Key updates
Latest on key battlegrounds: ‘Fate of this war’ is being decided in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky says
'It’s a miracle we managed to leave that hell': Mariupol survivors describe horrors
Four buses from Mariupol arrived in Zaporizhzhia after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the Ukrainian port city on April 21. (Video: Julie Yoon/The Washington Post, Photo: Heidi Levine/The Washington Post)
By Amy Cheng, Adam Taylor, Meryl Kornfield, Adela Suliman and Ellen Francis
Today at 12:15 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 6:39 a.m. EDT
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned late Friday that Russia poses a threat to more countries in the region, cautioning that the invasion of Ukraine was “intended only as a beginning” and that the Russians “want to capture other countries.”
Zelensky made the remark after a Russian commander said the Kremlin intends to establish a path through Ukraine to a breakaway territory in Moldova. While the Ukrainian president has used a similar tack to pressure the West for more assistance, the hint that Russia’s aims may go beyond Ukrainian borders sparked unease. Moscow declined to confirm whether this was official policy; some analysts said they doubt that Russia has the capability.
Evidence of widespread atrocities continues to emerge from the devastated southern port city of Mariupol. The mayor said new satellite images show another mass grave — where an estimated 1,000 residents may be buried — in a nearby village. An adviser to Zelensky said Saturday that Russia has resumed airstrikes pummeling the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, a steel plant where many of Mariupol’s last defenders are holed up, in preparations to storm it. Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly ordered his forces Thursday not to storm the site but to seal it off.
A flurry of diplomatic endeavors to end the war continues, even as Russia claims that talks with Ukraine have stalled. U.N. Secretary General António Gutierrez heads to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Putin, before visiting Ukraine on Thursday for discussions with Zelensky. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has hosted a previous round of peace talks, plans to call Putin and Zelensky in the coming days to push for a leaders’ summit in Istanbul.
What else to know
Ukrainian authorities said they would again try to evacuate residents from the battered port city of Mariupol on Saturday following several failed attempts in recent days.
The Pentagon said more than 20 countries have agreed to participate in a “consultative” meeting next week in Germany to discuss Ukraine’s long-term military and security needs.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russia to release Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dissident writer and Washington Post opinions contributor who was arrested last week.
The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.
UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
Why Mariupol matters to Russia in three maps
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April 21, 2022
Ukraine’s security chief: Russia sends more forces east to Donbas
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By Meryl Kornfield6:22 a.m.
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Most of Russia’s elite forces have left the devastated post city of Mariupol to go east, Ukraine’s security chief said Friday, ahead of anticipated battles in the Donbas region.
The Kremlin has deployed more than 100,000 soldiers in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press. With more Russian troops arriving in the area, the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions have become hot spots for fighting, Danilov said.
“We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,” Danilov said.
Danilov said Ukraine successfully delivered weapons to forces holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol via helicopters at night.
“They went there at night at great risk,” Danilov told AP. “When these flights departed and they asked them what to fill the helicopters with … they answered — fully load them with weapons.”
G-20 can’t function with Russia at the table, Canada says
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By Adela Suliman5:49 a.m.
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At a meeting of the Group of 20 in Washington this week, Canada’s finance minister said the economic body cannot function with Russia participating while it wages its ongoing war in Ukraine.
“The G-20 can’t function effectively with Russia at the table,” Chrystia Freeland told reporters Friday alongside Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.
“Russia does not have a place at the table of countries who have come together to maintain global economic prosperity,” she added. “You can’t be a poacher and gamekeeper at the same time.”
Earlier this week, Freeland and at least a half-dozen world officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, were reported to have walked out of a G-20 meeting when Russian officials began to speak.
The G-20, which includes countries such as China and India, appears divided over whether and how to ostracize Russia from the international economic club. No country has ever been expelled from the G-20. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the G-20 summit hosted by Indonesia later this year, Russia’s ambassador to the Southeast Asian country has said.
E.U. asks people to work remotely, reduce air conditioning to foil Putin
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By Meryl Kornfield, Adela Suliman and Maite Fernández Simon5:25 a.m.
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Empty offices in the financial district of Frankfurt, Germany, last year. (Alex Kraus/Bloomberg News)
Empty offices in the financial district of Frankfurt, Germany, last year. (Alex Kraus/Bloomberg News)
LONDON — Work from home, lower your speed on highways and take the train instead of a plane if you want to save energy and beat Russian President Vladimir Putin, the European Commission advised citizens, as part of recommendations to reduce reliance on Russian oil.
