Ukraine Daily

Friday, 29 April 2022

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Russia’s war against Ukraine

A view of a heavily damaged building in Volnovakha on March 27, 2022. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

UN is ready to participate in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal in occupied Mariupol. During a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “intensive discussions” were underway on the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation process. Amid Guterres’ visit to Kyiv, two rockets hit the city, injuring six people.

Russian missiles hit Kyiv. Two sites in the city’s Shevchenkivsky District have been hit, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. 10 people injured as a result of attack. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that a Russian missile strike partly destroyed the first two floors of a 25-story residential building. The missiles also hit undisclosed infrastructure sites near the city of Fastiv in Kyiv Oblast, according to Oleksandr Pavlyuk, head of the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration.

Prosecutor General: Ukraine identifies 10 Russian soldiers who tortured civilians in Bucha. According to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine identified 10 Russian soldiers from Russia’s 64th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, who looted and tortured civilians during the month-long occupation of Bucha, Kyiv Oblast.

Russian forces attack Dnipropetrovsk Oblast with Grad missile launchers. In the morning of April 29, Russian forces attacked the villages of Velyka Kostromka and Marianske in Dnipropetrovsk region using Grad missile launchers,Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Valentyn Reznichenko reported on Telegram. According to the governor, storage buildings were damaged. The casualties are yet to be confirmed.

CNN: New video shows Russian soldiers, vehicles next to killed civilians in Bucha. The video obtained by CNN was shot on March 12-13 by a drone. It shows Russian forces and armored vehicles near the bodies of the dead civilians in Bucha, a city in Kyiv Oblast. The video proves that the atrocities in Bucha were committed when the city was occupied by the Russian forces.

Russia claims to have deported over a million Ukrainians to its territories since Feb. 24. 183,168 of those allegedly deported to Russia are children, according to a statement posted on Russia’s Defense Ministry website. It reads that on April 26 alone, 16,480 people were deported to Russia from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Governor: Over 30,000 Ukrainians forcibly deported to Russia from Mariupol. According to Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, Russian forces deport Ukrainians to filtration camps, not far from Mariupol, separating women and children from men, and dividing people in groups by age. Then they take away documents identifying them as Ukrainian, Kyrylenko said on April 28.

Joint Forces Operation: Ukraine repels 9 Russian attacks in Donbas on April 28. Ukraine’s Joint Force Operations command reported that Ukraine successfully repelled nine separate Russian assaults and destroyed various equipment and vehicles in Donbas on April 28. Russian losses include six tanks, one artillery system, 12 armored vehicles, one car, and one anti-aircraft gun.

Kherson official: Russia lacks people’s support for staged referendum in Kherson. According to Yurii Sobolevskyi, deputy head of Kherson Regional Council, Russian occupiers have no support from the locals and are thus unable to hold a staged referendum.

Ukraine’s Air Force: 15 aerial targets shot down on April 28. Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said that while Russia is increasing the number of its airstrikes and missiles strikes per day, its air force suffered heavy losses on April 28, losing an aircraft, five cruise missiles, and nine UAVs.

US: Russia makes ‘slow and uneven’ progress in eastern Ukraine, logistics remain a problem. The Russian military is facing the same logistics issues in eastern Ukraine as they did when attempting to capture Kyiv, a senior defense official said. “Just from logistics alone, they’re only able to sustain several-kilometers-or-so progress on any given day.” He added that Ukrainian troops are making gains in some areas while Russian forces make gains in others. There have been “more than 1,900 missile launches” since the beginning of the invasion, according to the official. Most of the strikes having been recorded in Mariupol and Donetsk Oblast.

OSCE to close monitoring mission to Ukraine. The OSCE on April 28 announced the decision following a lack of consensus at the OSCE Permanent Council on March 31 to extend the mission’s mandate. “The position of the Russian Federation left us with no choice but to take steps to close down the mission,” OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Zbigniew Rau said.

Vereshchuk: 45 Ukrainians released in new prisoner exchange with Russia. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that 13 officers, 20 soldiers, and 12 civilians were released from Russian captivity on April 28.

