April 18, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage has moved.?Head here for the latest updates?on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A frame from a video shows Ukrainian forces ambushing a Russian convoy in Mariupol.

A new video posted by the Azov Battalion on Monday shows Ukrainian forces in Mariupol ambushing a Russian military convoy.

CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video, but it’s unclear when the ambush occurred. The Azov Battalion is a unit that began as an ultra-nationalist militia but has since integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.

The video, taken by a drone, shows a convoy of six vehicles moving south along Metallurgists Avenue in Mariupol. The convoy?pulls off the road and onto a sidewalk just outside the Ararat cafe.

As the drone zooms out,?it shows at least?nine?Ukrainian troops?creeping toward?the convoy, which has stopped moving.?The video then cuts to soldiers firing in the direction of the convoy.

It then cuts to another scene,?in which at least three of the six vehicles are on fire. A “Z” – the symbol of the Russian invasion – can be seen on at least two of the vehicles.

The video then shows Ukrainian soldiers throwing grenades over a brick wall, in the direction of Russian soldiers?who?are?taking cover?between one of the vehicles and?a?wall.

CNN is not airing the entire video, as it shows grenades exploding on top of the Russian soldiers.?

New video images of women and children, purportedly sheltering in the basement of the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, were published Monday evening on Telegram.?

The video was posted by the Azov Battalion, a unit that began as an ultra-nationalist militia but has since integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.?The video was later shared?by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It appears to show dozens of children and families who have been sheltering for weeks in the basement of the plant where Ukrainian forces are holding out against Russian attacks.

CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the video, or when it was taken. However, after reviewing thousands of photos and videos of the Azovstal steel plant, the walls of the shelter appear to match the lime-green painted walls of the steel plant’s basements.

Some context: Commander of the Azov Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko, in Mariupol said in a video posted Monday on Telegram that Russian forces have been firing “willingly” on the Azovstal steelworks factory, where hundreds of civilians are sheltering alongside Ukrainian forces.

Prokopenko said that among those sheltering are, “people of all ages, women, children, and families of Mariupol defenders. They are sheltering in the basements and bunkers from the ‘Russian world’.”?

Myhailo Vershynin, the chief of the Mariupol Patrol Police, also told CNN that women, children and the elderly were among those sheltering inside the steel plant.

New images emerged early Monday on social media showing?Russia’s guided-missile cruiser,?the Moskva, badly damaged and on fire in the hours before the ship sank in the Black Sea on Thursday.

The sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, was the?biggest wartime loss?of a naval ship in 40 years – and a huge embarrassment for Moscow.

The images show the Moskva listing to one side, with black holes from possible missile puncture marks, and significant scarring at and just above the waterline on the port (left) side of the middle of the vessel.

A large plume of black smoke can be seen billowing upwards, partly obscuring the front of the stricken ship.

Analysts told CNN the warship in the images looked like the Moskva, a Slava Class guided-missile destroyer.

Ukraine and Russia have provided conflicting accounts of what happened during Thursday’s incident in the Black Sea.

Read the full story here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back against concerns from US and NATO officials that his military would need significant training before receiving advanced weapons from other countries, telling CNN his forces need weapons quickly – and can learn to use them just as fast.

Zelensky said in the interview from the office of the president in Kyiv that weapons provided by the US and other countries, including the Biden administration’s new $800 million security assistance package, have helped his country resist Russia’s invasion.

But he said that more would be needed, and his country’s trainers would be able to get his forces up to speed quickly.

Read the full story:

Related article Exclusive: Zelensky rejects 'tall tales' his forces need months of training to operate advanced weapons | CNN Politics

US Customs and Border Protection officials encountered just more than 5,000 Ukrainians in March, including 3,274 along the US southern border, according to newly released agency data.

The challenge some Ukrainians face in getting to the US through an existing legal pathway is reflected in part on the US-Mexico border. There, hundreds have gathered to enter the US through a port of entry and potentially be paroled into the United States.

US Customs and Border Protection has sent additional officers to the San Ysidro port of entry, near the Mexican border city of Tijuana, to help with processing, according to the agency. The Biden administration is also planning to roll out a program that would expedite the process for Ukrainians trying to come to the United States.

The 3,274 Ukrainians made up a small share of the 221,303 encounters at the US-Mexico border in March, which marked yet another jump in arrests along the US-Mexico border. CBP has already apprehended more than 1 million people this fiscal year. That includes some repeat crossers.?

Smoke rises above the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works company and buildings in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Monday, April 18,

In an address on Monday to world leaders, commander of the Azov Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko, said Russian forces are firing on the?Azovstal steelworks factory “willingly” in Mariupol as hundreds of people are sheltering inside.?

Prokopenko is the commander of one of the?Ukrainian units defending the port city of Mariupol.

Prokopenko said in a post on Telegram account that among those sheltering are, “people of all ages, women, children, and families of Mariupol defenders. They are sheltering in the basements and bunkers from the ‘Russian world.’”

According to Prokopenko, those sheltering “found their only available shelter next to the Ukrainian soldiers, who are still defending the city from Russian invaders.”

He added, “City theatre, maternity hospital, schools, kindergartens, and houses were destroyed by those who now offer civilians evacuation and safety. These are the same people. And nobody believes.”

Russia bombarded cities across Ukraine on Monday, with at least four missile strikes reported in the western city of Lviv and at least seven people killed.?

Ukraine’s defense ministry, meanwhile, says Russian forces have completed the regrouping of troops to launch an offensive in the east.?Control of Kreminna, a town in the eastern Luhansk region, has been “lost” during heavy fighting, a Ukrainian official said.

Here are the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:

Ihor Zhovkva, chief diplomatic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that there isn’t a “single place” in Ukraine that’s safe now following Russian missile strikes in Lviv Monday.

“That’s what [the Russians] were trying to?implement since the beginning of?the war.?Because look, they not only fight the military?people.?They not only fight the military?infrastructure.?They fight with civilian?Ukrainians. I mean what a auto service shop, a car repairing shop has to do with the military infrastructure,?but they bombed it today in Lviv, having killed?civilian people.?Not a single soldier but?civilian people, killed,” he said.

He made a plea for additional military aid so that Ukraine can “win” the war.

“Please support Ukraine with more?arms, and we’ll be able to win,” Zhovkva said.

The western city of Lviv, seen as a safe haven due to its proximity to the border, came under attack on Monday. Maksym Kozytskyy, the Lviv regional military governor, said three missile strikes hit warehouses that were not being used by the military, and a fourth hit a tire-repair shop. Seven people have died, he said.

