April 14, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ihor Smilianskyi CEO of the Ukrainian post holds the new postage stamp immortalizing the famous exchange on Snake Island between Russian and Ukrainian forces at the postal headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 14.

The sinking of Russian guided-missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea comes days after Ukraine issued a stamp immortalizing the famous exchange on Snake Island between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser confirmed on Thursday the Moskva was one of the vessels involved in the exchange in February.

The island was hit by?Russian missile strikes?after Ukrainian defenders responded to the threat of Russian invasion with the words:?“Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”

The stamp: Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s postal service, announced on Tuesday it had issued a postage stamp with the slogan. It shows a Ukrainian solider standing defiant, facing down a Russian warship in open water.

Roman Hrybov — the Ukrainian soldier who uttered the phrase — was invited to the ceremony unveiling the stamp, the service said in a statement.

Some context: It was initially believed the Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a subsequent attack, but were instead forced to surrender “due to the lack of ammunition,” according to the Ukrainian navy. Hrybov was later released as part of a prisoner exchange.

The phrase has become a popular Ukrainian slogan during the invasion and used as a symbol of defiance.

The warship: Conflicting accounts have emerged over the sinking of the warship, which was reported Thursday by Russian state news agency TASS.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South claimed Thursday that the Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit by Neptune anti-ship missiles.

Russia claimed a fire broke out, causing munitions aboard to explode, inflicting serious damage to the vessel and forcing its crew to be evacuated.

CNN has not been able to independently verify what caused the damage to the ship.

Read more about the sinking:

Related article Russian navy evacuates flagship. Ukraine claims it was hit by a missile

CNN’s Olga Voitovych and Brad Lendon contributed to this post.

International Criminal Court?chief prosecutor Karim Khan visits a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine on April 13.

International Criminal Court?chief prosecutor Karim Khan told CNN it may be challenging to guarantee that justice will be served after the war, given that Russia has withdrawn its signature from the ICC statute.

Visit to Bucha: Khan said he visited the Ukrainian towns of Bucha and Borodyanka this week, where mass graves of murdered civilians were discovered in early April following the Russian forces’ withdrawal from northern?Ukraine.

Need for unity: Khan said he believed the mission of investigating war crimes affects not just?Ukraine?but the entire world, and that “a common front needs to be built.”

“Many other instances should have but certainly, this is the moment where we should consolidate, wake up, and fight for something that’s very important, which is legality.” he added.?

The UN humanitarian chief called on all parties Thursday to provide safe passage of civilians out of the besieged port city of Mariupol in the southeast of Ukrainian following the announcement that two aid workers and their family members were killed.

“I am deeply saddened by the deaths of at least two aid workers who were killed, together with five of their relatives, during an attack that hit the office of the non-governmental organization Caritas in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on March 15. The events took place nearly one month ago but the information has become available only now,” said Martin Griffiths, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, in a statement.

Griffiths went on to “appeal for the parties to the conflict to urgently agree on clear arrangements for the safe passage of civilians out of areas where their lives are at risk, as well as the safe, rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance into areas where civilians are facing catastrophic levels of need, especially in areas that have been or remain besieged.”

On Tuesday, the head of Caritas Internationalis expressed shock and horror upon learning about the deaths of two?Caritas Ukraine Mariupol?female staffers.?

“We join in grief and solidarity with the suffering of the families and our colleagues of Caritas Ukraine who are living a tragedy,” Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, Aloysius John said in a statement.

John added that the Caritas Ukraine national office is still investigating the incident, adding that it probably took place on March 15 when “a tank fired shots at the building of the Caritas center in Mariupol, killing two staff members and five of their relatives. At this point of time, due to the absence of communication with the city of Mariupol as well as the lack of access to the premises of the Caritas center, our Caritas Ukraine national office is still collecting information to determine what happened. It is presumed the two Caritas staff members, together with their families, took refuge in the center during the time of the shelling attack.”

CNN has not been able to independently confirm last month’s incident.

A white spotlight is cast over Ukrainian flags projected onto the exterior of the Russian Embassy in Washington DC on April 14.

As protesters projected a Ukrainian flag onto the Russian Embassy in Washington Wednesday, personnel at the embassy attempted to use a spotlight to blot it out, video shows.

It all began at sundown, Benjamin Wittes, one of the organizers of the protest told CNN.?Wittes is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, and he along with ten other people decided to organize?the protest at the Russian Embassy.

“We’re not going to storm the gates [of the embassy], but we want to get in there somehow,” Wittes said.?“And light lets you do that.”

He and the others gathered about 15 projector lights and four generators — in two locations — and flipped them on as night fell to project a Ukrainian flag on the embassy.?Wittes says?they brought so many lights because they thought they’d need them to make sure it shined clearly on the embassy, which was would be roughly 300 feet away from their set up sites.

But when they did turn on the lights, Wittes says staff at the Russian embassy were ready, and flipped on a floodlight to blot out the flag.

That’s when the game of “cat and mouse” began.?

The protesters would move one of the flags over to one spot on the embassy, and the floodlight would follow.?It continued on for hours, Wittes said.?Until, around 1:30 a.m., the embassy staff gave up and stopped trying to blot out the Ukrainian flag.

That, Wittes said, was proof that the protest went above and beyond their expectations.

“The fact that they felt compelled to respond the way that they did over many hours by the way,” he said.?“They saw the protest as the way that we meant it. To not allow them to the space of their own embassy.”?

Watch the moment:

?Russian billionaire Roman?Abramovich attends the UEFA Women's Champions League final soccer match against FC Barcelona in Gothenburg, Sweden on May 16, 2021.

Britain has sanctioned two “key Russian oligarchs” connected to Russian billionaire Roman?Abramovich, freezing up to $13 billion of assets linked to Eugene Tenenbaum and David Davidovich in “the largest asset freeze action in UK history,” the Foreign Office said in a statement on Thursday.

Tenenbaum is one of Abramovich’s closest associates and was previously a top executive at Sibneft, the Russian oil company sold by Abramovich in 2006,?according to Chelsea Football Club, where he is a director. The Foreign Office said he took over an investment company with ties to Abramovich on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

The UK has also put a travel ban on Davidovich, another “longstanding” business associate of Abramovich, according to the Foreign Office.?

“Davidovich has been described by Forbes as ‘Abramovich’s much lower profile right hand man,’ and took over Evrington Investments from Tenenbaum in March 2022,” it added.?

The British government said the sanctions were coordinated with Jersey authorities, who CNN reported earlier this week froze more than $7 billion dollars’ worth of assets “suspected to be connected” to Abramovich.

“We are tightening the ratchet on Putin’s war machine and targeting the circle of people closest to the Kremlin. We will keep going with sanctions until Putin fails in Ukraine. Nothing and no one is off the table,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was quoted saying in the statement.

Ukraine’s claim that it conducted a missile strike that sank the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet is believed to be credible, two sources familiar with US and western intelligence told CNN, although officials as yet have no definitive proof.

The US believes with “medium confidence” that Ukraine’s version of events —?which Moscow disputes —?is accurate, according one source familiar with the latest intelligence.?

Still, even though US and western officials have no reason to distrust Ukraine in this instance, both sources cautioned that the US has not yet made an independent attribution.??

The missile cruiser, the Moskva, sank on Thursday after an explosion the day before “seriously damaged” the ship near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, Russia said Thursday.

The governor of Odessa has claimed that the ship was hit by a Ukrainian anti-ship missile, while Russia has claimed that the damage was caused by an on-board fire that detonated on-board ammunition.?

Outside analysts have largely treated Ukraine’s version of events as the more credible possibility, but American officials have so far declined to publicly attribute the ship’s destruction to a missile strike.

A man walks his dog past a building destroyed by recent Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine on April 14.

A number of residential areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, have come under shelling, said Oleh Syniehubov, the head of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region military administration, on Thursday.

“These are exclusively peaceful areas where there is no military infrastructure,” he said in remarks on national television. “And so the enemy is trying to destabilize our population, in fact inflicting such blows from which civilians alone are actually suffering.”

The heaviest point in the region, Syniehubov said, was in the direction of Izium direction, from which Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are trying to advance toward the eastern Donbas.

“Active hostilities are taking place, and our armed forces are holding back the enemy so that they will not be able to transport their equipment to Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” he said.

Syniehubov said authorities were trying to conduct an “organized evacuation” of Barvinkove and Lozova, two towns in the south of Kharkiv region.

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan stands next to a grave where remains of three bodies were found, in the town of Bucha, Ukraine on April 13.

I have seen a lot of awful things in my career, but some of the things we were confronted with on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian troops were beaten back by Ukrainian forces have been among the most harrowing.

In the suburb of Bucha we were among the first to reach a?mass grave?that residents dug while the place was under Russian occupation, because so many residents had been killed and longer burial ceremonies would have been too dangerous amid the shooting and shelling.

We saw half-buried bodies, legs and arms sticking out of the earth. We met?one man who was sure his little brother was buried?here; he broke down and could not stop crying. The neighbor who comforted him was also in tears.

These moments of heartbreak are difficult to witness — they make you want to cry as well.

Also in Bucha, we were led into a?basement where five bodies had been found?— the Ukrainians say the men had been executed by Russian troops. Some had their hands tied and gunshot wounds to the head or the heart.

