April 8, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Just four children are known to be still living in Avdiivka, one of the frontline towns most heavily under fire in eastern Ukraine, a local official has said.

Vitali Barabash said authorities know the location of two of the four children – a nine-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother – and said they planned a forced evacuation of them next week.

Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, alluded to the difficulties convincing some families to leave their homes, even those in places seeing the heaviest fighting.

“We cannot forcibly evacuate adults, so we just have to rely on their responsibility and their instinct for survival,” he told Ukrainian television Saturday morning.

Thirty-five people have been transferred to safety over the past week, making a total of more than three hundred in the last month, he said. About 1,800 people remain out of a pre-war population of 26,000.

“We are waiting for the opportunity to take the children out because there is a lot of shelling in the city, rocket attacks. We won’t put the children in danger,” Barabash said.

Some context: Avdiivka is near the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and has also come under sustained attack by Russian forces.

A Ukrainian soldier last month said that the situation in Avdiivka was "difficult," as Russian forces have increased the number of airstrikes and have been able to cut off supply routes.

Russia's campaign to destroy Ukraine's energy infrastructure has "likely" failed, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence said in an update Saturday.

Russia has been launching long-range strikes on Ukraine's power grid since October 2022.

The relentless assault on the power grid deprived millions across the country of electricity, heat, water and other essential services as temperatures dropped, but as CNN has previously reported, Ukrainians have persevered.

Russia’s attacks violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, according to the United Nations.

"Russia's campaign to severely degrade Ukraine's unified energy system (UES) within the 2022-23 winter has likely failed," the MoD statement read.

According to the statement, the "large-scale attacks" on Ukraine's energy infrastructure have become rare since early March this year.

"Smaller scale strikes continue, but are highly likely having much less impact on the UES," the statement continued.

Ukrainian companies are continuing to source replacement transformers and other critical components, however transporting and installing these components is a "major logistical challenge."

According to the MoD, Ukraine's energy situation will likely improve with the warmer weather, and "planning and preparations for next winter have likely already begun."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared Iftar with Ukrainian Muslim soldiers observing Ramadan on Friday, in what he said would become an annual “new tradition of respect.”

Iftar is the meal breaking the daily fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Addressing participants at the dinner which included leaders of the Mejlis, the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars, and representatives of the Muslim clergy, Zelensky thanked the Muslim community.

He said the month of Ramadan was “respected everywhere in Ukraine – even at the front line, even in combat conditions.”

Read the full story here.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a number of unintended consequences.

One of the less-expected impacts was that over a year into the conflict, Chinese President Xi Jinping would receive a courting from European leaders. Given the European Union’s hard stance on Russia, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d take a similarly firm approach with the Kremlin’s most important ally.

Yet this week in Beijing, French President Emmanuel Macron stood next Xi – who has not condemned Vladimir Putin’s war and doubled down on China and Russia’s “no-limits partnership” – and said, “I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses, and bring everyone back to the negotiating table.”

Relations between China and the EU have been on a strange journey over the past decade. While an investment deal was struck in 2020 after years of negotiations, it is currently on ice, in part because of political differences – the EU has called China a “system rival” – but also because the Chinese government sanctioned European Parliament members after they criticized China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims.” 

Things have been frosty ever since and the lack of personal contact during the pandemic didn’t help.

This caused great upset to some EU members, who see good economic relations with China as essential to the bloc’s ambition to become a major geopolitical player.

Read the full analysis here.

Battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces for Bakhmut continue, as Russian forces try to take "full control" of the key eastern city, the Ukrainian military's General Staff said Friday in an update.

The main focus of Russian attacks remains in the areas of Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariinka and Lyman, where Russian forces have launched more than 40 attacks over the last 24 hours, the General Staff said.

Ukrainian defense forces repelled about 14 Russian attacks over the last 24 hours in the Bakhmut area, the General Staff said. 

CNN is unable to independently verify battlefield reports.

Some context: Russia has been trying to capture the city for months, but progress has been slow in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance. Much of the city has been destroyed and its strategic value is limited.

Thirty-one children are back in Ukraine after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to Save Ukraine, a Kyiv-based humanitarian organization.

The children — pulling suitcases and bags of belongings, with some clutching stuffed animals — accompanied by family members, were embraced by volunteers after crossing the border into Ukraine by foot. They then boarded a coach to continue their journey.

“Children abducted by Russians from Kherson and Kharkiv regions have finally crossed the border with their families and are now safe,” Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine, said in a Telegram post.

Save Ukraine’s Olha Yerokhina told CNN this was the fifth rescue mission arranged by the organization.

A group of 13 mothers had left Ukraine a little over a week ago, many of them granted power of attorney which allowed them to collect other parents’ children in addition to their own, she said. 

The party crossed into Poland before traveling through Belarus, Russia and finally entering Russian-occupied Crimea, where they were reunited with 24 of the children. The other seven children were collected in Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod, all inside Russia, she said.

Yerokhina said facilitating the rescue missions was difficult because Save Ukraine has no official contact with anybody in Russia. Instead, the organization received crucial help from volunteers in different locations.

Remember: Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of war crimes charges brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior official, Maria Lvova-Belova, by the International Criminal Court last month.

Ukraine has said there are more than 16,000 such cases under investigation.

Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal, saying it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety. 

Russian investigators have formally charged Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage, Russian state media reported Friday.

Gershkovich denied the accusations, according to the state news agency TASS. The newspaper has "vehemently" denied the Kremlin's claims and the chief executive of Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, said it is working "around the clock" to secure his release.

The representative declined to comment further, as the journalist's case was marked "top secret," the state news agency said.

Dow Jones later reiterated its view that Gershkovich's charges are "false and unjustified," according to a statement, The company added: "We continue to demand Evan’s immediate release.”

What the US has said about the case: US President Joe Biden's administration is preparing to officially declare Gershkovich wrongfully detained in Russia, two US officials told CNN earlier this week, a move that will trigger new government resources to work toward his release.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last weekend with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for Gershkovich’s immediate release. The White House has said there is "no reason to believe" Russia's justification for the detention.

More background: Gershkovich is the first US journalist detained on spying accusations by Moscow since the Cold War. His detention came a week after US authorities announced charges against a Russian national, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, accusing him of being a Russian spy.

The episode signals a significant ratcheting of both Moscow’s tensions with the United States and its campaign against foreign news media, which has been under intense pressure since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

CNN's Kylie Atwood, Sarah Dean, Julia Horowitz, Eliza Mackintosh and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.