April 1, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Around 2,000 civilians are now on buses heading from the coastal city of Berdyansk to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia, carrying civilians evacuating from the besieged port of Mariupol. 

CNN is at the hub in Zaporizhzhia where the evacuees will arrive and then be processed.

"The evacuation convoy left Berdyansk for Zaporizhzhia," Mariupol city council said in a statement on Telegram. "Many private vehicles have joined the 42 buses escorted by Red Cross and SES (State Emergency Service) vehicles. Today we expect the arrival of a record number of Mariupol residents." 

More than 100,000 residents remain trapped in the southern port city, according to officials.

The Czech Republic has seen more than a quarter of a million Ukrainian refugees apply for special long-term visas since the start of the Russian invasion, according to the Czech Ministry of the Interior.

A total of 251,713 Ukrainians have applied to stay in the country since late February, according to the latest ministry figures released Thursday.

On Thursday, 2,909 refugees registered with Czech authorities. That number dropped below the seven-day average of 3,554 arrivals per day.

As Ukrainians do not require visas for entry to the Czech Republic, the number of refugees in the country is likely to be considerably higher, a Czech Ministry of Interior press officer told CNN.

A column of buses evacuating civilians from the Russian-held city of Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia had departed Friday, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

"About 500 people are on buses departing from Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia," Tymoshenko said on Telegram. "About 300 private cars joined the evacuation column."

Fedorov said more than 1,000 people had assembled near an exit point to wait for the evacuation.

"I assure those thousands of Melitopol residents who wanted to, but for various reasons could not evacuate today, our team will not stop!" he said. "We are already forming another humanitarian convoy, which will soon deliver the necessary aid to Melitopol and pick up people from the city on the way back."

The conflict following Russia's invasion of Ukraine has now entered its sixth week. Here are the latest developments:

Blaze at a fuel depot: A huge fire has broken out at a fuel depot in Belgorod, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, and Russia says an air strike from Ukrainian helicopters is to blame. CNN is so far unable to verify this claim and the Ukrainian defense ministry told CNN it has no information about the incident. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday that the purported strike could have a potential negative impact on negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow. Talks between the two nations are due to resume Friday.

Mariupol evacuations: Around 2,000 civilians are on buses heading from the coastal city of Berdyansk to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia, carrying civilians evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol. CNN is at the hub in Zaporizhzhia where the people will be processed. More than 100,000 civilians remain trapped in Mariupol, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Death toll: At least 153 children have been killed since the Russian invasion began five week ago and 245 children have been injured, Ukrainian officials said Friday. Bombing and shelling have also damaged 859 educational institutions, including 83 that have been destroyed, they said.

EU-China Summit: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will meet with European Union leaders in an online summit on Friday, and the war in Ukraine will be a "main focus" of the summit, the European Council said. China continues to face pressure to condemn the Russian invasion.

Heavy shelling continues: Ukrainian officials have continued to report heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine on Friday, particularly in the Luhansk region of the Donbas amid an apparent shift by Russia to redirect military efforts to the region. NATO's chief has warned Russian forces are repositioning rather than withdrawing, while Ukrainian and US officials say say Russians may be regrouping in Belarus.

Russia says it won’t start cutting gas supply to “unfriendly countries” immediately under a new decree requiring payment to be made in rubles from April 1. 

Peskov said that payments for deliveries made today are not due until the end of April or beginning of May. 

“But once again, I repeat that for the nuances, it is better to contact Gazprom,” Peskov said.

According to the new decree published yesterday, Gazprombank would open accounts in the name of Western gas buyers, convert their euros or dollars and then deposit the rubles into another account which would then be used to pay Gazprom.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted Thursday that Berlin will make payments for Russian gas only in euros. “We have looked at the contracts on gas delivery and other deliveries. [The contracts state] that payments are to be made in euros, sometimes in US dollars, but mostly in euros. And I made clear in my conversation with the Russian President that this will remain as it is,” Scholz said in Berlin during a joint news conference with his Austrian counterpart Karl Nehammer.

The EU’s Economics Commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, told CNN’s Richard Quest on Thursday that this “is an attempt to circumvent European sanctions and to blackmail the European Union.”

Responding to a question, Peskov told reporters Friday that the decision to sell gas for rubles could be reversed in the future but for now the ruble is Russia’s preferred option.

“Absolutely. If other conditions come up. In this case, there is nothing concrete reinforced, but in the current conditions, the ruble is a more preferable and reliable option for us,” he said.

