April 2, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

We’ve wrapped up today’s live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. You can read more here, or scroll through the updates below.

The number of people wounded in Sunday’s explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, has increased to 30.

No official evidence has yet been presented about who carried out the deadly attack at a St. Petersburg cafe Sunday, but officials in both Russia and Ukraine have already suggested they know who was behind the attack.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said it was an example of growing threats against Russian journalists on the part of the Ukrainian government. She claimed Russians face “threats of reprisal from the Kyiv regime.”

Zakharova decried Western countries and international organizations, who she said had not expressed “elementary human sympathy” since Tatarsky’s death. And she said the blogger had provided invaluable information about what was happening in Ukraine, making him “dangerous” and “hated” in Kyiv.

(Zakharova’s claims come days after American journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia on espionage charges, which the US and his employer — the Wall Street Journal — have dismissed as false.)

A Ukrainian presidential official, meanwhile, suggested the killing was due to in-fighting in Russia.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, wrote on Twitter: “Spiders are eating each other in a jar. Question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of internal political fight was a matter of time.”

Russian police officers are seen at the site of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on April 2.

Russian state media and independent outlets have described what they say are witness accounts from the explosion in St. Petersburg that killed prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tartarsky.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said a guest told the outlet a woman presented Tatarsky with a figurine before the blast

“The host at the stage took the figurine from the box and showcased it, Vladlen held it for a bit. They put it back and shortly after the explosion happened … I was running and my ears were blocked. There were many people with blood on them.”

The independent Telegram channel Astra Press cited another witness describing the scene after the explosion.

“Everyone rushed to the exit when explosion happened. I myself saw the girl only until the moment of the explosion, when she gave a gift. She looked like an ordinary person,” the witness told the channel, according to its post.

Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky speaks during a party at a cafe in St. Petersburg on April 2.

Another witness interviewed by the independent Telegram channel SOTA said that everyone had looked at the figurine and laughed.

“Some time passed and the explosion happened,” they said, according to SOTA. “We (sat) in the further away part of the hall, we all ran.”

“The woman sat by the window. Some people said that she left the building,” the witness added.

The group that was hosting an event at a St. Petersburg cafe when a deadly explosion rocked the venue Sunday have said they will work with investigators trying to find the person or people responsible.

The organization, a pro-war Telegram society called the “Cyber Front Z” movement, also shared condolences in an online post after the blast. 

“Separate condolences to everyone who knew the wonderful war correspondent and our good friend Vladlen Tatarsky. Now we are cooperating with law enforcement agencies and we hope that all those responsible will be punished,” the post reads. 

“Unfortunately, we can’t tell you more yet,” it added.

The explosive that detonated in a cafe in St. Petersburg, killing Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky on Sunday, may have been hidden in a figurine that was presented to the blogger, according to Russian state news media.

State media cited law enforcement agencies and eyewitness accounts, but Russian authorities have not yet commented on the reports and CNN is not able to independently verify the claim. 

Russian state news outlets are reporting, quoting law enforcement agencies, that a woman brought the explosive that caused the blast into the cafe. According to the reports, she had the figurine packed in a box when she entered.

Other independent media outlets are quoting similar eyewitness accounts.

Russian state news agency TASS said law enforcement described the explosive used in the attack as about the size of a bar of soap.

Vladlen Tatarsky is seen in this undated social media picture.

A well-known Russian military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday, authorities said.

There are several prominent bloggers like Tatarsky who cover Russia’s war in Ukraine for followers on online platforms like Telegram. Some have amassed followings of hundreds of thousands of people.

While Tatarsky was ardently pro-war, he also issued criticism of setbacks in Moscow’s campaign — a fairly rare phenomenon in the Russian public sphere.

Background and combat experience: Tatarsky’s real name was Maxim Fomin.

In 2014, Tatarsky took part in fighting alongside Russian forces in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, according to Russian state news agency Vesti, citing public sources, when Putin’s fighters first invaded the country.

