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A Russian air strike has devastated a maternity hospital in the beleaguered port of Mariupol and wounded at least 17 people, Ukrainian officials said, triggering international condemnation from Washington, London, and the Vatican, among others. The hospital bombing came as humanitarian corridors set up to let civilians flee several besieged cities around Ukraine failed to materialize on the scale expected because of continued fighting, leaving hundreds of thousands trapped without basic supplies because of Moscow's unprovoked invasion. Mariupol's City Council said a Russian attack on the hospital on March 9 caused “colossal” damage, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter that there were “people, children under the wreckage” of the hospital. He called the strike an “atrocity” as authorities try to establish how many people had been killed or wounded. "Children are under the wreckage. This is an atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice by ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity," Zelenskiy wrote referring to his calls for NATO to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
The ground shook more than two kilometers away when the Mariupol complex was hit by a series of blasts that blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building, the AP news agency reported. Police and soldiers rushed to scene to evacuate victims, carrying out a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher. Another woman wailed as she clutched her child. In the courtyard, mangled cars burned, and a blast crater extended at least two stories deep. “Today Russia committed a huge crime,” said Volodymyr Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the wreckage. “It is a war crime without any justification.”
The White House condemned the "barbaric" use of force against civilians. "It is horrifying to see the type of, the barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians in a sovereign country," Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters when questioned about the strike. “There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenseless," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be held “to account for his terrible crimes.”
The Vatican's Secretary of State called the bombing "unacceptable." "I say bombing a hospital is unacceptable. There are no reasons, there are no motivations, to do this," Cardinal Pietro Parolin told journalists who asked him at a conference in Rome about the Russian bombing.
The attack came on a day when Russia said its forces would "observe a regime of silence" from 10 a.m. Moscow time on March 9 to ensure safe passage for civilians wishing to leave Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and the Black Sea port of Mariupol, which the Red Cross has said faces "apocalyptic" conditions. But by late afternoon, officials reported mixed results in shuttling people out of the battle zones, with only safe corridors out of the eastern city of Sumy and the southern city of Enerhodar, the location of Europe's biggest nuclear power plant which Russian forces seized last week, being confirmed.
Russian forces were also reported to be preventing a convoy of 50 buses from evacuating civilians from the town of Bucha just outside of Kyiv, local authorities said, adding that talks continued on allowing the convoy to leave.
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"Russia continues holding hostage over 400,000 people in Mariupol, blocks humanitarian aid and evacuation. Indiscriminate shelling continues," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. "Almost 3,000 newborn babies lack medicine and food."
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described as “absurd” Russia’s insistence that Ukrainians be evacuated through humanitarian corridors leading to Russia. "It's offensive to suggest the Ukrainian people should seek refuge from the very government that has demonstrated such disregard for their lives," Blinken told reporters following a meeting with visiting British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who addressed the issue of NATO establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine as Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian officials have demanded. "The reality is that setting up a no-fly zone would lead to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. And that is not what we are looking at," Truss told reporters when asked if one could be introduced over a humanitarian corridor. "What we are looking at is making sure that the Ukrainians are able to defend their own country with the best possible selection of anti-tank weapons and anti-air defense systems.”
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released fresh civilian casualty figures on March 9. It said that, since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 516 people have been killed and 908 injured.
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It was quick to add in a statement that the agency "believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration."
Sixty seven children have died since the start of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials later said on March 9. The number of people to have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion continues to grow, with the head of the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, estimating on March 9 that the figure has now reached somewhere near 2.2 million people. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a news conference during a visit to Stockholm that "the time is now to try to help at the border," rather than discussions on the division of refugees between countries.
Early on March 9, with Russian missile and artillery attacks intensifying as the war stretched into its 14th day, Zelenskiy reiterated his call for a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine, saying that otherwise, the international community would be responsible for a mass humanitarian catastrophe. But many NATO countries, along with other Western allies, have supplied only defensive weaponry to Kyiv amid threats from Moscow that any aggression against Russian ground or air forces would make the donors a direct party to the conflict and thus open to retaliation.
