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Russia Ukraine War (Putin's War) - Page 7
Sam Tabahriti

Ukraine's biggest steelmaker Metinvest vowed on Friday that it will never work under Russian occupation. Reuters reported the news, citing a company statement, which was sent to the agency: "We believe in the victory of Ukraine and plan to resume production after the end of hostilities. Metinvest's metallurgical enterprises will never operate under Russian occupation," the statement said. Per Reuters, the company also said that more than a third of Ukraine's metallurgy production capacity was out of service due to the siege of Mariupol.
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday told CNN he estimated the country has lost between 2,500 and 3,000 troops since the war began in February. "As to our military, out of the numbers we have, we think that we lost 2,500 to 3,000, in comparison with the Russian military, who lost about 19 to 20,000," Zelenskyy said. "That's the comparison. But we have about 10,000 injured and it's hard to say how many will survive" Insider was unable to independently verify these numbers, but an anonymous NATO member estimated at the end of March that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops have died in the conflict.
bdawson@insider.com (Bethany Dawson)

The Ukrainian military has launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the purchase of new fighter jets, say reports. In a video showing destroyed Ukrainian military equipment and devastated homes and towns, a Ukrainian pilot looks into the camera and says, "buy me a fighter jet."  "He continues, "It will help me to protect my sky filled with Russian planes that bomb my land, kill my friends, and destroy our homes and everything I have ever known. "You have a chance to stop it. Give us wings to fight for our sky."  
Alexander Nazaryan

WASHINGTON — Stung by the strength of the Ukrainian resistance, Russia is looking to launch a major offensive under more favorable conditions after attempts to take Kyiv and other major cities have floundered. The new offensive will focus on the Donbas region, a contested swath of eastern Ukraine that includes two breakaway regions controlled by Moscow. “They want to achieve some physical, tangible objectives in the Donbas within the next couple of weeks,” a senior Pentagon official told reporters during a Thursday briefing. But given the ongoing challenges, Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to deliver the knockout blow he desperately seeks, analysts say. Any territorial gains Russia does achieve are expected to be considerably less significant than what Putin envisioned when he launched the invasion of his much smaller and less powerful neighbor in late February.
ydzhanova@businessinsider.com (Yelena Dzhanova)

Ukrainian intelligence officials claim to have intercepted a call in which a Russian soldier says Vladimir Putin's troops are shooting their own people in Moscow. The Security Service of Ukraine released an audio clip of the call on Friday, in which a man's voice can be heard saying Putin's forces have been opening fire on a Russian town. The man, a soldier located in Ukraine's Donetsk region, was speaking to his wife on the phone, who's back home in Russia. "These are our heroes," he told his wife. "This is done in order to provoke ... Ukrainians," he said, according to Ukrainian intel. The soldier said Russian forces bombed Klimovo, a Russian city straddling the border between Russia and Ukraine. Klimovo authorities, meanwhile, blamed Ukrainian soldiers for shelling the city, an accusation Kyiv has vehemently denied. The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine characterized the blame as "an attempt to ignite anti-Ukraine hysteria in Russia," according to Radio Free Europe, a US-funded media company.
David Axe, Forbes Staff

Russian air force Tu-22M bombers flew into Ukrainian air space on Thursday and dropped unguided bombs on Ukrainian troops in the besieged city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov coast. It was the first time the 120-ton, swing-wing, supersonic bombers directly have raided Ukraine since Russia widened its war on the country starting the night of Feb. 23. Before the Mariupol mission, the Tu-22Ms attacked Ukraine without leaving Russian air space—by firing long-range cruise missiles. The bombing run, which was recorded by a Russian drone and later confirmed by Ukrainian officials, could indicate that the Kremlin is running low on cruise missiles. It requires a certain amount of recklessness, or desperation, to fly the big bombers within range of enemy air-defenses. Georgian troops famously shot down a Tu-22M, killing its four crew, during the Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia in 2008.
By Ivana Kottasová, CNN

CNN — The war in Ukraine could soon enter a new, even more dangerous phase. Russia, angry over the loss of its Black Sea Fleet flagship, has warned of “unpredictable consequences” if US continues supplying weapons to Ukraine, while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky struck a somber note telling CNN the world should be prepared for the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use tactical nuclear weapons. The sinking of the guided-missile cruiser Moskva on Thursday is the biggest wartime loss of a naval ship in 40 years – and a huge embarrassment for Russia. It comes at a time when US intelligence officials are warning about Putin’s increasingly unpredictable behavior and willingness to take risks due to his anger over Russia’s failures in Ukraine.
Mia Jankowicz

The Russian warship that was confirmed as sunk on Thursday may have been carrying a holy relic when it went down. The Moskva, a missile cruiser that was the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, sank on Thursday following an explosion on board, Russian state media reported. A news report from 2020 has given rise to the question of whether the vessel sank with a Christian relic — a piece of the "true cross" — on board. The Russian Orthodox Church announced in February 2020 that the relic had been delivered to the then-commander of the Black Sea fleet, Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, and was at the fleet's headquarters in readiness for delivery to the ship "shortly," the state-run Tass news agency reported at the time.
Reuters

