Fri, Apr 26, 2024 | Shawwal 17, 1445

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KT APPDOWNLOAD

Day 37 Russia-Ukraine conflict: As it happened

Turkey says the two countries' foreign ministers could meet “within about a week or two” to step up negotiations

By Team KT

Here are the latest developments on April 1:

12.15pm: Ukraine denies attacking fuel depot inside Russia, mayor says fire almost out

Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out an air strike against a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod on Friday, an incident the Kremlin said could affect peace talks, but a top Kyiv security official denied responsibility.

Russia’s defence ministry said two Ukrainian helicopters struck the facility in Belgorod, some 35 km (22 miles) from the border with Ukraine, after entering Russia at extremely low altitude at around 5 a.m. Moscow time (0200 GMT).

The resulting blaze forced the evacuation of some people but late in the day Belgorod mayor Anton Ivanov said fire services were extinguishing the last remnants.

11.25pm: Tanks and bodies mark path of Russian retreat near Kyiv

Ukraine recaptured more territory around Kyiv from Russian soldiers who left shattered villages and their own abandoned tanks in the path of their retreat, while a disputed cross-border attack complicated peace talks on Friday.

In the hamlet of Dmytrivka to the west of the capital, wisps of smoke were still rising from the smouldering wrecks of tanks and the bodies of at least eight Russian soldiers lay in the streets, Reuters correspondents saw.

9.50pm: Red Cross convoy to Mariupol turns back

A Red Cross convoy travelling to the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol turned around because it had become impossible to proceed with its mission to begin evacuating civilians on Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

“They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol,” the ICRC said in a statement. It said the convoy returned to Zaporizhzhia northwest of the southern port “after arrangements and conditions made it impossible to proceed.”

8.21pm: Over 50 landmark Ukraine sites damaged in Russian invasion: UN

The UN's cultural agency on Friday said it had confirmed that at least 53 Ukrainian historical sites, religious buildings and museums had sustained damage during Russia's invasion of the country.

"This is the latest list but it is not exhaustive as our experts are continuing to verify a number of reports," filed by the Ukrainian authorities, a UNESCO spokesman told AFP as the body published a list of damaged 53 sites in the north and east of the country.

3.48pm: Ukraine pushing Russian forces back in Kyiv region

Ukrainian forces are pushing back Russian troops northeast and northwest of the capital Kyiv, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.

Political adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said the encircled port city of Mariupol was still holding out after weeks of bombardment but Russian forces were now trying to encircle the northern city of Chernihiv.

2.20pm: Putin, Erdogan to speak by phone on Friday

Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak by phone with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, the Kremlin said, after Istanbul staged Russian-Ukrainian peace talks this week.

Erdogan, who spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone on Thursday, has said Turkey is ready, in principle, to act as a security guarantor country for Ukraine, but the details of such a format need to be worked out. Ankara has offered to mediate in the conflict.

2.01pm: Moscow says progress made in peace talks with Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that some progress had been made at peace talks with Ukraine and that Moscow was preparing its response to Ukrainian proposals.

Speaking at a briefing after talks with his Indian counterparts, Lavrov said that peace talks with Ukraine needed to continue but that Kyiv had shown “much more understanding” of the situation in Crimea and Donbas and the necessity of its neutral status.

12.30pm: Russian forces withdrawing from northern Ukrainian region

FILE PHOTO: Armed servicemen wait in Russian army vehicles outside a Ukranian border guard post in the Crimean town of Balaclava March 1, 2014. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

Russian forces are withdrawing from the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine but have not yet left entirely, the local governor said in a video address on Friday.

“Air and missile strikes are (still) possible in the region, nobody is ruling this out,” Governor Viacheslav Chaus said, adding that Ukrainian forces were entering and securing settlements previously held by Russian troops.

Chaus said it was still too early for Ukrainian forces in the Chernihiv region to let their guard down as Russian troops “are still on our land.” Russia said on Tuesday it would scale down operations in the Chernihiv and Kiev regions.

10.54am: Ukraine unable to get supplies to Mariupol, civilians unable to leave

An aide to the mayor of Mariupol said on Friday the besieged southern Ukrainian city remained closed for anyone trying to enter and was “very dangerous” for anyone trying to leave.

Petro Andryushchenko said Russian forces had since Thursday been preventing even the smallest amount of humanitarian supplies reaching trapped residents, making clear a planned “humanitarian corridor” had not been opened.

9.45am: UK says Ukraine has retaken villages of Sloboda, Lukashivka

British military intelligence said on Friday Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka to the south of Chernihiv and located along main supply routes between the city and Kyiv.

“Ukraine has also continued to make successful but limited counter attacks to the east and north east of Kyiv,” Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

Chernihiv and Kyiv have been subjected to continued air and missile strikes despite Russian claims of reducing activity in these areas, the ministry added

8.13am: Fuel storage unit on fire in Russian city near Ukrainian border-governor

A fire broke out at a fuel storage facility in the Russian city of Belgorod located close to the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, two days after the province was rocked by blasts at an arms depot.

Two people were hurt in Friday’s fire, Gladkov said on Telegram, and residents of three city streets were being evacuated.

Gladkov said this week that the arms depot explosions were believed to be a result of another fire, although he said the regional authorities were awaiting confirmation from the defence ministry.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for any of the incidents.

7.37am: Australia sending armoured vehicles to Ukraine

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that his country will be sending armoured Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine to help in its war against Russia.

Zelensky addressed the Australian Parliament on Thursday and asked for the Australian-manufactured four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Morrison told reporters the vehicles will be flown over on Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport planes, but he didn’t specify how many Bushmaster vehicles would be sent or when.

We’re not just sending our prayers, we are sending our guns, we’re sending our munitions, we’re sending our humanitarian aid, we’re sending all of this, our body armor, all of these things and we’re going to be sending our armored vehicles, our Bushmasters as well.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison

7.23am: Russia will not ask EU to end sanctions

Russia will not ask the European Union to end sanctions and has a sufficient “margin of safety”, the RIA news agency quoted a Russian foreign ministry official as saying on Friday.

“The European Union is not the centre of the universe,” Nikolai Kobrinets, the head of the European cooperation department at the ministry, said.

7.06am: Ukraine will soon be able to better protect its skies, says envoy to Japan

Ukraine will soon be able to better protect its skies and cities from Russian attacks because it expects “super modern” military equipment from the United States and Britain, Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, said on Friday.

“They still have superiority in air force, in airplanes and missiles, and we expect to begin to receive super-modern equipment from the United States and Britain to protect our skies and our cities,” Korsunsky told a news conference.

“When they fire cruise missiles from long distance, we cannot get to the launch place. We have to intercept them. That’s why we need this modern equipment.”

6.47am: Russian troops leave Chernobyl site as fighting rages elsewhere

Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.

More details here

We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky