April 28, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

An American citizen, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed this week while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, members of his family told CNN. 

The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on Monday. The company had sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN.

Cancel, a former US Marine, according to his mother, signed up to work for the private military contracting company on top of his full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennessee shortly before the war in Ukraine broke out, Cabrera said. When the war began, the company, according to Cabrera, was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

“He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn’t come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn’t have to be involved in it,” Cabrera said. 

Read more here

Willy Joseph Cancel, an American citizen, was killed fighting alongside Ukrainians in Ukraine.

Related article American killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in Ukraine | CNN Politics

Few beyond the metals industry had heard of Mariupol’s Azovstal Steel and Iron Works before it became the scene of a desperate last stand against Russia’s invading forces.

Until recently Azovstal was a major player on the global stage, producing 4 million tons of steel annually and exporting the majority across the globe, according to its owner Metinvest Holding, Ukraine’s biggest steelmaker.

From London’s Shard skyscraper to Hudson Yards in Manhattan to Genoa’s San Giorgio Bridge (which replaced the collapsed Morandi Bridge), steel produced at Azovstal is used in some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.

But for weeks now, the world has been gripped by the battle raging over the steelworks on the coast of the Sea of Azov.

“The city’s literally under siege for almost two months now. And the Russians, they don’t allow us to bring food into the city or water into the city,” said Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding which owns the plant.
“They’re not allowing us to take the civilians out of the city in a centralized manner. They make the people either move out in their own automobiles or even walk by foot through the minefields. It’s a humanitarian disaster there.”

Asked why Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to take Azovstal so badly, Ryzhenkov tells CNN, “I don’t think it’s the plant that he wants.”

At least 150 employees have been killed and thousands remain unaccounted for, he says.

Read the full story:

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works company and buildings damaged in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 18, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Related article 'They never expected Mariupol to resist.' Locals horrified by Russia's relentless attack on the vast steel plant shielding Ukrainians | CNN

Ukrainian officials have condemned Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv Thursday night, saying it occurred as the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was finishing a visit to the Ukrainian capital. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his daily video message, said that “Today, immediately after the end of our talks [with Guterres] in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. 5 missiles. This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude to global institutions, about the Russian leadership’s efforts to humiliate the UN and everything that the organization represents. And therefore requires an appropriate, powerful response.”

“Russian missile strikes on Ukraine — on Kyiv, Fastiv, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi and other cities — prove once again that one cannot relax yet, one cannot think that the war is over. We still need to fight, we need to drive the occupiers out,” Zelensky said

If you’re just joining us, here’s a look at other key updates about the invasion and the global response so far:

10 Russian soldiers identified as suspects in “crimes committed” in Bucha, Zelensky says: President Zelensky said 10 Russian service members have been identified as suspects in the “crimes committed against our people in Bucha.”

In his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday, Zelensky said the investigation into crimes committed by the Russian military is underway and that the “first ten Russian servicemen from the 64th motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Ground Forces who committed crimes against our people in Bucha, Kyiv region, received the status of suspects.”

UN chief urges evacuation corridors to open in Mariupol: “Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance”: The United Nations secretary-general urged on Thursday for evacuation corridors to open up in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, saying that the besieged city is a “crisis within a crisis.” 

“Today the people of Mariupol are in desperate need for such an approach. Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis,” Guterres said in Kyiv, speaking at news conference alongside  Zelensky .

“Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance. Many are elderly need medical care or have limited mobility, they need an escape route out of the apocalypse,” he added.  

The UN chief met with Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday following a visit to Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. 

Russian forces are trying to eradicate Ukrainian identity in Kherson: Russian forces occupying much of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson are trying to extend their grip over the area and eradicate its Ukrainian identity.

They have made modest advances on the battlefield, with the Ukrainians acknowledging a loss of territory in the direction of Mykolaiv to the northwest.

In recent days the Russians have appointed their own officials to run Kherson, replacing elected Ukrainian officials. On Thursday one of those newly installed officials said Kherson would begin to use the ruble from next week and the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, would be replaced within four months.

Additionally, Russian television channels have taken the place of Ukrainian networks.

Now one of the Ukrainian representatives on Kherson’s regional council has accused the Russian forces of threatening educators.

45 Ukrainians freed in latest prisoner exchange with Russia, official says: Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Thursday that 45 Ukrainians were freed in the latest exchange of prisoners of war with Russia. 

“Today 45 of our people have been released from Russian captivity: 13 officers and 20 soldiers, including 5 wounded,” Vereshchuk said in a post on Telegram. 

“We are also returning 12 of our civilians home,” she added. 

The deputy prime minister did not provide details on how many Russian prisoners were freed in the exchange. Russia is yet to confirm the swap.

The Ukrainian military is strengthening security at its border with Transnistria, a Russian-backed region in Moldova, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said Thursday.

“Forces of defense continue to carry out the set combat tasks to protect and defend Odesa and the Odesa region. Also, in particular, we have strengthened the protection of the state border with the so-called Transnistria, where Russian provocations continue in order to create certain generators of tension for Odesa and the Odesa region,” Serhii Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odesa regional military administration, said on Telegram Thursday.

More background: Earlier this week a series of unexplained explosions occurred in parts of Transnistria which Ukraine described as a planned provocation by Russian security services. On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed “sensational” claims about Russia preparing an offensive using its troops stationed in the region, as well as conscripts from Transnistria.

Russian forces have made some progress in Moscow’s renewed assault on eastern Ukraine, according to US and NATO officials, as their military tries to fix the myriad problems that plagued the early weeks of the invasion. 

The US has seen “some evidence” of improvement in Russia’s ability to combine air and ground operations, as well as its capacity for resupplying forces in the field, officials say.

The progress is “slow and uneven,” a senior US defense official said, allowing Russian forces to advance only “several kilometers or so” each day.  

But the US assesses that Russia is trying to learn from the mistakes it made early on, where columns of tanks and armor ran out of food and fuel, leaving them easy prey to Ukrainian hit-and-run tactics. 

Russia has placed command and control elements near its border with eastern Ukraine, according to a senior NATO official, a sign they are attempting to fix the communications and coordination failures observed in the attack on Kyiv. 

Before the invasion began on Feb. 24th, Russia amassed 125 to 130 battalion tactical groups, known as BTGs, around Ukraine and near Kyiv in particular, but when the fighting began, Russia’s military leaders showed little ability to have them fight as one.  

There are 92 BTGS in country now, with another 20 just across border in Russia, according to the senior defense official.

“The attacks are somewhat better coordinated but with small formations. Company size units with helicopter support,” a European defense official said. “The lowest level of mutual support. In NATO this would be basic stuff.”

Still, western officials familiar with the latest intelligence say even if Russia has learned key lessons from its systemic failures in the first stage of the conflict, it’s not clear that Moscow will be able to implement the necessary changes to dominate in the Donbas region.

Its military has suffered heavy losses in both manpower and equipment and officials believe that other equipment relocated from different parts of Ukraine likely isn’t fully repaired yet. Many of the fighting units have cobbled together soldiers who have never fought or trained together.  

“I don’t know how many lessons they can actually operationalize. It’s not a simple thing,” said the senior NATO official. “You don’t just move tanks and personnel and say, ‘Now go back into the fight!’” 

You can read more here.

Alex Marquardt and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.

Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, called the Russian missile strikes in Kyiv a “heinous act of barbarism” in a tweet Thursday.

Ukrainian officials have condemned Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv Thursday night, which they say occurred as the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was finishing a visit to the Ukrainian capital. 

View Kuleba’s tweet:

CNN’s Tim Lister contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 10 Russian servicemembers have been identified as suspects in the “crimes committed against our people in Bucha”.

In his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday, Zelensky said the investigation into crimes committed by the Russian military is underway and that the “first ten Russian servicemen from the 64th motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Ground Forces who committed crimes against our people in Bucha, Kyiv region, received the status of suspects.”

Zelensky said the suspects’ surnames are known and “it is established what they did.”
“We know all the details about them and their actions. And we will find everyone. Just as we will find all the other Russian thugs who killed and tortured Ukrainians. Who tormented our people. Who destroyed houses and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding that none of them will avoid responsibility.

In early April, images emerged from Bucha showing bodies lying along streets and accounts of Russian atrocities emerged as its forces retreated from areas near Kyiv.

Zelensky called it “genocide” and the alleged atrocities in Bucha have drawn international outrage, with Western leaders calling for war crimes investigations and fresh sanctions on Russia. Russia’s Ministry of Defense denied responsibility and said “not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions” in Bucha.

When 12-year-old Kira Obedinsky, orphaned by war, was whisked from her hometown of Mariupol to a hospital in a Russian-controlled area of eastern Ukraine earlier in March, she was unsure if she would ever be reunited with her remaining family members.

Now in Kyiv, against all the odds, she sits on a hospital bed with her grandfather Oleksander Obedinsky — and on Wednesday spoke to CNN for the first time about her ordeal. She continues to recover from injuries that nurses say include shell fragment wounds to her face, neck, and legs. Her scarred face and introverted manner are signs of the physical and psychological trauma she has suffered.

The Obedinsky family has been torn apart by this war. Kira’s father, Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of Ukraine’s national water polo team, was killed on March 17 as Russian forces shelled the city. In that moment, Kira was orphaned, her mother having died when Kira was two weeks old.

Days after her father’s death, Kira was taken to a hospital in the Donetsk region by Russian-speaking soldiers after sustaining injuries from a landmine while trying to flee Mariupol with her father’s girlfriend.

“The [Russian] military came running, they stopped two cars and took us to Manhush, to a hospital because we were bleeding. Then they took us from Manhush to another Donetsk hospital,” said Kira.

