LAST UPDATE | 1 Apr 2022
HERE ARE THE latest developments in the war in Ukraine today:
Good morning all, Lauren Boland here. It’s Friday and the 37th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Let’s take a look at what’s happening so far today:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia is consolidating and preparing “powerful strikes” in eastern and southern Ukraine.
That includes the besieged port city of Mariupol where Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross are planning to evacuate civilians today.
“This is part of their tactics,” Zelenskyy said in a late-night address.
“We know that they are moving away from the areas where we are beating them to focus on others that are very important… where it can be difficult for us,” he said.
He cautioned that the situation in the country’s south and east in particular was “very difficult”.
Pictured: Ukrainian troops attend a funeral ceremony near Lutsk, Ukraine for serviceman Georgiy Plisak who was killed by Russian forces.
Russian troops have left the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after seizing control of it at the start of the invasion.
Hower, Kyiv officials say they took an unspecified number of captive Ukrainian servicemen with them.
In a statement on Telegram, the state nuclear agency Energoatom said: “As they ran away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the Russian occupiers took members of the National Guard, whom they had held hostage since Feb 24, with them.”
When leaving, Russian troops “marched in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with Belarus”, Energoatom said.
It said there was evidence that a column of Russian soldiers besieging the town of Slavutych, which houses workers of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, was forming to move towards Belarus.
Former Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan has written to the Garda Commissioner asking that the gardaí take statements from Ukrainian refugees to collect evidence of Russia’s war crimes.
Speaking to The Journal, the Laois-Offaly TD said he believes the evidence could be against Russia in a possible future war crimes tribunal.
“I believe these war crimes must be punished and those responsible brought to account. However, evidence is needed,” Flanagan said.
“There are thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, all of whom have fled a horrific situation.
When the time is right, and when they feel comfortable, I believe they should make statements to the Irish authorities on their experience, and these statements can help in the gathering of evidence of war crimes.
“I’ve asked the Garda Commissioner to become involved and to assist with the taking of the statements.”
In the UK, a four-year-old Ukrainian was reportedly asked whether they were a terrorist or had ever been in the armed forces on arriving in the country.
The British wife of a Ukrainian-born woman has described the UK’s visa scheme as having “completely took away the humanity” of her relatives escaping the conflict.
Emily Radford told the PA news agency that her wife of 14 years, whose name she did not want included, was born and grew up in Kyiv but has been a British citizen since 2011.
She has been living in Poland with her cousin and her cousin’s children while they await the outcome of visa applications through the Ukraine Family Scheme, which provides eligibility for a UK visa if someone is joining a UK-based family member.
“It’s been very dehumanising,” Radford said.
“This is a visa programme, but it’s a visa programme in response to a humanitarian crisis.
The group includes four children aged 17, 12, eight and four.
“I had to answer for a four-year-old: ‘Are you a terrorist? Have you ever been in the armed forces?’” Radford said.
“Why are you asking those questions? It should literally just be: ‘Are you a child? Who is your mum? OK, we’ll sort you out when you’re here and we can have questions with you then if we need to.’”
The latest intelligence update from the British Ministry of Defence outlines that Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka, which are south of Chernihiv – a city heavily hit by Russian strikes – and located along one of the main supply routes between it and Kyiv.
Ukraine made “successful but limited counter-attacks” in the east and north east of Kyiv, while both Chernihiv and Kyiv have suffered air and missile strikes despite Russia’s pledge to reduce activity in the region.
The Russian military’s siege warfare tactics in Ukraine are unlawfully killing civilians in several cities, an Amnesty International investigation has found.
The charity says that field investigators in Ukraine have verified physical evidence of banned cluster munitions violating international law and collected testimony about unlawful, indiscriminate attacks.
Russia’s siege tactics also include the disruption of basic utilities, cuts to communication, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and restrictions on access to medicine and healthcare, Amnesty says.
Here’s what Joanne Mariner, Director of Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme, had to say:
A defining feature of these cruel sieges is Russia’s relentless indiscriminate attacks, which cause utterly devastating harm over time
For five weeks now, civilians across Ukraine have seen their cities razed day-by-day. Our on-the-ground research has documented how some of society’s most at-risk people are disproportionately suffering as these brutal siege tactics continue.
Civilians trapped in cities under siege must urgently have access to humanitarian corridors to enable the safe evacuation of all who wish to leave. Humanitarian supplies must also be allowed to reach those who remain behind.”