The range of “simple steps” outlined in the Playing My Part plan on Thursday could save a typical household on average almost 500 euros ($540) a year and 220 million barrels of oil a year for all of the European Union, according to the commission and the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
The actions are “designed to help Ukraine by cutting the EU’s reliance on Russian fuel, and also to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the bodies said in a statement.
“Faced with the horrendous scenes of human suffering that we’ve seen following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, people in Europe want to take action,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
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Fighting continues in Mariupol, Russia inches toward Donbas, U.K. says
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By Amy Cheng4:54 a.m.
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People walk near a destroyed tank and damaged buildings in the southern port city of Mariupol on April 22.
People walk near a destroyed tank and damaged buildings in the southern port city of Mariupol on April 22. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
Heavy fighting continues in Mariupol despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s earlier claim of victory in the port city, the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update.
Ukraine’s defense of Mariupol is frustrating Russia’s wish to focus its firepower on the eastern Donbas region, the ministry said, with Kremlin forces failing to make any major gains on either front in the past 24 hours.
Some 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded fighters are still trapped in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote in a recent Telegram message, calling on Russian forces to allow them to safely evacuate. Other Mariupol residents could try to leave the besieged city via a new humanitarian corridor Saturday, she added, after an attempt failed the day before.
Ukraine to attempt evacuation from Mariupol on Saturday
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By Ellen Francis4:36 a.m.
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Residents gather at a street market next to two fresh graves in the foreground in a part of Mariupol, Ukraine, controlled by Russian-backed separatists on April 22, 2022.
Residents gather at a street market next to two fresh graves in the foreground in a part of Mariupol, Ukraine, controlled by Russian-backed separatists on April 22, 2022. (Alexei Alexandrov/AP)
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said authorities would renew their attempts to move residents out of the battered port city of Mariupol on Saturday after failed efforts to open an evacuation corridor.
“Today we are again trying to evacuate women, children and the elderly,” Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram. If all goes according to plan, the evacuation would start at midday local time, she added.
Russian forces have advanced into the southern coastal city, surrounding Ukrainian fighters sheltering with civilians in the Azovstal steel plant. Fighting and shelling have foiled previous attempts at rescuing people.
In a Facebook post earlier, Vereshchuk told people seeking to flee the city to “be patient, please hold on” after announcing Friday that there were no “humanitarian corridors” because of danger along the roads. “You and I have to try as many times as we have to until it works,” she said.
While many residents were evacuated, Ukrainian officials have estimated that around 100,000 people remain in the city. A convoy of four buses and a trickle of private cars managed to cross the front lines out of Mariupol on Thursday, carrying dazed and exhausted survivors who recounted the horrors of the siege.
David L. Stern and Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.
USAID to give Ukraine $131 million in development assistance
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By Amy Cheng4:26 a.m.
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The United States Agency for International Development is committing $131 million to Ukraine to help strengthen areas such as the country’s economy and health-care systems following the Russian invasion, it said Friday.
USAID, which oversees Washington’s foreign development aid efforts, said the funding will help Ukrainian authorities address a wide array of issues, including combating corruption, Russian cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, and fostering economic growth.
France to send artillery to Ukraine; U.K. considers replacing Polish tanks
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By Meryl Kornfield3:58 a.m.
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France is sending long-range weapons to Ukraine by the end of the month, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed Friday, the same day the British government said it was exploring sending tanks to Poland.
France is providing “substantial equipment,” including French-made Caesar self-propelled howitzers, Macron said in an interview with the French media outlet Ouest-France. The offer is the latest effort by European nations to strengthen Ukrainian defenses against Russian attacks.
The British government also announced it is exploring sending British Challenger 2 tanks to Poland, allowing its Polish ally to send its Soviet-era T-72 tanks to Ukraine.
In Mariupol, a website for the missing reveals Ukraine war’s toll
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By Niha Masih3:29 a.m.
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A 76-year-old woman, last seen in her basement, is shown smiling in front of a bed of tulips. A missing teenager who may have fled with neighbors is pictured in a dress holding a bouquet. Then there is the elderly couple whose house burned down in the fighting. And a mother-son duo not heard from in a month.
These are just a few of the photos in hundreds of notices that users have posted over the past week to a new website aimed at tracking missing residents of Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian port city that Russian forces have besieged for much of the war.
The site, Mariupol Life, was the brainchild of computer programmer and Mariupol native Dmitry Cherepanov, who was forced to flee the city in March after days of shelling cut off the electricity and water supply. Cherepanov, 45, wanted to use his skills to help people find information about their missing loved ones, he said this week via Telegram.