Speaking to CNN earlier this month from Kyiv, Oleksander told CNN that he feared he would never see his granddaughter again because it was almost impossible to travel across the war-torn country to retrieve her. He said he had spoken to the hospital where Kira was being treated and was told she would eventually be sent to an orphanage in Russia.

Their grateful reunion, more than a month after they had last seen each other, was orchestrated by negotiators from Ukraine and Russia – and involved an epic international journey.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Kira in the hospital to celebrate her return, also giving her an iPad to entertain her as she recovers.

Oleksander said he had told Zelensky that Kira was “tired but happy” and thanked him for the safe return of his granddaughter. “Nobody believed [it would be possible]. But thank God we managed,” he told CNN.

Retrieving Kira from territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists was no easy task. Following media coverage of her plight, the Ukrainian government told her grandfather they had reached an agreement that would allow him to travel to Donetsk to pick up his granddaughter — but that it would not be an easy undertaking.

Undeterred, Oleksander immediately embarked as instructed on what was to be a grueling four-day journey, taking a train to Poland, a flight to Turkey, a second flight to Moscow, followed by a train ride to the southern Russian city of Rostov, before finally reaching a tearful Kira after another car journey to Donetsk, he said.

After an emotional reunion – with countless tight hugs, they said — the pair then set off home, taking the same protracted route on the return leg to Kyiv.

Read more about Kira’s journey here.

The US House passed a bill that will give President Joe Biden broader authority to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian incursion into their country. 

The Ukrainian Democracy Defense Land-Lease Act, which passed the House with a wide bipartisan majority — allows the President to enter lend-lease agreements with Ukraine to provide them with defense articles in order to protect civilian populations.

The final vote was 417-10, with the ten no votes coming from Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin.

Broadly speaking, the bill waives certain requirements that typically apply to lend-lease agreements for defensive equipment and arms, provided that those “articles are intended for Ukraine’s government or the governments of other Eastern European countries affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” It also waives the prohibition that the loan or lease cannot extend beyond five years. 

The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent in early April and now heads to the President’s desk for his signature.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and lawmakers from the US House Foreign Affairs Committee applauded a delegation of Ukrainian parliamentarians who came in to observe a hearing Thursday afternoon.

Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski noted their presence in the room, and they were given about 13 seconds of sustained applause during the hearing. The camera showed them standing up for recognition

“It is our great hope that you will soon be able to meet as we do here without any fear of violence being done to your beautiful capital and that your democracy will long endure,” said Malinowski, who was presiding over the briefing.

Ukrainian officials have condemned Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv Thursday night, which occurred as the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was finishing a visit to the Ukrainian capital. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his daily video message, said that “Today, immediately after the end of our talks [with Guterres] in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. 5 missiles. This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude to global institutions, about the Russian leadership’s efforts to humiliate the UN and everything that the organization represents. And therefore requires an appropriate, powerful response.”

“Russian missile strikes on Ukraine — on Kyiv, Fastiv, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi and other cities — prove once again that one cannot relax yet, one cannot think that the war is over. We still need to fight, we need to drive the occupiers out,” Zelensky said

The Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, said in a tweet: “During the meeting with @antonioguterres in Kyiv, we heard explosions. Russia launched a missile strike on the capital. I am sure that such defiant behavior of the occupier will be assessed properly by the UN Secretary-General. War in #Ukraine is an attack on world security!” 

A statement from the State Emergency Service in Kyiv stated:

“On April 28, at 8:13 p.m., the State Emergency Service in Kyiv received a report of a fire in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital. As a result of enemy shelling, a fire broke out in a 25-storey residential building with partial destruction of the 1st and 2nd floors. 
At 9:25 p.m., the fire was extinguished on a total area of ​​100 square meters … Search and rescue operations are underway. According to preliminary data, 5 people were rescued and 10 were injured. The information is being clarified.”

The Russian war on Ukraine has “driven US-Russia relations into the depths,” US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told CNN on Thursday. 

Although the top envoy did not say that the relationship between Washington and Moscow was at its absolute lowest point, Sullivan noted that it was “about as bad as it could be.”

In an interview from Moscow with Alisyn Camerota on CNN Newsroom, Sullivan said there is “very little engagement with the Russian government,” and his communications have focused on the detained US citizens and “the functioning of our embassy,” which is under sharp restrictions imposed by the Russian government.

On Wednesday, American Trevor Reed was released from Russian custody in a prisoner swap — a major development with which Sullivan was a key player. However, other Americans remain detained, including Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, the latter of whom has asked why he was “left behind.”

“Why was I left behind? While I am pleased Trevor is home with his family, I have been held on a fictitious charge of espionage for 40 months,” Whelan said in a statement to his parents and shared with CNN. “The world knows this charge was fabricated. Why hasn’t more been done to secure my release?”

Sullivan told CNN that he “couldn’t agree with Whelan more in the sense that he has been convicted of a fabricated charge. 

“I’ve been advocating for his release both publicly in negotiations with the Russian government since before I got here as ambassador, when I was deputy secretary of state when Paul was originally arrested back in December of 2018,” he said.

“I’ve never relented in my advocacy for Paul in engagement with the Russian government, for Paul’s release,” Sullivan added, noting that “this case, Trevor’s case is just one step.”

On the Russian war in Ukraine, Sullivan suggested it is up to one man — Russian President Vladimir Putin — to bring the brutal conflict to an end.

“This war started with a decision by President Putin; this war will end with a decision by President,” he said, adding that the United States is “going to do all we can to make sure that that decision is is a strategic defeat for him and his government, and not a victory for him in Ukraine,” the ambassador added.

The US ambassador said the rhetoric about Russia potentially using nuclear weapons has escalated in “a dramatically irresponsible way recently,” but noted it “isn’t new.” He recalled that in past conversations with the Russian government related to issues that were in the past related to Ukraine, the discussion would begin normally and then would “spiral” to warnings about nuclear confrontation if the US and NATO continued to support Ukraine.

“And my reaction on the other side of the table is astonishment,” Sullivan said. “And unfortunately, what we’ve seen most recently, is at the most senior levels of the US government, an escalation of that rhetoric.”

Sullivan said the US has ratcheted down in response, noting that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had paused and then canceled a missile test despite pre-planning and notifying the Russian government.

“We do not engage in irresponsible rhetoric with respect to nuclear weapons,” he told CNN. 

The US is “prepared to deter nuclear aggression against the United States,” Sullivan added.

“We won’t succumb to nuclear blackmail, but we won’t tolerate nuclear saber rattling and nuclear brinksmanship,” he said.

Canadian Minister of National Defence Anita Anand confirmed that Canadian military service members are also training Ukrainians in how to use Howitzers, which are long range weapons, during a news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday after meeting with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

“We stepped up our support by delivering M777 Howitzers to Ukrainian forces, and I can confirm that Canadian soldiers are now training their Ukrainian counterparts in the use of these weapons,” Anand said at the news conference.

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Thursday that 45 Ukrainians were freed in the latest exchange of prisoners of war with Russia. 

“We are also returning 12 of our civilians home,” she added. 

The deputy prime minister did not provide details on how many Russian prisoners were freed in the exchange. Russia is yet to confirm the swap.

The parliamentary body of Europe’s principle human rights organization has adopted a resolution calling on all its member and observer states to set up an international criminal tribunal with power to investigate and prosecute Russian politicians and soldiers allegedly committing war crimes in Ukraine.     

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said in a statement Thursday that they had unanimously adopted a resolution to “urgently set up an ad hoc international criminal tribunal, with a mandate to investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression allegedly committed by the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation.”  

The assembly is made up of 324 parliamentarians from the national parliaments of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states. The Council of Europe — not to be confused with the Council of the European Union — is the continent’s principle human rights organization.   

“The Assembly is appalled by widespread reports of the use of rape and torture as weapons of war,” it added.  

They propose it be set up in Strasbourg, possibly cooperating with the European Court of Human Rights.  

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres urged on Thursday for evacuation corridors to open up in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, saying that the besieged city is a “crisis within a crisis.”  

“Today the people of Mariupol are in desperate need for such an approach. Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis,” Guterres said in Kyiv, speaking at news conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky .

“Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance. Many are elderly need medical care or have limited mobility, they need an escape route out of the apocalypse,” he added.  

The UN chief met with Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday following a visit to Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. 

Guterres cited his meeting with Putin and said that the Russian president agreed “in principle” for the involvement of the United Nations, and international committee for the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant.  

He added that he had “intense discussions” with Zelensky to make evacuation from Mariupol a reality.  

In a message to the Ukrainian people, Guterres said he wanted them to know that “the world sees you, hears you, and is in awe of your resilience and resolve.” 

“I also know that words of solidarity are not enough. I am here to zero in on needs on the ground and scale up operations,” he continued.  

He said the UN Security Council “failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war” and that the failure is “a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger.” 

During a news conference with Guterres, Zelensky said he believes that UN secretary general’s mission would be effective in the evacuation of civilians in Mariupol. 

“It’s important that Secretary has raised the issue of evacuating civilians from Mariupol,” Zelensky said, “Ukraine is ready to have immediate negotiations on the evacuation of people from the steel plant, as well as to ensure that the implementation of any agreements to be reached.”

Zelensky also said, “We believe that part of the mission of the Inspector General would be effective and we’re ready to support this in whatever matters possible.”

Earlier, the UN chief had visited the town of Borodianka and “expressed his sadness in seeing the destroyed buildings there,” according to deputy spokesperson for the secretary-general Farhan Haq said.