You could still see the horror on their faces. It seemed like the dead wanted the truth of their violent death to be uncovered.

No matter how many bodies you see, you never forget a single one.

As Ukrainians reclaim areas previously occupied by invading Russian troops, evidence of the horrors of recent weeks is emerging from the rubble of shattered villages and towns. New victims are discovered on a daily basis. And those lucky enough to have survived the

ordeal tell harrowing tales of kidnappings, rapes and torture.

Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general speaks with CNN in Bucha on April 11.

Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said Monday that her office is investigating 5,800 cases of alleged Russian war crimes, with “more and more” proceedings opening every day.

Russia has denied allegations of war crimes and claims its forces do not target civilians. But CNN journalists on the ground in Ukraine have seen firsthand evidence of atrocities at multiple locations across the country.

Read more about what CNN journalists have witnessed in Ukraine here.

The Russian guided missile cruiser Moskva is seen in Sevastopol,?Crimea in this satellite image on April 7.

The Russian warship Moskva has sunk, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Conflicting accounts have emerged about an incident involving the warship in the Black Sea on Wednesday.

Russia said a fire broke out on the guided-missile cruiser, causing munitions aboard to explode, inflicting serious damage to the vessel, and forcing the crew of the warship to be evacuated. Ukraine says it hit the Moskva with anti-ship missiles and later claimed that she had been sunk.

CNN has not been able to independently verify what caused the damage to the?ship.?

This is a developing story.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, on Thursday adopted a resolution declaring the actions of the Russian forces in the country are “genocide,” the legislative body said in a tweet.

The statement on Twitter listed mass atrocities, willful killing of civilians and forcible transfer of children to Russian territory as some of the actions by Russian forces that amount to genocide.

US President Joe Biden, earlier this week, called atrocities underway in Ukraine constitute a “genocide,” but added that his remark was not a legal assessment.?

A firefighter works to extinguish a fire at a warehouse caused by recent Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine on April 14.

In its latest update, the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces says Russian preparations continue in the east for an offensive operation, with command and control as well as aviation being added to the gathering force.??

It says Russia is training additional units of its Southern Military District “to conduct hostilities” in Ukraine and claims Russia is planning an additional mobilization nationwide.?

At the same time the Russian armed forces are “regrouping units in the northern direction with a further concentration in areas bordering Ukraine. From the Bryansk and Kursk regions, there is a movement to Russia’s Belgorod and Voronezh regions.”

The General Staff says Russian units inside Ukraine are conducting reconnaissance in areas such as Slobozhansky in Kharkiv region ahead of the planned offensive, while the shelling of Kharkiv city continues. It says they are also preparing for offensive action towards Slaviansk, an important town in Donetsk region.

Fighting continues in towns around Severodonetsk, the General Staff says. The Russians had tried to break through Ukrainian defenses in the region but had failed.

Civilians continue to be evacuated from the region, which has seen weeks of shelling as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shifted to seizing control of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.?

Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said Thursday that despite the opening of humanitarian corridors the Russians continued to shell the cities of Luhansk region throughout the day.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration, said the Russians had carried out three air strikes on the town of Velyka Novosilka, close to the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.

At least two people had been injured, he said. And further north, in Zarichne, one person was killed in Russian shelling. In Vuhledar on the frontlines in Donetsk region, one person had been killed, but a further 46 people had been evacuated from the town, Kyrylenko said.?

“I once again call on all those who are not involved in the work of critical infrastructure to leave the region as soon as possible,” he said.?

The military landscape in eastern Ukraine shows a three-pronged offensive taking shape - with Russian forces edging forward from the north, east and south but meeting stiff resistance on all fronts.?

State Department spokesman Ned Price speaks during a news conference at the State Department on Thursday, March 10.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday the department’s goal is to have the country’s diplomatic presence “reestablished in Ukraine as soon as it would be safe and practical to have US diplomats on the ground there,” but did not give any indication that this would happen in the near future.?

Price said that the lack of diplomatic presence on the ground “has in no way hampered our ability to coordinate and to consult with our Ukrainian partners.”

Asked about Secretary of State Antony Blinken potentially traveling to Ukraine, Price said he had no travel to announce.

US President Joe Biden?said Thursday he was still working with his team to determine whether he should dispatch a senior member of his administration to Ukraine.

“We’re making that decision now,” Biden said when asked whether he would send a senior official to Ukraine.

A number of nations have moved their diplomatic presence back to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, with France announcing it would do so Thursday.

In February, the US announced that it was closing the US embassy in Kyiv.

At an undisclosed location in Poland, the Pohonia Battalion trains with Kalashnikov replicas.

Pohonia Battalion is a group of fewer than 30 Belarusian exiles living mostly in Poland and other countries across Europe. They hope to join hundreds of their compatriots already involved in the battle for Ukraine.

The aspiring volunteer fighters say that in order to free Belarus of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip, he must first be defeated in Ukraine.

The group, whose ages range from 19 to 60, carry Kalashnikov replicas. Almost none have fighting experience.

Most of the members were forced to flee their country in 2020, when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — a Kremlin-backed, Putin ally — cracked down on a mass protest movement after he claimed victory in a widely disputed election, which was marred by fraud.

“If Ukraine loses this war, Belarus will have zero chance to get free,” said dissident and restaurateur Vadim Prokopiev, who is leading the group. “If Ukraine wins this war that means Putin’s hands are too busy and he’s too weakened and he won’t be supporting Lukashenko with resources.”

Pohonia wants to join the?International Legion of Defence of Ukraine, a military unit made up of foreign volunteers, but at the time of writing this story, they have yet to be admitted.

Hundreds of other Belarusian volunteers are already on the ground fighting alongside Ukrainian troops. Four have been killed since the start of the war, said Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

Read the full story here:

Most of Pohonia's members fled Belarus in 2020 when Kremlin-backed President Alexander Lukashenko brutally cracked down on a mass opposition movement. Critics refer to Lukashenko as Europe's last dictator.

Related article Some Belarusians want to fight Russians in Ukraine. They also hope to free their country from Putin's grip

Olga Yavon speaks with CNN about her boys Igor, 32, and Oleg, 33, among six of the village’s young men who authorities say were executed by Russian soldiers on February 27.

Indiscriminate?killings of civilians?attempting to flee the violence. Victims found with their?hands tied?behind their backs. An attack on a?maternity hospital, a?theater?turned shelter bombed. The list of atrocities and apparent war crimes allegedly committed by Russian troops in Ukraine gets longer by the day.

As Ukrainians reclaim areas previously occupied by invading Russian troops, evidence of the horrors of recent weeks is emerging from the rubble of shattered villages and towns. New victims are discovered on a daily basis. And those lucky enough to have survived the ordeal tell harrowing tales of kidnappings, rapes and torture.

Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said Monday that her office is investigating 5,800 cases of alleged Russian war crimes, with “more and more” proceedings opening every day.

Russia has denied allegations of war crimes and claims its forces do not target civilians. But CNN journalists on the ground in Ukraine have seen firsthand evidence of atrocities at multiple locations across the country.

Here’s CNN’s Clarissa Ward’s report from the ground:

Novyi and Staryi Bykiv are two tiny specks on the map, separated by a small stream. Together they form a sleepy community of about 2,000 people that you’d expect few Ukrainians — let alone the Russian army — to be familiar with.

Katerina Andrusha told me that’s why her daughter Victoria decided to leave her apartment in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary and come back here at the start of the war; she believed it would be safer at home.

But on Feb. 27, residents say Russian forces rolled into the neighboring villages, turned the local school into their base, vandalized and looted homes and terrorized the people here for five weeks.

On March 25, Katerina said Russian soldiers came to her home and took Victoria, claiming she had information about their forces on her phone.

Three days later, Katerina herself was taken captive. She said she was held in a cellar for three days. Blindfolded and terrified, she tried to find out what had happened to her daughter.

“They told me she was in a warm house and that she was working with them and would be home soon,” said Katerina.

She said she hasn’t seen Victoria since. As she spoke to us, Katerina’s gaze drifted skyward in disbelief. She showed us pictures of her daughter, a beautiful schoolteacher.

Just a few streets away, we met another mother. Olga Yavon’s grief was raw and all-consuming. She knew why we were there and the moment she came out to greet us, she broke down in tears.

Her boys, Igor, 32, and Oleg, 33, are among six of the village’s young men who authorities say were executed by Russian soldiers on February 27.

She told us Russian forces rounded them up after a bridge nearby was blown up.

The Russians kept hold of their bodies for nine days before dumping them on the outskirts of the village, with instructions to bury them quickly, she said.

Read more firsthand accounts of atrocities in Ukraine here.

France announced Thursday that its embassy in Ukraine would “very soon” return to the capital Kyiv from Lviv.?

The French embassy had been moved to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in early March.?

According to the statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian informed his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba of the decision on a Thursday phone call, during which the pair also discussed France’s assistance in “gathering and documenting evidence of abuses committed by the Russian forces in Ukraine,” as well as humanitarian operations and the provision of military equipment.?

Workers remove bodies from a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine on April 14.

International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan visited the Ukrainian towns of Bucha and Borodyanka this week, where mass graves and murdered civilians were discovered in early April following the Russian forces’ withdrawal from northern Ukraine.?