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Turkish president to call Kyiv, Moscow to push for future peace talks
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By Amy Cheng3:00 a.m.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an interlocutor between Moscow and Kyiv.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an interlocutor between Moscow and Kyiv. (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters Friday that he plans on holding phone calls with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in the next few days, with the hope of steering the two leaders toward a meeting in Istanbul.
Talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators in Turkey last month — during which Kyiv detailed its peace proposal and Moscow agreed to reduce its military operations near two key Ukrainian cities — allowed for a rare moment of optimism. Since then, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that peace talks are stalled, and Russian forces are preparing for more intense clashes in Ukraine’s east and south.
But Erdogan, who has positioned himself as the go-between in the peace process, still appears positive. “We are not without hope,” he said Friday, according to Reuters. “With the calls, we plan to carry the process in Istanbul to the leaders’ level.”
Mariupol mayor says satellite photos show another mass grave
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By Kim Bellware2:36 a.m.
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Satellite images taken over the devastated port city of Mariupol on Thursday show another mass grave where an estimated 1,000 residents may be buried, according to the city’s mayor.
The images were captured over the village of Vynohradne on the outskirts of Mariupol.
“We will see more and more such burials. Unfortunately. Their territory will expand. Because the death toll is in the tens of thousands,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said via Telegram. He noted the death toll could ultimately rise to near 15,000 as residents in the besieged city remain cut off from fresh supplies of food, water and medicine.
The apparent mass grave near Vynohradne was sighted a day after satellite images revealed a mass grave in the Russian-occupied village of Manhush, roughly 12 miles west of Mariupol.
The images, provided Thursday to The Washington Post by Maxar Technologies, show several rows of graves in Manhush in four distinct sections, each measuring nearly 280 feet.
Mariupol, a strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine, has been heavily bombarded by Russian forces for the past month. Moscow claimed victory over the city Thursday even though Ukrainian forces remain holed up in a steel factory there.
Pope Francis rules out Ukraine visit, explains canceled meeting with Russian patriarch
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By Amy Cheng2:14 a.m.
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Pope Francis receives Ukraine-war-themed drawings during his weekly general audience at the Vatican earlier this month.
Pope Francis receives Ukraine-war-themed drawings during his weekly general audience at the Vatican earlier this month. (Vatican Media/Reuters)
Pope Francis told Argentine newspaper La Nación he will not visit Ukraine and that he was sorry to cancel a meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, which had been scheduled for June in Jerusalem.
“What good would it do for the Pope to go to Kyiv if the war continued the next day?” he said, according to a Vatican translation.
Francis, who is the first head of the Catholic Church to meet the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, insisted that his relationship with Kirill is “very good.” But a meeting at this juncture would lead to confusion, he said.
The pope, who has called for a peaceful end to the Russian invasion and kissed a Ukrainian national flag sent from Bucha — a town near Kyiv where Russian forces committed apparent atrocities — vowed that the Vatican would not cease its diplomacy. He did not provide details.
During his Easter vigil service last weekend, Pope Francis directly addressed three Ukrainian lawmakers and the mayor of Russian-occupied Melitopol, who were in attendance.
But he has not directly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin. “A Pope never names a head of state, much less a country, which is superior to its head of state,” he told La Nación.
More than 20 countries will meet to assess Ukrainian military’s needs
Military airplanes at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on April 24, 2021. (Ingmar Bjorn Nolting for The Washington Post)
Military airplanes at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on April 24, 2021. (Ingmar Bjorn Nolting for The Washington Post)
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday that more than 20 countries have agreed to participate in a “consultative” meeting next week at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Defense ministers and senior military officers from the United States and partner nations will discuss what long-term assistance Ukraine’s military needs to remain potent, including after the war with Russia.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin does not have a specific outcome in mind for the meeting, first announced Thursday, Kirby said.
“He’s not going into this meeting on Tuesday with a preset list of things that we have to drive to,” Kirby said. “He wants to hear from allies and partners, and from the Ukrainians themselves about what they are doing and what they will need going forward.”
Kirby said the meeting is not meant to get security guarantees for Ukraine.
About 40 nations have been invited, including some in NATO, he said.
Commander hints at Russian ambitions beyond Ukraine
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By Mary Ilyushina, Cate Cadell, Dan Lamothe, David Stern and Timothy Bella1:27 a.m.