“He added that the war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil. And when one sees these situations our heart of course stays with the victims,” Haq said.

CNN teams in Kyiv observed two large explosions Thursday evening several kilometers east of the city center.

The explosions came soon after talks between President Volodymyr Zelensky and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ended in the Ukrainian capital.

“The enemy fired on Kyiv. There were two hits in the Shevchenkivskyi district. All services are working on the scene. Information about casualties is being clarified,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Democratic and GOP in the US sources said that there are many issues that need to be sorted out over the country’s Ukraine package — including drafting the legislative language — and the whole process will take weeks until there are final votes in both chambers.

The likely goal at this point is to pass this package before the Memorial Day recess. But there are added complications to sort out — namely what to do with the stalled Covid-19 aid.

A senior Democratic House aide said US President Joe Biden’s supplemental request still has a long road ahead in both chambers, “There will be bicameral, bipartisan talks on the supplemental request. Language must also be drafted. It is also unresolved which Chamber will work to advance the supplemental first. This will not be an instant process.”

In a sign of the potential roadblocks ahead, many Republicans are already signaling they need more information about Biden’s supplemental before they could commit to voting on it in the Senate.  

Republicans are still going through the President’s supplemental for Ukraine, but Sen. Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has concerns about a provision in the package that authorizes International Monetary Fund (IMF) to spend roughly $20 billion. It’s not new money. This money has previously been appropriated, but it had not been authorized. It is an issue that Republicans and Democrats have been fighting about for months and Republicans say Biden slipped in this package. 

It’s still early and Risch said many Republicans are still inclined to support the package, but he warned that Republicans want to take a few days to more carefully consider what is included. 

“I have to go through the details,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, said. “I don’t fixate as much on the amount. It’s more about what is it that you intend to provide to them? Is it what they need right now for the foreseeable future?” 

Another divide emerging is Republicans view the high price tag for the humanitarian aid as potentially being misdirected. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana who traveled to Ukraine during the recess, told reporters that he believes the better place to spend the money is on military assistance. 

“The war crimes that are being committed as we speak won’t end until Ukraine wins this war. So while humanitarian aid is very important, the most important thing Ukrainians want is lethal aid to beat the Russians. I am not convinced the White House understands that,” Daines said. 

“I want to know what we are investing in. I want to make sure between lethal aid and humanitarian aid, it is actually getting where it’s supposed to go. The devil is in the details,” Ernst said.  

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, said he’s comfortable with the package’s price tag. 

“We need to send a strong signal that we intend for Ukraine to win this war against Vladimir Putin’s illegal war crimes,” Wicker said. 

While members on both sides recognize there is an urgency to pass this legislation quickly, the mechanics of how this gets through the House and Senate are still very much in flux with some Democrats still insisting money should be wrapped into one package with Covid-19 money that has been held up over Biden’s immigration policy on Title 42. 

“It needs to be done,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said. 

Republicans, including whip John Thune, has already said adding Covid-19 funding to this bill is a nonstarter.

Russian forces occupying much of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson are trying to extend their grip over the area and eradicate its Ukrainian identity.

They have made modest advances on the battlefield, with the Ukrainians acknowledging a loss of territory in the direction of Mykolaiv to the northwest.

In recent days the Russians have appointed their own officials to run Kherson, replacing elected Ukrainian officials. On Thursday one of those newly installed officials said Kherson would begin to use the ruble from next week and the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, would be replaced within four months.

Additionally, Russian television channels have taken the place of Ukrainian networks.

Now one of the Ukrainian representatives on Kherson’s regional council has accused the Russian forces of threatening educators.

Serhii Hlan said the message to principals from the occupiers had been simple: “Either give us the keys and documents, or we’ll send you ‘to rest’ in the basement.”

“This is what the occupiers are telling the school administration in Kakhovka,” he said.

The town of Kakhovka has seen several protests against the Russian military presence.

Hlan said the Russians were demanding all school equipment be surrendered. 

“The Russians are simply destroying Ukrainian education, threatening employees, and intimidating principals. In total, they plan to leave two schools in the city [open], what the fate of others will be is unknown,” the official noted.

“The workers are scared. They did not leave, remained in the occupied territories, guarded the school property,” he added.

The bodies of 1,150 civilians have been recovered in Ukraine’s Kyiv region since Russia’s invasion started, Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Nebyton said Wednesday.

Nebyton emphasized that “these were civilians, not military, who had no involvement with Territorial Defense or other military entities.”

The majority of casualties are from the Bucha region and Bucha leads in the number of bodies they have found, Nebyton said, adding that “50-70% died of firearm wounds, shot with automatic rifles.”

If you’re just joining us, here’s a look at other key updates about the invasion and the global response on Thursday so far:

The UN secretary general visited Bucha: Antonio Guterres visited the war-ravaged town of Bucha, which was associated with war crimes by Russian troops in Ukraine on Thursday. Guterres toured residential areas in the suburb of Kyiv and nearby town of Borodianka, that were left largely in ruins when Russian troops pulled out. He also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, according to a spokesperson. Some officials in Kyiv have criticized his itinerary after he first met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.

Ukrainian prosecutor names 10 Russian soldiers suspected of Bucha crimes: In a Facebook post, Iryna Venediktova said 10 soldiers had been identified as being “involved in torture of peaceful civilians” during their occupation of Bucha. They were from the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, she added. Earlier this month, the 64th Brigade was awarded an honorary title by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The attacks and destruction continue: An official in southern Ukraine has said that an important bridge in a part of southern Ukraine occupied by the Russians has been destroyed. A photograph of the bridge suggests that at least part of it was brought down by an explosive charge. The bridge connects Russian-occupied Crimea with the city of Melitopol. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official in Mariupol has told CNN that the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol — the Azovstal steel complex — was hit on Wednesday night by the heaviest Russian airstrikes yet. CNN cannot independently confirm the extent of Russian airstrikes nor the casualties they caused. 

The US is looking at sending more money to Ukraine: The Biden administration is sending a $33 billion supplemental funding request to Congress aimed at supporting Ukraine through a new phase over the next several months as Russia continues its brutal and unrelenting war. It includes funding for security, economic, and humanitarian aid. “We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” he said. “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen.”

NATO chief thinks the war in Ukraine could continue for months: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the alliance is ready to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion in a war that can “drag on and last for months and years.”  

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres visited with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday in Kyiv, according to the secretary-general’s deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.

Haq added that Guterres plans to speak to journalists in Kyiv shortly.

“They have met, I don’t frankly know if at this stage whether the meeting is over, but they are expected to be going into a press encounter very soon,” Haq said while speaking at a news briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York,

The spokesperson noted that earlier on Thursday, the secretary-general visited the town of Borodianka and “expressed his sadness in seeing the destroyed buildings there.” 

“He added that the war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil. And when one sees these situations our heart of course stays with the victims,” the spokesperson said.

Guterres then visited the St. Andrew’s Church in Bucha. After seeing the massacre site there, the secretary-general said that it was important to have a thorough investigation and accountability, Haq told reporters.

“He expressed his support for the work of the International Criminal Court and appealed to the Russian Federation to cooperate with that court,” Haq said. 

Guterres also visited the destroyed Lipki residential complex in the town of Irpin and said that innocent civilians have been living in these buildings, according to Haq. “Wherever there is a war, he said, the highest price is paid by civilians,” the UN secretary-general’s spokesperson said. 

Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. He proposed that the Russian leader create a three-party humanitarian group between the UN, Russia, and Ukraine regarding cooperation in creating humanitarian corridors in Ukraine. 

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the alliance is ready to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion in a war that can “drag on and last for months and years.”   

“We will continue to put maximum pressure on [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin to end the war by imposing sanctions, by providing economic support but also military support to Ukraine, and we need to be prepared for the long-term,” Stoltenberg said during a NATO Youth Summit taking place in Brussels. 

Stoltenberg also said that NATO allies are preparing to help Kyiv advance form an “old Soviet-era equipment to more modern standard-weapons and systems,” but added that it will “require more training.” 

The United States and some European countries including Netherlands and France have recently announced that they will be supplying Ukraine with howitzers, long-range weapons, to help defend itself against Russia.  

Germany has said they will supply anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine, as it attempts to deflect criticism that the government has been slow to provide military equipment to the war-torn country.  

On Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said they will support the Ukrainian military by providing “training and maintenance.” 

Baerbock added that Germany had chosen not to make public all the weapons it had previously sent to Ukraine. “We have supplied anti-tank weapons, Stingers and many other weapons that we haven’t spoken about in public,” the foreign minister said. 

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss rallied for support for the United Kingdom to send warplanes and other heavy weapons in a keynote speech on Wednesday.    

“Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes – digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this,” Truss said.  

“Our sanctions have already seen Russia facing its first external debt default for a century. We need to go further,” she added. 

US President Joe Biden said that Russian comments about the possibility of a nuclear war were “irresponsible.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this week that nuclear deterrence is Russia’s “principled position,” but he added “the danger is serious, it is real, it cannot be underestimated.”

Biden also said it’s “not true” that the US and NATO are in a proxy war with Russia – and that Russian claims of a proxy war are “an excuse for their failure” in Ukraine.

“They’re not true,” Biden said, responding on Thursday to a reporter who asked about Lavrov’s accusation that NATO was using the Ukraine war as a proxy. “They do concern me, because it shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure in being able to do what they set out to do in the first instance.”

“I think it’s more of a reflection not of the truth, but of their failure,” the President continued, “and so instead of saying that the Ukrainians are equipped with some capability to resist Russian forces, they got to… tell their people the United States and all of NATO is engaged in taking out Russian troops, and tanks, et cetera.”