Images tweeted by the court show Khan meeting with residents and visiting the devastated towns.?

“The voices of those impacted by alleged crimes must be at the centre of our independent work to establish the truth. Survivors and the families of victims will be full partners in our collective efforts to deliver justice,” Khan said.?

On Wednesday, Khan met Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova in Kyiv to cooperate on an independent ICC investigation.??

Khan and Venediktova agreed to deepen engagement and strengthen partnerships to deliver accountability for international crimes committed in Ukraine,?the ICC tweeted.

The?ICC?formally opened an investigation into the situation in Ukraine on March 2.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, speaks in Moscow, Russia in 2021.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council,?warned in a statement Thursday Russia’s military would “more than double” its forces in Russia’s Western flank should Sweden and Finland join NATO.

Ground- and air-defense forces would be beefed up, he wrote on Telegram, and Russia would deploy “significant naval forces” in the Gulf of Finland.

If Sweden and Finland join NATO, Medevedev added, “it will no longer be possible to talk about any non-nuclear status of the Baltic — the balance must be restored.”?

Medvedev, who served as president of Russia from 2008 to 2012 in a four-year interregnum for Russia President Vladimir Putin’s two-decade rule, has struck a bellicose pose in recent months, though he is not a top decision-maker.

A 2018 Federation of American Scientists report concluded that?Russia may have significantly modernized a nuclear weapons storage bunker in Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russian territory between Poland and the Baltic states.

The Russian Navy cruiser Moskva, bottom, is seen in port in Sevastopol, Crimea, on April 7.

Thursday marks 50 days since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and there has been a marked shift in Moscow’s approach. Ukrainian officials have warned for days they expect a major offensive by Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region.

The US and EU have pledged a combined $1.3 billion more in military aid for Ukraine as Russia prepares to launch an eastern offensive.

Meanwhile, organizations like the United Nations have warned that the prolonged war in Ukraine could lead to more problems in an already struggling global economy with food insecurity as a top concern.

Here are the latest developments:

Casualties of war: As of April 12, the civilian death toll in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24 stood at 1,932, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said Thursday. It warned that “the actual figures are considerably higher.”

Global impact: The United Nations secretary-general has warned that the world is on the brink of a “perfect storm” as the war in Ukraine exacerbates an already struggling global economy. In a news release Wednesday, the UN said the war could lead to a “three-dimensional crisis” of food, energy and finance — areas that have already been hit hard by Covid-19 and climate change. “We are now facing a perfect storm that threatens to devastate the economies of developing countries,” Secretary-General António Guterres said.”The people of Ukraine cannot bear the violence being inflicted on them. And the most vulnerable people around the globe cannot become collateral damage in yet another disaster for which they bear no responsibility,” he said.

Key Russian warship damaged: One of the?Russian Navy’s most important warships?has been badly damaged in the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into?Russia’s invasion?of his neighbor. Russian sailors evacuated the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, after a fire that detonated ammunition aboard, Russia’s defense ministry said. Ukraine’s Operational Command South claimed Thursday that the Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles. Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday that the Moskva “remains afloat” and that measures were being taken to tow it to port. The ministry said the crew had been evacuated to other Black Sea Fleet ships in the area. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told CNN’s Brianna Keilar that “there was an explosion” on the Moskva, but said the United States cannot say at this point if the ship was hit by a missile. Whatever the reason for the fire, analysts say it strikes hard at the heart of the Russian Navy as well as national pride, comparable to the US Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.

Ukrainian National Security Advisor Oleksiy Danilov told CNN Thursday that the alleged strike on the cruiser was a very important mission for his country’s military and vowed there would be more such dramatic actions. “It is a very important mission for us. The Moskva was there near the Snake Island and was hit yesterday by two powerful Ukrainian-made missiles,” Danilov told CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen in an interview. “[Putin] came to kill our children, our women, our civilians. That is our gift to him. And this is just the beginning. There will be more than one Moskva.” The Ukrainian national security advisor went on to commend the Ukrainian military for the way they were defending the country but cautioned against underestimating the Russian military. Danilov also reiterated his country’s request for the international community to send more weapons. “We are, first of all, grateful for what we already have been given,” he said “We need helicopters, planes, powerful weapons, howitzers… We need a lot.”

Potential meeting between Zelensky and Putin: Turkey is still working on organizing a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkish news channel NTV on Thursday.“We know critical topics will be decided at leader level, so we will try to bring leaders together,” he said. Cavusoglu said that Turkey continues to approach the negotiations with “cautious optimism,” particularly after recent events of alleged war crimes in Bucha and Irpin which “negatively affected the process.”

The condition for a possible meeting between Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky is an agreement document ready for the two leaders to sign, the Kremlin said Thursday. Since the start of Russia’s invasion, Zelensky has repeatedly called for talks with the Russian president, but there have been no talks at the highest level so far.?

Russian opposition figure urges the West to wage a social media against Putin regime: Russian opposition figure Alexey?Navalny has issued a series of tweets urging a new front of “truth and free information” against Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he calls the “war criminal from the Kremlin.”?

Navalny, who is serving a nine-year sentence in a Russian penal colony after being convicted of fraud last month, said in his tweets that “truth and free information hit Putin’s insane regime just as hard as Javelins,” the US anti-tank weapons being used by Ukrainian forces against Russian armor.?

Increased international defense aid for Ukraine: The Pentagon is working to move the $800 million worth of weapons, ammunition and other security assistance for Ukraine announced by US President Joe Biden yesterday into Ukraine as quickly as possible, a senior defense official said Thursday. “We’re under no illusion of the size and the scale of this thing. But we’re also mindful of the clock. We know time is not our friend. And we’re going to do the best we can to move this, to move these shipments as fast as we can,” the official told reporters during an off-camera briefing.

The European Union has approved an additional 500 million euros ($544 million USD) for military equipment for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Wednesday, according to a news release from the European Council of the European Union.??

“The next weeks will be decisive. As Russia prepares for an offensive on the East of Ukraine, it is crucial that we continue and step up our military support to Ukraine to defend its territory and population and prevent further suffering,” said Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Russian officials on Thursday alleged Ukrainian forces had carried out cross-border attacks on Russian territory, claims that a Ukrainian government agency said were made to stoke “anti-Ukrainian sentiment.”

The village of Spodaryushino, near the border with Ukraine, had been shelled by Ukraine, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, said in a statement on Telegram.

He said there were no casualties or destruction of residential buildings, but added that residents in two villages, Bezymeno and Spodaryushino, had been evacuated. Later in the day, Gladkov said in a separate statement there had been “shelling?from the Ukrainian side” on the village of Zhuravlyovka, also in Belgorod region, adding that there had been damage to residential buildings and social facilities, but no information about casualties.

The alleged strikes come days after Russia accused Ukraine of mounting a helicopter attack on a fuel depot in Belgorod region. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense neither confirmed nor denied the attack.

Separately, the Investigative Committee, Russia’s top law-enforcement body, issued a statement Thursday saying it was?launching an investigation into an alleged strike in Bryansk region by Ukrainian helicopters.

“On April 14, 2022, using two combat helicopters equipped with heavy offensive weapons, military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine illegally entered the airspace of the Russian Federation. Moving at low altitude, they carried out at least 6 air strikes on residential buildings in the village of Klimovo, Klimovsky district, Bryansk region,” the statement said.

Klimovo is situated north of Ukraine’s Chernihiv oblast. The Investigative Committee said at least six residential buildings were damaged and that seven people were injured, including one child.

More context: The Russian military in a statement Wednesday threatened to strike “decision-making centers” including those Kyiv in response to what Russia said were “attempts of sabotage and strikes” on Russian territory.

Such claims were part of an attempt by Russia to stage so-called false flag attacks to justify attacking Ukraine and stir popular outrage, said the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

“Russia has stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the Bryansk region’s border area with helicopters, injuring civilians and homes,” the statement read. “However, Ukrainian intelligence warned that Russia was preparing terrorist attacks on its territory to inject anti-Ukrainian sentiment.”?

The Ukrainian center’s statement alleged that Russian special services had plans to stage “terrorist attacks” on Russian soil as a provocation.?

“Thus, as of April 14, there have been several ‘terrorist attacks’ on the Russian border, in which the Russian leadership accuses Ukrainian sabotage and intelligence groups,” the statement read, citing Russian statements about alleged attacks.?

CIA Director Bill Burns testifies during a Senate hearing in Washington, DC in 2021.

The United States does not “take lightly” the possibility that Russia could seek to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine as Moscow continues to face difficulties on the battlefield, CIA Director Bill Burns said Thursday.

“Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low yield nuclear weapons,” he said in public remarks at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The CIA “watch[es] for that very intently,” Burns said. But he emphasized that the US has yet to see any signs that Russia is preparing to take such a step.

Still, in the same remarks, Burns warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin has become increasingly isolated and his “risk appetite has grown as his grip on Russia has tightened.”

“His circle of advisors has narrowed and in that small circle it has never been career-enhancing to question his judgment or his stubborn, almost mystical belief that his destiny is to restore Russia’s sphere of influence,” Burns said.

President Joe Biden speaks on Tuesday, April 12.

US President Joe Biden?said Thursday he was still working with his team to determine whether he should dispatch a senior member of his administration to Ukraine,?a potentially dramatic show of support?for the nation as it?comes under attack from Russia.

The White House echoed Biden’s comments, saying “we’re still in discussions, deciding this.”

“As you know, obviously we’re in contact with the Ukrainian government every day – pretty regularly and so I just don’t have anything to preview any further,” principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One when pressed for further information.

Since Russian forces withdrew from the region surrounding Kyiv, a number of Western leaders have made their way?to the Ukrainian capital to demonstrate support.

US officials have held preliminary discussions about sending a high-ranking member of the administration to Ukraine, according to a source familiar with the talks.

While Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are unlikely to visit Kyiv themselves anytime soon, officials have discussed sending Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin or Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Still, sources said a decision is far from finalized and the visit could ultimately not materialize.?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made?a surprise visit to Kyiv last weekend. US officials said afterward that Biden was not currently planning a trip of his own.?

“We’re not currently planning a trip by the President of the United States to Ukraine,” press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday. She said more important that a presidential visit was a continued supply of weapons and support.

“What is most important to the Ukrainian leadership is that we are expediting weapons and getting them the assistance and security systems they need and that is what our focus is on,” she said.

In a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, Biden informed his counterpart of?a new $800 million security assistance package, including 11 Mi-17 helicopters, 300 Switchblade drones, 18 Howitzers and protective equipment?to guard against chemical attacks.

Read more about the potential trip here.

CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed reporting to this post.

The first Russian troops that had left northern Ukraine have begun appearing in the northern Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in preparation for what is expected to be a major push by thousands of Russian forces?a senior US defense official?said Thursday.?

“They already have a significant amount of forces in the region,” the official told reporters on Thursday. “We would assess that inside Ukraine itself, there’s 65 total operational BTGs. And they are, of the 65, they’re really in that east and south parts of Ukraine. There really isn’t any operation BTGs outside southern and eastern Ukraine … They will try to insert additional BTGs over coming days. We just haven’t seen that really pan out of late.”

These are some of the units that had left northern Ukraine and the areas north of Kyiv in recent weeks to go back to Russia and Belarus for resupply and reinforcement before going to Donbas, the official noted.

The Pentagon is working to move the $800 million worth of weapons, ammunition and other security assistance for Ukraine announced by US President Joe Biden yesterday into Ukraine as quickly as possible, a senior defense official said Thursday.

The new weapons package represents the starkest sign to date that the war in Ukraine is shifting — and with it, the weapons Ukraine will need if it hopes to continue to stymie a Russian military that has regrouped and resupplied after its initial failures in the opening weeks of the war.?

But the official said the material will not arrive all in one shipment.

“A package that size is going to take many shipments. I mean, the last $800 million dollars for instance took more than 20 individual shipments to close it out,” the official said. “I can assure you we’ll move with the same sense of urgency that we’ve been moving with.”

In addition, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba on Thursday to discuss the latest security assistance package to Ukraine, according to the US State Department.

“They noted that the steady supply of materiel from the United States and its Allies and partners has been instrumental in Ukraine’s successful fight against Russia’s forces. The Secretary provided an update on the most recent U.S. and global efforts to hold the Kremlin and its enablers accountable. The Secretary commended the bravery of the Ukrainian people, noting in particular those defending Mariupol,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian refugees cross into Medyka, Poland on April 9.

Canada will deploy up to 150 military personnel in the coming days to Poland to support Warsaw’s efforts in assisting Ukrainian refugees, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand announced on Thursday.??

“To help address the growing crisis at the border between Poland and Ukraine, I am announcing today the deployment of up to 150 Canadian armed forces personnel with approximately 100 personnel in the immediate term, who will assist Poland’s efforts to support and assist Ukrainians fleeing violence,” Anand said, speaking from Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario, a departure point for the country’s military aid to Ukraine.??

Ukrainian speakers will lead the Canadian Armed Forces’ largest component of the deployment at processing centers in Poland to provide general support, spiritual services, and limited medical care, she said.?

A number of Canadian troops will also be deployed to support a Polish-led humanitarian task force, while a third group will act as a liaison between Polish defense forces and Canadian immigration officials to facilitate the resettlement of “thousands more Ukrainians” in Canada, she said.?

Canada will commit a further $396 million ($500 million in Canadian dollars)?in military aid to Ukraine on top of the $87 million ($110 million in Canadian dollars) already pledged, “so that our Ukrainian friends have the equipment that they need to keep fighting this war and to win,” according to Anand.?

Canada is home to the world’s largest Ukrainian diaspora after Russia, with more than a million Canadians who claim Ukrainian heritage.??

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks to media at NATO Headquarters on April 6 in Brussels, Belgium.

Turkey is still working on organizing a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkish news channel NTV on Thursday.

Cavusoglu said that Turkey continues to approach the negotiations with “cautious optimism,” particularly after recent events of alleged war crimes in Bucha and Irpin which “negatively affected the process.”

“The inhumane images from regions such as Bucha and Irpin, which we also condemn, changed the atmosphere. It created a negative atmosphere on the Ukrainian side. While there were different statements by the Russian Federation regarding this, this ultimately negatively affected the negotiation process,” he said.

“Despite all those challenges, President Zelensky said talks may continue… But it takes two leaders to say yes. Especially President Putin,” he added.

The foreign minister said that while there is possibility of a ceasefire, “if the fighting lasts and new attacks happen in Donbas, this will be harder to reach.”

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told President Putin that he would like to bring him together with President Zelensky, following an in-person meeting that was held between Russian and Ukrainian negotiation delegations in Istanbul in March.

Alexey Navalny attends a rally in Moscow, Russia in 2019.

Russian opposition figure Alexey?Navalny has issued a series of tweets urging a new front of “truth and free information” against Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he calls the “war criminal from the Kremlin.”?

Navalny, who is serving a nine-year sentence in a Russian penal colony after being convicted of fraud last month, said in his tweets that “truth and free information hit Putin’s insane regime just as hard as Javelins,” the US anti-tank weapons being used by Ukrainian forces against Russian armor.?

Navalny said the Kremlin has lied in asserting there is widespread public support in Russia for the war, asking: “What kind of sociology is there even to talk about when both the question ‘Do you support the war in Ukraine?’ and the answer ‘no’ could result in 15 years of imprisonment for the sociologist and the respondent respectively?”?

He pointed to criminal cases brought against Russian individuals, saying that one man was arrested in Moscow for standing in the street holding Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”?

Navalny said that “Russia has shut down and blocked ALL independent media, including the rather cautious ones, in just a month and a half. Would this have been necessary if the war with Ukraine really had that kind of support?”?

But he acknowledged that the shutdown is “slowly doing [its] job,” as most Russians “have a completely distorted view of what is happening in Ukraine.”?

Navalny called for a new campaign to get the facts in front of the Russian public, saying that “more than 85% of Russian adults still use @YouTube, @instagram, @WhatsApp, @Google and Facebook (@Meta) every day.”?

“We need ads. Lots of ads. A huge national anti-war campaign will start with an advertising campaign,” he said.?

Navalny urged Western leaders and institutions, including US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union, “to urgently find a solution to crush Putin’s propaganda using the advertising power of social media.”?

“Even if such advertising is bought for the full commercial price, its cost will be laughable compared to the price of this war,” Navalny said, adding: “One shot from Javelin costs $230,000. For the same money we would get 200 million ad views in different formats and provide at least 300,000 link clicks or at least 8 million views on a video with the truth about what is happening in Ukraine.”?

He ended his appeal by writing: “It should be an unprecedented huge national advertising campaign. Just like in a real election. Our candidate Peace versus Putin’s candidate War.”?

“And Peace must win. We can’t allow any other outcome.”?

The United States assesses that the Russian cruiser Moskva is still battling a fire onboard but still cannot confirm what caused the damage, according to a senior US defense official.

The official also said that the ship is moving east, and the US assumes it will be heading to the port of Sevastopol for repairs.

The US has seen that other Russian ships in the northern Black Sea near the Moskva have all subsequently moved further south, according to the official.

Ukraine claimed to have hit Moskva with a missile, while Russia said the cause of the fire is still “being established” and that there is no “open fire” on the ship.

“We hold the ship moving to the east. Our assumption is that she’ll be heading to Sevastopol for repairs. But that’s really all we can say. The only other maritime activity worth noting is that we did note that other Black Sea ships that were operating in the vicinity of her or in the northern Black Sea have all moved further south, in the wake of the damage that the Moskva experienced. So they’ve all, all of the northern Black Sea ships have now moved out, away from the northern areas where they were operating in,” the official added.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby echoed similar comments in an interview with CNN earlier Thursday, saying that “there was an explosion” on the?Russian cruiser, but that the United States cannot assess at this point if the ship was hit by a missile.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto speaks during a press conference on April 13 in Helsinki, Finland.

A day after the country’s prime minister confirmed a decision on NATO membership will be made “within weeks,” Finland’s foreign minister told CNN that it was expecting a reaction from Russia and was “prepared for different kinds of threats.”

Russia has long made threatening statements about Sweden and Finland joining NATO, saying it would have “serious military and political repercussions.” At the beginning of the war, Putin made it clear that one of his aims was to?roll back NATO deployments in Eastern Europe?to where they had been in the 1990s. Now, Finland and Sweden — nations that are officially non-aligned —are edging ever closer toward joining NATO, the US-led military alliance.

