April 29, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said a nuclear war must never be launched as there could be “no winners,” and he urged countries to adhere to this in an interview with the Dubai-headquartered news outlet Al Arabiya Friday.

Lavrov added that Russia had “been champions of making pledges by all countries never to start a nuclear war.”

When asked if the Russian army wants full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine to provide a land corridor to Crimea, Lavrov said, “the military means to achieve (Russia’s) goals is not for me to discuss” and said he deferred from discussion on “speculation.”

Lavrov also did not confirm, when asked, whether operations in the Donbas would end by May 9, Russia’s annual Victory Day, which some analysts and US officials have suggested could be a target date for Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a victory, instead saying: “They will be completed when the goals I just described to you have been implemented, have been achieved.”

Lavrov also downplayed the pressure of sanctions from Western governments on Russia.

“They don’t know history. Russia always had sanctions. This latest outrage and the wave of sanctions have shown the real face of the West … to believe this it will make Russia cry uncle and to beg for being pardoned … they don’t know anything about foreign policy of Russia or how to deal with Russia,” he said.

Mykhailo Puryshev spoke to CNN about how he organized convoys to help evacuate 200 people from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

He turned his night club into a bomb shelter and used his own van to move people outside of the city and bring food back inside.

Despite Puryshev’s van being badly damaged by shelling and gunfire, it didn’t stop him from continuing to conduct his rescue missions. He described witnessing people in desperation fighting to get the food and water they were passing out as the humanitarian aid was not enough for all those waiting.

“And they’re all there just fighting. During one of those trips actually they nearly turned my van over, and it was just a survival. I would watch and understand this is just survival happening near our vans which came with all the humanitarian aid and it was an absolutely horrible picture,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett via a translator.

“Frankly, a couple of times, I actually caught myself thinking that I do not want to come back. I do not want to see this again. And yet, I still kept coming back because I understood there wouldn’t be anyone else to do this,” he continued.

Puryshev said that as the bombs were coming and he was close to death, he feared not seeing his children again, but also kept thinking about the people that still needed his help and more trips that he needed to make.

“It is painful that this is the 21st century, that this is happening in our country. This is happening in my city. This is pain. This is pain of our country,” he told CNN.

Watch the interview:

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Rebecca Cabrera, the mother of an American citizen who was killed fighting alongside Ukrainians earlier this week, said her son had a “high moral value” and “wanted to do the right thing,” which is why he chose to join the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian invasion.

“He has made all of us proud doing what he felt in his heart was right, and ya know, everybody that he’s come in contact with in his life said that they were proud to serve next to him, to be a part of his life, and just everybody remember who he was, he was a hero, and he was doing the right thing,” Cabrera told CNN.

Cabrera last spoke with her son, Willy Joseph Cancel, last Thursday before he was killed on Monday.

“We got to FaceTime a little bit on Thursday, and I got to talk to some of the people in his unit,” Cabrera said. “The correspondence obviously was not a lot because the towers were being blown up and things like that, so we never knew when we would be able to talk to him but he tried communicating to us as much as he could.”

Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news of the American’s death, saying “it is very sad. He left a little baby behind.”

More background: The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed. The company sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel’s mother had 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 at the end of February. When the war broke out, the company was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

The White House press secretary today cautioned against Americans traveling to Ukraine to take up arms, saying the administration encourages Americans to find other ways to help.

CNN’s Sam Fossum and Maegan Vazquez contributed reporting to this post. 

It had been weeks of relative quiet in Kyiv when a couple of bangs and a plume of black smoke quickly changed that, CNN correspondent Matt Rivers reported.

Ukraine and Russia both confirmed cruise missiles were fired into a central district of Kyiv on Thursday evening, miles away from where the UN secretary general had wrapped up a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Rescuers worked through the night, Rivers reported, and in the morning, a clearer picture emerged of what happened. An apartment complex was shredded by shrapnel, leaving those in the neighborhood shaken. 

“This wall saved my life,” a resident of the destroyed apartment building, Larysa Poberezhna, said as Rivers translated her remarks. “Or otherwise, it would’ve been the end. There was a lot of fire. I could see everything was burning. I was so scared, it was horror.”

The woman told CNN she didn’t die because she wasn’t sitting near the window. Her son Alexi injured his hand, telling Rivers that there was “a clap and a blast, then panic. That’s it. I didn’t see it until later, I saw my hand was covered blood.”

Some of the residents in the neighborhood, however, did not survive. A 54-year-old Ukrainian journalist was killed in the strike.

Rivers reported that Russia’s Ministry of Defense said they were aiming for a factory near the apartment complex which is one of Ukraine’s top producers of air-to-air guided missiles as well as aircraft parts. 

“The factory was damaged in the strike, but so is that apartment complex just behind me.  Yet another example of Russia targeting places that have supposed military relevance, but killing ordinary civilians in the process,” Rivers reported from the site in Kyiv.

Watch the full report:

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US President Joe Biden and his advisers are still in conversations about how to approach November’s Group of 20 summit, whose hosts received confirmation Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend.

Biden has said Russia should be ejected from the G20. Senior members of his administration have walked out of G20 events where Russian delegates are present. And there were discussions with Indonesia, which is hosting the summit, about stepping up its condemnation of Russia.

But no decision on boycotting the leaders’ summit, still six months away, has been made. Officials said there wouldn’t likely be a decision in the near-term as they weigh the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.

“The President has expressed publicly his opposition to President Putin attending the G20,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

She said it was too early to say how the summit would look.

“It is six months away. So we don’t know how to predict, we can’t predict at this point, what that will look like,” she said, adding: “We’ve conveyed our view that we don’t think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well.” 

The White House is realistic the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks, since the decision would likely require consensus and China has been clear it doesn’t support such a move. That makes this a different scenario than when Russia was expelled from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea.

Psaki said the White House’s understanding was that Indonesia invited Putin to attend prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet in a statement, the country’s President stressed unity among the member countries.

“Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don’t let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy,” President Joko Widodo said in a statement from Indonesia’s Cabinet on Friday, confirming Putin had accepted his invitation to attend.

Read more:

Related article White House braces for potential showdown between Biden and Putin at G20

If you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine:

The leader of the Belarusian opposition called on the United States to enact sanctions on the government of Belarus that mirror those imposed on Moscow.

In meetings with the US State Department and members of Congress this week, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she discussed both strengthening future sanctions and closing loopholes on existing ones.