Asked later about possible Russian aggression against NATO and its allies, he said the US is “prepared for whatever they do.”

The US assesses that Russian forces are making “slow and uneven” and “incremental” progress in the Donbas region, in part because of Ukrainian resistance, as well as continued logistics problems, according to a senior US defense official.

“There’s a lot of still back and forth in the Donbas in terms of territory gained and or lost by frankly both sides,” said the official on a background call with reporters.

The official said Russia now has 92 battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, up from 85 last week.

However, the official also said that continued “logistics and sustainment challenges” prevent Russian forces from making more than “several kilometers or so progress on any given day, just because they don’t want to run out too far ahead of their logistics and sustainment lines.”

Russia is making some advances to the east and south of Izium, while still facing pushback from Ukrainian forces, said the official.

In the south, the official said that the US has seen some Russian forces departing the besieged city of Mariupol and heading to the northwest towards Zaporizhzhia, despite the fact that Mariupol still has not fallen to Russia as indicated by continued Russian strikes against the city. 

The official said that Russia has now launched more than 1,900 missiles against Ukraine since the beginning of the February invasion.

Russian forces are still facing “morale and cohesion problems,” according to a senior US defense official, particularly as they are using conscripts to reinforce their battalion tactical groups that they are sending back into the Donbas region.

“We have some early indications that while the conscripts start out with high morale because they’ve been feasting on Russian propaganda, it doesn’t take very long before that morale is sapped once they get put into combat and face Ukrainian resistance,” said the official on a background call with reporters.

The United States has “information that Russia’s planning for its further invasion of Ukraine includes a forced capitulation of Ukraine’s democratically elected government, including dissolving all local municipal governments in Ukraine,” US Ambassador to the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Michael Carpenter said Thursday.

“Plans for a new government and new constitution are being developed by Russian officials and so-called ‘separatists,’” according to a transcript of Carpenter’s remarks. “This planning includes a moratorium disallowing legitimate Ukrainian leaders and those supporting Ukraine’s legitimate government from any leadership positions.”

Calling this move “straight out of Russia’s playbook,” he also cited the Kremlin’s plans to “stage a sham referenda” in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine “in a futile attempt to legitimize its illegal invasion and assert control over these areas.”

Speaking at the OSCE Permanent Council, Carpenter said the US is seeing credible reports that Russia is transferring and detaining locals in camps, and interrogating them brutally to investigate links to Ukrainian government or independent media.

The world should expect this to intensify, he added.

“There are alarming reports that those suspected of having such connections are being beaten or tortured before being transferred to the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic,’ where they are reportedly disappeared or murdered,” Carpenter said. “Reporting indicates that many civilians in these filtration camps who ‘pass’ the interrogation are transferred to Russia or Russia-controlled Donbas, including via Belarus.”

US President Joe Biden announced Thursday he has signed a $33 billion request for supplemental funding for Ukraine from Congress as Russia’s invasion takes on a new, critical phase. 

The funding request is expected to support Ukraine through this fiscal year, or about five months, and includes $20.4 billion in military assistance.

Biden framed the massive request as critical for global stability.

He called on Congress to approve the funding “as quickly as possible.”

He reiterated that he would not send US troops to Ukraine and said that the US is “not attacking Russia,” but is instead, “helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” casting blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“Russia is the aggressor, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Russia is the aggressor, and the world must and will hold Russia accountable,” he said.

Biden ticked through some of the provisions in the $33 billion request, including:

He also detailed new proposed legislation to hold Russian oligarchs to account.

While members have agreed that more money for Ukraine is necessary, it’s still not clear how the supplemental would move swiftly through Congress nor is it clear how quickly this proposal on oligarchs could move. A likely path would be to tie the two pieces of legislation together, but Republican and Democratic leaders are in the early stages of talks on how to pass the broader funding for Ukraine. 

The President also reacted to news earlier this week that Russia halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after both countries refused to pay in rubles, injecting more uncertainty into the already-unstable global oil markets rocked by the war.

“Let me be clear, we will not let Russia intimidate or blackmail their way out of these sanctions. We will not allow them to use their oil and gas to avoid consequences. We are working with other nations like Korea, Japan, Qatar and others to support our effort to help European allies threatened by Russia with gas blackmail, and their energy needs in other ways,” he said.

Read more about the proposal here.

US President Joe Biden said Ukrainians fleeing violence don’t need to try and enter the United States through the Southern border because they now have access to a special visa system.

“We have made a direct means by which they can get from Europe, from Ukraine directly to the United States without going to the Southern border,” Biden said at the White House after a speech unveiling new aid to Ukraine.

Biden announced last week a new system allowing Ukrainian refugees to enter the United States on humanitarian grounds. They require a sponsor inside the US to be eligible.

Biden noted that system when discussing Ukrainians attempting to enter the US through the southern border.

“In the meantime, at the Southern border, we’re trying to work through and make sure there’s an orderly process and they’re able to get in,” he said. “But just so you know, we have said there’s no need to go to the southern border. Fly directly to the United States, we set up a mechanism whereby they can come directly with a visa.”

As US President Joe Biden addressed Americans on why he requested Congress to approve a $33 billion aid package to Ukraine, he said the fight in Ukraine is the fight for freedom, and it not be cheap but it will be more costly if the world caves into Russian aggression.

“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” he said. “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen.”

The choice is between backing Ukrainians as they defend their country or standing by as Russians “continue their atrocities,” he added.

“Our NATO allies, our EU partners, they’re going to pay their fair share of the cost as well, but we have to do our part as well in leading the alliance,” he said, adding that the aid will go towards contributing arms, funding, ammunition and other economic support.

The President, however, emphasized that the US is not attacking Russia.

“We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression, and just as Putin chose to launch this brutal invasion, he could make the choice to end this brutal invasion. Russia is the aggressor, no ifs, ands, or buts about it,” he said.

US President Joe Biden is delivering remarks now at the White House on a $33 billion supplemental funding bill aimed at helping Ukraine as Russia’s brutal and unrelenting war enters a new phase over the next several months.

“We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression, and just as Putin chose to launch this brutal invasion, he could make the choice to end this brutal invasion,” he added.

The $33 billion request includes $20.4 billion requested for military and security assistance, including $5 billion in additional drawdown authorities, $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and $4 billion for the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing Program, a senior administration official told reporters.

The official said a portion of the $20 billion in military assistance could be used to backfill contributions of munitions and equipment from other countries, allowing those countries to “be able to defend themselves fully.” The official characterized the initiative in the context of Biden’s effort to rally the world behind support for Ukraine.

More on the aid request: It also includes targeted funding “to address economic disruptions at home and around the world due to Putin’s aggression,” which will help increase US production of food crops like soybeans, as well as funding to allow the use of the Defense Production Act to expand US production of critical reserves of minerals and other materials disrupted by the war.

Biden will also send a proposal to Congress Thursday outlining a legislative package to further pressure Russian oligarchs over Russia’s war in Ukraine, including using money from their seized assets to fund Ukraine’s defense, the White House said.

The package — developed through an interagency process including the Treasury Department, Justice Department, State Department and Commerce Department — will “establish new authorities for the forfeiture of property linked to Russian kleptocracy, allow the government to use the proceeds to support Ukraine and further strengthen related law enforcement tools,” the White House said in a fact sheet.

Read more about the proposal here.

The Biden administration is sending a $33 billion supplemental funding request to Congress aimed at supporting Ukraine through a new phase over the next several months as Russia continues its brutal and unrelenting war. It includes funding for security, economic, and humanitarian aid.

US President Joe Biden is set to further outline the request when he gives remarks on US support for Ukraine at 10:45 a.m. ET.

The $33 billion request includes $20.4 billion requested for military and security assistance. That $20 billion includes $5 billion in additional drawdown authorities, $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, and $4 billion for the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing Program, a senior administration official told reporters. 

While members have agreed that more money for Ukraine is necessary, it’s still not clear how the supplemental would move swiftly through Congress nor is it clear how quickly this proposal on Oligarchs could move. A likely path would be to tie the two pieces of legislation together, but Republican and Democratic leaders are in the early stages of talks on how to pass the broader funding for Ukraine.

Read the full report here:

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Biden will ask Congress to provide $33 billion for military, economic, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as the power to seize and sell the assets of wealthy Russians. Photographer: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article Biden to propose streamlining how US seizes assets from Russian oligarchs to help Ukraine

An official in southern Ukraine has said that an important bridge in a part of southern Ukraine occupied by the Russians has been destroyed.

At about 8 a.m. local time on Thursday a railway bridge near the village of Yakmivka had “self-liquidated,” said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odesa military administration. 

A photograph of the bridge suggests that at least part of it was brought down by an explosive charge.

The bridge connects Russian-occupied Crimea with the city of Melitopol, which has been held by the Russians since early March.

“The occupiers supplied weapons and fuel from the Crimea through this bridge,” Bratchuk claimed.

Earlier this month, an important road bridge in northeastern Ukraine that was being used by the Russians as a resupply route was destroyed by Ukrainian soldiers. 

A Ukrainian official in Mariupol has told CNN that the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol — the Azovstal steel complex — has been hit by the heaviest Russian airstrikes yet.

“Last night, the plant was hit by the strongest strike so far. First, there was a massive air strike using seven Tu-22M3 aircraft. Then there were more than 50 air strikes. Apparently, either the Su-25s worked, or the Su-24s. I can’t identify since we were in the shelter. The bombing was inflicted on the place where the seriously wounded are — in the hospital,” said Mykhailo Vershynin, chief of the Mariupol Patrol Police, who was at Azovstal amid the airstrikes. 