When asked by CNN why Finland has changed its position with regard to military neutrality, Haavisto said the nature of Russia’s attack on Ukraine has changed.

“First, Russia is ready to take higher risks in its neighborhood. Second, it’s ready to concentrate more than 100,000 soldiers in one spotlight, we have seen on the border of Ukraine. And third — this is more of an open speculation — but the potential use of nuclear or even chemical weapons. All of this is of course affecting also the Finnish security,” the foreign minister said.

According to the prime minister,?Finland hopes to wrap up discussions regarding the country’s potential application for NATO membership “by mid-summer.” Haavisto told CNN Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the public discourse inside his country.

Sweden is due to complete an analysis of its security policy by the end of May. A?Swedish official previously told CNN?that the nation could make its position public sooner, depending on when neighboring Finland does.

“We have seen a major shift in public opinion in Finland during the recent weeks. A clear majority of the population is now supporting NATO membership. … The Finnish parliament will discuss this matter in the coming weeks, and if the majority clearly will state that, then the process will go on. Then, it’s depending on the 30 NATO member states how rapid the process can be,” he added.

US President Joe Biden said this week that the atrocities being uncovered in Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion qualify as “genocide.” Other leaders have rejected the use of the term, such as French President Emmanuel Macron. Haavisto said Finland supports the International Criminal Court investigating what exactly happened.

“I think it’s very important that firstly, before the definition of what exactly happened, we have the full investigation from places like Bucha, and other places where certainly civilians have been attacked in a way that is not allowed under international legislation,” he said.

CNN’s Luke McGee and Maeve Reston contributed reporting to this post.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen looks at bodies that were pulled out of a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 8.

As of April 12, the civilian death toll in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24 stood at 1,932, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said Thursday. It warned that “the actual figures are considerably higher.”?

The OHCHR also said that at least 2,589 civilians have been injured since the start of the invasion.?

“Escalating and sustained hostilities in the eastern & southern regions of Ukraine continue to drive rising humanitarian needs,” the UN said Thursday.?

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss attends a meeting in Warsaw, Poland, on April 5.

The United Kingdom would support Sweden and Finland in a NATO membership bid, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Thursday.

“Sweden and Finland are free to choose their future without interference - the UK will support whatever they decide,” she wrote on Twitter.

Prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changing the security landscape in Europe, Sweden and Finland are edging closer to NATO membership. Both countries are set to decide by the summer whether to apply to join the military alliance.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a call with journalists Thursday that Russia’s defense ministry is under the instruction of Russian President Vladimir Putin to submit proposals on strengthening forces near Russia’s borders with NATO countries.?

US President Joe Biden’s administration?is expanding its intelligence sharing with Ukraine to allow more information on Russian activities in eastern Ukraine and Crimea to be shared, as the US believes that Russia is shifting its strategy to concentrate on the south and the east, according to US officials and another source familiar with the matter.

New guidelines, put in place over the past several weeks, have loosened rules for intelligence sharing, specifically in regions that were under Russian control prior to the 2022 invasion.?

“With the shift in Russia’s military efforts in southern and eastern Ukraine, we modified our guidelines to provide operators added clarity to enable intelligence sharing with Ukraine to defend themselves in what is sure to be a dynamic battle space,” a US intelligence official told CNN.?

The intelligence official said that the US is “intensely sharing timely intelligence” with the Ukrainians, including in areas held by Russia prior to the 2022 invasion.?

Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have publicly raised concerns that the Biden administration isn’t providing sufficient intelligence to the Ukrainians, a charge that?US officials have denied.

“We remain deeply concerned that not enough is being done to share critical intelligence that would assist the Ukrainians as Russian forces move to secure territory in the southern and eastern parts of the country,” committee lawmakers wrote in a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Monday.?

“As we watch Russia turn its focus to southern and eastern Ukraine, we urge you to ensure that our intelligence agencies proactively share intelligence with the Ukrainians to help them protect, defend, and retake every inch of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, which includes Crimea and the Donbas,” they wrote.

The White House also announced this week that it would send $800 million worth of additional weapons, ammunition and security assistance to Ukraine.?

Ukrainian soldiers walk near damaged Russian military trucks in the town of Trostsyanets, Ukraine on March 28.

Think about modern warfare and it’s likely images of soldiers, tanks and missiles will spring to mind. But arguably more important than any of these is something on which they all rely: the humble truck.

Armies need trucks to transport their soldiers to the front lines, to supply those tanks with shells and to deliver those missiles. In short, any army that neglects its trucks does so at its peril.

Yet that appears to be exactly the problem Russia’s military is facing during its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, according to experts analyzing battlefield images as its forces withdraw from areas near Kyiv to focus on the Donbas.

Photographs of damaged Russian trucks, they say, show tell-tale signs of Moscow’s logistical struggles and suggest its efforts are being undermined by its reliance on conscripts, widespread corruption and use of civilian vehicles — not to mention the huge distances involved in resupplying its forces, or Ukraine’s own highly-motivated, tactically-adept resistance.

Food, fuel, medical supplies and even the soldiers themselves — the presence of all of these rest on logistical supply lines heavily reliant on trucks, he says. And he has reason to believe there’s a problem with those supply lines.

Read the full story:

File photo of Russian military trucks. Russias parliament approves on Tuesday Feb 22, 2022 a request from President Vladimir Putin to use the countrys military forces outside the country, a move which could allow a broader attack on Ukraine. Putin made his request in a letter to the upper house of parliament to formalise any Russian military deployment. The move was quickly rubber-stamped later on Tuesday and comes into immediate effect. The parliamentary approval came just hours after the US said an invasion of Ukraine had begun following Putin\'s order to dispatch troops to two separatists republics which Moscow newly recognised their status of independence in eastern Ukraine on Monday night.

Related article What images of Russian trucks say about its military's struggles in Ukraine

A file photo from M

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia is looking to focus its exports on “the fast-growing markets” to the country’s south and east in the near future. He warned that “attempts by Western countries to squeeze” Russian suppliers “will inevitably affect the entire world economy.”

“It is necessary to diversify exports. We need to assume that in the foreseeable future, deliveries of energy in the western direction will be reduced. Therefore, it is important to consolidate the trend of recent years: step by step, reorientate our exports to the fast-growing markets of the south and east. To do this in the near future, time to identify key infrastructure facilities and start their construction,” the Russian president said Thursday during a meeting with energy companies and officials.

Putin added that there is no reasonable alternative to Russian gas, warning that if Russian energy supplies get squeezed, it will affect the entire world economy and have “painful” consequences.

“Attempts by Western countries to squeeze out Russian suppliers and replace our energy resources with alternative supplies will inevitably affect the entire world economy. The consequences of such a step can become very painful, and first of all, for the initiators of such a policy themselves. What is surprising here is that our so-called partners from unfriendly countries admit that they cannot do without Russian energy resources, including natural gas, for example,” he said.

On Thursday, Putin also said that there have been failures in payment for export deliveries of Russian energy.?

“Banks from unfriendly countries delay the transfer of payments. I will remind you, the task has already been set to transfer payments for energy resources in national currency, to gradually move away from the dollar and the euro. In general, we intend to radically increase the share of settlements in national currencies in the foreign trade system,” Putin said.

More context: Amid the war in Ukraine, the European Union is trying to slash imports of Russian gas by 66% this year and break its?dependence entirely on Russian energy by 2027. A new, sixth round of sanctions is already being discussed, and some EU officials have called for action on Russian oil and gas exports. But a ban on Russian gas in the near term would wreak havoc on Germany, which relied on Russia for about 46% of its natural gas in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency.

At the end of March, Putin delivered an ultimatum to “unfriendly” nations to pay for their energy in rubles starting April 1 or risk being cut off from vital supplies. Germany, France and other EU governments refused, and they have not been immediately cut off.

CNN’s Mark Thompson and Anna Cooban contributed reporting to this post.

The Russian Navy's guided missile cruiser?Moskva?sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, on June 18, 2021.

One of the?Russian Navy’s most important warships?has been badly damaged in the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into?Vladimir Putin’s invasion?of his neighbor.

Russian sailors evacuated the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, after a fire that detonated ammunition aboard, Russia’s defense ministry said.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South claimed Thursday that the Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles.

Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday that the Moskva “remains afloat” and that measures were being taken to tow it to port. The ministry said the crew had been evacuated to other Black Sea Fleet ships in the area.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told CNN’s Brianna Keilar that “there was an explosion” on the Moskva, but said the United States cannot say at this point if the ship was hit by a missile.

Whatever the reason for the fire, analysts say it strikes hard at the heart of the Russian Navy as well as national pride, comparable to the US Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.

What we know about the Russian warship: The 611-foot-long (186 meters) Moskva, with a crew of almost 500, is the pride of the Russian naval fleet in the Black Sea. Originally commissioned into the Soviet Navy as the Slava in the 1980s, it was renamed Moskva in 1995 and after a refit reentered service in 1998, according to military site Naval-Technology.com.

The Moskva is armed with a range of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles as well as torpedoes and naval guns and close-in missile defense systems.

