April 17, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

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

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

Here’s what you need to know:

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

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

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

CNN cannot independently verify the claims made by Zelensky.?

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

It’s hard to?find out what’s going on inside Russia as its attack on Ukraine rages.

So those looking for news of what’s going there are looking to neighboring Estonia, according to CNN International Correspondent Scott McLean, reporting from its capital Tallinn.

Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, has taken in 30,000 Ukrainian refugees since the war began.

Like Ukraine, it too was a former Soviet state, and still has a large Russian-speaking population, and a well-founded?fear of Russian aggression. The majority of its population is ethnically Russian, especially in the towns just across the Narva river, which separates the country from Russia. Many of Narva’s older residents don’t speak Estonian well, if at all.

But now even that source has been cut off since the invasion. When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Estonia blocked many Russian news outlets and TV channels.

“Many people here [are] buying some systems to pick up Russian channels,” said Vladimir Zavoronkov, a city council chairman in Narva, Estonia’s third-largest city, which is located on its border with Russia.

Many are buying antennas in electronic stores to pick up Russian channels and the more technologically-advanced are setting up their own VPNs,?he added.

Read the full story:

Related article How Estonia wants to steer clear of Russian propaganda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky?told CNN that Ukraine is not willing to give up territory in the eastern part of the country to end the war with Russia, and Ukraine’s military is prepared to fight Moscow’s military in the Donbas region in a battle he says could influence the course of the entire war.

Zelensky said in an exclusive interview Friday with CNN’s Jake Tapper from the office of the president in Kyiv that his country has no guarantee that Russia wouldn’t try again to seize Kyiv if it is able to capture Donbas.

“This is why it is very important for us to not allow them, to stand our ground, because this battle … it can influence the course of the whole war,” Zelensky said.

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine conflict:

While Russian forces are still in complete control of the Borivs’kyi district in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Moscow’s troops are “gradually withdrawing”?from the area in the direction of Donetsk region, the Borova village council said in a statement on Telegram on Sunday.???

“There is no mobile connection and no Internet, which are impossible to restore as the territory is occupied by the Russians,” it said, adding that “some places?are left without electricity and gas.”??

According to the statement, Russian troops are housed in the buildings of the village council, the Palace of Culture, hospitals, in the homes of some civilians. “Occupying authorities” in the area?have been appointed from among local collaborators, who are now going to coordinate administrative activities?in the community.?

The council said some parts of the community suffered significant damage and that it hasn’t been able to get in touch with the psychoneurological boarding school in the area, which housed about 200 patients.?

Due to the lack of communication, the council has not been able to identify the people who were taken to the hospital from the bus that came under attack by Russian forces on Friday.?

The issue of delivery of medicines to a hospital?in Borova village, including anesthesia, and humanitarian aid to the population in the form of food, hygiene products and basic necessities is acute, the council said.??

Appeals have been sent to the Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who is also Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, and the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, Oleh Synegubov, to organize humanitarian corridors for evacuation and delivery of aid in the area, according to the statement.??

Photos shared by Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, show a damaged church in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk.

Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, said Russian shelling hit a church in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk.?

“The orcs [derogatory Ukrainian term for Russian troops] shelled the church in Severodonetsk on Palm Sunday,” Haidai said.?

Many Ukrainians observed Palm Sunday on April 17 in accordance with the Julian calendar.??

Photos shared by Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, show a damaged church in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk.

The gutted remains of vehicles are seen at the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, Ukraine on April 16.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Sunday that the “situation” in Mariupol “may be a red line” in negotiations with Russia.??

“The situation in Mariupol is both dire – militarily – and heartbreaking,” Kuleba said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously said any further Russian war crimes would make negotiations with Russia impossible.?

The foreign minister said he is anticipating the intensification of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine in the coming weeks.

He also said he expects “desperate attempts of the Russia forces to finish with Mariupol at any cost,” adding that he anticipates missile attacks on Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine to continue.?

Responding to a question about how important it is to him for a high-level US official to visit Ukraine, Kuleba said he would be happy to see US President Joe Biden travel to the country.??

“It would be an important message of support to us and of course, a personal meeting between two presidents could also pave the way for new supplies of weapons, of American weapons to Ukraine, and also for discussions on the possible political settlement of this conflict,” he said.??

Kuleba echoed a line Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired earlier Sunday.

Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer speaks during a news conference after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia on April 11.