April 15 (Reuters) - Russia has confirmed the Moskva missile cruiser, the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, has sunk while being towed to port following what it said was a fire and explosions involving ammunition stowed onboard. Ukraine says the Moskva's fate was sealed by a missile strike launched by its forces from the coast which ripped open the hulking Soviet-era ship's hull. Russia's defence ministry has not confirmed that version of events. Reuters is unable to verify either side's assertions. Here's what we do know, and what the sinking means (and does not mean) for Russia's battle-readiness:
Joshua Zitser

Russia is failing to recruit new troops because potential conscripts are too afraid of dying in battle, Ukraine's defense ministry told a Friday press briefing, citing military intelligence. Russia had planned to mobilize 26,000 reservists to fight in the Donbas, but this effort ultimately failed because Russians were avoiding being conscripted, defense ministry spokesman Col. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told the briefing. "Males aged 18 to 65 make every attempt to avoid mobilization because they don't want to become cannon fodder for the occupier's army," Motuzyanyk said. Ukraine's defense ministry claims it has killed about 20,000 soldiers and officers of the Russian army. This figure has not been independently verified.
by Lexi Lonas

Ukraine is using facial recognition technology from U.S. company Clearview AI to identify dead Russian soldiers and send the images to their families in an effort to turn sentiment against the war, according to The Washington Post. The technology has been used to notify families of 582 Russian soldiers who were killed in the fighting in Ukraine, according to the country’s IT Army, the Post reported. In total, the technology has been used 8,679 times in Ukraine, according to a statement from Clearview AI Chief Executive Hoan Ton-That given to The Hill.
By James Mackenzie

HUSARIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Smashed tanks in the mud, destroyed buildings and mourning families mark a recaptured east Ukrainian village whose residents are contemplating the price both they and their former Russian occupiers have had to pay. Ukrainian soldiers last month retook Husarivka, an agricultural village with a peacetime population of 500-600 around 150 km southeast of Kharkiv city, after heavy fighting following the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. As Russian forces pull back after failing to take major cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv to refocus their offensive on the Donbas region in the southeast, residents of the surrounding areas are beginning to clean up after weeks of occupation.
Joanna Walters

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made a direct request to Joe Biden that the US designates Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, the Washington Post reports. This would be a rare and radical sanction, but Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, and this is no exception as his country endures atrocities from its northern neighbor. He asked the US president in a recent phone call, but the question has not previously been reported, the Post adds, citing unnamed sources, who apparently indicated that “Biden did not commit to specific actions during the call.”
By ADAM SCHRECK and YESICA FISCH

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — More than 900 civilian bodies have been discovered in the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital following the withdrawal of Russian forces — most of them fatally shot, police said Friday, an indication that many people were “simply executed.” The jarring numbers emerged shortly after Russia’s Defense Ministry promised to step up missile attacks on Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s alleged aggression on Russian territory. That ominous warning followed the stunning loss of Moscow’s flagship in the Black Sea, which a senior U.S. defense official said Friday was indeed hit by at least one Ukrainian missile. Around Kyiv, Andriy Nebytov, the head of Kyiv’s regional police force, said bodies were abandoned in the streets or given temporary burials. He cited police data indicating that 95% died from gunshot wounds.
by Ellen Mitchell

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday warned that the world should take seriously and prepare for the possibility that Russia could use nuclear weapons in its attack on Ukraine. “Not only me — I think all of the world, all the countries, have to be worried, because it can be not real information, but it can be truth,” Zelensky told CNN’s Jake Tapper when asked if he was worried Russian President Vladimir Putin might use a tactical nuclear weapon on Ukraine. Zelensky also said Moscow could easily use either nuclear or chemical weapons, as Putin does not value the lives of Ukrainian citizens. “They could do it, for them the life of the people [means] nothing,” Zelensky said. “We should think, not be afraid, be ready. But that is not a question … only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think so.”
Ukraine's defense ministry said on Friday that for the first time since the start of its invasion, Russia had used long-range bombers to attack the besieged port city of Mariupol... where Ukrainian forces are dwindling and thousands are reported to have died. Also on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed its troops had captured Ilyich Steel Plant in Mariupol… which has been encircled by Russian troops for weeks. Reuters could not confirm this. Powerful explosions were heard in Kyiv overnight - which appeared to be among the most significant there since Russian troops pulled back from the area earlier this month in preparation for battles in the south and east. Russia says it struck a missile factory in Kyiv…
Natasha Turak, Samantha Subin

Russia appears to be retaliating for the sinking of its flagship missile cruiser Moskva, which Ukrainian forces say they hit with missiles, as explosions are heard in Kyiv. The loss of such a major naval asset may force Russia to rethink its strategy in the Black Sea, analysts say. The U.S. now believes Ukrainian missiles sank the Moskva, an official told NBC News. Finland’s minister for European affairs says the Nordic country is “highly likely” to join NATO, a move Russia has warned against.
Darragh Roche

A Russian TV pundit has raged against Ukraine and called for the bombing of the capital city of Kyiv following the sinking of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea. Vladimir Bortko, a filmmaker and former member of the Russian State Duma, said on state TV on Thursday that the Russian "motherland" had been attacked after Ukraine said it had hit the ship with missiles. "We should bomb Kyiv," said Bortko at one point in an exchange with the TV host. Russia, which began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, has not officially said the vessel was attacked but the country's Defense Ministry has confirmed that the Moskva, which had a crew of 510, sank after a fire on the ship was caused by the detonation of ammunition.
By ADAM SCHRECK

