Russia-Ukraine war live updates No sign of surrender in Mariupol after Russian ultimatum
Five people were killed and at least 13 wounded in shelling in Kharkiv, the Ukrainian government said — the latest attack in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are expected to intensify their offensive in the days ahead. In the capital, the mayor is still urging residents against returning despite the withdrawal of the invading forces, and a Russian missile attack struck a town in the Kyiv region early Sunday, officials said.
Here’s what to know
The latest on key battlegrounds in Ukraine
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Russian-held areas and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
POL.
Separatist-
controlled
area
Kyiv
Lviv
Kharkiv
UKRAINE
Mariupol
ROMANIA
Odessa
200 MILES
Control areas as of April 17
Sources: Institute for the Study of War,
AEI’s Critical Threats Project, Post reporting
THE WASHINGTON POST
Russian-held areas
and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
Chernihiv
POLAND
Kyiv
Sumy
Lviv
UKRAINE
Kharkiv
Separatist-
controlled
area
Odessa
Mariupol
Berdyansk
ROMANIA
Kherson
Sea of
Azov
Crimea
Annexed by Russia
in 2014
100 MILES
Black Sea
Control areas as of April 17
Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI's Critical Threats Project, Post reporting
Russian-held areas
and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
Chernihiv
POLAND
Sumy
Kyiv
Lviv
UKRAINE
Kharkiv
Separatist-
controlled
area
Mykolaiv
Mariupol
Berdyansk
ROMANIA
Kherson
Odessa
Sea of
Azov
Crimea
Annexed by Russia
in 2014
100 MILES
Black
Sea
Control areas as of April 17
Sources: Institute for the Study of War, AEI's Critical Threats Project, Post reporting
Kharkiv region: Ukrainian officials reported new casualties this weekend as Russian forces continue their buildup in the east. The governor of this eastern region, Oleh Synyehubov, warned of increased attacks on residential areas and businesses, including a World Central Kitchen partner restaurant. Shelling in Kharkiv killed five people and injured 13 on Sunday afternoon, Ukrainian officials said.
Kyiv region: With Russian forces turning toward the east, the Ukrainian capital is coming back to life — but the mayor has urged those who fled to stay in safer areas, and more missiles struck the area this weekend, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials. A Saturday attack on the capital killed at least one person and injured several, the mayor said. Another strike hit the Kyiv suburb of Brovary.
Luhansk region: The eastern region’s governor said Sunday that Russian shelling hit a residential part of Zolote, killing two people and wounding four. Local officials also accused Russia of shelling a church in the city of Severodonetsk on Sunday and said many other religious sites in the area have suffered damage.
Mariupol: Ukrainian leaders on Sunday defied Russian demands to surrender the southern port city, saying the fighting continues in multiple locations. Russian officials have threatened to “eliminate” the final holdouts and say the resistance is limited to a large factory. Elsewhere in the Donetsk region, two people were killed by Russian shelling, the governor said on Telegram.
Ukraine is running a $5 billion-a-month deficit, prime minister says
Return to menuUkrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Sunday that his country is running a $5 billion-a-month deficit and needs financial assistance.
“Only half of our economy is working, so we ask for financial support,” Shmyhal said on ABC News’s “This Week.”
Shmyhal thanked Ukraine’s Western partners but said that in addition to ammunition and sanctions, “we need more finances to support our people, our refugees, our internally displaced persons — to save our economy for future recovery.”
World Bank economists recently estimated that Ukraine’s economy could shrink 45 percent this year, depending on the length and severity of the conflict. An economic collapse of that magnitude would dwarf the 11.2 percent the Russian economy is expected to shrink over the same time because of unprecedented sanctions, and would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Ukraine’s financial team will meet with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury in Washington this week, Shmyhal said. The World Bank has said it is preparing a $3 billion package to support Ukraine in the coming months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted Sunday that he had met with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss “financial stability & preparations for post-war reconstruction.”
Russian forces ‘likely captured’ Mariupol’s port area, think tank says
Return to menuAs the battle drags on in Mariupol, the Institute for the Study of War says Russian forces have pressed forward and may completely capture the city “in the coming weeks” — an assessment that comes as Ukrainian authorities insist their forces there will fight on.