Tatarsky created his Telegram channel in 2019, naming it in honor of the protagonist of Victor Pelevin’s novel “Generation ‘P,’” according to Vesti. He went on to write several books.

Tatarsky supported the war in Ukraine. He gained popularity online by providing analysis and commentary during Russia’s invasion.

Rare criticism: Tatarsky had more than half a million followers on Telegram, and while he was aggressively pro-war, he was sometimes critical of Russian setbacks in Ukraine.

Public criticism of Moscow’s war is uncommon in Russia.

In May last year, he told CNN that he was not criticizing the overall operation, rather “individual episodes,” and that he still believed Russia would achieve its goals in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, he called for broad change in response to the halting progress of Moscow’s invasion.

“All the areas need to be improved,” he said. “Each war reveals some drawbacks, shortcomings, or false experiences, experiences that need to be adjusted to the modern realities. So absolutely all spheres need reform.”

Tatarsky gained prominence after attending a Kremlin ceremony that marked the annexation of four Ukrainian regions (a move dismissed as illegal under international law by Ukraine and Western allies).

Investigators work at the site of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on April 2.

Local officials updated the number of those wounded by an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday, saying 25 people were hurt and 24 of them have been hospitalized.

The city’s governor, Alexander Beglov, shared the update in a Telegram post Sunday evening local time. 

“All emergency and special services of the city are currently activated in connection with what happened in a cafe on Vasilyevsky Island,” Beglov said, referring to the island that makes up a significant portion of the city center. “We work in coordination with law enforcement agencies. They are trying to establish the circumstances of what happened.”

The explosion killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, according to Russian state news agency TASS and local authorities.

One of the country’s several prominent online commentators on the war in Ukraine, Tatarsky was at times critical of the Russian military’s setbacks in Ukraine.

Of the 25 injured people in the explosion, six are in serious condition, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Health told reporters on Sunday, TASS reported. At least one teenager is among the wounded.

Everyone who was in the cafe at the time of the explosion that killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky is being questioned by authorities, according to state news agency TASS. 

Authorities are trying to establish who may have carried the explosive device into the St. Petersburg cafe before it detonated Sunday, the state news agency reported.

St. Petersburg police were notified about the explosion at the cafe at 6:13 pm local time (11:13 a.m. ET), according to TASS. Traffic in the area has since been blocked off. 

Russia’s Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg has opened a criminal case, the committee said in a statement Sunday. 

Investigators and forensic specialists are working at the scene, according to the committee.

Russia’s Interior Ministry also sent officials to the scene.

Investigators and members of emergency services work at the site of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 2.

An explosion killed Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a cafe in St. Petersburg on Sunday, according to Russian state news agency TASS and local authorities.

Nineteen other people were injured in the blast, Russia’s Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg said in a statement.

An explosive device detonated at a cafe in the center of the city, according to officials, and TASS reported the blast caused part of the building’s facade to collapse.

Authorities are investigating the explosion and have opened a criminal case, the committee said.

Who was Tatarsky? One of Russia’s various prominent military bloggers, Tatarsky was at-times critical of the Russian military’s setbacks in Ukraine.

Bloggers covering Russia’s war share reports and commentary on the invasion for subscribers on online platforms like Telegram, where some have amassed followings of hundreds of thousands of people.

Public criticism of Moscow’s war is rare in Russia.

Vladlen Tatarsky is seen in this undated social media picture.

In May last year, Tatarsky told CNN he was not criticizing the entirety of what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine but “individual episodes.”

Tatarsky said he still believed Russia would achieve its goals in Ukraine, but that it would require broad change.

CNN’s Tim Lister and Taras Zadorozhnyy contributed to this report.

Sunday marks the first anniversary for Ukraine’s Kyiv region of expelling Russian forces from its various cities and towns, officials there said in a Telegram post.

The Kyiv region, surrounding Ukraine’s capital city, was one of the first areas to take the brunt of Russia’s invasion in 2022.