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A day after Moscow suffered a stinging symbolic defeat with the loss of the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, Russia’s Defense Ministry promised Friday to ramp up missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital in response to Ukraine’s alleged military “diversions on the Russian territory.” The threat of intensified attacks on Kyiv came after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of wounding seven people and damaging about 100 residential buildings with airstrikes on Bryansk, a region that borders Ukraine. Authorities in another border region of Russia also reported Ukrainian shelling Thursday. Kyiv has gradually displayed some signs of pre-war life after Russian troops failed to capture the city and retreated to focus on a concentrated assault in eastern Ukraine, leaving evidence of possible war crimes in their wake. A renewed bombardment could return the capital’s residents to sheltering in subway stations and the steady wail of air raid sirens.
By Josh Kovensky

Russia admitted that its largest ship in the Black Sea had gone under on Thursday, after Ukraine said on Wednesday that it scored a rocket strike on the vessel. Ukrainian officials first announced on Wednesday evening that they had hit the rocket cruiser Moskva off the coast of Odessa with one of the country’s home-developed “Neptune” anti-ship missiles. Moskva is Russian for Moscow, the country’s capital. Moskva was the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, one of Russia’s main naval bodies. Based out of the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, the fleet was buttressed by ships taken from Ukraine’s navy after Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014.
By Jack Dutton

The Russian military is clearing dead bodies and is planning a "Victory Day parade" in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to celebrate taking control of it, Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the city's mayor, has claimed on Telegram. "Judging from the whole array of data, the occupiers are planning to hold a 'victory carnival' in Mariupol in case their 'special operation' is successful," Andryushchenko said. He said that Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, who is directing Russian forces in Mariupol, was ordered to "clear a part of the city's central district of rubble and dead bodies to ensure that a parade can be held on 9 May."
Reuters

April 15 (Reuters) - The wife of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's top allies in Ukraine said on Friday that he has been beaten by the Ukrainian security service while being interrogated in detention. At a news conference in Moscow, Viktor Medvedchuk's wife Oksana Marchenko said that one of two photos released by Ukraine this week showed he had been beaten. Reuters could not independently confirm this, and neither Ukraine's security service, the SBU, nor the Kremlin immediately responded to requests for comment.
By Yaron Steinbuch

The body of a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman has been discovered among hundreds of corpses in a mass grave in Bucha after she was raped, tortured and shot in the head, according to her grieving loved ones. Karina Yershova, who lost her nails in the apparent fight for her life, was discovered dumped in a garden in the besieged Kyiv suburb, the Telegraph reported Wednesday. “She was shot at point-blank range. Almost half of her head was missing,” Andrii, the tragic woman’s stepfather, told the news outlet After Yershova disappeared last month, her mother, Olena Dereko, asked people on social media to “help me find my daughter,” the Sun reported.
By GEIR MOULSON

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday criticized a diplomatic snub by Ukraine for his country’s president and defended Berlin’s record on delivering weapons to Kyiv amid tensions that have flared at a delicate moment in German policymaking on the war. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s largely ceremonial head of state, had hoped to travel to Ukraine on Wednesday with his Polish and Baltic counterparts. But he said Tuesday that his presence “apparently ... wasn’t wanted in Kyiv.” The German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying that Steinmeier was not welcome at the moment, pointing to his close relations with Russia in the past.
Moscow says seven people wounded and six buildings damaged by ‘air strikes’ in Russia’s southwestern Bryansk region.

Ukraine has rejected claims by Moscow that Ukrainian forces carried out attacks along the border between the countries, including an air raid that Russia said left seven people wounded. Russian officials said Ukrainian helicopters carried out several strikes in the country’s southwestern Bryansk region on Thursday, the latest in a series of alleged cross-border attacks on Russian territory.
by Caroline Vakil

Russia accused Ukraine’s military of shelling a Russian village on Thursday, alleging seven people were wounded in the attack, including one young child. The Investigative Committee of Russia claimed that at least six strikes had been carried out in the Russian village of Klimovo, which is located near the borders of Belarus and Ukraine, by two combat helicopters flying at low altitude. In addition to the seven people injured, at least six residential buildings were hit, Russia claimed. The committee said it opened a criminal case as a result of the alleged shelling.
Zachary Basu

President Biden announced Wednesday that he has approved the transfer of helicopters, artillery systems and armored vehicles as part of a package of $800 million in additional military aid to Ukraine.