Russian forces “likely captured” the port area Saturday, reducing Ukrainian defenses in the city to the Azovstal steel plant in the east. The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank that supports U.S. security goals, refers to footage of Russian forces in numerous “key locations,” including the port itself.
“Isolated groups of Ukrainian troops may remain active in Mariupol outside the Azovstal factory, but they will likely be cleared out by Russian forces in the coming days,” reads the institute’s latest assessment.
A map included areas of “significant” fighting in the past day, which includes Azovstal, where the institute notes that “Ukrainian defenders will likely fight to the last man.”
The evaluation adds that Russian forces could try to force the remaining defenders in the factory to “capitulate through overwhelming firepower.” Ukrainian forces, it says, “appear intent on staging a final stand.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal insisted in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week” that the city was not under full Russian control. Ukrainian officials, he added, have no intention to surrender.
“Russian forces will likely complete the capture of Mariupol in the coming week,” the institute said, “but final assaults will likely continue to cost them dearly.”
Venice Biennale to include exhibition of wartime Ukrainian art
Return to menuOn Friday, the Venice Biennale announced that, when the 59th edition of the contemporary art showcase opens later this month, it will include an open-air exhibition of work by Ukrainian artists — nearly all of which was created since the Russian invasion began in February. Titled “Piazza Ucraina,” the last-minute addition comes a week before the April 23 start of the highly anticipated art event, which features national pavilions curated by participating countries, along with other art happenings.
Organized by the curators behind Venice’s Ukrainian Pavilion — Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko — the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund (UEAF), the exhibition will spotlight artists selected from the UEAF’s Wartime Art Archive. The artworks, which have been gathered from social media, will be printed out as posters and will be viewable in a space designed by Ukrainian architect Dana Kosmina that will be regularly updated with new work in the high-profile Giardini section of the biennale.
According to curator and UEAF CEO Ilya Zabolotnyi, it is important to elevate Ukrainian artists, not just to draw attention to the war but also to assert Ukraine’s cultural independence. “We don’t just fight for democracy. We fight for identity,” Zabolotnyi said, in a joint Zoom interview from Kyiv with Olga Balashova, an arts administrator and curator with whom Zabolotnyi shares oversight of UEAF. “The Russian imperial narrative wants clearly to erase that.”
Ukraine takes another early step in bid to join E.U.
Return to menuUkraine has filled out a questionnaire for its bid to join the European Union, an official announced Sunday, taking one more early step in a process that could stretch years.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, welcomed Ukraine’s application while visiting Kyiv earlier this month and delivered the questionnaire in person to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We are with you as you dream of Europe. ... Ukraine belongs in the European family,” she said.
Von der Leyen said she was there to “give [Ukraine] a first, positive answer” and said the questionnaire would be “the basis for our discussion in the coming months.”
Zelensky has acknowledged that his country is unlikely to join NATO, given that Russia views any expansion of the Western military alliance as a threat. But he submitted an application for E.U. membership days into Russia’s invasion and urged the bloc to “prove that you are with us” amid an outpouring of global support.
E.U. membership would strengthen Ukraine’s political and economic ties to other European countries and commit the bloc to defend Ukraine — a potentially tough sell for Western nations unwilling to go to war against Russia. Candidates must meet extensive criteria and adopt the E.U.’s laws and treaties. The process to join would probably be lengthy.
“We will accelerate this process as much as we can, while ensuring that all conditions are respected,” von der Leyen said during her April 8 visit to Ukraine.
Ukraine has now filled out the questionnaire, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser for the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and a former deputy minister. He shared the news in a Sunday Telegram post, citing another Ukrainian official’s comments on television.
Ihor Zhovkva, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said that now “the ball will be in the court of the European Commission,” according to Gerashchenko.
Irynka Hromotska contributed to this report.
European cities protest Russia’s war in Ukraine
Return to menuDemonstrations against Russia’s war in Ukraine took place across European cities over the weekend as the conflict nears the two-month mark.
In Amsterdam, dozens of Ukrainians and supporters lay on the ground at Dam Square pretending to be dead as they staged a silent antiwar protest. The purpose was to draw attention to the killing of civilians by Russian soldiers, the Associated Press reported.