“The enemy was coming to the Ukrainian capital from the north, bringing death and destruction,” the Kyiv region’s military administration said. 

Fighting lasted more than a month, and fifteen communities across several districts in the region were occupied by Russian forces.

“The liberation of Kyiv Region became a symbol that Ukraine will be able to win this war,” the regional administration said.

“We liberated the north of the country - let’s liberate all of Ukraine,” it added. 

More background: Kyiv region has seen some of the worst atrocities committed by Russian forces since the start of the war. The town of Bucha, which was under Russian occupation for 33 days, has become a symbol of the most horrific crimes committed against the civilian population.

More than 1,400 deaths, including 37 children, have been documented in Bucha, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, when the town marked its own liberation from Russian occupation last year.

“We will never forgive. We will punish every perpetrator,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a press conference in Moscow, on March 30.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the fate of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will be determined by a Russian court, according to a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry. 

During a phone call initiated by the US Sunday, Lavrov blamed Washington and Western media for politicizing the arrest of the journalist. 

“It was emphasized that it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and Western media to hype up (the issue) with the clear intention of giving this case a political coloring,” the statement said. 

Gershkovich is currently held in the notorious Lefortovo pre-detention center until May 29. He faces up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges.

Some key context: Gershkovich’s detention marks the first time an American journalist has been detained on accusations by Moscow of spying since the Cold War. US officials have still not been able to meet with him as of Sunday.

The Wall Street Journal has categorically denied the allegations, calling Gershkovich a “trusted and dedicated reporter.” Gershkovich’s many friends have rallied to his defense. The White House called Russia’s espionage claims “ridiculous.” And other global players have also defended the journalist, including the European Union, which condemned Moscow’s “systematic disregard” for media freedom.

Read CNN’s analysis of the way this latest detention of an American ratchets tensions further between Russia and the US here.

CNN’s Nathan Hodge contributed to this report.

The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich is shown in this undated photo.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday about detained Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, according to the US State Department.

“The Secretary called for his immediate release,” it added.

Blinken also urged the Kremlin to immediately release Whelan, a former Marine who the US says is wrongfully detained.

Some more context: Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter based in Russia, was detained last week on charges of espionage — the first time an American journalist has been detained on accusations by Moscow of spying since the Cold War — and US officials have still not been able to meet with him as of Sunday.

Whelan is serving a 16-year prison sentence for the same charges, which he strongly denies.

Paul Whelan stands inside a defendants' cage during a hearing in Moscow, in 2019.

Whelan has been designated as wrongfully detained by the State Department. Gershkovich is expected to receive the same designation, though he has not as of Sunday morning.

Sunday’s call was one of only a handful of times the top US diplomat has spoken with his Russian counterpart since the war in Ukraine began, and all of those conversations have discussed detained US citizens.

The two spoke in person for the first time since the war broke out on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in India last month, and Blinken said he raised the war, Russia’s suspension of its participation in the New START nuclear agreement, and Whelan’s ongoing detention.

Ukrainian soldiers ride in an armored vehicle near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on March 29.

Here are some of the main news lines we have covered this week on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:

WSJ reporter arrested: Russian authorities on Thursday detained an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal and accused him of spying. The arrest of Evan Gershkovich signaled a significant ratcheting of both Moscow’s tensions with the US and its campaign against foreign news media. The newspaper “vehemently” denies the claims and US officials condemned the move.

Finland NATO membership nears: Turkey finally approved Finland’s application to join NATO. The Turkish Parliament voted unanimously in favor of Finland’s membership on Thursday, clearing the last hurdle in the accession process. The vote fulfills Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “promise” to allow Finland in the defense alliance.

Putin’s announcement on Belarus: Russia said it plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. Moscow will complete the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons on its ally’s territory by the beginning of July, Russian President Vladimir Putin told state broadcaster Russia 1. Belarus, which is west of Russia on Ukraine’s long northern border, is among Moscow’s closest allies. 