She also said she presented the US government with evidence of Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko’s involvement in the Russian war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Tsikhanouskaya said sanctions “must be the same on strength” as those imposed on Russia “but different in structure,” and should target state banks and state enterprises.

The opposition leader said she spoke with officials in Washington, DC, about ways of “making sanctions more effective, closing remaining loopholes, freezing Lukashenka’s assets and blocking the money given to him by the (International Monetary Fund).”

Tsikhanouskaya said suggested the use of secondary sanctions to close such loopholes.

“We see how Russia uses Belarus to circumvent their own sanctions,” she said, citing the example of steel.

She said sanctions are hitting the Lukashenko regime, however, citing what she described as letters from the Minister of Foreign Affairs seeking rapprochement sent in recent weeks.

Tsikhanouskaya met with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman – a meeting that was attended in part by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – as well as Jim O’Brien, head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department.

Tsikhanouskaya told reporters she gave O’Brien “documents with the evidence of Lukashenka’s involvement in the war against Ukraine, as well as the list of companies and countries that helped to circumvent the sanctions.”

She said that includes “massive evidence of launching missiles from our territory, movement of Russian equipment in the territory of Belarus.”

“It’s inside information about some internal orders about deployment of different Russian military equipment in our territory,” she continued. “So people have been collecting this information for the full period of the war. They are well documented and we passed this evidence to the government.”

Tsikhanouskaya said she does not believe that the Belarusian army participated in launching these missiles, and instead Lukashenko gave the land to Russian President Vladimir Putin to use as he wanted. 

“It’s already World War. We are so afraid of World War the third but it’s already going on,” she said. “It’s war between democracy and autocracy.”

US President Joe Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news that an American, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. 

“It is very sad. He left a little baby behind,” Biden told reporters at the White House while he was hosting a meeting.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier on Friday offered condolences to Cancel’s family and said the US government had not officially confirmed his death, cautioning Americans against traveling to Ukraine for any reason.

Cancel was killed Monday fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, members of Cancel’s family confirmed to CNN. The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on April 25. The company 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 at the end of February. When the war broke out, the company was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday offered condolences to the family of an American who was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, saying the US government had not officially confirmed his death. She cautioned Americans against traveling to Ukraine for any reason.

Willy Joseph Cancel, a 22-year-old veteran, was killed on Monday fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in Ukraine, members of Cancel’s family confirmed to CNN. Cancel working with a private military contracting company when he was killed. The company had sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera, said.

“Well, first of all, our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. … We don’t have official confirmation, even though we’ve seen the reports, but we have not had that official process through the government, so I can’t speak to other specifics about him beyond that,” Psaki said during the White House press briefing when asked by CNN’s MJ Lee about Cancel’s death.

She then cautioned against Americans traveling to Ukraine to take up arms.

“We know Americans are looking for ways to help and the reports about this individual were that he’s a veteran,” she said. “He had a child, I believe, and certainly sounded like a very passionate, young man. We know people want to help, but we do you encourage Americans to find other ways to do so … rather than traveling to Ukraine to fight.”

“It’s an active war zone. And we know Americans face significant risks, but certainly we know a family is mourning. A wife is mourning and our hearts are with them,” she continued. 

Psaki also reiterated that the administration’s advice “has been that Americans should not travel to Ukraine for any reason.”

The US State Department said Friday it was aware of reports of a US citizen killed while fighting in Ukraine but has no further information to add

Principal deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said the State Department stands “ready to provide all consular assistance to the family,” but out of respect for the family at this difficult time had nothing further to announce.

She also reiterated that the State Department continues to urge US citizens not to travel to Ukraine. Porter said she does not have an estimate of how many Americans have gone there to fight with the Ukrainian forces – the State Department does not require US citizens to register their whereabouts when going abroad.

CNN’s Christian Sierra and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Asked whether the Defense Department considers Russian President Vladimir Putin a “rational actor,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby got emotional speaking about Putin’s “depravity” in Ukraine.

“It’s difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious, mature leader would do that. So I can’t talk to his psychology. But I think we can all speak to his depravity,” said Kirby at a Pentagon news briefing before pausing for nearly 10 seconds.

Pressed on the characterization by CNN’s Barbara Starr, Kirby called Putin’s justifications for the invasion “BS,” at one point pounding on the podium for emphasis.

“It’s hard to square his … BS that this is about Nazism in Ukraine, and it’s about protecting Russians in Ukraine, and it’s about defending Russian national interests, when none of them, none of them were threatened by Ukraine,” said Kirby.

Kirby listed some of what he called “unconscionable” actions by Russian forces, including civilians being “shot in the back of the head, hands tied behind their backs. Women, pregnant women being killed, hospitals being bombed.” 

Kirby subsequently apologized for what he said was injecting his “personal perspective,” and would not elaborate further on the US assessment of Putin’s mental state.

Here’s the moment Pentagon press secretary John Kirby got emotional after a question about Putin’s actions in Ukraine:

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The White House conveyed privately to Indonesia that Russia should not be allowed to participate in this year’s G20 summit, though the country’s president announced Friday that President Vladimir Putin had accepted an invitation to attend.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted the summit was still six months away, and did not provide an update on whether President Biden would also participate. But she said his views were clear that Russia shouldn’t be there.

The White House’s understanding was that Indonesia invited Putin to attend prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she said.

Still, in a statement confirming Russia’s acceptance of the invite, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said, “Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don’t let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy.” 

Indonesia has also extended an invitation to Ukraine to participate as a guest, a step Psaki said the US welcomed, but she said it was too early to say how the summit would look.

“It is six months away. So we don’t know how to predict, we can’t predict at this point, what that will look like,” she said, adding, “We’ve conveyed our view that we don’t think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well.” 

Psaki said there were no indications Russia was willing to engage in serious diplomacy.

“There’s a lot that could happen between now and then, but we certainly haven’t seen an indication to date of Russia’s plan to participate in diplomatic talks constructively,” she said. “Our hope certainly is that will change because obviously diplomatic talks and conversations is the way to bring an end to this conflict and President Putin could end this tomorrow, could end this right now.”

The US has begun additional training for Ukrainian armed forces at US military installations in Germany, the Defense Department announced. 

“These efforts build on the initial artillery training that Ukraine’s forces already have received elsewhere, and also includes training on the radar systems and armored vehicles that have been recently announced as part of security assistance packages,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a news briefing with reporters.

