April 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

New Zealand said it will impose a 35% tariff on all Russian imports and extend existing export prohibitions to include “industrial products closely linked to strategic Russian industries.”

The measures will come into effect on April 25, according to a joint statement by New Zealand’s foreign ministry and trade ministry.    

Export of industrial products such as telecommunications equipment and engines will be banned. 

Mahuta said New Zealand has called on Russia to be held to account for war crimes and, along with 41 other nations, supports an International Criminal Court prosecution.

Ukrainian service members unpack Javelin anti-tank missiles at Boryspil International Airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine, delivered on February 10.

The United States authorized an additional $100 million for anti-armor systems to Ukraine, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday.

The additional shipment will be released to meet an urgent demand from Ukraine for the Javelin anti-tank missiles, which are among the weapons that have proven most effective against Russian forces.

Shipped quickly: President Joe Biden authorized the drawdown of the Javelin anti-armor weapons from US inventories, meaning the weapons will be pulled from existing Defense Department stocks and can be shipped to Ukraine quickly. 

Billions in assistance: This latest shipment means the US has now authorized more than $2.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including more than $1.7 billion since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Further US support: On Friday, the US announced that it will provide another $300 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including Switchblade suicide drones, night-vision equipment and anti-drone systems. But that package, which fell under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, has to be procured from defense contractors.

The United States could impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children as early as Wednesday, according to a western official familiar with the plans.

Putin has acknowledged two daughters with his ex-wife Lyudmila Putin.

The White House has said the latest round of sanctions will be applied in conjunction with European allies. 

The Biden administration is also eyeing an expansion of sanctions on Sberbank — Russia’s largest financial institution — and Alfa Bank — another large lender — the official said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the United Nations Security Council via video on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian troops of indiscriminately killing civilians “just for their pleasure” in an emotionally charged address Tuesday to the United Nations Security Council during which he questioned the very mandate of the Security Council itself.

Here’s what to know about his UN speech:

Read more on Zelensky’s UN speech here.

Poland is buying 250 Abrams tanks from the United States in a $4.75 billion deal signed Tuesday in Warsaw.

Deliveries are slated to start later this year as Poland, a NATO member that borders Ukraine in the east, ramps up its defenses following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

The top-of-the-line US tanks will go to the Polish Army’s 18th Mechanized Division, which is based near the border with Ukraine.

The deal includes maintenance vehicles, portable bridges, training and logistics as well as ammunition, Błaszczak said.

The Defense Ministry said the deal, first agreed last July, is one of the largest in Polish history.

As part of the modernization of its military, Poland is also buying US-made F-35 stealth fighter jets in a deal signed in 2020. Those 32 warplanes are scheduled to begin arriving in Poland in 2026.

More than a dozen female Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces were “subjected to torture and ill-treatment in captivity,” according to a Ukrainian human rights official.

The 15 women were among 86 soldiers released from Russian captivity on Friday.

Following their capture by Russian forces, the women were taken to Belarus and then to a pre-trial detention center in Bryansk, Russia, where they “were tortured and threatened,” Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said on her official Telegram page.

Stripped naked: According to Denisova, female prisoners were stripped naked in the presence of men, forced to squat, cut their hair, and interrogated in an effort to break their morale. Some of the women were also forced to take part in the filming of Russian propaganda videos.

Article 13: Denisova said Russia’s actions amount to a violation of Article 13 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Article 13 states that “prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated.” 

Denisova previously said on Monday that Ukrainian prisoners of war had been subject to beatings, starvation, frostbite, and intimidation while in Russian captivity.

Following negotiations last week, Ukraine and Russia’s exchange of 86 prisoners from each side marked the conflict’s largest prisoner swap to date.

European leaders have planned to phase out Russian coal imports in response to harrowing scenes in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.

On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed a phased ban of 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) worth of Russian coal imports per year as part of a fifth package of sanctions designed to further diminish Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest. Other proposals target Russian technology and manufacturing imports, worth another 10 billion euros ($10.9 billion).

Europe has imposed punishing sanctions on Russia’s economy since Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine in late February, but stopped short of targeting Russia’s energy sector — until now. Images of unarmed civilians, bound and shot, lying along Bucha’s roads — which were until recently under Russian occupation — have convinced leaders to change tack.

More details on the new round of sanctions, including the timeline for the ban on coal, are expected Wednesday when EU ambassadors meet for talks. The measures still need the approval of all 27 member states.

Sanctioning coal will bite some European countries, but it’s among the easiest energy sources to wean off — much of the world is already doing just that. The trickier question is: What happens next?

