Zelensky’s office issued a readout of the meeting on Monday, stressing the importance of the US officials’ visit and saying the country “counts on the support of our partners.”

Officials reiterate no involvement by US forces In a background briefing, the State and Defense officials made clear that the US military would still not be involved directly in the war.

In the Monday press briefing, Austin said the US believes Ukraine can win the war against Russia with “the right equipment and the right support.”

Will Biden visit? While officials hailed the trip as a testament to the US commitment to Ukraine, they have also faced questions about why Biden did not make the trip himself.

“The President of the United States is somewhat singular, in terms of what travel would require. So it goes well beyond what a Cabinet secretary would or what virtually any other world leader would require,” the State Department official noted.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the country earlier this month. Top officials from the EU and the Baltics have also visited Zelensky in Kyiv.

Read the full report here:

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Monday, April 25, 2022, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, attend their meeting Sunday, April 24, 2022, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not in the picture, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Related article US Secretaries Blinken and Austin make unannounced trip to Ukraine to meet with Zelensky

Russia last week revealed that the goal of its invasion of Ukraine was to take “full control” over the southern part of the country as well as the eastern Donbas region — an aim that if achieved, would enable it to create a land corridor through Ukrainian territory connecting the Russian region of Rostov with Crimea, the peninsula it annexed in 2014, and beyond.

Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekaev, the acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, was quoted by TASS, a Russian state news agency, as saying Friday that the goal was to create a land corridor between Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and Crimea.

Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Union of Defense Industry Enterprises of the Sverdlovsk region, he added that control over Ukraine’s south would potentially give Russian forces access to Transnistria, a separatist statelet in Moldova, where a contingent of Russian forces has been stationed since the early 1990s.

As the second phase of Russia’s invasion continues, Russian forces that were originally deployed to the north of Ukraine, after taking heavy losses, have been redeployed — along with fresh troops — and are now piling into Ukraine from the northeast, with Russian military officials claiming that their strategic goals had shifted to taking all of the eastern Donbas region.

Russian forces at present have only partial control of southern Ukraine, with the Ukrainian government still in control of the key cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa and some Ukrainian forces holding out in the Azovstal steel factory in the encircled port of Mariupol.

In 2018, Russia opened a 19-kilometer bridge (more than 5 miles) over the Kerch Strait, linking its Krasnodar region by road with the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014. But a land corridor would mean Russian controls a huge swath of Ukrainian territory linking up with Crimea.

“If Russia scores a win in Mariupol and gains a land bridge, it will have secured control of more than 400 kilometers (or 249 miles) of the Black Sea coast since the start of the war and denied Ukraine access to 80 percent of its previous coastline, further destroying its economy,” an analysis in Foreign Policy said last week.

Russia continued its assault on the east and south of Ukraine over the weekend, a time during which many Ukrainians attempted to celebrate one of their most important holidays, Orthodox Easter.

At least eight people were killed — including a three-month-old baby — following Russian missile strikes on the southwestern port city of Odesa, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, condemning the attack on the eve of Orthodox Easter Sunday.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Russian forces were “continuously attacking” the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Sunday. 

The military head of the south-central city of Kryvyi Rih said Sunday that Ukraine had observed preparations for a possible offensive by Russian forces from the Kherson region, adding defenses were being bolstered in the area. 

No agreement on a corridor had been reached with Russia for the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday.

“Today, the Russian side once again announced the existence of a corridor for civilians to leave Azovstal,” she said in a statement on Telegram. “This could be believed if the Russians had not broken the humanitarian corridors many times before. I know what I am saying because, on behalf of the president, I am personally conducting such negotiations and organizing humanitarian corridors. It is important to understand that the humanitarian corridor is opened by agreement of both sides. The corridor, announced unilaterally, does not provide security, and therefore, in fact, is not a humanitarian corridor.”

“So, I declare officially and publicly: unfortunately, there are no agreements on humanitarian corridors from Azovstal today,” Vereshchuk added.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence issued a statement Monday offering to cease all hostilities around the Azovstal plant, a sprawling facility where Ukrainian forces are still holding out, to allow civilians to leave “in any direction they choose.”