Kirby said that Germany is one of “roughly three” sites being used by the US to train Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, but would not disclose the others.

He also said “the bulk of the training” will be conducted by the Florida National Guard who had been training Ukrainians before being repositioned out of Ukraine in February prior to the Russian invasion.

“The recent reunion now of these Florida National Guard members with their Ukrainian colleagues, we are told, was an emotional meeting, given the strong bonds that were formed as they were living and working together before temporarily parting ways in February,” Kirby said.

Meanwhile, a senior US defense official said Friday that “more than a dozen flights” carrying military assistance for Ukraine from the US are expected to arrive in the European region for transport into Ukraine “in the next 24 hours.”

Those flights will include shipments of “Howitzers, more 155 rounds, some of those Phoenix Ghost UAVs and even some of the radars that we talked about,” the official said.

This security assistance is all coming from US President Joe Biden’s latest presidential drawdown authority package, the official added, saying that 155 artillery rounds “continue to flow into Ukraine even over the last 24 hours.”

In the last 24 hours, “there have been almost 20 deliveries via airlift from seven different nations,” of security assistance, the official said.

CNN’s Ellie Kaufman contributed reporting to this post.

A railway bridge across the Siverskyi Donets river was blown up on Friday, new video shows. CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video. 

The bridge was located along a highway between the Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Lyman. A satellite image from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite shows the bridge intact on Thursday. 

Russian air strikes have pummeled infrastructure in Lyman, specifically targeting a railway hub that serves as a vital supply line for Ukrainian troops. On Friday, a senior US defense official told CNN that Russian forces are making “some incremental, uneven, slow advances” towards Sloviansk. 

A commander inside the Azovstal steel complex in the besieged city of Mariupol told CNN of the relentless bombardment of the plant, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been trapped for weeks. 

Sviatoslav Palamar of the Azov Regiment told CNN that there was intensive shelling of the Azovstal plant last night from both ships and aircraft.  

“At the same time they shell us from the ground,” he said. There had also been attempts to storm the area controlled by Ukrainian troops, he said, but they had been deflected. 

“On one side, the (Russians) had declared the silence and non-fighting mode, but on the parallel (at the same time) with infantry and equipment they try to storm the territory of the factory,” he told CNN.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his defense minister in Moscow that the plant should be sealed off but not stormed and said that those who choose to surrender should be treated in accordance with international conventions.  

Palamar told CNN that there were a lot of wounded fighters and more than 500 soldiers who needed guarantees that their lives would be saved. 

“We also have civilians that will be killed if they storm the factory,” he said. 

Palamar said that on Thursday morning, a shelter for the wounded at the plant was shelled.

“It’s very hard to provide medical help to our guys, because our surgical room was destroyed where the remaining medicine and surgical equipment was stored,” he told CNN.

Asked if the Ukrainian troops left inside Azovstal were ready to surrender, Palamar said: “We do not think about any scenarios of giving up. We only see it possible through a guarantee of third party politicians, leaders, possibly the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel or Turkey, a guarantee that would allow every soldier to leave in safety.” 

“We are ready to leave this territory because it is very hard and complicated to hold here with our personal weapons. We’re ready for extraction, possibly extraction to the territory of a third country but with our weapons in our hands,” he continued.

On the situation inside the plant: Palamar told CNN that there was not much food and water left for the plant’s defenders. He said they had a limited amount of ammunition. “We don’t have the possibility to destroy the aircraft and vessels that are shelling us,” he said.

Even so, he insisted: “We do not consider giving up or the conditions of giving up. We only consider guarantees of leaving the territory of the plant. If there is no other choice left but giving up, we won’t give up.” 

Palamar stressed that the soldiers in the plant wanted civilians who were sheltering there to be evacuated. 

“We asked for evacuation of the civilians. We’re talking to the whole world since March that international politicians or organization guarantee the safe extraction of civilians to Ukrainian territory. So if being asked whether we are ready for civilians to leave from here, we are not only ready but we ask that the civilians are saved first of all,” he told CNN.

Speaking about the Ukrainian government’s plan to evacuate civilians stranded in the plant, which was due to go into effect Friday, Palamar said he was aware of such a convoy that would come to Mariupol but could not speak further about it for security reasons. 

Palamar said that the soldiers and civilians were in separate parts of the Azovstal plant. They were in cellars and bunkers but some had been wounded. 

“There are cellars and bunkers that we cannot reach because they are under rubble. We do not know whether the people there are alive or not. There are children aged four months to 16 years. But there are people trapped in places that you can’t get to,” he told CNN.

Russian forces “appear to be advancing” toward Sloviansk and Baranivka, a senior US defense official said Friday, adding that they are making “some incremental, uneven, slow advances to the southeast and southwest of Izium,” in Ukraine. 

Russian forces “continue to use… long-range fires,” the official noted.

“What we see them doing is using artillery and some airstrikes in advance of their ground movements, and so their ground movements are fairly plotting, because a, the artillery and airstrikes that they are launching against Ukrainian positions are not having the effect that they want them to have — the Ukrainians are still able to resist. And b, they are still a little wary of getting out ahead of their supply lines,” the official added.

Authorities in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have urged people not to use their cars to save fuel for the military.

“Kyivites, if you have returned to the capital, please use public transport if possible. Those in safe places [outside Kyiv], please wait before coming back,” said Mykola Povoroznyk, deputy head of Kyiv City State Administration, adding that authorities are keeping the needs of the Ukrainian military and defenders in mind.

Povoroznyk said there are no problems with public transport network in the city, which was constantly expanding to provide transportation for residents returning to the capital.

The authorities in the capital have urged citizens not to return yet because of the continuing danger of missile attacks. At one point about one-third of Kyiv’s population was thought to have left.

The US believes Russia is attempting to disrupt the Ukrainian military’s ability to “replenish their own stores and to reinforce themselves,” according to a senior US defense official.

The official gave the example of attempted Russian attacks on electrical power facilities, which could hinder Ukrainian trains.

The US also believes that while recent strikes reportedly hit residential areas, they were intended for military production facilities, the official added.

Russian strikes in Odesa are possibly meant to pin down Ukrainian forces there and prevent them from reinforcing defenders in the Donbas region, according to the official.

The official also said that now 1,950 missiles have been launched by Russia against Ukraine since the invasion began in February, and that most of the ordnance being dropped against Mariupol is “dumb” ordnance that is not precision-guided, which suggests Russian forces are still having difficulty replenishing their precision-guided munitions.