Watch the full interview with Zhovkva here:

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová contributed to this report.

The Russian army will have difficulty replenishing their arsenal of missiles, helicopters, and other military equipment, amid international sanctions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a video address on Monday.?

“A similar process is taking place with other Russian weapons. Producing new artillery, planes, new helicopters, and cruisers under sanctions will be a daunting task for Russia,” he added.

US State Department officials are looking at every tool available to them to hold Russia accountable for the war in Ukraine, including the possibility of labeling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, according to a senior administration official. The process could take weeks before a determination is made, the official said.

The definition of a state sponsor of terrorism is a country?that has “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism,” according to the State Department.?There are only four countries that are currently labeled state sponsors of terrorism by the US: North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Syria.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked?US President Biden in one of their recent phone conversations to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, CNN reported last week.?

The US has already rolled out severe sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine war, but adding Russia to the list would be a symbolic move that?would also inflict?an even greater cost on Russia’s economy. It would lead to actions such as prohibiting Russia from buying certain items that can be used commercial or militarily,?and sanctions on other people and countries still engaged in certain trade with Russia.

Russian forces have started the battle for Donbas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Monday.

The president underscored that Ukrainian forces will continue to fight against a Russian incursion in the region.

“I’m thankful to all of our warriors, our soldiers, our heroic towns and towns in the region who are resisting and standing firm,” he added.

In frame taken from a video posted to social media, a long column of Russian military vehicles is seen heading from the Russian border toward the city of Izium, where Russian forces have been gathering.? The vehicles are seen moving through the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.?

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Monday that Russian forces had launched an effort to break through Ukrainian front lines in three regions.??

“Fortunately, our military is holding on, and only in two cities they [the Russians] have passed: Kreminna and another small town. But the fighting continues, we are not surrendering our territories and the attempt to start an active phase has begun this morning,” he said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Monday that there are no plans in place for US President Joe Biden to travel to Ukraine, following comments from Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky encouraging him to do so.

Some context: In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that aired Sunday, Zelensky said he wants Biden to come to Ukraine. The US President suggested last week that he wanted to go, though he said US officials are still “in discussions” on?whether a high-level US official will visit Ukraine.

“I think he will,” Zelensky said of Biden when asked if there were any plans for the US President to visit. “I mean, his decision, of course. And as well, the safety situation depends – I mean that – but I think he’s the leader of the United States, and that’s why he should come here to see.”

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said Monday the “second phase of the war” had begun in Ukraine’s Donbas region, amid clear signs of a stepped-up Russian offensive.?

A medical worker walks through the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 9, after a Russian attack severely damaged the hospital.

There have been at least 73 people killed and 52 people injured in 136 attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine since the invasion began, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said Monday during a news briefing.??

Dujarric said he was citing the latest numbers from the World Health Organization, a UN agency responsible for international public health.

He added that the attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine currently account for more than 68% of all attacks on health care facilities worldwide since the beginning of the year.?

Additionally, more than one out of four people in Ukraine (comprising around 12 million people) have been displaced due to the war, including around 4.9 million refugees and 7.1 million people internally displaced within Ukraine, Dujarric said.?

The UN now has more than 1,300 staff on the ground in Ukraine, working in eight operational hubs across the country, the spokesperson said. Dujarric added that Secretary General Guterres continues to be “deeply concerned” about the ongoing attacks in Ukraine, resulting in civilian casualties and infrastructure damage.

Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant is home to among the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance.

Civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, are sheltering inside the Azovstal iron and steel plant in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol, according to Myhailo Vershynin, the chief of the Mariupol patrol police.

Vershynin?told CNN he was at the Azovstal plant, one of the city’s last bastions still under Ukrainian control which has been the focal point of heavy Russian bombardment following weeks of grinding warfare in the city that has leveled much of its infrastructure.?

According to Vershynin, civilians sheltering in Azovstal include women with infants, the elderly, as well as small children. He estimated that there were about 1,000 people in total. He said Azovstal had “quite large reserves” of food and water, but supplies were running out fast.

“They were sent the same direction as the Russian warship. Nobody agreed to this. No one will leave without a weapon,” Vershynin added.

Communications in the city are limited, and CNN reached Vershynin through voice and text message. Vershynin described the situation in the Azovstal plant, where civilians have taken refuge from heavy shelling, as very serious.

Vershinyn confirmed the city is closed by the Russians, but added the entrance to the city may be open on the left bank to the east of the city. But he added that the road that links Mariupol from with Zaporizhzhia and Berdiansk were blocked because of very serious fighting.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Russia’s attacks in Ukraine in recent days further illustrate that the country is “undertaking a campaign of terror” against the people of Ukraine when responding to a question about Russia’s recent strikes in Lviv, Ukraine.

Price also noted that the Pentagon said earlier in the day that Russian strikes in recent days “have targeted military instillations, military adjacent instillations.”?

An interior ministry sapper collects unexploded ordnance in Hostomel, Ukraine, on April 18.

A ceasefire in Ukraine is not on the horizon, but may come in the coming weeks depending on how the war and ongoing negotiations continue, according to Martin Griffiths, UN?under secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Griffiths said he plans to go to Turkey later this week to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an to identify ways that the UN can help support the peacekeeping and negotiations process between Ukraine and Russia. He added that he was “really impressed” by the role that Turkey is playing in the conflict, calling the country “an important aspect” of the situation.

“We need to watch the talks very, very carefully, hence the trip to Turkey this week,” Griffiths said.?

Griffiths said he also hopes that Turkey can host a “humanitarian contact group” through which negotiations about humanitarian aid can be discussed. He said that Ukrainian officials have already agreed to this and that he hopes Russian officials will too.

Griffiths added that Ukrainian officials have agreed to most proposals made by the United Nations regarding humanitarian aid and ceasefires, but Russia has not yet given a similar response.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres charged Griffiths on March 28 with meeting with officials from both Ukraine and Russia about arrangements for a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine.

Griffiths said he recently met with the Ukrainian prime minister, two deputy prime ministers, the Ukrainian minister of defense, and the deputy foreign minister for this reason. He has said previously that he met with Russian officials on April 4.?

The aim of the discussions with both parties is to make sure authorities are aware of United Nations aspirations for humanitarian aid and to discuss ways in which the UN might improve its humanitarian notification system, Griffiths said.?

Griffiths said Ukrainian officials agreed to the idea of a common humanitarian contact group and to the idea of local ceasefires for the purpose of delivering humanitarian aid, but said the Russians “are not putting local ceasefires at the top of their agenda, not yet.”