Vereshchuk said the Ukrainian side had asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to initiate and and guarantee an evacuation corridor for civilians from Azovstal. Guterres is slated to meet separately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“In particular, we ask that representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross be present in the humanitarian column,” Vereshchuk said. “We hope for the effectiveness of the UN Secretary General’s talks with Russian representatives.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has offered to cease all hostilities around the Azovstal steel plant in besieged Mariupol to allow civilians to leave “in any direction they choose.”

“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,” the statement said.

Issued on behalf of the head of the Russian Federation Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the statement also claimed a “permanently operating round-the-clock humanitarian corridor” would be open for the evacuations of civilian plant workers, women and children.

Ukrainian officials have said Russia has repeatedly broken pledges to allow civilians safe passage from Azovstal. US and Ukrainian officials have also alleged that Russian forces have forced civilians looking to escape Mariupol into separatist-held territory and into Russia itself.

Ukrainian troops hunkered down in the vast plant have previously rejected Russia’s offers to surrender, and issued videos of women and children sheltering in the basement of the facility.

Mizintsev said Ukrainian troops should indicate readiness to accept the ceasefire by raising white flags around the Azovstal plant perimeter.

The ceasefire offer will also be broadcast to Ukrainian troops by local radio channels at 30-minute intervals, according to the statement.

“The Russian Federation publicly and officially declares that there are no obstacles to the exit of civilians from Azovstal,” the statement reads.

Some context: The CEO of the company that owns Azovstal told CNN last week that the situation was “close to a catastrophe,” with families running out of water, food and vital supplies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said there was no need for his forces to storm the Azovstal factory but ordered them to blockade it “so that a fly can’t get through.” He added that Russia would offer the remaining Ukrainian defenders the opportunity to lay down arms.

“This was a place people came to pose for photographs. This was a place you would dress nicely to visit. And now this is what’s left of it,” CNN’s Clarissa Ward reported from the destroyed regional state administration building in Kharkiv as Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine’s second-largest city.

“Just today, we have heard pretty much a constant stream of bombardment since about 4:30 in the morning. Often it goes on all night. And the mayor here says that 25% of the buildings in this city have been hit during strikes,” Ward reported. “Just try to get your head around the enormity of that figure.”

The mayor told Ward that 67 schools, 54 kindergartens and 16 hospitals have been hit.

Ward explains: “Kharkiv is 30 miles (about 48 kilometers) away from Russia … There are a lot of important supply routes for the Russians to get more ammunition and weaponry to places like Izium, and that’s why it’s strategically important.”

Watch CNN’s report on the ground in Kharkhiv:

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Russian forces have made only “minor advances” in eastern Ukraine, but authorities in the country’s south-central region have warned Moscow may be planning a new offensive there. Meanwhile, Russian forces have struck five railway stations in central and western Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s state railway company.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s invasion into Ukraine if you’re just joining us:

With Marine Le Pen’s loss in the runoff of the French presidential election on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin may have just lost his best shot at getting a major geopolitical partner in the West.

Le Pen has, historically, been a vocal admirer of Putin, even visiting him while campaigning for the presidency in 2017. She is famously critical of France’s commitments to the European Union and NATO, and wants France to pull out of the latter’s integrated command. Any action along those lines would align with Putin’s geopolitical goals of fracturing Western partnerships and alliances, which he views as existential threats to Russia.

Had she won, Putin might have had a future partner inside Europe and NATO and an ally among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is also one.

Le Pen backtracked on her support for Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine, but in a news conference focused on foreign policy held before the election, she said she wanted France to spearhead an approach of “strategic rapprochement” between Russia and NATO once the war in Ukraine ended. Given the West’s outrage and unity in response to the Kremlin’s invasion, it’s highly unlikely the two sides will find common ground any time soon.

She’s not done yet: During her concession speech Sunday, Le Pen chose to highlight her strong performance – she won 41% of the vote – and looked ahead to June’s parliamentary elections in France.

“The historic score of this evening puts us in an excellent position,” she said. “The game is not quite over.”

Despite her decision to backtrack on her support for Putin, Le Pen’s previous positions – and her party’s decision to take out a loan from a Russian-Czech bank several years ago – almost certainly cost her votes.

Whether those positions will cost her in the next vote remains to be seen.

The Zaporizhzhia Regional Council said Monday that the region was “preparing for defense” amid warnings that Russian forces were readying an offensive in the south-central part of Ukraine. 