IAEA warns missiles flying over Ukraine’s nuclear power plants might lead to a nuclear accident. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on April 28 it was reviewing Ukrainian reports that a missile had flown directly over a nuclear power plant. If a missile goes astray, it could potentially lead to nuclear accident, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

Read our exclusive, on the ground stories

Kyiv Independent’s defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko says Russia has already demolished his hometown, his college town, and the town where he was about to settle in his very own apartment. Read his story on how Russia killed three cities important to his life here.

As Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine, experts feared that the Ukrainian banking system would collapse in the event of a full-scale war. Yet, it has proved the opposite, remaining functional two months into the war. Read our story here.

The human cost of Russia’s war

Russian shelling kills 5 civilians, injures 11 in Kharkiv Oblast on April 28. Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Synegubov said Russia continues to shell settlements in the Kharkiv region. Synegubov also said Russian forces made another attempt to advance from Izyum in the directions of Brazhkivka, Dovhenky and Velyka Komyshuvakha.

Mariupol defenders: Russian airstrike hit military field hospital at Azovstal plant, kills soldiers. According to Azov fighters, overnight, Russia was attacking the hospital where Ukrainian soldiers were treated and then shelling it with naval artillery. The attack destroyed the operating room which now “makes it impossible to help” the soldiers, Azov fighters reported on April 28. They did not specify the number of casualties.

Governor: Russia’s airstrike on New York village in Donetsk Oblast kills 3. Three more civilians were injured, according to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. On the morning of April 28, Russian rockets hit an industrial plant and residential areas damaging at least nine private houses, Kyrylenko reported.

International response

US House of Representatives passes Lend-Lease bill to speed up weapons supply to Ukraine. The House passed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022 by a vote of 417-10. If signed by U.S. President Joe Biden, Ukraine will be able to get military equipment faster, bypassing bureaucratic procedures.

German parliament gives green light for supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine. 586 of 693 German lawmakers voted in favor of providing Ukraine with “heavy weapons and complex [weapons] systems” on April 28. Germany also urged for the provision of military aid to Ukraine to continue and accelerate.

PACE calls for creation of international tribunal to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved a resolution on April 27 to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine, calling it “an act of unprecedented gravity.”

Biden asks Congress for $33 billion for Ukraine. President Joe Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine, including over $20 billion for military assistance, $8.5 billion in direct economic assistance to the government, and $3 billion in humanitarian aid.

EU: Russian demands for gas payment in rubles ‘breach’ of sanctions. The Financial Times reported, citing sources with knowledge of the preparations, that gas distributors in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia were planning to comply with Russia’s demands. The EU considers paying in rubles would mean interacting with Russia’s central bank in transactions, violating sanctions.

Several countries advise their citizens to leave Moldova and Transnistria. Bulgaria and Israel changed their recommendations for visiting Moldova and the Russian-occupied Transnistria region on April 28. Earlier, the U.S., Germany, France, and Canada told their citizens to leave Moldova over the “deteriorating security situation” in Transnistria.

Polish media: Spanish army ship arrives in Poland with 200 tons of military assistance for Ukraine. The 149-meters-long Ysabel carries the largest delivery of military aid that Spain has ever provided to the Ukrainian armed forces: weapons, 30 trucks and 10 off-road vehicles. The ship moored in the seaport of Gdansk.

UN to boost its support to Ukraine. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the journalists in Kyiv on April 28 that the UN’s cash assistance to Ukraine was being expanded. Currently the UN is distributing $100 million per month, aiming to reach 1.3 million people by the end of May, and covering two million by August.

The Guardian: UK to send 8,000 soldiers to eastern Europe on expanded exercises. About 8,000 British army troops will take part in exercises across eastern Europe to prepare against Russian aggression in one of the largest deployments since the Cold War. British soldiers will be joined by troops from NATO and the Joint Expeditionary Force alliance, which includes Finland and Sweden.

Canadian Hockey League bans Russian, Belarusian players from selection at upcoming import draft. The Canadian Hockey League has announced on April 27 that Russian and Belarusian players will be ineligible for selection at its upcoming import draft. The decision is the latest sanction against Russia and Belarus by the international hockey community.

Want to get the news faster? Follow our website: kyivindependent.com.

Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Asami Terajima, Daria Shulzhenko, Natalia Datskevych, Illia Ponomarenko, Teah Pelechaty, Sergiy Slipchenko, Olena Goncharova, Oleksiy Sorokin, Olga Rudenko, Toma Istomina, Lili Bivings and Brad LaFoy.

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