April 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below.

Rescuers work at the site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile in Uman, Ukraine on Friday, April 28.

At least 23 people, including four children, were killed and at least 18 others were injured in a wave of Russian missile attacks in central Ukraine on Friday. The death toll will likely continue to rise, officials said, and rescuers are still searching for missing children thought to be under the rubble of a struck apartment building in Uman.

There were 46 apartments inside one of the buildings that were hit, of which 27 were completely destroyed, according to the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko. The strike – by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile – is thought to have caused the highest number of civilian casualties in a single incident since a missile struck an apartment block in Dnipro in January.

President Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences to the victims’ families and said the missile attacks underlined the country’s need for modern military aircraft.

If you’re just now catching up, here are other headlines you should know:

Ukrainian shelling: The self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said nine people were killed in shelling by Ukrainian forces in the city of Donetsk. CNN cannot confirm the reported casualties, but unofficial Telegram channels published video and photos of extensive damage in several areas of the city. 

Deported children: Zelensky says he appealed to his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, this week for help returning Ukrainian children who were deported by Russia.

Denied visit request: The US State Department said it was “deeply disappointed” that its request to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in May was denied. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said it rejected the request in response to Washington’s denial of visas to Russian reporters accompanying Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to the United Nations this week.

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

Visit by Czech Republic and Slovak leaders: The presidents of the Czech Republic and Slovakia visited Ukraine on Friday, their first joint visit abroad, Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová said in a tweet on Friday. Čaputová said the visit is intended to bring “a message of friendship, solidarity & support,” noting that the three countries “share parts of common history.”

Grain import ban: Zelensky called out the “destructive” impact of bans on Ukrainian grain imposed by several European countries – on the grounds that the imports were undercutting the other nations’ domestic prices. He said Friday he had discussed the issue with the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel.

Putin’s decree: President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday that allows the deportation of Ukrainian citizens from the territories declared annexed by Russia if they are considered a “national security threat.”

Local residents and rescuers stand amidst the rubble at the site of a heavily damaged residential building hit by a Russian missile in the town of Uman, Ukraine on Friday, April 28.

Rescuers are still searching for missing children thought to be under the rubble of the apartment building hit by a Russian missile Friday in the central Ukrainian city of Uman.

Firefighters are trying to reach the lower floors of the bombed-out building, where they believe a young boy and girl are trapped, officials told a CNN team on the scene.

The parents of both children survived the attack and have been trying to call the kids’ cell phones. A call went through to one of the phones, but rescuers could not hear anything.

Police at the site have brought in psychologists and a DNA testing center to help local families. A school near the blast site is providing shelter and clothing to families who lost their homes.

The Russian strike killed at least 23 people, including four children, and Ukrainian authorities expect the death toll to climb. The Uman strike came in a wave of attacks by Russia’s forces across central Ukraine early Friday.

An aerial view shows a heavily damaged residential building in the town of Uman, Ukraine on Friday, April 28.

A load of corn is poured into a truck at a grain storage facility in the village of Bilohiria, Ukraine on April 19.

President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed what he called the “destructive” impact of bans on the import of Ukrainian grain by several European countries. The bans were enacted on the grounds that the imports were undercutting the other nations’ domestic prices.

He said Friday he had discussed the issue with the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel.

 Zelensky added: “It is necessary to find a normal, constructive way out of this situation in the European spirit.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences to the families of more than 20 Ukrainians 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 speaks during his nightly address on Friday, April 28.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he appealed to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, this week for help returning Ukrainian children who were deported by Russia.

Zelensky shared new details about the diplomatic call, which was held Wednesday, during a joint press conference with the presidents of Slovakia and the Czech Republic Friday. 

Zelensky said he used the “important conversation” to raise the plight of roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children who Kyiv accuses Russia of forcibly deporting. The Ukrainian president said foreign countries, including China, need to help Ukraine bring the kids home. 

Key background: A report published in February by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab outlined the expansive network of camps where Russia has allegedly detained Ukrainian children since the start of the war last year.

In March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and another Kyiv official, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of playing key roles in the scheme.

Beijing and Moscow: Zelensky’s call with Xi comes at a time of increased Western scrutiny on China’s relationship with Russia.

