CNN gets close-up look at destruction in Kyiv suburbs
02:26
What we covered
Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders. More than 100,000 civilians are trapped in the southern city, officials say.
A Ukrainian minister said some evacuation buses en route to Mariupol were held at a Russian checkpoint and 14 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Melitopol was confiscated.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has removed two generals for being “antiheroes” who did not support their homeland. He did not give specifics.
NATO’s chief warned Russian forces are not withdrawing, but are repositioning as they maintain pressure on Kyiv and other cities. Ukrainian and US officials say Russians may be regrouping in Belarus. Heavy shelling, meanwhile, has been reported in eastern Ukraine amid an apparent shift by Russia to redirect military efforts to the Donbas region.
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Russian Ambassador to US hits back at sanctions targeting technology sector
Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov decried US sanctions targeting the Russian technology sector as “illegal” on Thursday, after the US Treasury Department announced the move as part of a crackdown on sanctions evasion by Russia.
In response to a question on Facebook, Antonov wrote the Biden administration was showing its “uncompromising attitude” as it expanded its “illegal sanction lists.”
Some context: The US Treasury Department said on Thursday it was sanctioning “21 entities and 13 individuals as part of its crackdown on the Kremlin’s sanctions evasion networks and technology companies, which are instrumental to the Russian Federation’s war machine.”
The agency has also determined “that sanctions apply to the aerospace, marine, and electronics sectors of the Russian Federation,” meaning that the US can “impose sanctions on any individual or entity determined to operate or have operated in any of those sectors.”
The US and its allies have imposed a raft of sanctions on Russian officials and entities since Moscow launched its attack on Ukraine.
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Ukrainian officials say humanitarian convoys were stopped and raided by Russian forces. Here's what we know
Evacuees from the Mariupol region arrive at reception center in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on March 31.
(Marko Djurica/Reuters)
Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday. According to Ukrainian authorities, the convoys ran into several issues on Thursday, including Russian troops confiscating aid and blocking buses.
Here’s what we know:
The Russian Defense Ministry said the military will reopen the humanitarian corridor from the southern city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on April 1 at the request of the leaders of France and Germany.
The corridor will open from 10 a.m. Moscow time and Russian troops will set up an intermediate point in the southern city of Berdiansk, the ministry said.
France said the evacuation corridor on Thursday was “insufficient” to allow rescue from Mariupol.
Ukrainian minister Iryna Vereshchuk said about 100,000 civilians remained trapped in the city, which has suffered weeks of bombardment from Russian forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is preparing to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol.
Aid confiscated, buses stopped:
Russian forces on Thursday confiscated 14 tons of humanitarian aid from buses bound for Melitopol in southern Ukraine, according to Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.
Vereshchuk said the food and medication was loaded on 12 buses.
Russian forces also blocked 45 buses going to Berdiansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol, she added.
Evacuations:
1,458 people reached Zaporizhzhia in their own cars on Thursday, Vereshchuk said.
631 of them escaped from Mariupol.
827 were from Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Polohy, Huliapole and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.
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UK Defense Ministry: Russia is redeploying troops from Georgia to join Ukraine invasion
From CNN's Hira Humayun and Niamh Kennedy
Russia is redeploying some of its forces from the country of Georgia to reinforce its invasion of Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Thursday.
Some context: The British intelligence update comes just days after Moscow said it would scale back its military assault on Kyiv and Chernihiv. In an address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops are concentrating in the eastern Donbas region for new attacks and the Ukrainians are “ready for this.”
Focus on Donbas: In a briefing Thursday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said a “small number” of Russian troops are “beginning to reposition” but it is not exactly clear where they are going. The Russians want to “reprioritize” their operations in the Donbas area, Kirby added.
He said the US does not “see any indication that they are going to be sent home,” adding the best assessment the US has is the troops will probably be repositioned into Belarus to be “refit, resupplied and used elsewhere in Ukraine.”
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Zelensky removes two top Ukrainian generals, says he does not have "time to deal with all the traitors"
From CNN's Mariya Knight and Hira Humayun
(Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky/YouTube)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he removed two top Ukrainian generals, calling them “antiheroes” in his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday night.
The generals — former chief of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine, Naumov Andriy Olehovych, and the former head of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych — have been stripped of their rank.