“There is a suspicion that after photos from the hospital were published, the place was identified by the enemy. And there was not just a bombing, but a massive bombing strike inflicted there. There is rubble, there are people under the rubble. There are dead and wounded. That is, the wounded are injured once again,” he told CNN. “This is a violation of all norms and rules of warfare. This is a violation of the Geneva Convention.”

CNN cannot independently confirm the extent of Russian airstrikes nor the casualties they caused. 

A week ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no need to storm the industrial area around the Azovstal steel plant. 

“I believe the proposed storming of the industrial zone is no longer necessary,” Putin told Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. 

Putin told Shoigu the industrial area should be sealed and those remaining at the plant should once again be offered to surrender in exchange for their lives and a “dignified treatment.” 

The defenders of Azovstal have repeatedly refused to give up their weapons. There are thought to be several hundred soldiers still there, and hundreds of civilians.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said Thursday while there had been “a small increase” in levels of radiation at Chernobyl, it is still “significantly below the authorized levels for workers in an environment with this type of radiation.”

IAEA experts visited the Chernobyl site over the past few days to measure radiation levels there, after the closed nuclear power plant fell back into Ukrainian hands after being taken by Russian armed forces earlier this month.

“This is three times or more lower than the authorized levels for workers in areas exposed to radiation,” Grossi told journalists at a news conference in Vienna, referring to charts showing dose levels measured by the IAEA experts.

“The situation is not one that could be judged as posing great danger to the environment or to people at the moment that we were taking these measurements,” he added.

Grossi said he does not have any information regarding reports indicating that Russian soldiers could “potentially die within a few months” due to radiation experienced in the Red Forest, a highly contaminated area near Chernobyl.  

“This is the situation in terms of radiation,” the IAEA chief said. “These are the levels we measured,” he added.

Some of Russia’s biggest natural gas customers in Europe are preparing to accept the Kremlin’s new payment terms rather than risk being cut off by Moscow, a fate suffered by Poland and Bulgaria this week.

Gas distributors in Germany and Austria told CNN Business that they were working on ways to accept a Russian ultimatum that final payments for its gas must be made in rubles, while complying with EU sanctions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that “unfriendly” nations would have to pay rubles, rather than the euros or dollars stated in contracts. Buyers could make euro or dollar payments into an account at Russia’s Gazprombank, which would then convert the funds into rubles and transfer them to a second account from which the payment to Russia would be made.

Germany’s Uniper said on Thursday it would continue to pay for Russian gas in euros but added that it believes a “payment conversion compliant with sanctions law” is possible.

“Uniper is in talks with its contractual partner about the concrete payment modalities and is also in close coordination with the German government,” the company said in a statement.

A Uniper spokesperson told newspaper Rheinische Post on Thursday that the company would make payments into a Russian bank in euros, instead of a bank based in Europe.

Germany has reduced its consumption of Russian gas to 35% of imports from 55% before the war in Ukraine, but says it needs to keep buying from Moscow at least until next year to avoid a deep recession.

Uniper said that it cannot cope without Russian gas in the short term.

“This would have dramatic consequences for our economy,” it said in its statement.

Austrian energy firm OMV (OMVJF) said on Thursday that it had considered the new payment request from Russian gas giant Gazprom and was “now working on a sanctions-compliant solution.”

Putin on Wednesday made good on his threat to cut off countries that refuse the new payment terms. Gazprom announced it had suspended gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland because they had refused to pay in rubles, stoking fears that other EU countries — including major gas importers Germany and Italy — could be next.

Sanctions loophole? There could be a workaround. The European Commission issued guidance to EU member states last week saying that is “appears possible” that buyers could comply with the new Russian rules without getting into conflict with EU law.

EU governments are likely to allow the payment mechanism to go ahead, Eurasia Group said in a note on Thursday.

Go deeper on the story here.

The bodies of 1,150 civilians have been recovered in Ukraine’s Kyiv region since Russia’s invasion started, Kyiv regional police chief Andriy Nebyton said Wednesday.

“As a result of the clearing operation and the work of detective groups in Kyiv Region, we have found and examined 1,150 bodies of civilian citizens who were killed and handed them over to medical forensics,” Nebyton said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.

Nebyton emphasized that “these were civilians, not military, who had no involvement with Territorial Defense or other military entities.”

The majority of casualties are from the Bucha region and Bucha leads in the number of bodies they have found, Nebyton said, adding that “50-70% died of firearm wounds, shot with automatic rifles.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed Russia for the killings and called on Moscow to stop committing “war crimes.”

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the mass killings while reiterating baseless claims that the images of civilian bodies on the streets of Bucha are fake.

During a visit to the towns of Bucha and Borodianka, International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC are being committed.”

Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said a number of Russian soldiers allegedly involved in human rights abuses in Bucha have been identified. In a Facebook post, Venediktova said 10 soldiers had been identified as being “involved in torture of peaceful civilians” during their occupation of the town.

Irina Morgan contributed to this post.

Russia will respond harshly to strikes by Ukrainian Armed Forces on Russian territory, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said during a press briefing on Thursday.

“Such criminal activity by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against Russian territory cannot go unanswered,” Zakharova said. “I would like Kyiv and Western capitals to take seriously the statements of the Ministry of Defense of our country, that further provocation of Ukraine to strike at Russian targets will necessarily lead to a harsh response from Russia.”

“We do not recommend further testing our patience. Russia is determined to achieve the set goals of the special military operation,” Zakharova added.

Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said a number of Russian soldiers allegedly involved in human rights abuses in the town of Bucha have been identified.

In a Facebook post, Venediktova said 10 soldiers had been identified as being “involved in torture of peaceful civilians” during their occupation of the town.

The soldiers were of various ranks, she said, naming four privates, four corporals and two sergeants. They were from the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, she added.

Earlier this month, the 64th Brigade was awarded an honorary title by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who praised their “great heroism and courage” and awarded the unit the title of ‘Guards’ for “protecting Russia’s sovereignty.” 

“This high distinction recognizes your special merits, great heroism and courage in defending your Fatherland, and in protecting Russia’s sovereignty and national interests,” the congratulatory statement from Putin read. 

In a “very short time, the investigation established that during the occupation of Bucha, they took unarmed civilians hostage, didn’t provide food and water to them, kept them on their knees with their hands tied and their eyes covered in duct tape, and they were mocked and beaten. They used fists and the stocks [of their guns]. They beat information about the location of the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces and the Defense Forces out of people, and some were tortured for no reason at all,” Venediktova said.

“Russian servicemen threatened to kill the victims and even imitated the execution of their prisoners by firing in their direction,” she added. “The role and participation of each of them in these crimes has been established through investigative and coordinated work of prosecutors and police officers … We are currently checking on their involvement in the killings in Bucha.”

US President Joe Biden is set to deliver remarks on offering support for Ukraine at 10:45 a.m. ET at the White House.

Biden is expected to discuss a proposal he will send to Congress Thursday outlining a legislative package to further pressure Russian oligarchs over Russia’s war in Ukraine, the White House said.

The package — developed through an interagency process including the Treasury Department, Justice Department, State Department and Commerce Department — will “establish new authorities for the forfeiture of property linked to Russian kleptocracy, allow the government to use the proceeds to support Ukraine and further strengthen related law enforcement tools,” the White House said in a fact sheet.

The proposal is expected to come alongside a request for Congress to approve new supplemental aid for Ukraine, including military, economic and humanitarian assistance that is expected to last through the end of the fiscal year.

While members have agreed that more money for Ukraine is necessary, it’s still not clear how the supplemental would move swiftly through Congress nor is it clear how quickly this proposal on oligarchs could move. A likely path would be to tie the two pieces of legislation together, but Republican and Democratic leaders are in the early stages of talks on how to pass the broader funding for Ukraine.

One element of the package would streamline the federal government’s efforts for seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs by creating a new administrative process through Treasury and the Justice Department “for the forfeiture of property in the United States that is owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs and that has a connection to specified unlawful conduct.” It would make it a criminal offense for people to “knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government.”

Read more about the package here.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the war-ravaged Ukrainian town of Bucha, which was associated with war crimes by Russian troops in Ukraine on Thursday. Guterres toured residential areas in the suburb of Kyiv and nearby town of Borodyanka, that were left largely in ruins when Russian troops pulled out.  

“This horrific scenario demonstrates something that is unfortunately always true — that civilians always pay the highest price. Innocent civilians were living in these buildings. They were paying the highest price for a war for which they not contributed at all,” Guterres told journalists. “There is no way a war can be acceptable in the 21st century.”

The UN chief is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba later in the day. Ukrainian authorities have previously requested UN to guarantee safe passage for civilians in Mariupol. Some officials in Kyiv have criticized Guterres’s itinerary after the UN chief met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.

It’s now nine weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian forces are currently “exerting intense fire,” as a multi-pronged offensive takes shape across three regions, according to Ukraine’s military leadership.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday that the Russians are focusing on trying to make a breakthrough in the Izium area of eastern Ukraine. 

Here are today’s latest developments:

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova condemned unexplained explosions in Transnistria as “acts of terrorism” on Thursday. Speaking at a regular briefing in Moscow, Zakharova expressed Russia’s concern about “escalating tensions” in the breakaway territory within Moldova.

Ukraine has previously described the blasts as a planned provocation by Russian security services. 

A series of incidents occurred in parts of Russian-backed Transnistria, which has housed Russian troops for decades, sparking fears that Moscow’s war could soon stretch beyond Ukraine and create a new theatre of conflict in eastern Europe.