Meanwhile, the US has also trained two groups of Ukrainian trainers so far on US artillery outside of Ukraine, according to the official, with the first group being “a little it more than 50” and the second group being “around 50.”

The US has also trained a group of about 15 Ukrainians on the US radar systems that are being provided to Ukraine, with more groups of a yet to be determined number to be trained in the future, the official said.

US training for Ukrainians will “go on for as long as it needs to go on,” the official added.

The US is helping transport some Ukrainians already outside of Ukraine for training and returning them to locations outside of Ukraine so they can reenter Ukraine, according to the official, who stressed that all US transportation of Ukrainian trainers “starts and ends outside of Ukraine.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a tweet Friday that the UN will not give up and would redouble its efforts to save lives and reduce human suffering in Ukraine.

His tweet came after his visit to Ukraine and meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday. He also visited to Moscow on Tuesday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During a news conference in Kyiv with Zelensky, Guterres urged for evacuation corridors to be open in Mariupol, saying, “Today the people of Mariupol are in desperate need of such an approach. Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis,” and added “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.”

US intelligence has assessed that Russian intelligence was behind a recent attack in Moscow on a Nobel Prize winner and independent Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov who has spoken publicly in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The editor of the independent Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, was attacked while traveling on a train from Moscow to Samara on April 7 by an unknown assailant who doused the train compartment with red oil paint mixed with acetone.

“Eyes burn terribly,” Muratov said in a statement posted to the paper’s website. The assailant shouted, “Muratov, here’s to you for our boys,” in an apparent reference to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, he wrote. 

“The United States can confirm that Russian intelligence orchestrated the 7 April attack on Novaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief Dmitriy Muratov, in which he was splashed with red paint containing acetone,” a US official said in a statement. 

The US official did not provide details on how the US reached its assessment, nor did this person provide details on which arm of Russian intelligence had arranged the attack. 

A spokesperson for Novaya Gazeta appeared to cast doubt on the US assessment in a statement to CNN.  

“We have established the attackers, so it is now [sic] clear what prevents the Ministry of Internal Affairs from opening it,” said the paper’s spokesperson Nadezhda Prusenkova. “We don’t know if there is a ‘stinking unit’ in intelligence that is involved in such attacks. But we have experience of such attacks on the editorial office, and it was still not intelligence back then.”

Prusenkova noted that “the attack has yet to be prosecuted” and called for a criminal case to be opened. 

Days prior to the attack, Novaya Gazeta had suspended its operations until the end of the war in Ukraine, amid mounting pressure from Russian authorities and a wartime censorship law that threatened up to 15 years in prison for publishing what Russia terms “fake” news about the conflict. 

CNN has reached out to the Russian embassy for comment.

The Washington Post first reported the US assessment. 

US President Joe Biden and his advisers are still in conversations about how to approach November’s G20 summit, whose hosts received confirmation Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend.

Biden has said Russia should be ejected from the G20. Senior members of his administration have walked out of G20 events where Russian delegates are present. And there were discussions with Indonesia, who is hosting the summit, about stepping up its condemnation of Russia and how to approach the sticky situation.

But no decision on boycotting the leaders’ summit, still six months away, has been made. And officials are weighing the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.

“The President has been clear about his view: This shouldn’t be business as usual, and that Russia should not be a part of this,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. “But, again, it’s six months away.”

White House aides are realistic the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks, since the decision requires consensus and China has been clear they don’t support such a move. That makes this a different scenario than when Russia was expelled from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea.

That sets up a potentially complicated summit on the Indonesian island Bali, which is scheduled to begin in the beginning of November. White House officials have mulled a number of different scenarios, including potentially sending a lower-level delegation or participating remotely. But Biden attending in person is still considered the likeliest outcome, even if Putin is also there.

NATO fighter jets stationed in both the Baltic and Black Sea regions scrambled “multiple times over the past four days” to track and intercept Russian aircraft near alliance airspace, according to a statement posted by NATO’s Allied Air Command.

NATO radars tracked a number of unidentified aircraft over the Baltic and Black Sea since Tuesday. NATO noted that Russian aircraft often “do not transmit a transponder code indicating their position and altitude, do not file a flight plan, or do not communicate.”

In the Baltic region, fighter jets from Poland, Denmark, France and Spain were used at various times to intercept and identify approaching aircraft. In the Black Sea region, aircraft from Romania and the UK were used to investigate tracks of unknown aircraft approaching allied airspace, the statement said. There is no indication that US aircraft participated in the interceptions.

NATO said that the Russian aircraft never entered the alliance’s airspace, and the “interceptions were conducted in a safe and routine manner.”

Norway has said it is following the European Union’s fifth sanctions package on Russia and will introduce a ban on Russian road transport and Russian vessels being allowed to dock.

In a statement Friday, Anniken Huitfeldt, the Norwegian minister of foreign affairs, said, “We know that sanctions work best when several countries agree on them,” and “with this, we are implementing the EU’s fifth and final sanctions package.”

“The sanctions are our most important means of pressure against the Russian regime” and it is “crucial that we stand with the EU and other countries to continue to weaken Russia’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine,” she said.

A news release from the Norwegian government announced that starting on May 7, “there will be a ban on port calls for Russian-flagged vessels,” including commercial ships, yachts, some pleasure craft and recreational vessels.

Due to the special agreement between Norway and Russia on the management and conservation of fish stocks in the Barents Sea, the ban will not include fishing vessels, search and rescue vessels or research vessels, according to the news release. 

“The ban on freight transport by road will apply to transport companies established in Russia and apply immediately,” the news release added. 

The European Union adopted a fifth round of sanctions against Russia on April 8. 

Norway is part of the European Economic Area which gives the country access to the European Union’s internal market, but the country does not have to adopt EU foreign policy or rules on justice and home affairs.

Two regions of Russia that border Ukraine — Kursk and Bryansk — said that their territory has been shelled.

“The morning in the border [town] of Rylsk was restless. At about 8:00am, mortars fired at the checkpoint in the village of Krupets,” the Kursk region Gov. Roman Starovoit said in Telegram post Friday morning local time.

According to Starovoit, “the firing points were suppressed by the return fire of [Russian] border guards and the military.” There were no casualties or destruction, he added.