Putin and Xi posed as peacebrokers during a recent visit in Moscow, but the Chinese leader’s proposals on ending the war have not included a call for Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukrainian land.

Zelensky said Wednesday’s call included a discussion of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The Ukrainian leader said he also received a “positive response” from China after outlining the risks faced by any country that supplies weapons to Russia. 

US officials have warned in recent months that China could be considering crossing the “red line” and providing lethal military aid to Russia. While the countries have strengthened ties, US officials say they have not seen evidence that China has provided extensive material support to the Kremlin.

CNN’s Sam Fossum contributed to this report.

Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, appears in the Moscow City Court on April 18.

The US State Department is “deeply disappointed” its request to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in May was denied, principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Friday.

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the US request to see Gershkovich, saying the decision was in response to Washington’s denial to provide visas to Russian reporters for Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to the United Nations this week.

Some background: Gershkovich was arrested in Moscow in late March on spying charges, which the Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied. Gershkovich, who faces up to 20 years in prison, is currently being held in a pre-trial detention center at the notorious Lefortovo prison until May 29.

American citizen Paul Whelan has been held in Russia for over four years. His sister attended the UN Security Council meeting that Lavrov chaired on Monday, urging for his release his remarks prior to the meeting.

The US State Department has designated both Gershkovich and Whelan as wrongfully detained.

Rescuers work at the site of a damaged residential building in Uman, Ukraine, on Friday.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Uman has increased to at least 23, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. The death toll includes four children, officials said.

The strike in Uman, which is located in the central Cherkasy region, injured at least 18 other people, Ukrainian officials said earlier Friday.

There were 46 apartments inside one of the buildings that were hit, of which 27 were completely destroyed, according to Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko.

East of Uman, a woman and her 2-year-old child were killed in a strike in Dnipro, authorities said.

A burnt-out minibus is seen in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Friday, April 28.

The self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said nine people have been killed in shelling by Ukrainian forces in the city of Donetsk.

The DPR’s Coordination Center said that “massive shelling” killed six women, two men and an 8-year-old girl in the city center, injuring 16 others.

CNN cannot confirm the reported casualties. But unofficial Telegram channels have published video and photos of extensive damage in several areas of the city. 

The coordination center said that most of the strikes had been by Ukrainian artillery using 155 mm shells targeting the central Petrovsky district. But it also claimed that multiple launch rockets had been used.

Meanwhile on Friday, Ukraine said that Russian strikes killed more than 20 people in the central city of Uman.

Investigators stand next to burnt-out cars in an area hit by shelling in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Friday, April 28.

Left to right: Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and Iceland's Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir attend a news conference in Odesa, Ukraine, on Friday.

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.

Rescue and recovery efforts are underway following overnight Russian strikes on residential buildings in the central city of Uman, Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities said in an update that at least 22 people were killed.  

A CNN team at the site of the attacks witnessed the partial collapse of the floors of one apartment building, where firefighters were set to lower themselves from a top floor into the rubble in an effort to recover bodies that may be buried in the debris. Neighbors in the surrounding area said the building housed families with young children, some of whom remained missing following the strike.

Watch the report here:

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02:46 • Source: CNN

A rescuer observes damage in Uman, Ukraine on Friday.

France has condemned “in the strongest terms the renewed strikes carried out last night by Russia on Ukrainian territory, particularly in the regions of Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

The statement highlighted Russia’s deliberate targeting of residential buildings in the central city of Uman, which “resulted in a heavy toll of civilian casualties, including children.”

According to the latest update from the Ukrainian interior ministry on Friday, twenty people were killed in the missile strike in Uman. 

About 23 missiles were launched from Russian aircraft in the Caspian Sea area, along with two drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Twenty-one of the missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, it said. 

“Such targeting of Ukrainian infrastructure and civilian populations underlines Russia’s clear desire to continue escalating its war of aggression in Ukraine,” the ministry said. 

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna stressed they will continue supporting Ukrainian courts and the International Criminal Court “in order to fight against impunity” for Russian war crimes.

First responders remove rubble at a residential building in Uman on Friday.