“On the humanitarian side, we need to have much more willing acceptance, primarily of the Russian Federation, to allow convoys in and convoys out,” Griffiths said.??

When asked whether he believed Russia would, in good faith, implement a durable ceasefire, Griffiths said he would keep trying to facilitate and mediate one, despite a current lack of action from the Russian side.?

“Hope is the currency of the mediator,” Griffiths said.?“In every war that I’ve had anything to do with, you always, always begin from a basis of no hope because it looks so appalling, the atrocities are so terrible…you keep on doing it, because frankly, what’s the alternative? He added that “not to keep at it [negotiations], that would be irresponsible.”

The European Union has condemned the latest round of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and said the recent shelling in western Ukraine show no part of the country is safe.?

“Ukraine is being struck by the most intensive missile attacks by the Russian Federation since weeks. The EU condemns the continued indiscriminate and illegal shelling of civilians and civilian infrastructure by Russian armed forces,”?the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement Monday.?

The European official said the recent attacks on Lviv and “other cities?in western Ukraine show that no part of the country is spared from the Kremlin’s senseless onslaught.”

Borrell said the EU continues to support the International Criminal Court’s investigation into war crimes in Ukraine and called on Russia once more to “immediately and unconditionally cease hostilities and withdraw all forces and military equipment” from the country.

A man walks past a heavily-damaged residential building in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 18.

The fate of the?Ukrainian city of Mariupol?is hanging on an unknown number of defenders making their last stand at an iron and steel plant.

An ultimatum?given by the Russian Defense Ministry to the last remaining Ukrainian troops still fighting in the port city has come and gone. The battle continues.

Heavy fighting was still going on in Mariupol on Monday, according to Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor.

He said Russian forces had begun issuing passes for movement within the city and that they announced entry and exit routes would be closed on Monday, warning that men remaining in the city would be “filtered out.”

If you’re just catching up on the latest news, here’s where things stand in Mariupol:

Read more about the situation in Mariupol here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday handed over a document with Ukraine’s answers to a questionnaire from the European Union — another step on Kyiv’s path toward European Union membership, an EU diplomat said.?

The European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, tweeted that he was “honoured to receive from President Zelensky the answers to the European Commission’s questionnaire.”?

The ambassador also posted photos of him receiving the document alongside Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials, including Prime Minister Denys?Shmyhal.?

More on the EU process: Submitting the questionnaire marks another step in the long process to becoming a full EU member country, a process which normally takes years to complete.?

The European Commission will now consider the answers provided by Ukraine in the questionnaire and issue an opinion on whether Ukraine should be granted “Candidate Status.”?

It will be then be up to leaders of the existing 27 member states to approve Ukraine’s status as a candidate country before moving to the next phase in which Kyiv would need to align its social, legal, administrative and financial processes with that of the EU.??

In March, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the?European Union institutions “to work towards granting” Ukraine the status of EU candidate country.

View the tweet from Maasika here:

The US believes that Russia is learning from their failures in the north of Ukraine and applying those lessons on their new focus in the east and the south, according to a senior US defense official.

“What we have seen over the last few days is them continue to try to set the conditions,” said the official in a call with reporters. “We call it shaping operations.”

The official added that the US has seen Russia moving in “heavy artillery,” “command and control enablers” and “aviation, particularly rotary aviation support” into these areas as part of the 11 new battalion tactical groups that have moved into the area “over the last few days.”

A Ukraine-based humanitarian kitchen linked to celebrity chef José Andrés has been destroyed by a Russian missile in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, according to the charity that runs it.

One of the restaurant partners of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) was struck on Saturday, according to the nonprofit kitchen’s CEO Nate Mook, who confirmed the?news on Twitter. He said four staff members had been injured in the blast.

“This is the reality here — cooking is a heroic act of bravery,” he continued.

On Sunday, Mook shared an update from Kharkiv, indicating that the injured staff “were doing well” and the restaurant team were in the process of moving “all food products & non-damaged equipment” to another location in the city.

“The work doesn’t stop,” he added.

Mook posted another photo on?Twitter?of three restaurant staffers who he said were recovering after the missile attack.

“I want to introduce you to 3 brave staff from @WCKitchen restaurant Yaposhka! Yulia, Liza, and Yulia are in good spirits & recovering in the hospital after the missile attack,” he tweeted.

The northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, has been under regular heavy bombardment since Russia began its invasion more than six weeks ago.

Andrés has also taken to Twitter to address the strike, as well as provide an update on the well being of staff at the restaurant

Founded by Andrés in 2010, the WCK, an organization focused on providing meals in disaster and war zones, has been supplying food to Ukrainians since the start of the conflict, with units in around 30 cities across the country, according to its official website.

On April 15, Andrés shared a graphic detailing the scale of the organization’s operation in Ukraine, including setting up over 300 restaurants and delivering over 300,000 meals a day.

“We believe that a plate of food is sometimes the beginning of a better tomorrow,” Andrés says in a video?posted on Sunday.

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works company in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 18.

The city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine remains contested, according to a senior US defense official, as Ukrainian forces hold out against “almost a dozen” battalion tactical groups, or BTGs.

“Our assessment is Mariupol is still contested,” the official said Monday.

Mariupol, a city which Russia has reduced to rubble in many places, has become the focus of the renewed Russian offensive focusing on the south and east of Ukraine. The city sits on the coast of the Sea of Azov, a strategically important location that would allow Russia to create a continuous land bridge from Donbas to Crimea if the city fell.?

The Russians have committed about a dozen battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to the fight in Mariupol, the official said.?Each BTG can have as many as 1,000 troops.?

“Should Mariupol fall to the Russians, that would free up another almost a dozen battalion tactical groups to be used elsewhere in the east and in the south,” the official said. “But that’s a big ‘if,’ because they Ukrainians are still fighting very hard for Mariupol.”

Russian forces have repeatedly struck Mariupol from the air, using both bombs and missile strikes, as well as artillery strikes from the ground, the official continued.

The official also says an amphibious assault on Mariupol is a possibility, though the US is not able to independently confirm that such an assault is coming, as the Ukrainians have warned.

The Russians “do have some amphibious capability certainly in the Black Sea and in the Sea of Azov,” so it’s certainly within the realm of possibility there, the official added.

The US assesses that Russia has added 11 battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to their forces in the east and south of Ukraine since late last week, according to a senior US defense official, bringing Russia’s total number of BTG’s to 76.