In London, protesters gathered in front of the official residence of the British prime minister. And in Barcelona, about 200 people joined a protest organized by Ukrainians residing in the city, holding Ukrainian yellow-and-blue flags to demonstrate support.
The protesters marched down the iconic boulevard of Las Ramblas and demanded that the international community impose further economic sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government El Periodico, a local newspaper, reported.
In Berlin, hundreds of people met in the popular neighborhood of Mitte to not only condemn Russia’s attacks in Ukraine, but also emphasize support for Ukraine’s right to self-defense.
The rally occurred in the context of the many traditional peace marches held across Germany during Easter according to local media reports.
One town’s residents have spent more than 50 days in bomb shelters, official says
Return to menuA Ukrainian leader compared one eastern Ukrainian town’s ordeal to the suffering in Mariupol on Sunday, saying the people of Popasna have lived in bomb shelters for more than 50 days.
“Popasna is a complete ruin,” Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, wrote on Facebook. “The [Russians] didn’t capture it, therefore destroyed it. Every day, day and night, Popasna is under enemy fire.”
Travel in and out of the city is difficult, Haidai said, with evacuations regularly thwarted by shelling. He said the attacks on Popasna echo Russia’s approach to Mariupol, the port city long cut off by a Russian blockade. Troops bombarded Mariupol for weeks — leaving civilians increasingly desperate for food, water and medicine — before descending into the city and fighting in the streets for control.
Popasna is part of the Donbas region, where the Ukrainian government has fought pro-Moscow separatists for years. Western and Ukrainian officials expect fighting in the east to intensify as Russia reorients its struggling offense.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday on Telegram that its forces hit sites of “Ukrainian manpower and military equipment” near Popasna and other settlements.
Irynka Hromotska contributed to this report.
European Union to send additional 50 million euros to Ukraine
Return to menuThe European Commission is pledging an additional 50 million euros in humanitarian aid to support those affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain “extremely high,” the commission said in a news release on Sunday, as the conflict approaches the two-month mark.
The additional funds will include 45 million euros for humanitarian projects in Ukraine and 5 million for Moldova, bringing the total aid in response to the war to 143 million euros.
The funds are aimed at helping people in “hard-to-reach areas who are cut off from access to healthcare, water and electricity, and those, who have been forced to flee and leave everything behind,” Janez Lenarcic, commissioner for crisis management, said in the statement, adding that the European Union must prepare for an escalation in Russia’s attacks, principally in eastern Ukraine.
“Ukraine, we are with you,” Lenarcic said.
World Central Kitchen restaurant relocates after missile hits in Kharkiv
Return to menuA World Central Kitchen restaurant partner in Kharkiv is relocating after a missile struck the building where a team of volunteers had been cooking free meals for residents, injuring four staff members, CEO Nate Mook said Sunday.
“The injured staff are doing well — and all the team here wants to continue cooking. Truly in awe at the bravery of our @WCKitchen partners!” Mook wrote on Twitter, posting a video that showed team members loading a truck with food products and equipment.
Mook, who works with the nonprofit’s founder, activist and chef José Andrés, to create community kitchens in conflict zones and places struck by natural disasters, showed images of devastation at the scene on Saturday, with smoke coming out of the building, shattered windows and burned-out cars lying in the street.
“This is the reality here — cooking is a heroic act of bravery,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.
The work doesn’t stop! Today, the restaurant team is moving all food products & non-damaged equipment to another kitchen location in Kharkiv. The injured staff are doing well—and all the team here wants to continue cooking. Truly in awe at the bravery of our @WCKitchen partners! pic.twitter.com/O5zayN0WOJ
— Nate Mook (@natemook) April 17, 2022
The World Central Kitchen did not immediately respond to a request Sunday for comment or details on the attack.
Kharkiv, a partially blockaded northeastern city in Ukraine, has been under intensified Russian shelling in recent days.
The World Central Kitchen and its partners have delivered tens of thousands of meals daily in liberated cities, shelters, hospitals and other locations in Ukraine, as well as fresh produce, meat and dry goods as communities prepare for rising food shortages.
Photos: The scene after an attack in downtown Kharkiv
Return to menuAssociated Press photojournalist Felipe Dana is on the ground covering the war in Ukraine.