“The enemy is preparing for the offensive,” the council said in a statement. “Occupying Russian troops have gathered a lot of equipment and personnel on the section of the front line Velyka Novosilka - Novodarivka - Malynivka. The enemy is trying to move in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, but no success. Location of forces at the front has not changed.”

The city of Zaporizhzhia has been a key way station for evacuees departing the encircled city of Mariupol and Russian-held areas of southern Ukraine. 

The council said an evacuation column had departed from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol, but lost communication less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the town of Manhush, west of Mariupol.

Evacuation columns have been hampered by active fighting and have been held frequently at Russian checkpoints. 

“Zaporizhzhia is preparing for defense,” the statement added. 

Russian forces continue to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, shelling five railway stations on Monday morning as well as causing widespread water and power outages in the eastern Luhansk region.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s invasion into Ukraine if you’re just joining us:

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has called for the immediate release of four members of its Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine who have been “detained in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk” in the country’s east.

“The detention of SMM national mission members in Donetsk and Luhansk is unacceptable, and we call for their immediate release,” OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau said in a statement late Sunday. 

The OSCE announced several of its staff members were being held on Saturday but hasn’t confirmed publicly who is responsible for their detention – however, the non-government areas of Donetsk and Luhansk are controlled by Russian-backed separatists. 

On Monday, a spokesperson for OSCE told CNN they were “still working to secure the release of their mission staff.”

The SMM is an unarmed civilian division of the OSCE tasked with observing and reporting on conflict zones; it has maintained a presence in Ukraine since 2014 at the request of the government, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. 

On March 31, the OSCE SMM’s mandate in Ukraine expired after Russia – which is one of the organization’s 57 participating States – blocked its extension, but the SMM has continued to operate in an administrative capacity in Ukraine. 

OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid said SMM staff had been subjected to “intimidation, harassment and hostile public rhetoric” in the Russian-backed separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk following the collapse of the mandate. 

“I condemn the deplorable acts of intimidation, harassment, and hostile public rhetoric against the SMM and mission staff in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. All our national mission members remain OSCE officials and should be afforded functional immunity, including during this period when the mandate has lapsed,” Schmid said.

The Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine has seen extensive cuts to water and power supply due to heavy Russian shelling, said Serhiy Hayday, head of the regional military administration.

There had been “7,500 more power outages, almost the entire Luhansk region is without water supply,” Hayday said in a statement on Telegram on Monday. “In the last 10 days, 10 settlements have seen power cut off due to Russian shelling, nine of which have been completely cut off. That makes 30,000 families without electricity. In the past day alone, 7,500 apartments and private houses were cut off.”

Hayday said Russian forces had shifted to destroying infrastructure because of a lack of progress on the battlefield. 

“In total, 39 settlements have had power cuts, 26 completely and 13 partially,” he said, adding that “121,746 consumers are without electricity.”

Due to power cuts, pumping stations that supply water to Severodonetsk and Popasna district have been shut down, and water supply infrastructure in Rubizhne, Popasna, and nearby villages is also damaged, Hayday said.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, chairman of Ukrzaliznytsia – Ukraine’s state railway company – said Monday that Russian forces had struck five railway stations in central and western Ukraine.

“Russian troops continue to systematically destroy railway infrastructure,” he said in a statement. “This morning, within one hour, five railway stations in central and western Ukraine were struck.”

Kamyshin said at least 16 passenger trains would be held. He added that there were casualties, without providing specifics. 

In a separate statement, Ukrzaliznytsia said there was no power on the Shepetivka - Koziatyn, Zhmerynka - Koziatyn, and Koziatyn - Fastiv lines, forcing delays. 

Maksym Kozytskyy, the head of the Lviv regional military administration, gave details earlier Monday of a Russian strike that damaged a railway station in western Ukraine.

“Today, on April 25 at about 08:30 am, as the result of a missile attack, an explosion occurred at a substation of the Krasne railway station,” he said. “Units of the State Emergency Service are working on the site and extinguishing the fire.”

 Kozytskyy said there was no information on casualties at this stage. 

According to Kozytskyy, one of the incoming weapons was downed by anti-aircraft missile troops of the Air Command West of Ukraine’s air force. He said the missiles were launched into Ukraine from the southeast, saying Russian forces likely launched them from strategic bombers.

