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Here’s a quick summary of today’s events
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is expected to ask Washington for more heavy weapons when he meets the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, later today. Blinken and Austin will be the most senior US officials to visit Kyiv since the war began.
- Zelenskiy has accused Russia of continuing to use “filtration camps”, where Ukrainian citizens are sent before being forcibly relocated to Russia. He has likened the camps to Nazi concentration camps.
- In his Easter Sunday message, Zelenskiy said the religious festival “gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win”.
- The senior Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has urged Moscow to agree to a “real Easter truce”, calling on Moscow to immediately open a humanitarian corridor for civilians and agree on a “special round of negotiations” to facilitate an exchange of military and civilians.
- Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, which Russia has been trying to take for two months. Although Moscow had earlier declared victory in Mariupol and said its forces did not need to take the factory, the Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces have resumed air strikes and are trying to storm the plant.
- The UN’s has called for an “immediate stop” to fighting in Mariupol so that civilians trapped in the city can be evacuated today.
The UK’s flagship scheme for welcoming Ukrainians, Homes for Ukraine, has been called “heartless and inhumane” after visa officials demanded a six-month-old baby undergo security scans 800 miles from her home before she is allowed to fly to Britain.
The demand was criticised as “a scandal” on Sunday as the Guardian revealed further examples of UK bureaucracy preventing Ukrainians from fleeing to safety. Read the exclusive report from Josh Halliday:
UN: almost 5.2 million Ukrainians flee war
The number of Ukrainians who have fled the country since Russia’s invasion two months ago is approaching 5.2 million, the UN refugee agency said on Sunday.
The total figure of 5,186,744 is an increase of 23,058 over Saturday’s data, the UNHCR said. More than 1,151,000 Ukrainians have left during April so far, compared with 3.4 million in the month of March alone.
Beyond the refugee figures, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates more than 7.7 million people have been displaced within Ukraine. Almost two-thirds of Ukrainian children have had to flee their homes, including those who remain in the country.
The latest figures come as Ukrainians mark Orthodox Easter Sunday.
Here is a breakdown of how many Ukrainian refugees have fled to neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR:
- Poland: 2,899,713 (nearly six out of 10 Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland).
- Russia: 578,255 (in addition, 105,000 people crossed into Russia from the separatist-held pro-Russian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk).
- Romania: 774,074.
- Hungary: 489,754.
- Moldova: 433,214.
- Slovakia: 354,329.
- Belarus: 24,084.
OSCE ‘concerned’ over missing members in separatist areas
The world’s largest security body said on Sunday that it is “extremely concerned” after several of its Ukrainian members were believed to have been arrested in pro-Russian separatist territories in the country’s east.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) evacuated many of its staff from the country after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
In a tweet on Sunday, it said: “The OSCE is extremely concerned that a number of @OSCE_SMM national mission members have been deprived of their liberty in Donetsk and Lugansk.”
It added that it is “using all available channels to facilitate their release”.
According to Russia’s Tass news agency, the security services of the Luhansk separatists said this month they had arrested two members of the OSCE mission.
Tass said one of them had “confessed” to passing “confidential military information to representatives of foreign special services” and that a high treason investigation had been opened against them.
On Sunday, the US ambassador to the OSCE, Michael Carpenter, called for the body’s members to be released.
“Russia’s lies claiming Ukrainian @OSCE—SMM staff spied for the Ukrainian government are reprehensible,” he said on Twitter.
“Staff loyally and impartially served the @OSCE. Any staff held by should be released immediately and will be held accountable for any harm they suffer.”
The Vienna-based OSCE has 57 member states across three continents – including Russia, Ukraine and the US.
Tory chairman Oliver Dowden: France and Germany have to do more
Minister and Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden told the BBC that “it would be good to see more from France and Germany” to support the Ukraine war effort.
He told the BBC that the west should “continue to tighten the ratchet on Russia” as Moscow ramps up its offensives in the south and east of Ukraine.
When asked whether he thought Russia could emerge victorious, he said: “That has always been a possibility that Russia could come out of this victorious. We don’t want that to happen.”
On Sunday, the US’stop diplomat and defence chief were set to make their first war-time visits to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the planned visit during a lengthy Saturday night news conference held in a Kyiv subway station. The White House has not commented.
The governor of Russia’s Kursk region says a checkpoint in the region has come under fire from Ukraine.
This report cannot immediately be verified.
Speaking on Sophy Ridge on Sunday. the human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy discussed serving on a legal taskforce to build cases of war crimes in Ukraine.