Read the rest of this story here.

The US will announce new sanctions on Russia Wednesday in coordination with Group of 7 nations and the European Union, according to an administration official.

The official said the sweeping package “will impose significant costs on Russia and send it further down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation.”

The new sanctions package will:

The new sanctions package will mark the latest escalation in efforts by the US and its allies to impose costs on Russia for its invasion and, over time, cut off critical economic sectors the country utilizes to wage the ongoing war.

They also follow new revelations of further atrocities committed by Russian forces in northern Ukraine, with the images of the atrocities committed in Bucha serving as an accelerator to ongoing discussions between the US and its European allies to ramp up the economic costs, officials said.

The official added, “We had already concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine, and the information from Bucha appears to show further evidence of war crimes. And as the President said, we will work with the world to ensure there is full accountability for these crimes. One of those tools is sanctions — and we have been working intensively with our European allies on further sanctions.”

More context: The expected sanctions come after the US Treasury announced it will no longer allow Russia to pay down its debt using dollars stockpiled at American banks. While Washington had imposed sanctions on the Russian Central Bank freezing their foreign currency at US banks, the Treasury Department had previously allowed Russia to use those reserves to repay its debt.

It’s a move that officials say will substantially raise the risk of default and undercut urgent efforts by the central bank to stanch the economic bleeding that immediately arrested the Russian economy in the wake of the Western response to the invasion.

Read more about the sanctions here and watch CNN’s reporting below:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned the effectiveness of the UN Security Council in a taped address on Tuesday, repeating his comments from his virtual speech at the UN earlier on Tuesday. 

“I’m sure the world will see this and make conclusions,” he said. 

Zelensky also repeated his call for Russia to be removed from the UN Security Council. 

“I suggest to the UN Security Council, and all other countries who honor international law, some specific actions that can change the situation. In particular, we are talking about a general conference in Kyiv to see how we can reform the global architecture in light of the Russian Federation still holding permanent seat in the United Nations,” he said.  

Zelensky addressed his conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron in which they spoke about the humanitarian situation in the temporary occupied regions of Ukraine.  

“We also agreed that France will provide necessary technical support and aid to investigate crimes of Russian occupiers in Ukraine,” he said.  

Zelensky also pushed for new sanctions after the massacre of civilians in Bucha. 

“This is not just about how our people are going to assess those sanctions but in fact how western societies are going to evaluate these sanctions after what the world has seen in Bucha,” he said, “Sanctions have to really respond to the severity of the crimes committed in Ukraine.”

He noted that the “hardest battles” are still being fought in Donbas and Kharkiv. 

Zelensky also said that he is preparing to meet with the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

“Together will be working in Kyiv, this will be appreciated by many people in the world because now Kyiv is the capital of the global democracy and fight for freedom for everyone on the European continent,” Zelensky said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Brussels Tuesday ahead of this week’s high-stakes NATO foreign ministerial as US officials warn that Russia’s war in Ukraine could be entering a protracted new phase.

Speaking to reporters en route to the Belgian capital, the top US diplomat said it was “an important moment” to coordinate with allies and partners “on a number of fronts.”

“We of course have the horrific atrocities that have been revealed for all the world to see in Bucha. I suspect, alas, we will see more of that where Russian forces pull out,” he said. “As I said, it’s like a receding tide and we’re seeing in very stark terms the death and destruction that’s being left in its wake. So, there’s obviously a lot of focus on that.” 

Blinken said the ministerial, which comes just weeks after NATO leaders gathered in Brussels, will also focus on “the work we’ve been doing together to support the Ukrainians and we’ll be looking at ways to sustain that and build on that, the work we are doing to put pressure on Russia and Putin, and we’ll be looking on ways to not only sustain that but build on that.”

“And of course work to strengthen and shore up the NATO alliance,” Blinken added.

US Ambassador to NATO Julie Smith told reporters earlier Tuesday that there would be a separate session at the NATO ministerial with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, saying “it’s important for us to hear directly from the Ukrainians firsthand what their assessment is of these fast-moving developments on the ground, and what more we can all do to help the Ukrainians in this moment.”

While in Brussels, Blinken will meet not only with his NATO counterparts at the ministerial, but also with the “Quint” — Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — and the “Quad” — France, Germany and the UK. He will also meet with his Australian and Japanese counterparts.

Residential buildings destroyed in the town of Borodianka are seen on Tuesday, April 5.