The Moskva also poses symbolic significance to Ukraine, as it was one of the ships involved in the famous exchange at Snake Island in February, according to Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to a purported audio exchange in late February, as the Russians approached the Ukrainian?garrison on Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, in the Black Sea, a Russian officer said: “This is a military warship. This is a Russian military warship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and needless casualties. Otherwise, you will be bombed.”

A Ukrainian soldier responded: “Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”

If the Moskva is lost, it would be the second large Russian naval vessel to suffer that fate during Moscow’s war with Ukraine.

In late March, Ukraine said?a missile strike had destroyed a Russian landing ship?at the port of Berdiansk.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a fourth prisoner swap, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister?Iryna Vereshchuk said Thursday.

“Another, fourth, prisoner exchange took place today at the orders of [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelensky,” she wrote on Telegram.

“Five officers and 17 rank and file soldiers were freed, as well as eight civilians including one woman. Thirty of our citizens in total are going home today,” she said.

Details of how many Russian prisoners were freed in the exchange were not immediately available, with Russia yet to confirm the swap.

When asked about US President Joe Biden’s comments that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is committing genocide against Ukrainians,?national security adviser Jake?Sullivan?said that the President had “assessed that the Russians and Putin seem to be hell-bent on erasing the very idea of Ukrainian identity, of its independent identity.

“And when you combine that with the mass killings, from the President’s perspective, that’s genocide,” he said.

Sullivan?noted, however, that as the President said, there is a process the State Department must go through to make a formal determination of whether Russia’s actions meet the legal standard for genocide under the Genocide Convention.?“That’s something that will take quite a bit of time, but the President was quite deliberate in his own personal views of that,” he said.

The fighting in Ukraine is also likely to be “protracted,” and will go on “for months or even longer,” Sullivan?said.

But?Sullivan?said that “it is not a foregone conclusion” that the US will lift sanctions on Russia if it reaches a diplomatic agreement with Ukraine.?

Sullivan?said that although the US is not “actively participating” in the talks, Ukrainian officials regularly communicate with the US about the status of negotiations. And while he would not discuss whether the US had any “red lines” for intervention in Ukraine, he said the US has made clear to Russia that there will be severe consequences if weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical or biological weapons, are used there.

Asked about the administration’s strategy of declassifying intelligence about Russia’s intentions in Ukraine,?Sullivan?described it as “a careful, very thoughtful, very systematic and very prudent process that is managed at senior levels across the director of national intelligence, the CIA, the NSA” and other agencies.???

Asked about whether the President had any plans to go to Ukraine when he was in Poland last month,?Sullivan?said that Biden “would love the opportunity to go to Ukraine to show solidarity with the Ukrainians” and that the possibility was discussed before Biden’s trip to Warsaw.

The discussions included what kind of footprint it would require to ensure the President’s safety,?Sullivan?said. But it was “not under any serious planning,” he added, and he declined to comment further on reports that a senior US official might visit Kyiv in the near future.

Vladimir Nesterenko.

All Vladimir Nesterenko wanted to do when he grew up was to play basketball. The brown haired 12-year-old dribbled and shot hoops with his dad Oleh in the village where they lived in Ukraine’s southern?Kherson region. He idolized NBA legend Michael Jordan.

His mother Julia Nesterenko was happy to encourage the habit. “We even had a basketball hoop at home,” the 33-year-old told CNN as she described their first family home. It was their “nest,” she said, with a small garden and a vegetable patch.

When Russian forces captured the regional capital, also called Kherson, and its surrounding area soon after the invasion began, the family knew they could not stay, Julia said. Russian checkpoints, armed forces, and officers of the FSB intelligence agency were reportedly flooding the region at the same time as?disappearances and detentions?of local mayors, journalists, and civilians became rife, according to local officials and rights groups.

It was time “to get out of the occupied territories to safety… in order to survive,” Julia said. Russians had taken over their village, Verkhnii Rohachyk, and the Nesterenko family feared the consequences.

With nothing more than a backpack and their important documents, the family took what appeared to be the easiest route out to Ukrainian-held areas, she said. On April 7, the family of three and 11 other people boarded an evacuation boat, operated by a local resident, crossing the Dnipro River from the southern, Russian-occupied part of Kherson region to the Ukrainian controlled territory on the other side of the river. The Dnipro, one of Europe’s longest waterways, cuts through Ukraine and its Kherson region before flowing into the Black Sea.

The boat crossing, which began at the bank of the fishing village of Pervomaivka, should have been simple. It was the seventh evacuation trip via boat from the village to a Ukrainian-held area on the north bank of the Dnipro River since the war began, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rih, in the neighboring region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Instead, it turned into a bloodbath, according to Julia, two other survivors, a friend of one victim and several regional officials. They said Russian rockets and gunfire targeted the boat after it unintentionally drifted into the frontline.

Read the full story here:

Related article They tried to take a boat to safety. Then Russian rockets came raining down

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby speaks with CNN on Thursday.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told CNN that “there was an explosion” on the?Russian cruiser Moskva, but added the United States cannot assess at this point if the ship was hit by a missile.

Russia said its warship “remains afloat” after a fire detonated ammunition on board, while Ukrainian officials said the Moskva was hit by Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles and has sunk.

Kirby said the damaged Russian warship is afloat and “making her own way across the Black Sea.”

“We assess that the ship is able to make its own way, and it is doing that; it’s heading more towards now we think the east.?We think it’s probably going to be putting in at Sevastopol for repairs, but we don’t know what exactly caused that,” Kirby added.

Kirby said the ship had been operating with a few other Russian vessels about 60 miles (about 96 kilometers) south of Odesa.

“The explosion was sizable enough that we picked up indications that other naval vessels around her tried to come to her assistance, and so eventually that wasn’t apparently needed.?So she is making her own way across the Black Sea and we’ll continue to try and monitor this as best we can,” he added.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday that the battleship was badly damaged on Wednesday as a result of either “incompetence” or a successful attack by the Ukrainians.

“This is their flagship, the ‘Moscow,’ and they’ve now been forced to admit that it’s been badly damaged,” Sullivan continued. “And they’ve had to kind of choose between two stories. One story is that it was just incompetence, and the other is that they came under attack. And neither is a particularly good outcome for them.”

Sullivan?said that when the president went to NATO a few weeks ago, he indicated to allies that the US was looking to facilitate the supply of coastal defense and anti-ship capabilities to the Ukrainians “and that is being actively worked.”

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.

US President Joe Biden speaks on Tuesday, April 12.

US President Joe Biden?on Wednesday told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the US was sending?his nation an additional $800 million worth of weapons, ammunition and other security assistance.

It comes as US officials warn of a potentially bloody new phase in the ongoing war, focused on the eastern regions of Ukraine as Russia withdraws its troops from the area around the capital Kyiv.

Biden detailed the new announcement in a midday telephone call with Zelensky that lasted for about an hour.

According to the Pentagon, the US is providing Ukraine with:

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the $800 million package was intended to “meet urgent Ukrainian needs for today’s fight” as Russian forces shift the focus of their attack to eastern and southern Ukraine. He said the weapons would begin being sent to Ukraine “as soon as possible,” noting that previous security assistance had been sent in as little as four to five days after security packages were approved.

As of Tuesday night, two sources said helicopters had been removed from the assistance list, though Biden said in his statement they were ultimately included. Ukraine had initially asked the White House at the last minute not to send the helicopters, indicating they wanted more time to assess whether they’d be useful. But during Wednesday’s phone call, Zelensky told Biden his country needed them, so they were put back in the package, a source familiar with the matter said.

The Mi-17 helicopters that were added to the package had been earmarked for Afghanistan, Kirby said.

The $800 million shipment brings the?total amount of military assistance?the US has provided to Ukraine to more than $3 billion. Ukraine’s 2020 defense budget was only about $6 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. In less than two months, the US has provided nearly half of that in security assistance, underscoring the pace at which the White House has worked to send in weaponry and equipment.

Read more about the military aid here.

Employees package bread at a bakery in Khartoum's al-Matar district, on March 17.

CNN visited the Philips Atakele Bakery in Lagos, Nigeria where the intense work was, until recently, profitable and worthwhile.

However, rising inflation in Nigeria and the war in Ukraine could significantly impact production and soaring costs mean the bakery can only produce half of what it used to.

“Entirely this year, precisely around the time of the bombing of Ukraine, it has affected the supply of yeast which has affected our primary item of production which is white wheat loaf,” Abigail Olufunmilayo Phillips, the bakery’s manager, told CNN.?The cost of flour is also volatile, she said.

“Our flow has been very expensive, the prices are changing constantly.”

According to the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine provide around?30% of the wheat and barley?consumed globally.

Russia is also one of the world’s largest producers of fertilizer.?If the war drags on, economists warn that fertilizer costs could stop some farmers from expanding their crops to make up the shortfall of supply.

On the field of battle?in Ukraine, farmers will struggle to plant crops and Ukrainian export ports remain blockaded by Russian warships.

While the United Nations forecasts that grain and vegetable oil prices increases could affect countries globally, there is particular concern about several countries in Africa, countries that are heavily dependent on Russian and Ukrainian imports for their food security.

“The war is starting at one of the worst times,” Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agriculture Business Chamber of South Africa, told CNN.