“They have added to their capability inside Ukraine,” the official said on a press call, adding that all Russian ground forces are currently focused in the east and south of Ukraine, but the US is unable to pinpoint exactly how the new BTG’s are spread out.

Meanwhile, the US has sent four flights of security assistance for Ukraine into the region from the newest round of assistance authorized by US President Joe Biden worth $800 million, the official noted.

Another should be arriving “over the next 24 hours,” according to the official, but no details were provided around what equipment was on the flights.

Roman Stelmashchuk

Roman Stelmashchuk was on his way to the auto repair shop he owns in Lviv when he got a call saying it was hit by a missile.

More than a dozen of his employees were already there, getting ready to open up the shop, he told journalists at the site of the strike, adding that four died and three others are in the hospital.

The youngest, who died, was 30 years old. One employee had three daughters and the other had a child who was about to start school this year, Stelmashchuk said.

All of those who died had worked for him, “for a long time. They were good workers,” he added, saying one of the employees killed in the strike had worked for him for 11 years.

More on the strikes: Regional military governor Maksym Kozytskyy said earlier Monday that seven people are dead and 11 injured after Russia launched four missile strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

The toll could rise further as rescue efforts continue, the official added.

Russian forces have completed the regrouping of troops to launch an offensive in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian defense ministry spokesperson said on Monday.??

“(Russia) is preparing for an offensive in eastern Ukraine to establish full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and ensure the stability” of the land corridor with Crimena, Motuzyanyk said.?

He added that Ukrainian forces took back several settlements from the Russian forces around the town of Izium in the Kharkiv region.??

The spokesperson said that the town of Izium and its surrounding areas are the places with the largest concentration of Russian units.??

“From that location they will try to develop an offensive to the east,”?he continued.??

Spain will reopen its embassy in Kyiv “in the coming days,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez? said Monday, becoming the latest country to return?its diplomats to the Ukrainian capital.

The reopening will be “a new sign of the commitment of the Spanish government and society to the Ukrainian people,” Sánchez said in an interview with Spanish TV Antena 3.

Spain evacuated its embassy in Kyiv on Feb. 27, soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. It transferred those functions to neighboring Warsaw, Poland, the Spanish Foreign Ministry press office said.??

France announced last week that its embassy in Ukraine would “very soon” return to Kyiv from Lviv, while Italy said Saturday that it intends to reopen its embassy in Kyiv after Easter.

The European Union is also?resuming its diplomatic presence in Kyiv, after moving it temporarily to Poland following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bloc announced Friday.

Slovenia has also reopened its embassy in Kyiv since March 28, according to Slovenia’s Foreign Ministry.?????

Ukrainian officials in the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions have reported heavy bombardments by Russian forces Monday, acknowledging a retreat from one important town but claiming to have successfully repulsed Russian attacks elsewhere.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said on Ukrainian television that the city was being “constantly bombarded.” He accused the Russians of “bombing residential areas, residential buildings, where there are crowds of people. There were hits today in the city. There are wounded and dead. Several hospitals and the city perinatal center were destroyed.”?

Terekhov said that 30% of the city’s population had left since the invasion began but added that “as a rule people do not want to leave the city.”

And striking a defiant note, he added: “Despite the bombing, we started planting flowers today. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we will try to start the fountains.”

He said that because of Russian attacks “the number of settlements without electricity, water and gas is growing.”

“There are only the remnants of infrastructure,” he said, with 35 settlements without power; 21 completely and 14 partially and 37 were without gas. There is?no water supply in the towns of Rubizhne and Popasna, he said. Russian forces are on the edge of both towns.?

“Popasna is shelled massively,” Haidai said. “In Zolote, shells hit a five-story building, several people were killed, several people were injured.”

Haidai also spoke about the Ukrainian troops’ retreat from the town of Kreminna in the Luhansk region Monday amid intense shelling.?

“There was a battle at night; our troops retreated to positions that helped them defend themselves,” he said.

“Our defenders, first of all, act so as not to harm the citizens. The enemy, on the other hand, strikes at everything in its path,” he said. “They no longer tried to make breakthroughs, attacks, but began to level everything to the ground.”

Haidai said some evacuations were continuing but that it was like walking a tightrope. Despite the lack of a ceasefire or agreed routes to help civilians escape the fighting, he said that more than 100 people were evacuated from Luhansk region without “humanitarian corridors” Monday.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported some successes elsewhere in the east, saying that Russian attempts to advance around Izium had been repelled.?

“The enemy conducted reconnaissance by battle, had no success, and was forced to retreat after suffering losses,” said?Col. Oleksandr Motuzianyk, spokesperson at the Ministry of Defense.

Russian forces have been arriving in the Izium area after the town fell at the beginning of the month. But they’ve made little progress since.?

h Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released a video Monday showing the pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to be handed over to Russia in exchange for the Ukrainian forces and civilians trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Zelensky announced last week that Medvedchuk had been detained in a “special operation.”

It is unclear if Medvedchuk — who has faced allegations of treason in Ukraine — was speaking against his will and where he recorded the video.

His wife, Oksana Marchenko, has?posted videos appealing for the release of her husband in exchange for British nationals taken captive by Russian forces in Mariupol.

A satellite image shows trucks with towed artillery at the northern end of a military convoy moving south through the Ukrainian town of Velykyi Burluk, in the direction of the Donbas region, Ukraine, on April 8.

Donbas, a sprawling and beleaguered heartland region that blankets much of eastern Ukraine, has been the front line of the country’s conflict with Russia since 2014.

But now its people, already scarred by eight years of fighting, are bracing for an assault even more intense. An?impending battle for control?of the territory is expected to define Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, after his forces suffered costly failures in Kyiv, and across central and northern Ukraine.

On Monday, both Ukrainian officials and the Russian Ministry of Defense have reported widespread military action in the east of Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

Satellite images meanwhile, have shown?Russian military convoys and resupplied units moving towards Donbas for a large-scale offensive, and Ukraine’s foreign minister has warned the world of an impending battle there that will “remind you of the Second World War.”

A Russian victory in the region would appall the West but could salvage Putin’s war aims, while a defeat could cement his invasion as a historic failure. Either way, it is almost certain to devastate yet more of the Donbas region, a historically and culturally significant place whose proximity to Russia has dictated much of its turbulent existence.

Those who have lived in and studied the region describe it as an independent and gritty center of industry that has remained suspicious of outside forces for decades.