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Situation in southern Ukraine and Donbas "remains extremely difficult," Zelensky says
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy in London and Mariya Knight in Atlanta
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a video posted on Facebook on Thursday March 31.
(Ukrainian Government/FaceBook)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the situation in southern Ukraine and Donbas “remains extremely difficult” as Russia continues to prioritize military operations in the separatist controlled region.
Speaking in a video posted on social media on Thursday, Zelensky said Russian forces are “trying to figure out how to consolidate their presence there.”
In the Donbas region, the besieged southern city of Mariupol and in the direction of northeastern city of Kharkiv, “Russian troops are accumulating the potential for strikes,” Zelensky warned.
This echoes the remarks of a senior US defense official on Thursday who said that the Donbas is one of the four areas where Russia is focusing current airstrikes.
On Thursday evening, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said it is “clear the Russians want to reprioritize their operations in the Donbas area.”
Russian forces were regrouping in order to “intensify operations in priority areas and, above all, to complete the operation for the complete liberation of Donbas,” Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday.
Zelensky reiterated Ukraine’s commitment to “do everything we can to stop the invaders.”
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European Parliament president will be first leader of EU institution to travel to Ukraine since invasion began
From CNN's James Frater in Brussels and Niamh Kennedy in London
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola will be the first leader of an EU institution to travel to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
No details of the trip or the president’s agenda in Ukraine have been shared prior to the visit “due to security concerns,” a European Parliament official told CNN.
In a speech on Monday, Metsola called it “important for the European Parliament to support Ukraine’s aspiration to be a candidate country for accession.”
On Thursday, Metsola posted a photo of herself saying: “On my way to Kyiv.”
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Ukrainian women recount how they escaped to Poland to give birth in a country free of war
From CNN's Kyung Lah and Sarah Boxer
Khrystyna Pavluchenko tends to her newborn daughter, Adelina.
(Kyung Lah/CNN)
Khrystyna Pavluchenko strokes the tiny hand of her newborn, Adelina. She had anticipated the profound joy of becoming a mother for the first time — but not the guilt.
“(That’s) because I left,” Pavluchenko says, choking on tears, as her hours-old child sleeps in the crib next to her hospital bed in the Polish capital, Warsaw.
“I didn’t want to leave. I had to.”
On Feb. 24, when the Russian invasion began, Pavluchenko, then eight months pregnant, was jostled awake at 6 a.m. Air raid sirens blared through her hometown of Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine. The first Russian missiles were on the way.
Pavluchenko recounts the manic push to escape over the next 72 hours. Her husband, medically ineligible to serve in the Ukrainian military, was already in Poland.
She was desperate to stay behind with her parents, grandparents and extended family.
But they all insisted, “Go to Poland.”
So, reluctantly, she began to plan her dangerous escape from Ukraine.
“Missiles are flying. Where they might hit next, no one knows,” she recalls.
Adelina Pavluchenko was born in Warsaw, Poland after her mother fled the war in Ukraine.
(Kyung Lah/CNN)
Pavluchenko raced to pack with that in mind. Anything she could imagine she needed for her unborn child had to fit in a bag that she could wheel across the border on foot, once her bus reached the border.
That was the same fear Polish customs officers had when they saw her. They quickly called an ambulance.
She was whisked to a nearby hospital and eventually to Inflancka Specialist Hospital in Warsaw, where psychiatrist Magda Dutsch is treating Ukrainian women.
At least 197 Ukrainian children have been born in Polish hospitals since the war began, according to Poland’s Ministry of Health. When she fled, Pavluchenko had no idea that so many other Ukrainian women were in a similar situation.
To her, she felt utterly alone.
Tatiana Mikhailuk survived an attack in her hometown of Buchad before being diagnosed with cervical cancer in Poland.
(Kyung Lah/CNN)
“A second war”: In another section of the hospital sits Tatiana Mikhailuk, 58, is who is also one of Dutsch’s patients.
From her hospital bed, Mikhailuk tells the harrowing story of her escape from a town outside the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. As a missile flew overhead, Mikhailuk fled her home with her granddaughter in her arms.
Explosions had already blown out all the windows of her apartment building. As she and her husband drove with their grandchildren out of Buchad, an hour north of Kyiv, something exploded on the left side of the road.
“We were crying and praying the whole time,” says Mikhailuk.
They made it out just in time.