The head of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said the border department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) had reported shelling in the village of Belaya Berezka, allegedly carried out from Ukrainian territory.

“On April 29, a branch of the border department of the FSB of Russia in the Bryansk region in the village of Belaya Berezka, Trubchevsky district, was subjected to mortar fire from the territory of Ukraine,” Bogomaz said in a Telegram post on his official channel Friday. He said there were no casualties.

Water and electricity networks were damaged as a result of the shelling in the Bryansk region, Bogomaz added.

The mayor of Mariupol said that more than 600 people were injured in Russian bombing that struck the makeshift hospital facility within the besieged Azovstal steel complex.

“You already know that they dropped bombs on the hospital, aerial bombs destroyed the hospital, and that is a sign of a war crime, because the number of wounded before that was 170, and now it is over 600,” the mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said on Ukrainian television.

The Azovstal plant was heavily bombed on Wednesday night, according to multiple accounts.

Boichenko also claimed that the Russians had set up four “filtration” centers in the city where those who want to be evacuated are screened.

“If someone leaves the city and he is, in one way or another, connected with the civil service, with the municipal service, they get the sad news that they go to prison. Such people are being held and tortured there,” he claimed.

CNN cannot verify the mayor’s allegations.

He said some families who wanted to leave for Ukrainian territory were being forced to go to Russian-controlled areas.

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of threatening global food security by stealing wheat, and there’s a continued military bombardment across the east of the country. There’s fresh hope for civilians trapped inside a steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, however.

Here are the latest developments:

Ukrainian officials say a town near Kharkiv has been recaptured from the Russians.

Kostiantyn Nemichev, an official at the Kharkiv Regional State Administration and a member of the Azov regiment, said Ukrainian forces had liberated the settlement of Ruska Lozova, which is just north of Kharkiv. In recent weeks, the Ukrainians say they’ve liberated several towns and villages in the area. 

“This is a strategically important settlement located on the Kharkiv-Belgorod highway. It was from this suburb, during the occupation, that the enemy fired at the civilian infrastructure and housing estates of Kharkiv,” Nemichev said.

Nemichev’s comments were echoed by the Ukrainian military, which said Friday that the town had been liberated by the assault unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. 

The Russians, however, are still able to shell Kharkiv and its immediate surroundings. 

Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said the intensity of shelling had lessened. “However, it’s still quite dangerous to be outside in the streets. Unfortunately, we record civilian deaths every day,” he said.

“Kharkiv shellings are chaotic. Usually the residential districts are affected, these are Saltivka, Northern Saltivka, Oleksiivka,” he said, adding that electrical power was lost in several districts.

Syniehubov said that in the south of the Kharkiv region, the area around Izium — which is held by the Russians — remains the “hottest” spot. He said Ukrainian forces were holding their positions.

He said evacuations continued from several towns within range of Russian artillery fire, including Barvinkove, “as we expect there might be a theater of combat operations there.”

Syniehubov also claimed that a Russian military unit accused of atrocities in the town of Bucha north of Kyiv had now redeployed to Kharkiv region. “It was partially eliminated nearby Izium. With these people taken captive, we will do everything for them to be punished accordingly, or at least to testify about their commanders who gave orders for such atrocities that took place in Bucha.”

The Russian economy is expected to shrink by 8 to 10% in 2022, according to new estimates from the Russian Central Bank.

It said economic activity began to decline in March 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine and sanctions were imposed. The bank said there has been a contraction in consumer and business activity, and a decline in imports and exports.

It said businesses in Russia are now experiencing considerable difficulties in production and logistics. In a statement, the bank said: “The external environment for the Russian economy remains challenging and significantly constrains economic activity.”

Earlier this month, the World Bank predicted that Russian GDP would contract by 11.2% in 2022 while last week, the IMF forecast a contraction of around 8.5% this year. 

The Central Bank said the Russian economy will not start to recover until the end of 2023. In its statement, it said: “In 2023, the Russian economy will begin growing gradually amid a structural transformation.

“In 2023 Q4, output will be up by 4.0 to 5.5% on the same period in 2022. However, the overall GDP change in 2023 will be within the range of (-3.0)-0.0%”

The forecasts came as the Central Bank cut Russian interest rates from 17% to 14%. It said slowing consumer activity and the recovery in the ruble has eased the rate of inflation in the country slightly.

Price increases are still expected to remain high though, the bank is now forecasting inflation of 18 to 23% in 2022, slowing down to 5-7% in 2023.

The South Korean embassy to Ukraine will “soon” return to Kyiv, “considering the fact that the situation near Kyiv is stabilizing,” the country’s foreign ministry announced on Friday.

The ministry explained the move is “for smooth cooperation with the Ukrainian government” and the protection of South Korean nationals in the country. It said the exact timing of the move will be decided by the head of the embassy, in consideration of the safety of the embassy staff.

Several other countries, including the UK, Spain, Italy and France, have also announced plans to reopen embassies in the capital city. Slovenia reopened its embassy in Kyiv on March 28, according to Slovenia’s Foreign Ministry. 

South Korea’s embassy moved out of Kyiv on March 2 due to the escalation of violence near the capital region and has been operating from temporary offices in the Ukrainian cities of Lviv – which later closed on March 18 – and Chernivtsi, as well as Romania, according to its foreign ministry. 

The ministry also announced Friday that the South Korean government will provide an additional $50 million USD worth of non-combat support to Ukraine through the NATO-Ukraine trust fund, raising its total support for the country to about $1 billion USD.

The Pentagon launched a highly classified operation that would have allowed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to maintain his secretarial authorities during his trip to Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

None of Austin’s powers, which range from advising US President Joe Biden in a nuclear crisis to ordering troops overseas if the US was attacked, were needed to be used during the excursion.

However, efforts to equip Austin with such powers as a precautionary measure were significant. The package of gear was similar in capabilities to what the Defense Secretary uses when he travels, but was specially modified for the unique war zone of Ukraine, according to an administration official.

During Austin’s train journey to Kyiv, as well as his three-hour meeting, he was not receiving extensive real-time global intelligence as he does when he is in the Pentagon or on a US military base. But he was reachable the entire time and could respond to any crisis, the official added.

When asked if the powers that Austin retained on the trip made him ready for involvement in the launch of nuclear weapons, the Pentagon declined to offer details of what equipment was used and how those arrangements worked while Austin was in an active war zone.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby would only say “at no time was Secretary Austin unable to execute his authorities in the chain of command.” That statement is meant to include the secretary’s authorities on nuclear weapons, the official said.