Austria’s chancellor said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he’s winning the war.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he couldn’t fully explain Putin’s rationale, but did say Putin had his “own war logic,” adding the Russian leader “sent me clear messages about his concerns,” and that he seemed to have a full grasp of what was unfolding on the ground.

Nehammer said that Putin switched to German in their face-to-face meeting to warn that it would be better for the war to end sooner rather than later.

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

Ukrainian officials have reported more civilian casualties Sunday amid rocket and artillery attacks in the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said five people had died and 13 were wounded during renewed rocket attacks against Kharkiv.?

In the neighboring Luhansk region, Serhii Haidai, head of?the?military administration, said a handful of people had been evacuated from the cities of Lysychansk and?Severodonetsk. “It was impossible to agree with the occupiers on a ceasefire along the evacuation routes today,” he said.?

Haidai said that in the same area, the town of Zolote came under fire. Two people were killed.???

Lyudmila Denisova, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said bread vans had been targeted in Lysychansk. And the town of Novodruzhsk in the same area had also been hit by shelling. One house was destroyed, she said?

Denisova said that altogether in the 24 hours to Sunday midday, 16 residential buildings in Luhansk region had been destroyed.

Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer speaks during a news conference after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia on April 11.

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer spoke more about his tough face-to-face meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin last week, in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday.?

Nehammer was the first Western leader to sit down with Russia’s president since he launched his invasion in February.

Nehammer went to Moscow to confront Putin last week after viewing evidence of “war crimes” in Bucha, Ukraine, he said.?

Nehammer said to NBC’s Chuck Todd of his visit to Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv: “We saw the war crimes there.?And Orthodox priests told us Russian soldiers shot civilians.?And after the trip to Ukraine, I did a trip to Moscow to confront President Putin with what I saw.”

Nehammer described that conversation as “not friendly,” but “frank and tough.”

I told him what I saw.?I saw the war crimes.?I saw the massive loss of the Russian Army.?And I told him that there is a need for humanitarian corridors for civilians like in Mariupol or Kharkiv for example.?Civilians need water and they have to take care of the wounded there,” he said.

Nehammer also said that Putin said he would cooperate with an international investigation on the one hand, but?that the Russian leader also said he doesn’t trust the Western world.

Concern for more loss of life in Donbas region: Nehammer added that he came away from his meeting with Putin very concerned about the impending battle for the Donbas which would see “many losses of human lives”.

“You know we can all see that there is the preparation of [a] massive battle in the Donbas region.?The Ukrainian side is prepared for that.?The Russian is prepared for that.?And we will see many losses of human lives there, on the one hand.”

But Nehammer also held out a sliver of hope because neither Ukraine nor Russia’s leaders fully dismissed the ‘peace talks’ or negotiations, he said.??

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal speaks during a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine on February 9.

The Ukrainian forces in the southeastern port city of Mariupol are still fighting and have not surrendered, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Sunday.??

“The city (Mariupol) still has not fallen. There are still our military forces, our soldiers so they will fight until the end and as for now they are still in Mariupol,” Shmyhal said on ABC News’ “This Week” after a Russian-set deadline for Kyiv’s forces in the city to surrender passed on Sunday.

He said that more than 900 Ukrainian cities, towns and villages had been freed from the Russian occupation since Moscow took control after the invasion began in late February.?????

“We still are fighting and we have battle in Donbas region right now but we do not have intention to surrender,” Shmyhal said.

In response to a question on the current state of diplomacy, he said “Ukraine will prepare to stop this war” if a “diplomatic way is possible.”??

However, if Russia was not willing to hold negotiations, he said “we will not surrender, we will not leave our country, our families, our land, we will fight absolutely till the end, till the win in this war.”??

Shmyhal also thanked the United States and other partners for their support in providing ammunition, humanitarian and financial aid.??

“We have a deficit of the budget about $5 billion per month during every month of the war. So, we appreciate and we are so gratitude (grateful) for any financial support from the United States and all of our international partners,” he said.??

Ukraine will seek financial support from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US Treasury at meetings this week in Washington, according to the prime minister.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he has difficulty believing in the reliability of “some countries or some leaders” after the escalation of the war in his country.

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Zelensky during an exclusive interview about whether he finds statements when world leaders use the term “never again,” a slogan that is associated with Holocaust and often uttered after crimes against humanity, “hollow” now.

“You lost ancestors in the Holocaust. Every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, politicians put out statements that say, never again, never again. Those statements must seem really hollow right now to you.?When the world says never again, do they ever mean it?” Tapper asked.