Two days later, Russian missiles would destroy the bridges into their suburb.
Mikhailuk had survived the attack at home. But once she crossed the Polish border, she began hemorrhaging blood.
Doctors at Inflancka Specialist Hospital diagnosed her with cervical cancer and performed emergency surgery.
She adds, “I’m grateful to Dr. Khrystyna,” another Ukrainian refugee, who is sitting in the corner of the room while we speak with her.
Khrystyna isn’t sure how to describe what title we should use to refer to her.
At home in Lviv, Ukraine, she is a licensed gynecologist. But in Poland, her official title is “secretary.”
“I’m helping,” Khrystyna, who asked CNN to not reveal her last name. explains.
On Feb. 24, Khrystyna’s husband sent her a text message saying, “Pack your stuff and leave. The war began.”
Like so many other Ukrainian women at the hospital, she ran, taking her young son with her.
CNN was granted rare access to the retaken Ukrainian city of Irpin. Here's what our reporters saw.
From CNN's Vasco Cotovio, Frederik Pleitgen and Byron Blunt
Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushin leads one of the special force units looking for Russian infiltrators still present in the town.
(Vasco Cotovio/CNN)
A child’s doll lies curb side, covered in dirt and debris, in the war-torn Kyiv suburb of Irpin.
There’s not a sign of the child who owned it, or of any of the residents of the building next to it, which was shattered to pieces after taking a direct hit from Russian artillery.
This is what Irpin — or what’s left of it — looks like, just a couple of days after Ukrainian forces took it back from Russian control.
The area is still extremely dangerous and remains off limits to civilians. As fighting continues in the nearby areas of Bucha and Hostomel, Irpin is still well within range for Russian artillery.
CNN was granted rare access to the city by Ukrainian forces on Thursday.
We snake our way to Irpin through dirt roads in the middle of the forest that separates the suburb from Kyiv at breakneck speed.
“It’s safer this way,” Andriy, the 29-year-old Ukrainian soldier driving us explains. “It’s the best way of avoiding Russian artillery.”
Across the Irpin river, the destruction caused by a month of confrontation between Russian and Ukrainian forces is everywhere. There are few unbroken windows, fallen trees in nearly every corner and no shortage of broken down or destroyed military equipment. Most of it is Russian.
Ivan Boyko, 66, says he's had to move to a bomb shelter because its not safe to remain at home.
(Vasco Cotovio/CNN)
The majority of the town’s residents have fled, but Ivan Boyko decided to stay. He sent most of his family away, to safety, opting to endure the inferno of the Russian offensive.
“I am 66 years old, I’m not afraid anymore,” he says.
Despite staying in Irpin, Boyko has been forced to move out of his house and into a bomb shelter because of all the intense shelling.
“It’s impossible to go home,” he explains. “Every night and day they shoot. It’s scary to go out.”
Ukrainian minister provides update on Thursday's evacuations from Mariupol and other key cities
From CNN's Nathan Hodge and Hira Humayun
Evacuees from the Mariupol region arrive at reception center in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on March 31.
(Marko Djurica/Reuters)
Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories, said Thursday that 1,458 people reached Zaporizhzhia in their own cars today, with 631 of them coming from Mariupol and 827 coming from the towns of Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Polohy, Huliapole and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Forty-five buses were going to Berdiansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol and that Russian forces did not let them into Berdiansk, she said.
“600 people came out from (Berdiansk) to the buses and tomorrow morning should leave for Zaporizhzhia. Over 30 buses are staying at the entrance to Berdiansk city (in advance of going on to) Mariupol and (then back to) Berdiansk (to finally deliver) residents to Zaporizhzhia,” Vereshchuk added.
Twelve buses full of humanitarian aid went to Melitopol on Thursday, but the 14 tons of food and medications they were carrying were confiscated by Russian forces, according to Vereshchuk.
Russia will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday, April 1, at the request of French and German leaders, the Russian ministry of defense on Thursday said.
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European Union economy commissioner: "We will not be blackmailed by Moscow"
From CNN staff
Paolo Gentiloni, the EU commissioner for economy, says the European Union “will not be blackmailed by Moscow” after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to cut off natural gas supplies to “unfriendly countries” unless they pay in rubles.
Gentiloni told CNN’s Richard Quest that existing contracts do not include an obligation to pay in rubles and that they must be respected.