“Africans are spending a lot on fuel and a lot on food and at this current moment this is a tough time for the continent.”

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02:49 - Source: cnn

The condition for a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is an agreement document ready for the two leaders to sign, the Kremlin said Thursday.

“In principle, President [Putin] never refused such a meeting [with President Zelensky], but certain conditions must be prepared for it, namely, the text of the [agreement] document [to sign],” Peskov told reporters on a regular conference call.

“For the time being, there are no updates to report here,” Peskov added.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion, Zelensky has repeatedly called for talks with the Russian president, but there have been no talks at the highest level so far.?

A view of the Liquified Natural Gas import terminal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Feb. 23.

The Dutch government has instructed energy companies in the Netherlands not to pay for Russian gas in rubles in accordance with European Union sanctions, spokesperson for the economics ministry Pieter ten Bruggencate told CNN Thursday.

The Dutch government had previously made clear that payments in rubles would violate sanctions but reiterated its instructions to firms after ongoing Russian calls for payment in rubles, ten Bruggencate added.

Some background: Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country would seek payment in rubles for?natural gas?sold to “unfriendly” countries, and British and Dutch wholesale gas prices jumped after the announcement.

At the time, a spokesperson for Dutch gas supplier Eneco, which buys 15% of its gas from Russian gas giant Gazprom’s German subsidiary Wingas GmbH, said it had a long-term contract denominated in euros and could not “imagine” agreeing to change the terms.

The United Nations Secretary-General has warned that the world is on the brink of a “perfect storm” as the war in Ukraine exacerbates an already struggling global economy.

In a press release Wednesday, the UN said the war could lead to a “three-dimensional crisis” of food, energy and finance – areas that have already been hit hard by Covid-19 and climate change.

“We are now facing a perfect storm that threatens to devastate the economies of developing countries,” António Guterres said.

“The people of Ukraine cannot bear the violence being inflicted on them.

The report says Russia and Ukraine provide around 30% of the wheat and barley consumed globally, with Russia also the world’s top natural gas exporter, second-largest oil exporter and a significant producer of fertilizers.

The UN says up to 1.7 billion people in 107 economies are likely to feel the impact of at least one of the three crises, with those in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean particularly at risk.

A UN brief proposes numerous short to long term recommendations to help avert global crises, including moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, G20 countries and banks providing funding to the least developed nations, and limiting export restrictions on food.

“We need to pull developing countries back from the financial brink,” Guterres added. “The international financial system has deep pockets.

“For the people of Ukraine. For the people of the region. And for the people of the world.”

Russia has said its warship “remains afloat” after a fire detonated ammunition on board, provoking conflicting reports from Russian and Ukrainian authorities.

The Moskva guided-missile cruiser’s “main missile armament was not damaged,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement Thursday, adding that “there is no open fire. Explosion of ammunition has been stopped.”

The ministry said “the source of the ignition on the cruiser Moskva has been localized,” and the cause of the fire was still being established on the flagship of its Black Sea fleet.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s regional administrator from Odesa state, Maxim Marchenko, claimed in a Telegram post that Ukrainian forces hit the ship with “Neptune” missiles, causing serious damage to it.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South?also said in a statement Thursday that the Moskva was hit by Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles.?

“In the Black Sea operational zone, Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet – it received significant damage,” the statement said. “A fire broke out. Other units of the ship’s group tried to help, but a storm and a powerful explosion of ammunition overturned the cruiser and it began to sink.”

However, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed Wednesday that the warship Moskva was evacuated after a fire onboard detonated ammunition, seriously damaging the vessel, according to Russian state media.

Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said “we can’t figure out what happened,” suggesting confusion over what occurred.

In Thursday’s statement, the Russian ministry said the “crew of the cruiser was evacuated to ships of the Black Sea Fleet in the area,” and measures were being take to tow the cruiser to port.

The Russian statement gave no information about casualties.?

Due to large storms over the Black Sea obscuring satellite imagery and sensory satellite data, CNN has not been able to visually confirm the ship has been hit.

But analysts who spoke to CNN noted that a fire on board such a ship can lead to a catastrophic explosion that could sink it, and said it strikes hard at the heart of the Russian navy as well as national pride – comparable to the US Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.

According to the Defense Ministry, the Moskva is a missile cruiser that was built and commissioned in 1982.

CNN’s Olga Voitovych in Lviv contributed reporting to this post.

The Russian Navy cruiser Moskva, bottom, is seen in port in Sevastopol, Crimea, on April 7.

Today marks 50 days since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and there has been a marked shift in Moscow’s approach. Ukrainian officials have warned for days they expect a major offensive by Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region.

French military spokesperson Col. Pascal Lanni said Wednesday Russia is?potentially preparing?for a “large-scale offensive” in the east in the coming days.

Here are the latest developments:

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak speaks to the press in this file photo from March 29, after the first talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul.

Ukrainian presidential adviser?Mykhailo Podolyak said in televised remarks that consultations were “ongoing” on a potential roadmap to peace, but added that a sticking point remains the number of countries that would act as security guarantors for Ukraine.

“Consultations on what legal obligations need to be made, how it will be in terms of a multilateral treaty are ongoing now,” he said in televised remarks.

Podolyak added: “We have to understand that the Russians categorically do not want to increase the number of countries that can be guarantors of security. It is important for us to have as many of those countries as possible.”

Some background: At a recent meeting in Istanbul between Ukrainian and Russian teams, negotiators hammered out very preliminary agreements about the possibility of neutral status for Ukraine, but protected by international security guarantees.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week described that negotiating process as being at a “dead end,” but Podolyak said work has continued.

Some 197 children have died and 351 have been injured during the war in Ukraine, the country’s prosecutor general said Thursday, citing figures from juvenile prosecutors.

Bodies of children aged four and 10 were found along with the burnt body of a 17-year-old boy in Hostomel and Bucha, in the Kyiv region, the statement said.

The statement added that a father and his minor son were killed in the Chernobyl zone near the village Dytiatky in the Kyiv region when Russian servicemen fired at a car stopped at a roadside.

Seven children died as a result of a Russian strike on the Kramatorsk train station, the statement said.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said that the burnt bodies of a 16-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy had been found in the villages of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, and Korolivka, in western Ukraine.

A Ukraine special-operations unit destroyed a bridge as a Russian convoy crossed it while it headed toward?Izium in southeastern Kharkiv region, the Command of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed in a statement Thursday.

Ukrainian officials have reported heavy fighting in the vicinity of Izium in recent days, saying that Russian forces are trying to reach the eastern?Donbas region from the direction of the town.

The statement claimed that the Ukrainian unit destroyed the bridge with an explosive charge as a convoy of a?Tiger armored vehicle and several trucks crossed it.

CNN could not independently verify the claim. Ukrainian forces destroyed a key bridge in the Kyiv region to slow the advance of Russian forces in the opening days of the war.

Some background: On Wednesday, a CNN team witnessed intense shelling of the residential district of Saltivka, in northeastern Kharkiv, with a local official saying they believed Russia was stepping up attacks?amid a new phase of military operations in the region.

Ukrainian officials have warned for days that they expect a major offensive push by Russian forces in the neighboring eastern Donbas region, as Russia repositions troops and equipment following a failed push to take Kyiv, the capital.

A line of Kamaz trucks stand outside a showroom in Libertow, Poland on April 4.

Australia?has sanctioned?another 14 Russian state-owned enterprises of “strategic and economic importance” to Russia, according to?a statement from Australia’s?Foreign Minister?Marise Payne?on Thursday.

The latest round of sanctions?targets?defense-related transportation firm Kamaz, as well as shipping companies Sevmash?and United Shipbuilding Corporation.

It also targets electronic component manufacturer Ruselectronics, which produces approximately 80% of all Russian electronics components, and Russian Railways, one of the largest single contributors to Russia’s economy.

“Our targeting of Russia’s state-owned enterprises in coordination with key partners undermines their capacity to boost the Russian economy,” Payne’s?statement?said.?

“By preventing dealings with these important sources of revenue for the Russian Government, we are increasing the pressure on Russia and undercutting its ability to continue funding [Vladimir] Putin’s war.”

Some background: Australia is one of a number of countries, including the US, that have been continually imposing fresh sanctions on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began.

In retaliation against Washington blacklisting hundreds of Russian lawmakers last month,?Moscow said Wednesday it had imposed sanctions on 398 members of the US Congress.

Nine evacuation routes for civilians to leave besieged Ukrainian cities have been agreed for Thursday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a Telegram post.

She said four routes have been established to Zaporizhzhia by private transport.

?In the Luhansk region, five routes will be operational:

Vereshchuk said there were no evacuation routes on Wednesday. “In Zaporizhzhia region, the occupiers blocked evacuation buses, and in Luhansk region, they are violating the ceasefire,” she said.

Ukrainian soldiers are seen in a tank on the front line in Donbas, Ukraine on April 12.

Thursday marks 50 days since Russia began its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The initial assault started before dawn with a series of missile attacks and the use of long-range artillery, before quickly spreading across central and eastern Ukraine as Russian forces attacked the country from three sides.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to quickly topple Kyiv failed in the face of strong Ukrainian resistance, a failure to achieve?air superiority in Ukraine, command, control and supply problems and through heavy losses of personnel.