The Ukrainian president went on to say that he doesn’t even believe in documented security assurances and international law as the war in Ukraine rages, and with Russia accused of alleged war crimes.

“Even I don’t believe documents, because we also have a Budapest Memorandum — I think you know all of the details of this. For me, that is just a piece of paper and costs nothing,” Zelensky said

Zelensky told CNN that his faith and his belief lies with practical, tangible efforts and the Ukrainian people.

“We just believe contracted, pragmatic things. If you are our friends or partners, give us weapons, give us hand, give us support us, give us money and stop Russia, kick Russia. You can do it if you’re a friend. If you think about this democracy and everything just of this moment because we have the same thoughts, if we are speaking about freedom, not because we want to have dialogue about freedom,” he said.

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

Rescue workers carry a body found among the rubble of a destroyed apartment building on April 9 in Borodianka, Ukraine.

Ukrainian rescuers on Saturday found a body of a civilian in Borodianka, Kyiv, region, while dismantling the rubble of two high-rise apartment buildings destroyed by Russian shelling, raising the number of civilian casualties from the strikes to 41 dead, the country’s State Emergency Service reported on its verified Telegram page on Sunday.?

On Saturday, rescuers finished dismantling the debris of two additional buildings destroyed by strikes, completing the search in five out of seven destroyed residential towers in the city since the efforts began on April 6.

A destroyed apartment building is seen in Borodianka, Ukraine on April 9.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky?told CNN that Ukraine is not willing to give up territory in the eastern part of the country to end the war with Russia, and Ukraine’s military is prepared to fight Moscow’s military in the Donbas region in a battle he says could influence the course of the entire war.

Zelensky said in an exclusive interview Friday with CNN’s Jake Tapper from the office of the president in Kyiv that his country has no guarantee that Russia wouldn’t try again to seize Kyiv if it is able to capture Donbas.

“This is why it is very important for us to not allow them, to stand our ground, because this battle … it can influence the course of the whole war,” Zelensky said.

Some more context: It is more than seven weeks into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. Ukraine’s military has seen successes resisting Russia’s offensive that have come as a surprise to US intelligence – and a Kremlin that had planned for a quick and decisive victory.

Read more here.

A resident looks at a building damaged during heavy fighting in Mariupol, Ukraine on April 16.?

Ukrainian soldiers surrounded in the devastated southeastern city Mariupol have refused Russia’s demand to surrender “in order to save their lives” and continued fighting, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Here are the latest developments:

Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine serves during the first round of the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Qualifier on April 15 in Asheville, North Carolina.

Wearing a shirt decorated with the Ukrainian flag in the shape of a heart, Lyudmyla Kichenok practiced her serve with teammate Dayana Yastremska in an empty arena under the watchful eyes of their captain Olga Savchuk on Thursday.

In Asheville, North Carolina, the Ukrainian women’s tennis team is in the midst of their match against Team USA for the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers.

Meanwhile, bombs rain down on their hometowns as war rages on in Ukraine.

“I feel like we have two different realities right now. The tennis court, an amazing atmosphere, amazing arena here. And then on the other side, we have people dying every day,” Katarina Zavatska told CNN Sport.

Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska, wrapped in the Ukrainian national flag, reacts at the end of the WTA 6eme Sens Open semi-final tennis match against Romania's Sorana Cirstea in Lyon, on March 5, 2022. Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska reached the Lyon WTA final on Saturday, just a week after escaping Russian bomb attacks on her home city of Odessa.

Related article Ukrainian tennis players live 'parallel lives' at the Billie Jean King Cup

Pope Francis delivers his Easter blessing from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square on April 17 in Vatican City.

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

“We have seen all too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled with fear and anguish,” the Pope said while?delivering his annual “Urbi et Orbi” Easter blessing,?adding “our eyes, too, are incredulous on this Easter of war.”?

“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged. In this terrible night of suffering and death, may a new dawn of hope soon appear! Let there be a decision for peace. May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering,” Pope Francis said from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after Easter Mass.?

Around 100,000 people attended the Pope’s Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square and nearby areas, according to the Vatican’s press office.?

Among them were several Ukrainian politicians, including Ivan Fedorov, the elected mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol who was detained by Russian forces last month and accused of terrorism offenses.?

“I hold in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the ground. I see the faces of the orphaned children fleeing from the war,” Pope Francis continued.??