Why it matters: The U.S. and its European allies are drastically ramping up the scale and scope of their military assistance ahead of a massive Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region, which officials believe will dictate the trajectory of the rest of the war.
Jake Epstein

Ukrainian defenders in besieged Mariupol are tying up a "significant" amount of Russian troops and equipment that will soon be needed elsewhere, UK intelligence said on Thursday. Russian forces are preparing for a renewed offensive in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, the UK's Ministry of Defense tweeted, and will need a large number of troops to do so. But President Vladimir Putin's troops may be limited by the ongoing campaign to capture Mariupol, which has remained under Ukrainian control despite constant bombardment by Russian forces. The strategic southern port city has been surrounded for weeks by the Russian military, which has launched a devastating bombing campaign against the city. Russia has targeted civilian areas, including schools, shelters, theaters, and hospitals.
Marc Champion

How the Moskva caught fire late on Wednesday remains disputed. Russia’s defense ministry said the warship’s ammunition store detonated. The governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region, Maksym Marchenko, backed up by the defense ministry, said it was struck by two Neptune missiles, a new Ukrainian anti-ship system of which just one battery exists. In either case the missile cruiser’s loss is an embarrassment for Russia and a win for Ukraine. The ship gained notoriety at the start of the war for a confrontation with a small contingent of Ukrainian guards on Snake Island in the Black Sea who, in colorful terms, reportedly told the Moskva to get lost. It will also cost Russia militarily. While old –- it was commissioned in 1982 -- the Slava (Glory) class Moskva was refitted in 2010. It provides a mobile bubble of long-range air defense for the rest of the fleet, as well as command and control systems. Those abilities cannot be easily substituted.
By Brad Lendon, CNN

(CNN) One of the Russian Navy's most important warships has been badly damaged in the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Vladimir Putin's invasion of his neighbor. Russian sailors evacuated the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, after a fire that detonated ammunition aboard, Russia's defense ministry said. Ukraine's Operational Command South claimed Thursday that the Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles. "In the Black Sea operational zone, Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet -- it received significant damage," the statement said. "A fire broke out. Other units of the ship's group tried to help, but a storm and a powerful explosion of ammunition overturned the cruiser and it began to sink."
Russia attacked Ukraine and now they are mad because Ukraine is fighting back.

Chloe Mayer

Russian military chiefs have threatened to strike "decision-making centers" in Kyiv in retaliation for attacks it alleges Ukraine has carried out within its borders. The chilling warning came during a briefing on Wednesday reported by Russian news agency Tass, when Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said: "We can see that Ukrainian forces are trying to conduct subversive activities and attack facilities in Russia. If such activities continue, the Russian Armed Forces will carry out strikes on decision-making centers, including those in Kyiv, which is what the Russian army has so far been refraining from doing."
By Giulia Carbonaro

In a call allegedly intercepted by Ukraine's Security Services (SBU), a Russian woman can be heard telling her partner, seemingly a Russian soldier deployed in Ukraine, to rape Ukrainian women, but to use "protection." In the chilling audio shared by Ukrainian Security Services on Telegram, the woman (who sounds like a Russian native speaker, with no hints of a Ukrainian accent), gives her partner permission to rape Ukrainian women, just not to tell her about it. "You go there, rape Ukrainian women and don't tell me anything. Understood? The main thing is to protect yourself there," the woman tells her partner.
Reuters

April 13 (Reuters) - Russia will view U.S. and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate military targets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency in an interview on Wednesday. Any attempts by the West to inflict significant damage on Russia's military or its separatist allies in Ukraine will be "harshly suppressed," he added. "We are warning that US-NATO weapons transports across Ukrainian territory will be considered by us as legal military targets," TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying.
Reuters

April 13 (Reuters) - An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Serhiy Leshchenko, denied in an interview with CNN that Zelenskiy had rejected a visit offer from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as reported by the Bild newspaper. Steinmeier said on Tuesday that he had planned to visit Kyiv with his Polish counterpart and the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia "to send a strong signal of European solidarity with Ukraine ... (but) that was not wanted in Kyiv".
(Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday told Ukraine to "watch out" after its former Soviet neighbour captured pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk, turning down Kyiv's offer of a swap with a warning that those holding him might soon be detained themselves. Medvedchuk, one of President Vladimir Putin's close allies in Ukraine, was shown handcuffed and wearing the uniform of a Ukrainian soldier on Tuesday in a picture tweeted by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI

YAHIDNE, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian soldiers forced more than 300 villagers into a school basement. Then, during weeks of stress and deprivation, some began to die. Residents of Yahidne, a village 140 kilometers (87 miles) from Kyiv, told The Associated Press about being ordered into the basement at gunpoint after the Russians took control of the area around the northern city of Chernihiv in early March. In one room, those who survived wrote the names of the 18 who didn’t. “An old man died near me and then his wife died next,” Valentyna Saroyan, a weary survivor, recalled Tuesday as she toured the darkened basement. “Then a man died who was lying there, then a woman sitting next to me. She was a heavy woman, and it was very difficult for her.”
Potential act of sabotage comes as Russia begins militarising border regions, signalling shift of war effort towards east Ukraine
Andrew Roth

A key Russian railway bridge has been damaged in the border region with Ukraine in a potential act of sabotage – as Russia relies on its railroads to shift its attacking forces in preparation for a massive assault on eastern Ukraine. Photographs from the bridge in Russia’s Belgorod region showed that a section of rail had been forced upward, possibly due to an explosion. The photographs, as well as news of the incident, were first published on Tuesday by the local Russian governor and local media. “There are no casualties,” governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote in an online statement. “Only the railway track is destroyed … I will inform you about the reasons later.”
President Voldomyr Zelensky has called for Nuremberg-style hearings
Andrew Buncombe Chief US Correspondent

