US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin have held talks with Vladimir Zelensky, a local Ukrainian news adviser said. Zelenski is expected to use the meeting to appeal for more US military aid.
Russia is planning a “phased referendum in the southern city of Kherson to justify its occupation,” the UK Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence report. “The city is key to Russia’s goal of building a land bridge to Crimea and dominating southern Ukraine,” the ministry said.
Igor Zhovkva, Zelensky’s top diplomatic adviser, criticized the upcoming meeting of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, saying Guterres “really” does not have the authority to speak on behalf of Ukraine.
Zelensky tweeted his congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on winning the French presidential election and called Macron a “true friend of Ukraine.”
Dozens of civilians killed during the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha have been killed by small metal arrows from type shells fired by Russian artillery, forensic doctors said. Flashlights are an anti-personnel weapon widely used during the First World War.
The latest UNHCR figures reveal that almost 5.2 million Ukrainians have fled the country. More than 1,151,000 Ukrainians have left in April so far, up from 3.4 million in March. In addition, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 7.7 million people have been displaced in Ukraine.
The OSCE, the world’s largest security body, said it was “extremely concerned” after several of its Ukrainian members were believed to have been arrested in pro-Russian separatist territories in the east.
In his Easter message, Zelensky said that the religious holiday “gives us great hope and unshakable faith that light will defeat darkness, good will defeat evil, life will defeat death, and therefore Ukraine will certainly win.”
Pope Francis is using Orthodox Easter weekend to call for a truce in Ukraine again, “to alleviate the suffering of exhausted people”.
Ukraine claims that hundreds of its forces and civilians have been trapped at the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, which Russia has been trying to take over for two months. Although Moscow had earlier declared victory in Mariupol and said its forces should not take over the factory, Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces have resumed air strikes and are trying to storm the plant.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Zelenski discussed Mariupol during a telephone conversation. Turkey is ready to provide all possible assistance during the talks between Ukraine and Russia, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday.
The UN has called for an “immediate halt” to fighting in Mariupol so that civilian trapped civilians can be evacuated.
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