The mayor of Chernihiv said that Russian shelling destroyed the oncology ward of a hospital in the northern Ukrainian city, just days after Russia said it would "drastically reduce" its military assault on Kyiv and Chernihiv.

"Some shells hit the regional hospital direct, and one of the buildings of the hospital, in fact the oncological unit, was completely destroyed. Three people sustained heavy injuries," Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko told CNN's John Berman via a translator.

He also said there is no water or electricity, and the city could run out of food and medicine within a week. The only supplies coming in are being provided by the military and volunteers.

"At the moment, we are going through full humanitarian catastrophe," he said.

He himself caught an acute case of pneumonia, he said, but added that he'll "be fine."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday that a purported strike by Ukrainian helicopters on a fuel depot in the southern Russian city of Belgorod could have a potential negative impact on negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.

A fire broke out at a fuel depot in Belgorod, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, the regional governor said on his Telegram channel Friday morning.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod region, accused Ukraine of being behind the blaze without providing further evidence. CNN has not been able to verify this claim.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense told CNN it had no information about the incident. 

Belgorod is close to the northeastern Ukraine-Russia border, beyond which lies the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The Belgorod area was used as a staging ground for Russian before the invasion.

French schools have enrolled 6,783 children from Ukraine since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, according to figures released by the French education ministry on Friday.

The children are attending schools spread across every region of mainland France and Corsica, according to the ministry data.

About 61% of the children are age 11 or under, with one in five between ages three and six.

More than 30,000 refugees arrived in France from Ukraine between Feb. 24 and March 25, according to the latest French interior ministry figures. 97% of those refugees were Ukrainian citizens.

Some background: The news comes a day after UNICEF said that two million children have now been forced to flee Ukraine.

More than 1.1 million have arrived in Poland alone, with hundreds of thousands in nearby countries of Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

UNICEF warned of a heightened risk of exploitation and trafficking for children fleeing violence. In an effort to quell those risks, the UN agency is scaling up “Blue Dots,” which are one-stop safe spaces for traveling families. 

More than 100 children have been killed in the conflict, UNICEF added, with more than 130 injured. 

And over 2.5 million children have been internally displaced within Ukraine, according to UNICEF.

CNN's Richard Roth contributed reporting to this post.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday it is sending humanitarian aid from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol in the form of “three cars and nine staff members.”

Speaking at a virtual United Nations briefing on Ukraine, ICRC spokesperson Ewan Watson said the teams traveling from Zaporizhzhia are hoping to “assist with the safe passage operation” but added that “this effort has been and remained extremely complex,” with a full plan not “yet in place to ensure that this happens in a safe manner.”

“Today, we remain hopeful we are an action moving towards Mariupol. That is obviously a good thing, but it's not yet clear that this will happen today,” Watson said.

“If and when it does happen, the ICRC his role as a neutral intermediary will be to lead the convoy out from many of Mariupol to another city in Ukraine. We're unable to confirm which city at the moment as this is something the parties must agree to. The latest information we have is that there will be potentially 54 buses, and we can expect many other civilian vehicles,” Watson added.

Watson reiterated that the evacuation from Mariupol -- expected to include thousands of people -- can only take place if specific criteria are fulfilled.

“The details that we insist on cemented in place include the exact safe passage route, its exact start time, and its duration. We have to be certain that the ceasefire holds of course we have to be certain that this humanitarian convoy can safely move through military checkpoints,” Watson said.

Watson went on to address the horrors seen in this conflict in Ukraine, particularly in Mariupol, while stressing the importance that “people be allowed to leave and aid supplied allowed in." 

"The people of Mariupol have suffered weeks of heavy fighting with dwindling water, food and medical supplies," Watson added.

Some background: Residents in the southern port city face a worsening humanitarian situation amid Russian airstrikes, weeks of shelling by Russian forces, and stifled evacuation efforts.

Statistics released by Ukrainian officials on Sunday paint a grim picture of what has come from weeks of destruction in Mariupol.

Some 90% of residential buildings in the city were damaged, the data shows. Of those, 60% were hit directly and 40% were destroyed.

Seven of the city's hospitals -- 90% of its hospital capacity -- were damaged, of which three were destroyed. Also damaged were three maternity hospitals (one destroyed), seven institutes of higher education (three destroyed), and 57 schools and 70 kindergartens, with 23 and 28 destroyed, respectively.

A number of factories were damaged and the city's port sustained damage.

According to those official statistics, up to 140,000 people left the city before it was surrounded, and around 150,000 managed to leave during the blockade. Ukrainian officials claim 30,000 people from Mariupol were deported to Russia.

CNN's Nathan Hodge and Julia Presniakova contributed reporting to this post.