Kyiv: More than 60 days have passed since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine. Here are ten of the latest developments from the Ukraine-Russia war, as reported by Reuters:
1) Two Russian missiles struck Kyiv during a visit by the head of the United Nations, Ukrainian officials said, though the West believes the battles for the besieged port of Mariupol and other areas in the east and south may determine the war’s outcome.
2) Moscow regards winning the “Battle for Donbas” as crucial if it is to achieve its stated objective of securing control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east, Britain’s defence ministry said. “Fighting has been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, with an attempted advance south from Izium towards Slovyansk,” it said on Twitter.
3) Ukrainian rescue workers on Friday recovered a corpse from the rubble of a building in Kyiv that was hit by a missile, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The death was the first reported in Thursday’s missile strike as the head of the United Nations visited Kyiv. Ukrainian officials said two Russian missiles had struck the capital. Russia has not commented on the incident.
4) Ukraine hopes on Friday (April 29) to evacuate civilians who are holed up in a vast steel works with the last fighters defending the southern city of Mariupol. “An operation is planned today to get civilians out of the plant,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy`s office said without giving details.
5) On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to UN and International Committee for the Red Cross involvement in evacuating the Azovstal plant. The Mariupol city council has said about 100,000 residents across the city are “in mortal danger” because of Russian shelling and unsanitary conditions, and described a “catastrophic” shortage of drinking water and food.
6) Russia declared victory in Mariupol last week, but hundreds of Ukrainian forces remain in the vast industrial complex of the Azovstal steel works. Civilians are also sheltering at the site.
7) A cargo carrying over 71,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn finished loading in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta on Thursday, the first since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the manager of port operator Comvex said. With Ukraine’s seaports blocked since the war started more than two months ago, the world`s fourth-largest grain exporter has been forced to send shipments by train via its western border or through its small Danube river ports into Romania. “This is the first panamax vessel with Ukrainian corn to leave the port,” Comvex President Viorel Panait told Reuters.
8) Britain said on Friday it was sending experts to help Ukraine with gathering evidence and prosecuting war crimes, with a team due to arrive in Poland in early May. Ukraine says it is investigating some 7,600 potential war crimes and at least 500 suspects following Russia`s Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbour.
9) The International University Sports Federation (FISU) said on Friday it has decided to postpone the Russian city of Yekaterinburg’s hosting rights for the 2023 World University Games. FISU has already barred Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from taking part in its events until at least the end of the year over Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.
10) Ukrainian forces have shelled and damaged an oil depot in the city of Donetsk in the country’s east which is held by Russian-backed separatists, the RIA news agency quoted a separatist official as saying on Friday.
(With inputs from Reuters)