Two radio towers in the territory were damaged in blasts on Tuesday, the Transnistrian Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement. On Monday, explosions were heard in Transnistria’s capital Tiraspol, near the Ministry of State Security building.

TIRASPOL, MOLDOVA - OCTOBER 19: Woman pass October 19, 2008 the statue of Alexander Suvorov the founder of Tiraspol in the Transnistria region in Moldova. Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the de facto independent Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria). The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a regional hub of light industry, such as furniture and electrical goods production. There are two professional football clubs in Tiraspol: FC Sheriff Tiraspol & FC Tiraspol. Sheriff are the most successful Moldovan football club of recent history. Tiraspol is home to the Sheriff Stadium, the biggest seated stadium in the region with a capacity of 14,300. The Trans-Dnistrian Moldavian Republic, locatet in the eastern region of the country, is internationally not acknowledged but does have ist own president, currency and army. Transnistria - an internationally unrecognized state is part of Moldavia. The region has been de facto idependent since 1991, after making a unilateral declaration of indepenence from Moldova and successfully defeated Moldavian forces in the war of Transnistria. Since than a ceasefire has held but Transnistria - where the most of the Moldavian Industry is located - is still a "frozen conflict" region. (Photo by Matthias Schumann/Getty Images)

Related article What to know about Transnistria, the Russian-backed territory that Putin may be eyeing after Ukraine

“We consider these acts of terrorism aimed at destabilising the situation in the region and we expect a thorough and objective investigation into all circumstances around what happened,” Zakharova said Thursday.

The spokeswoman dismissed “sensational” claims about Russia preparing an offensive using its troops stationed in the region, as well conscripts from Transnistria. She accused Kyiv of “dragging” Transnistria into the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and attempting to “use the situation to strengthen a “blockade pressure” on the region.

Ukraine blamed Russia for firing cruise missiles Tuesday at a bridge across the estuary of the Dniester River, suggesting Moscow is attempting to cut off the southwestern corner of Ukraine that borders Moldova.

Transnistria is unrecognized by the international community, which considers it a part of Moldova. But the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, essentially has no control over the territory, which declared itself a republic more than three decades ago.

Local authorities in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol have warned that it’s vulnerable to epidemics given the appalling sanitary conditions in much of the city and the fact that maybe thousands of bodies remain uncollected.

An estimated 100,000 people still live in the city, despite weeks of heavy fighting, and the absence of a centralized water supply.

On Thursday, the city council said there was a risk of cholera, dysentery and Escherichia coli – a bacterial infection that can cause severe stomach pain, bloody diarrhea and kidney failure.

The council said there were intolerable living conditions that would worsen as temperatures warmed.

“Already the air temperature has reached 20 degrees. So powerful and deadly epidemics could soon break out in the city – due to the lack of centralized water supply and sanitation, the decomposition of thousands of corpses under the rubble, and a catastrophic shortage of drinking water and food.”

Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko said: “The occupiers cannot provide the existing population with food, water and medicine. Or [are] just not interested in it. They block all evacuation attempts. And without that, people will die. After all, now in the ruined Mariupol medieval living conditions. Immediate and complete evacuation is needed.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has warned against “pumping up” Ukraine and other countries, such as Georgia and Moldova, with weapons, saying this threatens security of the European continent and provokes instability in the region.

“The tendency to pump up Ukraine and other countries with weapons is the type of actions that threaten the security of the continent and provoke instability,” Peskov told reporters on Thursday’s regular conference call when asked to comment on remarks about supporting Ukraine and other countries in the region with arms made by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Wednesday.

Truss suggested Wednesday it is essential to arm not just Ukraine with heavy weapons, but also Moldova, Georgia and the Western Balkans.

“Some argue we shouldn’t provide heavy weapons for fear of provoking something worse. But my view, is that inaction would be the greatest provocation,” Truss said.

“And we must ensure that, alongside Ukraine, the Western Balkans and countries like Moldova and Georgia have the resilience and the capabilities to maintain their sovereignty and freedom,” she added.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that should Finland and Sweden apply to join the alliance it would be able to “find arrangements” to help the two countries during the interim period before they became formal members.

When asked at a news conference about what kind of guarantees and help the alliance could give the countries before they officially joined, Stoltenberg replied: “The reality is that Finland and Sweden are already close to NATO and we work together, we operate together, we exercise together.”

“And as soon as we take the decision to invite them, that will send a strong political message, that the security of Finland and Sweden matters for all NATO allies,” Stoltenberg added.
“I am also certain that we will be able to find arrangements for that interim period between Finland and Sweden [applying] and until the formal ratification is finalized in all 30 parliaments.

“I am confident that there are ways to bridge that interim period in a way which is good enough and works for both Finland and Sweden.”

Although previously non-aligned with NATO, Finland and Sweden are edging ever closer toward joining the US-led military alliance.

Russia has previously warned that such moves could lead to a more aggressive stance with regard to its hypersonic or nuclear weapons.

Speaking at a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels alongside President Roberta Metsola, Stoltenberg stressed should Finland and Sweden decide to apply to NATO, the accession process would “go quickly.”

“We are in dialogue with Finland and Sweden, and it’s their decision. But if they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed, and I expect the process to go quickly,” he told the press.

“This is fundamentally about the right of every nation in Europe to decide its own future. So when Russia tries in a way to threaten, to intimidate Finland and Sweden from not applying it just demonstrates how Russia is not respecting the basic right of every nation to choose its own path,” Stoltenberg added.

Two of Europe’s leading energy companies have confirmed they are in talks with Gazprom about how to pay for Russian gas, while complying with EU sanctions and Russia’s new rules demanding that all gas be paid for in rubles.

German firm Uniper said: “We consider a payment conversion compliant with sanctions law and the Russian decree to be possible. Uniper will continue to pay in euros. Uniper is in talks with its contractual partner about the concrete payment modalities and is also in close coordination with the German government.”

And Austrian firm OMV said: “We have analyzed the Gazprom request about payment methods in light of the EU-sanctions and are now working on a sanctions-compliant solution.”

This comes after Russia said it has cut off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, dramatically escalating its response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

Russian state energy giant Gazprom said in a statement Wednesday that it had fully halted supplies to Polish gas company PGNiG and Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz after they refused to meet a demand by Moscow to pay in rubles, rather than euros or dollars.

Uniper, which is one of Europe’s leading gas companies, added: “For our company and for Germany as a whole, it is not possible to do without Russian gas in the short term; this would have dramatic consequences for our economy.”

Under the new Russian payment scheme, energy importers have had to open two bank accounts with Gazprombank – a foreign currency account and a ruble account. Buyers are required to deposit foreign currency (dollars or euros) with Russia’s Gazprombank, which then converts it into rubles for onward payment to Moscow.

A European Commission document release last week advised that it “appears possible” to comply with the new Russian rules without getting into conflict with EU law.

On Wednesday, the Hungarian Foreign Minister confirmed to CNN that his country will use the payment scheme put in place by Moscow to pay for its oil and gas. 

Trevor Reed’s mother, Paula Reed, tweeted in the early hours of Thursday that her son is back in the United States.

“It’s been very exciting day for the Reed family,” Paula tweeted. “Trevor is back in the USA.”

Trevor Reed, a US citizen and former Marine who had been detained in Russia since 2019, was released in a prisoner swap Wednesday.

In her tweet, Paula also advocated for the release of Paul Whelan, a US citizen and former Marine who was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 and arrested on espionage charges, which he has consistently and vehemently denied.

“It’s been a day of joy for us, but not for #PaulWhelan and his family. I know this is a hard day for them. Pls keep them (and the MANY others) in your prayers.),” she tweeted.

Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck has said that his government’s goal must be to ensure independence from Russian energy supplies, even if it means pushing for alternative solutions previously considered “unrealistic.”

Following Russia’s decision to stop gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday over their refusal to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for payment in rubles, Habeck told journalists at a press briefing in Berlin that Germany’s dependence on Russian gas has rapidly decreased in recent weeks. 

“Germany has now slashed its gas imports from Russia to 35 percent – compared to 55 percent before the start of the war,” he said. 

While it is “not realistic” for Germany to completely ban Russian gas before next year given the new infrastructure required to diversify gas imports, ”nevertheless, we have to try the unrealistic in some ways now,” Habeck said.

Habeck urged Germany to speed up the building of a liquid natural gas terminal within ten months’ time. Habeck described Russia’s decision to cease supplies of gas to Poland and Bulgaria as an example of ”the reality where energy is used as a weapon” and said that ”Russia is showing that it’s ready to get serious.” 

”It would be cynical if big and powerful Germany thought: ‘Oh well, you can beat up the little guys a bit – that’s a warning for you.’ No this is reality – this is the reality where energy is used as a weapon and we have to see that we are not defenseless when energy is used as a weapon.”  

Germany’s goal is to diversify energy infrastructures accordingly and ”revamp our energy infrastructure based on renewable energy and massive savings so that we are not defenseless,” he added.

On Tuesday during a visit to Poland, Habeck said that Germany could handle an embargo on Russian oil imports, hinting that the country could end its dependence on Russian oil imports shortly. Habeck told journalists that Germany’s share of crude oil imported from Russia has fallen from 35 percent before the war to around 12 percent, adding that a European embargo on Russian oil would be “manageable.”

Habeck stressed Wednesday that Germany would continue to make its energy payments in euros or dollars in line with its European partners.

As Russian shelling intensifies across a wide swathe of eastern Ukraine, officials in Donetsk have posted photographs of one small hamlet in the region in which over two dozen homes have been hit.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of Donetsk regional military administration, said on his Telegram channel that 27 houses just in the village of Lastochkine had been damaged by shelling. He gave no information on casualties. 

