- Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin have pledged $ 322 million in military aid to Ukraine following a meeting with President Vladimir Zelensky in Kyiv.
- They also say US diplomats will begin returning to the western city of Lviv next week.
- Russia warns that large Western arms supplies are fueling the conflict and could lead to more losses, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington said.
- Several sites in central and western Ukraine have been hit by Russian shelling, including five railway stations and two towns in the Vinnytsia region, local authorities said.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry has announced a ceasefire around the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to allow the evacuation of civilians.
- The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has called for the release of members detained in separatist-held Ukraine.
- The British Ministry of Defense says Russia is planning an organized referendum in the southern city of Kherson to justify the invasion.
Here are the latest updates:
28 minutes ago (11:11 GMT)
Five people were killed in Russian shelling in Donetsk: local authorities
Five civilians, including two children, were killed in a Russian attack in the southeastern Donetsk region, an official said.
The children are 5 and 14 years old and lived in the village of Krasnogorovka, Donetsk Defense Chief Pavlo Kirilenko said late Sunday.
The other three victims are from the towns of Novoselovtsi and Novomihailovtsi, he added.
44 minutes ago (10:55 GMT)
Foreign services are behind the plot to assassinate a Russian journalist: Putin
Russian President Putin has said that Moscow’s security forces have thwarted an assassination attempt on a Russian journalist. He also pointed to foreign special services, including the CIA, working with Ukrainian forces to kill Russian journalists.
Putin also said that provocations against the Russian military using foreign media should be stopped.
He suggested that Western military support for Ukraine was “strange diplomacy”.
1 hour ago (10:22 GMT)
Russia opens Azovstal humanitarian corridor: ministry
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that a humanitarian corridor will be open at 2 pm (11:00 GMT) for all civilians to leave the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. It says Russian troops will cease fire to allow civilians to leave the plant safely.
The huge steel production, which has a scattered maze of underground canals, remained the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the strategic port city of the Sea of Azov.
1 hour ago (10:20 GMT)
Russia is investigating a fire at a large oil depot in a region near Ukraine
Russia has said it will investigate the cause of a large fire that broke out in the early hours of the morning at an oil depot in the city of Bryansk, 154 km (96 miles) northeast of the border with Ukraine.
Unverified footage on social media showed something like two explosions, followed by a fire tower, with an unverified video showing a fire raging around a giant fuel tank.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said no one was injured in the incident.
1 hour ago (10:17 GMT)
Floating mines hit the Danube traffic: APK-Inform
Ukrainian border guards last week closed several shipping lines at the mouth of the Danube River due to floating mines in the Black Sea, analyst APK-Inform reported.
The Ukrainian Danube ports of Izmail and Reni last week remained the only sea routes for Ukrainian grain exports after seaports were blocked due to the Russian invasion. APK-Inform reported that traffic on the Danube River is significantly restricted “due to the danger of blowing up ships stationed in the Black Sea by Russian troops.”
2 hours ago (09:58 GMT)
Germany will decide on deliveries of war machines to Ukraine “soon”
The German government will decide on the delivery of 100 old Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine “soon”, said a spokesman for the German government.
German defense company Rheinmetall has asked for approval to export vehicles to Ukraine, a defense source told Reuters, in what will be the first supply of heavy weapons from Germany to Ukraine.
2 hours ago (09:55 GMT)
A soldier shot down three Russian helicopters: Ukraine’s military
Ukraine claims a new rookie shot down three Russian helicopters in southern Zaporizhia on April 21 using a portable Igla (Igla) surface-to-air missile.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted a video on Facebook showing the wreckage of a Ka-52 helicopter, which Moscow hailed as “the pride and joy of the Russian Air Force.”
There are no reports of lost helicopters from Russia.
Report by Mansur Mirovalev in Kyiv, Ukraine.
2 hours ago (09:14 GMT)
Russians shell cities in central Ukraine: governor
Russian cruise missiles hit two cities in Ukraine’s southwestern Vinnytsia region, the governor said, adding that “critical infrastructure sites” had been hit in the towns of Zhmerynka and Kozyatyn.
There are “dead and wounded”, Sergei Borzov told Telegram, without giving further details.