If President Biden decides to visit Ukraine at some point the newly modified package of gear could form part of the basis a new suite of communications equipment, though the official points out presidential travel involves a number of personnel and equipment.

The most important part of a presidential travel effort is the military aide that carries the so-called nuclear football, which is a case of classified gear and coded material to assist the President in the event a decision is made to launch a nuclear weapon. 

Austin was able to maintain all of his military and national security authorities without interruption, using just the two staffers who traveled with him into Ukraine. They were Lt. Gen. Randy George, his senior military assistance, and Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs.

This means Austin traveled with highly classified communications equipment and had the continuous capability to be in touch with key national security and military officials. US reconnaissance and intelligence gathering aircraft maintain an almost continuous presence over NATO’s eastern flank, but is not clear what role those capabilities may have played.

The situation inside the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol is “beyond a humanitarian catastrophe,” a Ukrainian commander inside the facility told CNN.

Maj. Serhiy Volyna, commander of Ukraine’s 36th Separate Marine Brigade, spoke to CNN on Friday from inside the steel works, explaining that there are hundreds of people inside the plant, including 60 young people, the youngest of which is four months old.

The Azovstal plant has become the last vestige of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol, with it holding out against Russian invasion for almost two months.

The pocket of entrenched Ukrainian fighters and civilians sheltering at the plant has become a symbol of the country’s defiance.

Volyna explained that because of a recent Russian strike against the plant’s field hospital, they have been left without vital medical equipment, while also revealing that they “have very little water, very little food left.”

“The operating theatre was hit directly. And all the operating equipment, everything that is necessary to perform surgery has been destroyed so right now, we cannot treat our wounded, especially those with shrapnel wounds and with bullet wounds,” he said.

Volyna added: “We are looking after the wounded right now with whatever tools we have. We have our army medics and they’re using every skill they have to look after the wounded. And right now, we don’t have any surgical tools but we have some basics. But also, we are in dire need of medication. We have almost no medication left.”

According to a statement from the Ukrainian president’s office on Friday, an operation to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol is planned for Friday. The statement gave no further details.

When asked about a possible evacuation plan, Volyna said he didn’t “know the details.”

“I know that the mission has arrived in Zaporizhzhia and that they are going to try and mount a rescue operation.”

Volyna said that he is in direct communication with President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that the Ukrainian leader was briefing them “on the situation in Ukraine as a whole and around Mariupol,” as well as “keeping our spirits high.”

A Ukrainian official said on Friday that Russian forces have closed off an area in Mariupol, potentially ahead of another attempt to storm the Azovstal steel plant.

And Volyna isn’t sure how long he and his fellow Ukrainian’s can resist Russia’s attacks for.

“We cannot tell you for sure how long we can hold on for,” he said. “That all depends on the enemy movements and also on luck. We have great hopes that we will be evacuated, that the president will succeed in either evacuating or extracting us and we’ll just have to hope and see if that happens.” 

Watch the interview:

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 A Ukrainian journalist has died as a result of a missile attack on Kyiv’s Artem plant, according to a Kyiv police spokesperson. Vira Hyrych, 54, was identified in a rescue operation early Friday after the Kyiv mayor initially reported no casualties. 

A friend of Hyrych’s told CNN that she worked as a journalist for Radio Liberty in the Ukrainian capital. Iryna Androsova, also a Radio Liberty journalist, said Hyrych’s body was found in her apartment on the second floor of a building next to the factory. 

Six people have been hospitalized with injuries and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the explosion and subsequent fire. Residents of a building opposite the factory told CNN they heard several explosions followed by a fire and saw some neighbors injured by shattered glass. 

The Russian defense ministry confirmed the attack on Friday. 

“High-precision, long-range air-based weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in Kiev,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a daily video briefing posted on the defense ministry’s social media channels. 

Artem factory is Ukraine’s leading manufacturer of aircraft parts and air-to-air guided missiles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation to attend the G20 summit that will be held on the Indonesian island of Bali in November, the country’s President Joko Widodo said in a statement Friday. 

“Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don’t let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy,” Widodo said in the statement from Indonesia’s Cabinet.

Widodo also extended an invitation earlier this week to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who tweeted he was “grateful” for the invite, but did not specify whether he would attend the summit.

Earlier this week, Widodo spoke with Putin and Zelensky in separate phone calls, during which he conveyed to Putin the importance of ending the war in Ukraine “immediately” and Indonesia’s desire to contribute to a peaceful resolution to the conflict, according to the statement.

Widodo said he conveyed to Zelensky Indonesia’s readiness to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine but not military assistance, which he said is prohibited by Indonesia’s constitution and its foreign policy principles.

Sweden and Finland could deepen their military cooperation if the security situation in the Baltic Sea region deteriorates generally or is triggered by a potential application to join NATO, Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Friday.

But, standing alongside his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde at a Helsinki news conference, Haavisto said that neither country has decided yet whether to apply for NATO membership. Russia has previously warned that such a move could lead to a more aggressive stance from Moscow. 

“We already have ongoing cooperation. Of course, if our security environment becomes more challenging of course we can add bilateral planning, and it includes all sectors on military cooperation,” Haavisto said.

On the question of NATO membership, Linde said: “We have not come to a conclusion yet in Sweden.” No decision will be made before May 13, when an analysis report from Parliament on membership is due to be delivered, she added.

Haavisto said it would be “important” that both countries make a decision on joining NATO “in the same direction and in the same timeframe,” while “fully respecting” the independence of their respective decision-making over the issue.

On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the accession process would “go quickly” and interim measures would be put in place should Finland and Sweden decide to apply to join the alliance.

Russia has threatened serious consequences should the countries do so, with the Kremlin saying on April 7 it would have to “rebalance the situation” if they did.

Finland joining NATO would add an additional 830-mile border between the alliance and Russia.

Russian troops have shelled an important railway hub and supply line for Ukrainian troops in the country’s east, according to video footage published on Thursday and Friday.

The video shows railroad trucks on fire in the town of Lyman, a few miles east of Sloviansk, in Donetsk region.

The Russians were trying “to advance from the north of the region, neighbouring Kharkiv region – in the Lyman direction, and do everything possible to get a direct route towards Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, reaching their strategic goals in the Donetsk region,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk regional military administration.