The village is near the small town of Ocheretyn, a few miles from the current front lines. Ocheretyn has also seen widespread shelling by Russian forces trying to break through Ukrainian lines.

Since they launched the second phase of their military operation, Russian forces have intensified artillery and rocket fire against towns and villages along the front lines, which run for hundreds of kilometers from Luhansk and Donetsk in the east to Kherson and Mykolaiv in the south.

Japan has lodged a protest with Moscow over its decision to expel eight Japanese diplomats from Russia, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Thursday. 

“We absolutely cannot accept Russia issuing this notice,” Matsuno told reporters, blaming Moscow for the breakdown in bilateral ties. 

Moscow announced on Wednesday the retaliatory expulsion of the Japanese diplomats, who must leave the country by May 10, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, according to state news agency TASS. The move comes after Tokyo expelled eight Russian diplomats and officials in April over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Japanese Ambassador to Moscow Toyohisa Kozuki is not among those expelled, Matsuno said on Thursday. 

On Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said a representative of the Embassy of Japan was summoned and told that Tokyo has embarked on a “deliberately anti-Russian course” since Russia’s operation in Ukraine, according to TASS. 

Japan’s Embassy in Moscow also issued a statement Wednesday calling the invasion “a clear violation of international” and “absolutely unacceptable,” adding that Russia’s killing of innocent citizens is a “war crime.”

A Russian-appointed official in the occupied region of Kherson says its return to Ukrainian control is “impossible” – and has ruled out a referendum to decide its future.

The Deputy Chairman of the Russian-appointed administration of the region, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti:

“The issue of returning the Kherson region to Nazi Ukraine is excluded. This is impossible. The Kherson region will develop economically. “

Stremousov, who is Ukrainian and has a long record on the fringes of regional politics, added:

Last month, Ukrainian prosecutors opened a case against Stremousov for “assisting a foreign state in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine.”

There had been reports that the Russians would organize some form of a referendum in Kherson on whether the southern region should become an independent republic, like the self-declared republics of Luhansk and Donetsk. But Stremousov said that would not happen. 

He said the main task was to restore the region’s economy, and “no referendums are planned.”

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Zelensky derided reported plans to hold a referendum in Kherson.

“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 said.

The Canadian House of Commons voted unanimously on Wednesday to recognize “acts of genocide” being committed by Russia in Ukraine. 

“By unanimous consent, it was resolved that, given that there is clear and ample evidence of systematic and massive war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed against the people of Ukraine by the armed forces of the Russian Federation, directed by President Vladimir Putin and others within the Russian parliament…the House recognizes that the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people,” the HOC statement said. 

The motion described mass atrocities, willful killings of Ukrainian civilians, the forcible transfer of Ukrainian citizens to Russian territory, and “widespread instances of physical harm, mental harm and rape.” 

Some context: In mid-April, US President Joe Biden said Putin’s actions in Ukraine amounted to genocide, after accusing the Kremlin of “trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian,” comments which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supported at the time.  

Evidence of mass graves in the towns of Bucha and Borodianka on the outskirts of Kyiv has continued to emerge since early April, following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region.

During a visit to investigate the civilian deaths, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC” were being committed in Bucha and Borodianka. 

On Monday, the International Criminal Court joined an EU investigation into possible war crimes, marking the court’s first joint investigation in its 20-year history.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the mass killings of civilians while reiterating baseless claims that images of bodies on the streets of Bucha are “fake.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin may seek to consolidate what he has got in Ukraine and dig in like a “cancerous growth” within the country, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Thursday.

“I think it’s certainly the case that Putin, having failed in nearly all his objectives, may seek to consolidate what he’s got, sort of fortify and dig in as he did in 2014. And just be a sort of cancerous growth within the country of Ukraine and make it very hard for people to move them out of those fortified positions,” he told Sky News.

Some background: Russia’s initial assault, launched on February 24, was a massive setback for Putin as the Ukrainian military held off the invading forces as they advanced toward Kyiv.

Moscow’s second phase appears focused on reinforcing its presence in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, parts of which Russian-backed separatists have controlled since 2014, and carving out a land bridge linking the Russian region of Rostov with Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine eight years ago.

Russian forces “are exerting intense fire” as a multi-pronged offensive takes shape across three regions, according to the Ukrainian military leadership.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Thursday the Russians are focusing on trying to make a breakthrough in the Izium area of eastern Ukraine. 

Izium — in the Kharkiv region — has become a staging ground for Russian forces as they try to advance through neighboring Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“In order to strengthen the advancing group, the occupiers additionally moved airborne units to the city of Izium,” the General Staff said in its daily operational update.

One of Russia’s aims is to advance on the settlement of Lyman, which is near the industrial and transport hub of Sloviansk, it said.

“The enemy has improved its tactical position, trying to develop an offensive on the village of Lyman,” the General Staff said, and is preparing to cross the Seversky Donets river.

Images emerged Wednesday showing a bridge over the river had been destroyed.

To the south-east, near Donetsk city, “the main efforts are focused on surrounding the Defense Forces,” the General Staff said, with the towns of Mariinka and Ocheretyn under fire.

In the Luhansk region, the Russians are attacking the small town of Orikhove, the General Staff said.

Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said Russia’s offensive near Orikhove hasn’t been successful. But the town of Lysychansk, about 28 kilometers (17 miles) away, was hit hard, with 13 buildings destroyed.

“All the hits in Lysychansk, 99% (…) are in residential districts, houses, markets and shops,” Haidai said.

Haidai said the hospital at Severodonetsk was still working despite being shelled on Wednesday.

In southern Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian military, the Russians are using an airfield at Melitopol airfield as a base for Su-25 attack aircraft, Ka-52 attack helicopters and Mi-8 transport and combat aircraft.

The military acknowledged that the Russians have made incremental progress in the Kherson region as they try to advance toward the city of Mykolaiv. “The enemy has gained a foothold in the area of ​​the settlement of Tavrijske,” and from there is shelling nearby villages, it said.

The General Staff claimed that on Wednesday, one Russian plane and six drones were shot down, while on the ground five tanks and other armored vehicles had been destroyed. 

Some background: As part of the second phase of its invasion, Russia has said it wants to secure all of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk — parts of which Russian-backed separatists have controlled since 2014 — and to consolidate a land bridge linking the Russian region of Rostov with Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine eight years ago.

The war in Ukraine will continue until “Russia decides to end it,” the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told CNN on Wednesday.

“The war will not end with meetings,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper during a wide-ranging interview. “The war will end when the Russian Federation decides to end it and when there is – after a ceasefire – a possibility of a serious political agreement. We can have all the meetings but that is not what will end the war.”

On Tuesday, Guterres traveled to Moscow for a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss “proposals for humanitarian assistance and the evacuation of civilians” from conflict zones, namely the besieged city of Mariupol, according to a UN readout of the discussion.

As a result, Putin agreed “in principle” to allow the UN and the International Committee for the Red Cross to assist in the evacuation of citizens from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, the last bastion of Ukrainian defense in the city.

Asked what role the UN intended to play in the investigations of war crimes allegedly carried out by Russian forces in the town of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Guterres reiterated his calls for an “independent investigation.”

Some context: The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the mass killings of civilians in Ukraine while reiterating baseless claims that images of bodies on the streets of Bucha are “fake.”

Evidence of mass graves in the towns of Bucha and Borodianka has continued to emerge since early April, following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region.

The vicious epicenter of the war in Ukraine now rests in the scorched cities of the east and the south. But the conflict’s reverberations are widening in a way that will leave few people on Earth – from small-town America to poverty-stricken Africa – untouched.

Many wars, from World War I to the conflict in Iraq, at first seem certain to end quickly with a short, violent shock. But often they confound such predictions, degenerating into protracted slogs with domino effects that cause distant and far-reaching political, economic and humanitarian effects.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is following this pattern. After starting with predictions of a blitzkrieg to seize Kyiv two months ago, the war is set to drag on for weeks and months, if not longer.

The consequences of a war that lasts even that long are grave.

Given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vicious assault on civilians, it will mean many more Ukrainian dead and almost inevitably more atrocities and war crimes. There will be an ever-present danger of the war spilling over and causing a wider conflagration — both militarily and in a growing showdown over Russia’s energy exports, which Europe badly needs.

Any time two nuclear powers as large as Russia and the US are locked in even an indirect conflict, as is the case given Washington’s massive injection of arms into Ukraine, the possibility of a direct confrontation remains.

And a longer war means more uncertainty for Western leaders.

Read more here:

A man talking on the phone walks past the ruins of an apartment block destroyed as a result of Russian shelling in Borodianka, an urban-type settlement liberated from Russian invaders, Kyiv Region, northern Ukraine, on April 25, 2022. Photo by Yuliia Ovsiannikova/Ukrinform/Abaca/Sipa USA

Related article Analysis: How the widening war in Ukraine will cost the world

In his face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said his message was unchanged from the start of the conflict: The Russian invasion is a breach of the UN Charter and it must end as quickly as possible.

Guterres, who is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, described his encounter with the Russian leader as “very useful.”

The secretary-general told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he expressed his concerns about the violations of international law, human rights law and the “possibility of war crimes.”

Guterres defended the role of the UN in terms of bringing an end to the two-month-old conflict.

“The war will not end with meetings,” he said. “The war will end when the Russian Federation decides to end it and when there is – after a ceasefire – a possibility of a serious political agreement. We can have all the meetings but that is not what will end the war.”

During the meeting with Putin, Guterres said he discussed the evacuation of civilians from the steel factory encircled in the southern port city of Mariupol. 