Statements and assertions published by Russia’s state-controlled media show the atrocities carried out in Ukraine amount to war crimes, says a US expert on Vladimir Putin and his country. In the weeks before and since Russia invaded Ukraine, Susan Smith-Peter, Professor Of History at the City University of New York, has been monitoring Russian state media and posting translations of some of the pieces she thinks show Moscow’s intention to breach the rules of war. She says while Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the establishment of a war crimes tribunal similar to the Nuremberg Trials that followed World War II, much of the discussion in the West has focused on the challenge to prove “intent”.
By Gerrard Kaonga

Multiple women were raped during Russia's occupation of Bucha with nine of them becoming pregnant, Ukrainian authorities have alleged. Bucha, a town just outside of Kyiv, was occupied by Russian soldiers for several weeks following Putin's invasion of the country. Following a retreat by the Russian army, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has accused Russian forces of committing acts of severe violence and torture against the civilians during this time. Ukraine's ombudswoman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, spoke to the BBC and highlighted the alleged sexual violent crimes committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Reuters

April 13 (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday that 1,026 soldiers of Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had surrendered in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Hundreds of foreign companies from Pepsi to Apple to IKEA have pulled back operations in Russia as the West has hit the country with sweeping sanctions. Here’s how Russians are living with the economic fallout from Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine.
“No one wants to talk to us anymore, we are forgotten,” a member of the 36th Marine Brigade says as he vows to be “loyal” to the end while surrounded by Russian troops.
Allison Quinn

Ukrainian marines defending the besieged city of Mariupol from Russian forces have issued a desperate video appeal, saying they have run out of supplies and feel “forgotten” as they prepare to fight to the end. “We have not given up our positions. We have held every bit of this city as much as we could. But the reality is that the city is blockaded and surrounded—and no supply of ammunition or food has come. We have held out until the end,” one of the men in the 36th Marine Brigade says in the video shared on Facebook. “We are grateful to every Ukrainian who believed and continues to believe in the marines. We’ve held on for so long with this faith. We have not abandoned our positions. We have remained loyal and will remain loyal always,” he said.
Bill Bostock

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops scattered thousands of unexploded bombs, mines, and trip wires across parts of northern Ukraine as they retreated. In recent weeks, Ukraine said Russia had directed troops away from Kyiv and started a concentrated assault on the Donbas region, specifically on the strategic port city of Mariupol. "Security work is underway in the northern regions of our country, from where the occupiers were expelled," Zelenskyy said in a Monday night address. "Russian troops left behind tens if not hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects. These are shells that did not explode, mines, tripwire mines. At least several thousand such items are disposed of daily."
Gerrard Kaonga

Ukrainian forces in Mariupol have been forced to surrender to Russian soldiers as they are run out of ammunition and have been fighting without sufficient food and water for more than a month, according to an Independent report. A British man who volunteered to fight against Russian soldiers in Ukraine is also among these soldiers who have surrendered after defending Mariupol for weeks. PBS correspondant Simon Ostrovsky posted a picture of the British volunteer and confirmed that he had surrendered to Russian troops, according to a former squad member. "Aiden Aslin (right), a Brit who has been fighting to defend Mariupol with Ukraine's marines and posting about the war on the @cossackgundi Instagram account," Ostrovosky tweeted alongside a picture of Aslin.
Nicola Slawson

Good morning. Russia is receiving munitions and military hardware sourced from Iraq for its war effort in Ukraine with the help of Iranian weapons-smuggling networks, according to members of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias and regional intelligence services with knowledge of the process. RPGs and anti-tank missiles, as well as Brazilian-designed rocket launcher systems, have been dispatched to Russia from Iraq as Moscow’s campaign has faltered in the last month, the Guardian has learned. And an Iranian-made Bavar 373 missile system, similar to the Russian S-300, has been donated to Moscow by the authorities in Tehran.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejects request by Frank-Walter Steinmeier for meeting in Kyiv, Bild reports
Philip Oltermann in Berlin

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has rejected a request by the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to visit Kyiv along with other European politicians on Wednesday. Steinmeier, a former foreign minister and erstwhile ally of the ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder, is on a state visit in Poland, where he is discussing the implications of the Russian war in Ukraine with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda. According a report in the German newspaper Bild, Steinmeier had planned to travel to Kyiv with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland on Wednesday. However, his request for a meeting was rejected by Zelenskiy, with Bild citing the reason as the German Social Democrat’s previously close ties to the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his history as an advocate of close Russian-German economic ties.
By Pinar Sevinclidir

Istanbul, Turkey — A large, mostly Russian crowd pulsed to music from a stage in Turkey recently. The message blaring from the speakers was for the whole world to hear. "No to war!" shouted prominent Russian rapper Oxxxymiron from the front of the crowd. He was giving a voice to the many Russians who do not back their president's war in Ukraine. Oxxxymiron's March concert in Istanbyl, the proceeds from which went to help displaced Ukrainians, drew a large crowd of like-minded Russians. Many had only recently left their country in protest of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Russia's neighbor to the west.
By Vasco Cotovio and Frederik Pleitgen, Byron Blunt and Daria Markina, CNN

Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN) On the outskirts of Kyiv, Lt. Col. Mykola Opanasenko kneels down in a remote field as he winds up a small electrical generator to power a blast. "Fire," he shouts, before bracing and pressing the trigger. A fraction of a second later, an ear-ringing bang pierces through the otherwise silent countryside. This is the sixth controlled explosion 34-year-old Opanasenko and his demining unit have carried out since Russia withdrew its forces from the Kyiv region earlier this month. Today, they blew up 16 unexploded artillery shells, each weighing around 45 kilograms (nearly 100 pounds), in one explosion. They have another 30 shells to go through before the day is over. Their unit is one of many operating in the region. In total, they say they've destroyed 2.5 tons of ammunition in the past week and a half alone.
Kevin Breuninger

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday announced the apparent capture of Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin politician who was living in Ukraine. Medvedchuk had been under house arrest on treason charges since last year, but allegedly escaped shortly after Russia launched its invasion. His lawyers have denied wrongdoing. “A special operation was carried out thanks to the SBU,” Zelenskyy wrote in Russian on his verified account on the social media platform Telegram, referencing Ukraine’s Security Service. “Well done! Details later. Glory to Ukraine!” Zelenskyy said. Above that caption, Zelenskyy posted a photo showing a disheveled Medvedchuk seated by a radiator with his hands clasped in handcuffs.
Mia Jankowicz

Russia has lost some of its most specialized and costly troops in its invasion of Ukraine, according to a BBC investigation. Of the 1,083 Russian fighters identified by the BBC 's Russian-language operation, around a fifth — 217 — were officers ranking from junior lieutenant to general, the network said. The BBC said that among those troops were some of Russia's most expensive and difficult to replace. The higher-ranking losses include 10 colonels, 20 lieutenant colonels, 31 majors and 155 junior officers, the BBC reported. To illustrate the cost to Russia, it said:
Azmi Haroun

The chief regional prosecutor in Bucha, Ukraine, told the New York Times that Russian soldiers left behind a computer server with potentially damning information as investigators are zeroing in on killings and mass graves in the city. Last week, Ukrainian authorities unearthed a mass grave in the Kyiv suburb, claiming that Russian soldiers killed and buried 360 Ukrainians in a 45-foot-long trench. Journalists who visited Bucha after Russian troops pulled out also reported bodies of civilians in their homes, on the street, and in the suburb's glass factory. Around 35,000 people live in the northern Kyiv suburb. "We have already established lists and data of servicemen," prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko told The Times. "This data runs to more than a hundred pages."
By Isabel van Brugen

Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, claimed Monday that he had been sent maps by Russian commanders that show a "point by point" attack plan for Ukraine, including conquering the capital, Kyiv. Kadyrov's claims that Russian forces will launch an offensive on Kyiv come not long after the Kremlin said it would withdraw troops and scale back military operations in the region around the Ukrainian capital. "I received the reports and maps at 2 a.m.," Kadyrov, the head of Russia's Chechen Republic, said in a video posted on his Telegram channel early on Monday. "The points are marked, the tasks are clear. And we are already starting to work specifically, point by point.
John Bacon, Tom Vanden Brook, Jorge L. Ortiz and Celina Tebor, USA TODAY

Russia is resupplying and reinforcing its invasion force in eastern Ukraine with a long convoy of vehicles heading to the region, indicating a new phase of the war is likely to occur there, according to a senior Pentagon official. The convoy, exposed in commercial satellite imagery, stretches an estimated eight miles. It appears to contain vehicles to command and supply infantry units and possibly helicopters, said the official, who provided intelligence assessments on condition of anonymity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of an impending Russian offensive in his country's east and has urged civilians to flee the region. "The occupiers have sent dozens of thousands of soldiers and colossal numbers of equipment to prepare new attacks," he warned in a speech to South Korean lawmakers translated by NBC News. Josep Borrell, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, issued a similar warning Monday.
By YURAS KARMANAU, ADAM SCHRECK and CARA ANNA

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, with corpses that were “carpeted through the streets.” Speaking by phone Monday to The Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the bodies, and he accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage. Russian forces have taken many bodies to a huge shopping center where there are storage facilities and refrigerators, Boychenko said. “Mobile crematoriums have arrived in the form of trucks: You open it, and there is a pipe inside and these bodies are burned,” he said.
Russian Gen. Alexander Dvornikov is notorious as the “Butcher of Syria" for his targeting of civilians while commanding troops in the region.
By Doha Madani and Courtney Kube

Russia's reported appointment of Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, a man with a history of targeting civilians, to take over operations in Ukraine marks what some military analysts see as an indication that Russia intends to terrorize civilians as the war progresses. Dvornikov, who most recently oversaw Russian troops in Syria, was chosen as the new ground commander in Ukraine, a U.S. official and a Western official confirmed. The decision to bring in Dvornikov could be an acknowledgment of what U.S. intelligence officials have described as a failure to achieve the quick takeover Russian President Vladimir Putin envisioned, retired Adm. James Stavridis said Sunday on “NBC Nightly News.” "The appointment of this new general indicates Vladimir Putin’s intent to continue this conflict for months, if not years," Stavridis said. Dvornikov is known as the "Butcher of Syria," Stavridis noted.
By Reuters

