April 26, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The Chernobyl disaster has left a "huge scar" and Russia must be prevented from using nuclear power to blackmail the world, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday on the 37th anniversary of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said "the silence and lies of the Soviet totalitarian regime about the tragedy led to terrible consequences that went far beyond the borders of modern Ukraine."

Russian forces continue to control the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is the largest nuclear power station in Europe. The plant has frequently been disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid due to intense Russian shelling in the area, raising fears across Europe of a nuclear accident.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], said Wednesday he spoke with Zelensky to mark the anniversary, adding the organization continues its efforts to protect the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

Zelensky reiterated his belief that return of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to his country's control is the best way to prevent a nuclear disaster like the one that took place in Chernobyl.

"On the anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy, I had a phone call with IAEA Director Rafael Grossi," Zelensky said in a telegram post on Wednesday. "I stressed that only the return of Ukraine’s full control over ZNPP will protect the world from a new disaster."

"I also thanked for the IAEA's special program on medical support of Ukrainian nuclear workers," Zelensky added.

What happened at Chernobyl? When an explosion tore through Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor on April 26, 1986, more than 30 people were killed near Pripyat, Ukraine. Countless others have died from radiation symptoms since, according to the IAEA and the World Health Organization.

The disaster sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over hundreds of thousands of square miles of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The radioactive effects of the explosion were about 400 times more potent than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.

CNN's Olga Voitovych contributed to this post.

France "encourages all dialogue that contributes to a resolution of the conflict [in Ukraine] in accordance with the fundamental interests of Ukraine and international law," the Elysee Palace said Wednesday, following a call between the Ukrainian and Chinese presidents.

The Elysee said this was the same message French President Emmanuel Macron conveyed to his Chinese counterpart during his visit to China this month.

During this visit, Macron told Chinese President Xi Jinping he was counting on him to “reason” with Russia and help end the war in Ukraine.

At the time, Macron said Russia had “put an end to decades of peace in Europe” and that finding a “lasting peace” that respected internationally recognized borders was “an important issue for China, as much as it is for France and for Europe.”

Macron also stressed a need for discussion “with everyone” including Russia. “We do not simply want an end to the conflict, but respect for Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, which is the only condition for lasting peace,” he said.

Speaking to reporters alongside Macron, Xi said China was ready to “issue a joint call” with France for the international community to “exercise restraint” and “avoid taking actions that might cause the crisis to further deteriorate.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Moscow has taken notice of China’s willingness to facilitate negotiations with Ukraine following the phone conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

“We note the readiness of the Chinese side to make efforts to establish the negotiation process,” Zakharova said during a news conference on Wednesday. 

However, she also noted that under current conditions negotiations are unlikely and blamed Kyiv for rejecting Moscow’s initiatives. 

Ukraine has repeatedly said peace in the conflict will only be achieved if Russia restores the country's borders and Kyiv takes back Crimea.

Earlier on Wednesday, Xi and Zelensky held their first phone conversation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky said he had a "long and meaningful phone call.

In a briefing on Wednesday, China's Foreign Ministry said its envoy to Ukraine and "other countries" will be Li Hui, special representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs. 

Li is the former Chinese ambassador to Russia, who served in the post from 2009 to 2019. 

In a call with Zelensky, Xi said the envoy would travel to Ukraine and other countries to help conduct "in-depth communication" with all parties for a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. 

The ministry did not provide further details as to when Li would make the trip and which other countries he would be visiting. 

Wednesday’s phone call is the first time Xi has spoken to Zelensky since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. 

In comparison, Xi has spoken to Russian leader Vladimir Putin five times since the invasion – including a face-to-face at the Kremlin when the Chinese leader visited Moscow last month and another in-person meeting at a regional summit in Central Asia last September.

Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny now faces "two big trials," one on extremism charges and the other on terrorism charges, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter Wednesday. 

The extremism charges carry a total of up to 30 years in prison, while Navalny could face up to 35 years in prison on the terrorism charges, Yarmysh said.

Terrorism case: Navalny first mentioned on Twitter earlier Wednesday that he had been informed of a new "terrorist case" against him, which would be heard by a military court. The accusation, in that case, was that "I, while in prison, commit terrorist attacks," Navalny said. 