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82nd Airborne troops in Poland and Truman carrier group in Mediterranean will stay in place "a while longer"
From CNN's Barbara Starr and Ellie Kaufman
U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat, 82nd Airborne Division prepare to train with their Polish Allies in Nowa Deba, Poland on March 3.
(Sgt. Catessa Palone/82nd Airborne Division)
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has decided that US military members deployed to Poland who are part of the 82nd Airborne will stay in position there for “a while longer,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday.
The Harry S. Truman carrier strike group in the Mediterranean will also stay in place, Kirby added.
CNN previously reported these deployments would be extended, according to two US defense officials.
Both groups were deployed to Europe in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. About 7,000 troops and their support elements from the 82nd Airborne are stationed in Poland as a part of this deployment, according to the Pentagon. The carrier’s aircraft have been flying in support of US and NATO efforts to bolster the eastern flank of NATO in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Kirby stressed both the 82nd Airborne and the Truman carrier strike group have not been deployed “for that long,” only for about “eight to six weeks,” he said.
Kirby said the “security environment in Europe is going to be different,” no matter when the war in Ukraine ends, and the Department of Defense doesn’t know what that looks like yet.
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White House: "No plans" for Biden-Putin to talk and any conversation would require "serious de-escalation"
From CNN's Sam Fossum
There are “no plans” for US President Joe Biden to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said Thursday, adding that any conversation would require “serious de-escalation” from the Russians in Ukraine and setting a high bar for reengagement between the two leaders.
Biden last spoke to Putin over the phone on Feb. 12, less than two weeks before Russia began its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
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US Commerce Department will take further action against Russia's defense, aerospace and maritime sectors
From CNN's Sam Fossum
The US Commerce Department will be adding 120 Russian and Belarusian entities to its “Entity List,” a US trade restriction list, in the “coming days,” according to White House communications director Kate Bedingfield.
Bedingfield noted that being added to the list means these companies or entities “can no longer get US cutting edge technology without a license, which will in most, if not all, of these cases be denied.”
She added: “The power of these restrictions will compound over time as Russia draws down any remaining stockpiles. For example, spare parts for certain planes and tanks. We will continue to impose unprecedented costs strengthen Ukraine’s hand and make Putin’s word choice, a strategic failure.”
Ukraine’s defense ministry: At least 148 children killed since Russian invasion started
From CNN’s Martin Goillandeau
Empty baby strollers are seen during The price of War demonstration in Rynok Square in Lviv, Ukraine on March 18, to draw attention to the deaths of Ukrainian children.
(Mykola Tys/Sipa/Reuters)
At least 148 children have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion five weeks ago, the country’s defense ministry said in a tweet on Thursday.
It said that some 1,370 Russian missiles have been fired at Ukraine since the start of the war, adding that Russia has so far “destroyed” 15 Ukrainian airports.
More than 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes due to the war, the ministry’s tweet also stated.
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Russian military will reopen evacuation corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia Friday, defense ministry says
From CNN's Nathan Hodge and Hira Humayun
A child sits in a car after arriving in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine with a a shrapnel-damaged car after fleeing from Mariupol on March 30.
The Russian military will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday, April 1 at the request of French and German leaders, according to a statement from the Russia’s ministry of defense on Thursday.
The ministry said that “at the personal requests of the President of France E. Macron and the Federal Chancellor of Germany O. Scholz to the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin from 10:00 (Moscow time) on April 1, 2022” the Russian armed forces will reopen the corridor with an intermediate point in Berdiansk.
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It's 11 p.m. in Kyiv. Here are the latest developments in Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo speaks prior to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky statement during a plenary session of the Chamber at the Federal Parliament in Brussels on Thursday March 31.
(Virginie Lefour/Belga/Reuters)
If you are catching up on the latest developments in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, here’s what you should know:
From Mariupol: Denis Pushilin, the head of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, has ordered the formation of a city administration for the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, according to a decree published on the DPR head’s website on Thursday, Russian state news agency TASS reported Thursday.
The city is within the boundaries of the Donetsk region of Ukraine. The city was under Ukrainian government control before the war, but the Russian government — which recognized the independence of the DPR in late February — considers the entire region to belong to the separatist republic.
Meanwhile, the evacuation corridor in Mariupol agreed by Ukrainian and Russian officials, announced on Thursday, is “insufficient” to allow the rescue of civilians “in the right conditions,” France said.