Some context: The Ukrainian rail system – one of the world’s largest – has become a vital cog in the country’s war effort, ferrying essential supplies in, and desperate civilians out of harm’s way.

Earlier this month, at least 50 people, including five children, were killed after Russian forces carried out a missile strike on a railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, which was being used by civilians trying to flee the fighting.

By mid-March, barely three weeks into the war, the network said it had moved more than 2.1 million passengers domestically, plus roughly quarter of a million more who’d gone to Poland. Many more have followed since. Some train cars have been refitted to carry medical supplies to the front lines and the wounded to hospitals.

Not only is the railway having to coordinate military and passenger trains, as well as aid shipments, but freight routes are also being ramped up. The Russians have cut off Ukrainian access to many Black Sea ports, which is how nearly 95% of agricultural output is normally shipped to markets abroad.

Now, Ukrainian Railways is attempting to compensate by sending more trains to Europe loaded with grain and produce. That’s no small feat, considering Ukrainian tracks have a different gauge size than most European countries, so cargo has to be reloaded at the border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his re-election as President of France in a statement Monday. 

“I sincerely wish you success in your state activities, as well as good health and well-being,” reads the message, published by the Kremlin.

Macron won the French presidential election with 58.55% of the votes, according to results posted by the French Ministry of Interior Sunday night.

His right-wing rival Marine Le Pen took 41.45% of the vote.

The US believes Ukraine can win the war against Russia with “the right equipment and the right support,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters Monday, from an undisclosed location in Poland near the Ukrainian border. 

“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,” Austin told reporters. 

Some context: Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to Kyiv on Sunday where they met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials, making them the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since Russia’s invasion began. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he appreciated “the unprecedented assistance of the United States to Ukraine.”

Zelensky’s office issued a statement following a meeting in Kyiv between the Ukrainian leader, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. 

“I would like to thank President (Joe) Biden personally and on behalf of the entire Ukrainian people for his leadership in supporting Ukraine, for his personal clear position. To thank all the American people, as well as the Congress for their bicameral and bipartisan support. We see it. We feel it.”

Zelensky also discussed strengthening US sanctions on Russia, the statement said. 

“We understand what the next steps on this track should be. And we count on the support of our partners,” Zelensky said, according to the statement.

Maksym Kozytskyy, the head of the Lviv regional military administration in western Ukraine, said anti-aircraft defences had been engaged as he urged residents to shelter.

“Residents of Lviv region, stay in shelters,” Kozytskyy said on Telegram. “Air defenses are working.” 

In a separate statement, Kozytskyy said fires had broken out in two settlements in Zolochiv district. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spent about three hours with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his senior team in the capital Kyiv.

“That was the entire focus of our visit. We wanted to focus on the work that needed to be done in looking at the game plan that we have, how we’re moving forward across all of these different lines of effort,” Blinken told reporters from an undisclosed location in Poland near the Ukrainian border.

Asked by a reporter what they had seen on their way to the capital, Blinken said they had taken a train from southwestern Poland to Kyiv.

“So we didn’t see a lot except looking out the train window. In Kyiv itself, we went right to the presidential palace.”

The US top diplomat said, “there wasn’t much of an opportunity to talk to average Ukrainians.”

On the surface, there were signs of “normal life” in parts of the city, he said.

“But that’s in stark contrast to what’s going on in other parts of Ukraine, in the south and the east, where the Russian brutality is doing horrific things to people every single day,” Blinken said.

Some context: While in Kyiv, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Zelensky, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and Interior Minister Denys Monastrysky for an extended bilateral meeting, a senior State Department official said.

American diplomats will be back in Ukraine “starting next week,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

“They’ll then start the process of looking at how we actually reopen the embassy itself in Kyiv, I think that will take place over a couple of weeks,” Blinken said. 
“We’re doing it deliberately. We’re doing it carefully with the security of our personnel foremost in mind.”

Blinken said that US President Joe Biden will nominate Bridget Brink as the US Ambassador to Ukraine. He described Brink as “deeply experienced in the region.” The post has been without a confirmed ambassador since Marie Yovanovitch was recalled in May 2019. Brink is the current US ambassador to Slovakia.

Read more here:

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Monday, April 25, 2022, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, center, attend their meeting Sunday, April 24, 2022, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not in the picture, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Related article US Secretaries Blinken and Austin make unannounced trip to Ukraine to meet with Zelensky

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that a “sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene”.