But the waves of conflict there since 2014 have reshaped and wounded its cities, and it is along its line of contact that both the Ukrainian and Russian military are most dug in – making for a familiar but unpredictable new phase of war.

Read the full story here.

People walk near damaged buildings in the southern port city of?Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 18.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk appealed directly to Russia’s leadership to open an evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol.

In a statement on Telegram in Russian, Vereshchuk — who is also?the Ukrainian minister for the reintegration of temporarily occupied territories — said she was appealing to the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation “in relation to the worsening of the situation in Mariupol.” She demanded an opening of a corridor from Mariupol to Berdiansk for civilians and an “urgent” corridor from the territory of the Azovstal plant for “women, children and other civilians.”

The Azovstal steel plant has been a bastion of Ukrainian defense inside the port city, which has undergone weeks of bombardment by Russian forces.

Vereshchuk added that Russian refusal to open up corridors for evacuation “will be grounds for holding all involved persons criminally liable for war crimes in the future.”

Ukrainian officials have said over 100,000 people require evacuation from the city.?Independent estimates of casualties from the relentless Russian bombardment are not available, but the region’s military governor has said as many as 22,000 people have died in the city since the Russian assault began.?

The commander of the Ukrainian Marine unit in the besieged city of Mariupol wrote a letter to Pope Francis appealing for him to save the people remaining in the city under heavy bombardment.?

In the letter, published on the Ukrainska Pravda website, Maj. Serhii Volyna, commander of the?36th Separate Marine Brigade,?wrote, “I have not seen your appeals to the world and I have not read all your last statements, I have been fighting for more than 50 days in complete encirclement and all I have time for is a fierce battle for every meter of a city encircled by the enemy.”

The officer alluded to the drama theater in Mariupol that was hit by a Russian strike while being used as a shelter for civilians in March.?

“The time has come when praying is not enough,” Volyna said. “Help to save them. After the bombing of the drama theater, no one believes the Russian occupiers. Bring the truth to the world, evacuate people and save their lives from the hands of Satan, who wants to burn all living things.”

The Bulgarian embassy in Moscow, Russia, on April 20, 2021.

Moscow is expelling employees of the Bulgarian embassy, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

“Atanas Krastin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Russian Federation, was invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where he was presented with a note from the Ministry declaring employees of the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow as?“persona non grata” (unacceptable),” the statement read.

The ministry noted that this measure is a response to Bulgaria’s decision taken in March to declare 10 diplomats of the Russian Embassy in Sofia as “persona non grata.”

Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky?sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN over the weekend. If you're just joining us, here are the key takeaways you need to know:

Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky?sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN that aired over the weekend. If you’re just joining us, here are the key takeaways:

Ukraine is not willing to give up its eastern territory: Zelensky said he will not give up the eastern part of the country to end the?war with Russia, and Ukraine’s military is prepared to fight Moscow’s military in the Donbas region in a battle he says could influence the course of the entire war.

Ukraine has no guarantee that?Russia?wouldn’t try again to seize Kyiv if it is able to capture Donbas, he continued. “This is why it is very important for us to not allow them, to stand our ground, because this battle … it can influence the course of the whole war,” Zelensky said.

“Because I don’t trust the Russian military and Russian leadership,” he added. “That is why we understand that the fact that we fought them off and they left, and they were running away from Kyiv – from the north, from Chernihiv and from that direction – it doesn’t mean if they are able to capture Donbas, they won’t come further towards Kyiv.”

Zelensky’s interview with CNN, more than seven weeks into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine, comes as Ukraine’s military has seen successes resisting Russia’s offensive that have come as a surprise to US intelligence – and a Kremlin that had planned for a quick and decisive victory.

Asked by Tapper if Ukraine would be victorious in the conflict, Zelensky said, “Yes, of course, and will.”

What happened with Russian warship Moskva: A senior US defense official said Friday that two Ukrainian Neptune missiles?had hit the Moskva, and an American official said that the strike and subsequent sinking of the ship was the result of a Ukrainian missile. Zelensky, however, was cagey about whether Ukraine had played a role.

“We know that it does not exist anymore. For us, it is a strong weapon against our country, so its sinking is not a tragedy for us. I want you, the rest of the people, to realize that. The less weapons the Russian Federation that has attacked our country has, the better for us. The less capable they are. This is important,” he told CNN.

Zelensky warns that Russia could use nuclear or chemical weapons: “All of the countries have to be worried because it can be not real information, but it can be truth,” Zelensky said, switching into English to emphasize his point. “We should think not be afraid, not be afraid but be ready. But that is not a question for Ukraine, not only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think.”

More help needed: Zelensky said the?$800 million in additional funding Biden approved last week to go to Ukraine for new and more advanced weapons was helpful – but more was still needed. “Of course, we need more. But I am happy that he is helping us now,” Zelensky said. “I feel that right now we are having a cleaner dialogue. It’s been a dialogue that’s had some twists and turns. And not just talk. It’s been very, very difficult because there aren’t many countries that have really helped us.”

Zelensky said the most important factor was speed to get the weapons needed into the hands of Ukrainian forces. He dismissed some concerns the US and other countries have raised that Ukraine’s soldiers are not trained to use some of the weapons the country is asking for.

Zelensky speaks about the horrors of war: “Look what happened in Bucha. It’s clear that is not even a war, it’s a genocide. They just killed people. Not soldiers, people. They just shot people in the streets. People were riding bicycles, taking the bus or just walking down the street. There were corpses lining the streets,” the president said.

Asked about?a video released earlier this month?showing a Ukrainian woman finding the body of her son in a well, Zelensky said, “This is the most horrifying thing I have seen in my life.”

He grew emotional talking about the?death that the war has caused?in Ukraine, saying it is “a great pain for me” to see the lives lost. Zelensky, who lost family in the Holocaust, was asked what he thought about politicians around the world saying “never again” on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, given what’s happening in his country.

“I don’t believe the world,” he said, speaking in English. “We don’t believe the words. After the escalation of Russia, we don’t believe our neighbors. We don’t believe all of this.”

“The only belief there is belief in ourselves, in our people, belief in our Armed Forces, and the belief that countries are going to support us not just with their words but with their actions,” Zelensky continued in Ukrainian. “And that’s it. Never again. Really, everybody is talking about this and yet, as you can see, not everyone has got the guts.”

Read more from the interview here.

CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.

Around 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs in the Russian capital following foreign companies leaving the country, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a blog post Monday.

Authorities will continue to implement plans in order to support workers at risk of being unemployed, setting aside 3.36 billion rubles ($41 million) for these plans, Sobyanin said.