At least 20 people are confirmed dead in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Uman on Friday according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.

“Another body was pulled out of the rubble. As of 17:00 (10 a.m. ET), we have 20 dead,” it said.

A CNN team at the site of the attack saw bodies being taken from the apartment building’s basement in Uman, a city located in Cherkasy. Two rockets hit three high-rise buildings, which included residential buildings and a warehouse.

According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, there were 46 apartments inside the building that was hit, 27 of which were completely destroyed. He said it may take a day to clear all the rubble.

The strike – by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile – is thought to have caused the highest number of civilian casualties in a single incident since a missile struck an apartment block in Dnipro in January.

Here are some photos showing the aftermath of Russia’s latest round of missile strikes in the Ukrainian city of Uman.

Aerial view of a destroyed residential building after missile attack in Uman, Ukraine, on April 28.

First responders remove rubble at a residential building in Uman, central Ukraine, on April 28.

Firefighters carry a body recovered from the rubble of a residential building that was hit during a Russian attack in Uman, central Ukraine, on April 28.

A local resident reacts near the site of a heavily damaged residential building hit by a Russian missile in the town of Uman, Cherkasy region, Ukraine, on April 28.

Firefighters and search and rescue teams conduct operation after Russian rocket hit residential building in Uman district located in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine, on April 28

Medics transport a stretcher carrying a body bag in Uman, Ukraine, on April 28.

CNN’s Julia Kesaieva, Nic Robertson, AnneClaire Stapleton, Olga Voitovych, Josh Pennington and Maria Avdeeva contributed to this report.

Russia launched a barrage of long-range cruise missiles at Ukraine in the early hours of Friday morning, according to Ukrainian officials. 

At around 4 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET), 23 missiles were launched from Russian aircraft in the Caspian Sea area, along with two drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Twenty-one of the missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, it said. 

But missiles did hit the central Ukrainian cities of Uman, in the Cherkasy region south of Kyiv, and Dnipro.

Uman: Officials say the death toll in Uman stands at 20, including three children. At least 18 people have been wounded. 

According to Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko, there were 46 apartments inside one of the buildings that were hit, of which 27 were completely destroyed. He said it may take a day to clear all the rubble.

Emergency workers at the site “have almost finished clearing the ground floor [of the building]” and will continue combing the building, according to Yulia Norovkova, a press officer for the Cherkasy region state emergency service. 

CNN also spoke to a local woman, Liuda, whose friend lived on the eighth floor. When she heard the building had been hit, Liuda rushed there to find that her friend had survived, but her friend’s husband had been hospitalized and their two daughters, aged 7 and 13, were still missing. 

Some context: The strike – by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile – is thought to have caused the highest number of civilian casualties in a single incident since a missile struck an apartment block in Dnipro in January.

Dnipro: Ukrainian authorities have given more details about a 31-year-old woman who died, along with her 2-year-old child, after a Russian missile strike on the city of Dnipro on Friday morning.

Serhii Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the woman had moved to her parents’ house due to the war.

The woman’s parents are both hospitalized, Lysak said.  

CNN’s Nic Robertson and Julia Kesaieva contributed to this post.

The presidents of the Czech Republic and Slovakia visited Ukraine on Friday, their first joint visit abroad, Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová said in a tweet on Friday.

Čaputová said the visit is intended to bring “a message of friendship, solidarity & support,” noting that the three countries “share parts of common history.”

Czech Republic President Petr Pavel also confirmed the visit on Twitter, saying that he and Čaputová “both value freedom and justice.”

The Czech president shared a picture of himself shaking hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and said he would push for accession talks with the European Union to start for Ukraine by the end of the year.

He said EU and NATO membership for Ukraine “is not a question of if, but when.”

The Czech president also tweeted pictures of him visiting Bucha, the Kyiv suburb that was under Russian occupation for over a month last year and has since become synonymous with Russian atrocities.

Some background on Pavel: He won the Czech Republic’s presidential election in January and took office in March of this year, after a campaign featuring strong backing for NATO and the European Union and support for aid to Ukraine.

A former army chief, Pavel became chairman of NATO’s military committee for three years before retiring in 2018. 