The Pope also highlighted acts of charity amid the “pain of war,” such as “the open doors of all those families and communities that are welcoming migrants and refugees throughout Europe.”?

Three sappers – or military engineers – from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service were killed and four others seriously injured while removing cluster munitions in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Sunday, according to the head of the regional administration.??

Separately, three civilians were killed and dozens were wounded in shelling by Russian troops in the last 24 hours in the region, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, Oleg Sinegubov, wrote on a verified Telegram page on Sunday.?

“They are currently receiving treatment in the hospital. 31 people were injured in Russian shelling, including four children,” Sinegubov said.??

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has been subjected to intense bombardments throughout the past weeks of conflict.

According to Sinegubov, Russian forces have fired 23 artillery, mortar and cluster shells in the areas of Northern Saltivka, Pyatihatki, Oleksiyivka, the city center, Kharkiv Tractor Plant and Dergachi. There was also one missile strike in the area.?

“The enemy cannot approach Kharkiv as our armed forces are holding strong positions and are even advancing in some directions. Therefore, Russians resort to shameful shelling of residential neighborhoods,” he said.??

He appealed to people not to go out unnecessarily and to comply with limits on the number of people allowed to stay in one place.??

Kira was injured by a landmine explosion whilst trying to flee a besieged Mariupol on foot.

Before Russia’s war on Ukraine began, Kira Obedinsky was a joyful, loved 12-year-old girl. Now orphaned, injured and alone in a Russian-controlled hospital in eastern Ukraine, she has become an unwitting pawn in Moscow’s information war.

Obedinsky’s mother died when she was a baby. Her father Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of Ukraine’s national water polo team, was shot and killed as Russian forces fought their way into the southeastern city of Mariupol on March 17.

Days later, Kira and her father’s girlfriend tried to flee the city on foot alongside neighbors. But after she was injured in the blast from a landmine, Kira was taken to a hospital in the Donetsk region, which is controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.?

Oleksander Obedinsky with granddaughter Kira, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He fears he will never see her again.

Now Kira’s grandfather, Oleksander, fears he will never see her again. He said an official from the breakaway government in Donetsk phoned and invited him to travel there to claim her, which is impossible because of the war.

He says he spoke to the hospital and was told Kira will eventually be sent to an orphanage in Russia. They took away her documents, he said, and was told Kira will be provided with new ones in Russia.

The Russian government has said it has helped move at least 60,000 Ukrainian people to safety across the Russian border. The Ukrainian government has said around 40,000 have been relocated against their will describing it as abduction and forced deportation.

Russian media, which has repeatedly downplayed the brutality of the conflict in Ukraine, has shown video of Kira talking happily about how she’s sometimes allowed to call her grandfather.?

This is “proof” that she wasn’t abducted, according to one Russian TV presenter, who dubbed the claim another “Ukrainian fake.”

Meanwhile, Oleksander has received an audio message from Kira telling him not to cry. But the young girl who has lost her family, her freedom and her home in Russia’s war, cannot stop her own tears.

“I haven’t seen you for so long”, she says. “I want to cry.”

Kira in Mariupol, before the war.

An aerial view shows residential buildings that were damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 3, 2022. Picture taken April 3, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Pavel Klimov TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Related article Russia or die: After weeks under Putin's bombs, these Ukrainians were given only one way out

Russia’s Ministry of Defense on Sunday threatened the “elimination” of resistance soldiers still fighting in the besieged southwestern Ukraine city of Mariupol as it confirmed that an ultimatum demanding their surrender had been ignored.

In a statement, it said that Ukrainian soldiers surrounded in a gigantic steelworks in the city had been urged “to voluntarily lay down arms and surrender?in order to save their lives.”

“However, the Kiev nationalist regime, according to the radio intercept, forbade negotiations about surrendering,” the ministry claimed.

The ministry also asserted that according to Ukrainian soldiers who had previously surrendered “there are up to 400 foreign mercenaries who joined the Ukrainian forces” trapped at the steel plant, including, it said, Europeans and Canadians.

“In case of further resistance, all of them will be eliminated,” it said.

The Defense Ministry claimed that dozens of military facilities in eastern Ukraine had been destroyed in the latest Russian attacks. These included fuel and ammunition depots, the ministry said, around Severodonetsk, Kremmina and other towns in Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

It also claimed that Russian air defense system had shot down 10 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the Donbas region.