“We continue to implement the plan to improve the sustainability of the capital’s economy. As planned, last week we approved the program to support employees at risk of dismissal. Taking into account subsidies from the federal budget, 3.36 billion rubles will be allocated for its implementation. First of all, the program is addressed to employees of foreign companies that have temporarily suspended their activities or decided to leave Russia. According to our estimates, about 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs,” Sobyanin wrote.

The employment assistance plan includes personnel training, employment in temporary and public works and incentives for organizations and firms who employ these workers, he added.

Firefighters work at the site of a military strike in Lviv,?Ukraine, on?April 18.

Russian forces are bombarding cities across Ukraine, including the western city of Lviv, while heavy fighting hits the country’s east.

Here are the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:

Smoke raises from an oil refinery in Lysychansk about 120km north of Donetsk, Ukraine, on April 16.

Both Ukrainian officials and the Russian Ministry of Defense have reported widespread military action in the east of Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said Russian missile strikes against the town of Kramatorsk had destroyed?at least eight residential buildings and educational and infrastructural facilities.

All three towns have suffered extensive bombardment in recent weeks but remain under Ukrainian control.

“No civilian casualties have been reported so far, but many houses have been damaged and electricity and gas supplies have been disrupted,” Kyrylenko said.

In neighboring Luhansk, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that on Sunday, Russian forces “fired mortars, artillery, and multiple rocket launchers at Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Kreminna, Lysychansk, Popasna, Hirske, and Zolote.”

“Due to the shelling, 29 settlements remain without electricity, 38 settlements are without gas supply … There is no water supply in Rubizhne, Popasna.”

These cities and towns form a cluster of urban settlements that have been the Ukrainian front line for several weeks and have suffered extensive damage. Ukrainian officials estimate that 70% of Severodonetsk has been destroyed.

Despite the fighting, some evacuations have continued.

Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, said 67 residents were rescued from Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Popasna, Lysychansk and Hirske.

“The security situation changes every hour. Where it was still safe in the morning, Russian shells are now exploding,” Haidai said.

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Monday that Russian forces had launched precision air-launched missiles around Ukraine, claiming to have destroyed 16 Ukrainian military installations overnight.

The statement claimed Russian missiles hit five Ukrainian command posts, a fuel storage facility, three ammunition depots, and personnel and military equipment. Most of the targets were in or around Donbas.

CNN could not immediately verify those claims.

The authorities in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, which borders Donetsk, says territorial defense brigades “have been fighting in the whole length of the front line.”

The spokesperson of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, Col. Ivan Arefyev,?said there had been Russian shelling of several villages just inside the Donetsk region, including Staromayorske and Makarivka. Several settlements inside Zaporizhzhia region had also been hit, he said.

“Russian troops are using tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry. In addition, they bombard the region’s settlements with aviation, GRAD multiple rocket launchers, small arms artillery, 120-mm mortars and large-caliber machine guns,” Arefyev said, adding that “counter-offensive operations with the support of aviation, multiple rocket launchers, artillery, mortars, armored personnel carriers” were underway.

According to a CNN analysis of the battlefields, most of the villages reportedly hit inside Zaporizhzhia had not previously been targeted.

Seven people are dead and 11 injured after Russia launched four missile strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, regional military governor Maksym Kozytskyy said.

The toll could rise further as rescue efforts continue, he added.

“The rubble is still being dismantled, so the numbers [are] not final yet,” said Kozytskyy. “Three are heavily injured, a child is mildly injured.”

Three missiles hit warehouses and a fourth hit a tire repair shop, said Kozytskyy.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi?said the strikes shattered windows in eight residential buildings as well as a school.

Mariya Holovchak, 67,?who lives across a tire repair shop that was hit in a missile strike.

Maria Holovchak, who lives across the road from the tire repair shop, said her neighbor’s windows were shattered. The 67-year-old told CNN she was in bed when she heard the explosions and saw her neighbors running out of the building.

“I prayed that God would protect us,” she said.

Ukrainian lawmaker Lesia Vasylenko has said that “no parts of Ukraine should be on the negotiating table” as the country continues its resistance, despite Russia’s bombardment of cities across the country Monday.

Vasylenko, a Member of Parliament for the Holos Party who was elected in 2019, was speaking to CNN after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was not willing to give up territory in eastern Ukraine to end the?war with Russia.

“Ukraine is writing its own, new history and it’s also writing the new history of the world as it goes,” Vasylenko told CNN New Day from Prague, Czech Republic.

“If under any circumstances Ukraine is made to give up territories, it’s going to be a risk not just to Ukrainians living in Ukraine, but to the whole world,” she added.

She also said that Russia has committed “multiple war crimes” during the course of the war in Ukraine, a claim made by several Ukrainian officials that the Kremlin has denied.

Following Russia’s invasion nearly two months ago, Vasylenko told CNN that she had undertaken shooting practice and armed herself with an AK-47 and pistol.

“Are we not clear still that Russia is the one in the wrong here? That Russia has committed a crime of aggression?” she said.

She also said that Russia has committed “multiple war crimes” during the course of the war in Ukraine, a claim made by several Ukrainian officials that the Kremlin has denied.

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works company in the southern port city of Mariupol,?Ukraine, on?April 18.

Russian forces have been bombarding the Azovstal steel plant, a bastion of the Ukrainian defense, in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, said Petro Andriushchenko, a mayoral adviser, who accused Russia of trying to trap those defending the city.

Ukrainian forces are continuing to resist Russian attacks in the city after rejecting a deadline to surrender.

“The fighting in the Left Bank (Livoberezhnyi) district has been ongoing all day long,” Andriushchenko said in a statement on Telegram. “The occupiers continue to fire on and bomb Azovstal with all weapons.”

“Realizing that the defenders are not going to give up, the occupiers’ plans are clear,” Andriushchenko said.

CNN cannot independently verify those claims.

Andriushchenko previously said that Mariupol would be?closed for entry and exit?starting on Monday, with Russian forces issuing passes for movement.

Andriushchenko also said Ukrainian men would be subject to “filtration” —?relocated for screening by Russian forces. CNN cannot independently verify the claims.

Andriushchenko is not in Mariupol but works to gather information collected from people in the city, which has been under a weekslong siege.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with Ukrainian media about accelerating the supply of various types of weapons from partner countries in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military took a defiant stand this weekend – refusing to give in to Russia’s demand for Kyiv’s troops in the port city of Mariupol to surrender – at the same time that US President Joe Biden and his allies face a new precipice in deciding how far the US can go in arming the embattled country.