He said Putin agreed “in principle” on the evacuation of civilians and that discussions were taking place between UN officials and Russia’s ministry of defense to hammer out the details. 

“We are also in contact with the government of Ukraine to see if we can have a situation in which nobody can blame the other side for things not happening,” he said.

Poland and Bulgaria are receiving gas from their EU neighbors, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after Russian energy giant Gazprom halted supplies Wednesday when the two countries refused to pay in rubles. Von der Leyen described the Russian move as “blackmail.” Another EU member, Hungary, said it will use the payment scheme put in place by Moscow to pay for its oil and gas.

Here are the latest developments:

Putin issues warning: President Vladimir Putin warned that any country interfering in Ukraine would be met with a “lightning-fast” response from Russia. “We have all the tools for this — ones that no one can brag about. And we won’t brag. We will use them if needed. And I want everyone to know this,” he told lawmakers in St. Petersburg.

Worry about Transnistria: Ukrainian officials have been talking about the risk of another front in the conflict with Russia opening up — along the border with Moldova in the southwest. Part of the Moldovan border region is controlled by a pro-Russian administration in what’s called Transnistria.

US-Russia exchange prisoners: American Trevor Reed, a US citizen and former Marine who had been detained in Russia since 2019, was released in a prisoner swap for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko. Reed’s release will not impact the US approach to the war in Ukraine, senior administration officials said.

Russian tanks’ costly flaw: Hundreds of Russian tanks are thought to have been destroyed since Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine. Experts say battlefield images show the tanks are suffering from a defect that Western militaries have known about for decades and refer to as the “jack-in-the-box effect.” Moscow, they say, should have seen the problem coming.

Ukrainians allegedly executed while surrendering: The US said it has credible information that a Russian military unit executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender near Donetsk. “If true, this would be a violation of a core principle of the laws of war,” Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said at the United Nations.

Surge in sponsorship applications: More than 4,000 applications were filed to sponsor Ukrainians seeking to come to the US within 48 hours of the Biden administration launching its streamlined process for those fleeing Ukraine, a spokesperson for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services told CNN.  

The Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine will transition to using the ruble from May 1, according to Russian state media.  

The Deputy Chairman of the Civil-Military Administration of the region, Kirill Stremousov, told the RIA-Novosti news agency that the transition period will take up to four months during which both the Russian ruble and the Ukrainian hryvnia will be in circulation. After that, there will be a full transition to the ruble. 

CNN was unable to independently verify Stremousov’s statement.

Some context: Previous CNN reporting confirmed that Russian forces had installed a new local government in Kherson on Tuesday.

The installation took place days after Russian forces took control of the Kherson City Council building, removing the elected government and replacing its security with Russian military troops.

Russian tanks with their tops blown off are just the latest sign that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t going to plan.

Hundreds of Russian tanks are thought to have been destroyed since Moscow launched its offensive, with British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on Monday estimating it had lost as many as 580.

But Moscow’s problems go beyond the sheer number of tanks it has lost. Experts say battlefield images show Russian tanks are suffering from a defect that Western militaries have known about for decades and refer to as the “jack-in-the-box effect.” Moscow, they say, should have seen the problem coming.

The problem relates to how the tanks’ ammunition is stored. Unlike modern Western tanks, Russian ones carry multiple shells within their turrets. This makes them highly vulnerable as even an indirect hit can start a chain reaction that explodes their entire ammunition store of up to 40 shells.

The resulting shockwave can be enough to blast the tank’s turret as high as a two-story building, as can be seen in a recent video on social media.

Read more here.

The United States has credible information that a Russian military unit executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender near Donetsk, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack said at the United Nations Wednesday.

“We now have credible information that a Russian military unit operating in the vicinity of Donetsk executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender, rather than take them into custody,” Van Schaak said. “If true, this would be a violation of a core principle of the laws of war: the prohibition against the summary execution of civilians and combatants who are hors de combat by virtue of surrender, injury, or other forms of incapacitation.”

Van Schaak also said the US has “credible reports of individuals killed execution-style with their hands bound; bodies showing signs of torture; horrific accounts of sexual violence against women and girls.” 

“These images and reports suggest that atrocities are not the result of rogue units or individuals; they, rather, reveal a deeply disturbing pattern of systematic abuse across all areas where Russia’s forces are engaged,” Van Schaak added.

“Let us be clear: those who unleashed, perpetrated, and ordered these crimes must be held to account and the evidence of this criminality is mounting daily,” Van Schaak said. “Our simple message to Russia’s military and political leadership, and file is this: the world is watching, and you will be held accountable.”

The United States welcomes the ICC investigation into atrocities committed in Ukraine, Van Shaak said, referencing the common goal of stakeholders to achieve justice.

“The United States is supporting a range of international investigations into atrocities in Ukraine. This includes those conducted by the International Criminal Court, the UN and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” she said.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister confirmed to CNN that his country will use the payment scheme put in place by Moscow to pay for its oil and gas. 

Defending this decision, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said: 

“85% of our gas supply comes from Russia, and 65% of our oil supply comes from Russia. Why? Because this is being determined by infrastructure. This is not for fun, we have not chosen the situation,” he told CNN’s Richard Quest.

Szijjártó said there are no alternative sources or routes which makes it possible for them to stop importing Russian energy in the next few years. 

Under the Russian payment scheme, energy importers have had to open two bank accounts with Gazprombank — a foreign currency account and a rubles account. The proceeds of sales are paid in foreign currency (dollars or euros) which is then converted by Gazprombank into the ruble account. 

Several other countries are reportedly using the scheme. A European Commission document release last week advised that it “appears possible” to comply with the new Russian rules without getting into conflict with EU law. 

Sanctions experts say the Russian payment system allows Moscow access to energy proceeds regardless of the sanctions in place on foreign currencies.

CNN’s Richard Quest notes two things — the entire process is extremely legally murky and the scheme also gives Putin the political advantage — that he is forcing the companies into his scheme to pay in rubles.

Ukrainian officials have been talking about the risk of another front in the conflict with Russia opening up — along the border with Moldova in the southwest.

Part of the Moldovan border region is controlled by a pro-Russian administration in what’s called Transnistria. Unexplained explosions there earlier this week prompted Ukrainian officials to allege that Russia’s security services were planning provocations in Transnistria as a pretext to open up a new front in the war. 

Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Ukrainian television Wednesday: “We have always considered Transnistria as a springboard from which there may be some risks for us, for [the] Odesa and Vinnytsia regions.”

But he said that most people in Transnistria were integrated into Moldova and Europe.

“Therefore, for Transnistria, active involvement in the conflict in Ukraine will practically mean total isolation and destruction of the enclave,” Podoliak noted.

Podoliak suggested that through the incidents this week in Transnistria, Russia was trying to provoke Ukraine.

Roman Kostenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament from Odesa, said Transnistria did not pose a strategic threat to Ukraine.

“It could be a tactical threat, in some direction, in order to bind our troops,” the official said.

Kostenko said the Russians were counting on Transnistria as “another front that could directly support them when they attack, for example, Mykolayiv, Odesa from the sea, because Mykolayiv blocks the land corridor.”

Ukrainian defenses around the city of Mykolaiv have prevented Russian forces from reaching Odesa overland. 

The far southwest corner of Ukraine is now cut off from the rest of the country after a road and rail bridge over the estuary of the river Dniester was struck by a second cruise missile Wednesday after first being hit Tuesday. Russia has not said it carried out the missile strike.

Ukraine’s Southern Military Command claimed that Russian submarines continued to threaten missile strikes from the Black Sea. “Enemy forces are also preparing provocations with missile strikes on Transnistria to accuse Ukraine of attacking the unrecognized republic,” it said.

A Russian military strike caused “significant” damage to a regional hospital in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, video released by the Luhansk regional administration shows. 

CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video. 

The video begins with scenes of blown out windows in a hospital stairwell. As the individual taking the video climbs the stairs, more debris and damage are seen, including a door blown off its hinges.   

Once out of the stairwell a tangle of metal, drywall and debris is seen outside of a hospital room. In one room the windows have been blown out; the room next to it is missing an entire wall — there is a large hole in the building. 

Down a hallway, more debris strewn around hospitals beds is seen. 

Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said that a woman was killed in the military strike. CNN could not independently verify the fatality. 

“The Russians knew that the hospital was not vacant, and that there were patients with different conditions being treated by doctors,” Hayday said. “Even that didn’t stop them. In fact, the Orcs wanted to kill off the wounded and those trying to help these locals survive, their doctors.” 

Ukrainians frequently refer to Russian soldiers with the pejorative, “orcs,” likening them to the antagonist army of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy “Lord of the Rings.”

Hayday said that there are only two functioning hospitals left in the Luhansk oblast: this one in Severodonetsk and another in the nearby city of Lysychansk. 

He added that the regional hospital in Severodonetsk is continuing to operate, despite there being “significant” damage and several floors being damaged. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that any country interfering in Ukraine would be met with a “lightning-fast” response from Moscow.

“If someone intends to intervene into the ongoing events (in Ukraine) from the outside and creates unacceptable strategic threats for us, then they should know that our response to those strikes will be swift, lightning fast,” Putin said during an address to lawmakers in St Petersburg. 

“We have all the tools for this — ones that no one can brag about. And we won’t brag. We will use them if needed. And I want everyone to know this,” he added.

He did not provide further details on the “tools” he was referring to.  

“All the decisions have been made in this regard,” Putin told lawmakers, vowing to achieve “all the goals” of the Russian “special operation” in Ukraine.