Read the full story here:

A local resident looks at a damaged during a heavy fighting apartment building near the Illich Iron and Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, the second largest metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022.

Related article Russia says Mariupol surrender ultimatum rejected and threatens elimination of resistance

Ukrainian refugees wait at the border to cross into Moldova, in Palanca, Moldova on April 9.

The European Union is allocating a further €50 million ($54 million) in humanitarian aid to support those impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission?said Sunday.

The package includes €45 million ($48.6 million) for humanitarian projects in Ukraine and €5 million ($5.4 million) for neighboring Moldova.?Neither country is an EU member state.

According to the statement, the funding?will be used to “address the most pressing humanitarian needs by providing emergency medical services, access to safe drinking water and hygiene, shelter and protection, cash assistance, and support against gender-based violence.”

“With millions of people on the move or trapped in active war zones, the needs in Ukraine are already massive. Now, we need to be prepared for a further increase in Russia’s ruthless attacks on Ukraine, notably in the east,” the EU’s commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenar?i?, said.

“[The money] will help people in hard-to-reach areas who are cut off from access to healthcare, water and electricity, and those, who have been forced to flee and leave everything behind,” he said, adding:

The EU has so far put €143 million ($154.6 million) toward humanitarian help in Ukraine.

This funding is part of the €1 billion ($1.08 billion) support package pledged by the European Commission earlier this month.

Civilians trapped by the intense fighting in southern and eastern Ukraine had no way of escaping on Sunday after Ukraine was unable to agree evacuation routes with Russia

“We again demand providing the humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians, especially women and children from Mariupol,” Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukrainian deputy prime minister, said on her Telegram channel.

Late Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry laid down conditions for the surrender on Sunday of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol – an ultimatum rejected by officials in the city.

Serhii Haidai, the head of Luhansk regional military administration, said that people should leave even though there were no official humanitarian corridors.

He urged people to “evacuate to the safe regions of Ukraine to survive and not to become a cheap labor for the Russians.”

He said attempts would be made to evacuate civilians from Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Popasna, and the Hirske community?– all places that have seen widespread devastation in recent weeks.

Haidai also accused the Russians of bombing despite agreed ceasefires to allow for evacuation:

He also repeated an allegation made by other Ukrainian officials in recent weeks, saying that Ukrainians “from the occupied part of Rubizhne and other cities are being forcibly deported to remote regions of Russia, where cheap labor is needed.”

CNN has been unable to confirm the scale or details of forced deportations of Ukrainian civilians to Russia.

An aerial view shows residential buildings that were damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 3, 2022. Picture taken April 3, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Pavel Klimov TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Related article Russia or die: After weeks under Putin's bombs, these Ukrainians were given only one way out

The southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv has now been without piped water for four days, forcing people to use water from streams and rivers.

Access to water was lost when the pipeline from Dnipro was damaged during fighting several days ago.

The head of Mykolaiv regional military administration Vitalii Kim said Sunday that attacks by Russian forces were continuing including cruise missile strikes.

He said the water problem would soon be fixed:

Kim said the military situation was in the defenders’ favor. “While the enemy is preparing troops and mobilization, weapons are coming towards us.”

Some context: The territory between Mykolaiv and Kherson to the south has seen intense fighting over the last three weeks as Ukrainian forces have launched counter-attacks

Mykolaiv itself has been regularly shelled by Russian forces but remains under Ukrainian control.

Members of the Donetsk People's Republic militia walk past damaged apartment buildings near the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 16.

Ukrainian forces will continue to defend the city of Mariupol despite an ultimatum by Russia, Mariupol officials said Sunday.

An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol has responded to the demand by the Russian Ministry of Defense that Ukrainian soldiers still resisting in part of the city should surrender, saying Ukrainian forces continue to fight.

“In the (Saturday) evening, the occupiers announced they would provide ‘a surrender corridor’ for the remaining troops,” Petro Andriushchenko said on Telegram.

“But as of today, our defenders continue to hold the defense,” he said.

Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov, lies in the center of Russia’s push to link up its forces in the east and south of Ukraine.

Andriushchenko also said resistance to the Russians continued beyond the Azovstal steel works, a gigantic facility that has been a bastion for Ukrainian forces fighting in Mariupol.

“Despite the occupiers’ desire to show that the place of hostilities is limited to the Azovstal steel plant, this does not correspond with reality,” he said. “Last night there were fights on the Taganrog Street that is located five kilometers away from Azovstal.”