(Reuters) - Russian attack helicopters have destroyed a convoy of Ukraine's armoured vehicles and anti-aircraft warfare, the news agency Interfax reported on Sunday, citing Russia's defence ministry. "Attack helicopters KA-52 ... destroyed weapons and military equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine," the agency cited the ministry as saying in a statement. The news agency said the ministry published video footage of attack KA-52 helicopters flying at extremely low altitude, launching missiles and firing from guns at ground targets. The location and the timing of the attack was not specified.
As workers try to bring back a sense of normalcy to Kyiv after Russia retreated, they continue to find horrific scenes of human tragedy.
Barbie Latza Nadeau

The return of diplomatic missions to the Ukraine capital of Kyiv—including visits by European leaders and reopening of embassies—make it seem like things are returning to normal, but life on and under the ground proves otherwise. Late Saturday, workers trying to clean up after Russia’s failed attempt to capture the city found another mass grave. This time, dozens of clearly civilian bodies were under fresh dirt near a gas station in the Kyiv suburb of Buzova. Children were among the victims, according to Reuters. The regional leader Taras Didych said the number of victims was yet unknown as excavations continue. “Now we are returning to life but during the occupation we had our ‘hotspots’ many civilians died,” he said.
By Patrick J. McDonnellForeign Correspondent

HOSTOMEL, Ukraine — Days after Russian forces retreated from Kyiv, the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian capital are littered with the charred remains of blown-up and abandoned Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other equipment.The debris is a stark testament to an assault that was meant to oust the Ukrainian government but became a humiliating blunder for Russian President Vladimir Putin.Russia’s failure to take the capital came down to a series of misjudgments and strategic errors: an emphasis on vulnerable armored columns, inadequate use of air power, an attack plan that overstretched supply lines, and — most significantly — a clear miscalculation of the Ukrainians’ ability and determination to resist.
"The larger issue of broad-scale war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine lies at the feet of the Kremlin," Jake Sullivan said.
By David Cohen

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that the war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine were part of President Vladimir Putin’s master plan for the invasion. “We, in fact, before the war began declassified intelligence and presented it,” Sullivan said on ABC’s “This Week,” “indicating that there was a plan from the highest levels of the Russian government to target civilians who oppose the invasion, to cause violence against them, to organize efforts to brutalize them in order to try to terrorize the population and subjugate it. So this is something that was planned.” Russia’s recent retreat from areas near Kyiv left behind massive evidence of atrocities, particularly in Bucha, where civilians who had been executed, many with their hands tied behind their backs, were found through the area. On top of that, Russia has targeted civilian sites throughout the war, with airstrikes on hospitals and places where refugees have congregated.
Alia Shoaib

Russian soldiers took highly radioactive "souvenirs" from laboratories in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine said Saturday. Invading Russian forces entered two laboratories in Chernobyl, which they looted and destroyed in an act of "nuclear terrorism," the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management said on Facebook. Russian troops entered a repository of ionizing radiation sources in the Ecocentre laboratory and "stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about seven million becquerels," the agency said. It is comparable to 700kg (1534 pounds) of radioactive waste with the presence of beta and gamma radiation, according to the agency.
By Miriam Berger

Mercenaries working for a Kremlin-linked network of private security contractors have taken up arms in Ukraine on Russia’s behalf, U.S. and British officials say. The network, known as the Wagner Group, first worked in Ukraine in 2014 during Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Since then, its fighters have turned up on battlefields from Syria to Mali. In Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, about 1,000 Wagner mercenaries are concentrated in the country’s east, where Pentagon officials say Russia has refocused its war effort after failing to capture the capital, Kyiv. Germany’s foreign intelligence service claimed this week to have intercepted communications that could link the Wagner Group to indiscriminate killings of Ukrainian civilians. Russian officials have denied links to the Wagner Group, whose true ownership and funding sources remain unclear. But experts say it has deep ties to the Kremlin, serving as a tactical tool for Moscow in hot spots where Russia has political and financial interests.
(Reuters) - Russian forces continue to use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to inflict casualties, lower morale, and restrict Ukrainian freedom of movement, according to British military intelligence on Saturday. "Russian forces also continue to attack infrastructure targets with a high risk of collateral harm to civilians," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Alia Shoaib

Russia is believed to have reorganized its military leadership in Ukraine, appointing General Alexander Dvornikov as its new commander, reports say. Western officials told the BBC that Dvornikov, a general who played a significant role in the Russian bombardment of Syria, has been put in charge by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dvornikov has been tasked with "improving coordination between Russian forces in Ukraine," the outlet said. The move comes as Russia restrategizes and shifts its focus to Ukraine's Donbas region, after its invasion stalls in much of the country.
Yevgeny 'Eugene' Vindman