Dana documented shelling on Sunday in Kharkiv that local authorities say killed five people and wounded 13. Residential and administrative buildings were damaged in the attack, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said on Telegram.
Ukrainian foreign minister: Mariupol situation ‘dire militarily’
Return to menuUkraine’s foreign minister described Mariupol as a city that “doesn’t exist anymore” and one facing a situation that is “dire militarily and heartbreaking,” as forces defending the port city show no signs of surrender after a Russian deadline expired Sunday.
The minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he expects Russia to attempt to “finish with Mariupol at any cost.” Russia appears to be on the brink of taking control of Mariupol, which Moscow views as a key bridge between Ukraine’s east and Russian-controlled Crimea.
Russia had given Ukrainian forces in Mariupol a deadline of 6 a.m. local time Sunday (11 p.m. Eastern time Saturday) to surrender.
Kuleba also pushed back against criticism leveled by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that Ukraine had failed to disclose it is using facial recognition software to send images of dead Russian soldiers to their families. Kuleba said his government is “not conducting any such activities.”
The U.S. tech firm ClearviewAI provided emails to The Washington Post confirming that three Ukrainian agencies are using its facial recognition software. But it is the country’s volunteer IT Army — a force of hackers and activists who take direction from the government — that has used facial recognition to reach the families of 582 dead Russians, The Post reported.
“When you discovered 900 bodies of civilians killed, tortured, when you know that dozens were raped, of course, there is a people’s rage and people’s desire to bring those responsible for that to account,” Kuleba said. “And we as the government work on legal ways to bring those responsible for these crimes to responsibility.”
When asked if Ukraine would allow the Red Cross to visit prisoners of war, Kuleba faulted the organization’s handling of the crisis. But he maintained that Ukraine had a “good working relationship” with the Red Cross and would resolve the issues.
Ukrainian prime minister says besieged Mariupol ‘has not fallen’
Return to menuAs Russia’s deadline for Ukrainian troops in Mariupol to surrender passed Sunday morning, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said parts of the embattled port city remained in Ukrainian control.
The “city still has not fallen,” Shmyhal said on ABC News’s “This Week,” adding that Ukraine’s forces will fight until the end.
But, he said, a “huge humanitarian catastrophe” is unfolding in Mariupol as many civilians — estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 — remained besieged.
“They have no water, no food, no heat, no electricity,” Shmyhal said. “And we ask all of our partners to support and help to stop this humanitarian catastrophe in Mariupol.”
When told that Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, had reported that Putin believes Russia is winning the war, Shmyhal was defiant. He noted that, apart from Kherson, all of Ukraine’s biggest cities remain under Ukrainian control and that many cities in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions had been freed from Russian occupation in recent weeks.
“We still are fighting … we do not have intention to surrender,” he said.
Death toll still rising in Kyiv suburb’s destroyed high-rises
Return to menuForty-one bodies have been recovered from the rubble of apartment buildings in the Kyiv suburb of Borodyanka, the Ukrainian government said Sunday, more than a week into its effort to account for those killed in Russian shelling.
Authorities have worked since April 6 to sort through the debris of seven “multistory residential buildings” in the city’s center, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Telegram. They have made it through five, officials said. One more body was removed from the ruins on Saturday, according to the State Emergency Service.
Much of Borodyanka was leveled before Russia’s embattled forces withdrew from the Kyiv region.
Annabelle Chapman contributed to this report.
L’Occitane closes stores in Russia after backlash, boycott threats
Return to menuFrench cosmetics company L’Occitane said it will close all stores in Russia, just days after it defended its decision to continue operating in the country.
The beauty chain told the BBC on Friday that it would be closing stores following the “enormous human suffering and escalating military action in Ukraine.”
L’Occitane originally said it would be keeping stores open to protect staff from potential “retaliation,” the BBC reported last week, despite a slew of major brands halting services and operations on Russian soil after the invasion of Ukraine in late February.
L’Occitane, which employs about 700 staff members in Russia and has more than 100 stores there, swiftly came under fire for its decision to stay open. Backlash mounted online and some threatened to boycott the brand.
“I’ve bought L’Occitane products for years — think I’ll have to consider other options now,” one Twitter user wrote.
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