Russia withdraws from Chernobyl: The site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986 and its surrounding territory fell into the hands of Russian troops in the first week of the war in Ukraine. But in a Telegram post made on Thursday, Energoatom, the state enterprise overseeing Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, said that Russian troops announced their intention to leave and hand over control to Ukrainian personnel. The US is also seeing Russian forces “drawing down” from Chernobyl and from the north and northwest of Kyiv, a senior US defense official told reporters Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyasked the Belgian government to help with “weapons, sanctions, membership of the European Union,” adding, “maybe soon the future will pay you back.” By the end of Thursday, Zelensky will have addressed 17 global parliaments in a bid to drum up support during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NATO secretary-general says Russian troops “are not withdrawing but repositioning”: Speaking at a news conference in Brussels for the secretary general’s 2021 Annual Report, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that according to intelligence, “Russian units are not withdrawing but repositioning. Russia is trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas region. At the same time, Russia maintains pressure on Kyiv and other cities … we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering,” Stoltenberg said.
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Pentagon: "Half a dozen" shipments of security assistance to Ukraine from US aid package "already arriving"
From CNN's Ellie Kaufman
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that “half a dozen” shipments of security assistance for Ukraine has already “flowed into the region” from the $800 million package US President Joe Biden signed on March 16, during a briefing on Thursday.
“I can tell you that things aren’t sitting long at these intermediate staging shipment sites before they’re getting picked up by convoys and getting taken into Ukraine, so four days is pretty quick,” he added.
Kirby estimated it will likely take “a couple of weeks” to complete shipments from the $800 million package.
“We don’t think it’s going to take very long to complete the $800 dollar package, getting it all filled out, we really don’t think that’s going to take long at all, couple of weeks probably,” he said.
The shipments are not all solely weapons. They are a mixture of “weapons systems” and then “support and sustainment items” which includes “food, body armor, helmets small arms and ammunition, medical and first aid kits,” Kirby said.
Some weapons systems, like Javelins and Stingers, have been in these first few packages to Ukraine, Kirby added.
“In these first half a dozen or so, there have been weapons systems, there have been Javelins, there have been Stingers, that have gone in as well as medical supplies and body armor and small arms and ammunition,” he said.
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British defense secretary: UK and its allies to send more lethal aid to Ukraine
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy in London
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace speaks with reporters during a press conference at the Ministry of Defense in London on March 21.
(Peter Nicholls/Reuters)
Britain and its allies will send more lethal aid to Kyiv, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced on Thursday following an international donor conference for Ukraine.
The defense secretary then name-checked the United States as “being at the forefront” of the aid effort.
What Ukraine needs is “more long-range artillery,” Wallace said, as the Russian army digs in and starts “to pound the city’s artilleries.”
The war-torn country is “predominantly” looking for equipment to defend its coastline due to “Russian activity down there,” Wallace said, alongside protective vehicles and anti-air missiles.
The reputation of the “great army of Russia” has been trashed by recent losses, the defense secretary said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “has now got to live with the consequences not only of what he’s doing to Ukraine, but he’s also got to live with the consequences of what he’s done to his own army,” Wallace continued.
Wallace said Russia’s decision to regroup, reinforce and move towards the east of country are familiar tactics from the country’s playbook.
“So, what we’ve certainly seen is their first efforts have been rebutted in many areas, but in other parts, they will now seek to move towards the east and the south and see what more they can do. And that’s why it’s really important to keep up inventory,” he added.
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US State Department: We've seen reports of Americans being detained by Russian military in Ukraine
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
The US State Department has “seen reports of US citizens being singled out and detained by the Russian military in Ukraine, and when evacuating through … Russian occupied territory or to Russia or Belarus,” spokesperson Ned Price said in a briefing Thursday.
“In terms of Russia, we’ve spoken of a few of these cases, we’re just not going to put a number on it,” he added.
Paul Whelan, Trevor Reed, and Brittney Griner are US citizens known to be detained in Russia. Price reiterated Thursday that consular access had been granted for Griner, and said that “there has been limited additional progress in terms of other detained Americans.”
Earlier this week, the State Department reissued its travel advisories for Russia and Ukraine to warn Americans that they may be singled out for detention by Russian officials.