The blood-soaked land of Ukraine has once again become the site of new atrocities. During World War II, millions of Ukrainians were killed as many of the largest battles of the war were fought there. More than 75 years later, the images broadcast around the world from Bucha and the surrounding suburbs of Kyiv are abhorrent and reminiscent of a bygone era, not 2022. On Friday, Russian forces fired a rocket at a crowded train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, killing at least 50 people, including five children, according to Ukrainian leaders. As a member of the U.S. Army and a professional soldier, I am particularly incensed at these wanton attacks on defenseless civilians. The butchers of Bucha were no soldiers, but a barbarian horde looting, pillaging and murdering. Having served previously as an airborne infantry officer, and now as an Army judge advocate general (lawyer) responsible for training soldiers on compliance with the law of war, it is clear to me that the disorganized rabble that is the Russian armed forces received no meaningful training.
Reuters

BERLIN, April 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine has received an offer of a sizeable shipment of self-propelled howitzer weapons from a German armaments company, a German government source said on Sunday. German weekly Welt am Sonntag had reported on Saturday that armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann offered 100 howitzers, a type of artillery weapon, to Ukraine, quoting anonymous government sources in Kyiv. "This offer exists," the German source said to Reuters, without providing further details.
By Sarah Dean and Ivana Kottasová, CNN

(CNN) The UK is to send 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems to Ukraine, Downing Street announced Saturday, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid an in-person visit to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Johnson and Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer made separate visits to Zelensky on Saturday, the latest in a string of leaders to travel to the country during the ongoing Russian invasion. A photograph tweeted by Ukraine's Embassy to the UK showed Johnson seated opposite Zelensky at a table in a pink and green stuccoed room. The post was captioned with the word "Surprise" and a winking face emoji.  
Barbie Latza Nadeau

A few minutes before it became clear that women, children and elderly people were among the at least 39 dead and nearly 100 known to be injured when a missile struck the Kramatorsk train station in eastern Ukraine, Russian soldiers were bragging about the hit on Telegram. The missile struck the main evacuation center in the area and seemed to herald the beginning of an intensified offensive that Russia warned was coming. Minutes later, the messages, which included claims to have successfully obliterated “a crowd of Ukrainian militants at the Kramatorsk railway station,” were edited or disappeared altogether, according to several accounts by journalists in the region.
Alia Shoaib

Slovakia Prime Minister Eduard Heger has confirmed that it had sent its S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, becoming the first NATO country to answer the calls by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to supply powerful missile weaponry. The S-300 is a Soviet-era long-range surface-to-air missile system that can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft and has a range of up to 90 miles. It is considered one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems and is in the arsenal of three NATO countries: Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Greece.
By Nebi Qena and Cara Anna/AP

(KYIV, Ukraine) — Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as “hostages” to pressure Kyiv to give up. Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken to Russia. The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraine’s rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.
A local official and a journalist’s father were abducted. Their families’ stories are part of a pattern of disappearances in Russia-occupied Ukraine.
By Jen Kirby

On March 21, Natali called her father to wish him a happy birthday. It was Viktor Maruniak’s 60th, but, on the phone, he sounded sad and nervous. Maruniak is the starosta, or elected head, of Stara Zbur’ivka, a village more than an hour outside of Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine. Russian forces now occupied it, Maruniak told Natali. He would call her back later. “And I told him, ‘Okay, I will wait for you, please call me back,’” she said. Natali’s father never did. She learned later, through relatives, that Russian soldiers took Maruniak from the home he shared with his wife. On the morning of March 23, Russian forces returned, with Maruniak in handcuffs.
Joshua Zitser

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday warned of fighting in Donbas that could result in the biggest war in centuries. Speaking to the German newspaper BILD, owned by Axel Springer, Insider's parent company, Zelenskyy predicted intense fighting in the coming days. "It could be a big war in Donbas — like the world has not seen in hundreds of years," he told BILD reporter Paul Ronzheimer. "We will go on defending our country until the end," the Ukrainian president continued.
David Axe, Forbes Staff

In seven weeks of fighting, Ukrainian troops have captured no fewer than 982 Russian vehicles. Among them are some of the Russian army’s most sophisticated ground-based sensors and electronic-warfare systems. It’s possible the Ukrainians deliberately targeted some of these vehicles for capture. Others, the Russians simply abandoned as their offensive around Kyiv first stalled out, then collapsed. One of the most recent captures also is one of the most interesting—and potentially the most useful to Ukraine’s own army. A SNAR-10M1 tracked radar vehicle, which can spot ground forces in order to guide artillery fire. Ukrainian special operations forces captured the SNAR-10M1 in early April around Chernihiv, a city 60 miles northwest of Kyiv where, for more than a month, the Ukrainian army’s elite 1st Tank Brigade held out against a much bigger Russian force.
bdawson@insider.com (Bethany Dawson)

Russian forces have destroyed an ammunition depot and two aircraft at the Myrhorod Air Base in central-eastern Ukraine, reported Reuters, quoting Russian sources. Writing on his Telegram channel, the Ukrainian head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, Dmytro Lunin, confirmed there had been a Russian attack resulting in"significant damage" cause, and two people had been injured but gave no further details, Reuters report that a Ukrainian air force MiG-29 fighter jet and a Mi-8 helicopter were destroyed in the attack, according to the ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, per the independent Russian news service, Interfax. The site also reports that Konashenkov said that another ammunition depot was destroyed near Novomoskovsk, 124 miles east of Myrhorod. Ukraine is steeling itself for a new Russian offensive in the Donbas on its eastern border, following the failure of Putin's troops to conquer Kyiv.
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