As Russian forces withdraw from areas near Kyiv to refocus on the east, the horrors of their occupation have been made clear with reports of widespread civilian casualties and killings, torture, disappearances, and other atrocities. Cities across the country continue to be relentlessly bombarded as Russia deploys a devastating array of aerial assaults, creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

After 50 days, the war is poised to enter a critical new stage:

In this file photo from Feb. 13, Ukrainian soldiers fire a Javelin missile provided by the US Army during an exercise in Ukraine.

The United States has sent so many of its Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine that its stocks are running low for possible use by its own forces, according a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Replenishing the US stockpile with new weapons will take years, according to the report from Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the International Security Program at CSIS.

What is the Javelin? It’s a shoulder-fired anti-armor missile made by US defense giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. The missile is a so-called “fire and forget” weapon, meaning it guides itself to its target after launch, allowing its operator to take cover and avoid counterfire.

Use in Ukraine: Ukrainian forces have used it to devastating effect against Russian tanks, negating what was, before the war, thought to be an overwhelming Russian advantage.

It could also be very useful to US forces in any unforeseen conflict, but Cancian said the Pentagon needs to keep an eye on the drawdown in its stocks.

Cancian estimates there may be 20,000 to 25,000 Javelins remaining in the stockpiles and the 7,000 systems sent to Ukraine “represent about one-third of the US total inventory.”

Some context: A senior US defense official said Wednesday the massive shipments of weapons to Ukraine, including thousands of Javelin anti-armor missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, have not affected the readiness of US forces.

Ukraine said?its last two remaining units?in the besieged southern city of Mariupol have been able to join forces thanks to a “risky maneuver,” bolstering their resistance against Russian forces.

Meanwhile, Russia said Mariupol’s commercial seaport had been captured and 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered.

Here’s what we know about the latest situation in the port city:

Editor's note: This photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian military.?It shows people walking down a street in Mariupol on April 12 near the site of a bombed-out theater.

Editor's note: This photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian military. It shows a Russian soldier on patrol in Mariupol on April 12.

The Russian navy's Black Sea flagship, the cruiser Moskva, is seen in a satellite image off the coast of Crimea on April 10.

One of the Russian Navy’s most important warships is either floating abandoned or at the bottom of the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his neighbor.

Russian sailors have evacuated the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet, after a fire that detonated ammunition aboard, Russian state media reported Wednesday.

State media outlets TASS and RIA, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, said the Moskva had been seriously damaged in the incident and that the cause of the fire was being investigated. The Russian reports gave no information on possible casualties.

But hours earlier, a Ukrainian official claimed the Russian warship had been hit by cruise missiles fired from Ukraine.

Due to large storms over the Black Sea obscuring satellite imagery and sensory satellite data, CNN has not been able to visually confirm the ship has been hit or its current status, but analysts noted that a fire on board such a ship can lead to a catastrophic explosion that could sink it.

Whatever the reason for the fire, the analysts say it strikes hard at the heart of the Russian navy as well as national pride, comparable to the US Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.

“Massive blow”: Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King’s College in London, said losing the warship would be a “massive blow” for Russia.

Read more here.

US officials are confronting fresh questions about whether a massive aid package for Ukraine will arrive soon enough and whether it will be enough to sustain Ukrainian forces in what is turning into a protracted war with Russia.

Ukraine is bracing for the expected escalation of Russian attacks in the Donbas region in the country’s east. As they try to adapt to that challenging new terrain, the US is ramping up its commitment to help — sending an additional $800 million worth of weapons and ammunition in a package that includes additional Mi-17 helicopters, Howitzer cannons, several hundred Switchblade drones, counter-artillery radar systems and protective equipment to guard against potential chemical attacks.

But getting that aid in the hands of Ukraine’s armed forces is now facing a race against time.

Read the full analysis:

DONBAS, UKRAINE - APRIL 12: Ukrainian soldiers are seen in a tank on the frontline in Donbas, Ukraine on April 12, 2022. (Photo by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Related article Analysis: US faces a race against time to get massive security aid to Ukraine with fresh assault looming

An aerial view of Mariupol, Ukraine on April 12.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its 50th day, there are growing signs the war is shifting. Ukrainian officials have warned for days they expect a major offensive by Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region — a new theater of war on the open plains, rather than the urban and wooded areas of the north.

French military spokesperson Col. Pascal Lanni said Wednesday Russia is potentially preparing for a “large-scale offensive” in the east in the coming days.

Here are the latest developments:

A Russian warship that was evacuated in the Black Sea on Wednesday was one of the vessels involved in the famous exchange at Snake Island in February, according to a Ukrainian presidential adviser.

The island was hit by Russian missile strikes after Ukrainian defenders responded to the threat of Russian invasion with the words:?“Russian warship, go f*** yourself.”

Some context: Conflicting reports have emerged from the Russians and Ukrainians about the incident onboard the Moskva on Wednesday. Russia said in state media the cruiser was evacuated after a fire onboard detonated ammunition. The Odesa state regional administrator claimed it was hit by Ukrainian missiles. CNN is unable to independently verify what took place.?

However, comments from Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy, suggest there is confusion over what occurred.

The ship is currently in the Black Sea basin, he added.

Regarding the February Snake Island incident, Arestovych confirmed the Moskva was involved. “Yes specifically this one, it was firing at the defenders. It’s the flagship of the (Russian) navy,” he said.

For the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US is providing Kyiv with the types of high-power capabilities some Biden administration officials viewed as too much of an escalation risk a few short weeks ago.

The?$800 million list?is driven not only by direct requests from Ukraine, but also in preparation for a new type of fight on the open plains of southeast Ukraine right next to Russia, terrain that plays into Russia’s natural military advantages.

The new weapons package represents the starkest sign to date that the war in Ukraine is shifting — and with it the weapons Ukraine will need if it hopes to continue to stymie a Russian military that has regrouped and resupplied after its initial failures in the opening weeks of the war.

What the package includes:

This package stands out from previous security assistance in part because this tranche includes more sophisticated and heavier-duty weaponry than previous shipments.

Read the full story:

Polish Mi-17 helicopters are seen during Dragon-17 military exercises at the military range near Drawsko Pomorskie, Poland, September 21, 2017. Agencja Gazeta/Cezary Aszkielowicz via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. POLAND OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN POLAND.

Related article Why the Biden administration is giving new, heavier weapons to Ukraine

A satellite image shows Russian warship the Moskva in the port of Sevastopol, Crimea on April 7.

Conflicting reports have emerged from the Russians and Ukrainians about an incident involving a Russian warship in the Black Sea.?

No evidence has emerged to support either claim and CNN is unable to independently verify what took place.?

What the Russians say: The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Wednesday that the warship Moskva was evacuated after a fire onboard detonated ammunition, seriously damaging the vessel, according to Russian state media.

What the Ukrainians say:?Hours earlier, Odesa state regional administrator Maxim Marchenko claimed in a post on Telegram that Ukrainian forces hit the ship with “Neptune” missiles causing serious damage to it.

Poor weather: Due to large storms over the Black Sea obscuring satellite imagery and sensory satellite data, CNN has not been able to visually confirm the ship has been hit. The Russian Defense Ministry has also not posted any official statement to its Telegram channel acknowledging the evacuation, or fire onboard.

Russian state media outlets TASS and RIA reported the ship’s crew was evacuated and that the cause of the fire was still being established. According to the Defense Ministry, the Moskva is a missile cruiser that was built and commissioned in 1982.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed the ship just northwest of Sevastopol, Crimea on April 10.

The European Union approved an additional 500 million euros ($544 million) for military equipment for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Wednesday, according to a news release from the European Council.

The additional military aid brings the total financial assistance from the EU for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to 1.5 billion euros, the release said. The financial assistance was approved through the European Peace Facility, “an off-budget instrument that enhances the EU’s ability to act as a global security provider,” according to the website of the European Commission.

The 500 million euros will finance personal protective equipment, military equipment, fuel, and first aid kits, the release said.??

“The European Council demands that Russia immediately stop its military aggression in the territory of Ukraine,” the release added.?

In the days since Russian forces left the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, authorities say a growing number of bodies have been discovered.

“There are more than 100 dead among the civilians in the Sumy region. Unfortunately, this number is growing every day,” Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, head of Sumy regional military administration, said in a briefing Wednesday.

Zhyvytskyi alleged “there are people who are held captive and there are daily negotiations for them to be exchanged or set free. A lot of people whose fate remains unknown as of today.”

Sumy saw widespread damage in the early days of the Russian invasion, with several confrontations between civilians and Russian soldiers in the region.?

This week, the Ukrainian cabinet allotted about $8 million to the Sumy region to begin the task of repairing housing, roads and utilities.

Russia said Wednesday it had imposed sanctions on 398 members of the US Congress in retaliation against Washington blacklisting hundreds of Russian lawmakers last month.?

Moscow’s “mirror sanctions” include “the leadership and committee chairmen of the lower house of the U.S. Congress,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.?

The US Treasury Department on March 24 announced?sanctions against 328 members of the 450-seat Russian State Duma?— the lower level of the two-tiered Russian Parliament.?

“Further announcements of Russian countermeasures are planned in the near future,” including adding more Americans to the sanctioned list, Moscow said in Wednesday’s statement.