“The bottom line is this. We don’t know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene,” Blinken said. “And our support for Ukraine going forward will continue. It will continue until we see final success. 

Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for three hours on Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference at an undisclosed location near the Polish-Ukrainian border, Austin said it was “a very productive meeting” and an “engaging session.”

“We were very happy to have that opportunity,” he said. “During the meeting, we expressed our deepest condolences to the president for the loss of so many civilians, and of course, the loss of those courageous troops that have done a magnificent job of pushing back Russian forces. 
“We also expressed our admiration for their professionalism and for their commitment to defend their democracy.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s needs are changing as the nature of the fight evolves, in part because the focus has shifted to the east of the country.

“So (the Ukrainians) need long-range fires. You’ve heard them express a need for tanks. And we’re doing everything that we can to get them the types of support, the types of artillery and munitions that will be effective in this stage of the fight,” Austin told reporters during a news conference at an undisclosed location near the Polish-Ukrainian border following high level talks on Monday.
“You’ve seen what we’ve done here in the recent past with a recent $800 million authorization provided by the President that allows us to provide five battalions of 155 howitzers, hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery, and so we’re also engaging our colleagues in other countries for the same type of capability.”

Austin said he has seen “indications” that “many countries are going to come forward and provide additional munitions and howitzers.”

Some context: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Austin traveled to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday, where they met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials, making them the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since the Russian invasion began in late February.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Monday that Russia was “failing in Ukraine” and that “Ukraine is succeeding.”

“Russia has sought as its aim to take away (Ukraine’s) sovereignty, to take away its independence. That has failed,” Blinken said during a news conference at an undisclosed location near the Polish-Ukrainian border.
“It sought to assert the power of its military, its economy. We of course are seeing just the opposite.
“We don’t know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene.”

Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on Sunday, making them the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since the Russian invasion began. 

Russia has made “minor advances” since shifting its focus to taking control over the eastern Donbas region, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Monday.

“Without sufficient logistical and combat support enablers in place, Russia has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough. Ukraine’s defence of Mariupol has also exhausted many Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness,” the MoD said on Twitter in an intelligence update.
“Russia’s Ministry of Defence has proposed compensation payments for the families of deceased service personnel be overseen by military rather than civilian officials. This likely reflects a desire to hide the true scale of Russia’s losses from the domestic population.”

US diplomats will return to Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting in Kyiv Sunday, a senior State Department official said.

The diplomats will “start with day trips into Lviv” and “graduate to potentially other parts of the country and ultimately, resume (their) presence in Kyiv,” the State Department official said.

Blinken, who traveled to Kyiv alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, also said US President Joe Biden will nominate Bridget Brink as the US Ambassador to Ukraine, according to the State Department official.

The post has been without a confirmed ambassador since Marie Yovanovitch was recalled in May 2019. Brink is the current US ambassador to Slovakia.

A fire has broken out at an oil depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, state news agency TASS reported Monday citing government sources. 

“The Emergency Situations Ministry has confirmed there’s a fire. There’s also a confirmation that it’s the fuel tanks,” TASS reported, citing the government’s press office, which also said first responders were on their way to the scene. 

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry in Bryansk received reports of the fire at 2am Moscow time, according to TASS. The ministry sent rescue teams to the scene and these confirmed the fire was at an oil depot, it said. 

The cause of the fire remains unclear. 

Some context: On April 14, Russia’s top law enforcement body said it was investigating an alleged Ukrainian helicopter strike in the Bryansk region, just days after the Kremlin accused Ukraine of mounting a helicopter attack on a fuel depot in the neighboring Belgorod region. 

This weekend, in the shadows of a devastating war, Ukrainians attempted to celebrate one of their most important holidays of the year, Orthodox Easter.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s invasion into Ukraine if you’re just joining us:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced trip to Kyiv on Sunday where they met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials, making them the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since the Russian invasion began. 

Though Zelensky announced the visit in a press conference Saturday, US officials had declined to comment. 

While in Kyiv, Blinken and Austin met Zelensky, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, and Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky for an extended, roughly 90-minute bilateral meeting, a senior State Department official said.

Blinken said US diplomats would return to Ukraine this week, the senior State Department official said, in a strong message of solidarity from the United States. 