Kyrylenko insisted that “the enemy cannot break through. Lyman city is under the Ukrainian Armed Forces control.”

However, he said the Russians were using artillery and airstrikes to wipe out settlements and prevent the Ukrainian defenders from fortifying their positions.

Excluding the city of Mariupol, nearly 1.7 million people had lived in government-controlled parts of Donetsk on the eve of the war, Kyrylenko added. Now there are about 370,000 civilians in the region.

Some background: Lyman has come under bombardment as Russian troops continue their military offensive across Ukraine’s eastern regions.

On Friday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces said that Russian forces are also trying to inflict air strikes in eastern Ukraine.

The Izium area, located in the Kharkiv region, has become a staging ground for Russian forces as they try to advance through neighboring Donetsk and Luhansk. No offensive operations in that area have been conducted in recent hours, said the Ukrainian military.

“The main effort was focused on reconnaissance, identification of defensive positions of the units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine and hitting them with artillery fire,” the General Staff said.

Further southeast, “in order to prevent the redeployment of our troops, the enemy is shelling the positions with artillery, mortars and multiple rocket launchers along the entire line of contact,” it added.

CNN’s Julia Kesaieva contributed reporting to this post.

The UK will send a team of war crime experts to Ukraine to help investigate “atrocities” by Russian troops in the country, British officials have said.

They will arrive in Poland next week to meet the Ukrainian government, international partners, NGOs and refugees, according to a statement from the Foreign Office (FCDO).

The aim is to help gather evidence to prosecute Russian war crimes, the FCDO said on Friday.

The team will include experts in conflict related sexual violence, following reports of abuse by Russian forces in Ukraine. 

The news comes as UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss travels to the Hague on Friday to meet with the International Criminal Court (ICC) President, Judge Piotr Hofmanski. Truss will also work with her Dutch counterpart, Wopke Hoekstra, during her visit to jointly hold Russia to account, the statement added.

“Russia has brought barbarity to Ukraine and committed vile atrocities, including against women,” Truss said in the statement.

UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab also visited the Hague in March to support the ICC’s investigations as well as a report produced under the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Moscow Mechanism), which found evidence of torture, rape and forced deportation of more than half a million people in Ukraine.

Some background: The announcement comes three days after the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, told CNN that here will be “a case to answer in due course” on Russia’s alleged war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

“We will get to the truth because there’s no place to hide in the courtroom. Whatever the narratives and counter-narratives, the evidence should properly be tested … and there will be – I think – a case to answer in due course,” Khan told CNN’s Anderson Cooper during a wide-ranging interview, when asked how the ICC might build a case in Ukraine. 

Khan made the comments while reviewing images shared with CNN by Ukrainian prosecutors, as they investigate alleged Russian war crimes. 

Russian forces have closed off an area in Mariupol, potentially ahead of another attempt to storm the Azovstal steel plant, a Ukrainian official has said.

“For now, the occupiers closed the square of the Left Bank district from Veselka Park again. This may be due to another attempt to storm Azovstal or street fights,” said Petro Andrushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol.

Veselka Park is situated to the north of Azovstal.

Andrushchenko also spoke about Russian efforts to take over more government functions in Mariupol.

He said the Russians’ allies in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic were trying to “nationalize” Ukrainian property, such as the port.

On Thursday, DPR head Denis Pushilin said the seaport was being cleared and reconstruction begun, and “the port will be fully functional, we plan to make the first shipment in May.”

Andrushchenko also said the Russians were also beginning a property census in parts of Mariupol, “despite public objections.”

The census will assess the state of high-rise buildings in the southern port city, as well as surviving apartments and their owners, he said.

“Yesterday in Mariupol the occupiers issued the first birth certificate for the last month. For the first time in Mariupol, a Russian terrorist satellite has officially stolen the citizenship of our Ukrainian child,” Andrushchenko added.

Andrushchenko comments came hours after the Ukrainian President’s office said renewed efforts would be made to get civilians out of the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Some background: In recent days Russian forces have stepped up attacks on the sprawling Azovstal industrial complex, as part of their efforts to fully capture Mariupol.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding which owns the plant, described the scene as “a humanitarian disaster.”

“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,” Ryzhenkov told CNN.

Built in 1933 under Soviet rule, the plant was partially demolished during the Nazi occupation in the 1940s before being rebuilt.

Now it is gone again – its carcass sheltering Ukrainian soldiers and around 1,000 civilians in a maze of underground chambers, according to Ukrainian officials.

Azovstal has since become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance against Russia’s unrelenting military assault on Ukraine.

CNN’s Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Isa Soares, Madalena Araujo and Oleksandra Ochman contributed reporting to this post.

Two British male volunteers have been abducted by Russian forces in Ukraine as they were evacuating civilians, Dominik Byrne, the co-founder, and chief operating officer of the UK not-for-profit, Presidium Network, told CNN Friday.

The aid workers lost contact with the organization on Monday morning as they were traveling somewhere south of the city of Zaporizhzhia in central Ukraine to help organize a civilian evacuation of the area.

Neither work directly with Presidium Network, but the organization had been offering them support, according to Byrne. 

A family the two men had tried to evacuate from Zaporizhzhia were later taken in and interrogated by Russian soldiers, who asked them whether the volunteers were “British spies,” Bryne told CNN. 

The family were eventually released and are now safe in Poland, Bryne added. 

CNN has reached out to the British Foreign Office for comment.

Multiple reports of abductions by Russian forces – including those of local mayors, children, religious leaders, and journalists – have surfaced since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine more than two months ago. 

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 pocket of Ukrainian fighters entrenched at the plant has become a symbol of the country’s unwavering resistance in the face of an enemy that far outnumbers them.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding which owns the plant, is devastated by what he sees happening to the plant and to Mariupol.

“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,” Ryzhenkov says.
“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.”

Read the full story here:

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 accused Russian forces of “robbing” wheat from parts of the country they have occupied, a move which increases the threat to global food security.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement reported by Reuters: “The looting of grain from the Kherson region, as well as the blocking of shipments from Ukrainian ports and the mining of shipping lanes, threaten the world’s food security.”

The ministry demanded that Russia stops “the illegal theft of grain, unblock Ukrainian ports, restore freedom of navigation and allow the passage of merchant ships.”

“The United Nations estimates that about 1.7 billion people may face poverty and hunger due to food disruptions as a result of a full-scale war waged by Russia against Ukraine,” the ministry added.