2 hours ago (09:11 GMT)
Russia has warned the United States not to send more weapons to Ukraine
Russia has warned the United States not to send more weapons to Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington told Russian state television.
“We stressed the unacceptability of this situation, when the United States is pouring weapons into Ukraine, and called for an end to this practice,” Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with Russia 24 television.
An official diplomatic note has been sent to Washington expressing Russia’s concern, he said, adding that such arms supplies would further aggravate the situation.
3 hours ago (08:58 GMT)
Five railway stations are affected
Five stations in central and western Ukraine were hit by Russian forces early in the morning, said Alexander Kamishin, the country’s chief railway officer.
“There are casualties, we are clarifying the details,” he said in an online post, adding that at least 16 trains were late.
2 hours ago (10:01 GMT)
Where do people fly?
3 hours ago (08:35 GMT)
Russia strikes at Ukrainian oil depots and military facilities
Russia has struck and destroyed the Kremenchug oil refinery and Ukrainian military facilities, the defense ministry said, TASS reported. The governor of Poltava region said one person was killed and seven were injured in the attack on the refinery.
Russia’s air defense systems have shot down a dozen Ukrainian drones in the Kharkiv region, it added.
3 hours ago (08:30 GMT)
Rescue operations continue in Luhansk
After the Russian shelling in the eastern part of Luhansk region, rescuers are working to extinguish fires in Lisichansk and retrieve bodies from the ruins of Severodonetsk, the country’s emergency service said in its Telegram channel.
“Rescuers are constantly performing their professional duties, eliminating fires, despite the high risk of shelling,” he added.
Recent cemetery near a local church in the town of Severodonetsk, Luhansk region [Marko Djurica/Reuters]
3 hours ago (08:28 GMT)
Heavy shelling in Lyman: Al Jazeera correspondent
As Russian forces pushed the eastern city of Slavyansk, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said the nearby city of Lyman was already under heavy attack.
“The shelling was too strong,” Stratford said as he tried to enter the city. Families are sheltered in bunkers, and a crater has been seen in the city center, Stratford said, citing people fleeing Lyman.
But there are those who are trying to enter the city despite Russian attacks: “We have no choice, our home is there and we can’t afford to live in the Dnieper,” the family told Stratford, stressing the number of challenges they face. displaced people.
3 hours ago (08:27 GMT)
Azov came under fire: the Ukrainian military
Russian forces have struck the Azovstal steel plant, the Ukrainian military said.
Steelmaking is the last remaining pocket of resistance in southern Mariupol, and it is estimated that hundreds of Ukrainian fighters and about 1,000 civilians are hiding in underground tunnels there.
Report by Mansur Mirovalev in Kyiv, Ukraine.
4 hours ago (08:01 GMT)
Russia storms the eastern city of Popasna
Russian forces stormed Popasna, a city of 20,000 people in the southeastern Luhansk region, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Its takeover could ease the encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk, as the city is located on a hill near a key transport hub.
Report by Mansur Mirovalev in Kyiv, Ukraine.
4 hours ago (07:20 GMT)
Ukraine can win with the “right equipment”: Austin
The US defense chief says Ukrainians can win against Russia with the right equipment and support.
“The first step in victory is to believe that you can win. And so they believe in it [they] he can win, “Austin told a briefing on the Polish-Ukrainian border.
“We believe they can win. They can win if they have the right equipment, the right support. And we will do our best, we will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure that they get it. “
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken talk to reporters after returning from a trip to Kyiv [Alex Brandon/Pool via Reuters]
4 hours ago (07:16 GMT)
Russia “fails” in its goals of the war in Ukraine: Blinken
After a secret visit to Kyiv, the US Secretary of State said that Russia was failing in its military goals in Ukraine.
“We see that when it comes to Russia’s military goals, Russia is failing. Ukraine succeeds. Russia seeks as its main goal to totally subdue Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. That failed, “Blinken told reporters in Poland.
“He sought to establish the power of his army and his economy. We, of course, see the exact opposite. The military, which is drastically weaker, the economy as a result of sanctions, as a result of mass exodus from Russia, which is in ruins. And …
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