Battle for Bakhmut: The scene of some of the most brutal fighting in Ukraine remains the eastern city of Bakhmut. On Saturday, a flag of the Russian mercenary group Wagner could be seen near the center of the city. But the banner was only raised a short distance north of neighborhoods already in Russian hands, showing how slow the gains have been.

Soldier turns murder suspect: A convicted murderer who was allowed to leave prison to join the Wagner private military company and fight in Ukraine was arrested within days of returning home on suspicion of killing an elderly woman. Ivan Rossomakhin was already a repeat-offender when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murder in 2020. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has recruited heavily from Russian prisons.

Russian jailed for critical posts: A Russian man whose teenage daughter drew an anti-war picture at school has been sentenced to two years in prison for his own online posts critical of the invasion of Ukraine. Alexey Moskalyov had been charged with “discrediting the Russian military” and was under house arrest in the Tula region after being accused of repeatedly publishing anti-war posts.

Daily life has grown “really intense” in the town of Avdiivka, north of the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, as Russian forces fire relentlessly, the head of the city’s military administration said Sunday.

“It is really intense in Avdiivka now, there are lots of assaults around the city, tens of assaults daily,” he continued. “(Russians) are firing with everything they have.”

Because of weather conditions at the moment, Russian infantry units are carrying out the attacks, Barabash said. Once it gets dry, Russian forces will likely use more equipment.

Moscow’s forces shelled the central part of the city with cluster munition Sunday morning, according to the Ukrainian official. At other times, tank, artillery and rocket launcher shelling strike the town.

Eight children remain in the city as their relatives don’t want to evacuate, Barabash said. The leader said only 10%, at the most, of the housing in Avdiivka is suitable for living.

“The State Emergency Service is helping with the evacuation of the wounded. So if an apartment building is struck, even the basements will not save (people’s lives), as there is no equipment to clear the rubble,” Barabash warned.

About embattled Avdiivka: Ukrainian officials have warned in recent weeks that Avdiivka is coming under almost non-stop fire, with up to 14 rockets hitting the town daily.

Barabash said late last month “the town is being wiped off the face of the Earth,” as authorities struggle to evacuate those who remain there.

About 1,800 civilians are still in Avdiivka, military spokesperson Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi said on national television Sunday.

The worst of the fighting on the ground in Ukraine is centered on eastern cities, according to officials with both countries’ military.

“The fiercest battles continue to be for the areas near the towns of Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in an update Sunday. 

Six people have died and at least eight have been injured as a result of Russian shelling in the town of Kostiantynivka Sunday morning, according to Andrii Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office. 

“The enemy made two strikes with S-300 and fired four salvo with Uragan multiple launch rocket system,” Yermak said.

Sixteen apartment buildings, eight private houses, a kindergarten, the local state tax inspection building, gas pipes and three cars were damaged, he said. 

“Multi-storey buildings and private residential houses were heavily damaged,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk region military administration, said.

At least five other people have been injured in the Donetsk region Sunday morning: three people in Toretsk and two in Bakhmut, Kyrylenko also said.

Some context: The worst of the fighting on the ground is focused in eastern Ukraine after Russia failed to make major gains elsewhere.

Authorities in the eastern town of Avdiivka said this week that it is being “wiped off the face of the earth” as it comes under “almost non-stop” fire.

Avdiivka is located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the city of Donetsk.

Fighting has also centered around the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are said to be depleted and a Ukrainian counteroffensive could soon be launched.

Tourists stroll in a ski resort close to Bukovel town, southwest from capital Kyiv on March 1.

The Covid pandemic caused the Hotel Leopolis in Lviv, Ukraine, to close for two months in 2020.

Yet, since then, and a little more than a year after Russia invaded, the Leopolis has continued to be open for business without a pause.

The hotel’s management even decided to continue a renovation that began in 2019, completing it in the summer of 2022, at a time when air strikes were raining down on the city.