In a shelter in Lviv, the Amnesty International researchers interviewed a 16-year-old girl who was evacuated alone from Kharkiv.
It says it verified a photo that showed the remains of a 220mm Uragan rocket that struck close to her family’s apartment complex, which is near a school.
The teenager told Amnesty International: “The missile struck at night, and I smelled the fire and felt the waves.”
Russia has accused Ukrainian helicopters of carrying out a strike on a fuel storage facility in Belgorad, a town in western Russia.
“There was a fire at the petrol depot because of an air strike carried out by two Ukrainian army helicopters, who entered Russian territory at a low altitude,” the local Russian governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, wrote on his Telegram channel.
However, Ukraine has not confirmed the attack.
Explosions were from an arms depot in Belgorod earlier in the week but authorities did not provide any explanation for the blasts.
Belgorod is located 40 kilometres from the border.
The Kyiv Independent reports that Russia is planning to conscript 134,500 people aged 18 to 27 by 15 July
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is holding an emergency meeting today to discuss potential ways to remedy soaring global oil prices kicked off by the war in Ukraine.
The US is convening ministers from IEA member countries to “assess the impact of the recent decision by IEA members to release emergency oil stockpiles and look at possible additional measures”, the French energy transition ministry told AFP.
Yesterday, IEA executive director Fatih Birol said: “We are going to discuss what kind of steps we can take in order to provide stability to the oil markets.”
You might remember the plans outlined yesterday to evacuate thousands of civilians from the port city of Mariupol.
The International Committee of Red Cross has now said that not all the arrangements that are needed for the evacuations to happen safely are in place.
It’s looking for more concrete agreements on where fleeing residents would be escorted to.
The Red Cross has a team of three cars and nine staff heading towards Mariupol from the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is more than 200 kilometres away.
The vehicles are meant to lead the evacuation convoy out Mariupol, which has been under intense Russian bombardment, but it’s not yet certain the operation can go ahead.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, spokesperson Ewan Watson said: “This effort has been, and remains, extremely complex. There are a lot of moving parts and not all of the details are yet in place to ensure that this happens in a safe manner,”
“We remain hopeful, we are in action, moving towards Mariupol. That is obviously a good thing. But it’s not yet clear that this will happen today.
“If and when it does happen, the ICRC role as a neutral intermediary will be to lead the convoy out from Mariupol to another city in Ukraine. We’re unable to confirm which city at the moment.
“This is something the parties must agree to.”
My colleague Michelle Hennessy is here now to take you through the next developments in the war in Ukraine
Following an address to the Australian Parliament by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed his country will be sending armoured vehicles to help in the fight against Russian troops.
Associated Press reports this morning that Morrison said the vehicles will be flown over on Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport planes, but he didn’t specify how many 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,” Morrison said.
It’s also reported today that President Zelenskyy has stripped two generals of their military rank.
In a video address last night he said they had “not decided where their homeland” was and had violated the military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people.
“I don’t not have time to deal with all the traitors, but gradually they will all be punished,” he said.
Concern about inflation due to the war in Ukraine continues, as the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat today reported a surge in consumer prices of 7.5%.
This is a record increase and has been fuelled by a 44.7% hike in energy prices in Europe over the year.
Despite an accusation from a Russian governor that Ukrainian helicopters had bombed a fuel storage depot in a Russian city, talks between the two countries have resumed today.
The Kremlin had earlier said the reported Ukrainian air strike would hinder new rounds of peace talks.
“We are continuing talks by video conference,” Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Telegram today. “Our positions on Crimea and Donbass have not changed.”
The number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s war in their country has crossed 4.1 million, the United Nations said today, adding: “This tragedy must stop”.
The flow of people escaping across the western borders to flee the Russian assault has settled at around 40,000 a day over the past week.
“Forced to run for their lives. Forced to leave their homes. Forced to be apart from family. This tragedy must stop,” UNHCR said.
Women and children account for 90 percent of those who have fled. Half of those are children.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, says more than half of the country’s estimated 7.5 million children have been displaced – 2.5 million internally and two million abroad.
It’s Lauren here again. If you’re joining us now this lunchtime, let’s review what’s happened so far today:
The death toll from a Russian strike on a regional government building in Mykolaiv is understood to have risen to 28 people.