On Russian soldiers not facing consequences for rape she told Sky News: “A change is taking place internationally in the recognition of rape as a weapon of war and what that means is not that an instruction is given from the top to go out there and rape citizens, women and girls and nobody else, but it is about this tacit permission that is given.
“The reason why no one is bought to book or called into line or disciplined and so that gives an immunity to soldiers on the ground, they know that this is permissible and so what we’ve heard and evidence is being gathered, is that serious offences of a grievous kind are being committed against citizens, against women and girls and that’s a new thing, in recognition and investigating and making sure it is properly reported.”
Erdoğan and Zelenskiy discuss Mariupol
Turkey is ready to give all possible assistance during negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, President Tayyip Erdoğan told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a telephone call, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday.
Zelenskiy said he and Erdoğan discussed the urgent need for immediate evacuation of civilians from the mostly Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol, and the exchange of Ukrainian troops holed up in the surrounded but Ukrainian-held Azovstal factory.
Ukrainian refugees scattered across central Europe filled churches on Sunday for Orthodox Easter, in bittersweet celebrations: giving thanks for escaping the Russian invasion, but dreaming of a return home to family and friends left behind.
More than 5 million Ukrainians have fled since Russia invaded, with the majority seeking refuge across borders into Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
Reuters reported scenes in Poland and Germany:
At Warsaw’s Orthodox Cathedral of St Mary Magdalene in the city centre where priests said holiday services were busier than in past years, children carried Easter baskets adorned with Ukrainian flags and had blue and yellow bows in their hair.
“This is my first Easter holiday that I am not spending in Ukraine … but fortunately there are a lot of people from Ukraine here,” said Anna Janushevich, 35, who fled from Lviv.
“When the war is over I will go back to Ukraine. I dream that I will be able to return so that I can celebrate Easter at my home and that my daughter will be with her family.”
Like many fellow churchgoers, Bohdana Dudka, 27, snapped photos to send home to family members including her two brothers who remained in Ukraine to fight.
At Berlin’s Nathanael Church, Ukrainian community leaders said the congregation of around 500 would swell to an expected 2,500 people for the celebrations where refugees said the singing and traditions reminded them of home. More than 369,000 Ukrainians have registered in Germany after fleeing the war.
Diana Shyndak, 23, originally from Kyiv said, “It’s my first Easter celebration not in Ukraine. It’s sad and my heart hurts because so many people have died. We pray everyday for our people and our children.”
Viktor Yushchenko, who was the president of Ukraine from 2005 to 2010, has written this opinion piece, in which he stresses the importance of international solidarity and a united front when dealing with Vladimir Putin.
Yushchenko says the Putin he once knew has disappeared and has been replaced by “a completely isolated and brutal despot who cannot stand any opposition”.
Pope Francis has used the Orthodox Easter weekend to once again appeal for a truce in Ukraine “to ease the suffering of exhausted people”.
The blue and yellow flag of Ukraine flew among the faithful gathered on St Peter’s Square, where the leader of the Roman Catholic Church recalled that fighting erupted two months ago on 24 February.
The pope said:
Instead of halting, the war has become worse. It is sad that on these most holy and solemn days for Christians we hear more of the murderous noise of weapons than that of the bells announcing the resurrection … I renew the appeal for an Easter truce, the smallest tangible sign of a willingness for peace. Stop the attacks to ease the suffering of exhausted people.
(via AFP)
Here’s a quick summary of today’s events
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is expected to ask Washington for more heavy weapons when he meets the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, later today. Blinken and Austin will be the most senior US officials to visit Kyiv since the war began.
- Zelenskiy has accused Russia of continuing to use “filtration camps”, where Ukrainian citizens are sent before being forcibly relocated to Russia. He has likened the camps to Nazi concentration camps.
- In his Easter Sunday message, Zelenskiy said the religious festival “gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win”.
- The senior Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has urged Moscow to agree to a “real Easter truce”, calling on Moscow to immediately open a humanitarian corridor for civilians and agree on a “special round of negotiations” to facilitate an exchange of military and civilians.
- Ukraine says hundreds of its forces and civilians are trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, which Russia has been trying to take for two months. Although Moscow had earlier declared victory in Mariupol and said its forces did not need to take the factory, the Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces have resumed air strikes and are trying to storm the plant.
- The UN’s has called for an “immediate stop” to fighting in Mariupol so that civilians trapped in the city can be evacuated today.
The UN’s Ukraine crisis coordinator, Amin Awad, has called for an “immediate stop” to fighting in Mariupol so that civilians trapped in the city can be evacuated today, AFP reports.
“The lives of tens of thousands, including women, children and older people, are at stake in Mariupol,” Awad said in a statement. “We need a pause in fighting right now to save lives.