Oksana Kostychenko walks down a narrow pathway, leading to her back garden in Borodianka. The flower beds on one side are surprisingly well arranged, contrasting with the wanton destruction all around.

Near her garden shed is the body of a man laying face-down with a bag over his head and hands tied behind his back. His trousers are pulled down. There are large bruises on his left leg and a large wound on his head.

Next to his body is a single bullet casing.

The body is one of many recently found in cities to the east of Kyiv that were occupied by Russian forces.

Borodianka was home to 13,000 people before the war, but most fled after Russia’s invasion. What was left of the town, after intense shelling and devastating airstrikes, was then occupied by Russian forces, which moved in on Feb. 28.

Read the rest of this story here.

A woman and children sit for a meal after their arrival at a hub for displaced people in Zaporizhzhia on April 5.

A total of 3,846 people were evacuated through Ukrainian evacuation corridors on Tuesday, according to a statement posted on Telegram by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. 

Vereshchuk previously stated that a total of seven evacuation corridors had been planned for Tuesday. 

According to the official, 2,216 people went to Zaporizhzhia through evacuation corridors from Mariupol and Berdiansk in their own vehicles. This included 1,496 people from Mariupol and 720 people from Polohy, Vasylivka, Berdiansk and Melitopol.

Seventeen minibuses, which were sent to Berdiansk early Tuesday, also came back to Zaporizhzhia. They evacuated 150 people from the cities of Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Kreminna. Another 1,080 people were evacuated from the Luhansk region.

The International Committee of the Red Cross accompanied a convoy of seven buses and more than 40 private cars sent to evacuate civilians from Mariupol. The convoy was forced to return after a blockade in Manhush, a Russian-held town about 20 km (about 12 miles) from Mariupol. 

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces continue to block the passage of humanitarian goods to the besieged city.

Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of their country have arrived at the Mexican border city of Tijuana to seek US asylum and more are expected to come, a Tijuana city official and a volunteer told CNN on Saturday.

Tijuana city officials said Monday that they had opened a sports complex to house the overflow of Ukrainian migrants, according to Enrique Lucero Vazquez, the director of Tijuana’s immigration services.

Vazquez said that about 2,000 Ukrainians are currently in Tijuana, both near the border crossing with the United States and at the sports complex called “Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez.”

Last month, a senior administration official announced that the United States will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russia’s aggression.

More than 4 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to data from the UN refugee agency, with the vast majority of those refugees having fled to Ukraine’s western neighbors across Europe.

Here’s a look at some images from the ground in Tijuana:

Ukrainian refugees wait near the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the US-Mexico border on Monday, April 4, in Tijuana, Mexico. 

An aerial view of a Ukrainian refugee camp near the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday, April 2.

Ukrainian refugees wait to enter the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the US-Mexico border, in Tijuana, Mexico, on Monday.

A volunteer calls out numbers at a makeshift camp where Ukrainians are staying to hold their place in line near the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on Monday.

A Ukrainian family arrives at a shelter at the Christian church, Calvary San Diego, in Chula Vista, California, after crossing into the US from Tijuana, Mexico, on Friday, April 1.

Volunteer Silas Breen, below left, from the Calvary Bible Institute, prays with David, from Ukraine, at Calvary San Diego's shelter for Ukrainians arriving from Tijuana, Mexico, last Friday, in Chula Vista, California.

CNN’s Rosalina Nieves, Rosa Flores, Sharif Paget and Karol Suarez contributed reporting to this post.

The city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, is home to the Football Club Karpaty Lviv, a minor league soccer team. But as the Russian invasion continues, it’s now also home to Ukrainian refugees, fleeing violence and seeking safety.

Oleg Smaliychuk, the owner of the team, has opened the club’s offices as a resting place for hundreds of Ukrainian refugees.

“We left because of our children. We left our town because we were afraid of their psychological state. We have a war there, and we were very scared,” said Katia, a woman currently living at the soccer club with her sister-in-law and their four kids, via translator.

CNN’s Jake Tapper visited with Katia and her family, who fled Donetsk, heading west in hopes of avoiding the violence that plagues their city.

“I miss my grandmother and I would like to be back in my town. Because here everything looks very unfamiliar to me,” says 11-year-old Yegor, the eldest of the children.

Smaliychuk, the team’s owner, told CNN he’s been so impacted by the violence and terror, that he is contemplating a new career path.

As he was interviewed by Tapper, Smaliychuk didn’t pause as he heard the air raid siren, an all-too-familiar reminder of the state of affairs in his country. Instead, he continued loading ammunition into his firearm, focused on his new calling. 