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Approximately 180 new graves were prepared in the military section of Krasnopilske cemetery in Dnipro, Ukraine, on April 22. (Wojciech Grzedzinski for The Washington Post)
Approximately 180 new graves were prepared in the military section of Krasnopilske cemetery in Dnipro, Ukraine, on April 22. (Wojciech Grzedzinski for The Washington Post)
RIGA, Latvia — A Russian commander said Friday that Moscow wants to take “full control” of eastern and southern Ukraine, in part so it could have a path to neighboring Moldova — raising fears that the nearly two-month war could spill outside of Ukrainian borders.
The comments from Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s Central Military District, seemed to hint that the Kremlin — which has been stymied in its bid to take over the Ukrainian capital — still wants to conquer wide swaths of its neighbor’s land, and potentially threaten the nations that lie beyond. They drew swift condemnation from Moldova, where residents have worried since the beginning of the war they could be next in the Kremlin’s crosshairs.
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Key update
Latest on key battlegrounds: ‘Fate of this war’ is being decided in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky says
Donbas region: The second phase of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced Friday, adding that its objective is the “complete liberation” of the entirety of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Friday that Ukrainian armed forces were deterring attacks in the east and south. “The Izyum direction, Donbas, Pryazovia, Mariupol, Kherson region are the places where the fate of this war and the future of our state is being decided,” he said.
Kharkiv region: The armed forces of Ukraine warned Friday of a possible Russian offensive in the region, where Ukrainian defenders have intelligence that the Russian military is conducting aerial reconnaissance near the town of Izyum.
Mariupol: A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the shattered Ukrainian port city, the president of the European Council said he “strongly urged” Putin to immediately open up humanitarian access to residents. A small pocket of resistance, about 1,000 Ukrainian fighters and citizens who remain holed up in a steel plant, are surrounded. Also, newly surfaced images of two mass graves near Mariupol underscored the scope of the devastation.
Kyiv region: A majority of cities around the capital — where residents who fled are now returning — suffered massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, the United Nations confirmed Friday with satellite imagery. Around 77 percent of the Horenka, 71 percent of Irpin and 58 percent of Hostomel, all city areas, were damaged or destroyed as of the end of March, U.N. spokesman Eri Kaneko said.
Sloviansk: Shelled by Russian forces in the eastern Ukrainian city Friday damaged a secondary school building and residential buildings, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office said on Telegram, announcing an investigation into the use of cluster missiles, prohibited under international law.
Blinken calls for immediate release of Post contributor
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called for the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was charged on Friday by a Russian court with spreading “false” information after the dissident writer and Washington Post opinions contributor called the government “a regime of murderers” in an interview earlier this month.
According to a charging document posted on Facebook by Kara-Murza’s attorney, the 40-year-old is accused of disseminating “deliberately false information [about] the military forces of the Russian Federation” that “causes significant harm to the interests of the Russian Federation.”
Blinken, who previously tweeted that the United States is “troubled” by Kara-Murza’s detention, wrote on Friday that the charges against Kara-Murza are “yet another cynical attempt to silence those who speak the truth. Mr. Kara-Murza should be released immediately.”
Displaced Ukrainians return east from Lviv despite danger
Some Ukrainians are leaving the relatively safe city of Lviv to return to their hometowns despite the ongoing danger there. (Video: Erin Patrick O'Connor, James Cornsilk/The Washington Post)
LVIV, Ukraine — Train 750L was running nearly an hour behind schedule when it rumbled into the western Ukrainian hub of Lviv one recent afternoon. The delay meant extra time for the dozens of nervous passengers waiting at the depot to ask themselves: Is this a bad idea?
The families huddled on the platform that day are part of a wave of Ukrainians who fled Russian attacks to the safer, western part of the country but are gambling on a return to the capital, Kyiv, now that Russian forces have withdrawn from the area. Ukrainian officials say about 50,000 people a day are going back, despite warnings from Kyiv’s mayor to stay put and continued airstrikes around the city.
The passengers of 750L said the decision to go back was agonizing. They held family meetings to hash out pros and cons. They obsessively watched Telegram channels for reports of violence. They prayed. And then they bought their tickets, the pull of the familiar beating out the uncertainty of war.
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War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of growing Russian irredentism late Friday, cautioning that the invasion of Ukraine was “intended only as a beginning … they want to capture other countries.”
The fight: Russian forces continue to mount sporadic attacks on civilian targets in a number of Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian prosecutors have been taking detailed testimony from victims to investigate Russian war crimes.
The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.
In Russia: Putin has locked down the flow of information within Russia, where the war isn’t even being called a war.
Photos: Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
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