He said that “during the fighting, the occupiers shelled private residential houses with heavy artillery again. The shelling of the port area also continued.”

CNN could not immediately confirm fighting elsewhere in Mariupol.

Smoke is seen rising over Darnytskyi District of Kyiv, Ukraine on April 16.

As Russia continues its relentless and devastating attack on Mariupol, it has issued an apparent ultimatum demanding Ukrainian fighters to surrender by Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and its surrounding region have been under attack once again, following a lull in strikes around the city.?

Here are the latest developments:

The Ukrainian armed forces said Sunday that as Russia continues to prepare reinforcements for an offensive in the east, its troops are facing supply problems.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the Ukrainian armed forces claimed that “the Russian military is constantly complaining about the lack of rotation, equipment that is constantly failing, the quality of food and fuel supplied.”

Ukraine reported relatively little combat overnight but said that Russia continued to launch air strikes on Mariupol, where Ukrainian units surrounded in a steel plant are still putting up resistance.

The armed forces also asserted that in areas under Russian occupation “looting and violence by the Russian military against the civilian population continues. These actions are encouraged by their military command.”

Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operation, which is responsible for military action in the east, said 10 attacks by Russian troops had been repulsed Saturday, and that 15 Russian tanks and other equipment had been?destroyed.

Some Russian shelling continued into the night, according to regional authorities.?

Serhii Haidai, head of Luhansk Regional Military Administration, said four high-rise buildings in the city of Severodonetsk were hit and caught fire. He provided no details on casualties.

Haidai has previously estimated that 70% of the city is already destroyed.

“There is almost nothing to destroy there. The enemy have destroyed most of the housing stock during the past six weeks,” Haidai said.?

Haidai also said one person had been injured in shelling of the nearby town of Kreminna.

The Kyiv suburb of Brovary cane under attack by rockets on Sunday morning, according to its mayor, Ihor Sapozhko.

Sapozhko said infrastructure facilities have been damaged, and that it’s possible there are interruptions to power and water supply.

Russian forces have struck targets in the Ukrainian capital and its surrounding region?over the past three days, following a lull in attacks around the city.?

In its latest intelligence update on Sunday, the United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces in Ukraine were directing supplies provided by its ally Belarus toward the country’s eastern region, where attacks have been intensifying.

“Though Russia’s operational focus has shifted to eastern Ukraine, Russia’s ultimate objective remains the same,” it added. “It is committed to compelling Ukraine to abandon its Euro-Atlantic orientation and asserting its own regional dominance.”

The Russia-Belarus relationship: Belarus has been used as a springboard for many of Russia’s air operations in Ukraine, according to intelligence collected by NATO surveillance planes.

The Ukrainian military says it has shot down several missiles fired towards its territory from Belarus. After Russia failed to gain the ground it wanted around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, forces retreated back into Belarus to regroup and redeploy.

The US has punished Minsk with sanctions targeting Belarusian defense firms, the country’s defense minister and has suspended normal trade relations with the country.

But Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko – a Kremlin-backed, Putin ally?– has shown no remorse for his role as a facilitator.

An aerial view of the city of Mariupol, Ukraine on April 12.

Russia is continuing a brutal assault on Mariupol, and has ordered Ukrainian forces still defending the southeastern city to surrender by Sunday. Meanwhile, Russian attacks are escalating in eastern Ukraine, as well as parts of the country’s south.

Here are the latest developments:

Ukainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russia’s unrelenting assault on the city of Mariupol and the likely discovery of more Russian crimes against civilians will make further diplomatic talks impossible, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.

It added that while Zelensky was open to discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that is becoming less likely as Russia continues to escalate its war.?If more apparent Russian war crimes surface, “there will be no chance that negotiations will be held,” Zelensky said.

The article was titled: “The more Russia escalates, the less likely the President of Ukraine is to negotiate.”?

Russia has demanded Ukrainian forces?still fighting to defend the besieged city of Mariupol lay down their weapons. The apparent ultimatum comes as Russia continues its relentless and devastating attack on the southeastern?city.

Russian state media Ria reported that “without exception” all “Ukrainian armed units and foreign mercenaries” must exit from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Moscow time (same as local time) “without any weapons and ammunition,” citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

An estimated 100,000 people remain in Mariupol and its immediate surroundings, which are reported to be largely under Russian control, with Ukrainian troops confined to pockets of resistance.