Blinken also relayed that US President Joe Biden would nominate Bridget Brink as US Ambassador to Ukraine, according to the senior State Department official. The post that has been without a confirmed ambassador since Marie Yovanovitch was recalled in May 2019. Brink is the current US ambassador to Slovakia.

In addition, Blinken and Austin discussed the deliveries of recent US military assistance to Ukraine, the ongoing training for Ukrainian soldiers, and the Biden administration’s intention to provide $713 million in additional foreign military financing to help Ukraine transition to NATO-capable systems, according to the senior State Department official and a senior Defense Department official. 

Both officials briefed press who traveled to the region shortly before Blinken and Austin were due to arrive in Kyiv; the traveling US press corps did not travel with the secretaries to the Ukrainian capital.

In the background briefing, the officials made clear that the US military would still not be involved directly in the war. “The President has been very clear there will be no US troops fighting in Ukraine and that includes the skies over Ukraine,” the defense official said.

 “This visit does not portend actual involvement by US forces,” they added.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Russian forces were “continuously attacking” the encircled Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol on Orthodox Easter Sunday. The site has become one of the last significant holdouts of Ukrainian forces in the city, and is sheltering hundreds of soldiers and civilians.

Here’s what we know about the situation:

The military head of the south-central city of Kryvyi Rih said Sunday that Ukraine had observed preparations for a possible offensive by Russian forces from the Kherson region, adding defenses were being bolstered in the area.

In televised remarks, Oleksandr Vilkul said Russian forces were “forming an offensive strike formation in our direction in the Kherson region. We are waiting for their possible transition to the offensive in the coming days. But we know more about them than they think; we understand all their plans; and we are fully prepared for any development in the situation.”

Vilkul said the Krivyi Rih garrison was in a state of readiness and had defenses prepared.

“A lot of work continues to help in evacuating people from the frontline zone,” he said. “Kryvyi Rih is providing buses and ambulances. We have provided medical assistance and social workers. But people are going out on bicycles and taking old people and children out in wheelbarrows.”

Earlier this week, a top Russian general said Moscow plans to establish “full control” over southern Ukraine in the second phase of its invasion of Ukraine.

Dmytro Lunin, head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, said Sunday nine Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. 

Most Ukrainians observed Easter celebrations on Sunday. Lunin gave no further details about the consequences of the strikes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Kyiv on Sunday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in what would be the first visit of high-level US officials to the embattled country since the war broke out. 

The potential visit, which has not been confirmed by Washington, would come on the heels of several high-profile visits from European leaders to the capital and moves to reopen evacuated embassies.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson toured parts of the capital on foot alongside Zelensky on April 9, and European Union leaders visited the previous day.

The British government is expected to re-open its embassy next week, “dependent on the security situation,” its government confirmed, following an announcement from Johnson Friday. The European Union earlier this month said it too was restoring its diplomatic presence in the capital. 

The shift comes after Moscow rerouted its focus away from the capital and to Ukraine’s south and east, following intense Ukrainian defense in the areas surrounding Kyiv and Russian supply issues. Kyiv had for weeks braced for an attack of Russian forces, pushing embassies to close their operations there.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, speaking at a press conference in Washington on Friday, also called on ambassadors from all countries, including the United States, to return to their embassies in Kyiv.

The White House and State Department declined to comment Saturday potential visit from top US officials Blinken and Austin. CNN has reached out to the US Department of Defense for comment.

Last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that if an administration official were to visit Ukraine, the White House would not publicly disclose that information ahead of the time, citing security concerns.

In an Easter message Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, the deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, said Sunday that Russian forces were continuing to bombard the city of Mariupol, underscoring the need for evacuation of civilians and encircled Ukrainian forces.  

Palamar added: “We would like to thank those who are trying to help the civilians of Mariupol to evacuate from this dangerous area, with actions, not just words. I thank those who are making every effort to withdraw our military from the encirclement, who were left alone with the overwhelming forces of the enemy.”

The Azov Regiment, sometimes referred to as the Azov Battalion, is a unit that began as an ultra-nationalist volunteer battalion but has since integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.

Azov troops have been holding out in Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal plant, along with other Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said earlier that Russian forces were “continuously attacking” the encircled Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Easter Sunday.

Ukrainian officials have said around 100,000 civilians require evacuation from the city, which has been ruined by weeks of Russian bombardment.