This comes as Russia signals that it may take more?aggressive action?to stop the flow of weapons from the US and NATO.

There are new worries about how quickly Ukraine could run out of ammunition as heavier fighting intensifies in Donbas, where Russia is trying to encircle and cut off Ukrainian forces in their quest to control that region.

As he tries to keep the pressure on allies to lend greater support in this next phase, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is arguing that the West must view that fight as a critical pivot point in curbing the unbridled ambitions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and demonstrating the West’s commitment to defending democracy against a voracious autocratic power.

Zelensky warned that the battle ahead in Donbas “can influence the course of the whole war” and said his country has no intention of giving up territory in the eastern part of Ukraine to end the war during an exclusive interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

If Russia is able to capture the Donbas region, Zelensky warned, it is entirely possible that Putin could renew his attempt to take control of Kyiv. When pressed by Tapper on whether he was satisfied with the US announcement last week of?another $800 million in military aid?to bolster Ukraine’s forces in the Donbas, Zelensky replied, “of course we need more.”

“There is a full-scale war ongoing today, so we still need a lot more than what we have today … We do?not have technical advantages over our enemy. We’re just not on the same level there.”

But even as that latest aid has begun arriving in the region, CNN’s Barbara Starr reported this weekend that there is rising concern about how quickly Ukraine could?deplete?its stores of ammunition in this next battle.

Though the US announced that it was sending 18 155mm Howitzer cannons and 40,000 artillery rounds as part of its latest package, Starr reported that a US official warned that the aid could be used up within a matter of days as heavy fighting intensifies in Donbas.

Read more here:

Ukrainian servicemen unload a Boeing 747-412 plane with the FGM-148 Javelin, American man-portable anti-tank missile provided by US to Ukraine as part of a military support, at Kyiv's airport Boryspil on February 11.

Related article Biden and US allies face new dilemma on Ukraine aid

Control over the city of Kreminna has been “lost,” according to Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, as Russian forces try to break Ukrainian resistance in the country’s east.

“At?the moment, control over the city of Kreminna is lost” and heavy fighting continues, Haidai said on Telegram.

As residents tried to flee in their own vehicles, Russian forces opened fire on a car carrying civilians, said Haidai.

“Four people died. One seriously injured person is still at the scene,” he said.

Russian forces have been trying to advance toward the borders of both Luhansk and Donetsk in the Donbas region. Russia’s focus has shifted to the east since its failure to gain territory around the capital Kyiv, and other parts of the center and north of the country.

Earlier Monday, Russian forces entered the town with “a huge amount of equipment,” said Haidai, claiming that “the offensive has begun.”

Ihor, center left, welcomes Lyudmila who has returned from neighboring Poland as they stand on a platform at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi train station, in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 17.

More people entered Ukraine from?Poland?on Friday and Saturday than the number of people who crossed the border the other way, according to the Polish Border Guard, in a first since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.

The Polish border agency recorded 22,000 people crossing into Ukraine from?Poland?on Saturday, with 19,200 people traveling the other way.?

On Friday the agency recorded 25,100 people entering Ukraine, and 24,400 people traveling into Poland.?

Some of those entering and exiting Ukraine are aid workers who cross the border frequently.

Some context: Over 2.7 million refugees have fled to Poland from Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the most of any country.?

As the focus of Russia’s war has shifted to eastern Ukraine, some of those who fled to Poland and other neighboring countries have returned to areas regained by Ukrainian forces.

Russian forces have entered Kreminna, a town in the eastern Luhansk region that has been bombarded for weeks as Russian forces push westwards in Donbas, a senior Ukrainian official said.

The Russians had entered the town with “a huge amount of equipment,” he said.

The Russians have been trying to break Ukrainian resistance in Kreminna and a string of towns and cities in Luhansk as they try to advance towards the borders of both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions — the declared goal of President Vladimir Putin’s “special military mission.”

Evacuation was now impossible, Haidai said.

Haidai said the Olympus sports facility in Kreminna was “burning down” and that fire was now covering an area of 2,400 square meters.

Haidai said that elsewhere in the region two people had been killed and four injured in Zolote, while seven people had been recovered from the rubble of a building destroyed in Rubizhne.?

On Sunday evening, Russian forces fired at a police building in Lysychansk, Haidai said, injuring six policemen.

The shelling continues, he said.

Firefighters battle a blaze after a civilian building was hit by a Russian missile on April 18, in Lviv, Ukraine.

Russian missile strikes on the city of Lviv hit a tire repair facility, destroying or damaging 40 cars, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said Monday on Telegram.

Citing preliminary information, Sadovyi said six people were dead and 11 injured, including one child, in a number of strikes on the city.

The blast wave shattered windows in a nearby hotel where internally displaced Ukrainians who evacuated from fighting were housed, Sadovyi said.

Smoke rises after missile strikes hit Lviv, Ukraine, on April 18.

Six people were killed and eight injured, including one child, in Russian missile strikes on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Monday, according to Maksym Kozytskyy, the head of the Lviv regional military administration.

Fires have broken out and firefighting efforts were underway, Kozytskyy said, adding that?details were still being gathered.

Some context: The city’s Mayor Andrii Sadovyi had previously said there were five missile strikes on the city and a CNN team heard five explosions.

Pope Francis leaves at the end of the Catholic Easter Sunday mass he led in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday, April 17.

A member of Ukraine’s parliament who met Pope Francis this weekend said the pontiff was overcome with emotion when told about the children who had died during Russia’s invasion.

Maria Mezentseva, who is in Rome as part of a Ukrainian delegation, told CNN she personally informed the Pope “about the number of casualties among children.”

Mezentseva also said the delegation received a “positive signal” about the possibility of Pope Francis visiting Ukraine.

Some context: At least 191 children have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian prosecutors said last week, and nearly 350 children have been injured.

Calls for peace: Pope Francis on Sunday said the world was marking an “Easter of war,” and called for peace in Ukraine, which he said has been dragged into a “cruel and senseless war.”?

Among the 100,000 people attending the Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square were several Ukrainian politicians, including Ivan Fedorov, the elected mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol who was detained by Russian forces last month and accused of terrorism offenses.

Two missiles hit the city of Dnipro in east-central Ukraine on Monday, the region’s military governor said.

Valentyn Reznichenko, head of Dnipro’s regional military administration, said on Telegram that the districts of Synelnykiv and Pavlograd had both been hit by what he termed “morning arrivals.”

No casualties were reported in Pavlograd, Reznichenko said, but railway infrastructure had been destroyed.