The visit comes after recent tensions between Ukraine and several eastern European states. Slovakia temporarily suspended grain imports from Ukraine earlier this month, following similar moves by Poland and Hungary. Farmers in countries neighboring Ukraine have protested the effects of increased imports of Ukrainian grain in their grain prices, the European Commission said in a statement in March.

A building with a mother and child mural has been destroyed in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on April 27.

A high-rise building with a well-known mural depicting a smiling family has been destroyed in the beleaguered Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in recent days, according to video geolocated by CNN. 

The footage on Telegram shows an explosion at night and then smoke billowing out of the structure.

While the building with a mural of a woman and baby wearing crowns made of leaves appears to have been decimated, the mural with a man and a boy holding a toy airplane remains.

Here’s what it looked like last year:

Murals are painted on the side of apartments blocks, in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on May 6, 2022.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday that allows the deportation of Ukrainian citizens from the territories declared annexed by Russia if they are considered a “national security threat.”

According to the decree published online, residents from the annexed territories in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson who have not taken Russian citizenship will be recognized as foreigners. They could be expelled from Russia if they pose a threat to national security, the decree said, including where residents are allegedly advocating for “a violent change in the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, planning or financing terrorist attacks or extremist crimes.”

Some background: In September 2022, Putin announced Russia would seize of nearly a fifth of Ukraine — which is illegal under international law — in the four regions, some of which are not even under full Russian control. It followed so-called referendums in the regions that were universally dismissed as “shams” by Ukraine and Western nations.

The decree also establishes that Ukrainians living in such areas who do not carry a Russian passport would have to apply for a residence permit. They will have to undergo fingerprint registration and provide a package of documents translated into Russian.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that people living in Russian-occupied areas are being denied services when they don’t hold Russian documents.

Responding to the latest decree, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said, “The occupier has seized a part of foreign territory, killed a certain number of civilians, and is forcibly throwing others out of their homes by the thousands. Only because they do not want to become ‘citizens of the country-murderer’…” 

Remember: In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and a Russian official for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

Rescuers carry a covered body as they work at the site of a heavily damaged residential building in the town of Uman, Cherkasy region, Ukraine, on April 28.

Seventeen people have been confirmed dead in the city of Uman following the Russian missile strike early Friday, officials have said.

A CNN team at the site of the attack saw bodies carried out of a decimated residential building. 

Local officials told the CNN crew that three children were among the dead. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky earlier said on Twitter that two children killed in Uman “can’t be identified” and the fate of their parents was unknown. 

The death toll from Russia’s cruise missile and drone strikes overnight is now 19, according to CNN’s reporting. The other two casualties were a woman and her two-year-old child in Dnipro. 

The death toll from Russia’s strikes across Ukraine on Friday morning has risen to 16 after two more bodies were found in Uman, with the total of those killed in the city now standing at 14, with two 10-year-old children among the dead.

Two other deaths were reported earlier in the city of Dnipro - a 31-year-old woman and her 2-year-old child.

Fragments from a missile intercepted over the Kyiv region hit a multi-story residential building and injured two people, including a 13-year-old girl, the Kyiv region police chief Andrii Nebytov said.

Missiles and drones were also shot down over the capital Kyiv, in what authorities called the first missile attack on the Ukrainian capital in 51 days.

Here are the latest developments:

A German-made Leopard 1 tank, center, at an OIP Land Systems SA hangar in Tournai, Belgium, on Wednesday, March 15. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said his country had received Leopard 2 and Challenger tanks and was expecting Leopard 1 tanks “a little later.”

Ukraine’s armed forces are finishing their preparations for a counteroffensive against Russian troops, defense minister Oleksii Reznikov has said.

Asked whether Ukraine had received the weapons promised by its international allies in order to launch a counteroffensive, Reznikov said his country had received Leopard 2 and Challenger tanks and was expecting Leopard 1 tanks “a little later.” He said US-made Abrams tanks would not arrive in time to participate in the counteroffensive.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that Ukraine’s foreign allies had delivered more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Kyiv.

Some background: Ukraine has made extraordinary efforts to conceal the start of its strategically vital counteroffensive, and deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar stated last week that the counteroffensive would not be announced.