And it seems while many aspects of life in Ukraine have ground to a halt because of the conflict, in the western part of the country, tourism infrastructure, including hotels, seems to be thriving. Even Ukraine’s ski resorts have been enjoying plenty of visitors.

Igor Gut, a frequent guest from Kyiv, often stayed at the Leopolis for Jazz Fest and business trips before the war. He’s still visiting regularly today.

“They have a lot of different places for business meetings and have maybe the best conference services in Lviv,” he says. “The room and service were important then.”

Read the full story here.

Clients relax during an afternoon rest period at Djerela, an NGO focused on supporting families living with disabilities.

The war has put a huge strain on Ukraine’s healthcare system and has had a particularly devastating impact on people living with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Their conditions are often invisible to the general public and remain widely misunderstood in Ukraine. 

The community was suffering from a chronic shortage of support services even before the Russian invasion began last February. With resources diverted towards the war effort, the few that did exist are struggling to cope.

“I have been told by officials that care and support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families is ‘a luxury’ during wartime. So, we will have to wait until after the war to have this luxury,” said Raisa Kravchenko, the president of the All Ukrainian NGO Coalition for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.

Kravchenko’s own son, Oleksiy, has an intellectual disability and behavioral disorders that are possibly related to his traumatic birth.

He was born in what was then Soviet Ukraine in the mid-1980s, at a time when the standard procedure was to put disabled children in institutions.

That was not something Kravchenko was willing to do. Instead, she started researching Western approaches to care for children with intellectual disabilities and complex behavioral disorders.

By 1994, she was in charge of an after-school club. Two years later, she co-founded Djerela, one of Ukraine’s first NGOs focused on supporting families living with disabilities.

Read the full piece here.

Zelensky delivers his nightly address on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called Russia’s UN Security Council (UNSC) presidency “absurd and destructive.”  

“Unfortunately, we also have news that is obviously absurd and destructive,” Zelensky said on Saturday. “Today, the terrorist state began to chair the UN Security Council.” 

“Yesterday, the Russian army killed another Ukrainian child – a five-month-old boy named Danylo from Avdiivka, in Donbas,” Zelensky continued.

“His parents were injured. Russian artillery… One of the hundreds of artillery strikes that the terrorist state launches every day. And at the same time, Russia chairs the UN Security Council.” 

Zelensky emphasized that such instances “prove the complete bankruptcy” of global institutions. 

“And there will be no such reason that will stop the reform of global institutions, in particular, the UN Security Council,” he added.

Zelensky argued that UNSC reform “is clearly overdue.” 

Some context: It is Russia’s turn to run the UNSC this month – a powerful body charged with maintaining global peace and security.

Presidency of the security council rotates alphabetically among its 15 member nations. The body is controlled by its five permanent members, including the US and Russia.

Metropolitan Pavlo, the director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, attends a court hearing in Kyiv on Saturday.

An Orthodox church leader at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery is under investigation, according to a statement Saturday from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who accuse him of “inciting religious hatred” and “justifying and denying Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine.” 

As part of the investigation, the SBU said it found that Metropolitan Pavlo, Petro Lebid, “in his public speeches repeatedly insulted the religious feelings of Ukrainians, humiliated the views of believers of other faiths and tried to create hostile attitudes towards them, and made statements justifying or denying the actions of the aggressor country.”

“Investigative actions” were taken at the metropolitan’s places of residence, the SBU said. The operation was conducted under the supervision of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, according to the SBU.

Here’s what led up to the investigation: Metropolitan Pavlo is the abbot of the 980-year-old monastery, home of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), a branch of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine that has been traditionally loyal to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.

Kirill is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a supporter of his war on Ukraine.

Tensions over the presence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra have risen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and an agreement that allowed the UOC to occupy the historic complex was terminated on March 10. The UOC was instructed to leave the premises by March 29.

In May 2022, the UOC cut ties with Moscow and declared “full independence,” but some members have maintained their loyalty. 

The metropolitan attended a court hearing Monday but felt unwell and had to go to a hospital, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said.