- The United States has not confirmed visits to Blinken, Austin
- Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter in Ukraine amid conflict
- Ukraine says the destruction of churches disrupts the festivities
- Moscow says military targets have been hit and Kyiv says children have been killed
Kyiv, April 24 (Reuters) – US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will visit Kyiv on Sunday to discuss Ukraine’s call for more powerful weapons, two months after Russia’s invasion.
The trip, announced by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Saturday, will be the highest level of US officials since Russian tanks entered Ukraine on February 24.
The White House has not confirmed a visit to Blinken and Austin. The State Department and the Pentagon declined to comment.
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As Christians in Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Easter on Sunday, there was no end in sight to the war, which killed thousands, uprooted millions more and turned cities into ruins. Ukraine says two children were among those killed in Sunday’s shelling. Read more
“We used to come to our churches with Easter baskets. But now this is impossible, “Sergei Gaidai, governor of the eastern Luhansk region, wrote in the Telegram, saying that seven churches in the Luhansk region had been” crippled by Russian artillery. “
Reuters could not independently verify his report.
“We are all convinced that we will not be destroyed by any horde or wickedness,” Zelensky said in an Easter video message from Kyiv’s 1,000-year-old Hagia Sophia, praying that God “give endurance to those who, unfortunately, , will not see their child return from the front. “Read more
He told a news conference Saturday that talks with his American visitors would cover “the powerful, heavy weapons” Ukraine needs and the pace of supplies he said will be used to seize territory. Read more
Moscow, which describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation”, denies targeting civilians and rejects what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities, saying Kyiv organized them.
Ukraine said on Sunday that Russian forces were bombing steel plants in Mariupol, where Ukrainian defenders are being held, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern port city and said there was no need to take over the plant.
“The place where our civilians and military are located was shelled with heavy air bombs and artillery,” senior adviser to Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter, calling for a “true Easter truce in Mariupol.”
The fighting in Mariupol, the biggest battle in the conflict, has been raging for weeks. The capture of the city would link pro-Russian separatists, who control parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk that make up Donbass, with the southern Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow captured in 2014.
Ukraine estimates that tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol and says 100,000 civilians are still in the city. The United Nations and the Red Cross say there are at least thousands civilian casualties.
Alexei Arestovich, an adviser to Zelensky, said troops at the giant steel complex in Mariupol were trying to counterattack. More than 1,000 civilians are also at the plant, Ukraine said.
A new attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol failed on Saturday, an assistant mayor said.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians around the world, called for humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and other parts of Ukraine, where he said “an indescribable human tragedy is unfolding.” Read more
The Ukrainian military said Russian forces were continuing their offensive in the east to try to establish full control of Donetsk and Luhansk by attacking both military and civilian infrastructure.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said two children were killed in a shooting in his area on Sunday.
Ukraine said its forces had repulsed 12 attacks on Donetsk and Luhansk a day earlier, destroying four tanks, 15 armored vehicles and five artillery systems.
Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.
British military intelligence said Ukrainian resistance had been strong, especially in Donbass, despite some successes from Russia.
“Poor Russian morale and limited time to rebuild, re-equip and reorganize forces from previous offensives are likely to hamper Russia’s combat effectiveness,” the statement said. Read more
Russia said Sunday that its missiles hit eight military targets during the night, including four arms depots in the northeastern Kharkiv region and a facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region producing explosives for the Ukrainian army.
Moscow said on Saturday that its missiles had destroyed a logistics terminal in the southern city of Odessa containing weapons shipped from the United States and European countries.
Zelenski said eight people, including a three-month-old child, had been killed in a strike in Odessa.
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Report by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets and other Reuters journalists Written by Kim Cogill and Edmund Blair Edited by William Mallard, Francis Carey and Frank Jack Daniel
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