A Russian missile strike hit the building on 29 March, killing or injuring many of the people who were inside.
Pictured: A crane works to clear the rubble after the attack
Human Rights Watch has asked Ukrainian authorities to investigate into possible war crimes over video footage that appears to show its soldiers shooting Russian war prisoners in the legs.
The video shows three men in fatigues, hands bound behind their backs, thrown to the ground by armed men who shoot them in the legs, AFP reports.
While the authenticity of the footage, which began circulating on 27 March, could not be independently confirmed, AFP geolocalised it to the village of Mala Rogan outside the northeastern city of Kharkiv, which Ukrainian forces had just recaptured after an offensive.
AFP journalists visited Mala Rogan on 28 March and saw the bodies of two Russian soldiers lying on one of the streets of the village and another two other bodies partially visible in a well.
“If confirmed, the beating and shooting of captured combatants in their legs would constitute a war crime,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement late last night.
“Ukraine needs to demonstrate that it is able and willing to prevent and punish serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
AFP journalists who visited Mala Rogan report having seen around a dozen bodies of Russian soldiers.
On Telegram, Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovich acknowledged that abuse of prisoners constitutes a war crime and should be punished.
“We treat prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Convention despite your personal emotional motivations,” he said to Ukrainian soldiers.
Russian soldiers have also been accused of committing abuses since the start of the invasion.
In Mala Rogan, residents accused Russian soldiers of raping women who they held as prisoners for several days in a school.
Here’s the latest graphic from Press Association charting Russia’s movements in Ukraine.
In Germany, a reserve officer in the army has been charged with spying for allegedly passing information to Russian intelligence services between 2014 and 2020.
Federal prosecutors say the officer, known as Ralph G., is suspected of supplying information on the German military’s reserves and its “civil defence”.
It’s also alleged he passed on information about the impact of sanctions that were imposed against Russia in 2014 and about the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany.
The prosecutors said the accused was “in contact with a Russian intelligence service through various people since October 2014 at the latest”.
Ralph G is accused of having supplied contacts with “documents and information on numerous occasions” up to March 2020.
As well as his role as a reserve officer, the suspect “belonged to several German business committees”.
Prosecutors said he shared personal data, including contact details, of high-ranking members of the Bundeswehr (Germany’s armed forces) and figures from the business world.
“In return for his services, the accused received invitations to events organised by the Russian government agencies,” prosecutors said.
He is the latest addition to a list of suspected Russian spies found in Germany.
A Russian scientist called Ilnur Nagaev is on trial accused of spying for Moscow while working at a German university, while a German man was given a two-year suspended sentence in October 2021 for passing on floor plans of parliament buildings to Russian secret services while employed by a security company.
In August, a former employee of the British embassy in Berlin was arrested on suspicion of having passed on documents to Russian intelligence.
Karazin Kharkiv National University, which has 125 departments and is one of the oldest higher education institutions in eastern Europe, is being relocated after Russian attacks.
The university and schools will be moved to safer areas, the Kyiv Independent reports.
More than 7,000 people in Northern Ireland have expressed an interest in housing refugees from Ukraine, according to senior Stormont officials.
Around 300 Ukrainians have been matched with households through the Homes for Ukraine scheme so far as their visas are processed by the Home Office.
Those with a room or home available for at least six months can offer it to a Ukrainian individual or a family, with host to be vetted and applicants to undergo security checks.
Starting Monday, officials are due to visit homes and properties that have beem put forward to check if they are suitable.
Following Russian reports that Ukraine attacked a fuel storage facility in Russia, both Ukraine’s foreign and defence ministries said they could neither confirm nor deny that it was behind the attack.
“I am a civilian,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters in Warsaw.
Defence ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Ukraine should not “take responsibility for all miscalculations, all disasters and all events taking place on Russian soil”.
Hello, Hayley Halpin here. I’ll bring you all the latest developments on Ukraine over the next while.
The EU has tabled a plan to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to access EU currency given that many banks across Europe refuse their local hryvnia banknotes.
The Ukrainian economy is deeply disrupted by the war campaign, forcing the central bank in Kyiv to limit the exchangeability of its hryvnia currency in order to preserve its reserve of dollars and euros.
Banks across the 27 EU nations have shown reluctance to accept hryvnia from the millions of refugees who have entered the European Union, afraid of being refused the transaction by the central bank in Kyiv.
