April 29, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview posted Saturday that a highly anticipated counteroffensive against Russian troops is in the works and "will happen."

"There will be a counteroffensive," Zelensky said, while speaking to reporters from Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. A video of the interview was shared to his Telegram account.

Zelensky said he believes in the mission's success and that "we will be able to de-occupy our territories."

But the Ukrainian president said he is "not ready to say in detail when it will happen and how."

Ukraine is still in need of "certain weapons," he said, and the main risk for his troops is whether they will have enough of the ammunition they need.

"Weapons are decisive in the moments of de-occupation," Zelensky said.

Some background: Ukraine has made extraordinary efforts to conceal the start of its strategically vital counteroffensive.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar stated last week that the counteroffensive would not be announced.

Much of the focus of recent speculation centers on the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where Kyiv's forces could attempt to separate the Russia-annexed peninsula of Crimea from occupied territory in eastern Ukraine and the Russian mainland.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh contributed to this report.

The fire that started at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol in the early hours of Saturday has been largely contained, the Russian-backed governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said in an update on Telegram.

Early on Saturday, Razvozhaev said reports indicated the fire was caused by a drone attack.

Razvozhaev said the "open burning was extinguished in an area of 1000 square meters," praising firefighters who worked on it. 

No one was injured in the blaze, according to the governor.  

"The four fuel tanks that were hit, they are practically burnt out already," he said in an earlier video. 

Razvozhaev said the fire will not have an effect on fuel supply in Sevastopol, and the reserves were not used to supply fuel to gas stations. 

Some context: Crimea was declared annexed by Russia in 2014, and it is internationally recognized as being part of Ukraine.

An important port and a major naval base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol has endured multiple suspected Ukrainian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly vowed to "liberate" all of the country’s territory, including the Russian-occupied peninsula.

Svetlana Maniovich is a woman of expensive tastes: invite-only Parisian jewelers, couture clothing and yacht vacations on the Mediterranean.

The lifestyle isn’t unusual for people in her elite Russian circle, and her lavish spending has been on display on social media and in Russia’s society pages. But she’s no ordinary Moscow high-flyer.

Her former partner, Timur Ivanov, is a senior architect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a man who, on paper, reportedly has an official income of around $175,000 per year. He’s also the subject of European Union and American sanctions over the war on Ukraine.

Maniovich is the subject of an extensive investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), an investigative team founded by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

The ACF alleges it is Ivanov, and ill-gotten gains from his government position, that have funded Maniovich’s lifestyle.

Read the full story here.

New research has revealed the extent to which Iran has built a powerful weapons industry based on Western technology, and how that technology is being used by Russia against Ukrainian cities.

Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a UK-based organization which investigates weapons’ components, has established that the Shahed-136 drones sold to Russia by Iran are powered by an engine based on German technology – technology illicitly acquired by Iran almost 20 years ago.

The finding – made through detailed examination of components recovered in Ukraine and shared exclusively with CNN – underlines Iran’s ability to mimic and finesse military technology it has obtained illegitimately.

Western officials are also concerned that Russia may share Western-made weapons and equipment recovered on the Ukrainian battlefield with the Iranians.

So far, there’s no firm evidence that has happened.

Read the full story here.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said it delivered notes to the Polish and European Union representatives in Ukraine on Friday over the limiting of Ukrainian grain imports into some EU countries, calling the situation "unacceptable."

"Such restrictions, whatever the reasons, do not comply with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and the principles and norms of the EU Single Market," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. 

"There are all legal grounds for the immediate resumption of exports of Ukrainian agricultural goods to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Bulgaria, as well as for the continuation of unimpeded exports to other EU member states and, in general, unimpeded transit of all Ukrainian products to other countries both within and outside the EU," the statement said. 

The statement comes after several European countries, including Poland and Hungary, banned the imports of grain and other food products from Ukraine following a surge in cheap goods. The European Commission condemned the move, saying it was not for individual members to decide trade policy.

In its statement on Saturday, Ukraine's foreign ministry called for its partners to find a "balanced solution."

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has offered condolences to the families killed in Russian missile strikes on Friday, almost all of them victims of a cruise missile that struck an apartment building in the city of Uman.

He said Ukraine could “save people only with weapons. Air defense, modern aircraft, without which there is no fully effective air defense.”

Zelensky also mentioned what he called the “destructive” impact of bans on the import of Ukrainian grain by several European countries on the grounds that it was undercutting domestic prices.

A fuel tank is on fire in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, the Russian-backed governor of the annexed city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said on Telegram early Saturday.

Razvozhaev said the fire has spread to around 1,000 square meters and that initial reports indicate it was caused by a drone.

The fuel tank is in the Cossack Bay neighborhood, he said, adding response teams are working on site.

Five children are among the dead in the central Ukrainian city of Uman after a missile strike hit an apartment building, said Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine's minister of internal affairs.

Investigators and forensic experts have identified 22 of the at least 23 people killed in the attack early Friday, Klymenko said. 

He said identification revealed five children, including two boys, aged one and 16 years old, and three girls, aged 8, 11 and 14, were among those killed. 

The rubble is still being cleared, he added. 

Russia's attack on the central city is believed to be the deadliest on Ukrainian civilians in months.

The assault, which drew international condemnation, came around 4 a.m. local time, when a Russian aircraft launched a barrage of long-range cruise missiles in the Caspian Sea area, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated the country's call for F-16 fighter jet training from allies in a meeting with foreign ministers from eight countries Thursday.

Kuleba, during a joint news conference at the summit in Odesa, asked allies "to make every effort to speed up the decision to start training Ukrainian pilots on such aircraft."

Getting military training on how to maneuver the aircraft could be the first step in the country gaining access to the jets, Kuleba said.

Foreign ministers from Latvia, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and Finland attended the joint meeting.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, emphasized the need for advanced military equipment and pointed to the death toll in Friday's strike in Uman, which killed at least 22 people, including three children.

"Every day that the decision to supply Ukraine with modern combat aircraft is delayed means delaying the end of the war," he said in a tweet.

Some context: Ukraine has long lobbied for the US and other Western allies to send the country F-16s to help stunt Russia's invasion, but the fighter jets are sophisticated and can take months to learn how to fly.

The US and other Western allies have been skeptical of providing the jets to Ukraine. Russia has extensive anti-aircraft systems that could easily shoot the planes down, and some officials warn providing such equipment could be seen as provoking Russia.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand and Alex Marquardt contributed to this report.