Some context: Dnipro was hit by Russian missile strikes earlier in the war, when its airport was damaged. A missile strike in March put the runway out of use and damaged a terminal building, according to Reznichenko, and another strike on April 10 wiped out more of the airport.

Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian MP, said the April 10 strike had destroyed “everything around the airport.”

People walk in front of a building after it was hit by shelling in Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, Ukraine, on Saturday, April 16.

The head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration on Monday urged civilians to evacuate, saying there were “no safe places left” in the eastern Ukrainian region.??

Evacuations would be carried out Monday from Popasna, Rubizhne, Hirske, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, Haidai said, even if no official evacuation routes were agreed with Russian forces.

Haidai’s comments come after attempts to agree safe evacuation routes for civilians trapped in fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine?on Sunday failed, but local officials urged people to leave the area nevertheless.

While some Luhansk residents had previously felt relatively safe in some districts of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, the situation had “grown worse,” he said.

Some context: Extensive damage to civilian infrastructure was noted over the weekend following Russian strikes in the region. Haidai said in one day the Russians had damaged 10 infrastructure facilities and partially or completely destroyed another 26 buildings.

On Sunday, Russian shelling hit a church in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, according to Haidai.?

Residents in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv have been urged to take shelter after a series of missile strikes on Monday.

The region’s military governor Maksym Kozytskyy said there had been four missile strikes, though the city’s mayor had previously said there were five and a CNN team heard five explosions.

Authorities are still clarifying the details, Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said.

Five missiles have hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, its mayor said on Monday.

Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said on Facebook that “relevant services” had been sent to the site of the blasts.

“We are clarifying the details,” he added.

Some context: On Saturday, the head of the Lviv regional military administration said Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems had downed Russian cruise missiles that were fired toward the region. On that occasion Ukraine claimed the Russian aircraft that fired the missiles had taken off from the Baranovichi airfield in neighboring Belarus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of an incoming offensive by Russia in the eastern part of the country, as more civilians were killed by heavy shelling in the northeast on Sunday.

Here are the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:

Local residents stand in a courtyard near a destroyed residential building in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 17.

After enduring a brutal assault for more than a month, Ukrainian fighters in the besieged southeastern port city of Mariupol?rejected a Russian deadline?to surrender on Sunday and vowed to fight on.

Here’s what you need to know:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of an incoming offensive by Russian forces in the eastern part of the country, during a video address on Sunday.??

In the city of Kharkiv:?Zelensky said Russian shelling had killed five residents and wounded 15 others on Sunday. He added that in the last four days, 18 people in total have been killed and 106 have been wounded by Russian shelling of Kharkiv.?

?Zelensky accused Russian forces of committing humanitarian violations in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine.?

CNN cannot independently verify the claims made by Zelensky.?

Zelensky also reiterated his plea for allies to cut off Russian oil supplies in his address.?

Firefighters work to extinguish fire at an apartments building after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17.

The northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv endured?another day of heavy shelling, according to regional officials.

Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said on Telegram: “Today, in broad daylight, there were shellings of the central part of the city, the residential area of ??Saltivka from MLRS [multiple rocket systems] and artillery. Unfortunately, 20 people were injured, 5 people were killed. Apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged.”

Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, said residential areas came under attack in the morning, and missiles were fired at the city center in the afternoon. He said dozens of buildings had been damaged, and the casualties included dead and wounded.

Terekhov said the Russians had not given up on “attempts to destroy the civilian population of Kharkiv, sow panic in the city and break our spirit. Still, the will of Kharkiv, the will of us Ukrainians, cannot be harmed by the enemy. Today, I was convinced of this when I saw how a medic covered a wounded woman during the shelling.”

Writing on his Telegram channel, Terekhov said Russian forces “continue to bombard the city furiously. Therefore, I urge you again, if possible, to stay in the shelter and metro stations.”

The State Emergency Services said on Sunday afternoon, “18 addresses in Kharkiv were hit as a result of enemy shelling in the central part of the city. Apartments on the fourth and fifth floors were on fire in a five-story building.” It said?160 firefighters and 33 units of equipment were involved in extinguishing the fires.

Synegubov said despite the attacks, Ukrainian forces were pushing the Russians back to the east of the city. He claimed several villages had been liberated some 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the southeast of Kharkiv.

If true and if the Ukrainian gains east of Kharkiv are sustained, Russian efforts to resupply forces being gathered in eastern Ukraine for an?offensive in Donbas?might be hampered. Last week Ukrainian special forces destroyed a bridge on one resupply route south of Kharkiv.

The Polish government recorded an eight-hour waiting period on Sunday at the Poland-Belarus border for trucks leaving the EU following a sanctions deadline on Saturday.

Drone footage from Saturday showed freight trucks backed up for miles on the road from Poland into Belarus hours before the sanctions went into effect.

The?EU has imposed a full ban on Russian and Belarusian freight road operators?working in the EU. This was agreed as part of the fifth round of sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

The ban came into effect on Saturday, April 16, and included exceptions for agriculture and food products, humanitarian aid as well as energy.

A view of damage in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists, on April 17.

An adviser to Mariupol’s mayor said Russian forces have announced?the besieged city?would be closed for entry and exit on Monday, warning men remaining in the city would be “filtered out.”

Petro Andriushchenko, the mayor’s adviser, said on Telegram on Sunday Russian forces had begun issuing passes for movement within the besieged city, posting a photo purportedly showing residents lining up for the passes.

“Hundreds of citizens have to stand in a line to get a pass, without which it will be impossible not only to move between the districts of the city, but also to go out on the streets starting next week,” he said.

In a separate statement Saturday, Andriushchenko said Russian forces announced the city would be “closed for entry/exit for everyone from Monday, but there will also be a ban on moving around the districts for a week.” Andriushchenko added, according to information received from inside the city, men in the city will be subject to “filtration” –?relocated for screening by Russian forces.

CNN cannot independently verify the claims by Andriushchenko, who is not in Mariupol but works to gather information collected from people in the city, which has been under a weeks long siege.

Ukrainian and US officials have alleged Russian forces have carried out?filtration of civilians?in areas under their control, biometrically screening them, confiscating their phones and, in some cases, deporting them against their will into Russia. The Mariupol City Council has alleged filtration was part of a broader effort by Russia to cover up potential war crimes carried out in the city.

Ukrainian forces?defending the city earlier?rebuffed an ultimatum from the Russian Ministry of Defense calling on Ukrainian soldiers in the city to surrender.