To answer the problem, Poland and other member states have set up schemes to guarantee a level of exchange and the European Commission in Brussels is recommending that the schemes are made uniform across the bloc.
“The schemes should provide for maximum limits of 10,000 hryvnias per person (about €300), without charges, at the official exchange rate as published by the National Bank of Ukraine,” a commission statement said.
The scheme, which would work in cooperation with Ukraine’s central bank, would last an initial three months and a network of banks across the bloc would take part.
The plan is a recommendation by the EU executive to the member states and will be discussed at a meeting of EU ministers on Tuesday.
Top EU officials have warned China’s leader Xi Jinping at a virtual summit today that any attempt to aid Russia’s war in Ukraine could hurt business ties between the two economic superpowers.
The EU and US worry that Beijing’s failure to condemn the invasion means it could be willing to help the Kremlin sidestep the impact of sanctions or even supply hardware to aid the war effort.
“No European citizen would understand any support to Russia’s ability to wage war. Moreover, it would lead to a major reputational damage for China here in Europe,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
“The business sector is watching very closely the events and evaluating how countries are positioning themselves. This is a question of trust, of reliability and of course of decisions on long-term investments.”
Von der Leyen insisted that “China has an influence on Russia and therefore we expect China to take its responsibility to end this war and that Russia comes back to a peaceful negotiations solution”.
The talks with President Xi – initially intended to focus on issues like trade and climate change – were overshadowed by Western fears of Chinese support for Moscow in its attack on Ukraine.
Chinese state media reported that Xi told the EU the two sides should “play a constructive role on China-EU relations and major issues concerning global peace and development, as well as provide some stabilising factors to a turbulent world”.
“We hope that the EU can form its own perception of China, pursue its own independent policy towards China,” Xi was reported to have said.
A Chinese foreign ministry official said after a first round of talks involving premier Li Keqiang that the two sides “agreed to work together to maintain peace, stability and prosperity in the world”.
Ukraine has exchanged 86 servicemen with Russia, a senior Kyiv official have said.
“The exchange has just taken place, 86 of Ukraine’s servicemen, including 15 women, are already safe,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian president’s deputy chief of staff said in a video message on Telegram.
The UN’s cultural agency UNESCO has 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.
Hello all.
Gráinne here on the Liveblog for the rest of the evening.
The EU has warned China that it shouldn’t interfere with the sanctions that have been imposed against Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
The Presidents of the European Commission and Council held a virtual meeting with both the Chinese president and prime minister.
Ursula von der Leyen said they had a very “open and frank” exchange with the Chinese leaders. And they discussed the fact that any support to Russia’s ability to wage war, would lead to major reputational damage for China in Europe.
A couple of things to note here: though China is closely aligned to Russia, it cares a lot about its reputation internationally (which cannot be said about the Kremlin). It’s still not clear what side of the fence China will fall on, or how far it will go in its support for, or condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ideally, it would like the invasion to end, but for Russia to not appear too ‘humiliated’ by its defeat.
The Government has given an update on the latest assistance Ireland has given to the Ukrainian defence, and the Ukrainian refugees arriving here.
On 26 March, PPE and nine fully kitted ambulances, a container of urgently needed medical equipment donated by the HSE was sent, with three further shipments completed during the week.
In total, this donation included over 3,600 items consisting of a range of critical care devices including life support, diagnostic, therapeutic and infant care together with a range of consumable devices.
In addition to the donations of medical equipment, a consignment of 18 pallets of pharmaceutical items were dispatched to Ukraine, supplied from HSE stocks.
For the 16,891 Ukrainian refugees, 9,814 of whom have sought emergency accommodation, the Department of Health and HSE are also trying to provide medical equipment.
At Dublin Airport and other ports of entry, there is an immediate medical assessment/ provision of prescriptions for existing conditions; management of minor ailments and first aid requirements, and identification of immediate complex health issues which require pathways into secondary acute or community services.
A simplified and streamlined medical card application process is also in operation for Ukrainian refugees.
For Ukrainian refugees placed in emergency accommodation, the HSE has a system so that they can access GP services and prescriptions. “Enhanced translation services are in place and this information has been shared with all health services including GPs,” the Department said.
Just one death out of thousands affected by the invasion of Ukraine.
Contains additional reporting by AFP and Press Association
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