The director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, alleged on Twitter that part of the terrorism case against Navalny involves comments that Navalny's chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, made on "Popular Politics" – a Russian-language YouTube channel – on July 10 last year about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zhdanov also said that the investigator in the terrorism case would consider "the Tatarsky episode" as part of the terrorism investigation. 

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee claimed earlier this month that an explosion that killed military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a cafe in St. Petersburg on April 2 was planned by Ukraine with the participation of Navalny’s supporters, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on April 3. Navalny’s foundation denies the claims. 

Extremism case: A judge ruled that Navalny has 10 days to "familiarize himself" with documents in the extremism case against him, Yarmysh added.

The ruling was made in a closed hearing at Moscow’s Basmanny district court in Russia. Russian state news agency TASS said there were 196 volumes of documents related to this case and that the court would consider the issue again after May 5.

Navalny’s daughter Daria Navalnaya told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Tuesday that in "each volume, there are 250 double-spaced pages."

Key background: Navalny is the best-known opposition politician in Russia. He survived an attempt on his life after being poisoned with Novichok nerve agent in 2020.

Last March, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security jail, according to TASS, after being convicted on fraud charges over allegations that he stole from his Anti-Corruption Foundation. At the time, he was already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a detention center east of the Russian capital after being arrested in February 2021 for violating probation terms — a verdict he said was politically motivated.

He was relocated in June 2022 to a maximum-security prison, according to TASS, which cited Sergey Yazhan, chairman of the regional public oversight commission.

On the 37th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Wednesday that Russia must be prevented from using nuclear power to blackmail the world.

Meanwhile, jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny is facing additional criminal charges, his team has said, which could see him sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Here are the latest developments:

Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny said he's been told he faces a new “terrorist case,” in comments posted to one of his official Twitter accounts on Wednesday.

He said the “terrorist case,” alleged to have happened while he was in prison, was separate from an extremism case against him, for which there was a hearing at Moscow’s Basmanny district court on Wednesday.

Navalny said he had been told the case would be heard “by a military court.”

Key background: Navalny is the best-known opposition politician in Russia. He survived an attempt on his life after being poisoned with Novichok nerve agent in 2020.

Last March, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security jail, according to Russia’s state media outlet Tass, after being convicted on fraud charges over allegations that he stole from his Anti-Corruption Foundation.

At the time, he was already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a detention center east of the Russian capital after being arrested in February 2021 for violating probation terms -- a verdict he said was politically motivated.

He was relocated in June 2022 to a maximum-security prison in Melekhovo in the Vladimir Region, according to TASS citing Sergey Yazhan, chairman of the regional public oversight commission.

German and British fighter jets have intercepted three Russian aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, the German Armed Forces said on Wednesday.

Two Su-27 military aircraft and one Il-20 were "again flying without transponder signal," the German Armed Forces tweeted.

Since NATO countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania don't have their own fighter jets, the military alliance has secured the Baltic airspace in northeastern Europe since 2004. To this end, the allies regularly deploy fighter jets and personnel to the Baltic Sea states bordering Russia.

At the beginning of April, after eight months, the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, handed over command of the NATO air surveillance mission to Great Britain. However, the German Air Force will continue to support it until the end of the month.

Alexey Navalny is being kept in solitary confinement for another 15 days, according to his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh. 

“This is the 14th time [he’s been returned to solitary confinement],” she said on Twitter.

Navalny said in quotes posted to his official Twitter account: “Yesterday, after another 15 days [in the solitary cell] were over, I was immediately put back in the same SHIZO cell No. 11… Normally, after 15 days in the SHIZO, the prisoner must spend at least one day in a regular cell before getting another 15 days in the SHIZO. So I've broken the system, albeit not in the way I'd hoped.”

The Kremlin critic's team says he is facing new criminal charges that could see him sentenced to 30 years in prison.

"Psychological torture": Earlier this year, the opposition leader's daughter, Dasha Navalnaya, currently studying at Stanford University in California, told CNN that prison authorities were repeatedly cycling him in and out of solitary confinement. “They put him in for a week, then take him out for one day,” to try to break him, she said.

“People are not allowed to communicate with him, and this kind of isolation is really purely psychological torture.”