“The longer we wait the more lives will be at risk. They must be allowed to safely evacuate now, today. Tomorrow could be too late.”
His call came after an attempted evacuation from Mariupol by Ukraine had failed on Saturday, with Kyiv saying it was “thwarted” by Russian forces.
The UN statement said there were an estimated 100,000 civilians trapped in the city, which has been heavily bombarded after being besieged by Russian forces for weeks.
Awad said Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated in both Russia and Ukraine, provided an opportunity to halt hostilities.
“At a time of a rare calendar alignment of the religious holidays of Orthodox Easter, Passover and Ramadan, it is the time to focus on our common humanity, setting divisions aside,” Awad said.
This month, UN secretary general, António Guterres, had urged a pause in fighting for Orthodox Easter.
This is Sam Jones taking over the blog for the next hour or so.
There is a growing list of regions that keep popping up in coverage of this war. So where exactly has Russia been targeting? Here are a few key locations, with background from AP.
Mariupol
Russia has been attempting to take Mariupol, in the Donbas region, for nearly two months, and the city on the Sea of Azov has faced some of the war’s most brutal attacks. Two thousand troops are fighting to hold on to the last remaining Ukrainian outpost in the city, the Azovstal steel plant, which is also housing civilians in its tunnel system.
Russian forces continue to hammer the plant with airstrikes, including by long-range aircraft, Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces general staff, said on Sunday.
If captured, Ukraine would lose a vital port, and Russian troops would be free to fight elsewhere. It would also establish a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014.
Satellite images have shown what appears to be mass graves dug in towns to the west and east of Mariupol.
Rest of the Donbas region
The wider Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some territory before the war, is one of Russia’s major targets.
Last week, Russian troops overran the small city of Kreminna.
Shtupun said Russian forces intensified their assault operations toward the cities of Popasna and Siverodonetsk in Luhansk, and Kharkiv. Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said on Sunday that eight people were killed and two others were wounded in a Russian barrage on Saturday.
The Russians also have shelled the Dnipro region west of Donbas, where at least one person was killed by a Russian missile, according to regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko.
Kyiv
Russia has pulled back forces from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the north of the country to feed into the Donbas offensive, but the British Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had repelled numerous assaults in the past week.
“Despite Russia making some territorial gains, Ukrainian resistance has been strong across all axes and inflicted significant cost on Russian forces,” the ministry said in an intelligence update.
Zelenskiy speaks of hope on Easter Sunday
In his Easter message on Sunday, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke from the ancient St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv: “The great holiday today gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win.”
“The Lord and the holy heavenly light are on our side,” he added. “We are going through very difficult ordeals. Let us reach a just end on this path – the beginning of a happy life and prosperity of Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy said: “On Easter, we ask God for great grace to make our dream come true – this is another great day – the day when great peace will come to Ukraine.”
US: ‘This is going to be a victory for Ukraine’
The BBC journalist Sophie Raworth spoke to US state department spokesperson Ned Price earlier today about the possibility of Russia winning the war.
“What we have seen from our Ukrainian partners is nothing short of victory on the battlefield,” Price said.
“Right now, they are winning the battle for Ukraine. And it’s really no surprise, because they are fighting with grit, with determination, with tenacity – but also with massive amounts of security assistance that United States and some 30-odd countries from around the world are also providing.”
He added, “This is going to be a victory for Ukraine. It is going to be a strategic defeat for Russia. However and whenever that happens, we are confident of that.”
When pressed by Raworth on whether the US is committed to sending heavy offensive weapons to push Russian soldiers off Ukraine territory, Price said: “We announced yesterday, another tranche of security assistance, in the form of $800m in security assistance. We’re providing them just what they need for this new type of battle, the battle that’s going to emerge in the Donbas and in the south.
“We are confident that with our continued support, with the determination and tenacity that our Ukrainian partners have demonstrated, they will emerge victorious there as well.”
Russia says it struck several arms depots in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region overnight.
Reuters reports:
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its high-precision missiles struck nine Ukrainian military targets overnight, including four arms depots in the Kharkiv region where artillery weapons were stored.”
These claims could not immediately be verified.
The senior Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has urged Moscow to agree to a “real Easter truce” on Sunday.
“Russia is constantly attacking Mariupol’s Azovstal. The place where our civilians and soldiers are is covered with heavy air bombs, artillery fire and intensive concentration of forces and equipment for the assault,” Podolyak said on Twitter.
He called on Russia to immediately open a humanitarian corridor for civilians and agree on a “special round of negotiations” to facilitate an exchange of military and civilians.
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