“I definitely want to go where I can avenge our children,” he said.

Watch CNN’s reporting from the ground:

Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets told CNN on Tuesday that it was “absolutely appropriate” for Estonia to reduce the number of Russian diplomatic staff in the country and urged other nations to step up sanctions and pressure on Russia.

Earlier on Tuesday, Estonia announced it will shut down both Russian consulates in the country and expel 14 staff in light of the atrocities revealed to have been committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians.

Liimets added, “This is not enough to pressure Russia to stop the war, and therefore we also work with sanctions with the fifth package of sanctions within the European Union.”

The foreign minister also noted that Estonia would like to see reforms to the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member. Liimets said permanent members should not have veto rights when it comes to matters related to atrocities. 

“It is very unfortunate to see that among those permanent member states, there is also an aggressor and the aggressor has sabotaged the whole work of the United Nations Security Council,” she said.

The foreign minister also urged other UN member states to support Ukraine with military assistance, and to “continue to politically and economically isolate Russia.”

“Estonia started to provide defensive equipment to Ukraine already before the war started,” Liimets told CNN. “It is very important that all the countries who have this opportunity to provide military assistance to Ukraine do it now.”

“We must continue to put additional pressure to Russia to stop this unjustified and unprovoked war in Ukraine,” she said. “And here definitely, Ukraine needs the support of every member state of the United Nations.”

Yevheniya Kravhuck, a Ukrainian parliament member, said that the only way to win the war against Russia is on the battlefield, because there is no other way to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kravchuk went on to describe the devastated city of Mariupol as a “mass graveyard” where officials are having a hard time getting into to assess civilian casualties.

“We can’t even get there. You showed these numbers that United Nations say, they killed civilians, but it’s much, much more. Only in Mariupol, local consulate say it’s more than 5,000 of civilians dead, and we can’t get there to count, to find out what’s going on there,” she said.

Kravchuk, whose husband is the head of a police department in Kyiv, described efforts by Ukrainian police to document war crimes using forensics. She also said that officials are running out of places to put bodies of the dead and that they are in need of more refrigerators.

“Right now a lot police men from other districts, that were not affected, they are taken to these northern parts, and they work there. They ask to have their forensic experts to put every documentation on these war crimes. Because we need international tribunal afterwards to make sure that everyone who killed people will be punished. Because this evil cannot just go unpunished,” she said.

Watch the interview:

Russian forces launched missile strikes in western and northeastern Ukraine Tuesday, hitting what Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov described as military facilities. 

In a statement, Konashenkov said Russia launched precision air-launched missiles at targets in the vicinity of Zolochiv in western Lviv oblast and Chuhuiv in northeastern Kharkiv oblast.

He claimed the strikes destroyed a command post of a territorial defense unit, a fuel storage facility and an armored vehicle repair plant.

CNN could not independently verify that information.

There have been no “major advances” in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, and the horrors witnessed over the weekend in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are not helping the talks, an Elysee Palace source said on Tuesday.  

The source added that Zelensky was still keen on “maintaining and advancing the talks with the Russians,” as well as on France’s mediation role. 

The two leaders discussed the concrete measures to be put in place to “make sure that Russia’s crimes do not remain unpunished,” said the source, including France’s offer last week to send additional funding to the International Criminal Court. 

Macron reiterated his country’s willingness to contribute to the investigation and documentation of the violence perpetrated against civilians, according to the source, and asked Zelensky about the reports of alleged rape committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian women “which the Ukrainian president confirmed,” added the source.  

The condition in the besieged city of Mariupol was also discussed in the meeting, and Zelensky informed Macron that that only 2,000 people were able to leave this week because the “Russians were blocking” the evacuation corridors, according to the source.

The White House expanded upon news Tuesday that the US will no longer allow Russia to pay down its debt using dollars stockpiled at American banks, a shift aimed at piling additional pressure on Moscow. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the goals of the move were, in part, to deplete Russia’s financial resources.

She continued, “The biggest part of our objective here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine, and obviously causing more certainty – uncertainty — and challenges to their financial system is a part of that but it is forcing them to choose those options and to also deplete the resources, making it more difficult for him to continue to fight the war.”

As CNN previously reported, the move came to light on Monday when Russia faced another deadline to make a debt payment and avoid its first foreign debt default in more than a century. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Washington imposed sanctions on the Central Bank of Russia that froze its foreign currency reserves at US banks.

Yet the US Treasury Department had previously permitted Russia to use those frozen foreign currency reserves to repay debt. That allowed Russia to narrowly avoid a default.