Asked about the allegations by Reuters, the Kremlin said it had no information on the matter.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces also claimed Friday that Russian troops were “robbing” wheat stocks, as heavy fighting continues in the country’s eastern and southern regions.

“The Russian occupiers are robbing the villagers,” said the General Staff. “Thus, for example, over 60 tons of wheat together with the cargo trucks were stolen from the agricultural cooperative in the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska.”

CNN is unable to verify these allegations independently. 

Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the southern city of Melitopol, which has been held by Russian troops for weeks, also spoke about the removal of grain stocks.

“Today it has moved to an industrial scale,” he said. “Yesterday we published a video of a convoy of 50+ cars with trailers taking grain out of our occupied territories … And today we do not know where they sent it.”

The area around Melitopol produces substantial cereal crops.

The wheat crisis: Ukraine is known as the “breadbasket of Europe,” and is a key source of wheat and corn – especially for countries in the Middle East and North Africa that depend on imports. The likely wholesale disruption of its harvest this year could be a disaster, leaving these countries in short supply – and driving up prices for important agricultural goods.

A checkpoint in the Russian village of Krupets, Kursk, was hit by incoming shelling and mortar fire, said the regional governor in a Telegram post on Friday.  

“This morning in the Rylsky district near the border was not peaceful. Around 8:00 a.m. (local time) a checkpoint in the village of Krupets was shelled with mortar fire. The firing points were suppressed by retaliatory fire from our border guards and the military,” said Gov. Roman Starovoyt.

He added that “there are no casualties or damage.” 

The Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, has been the site of several recent attacks, according to Starovoyt. He also claimed Kursk saw incoming fire on Wednesday, and that two Ukrainian drones were shot down over the village of Borovskoye on Monday. 

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Ukraine of mounting cross-border attacks on fuel depots and military installations, claims which Ukrainian government agencies say are intended to stoke “anti-Ukrainian sentiment.”

An operation to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol is planned for Friday, according to a statement from the Ukrainian president’s office on Friday.

The statement gave no further details.

Hundreds of civilians are thought to be trapped in the sprawling complex on the eastern outskirts of Mariupol, which was heavily bombed by Russian aircraft on Wednesday night and has faced relentless shelling for weeks.

United Nations gets involved: On Thursday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged humanitarian corridors be opened in Mariupol.

Guterres said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed “in principle” for the UN and the Red Cross to be involved in evacuating civilians from the steel plant, and that he had held “intense discussions” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make evacuation from Mariupol a reality.  

“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 a press conference alongside Zelensky.

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

Heavy shelling by Russian forces is continuing along “the entire line of contact” in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to the Ukrainian military.

Russians troops are also trying to inflict air strikes in certain areas, said the General Staff of the Armed Forces on Friday.

The Izium area of eastern Ukraine, located in the Kharkiv region, has become a staging ground for Russian forces as they try to advance through neighboring Donetsk and Luhansk. No offensive operations in that area have been conducted in recent hours, said the Ukrainian military.

“The main effort was focused on reconnaissance, identification of defensive positions of the units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine and hitting them with artillery fire,” said the General Staff.

Further southeast, “in order to prevent the redeployment of our troops, the enemy is shelling the positions with artillery, mortars and multiple rocket launchers along the entire line of contact,” it added.

The General Staff also claimed that Ukrainian troops “repelled nine enemy attacks, destroyed six tanks, one artillery system, twenty armored vehicles” in Donetsk and Luhansk on Thursday.

Cutting off Russian pathways: An important bridge in southern Ukraine, which connects Russian-occupied Crimea with the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, has been destroyed, CNN reported on Thursday. Melitopol has been held by Russian forces since early March.

Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov confirmed on Ukrainian television that Ukrainian special forces were responsible for cutting off the crucial bridge.

“Yesterday our military forces of special operation blew up the bridge, which was of great logistical importance for the occupiers, because with the help of this bridge they transported military equipment to the stations of Melitopol and Novobohdanivka,” he said.

Fedorov also accused Russian occupiers of carrying out “mass abduction,” saying they were “kidnapping” men of conscription age. This allegation can’t be independently confirmed.

A fuel depot in part of the eastern Donetsk region controlled by Russian-backed forces was attacked by the Ukrainian military and set on fire during the night, a local official said. 

Several social media videos showed the blaze in the depot in the Kirovsky district.

Alexei Kulemzin, the head of the separatist Donetsk administration, said that “as a result of shelling of Kirovsky district by Ukrainian shells, a tank at the oil depot…was damaged.” 

He said four transformer sub-stations had been damaged.

Some background: Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the incident, but the fire is one of several that have taken place recently at Russian-controlled fuel and ammunition depots.

​Novovorontsovka, Ukraine: The changing shape of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine can be seen here along the banks of the Dnipro River. 

The eastern side has been controlled for weeks by Russian forces – but now they are pushing to seize the western side. The prize: To control the strategically significant river that winds from Russia through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea.

After the failure of Russia’s fierce first assault, Moscow has shifted to a grinding and more methodical strategy to expand control of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk while carving out a territory along Ukraine’s southern coast.

The impact is visible in the small town of Novovorontsovka. A handful of Russian tanks are about a kilometer away across the river, pushing and probing – but so far kept at bay by Ukrainian forces.

But the signs of destruction and death are everywhere. A small motorboat sits damaged on the river bank. On April 7, four civilians were killed by Russian fire after more than a dozen got on board to flee the Russian occupation.

And more civilians are fleeing. On Thursday morning, a group of women gathered outside Novovorontsovka, having escaped Russian-controlled territory.

“We ran, ran, early in the morning,” a woman named Luda told CNN. “They didn’t let us out. We’re shields for them.”

The Russians took whatever they needed, including cars, she said. They drew Zs on everything, Luda said, a reference to the pro-war symbol that has been emblazoned on Russian military equipment.

“They say they’ve come to liberate us, these aggressors,” Luda added. “They say America is fighting here, but using the hands of Ukrainians to do it.”

Nearby, despite the threat of rocket fire, Ludmilla was raking the soil to plant onions. Her children have left, she said, but she’s staying behind with her 80-year-old mother.

Even though the windows of her home have been blown out, Ludmilla said she won’t leave.

“I’m here until victory,” she said.

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. 

Here are the latest updates on the war in Ukraine:

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. 

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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!’” 

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Alex Marquardt and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.

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

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.”