Some context: Ukrainian President Volodymyr?Zekensky late Saturday called the situation in the besieged city of Mariupol “inhuman,”?saying the situation remained “as severe as possible.”

“Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there in Mariupol,” he said in his latest video address.

Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov claimed in a statement Saturday the Russian military had shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane carrying military equipment from Western countries.

The statement said “a Ukrainian military transport aircraft was shot down in the air” in the Odesa region while “delivering a large batch of weapons supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.”

No further evidence was provided. CNN could not verify the claim and reached out to the Pentagon for comment.

Russia has claimed to have destroyed more Ukrainian military aircraft than were known to be in Ukraine’s inventory, according to open-source information.??

A M777 towed 155 mm howitzer is placed in its firing position near Mosul, Iraq on February 3, 2017.

Shipments from the Biden administration’s latest security assistance package to Ukraine “have begun arriving,” a White House official told CNN Saturday.

President Biden this week approved an additional package of $800 million worth of weapons, ammunition, and security assistance to Ukraine.

Heavy-duty weaponry: The US has, for the first time, agreed to provide Kyiv with the types of high-power capabilities some Biden administration officials a few short weeks ago viewed as too great of an escalation risk, including 11 Mi-17 helicopters; 18 155 mm Howitzer cannons and 300 more Switchblade drones.

On Friday, a senior defense official told CNN the first flight of weapons and equipment was expected to arrive in the region in the following 24 hours and would be picked up at the border by Ukrainians and taken into the country.

The official referred CNN to the US Department of Defense for more details.

The $800 million shipment brings the?total amount of military assistance?the US has provided to Ukraine to more than $3 billion.

A local resident sits next to a fire in a courtyard outside a building damaged in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 14.

In his latest Saturday video address to the people of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the situation in the besieged port city of Mariupol and promised a better future once hostilities are over.

An estimated 100,000 people remain in Mariupol and its immediate surroundings, which are largely under Russian control, with Ukrainian troops confined to pockets of resistance.

“There are only two ways to influence this,” Zelensky said. “Either our partners will give Ukraine all the necessary heavy weapons, planes, and, without exaggeration, immediately… Or a negotiating path, in which the role of partners should also be decisive.”

Zelesnky said his government has tried every day to end the siege of Mariupol: “Military or diplomatic – anything to save people. But finding this solution is extremely difficult.”

“Although we have heard many intentions from those who wanted to help and who are really in positions of international influence, none of them have been realized yet.” he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron proposed on March 25 a mass evacuation by sea, but the plan went nowhere. Zelensky said every day either he or the armed forces chief or the head of Ukraine’s negotiating team had been “in touch with our defenders of Mariupol. Every day.”

Rebuilding the nation: Zelensky also said his government had begun to plan for a post-war future.?

“Today I held a meeting?dedicated to the reconstruction of our cities,” he said. “Of course, this is a huge amount of work. But still less than defending the state in war.”

The President added, “Now it is a historic moment; the moment when we can solve many old problems of the whole environment of our life once and for all.”

Zelensky addressed the housing situation and what he called the “real modernization of our cities.”

A priority, he said, would be homes for veterans to “provide housing for all those who have defended or are defending the state, who have worked or are working in the interests of society, and do not have their own housing. It can no longer be the case that a person devotes his whole life to military service, but retires without having his own apartment.”

Zelensky also said memorials were being planned, one of?which “will tell the story of the destroyed bridge in Kyiv region, which connected Irpin and Bucha with Kyiv. The story of people who escaped from Russian invaders to Kyiv using this bridge and this road.”

The bridge was the escape route for thousands of civilians escaping Russian bombardment in March.

Russian state news agency TASS has released video purportedly showing the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, meeting with the the crew of the sunken guided-missile cruiser Moskva in the city of Sevastopol.

TASS released the Ministry of Defense video Saturday showing what was described as officers and sailors of the sunken warship standing in formation two rows deep.

The number of sailors in formation was not clear. The Russian military has released no information about casualties aboard the Moskva, which sank Thursday in the Black Sea. It was unclear how many crew members were aboard, or how many survived.

The Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Ukraine claimed it had hit the cruiser with anti-ship missiles, while the Russian military acknowledged only the ship had sunk after a fire on board and the detonation of ammunition.

Evmenov said conscript sailors from the Moskva would be released from service in accordance with the law from May to July, TASS reported.