On the diplomatic front, the European Union continued to tighten sanctions on those "implicated in the Russian aggression in Ukraine," agreeing on new measures targeting another 14 oligarchs, 146 members of Russia's upper house of parliament, and their families. The new sanctions also target the maritime sector and will exclude three Belarusian banks from the SWIFT financial payment messaging system, while also clarifying the issue of cryptocurrencies and giving a complete list of technologies and goods that cannot be sold between Russia and the bloc.
"We are further tightening the net of sanctions responding to Russia's military aggression against Ukraine," European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a tweet. Earlier in the day, Britain, which is not an EU member, unveiled new aviation sanctions under which any Russian plane can be detained while exports of aviation or space-related goods to Russia can also be banned.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on March 9 begins a tour of two European NATO allies, Poland and Romania, to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the impact the war is having on the region, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov travels to Turkey, where he will meet Kuleba, on March 10. Poland has publicly said it is willing to transfer its Russian-made MiG fighter jets to a U.S. military base in Germany to allow the aircraft to be handed over to Ukraine. But the Pentagon quickly dismissed the idea as untenable as warplanes flying from a U.S. and NATO base into airspace contested with Russia would raise the risk of the war expanding beyond Ukraine.
The United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO, says at least 53 culturally important sites have been damaged since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
The damaged sites include 29 churches, 16 historical buildings, four museums and four monuments, UNESCO Deputy Director-General for Culture Ernesto Ottone Ramirez said in Paris on April 1.
"This is the latest list, but it is not exhaustive, as our experts are continuing to verify a number of reports," a spokesperson was quoted as telling AFP.
UNESCO says it is using satellite images and witness reports to verify the damage.
The sites that UNESCO says have been damaged include over a dozen in the eastern Kharkiv region, which has been intensely hit by Russian fire.
Five are in the capital Kyiv while another five are in the Chernihiv region.
UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay wrote to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the beginning of March to remind him that Russia is a signatory to the convention for the protection of cultural heritage at the time of war, the agency said.
Having initially said Moscow had not responded, UNESCO later said it had received an answer, in which Russia said it was aware of its obligations and was "committed" to them.
The U.S. Defense Department has announced it is allotting $300 million in "security assistance" for Ukraine to bolster the country's defense capabilities.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement on April 1 that the gear in the new package includes laser-guided rocket systems, unmanned aircraft, armored vehicles, night-vision devices, ammunition, and medical supplies.
"This decision underscores the United States' unwavering commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in support of its heroic efforts to repel Russia's war of choice," Kirby said.
Kirby added that the U.S. "also continues to work with its allies and partners to identify and provide to the Ukrainians additional capabilities."
The United States has provided more than $1.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its unprovoked war against its neighbor.
China has offered the European Union assurances that it would seek peace in Ukraine on its own terms, deflecting pressure for a tougher stance on Russia over its unprovoked war on Ukraine.
Premier Li Keqiang told EU leaders on April 1 that Beijing would push for peace in "its own way", while President Xi Jinping said he hoped the EU would treat China "independently," in a nod to Europe's close ties with the United States.
The EU told Beijing during the virtual summit with Li and Xi not to allow Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We called on China to help end the war in Ukraine. China cannot turn a blind eye to Russia's violation of international law," European Council President Charles Michel told a news briefing with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"Any attempts to circumvent sanctions or provide aid to Russia would prolong the war," he said.
Li told the EU leaders that China has always sought peace and promoted negotiations and is willing to continue to play a constructive role with the international community, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Michel said the two sides agreed that the war was threatening global security and the global economy
Von der Leyen said leaders from both sides “exchanged very clearly opposing views" on many topics but expressed hopes that China would use its influence as a major power and permanent member of the UN Security Council to convince Russia it should put an end to the war.
Von der Leyen insisted that any support given to Russia's ability to wage its war would lead to “major reputational damage for China" in Europe.
China has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, criticizing punishing economic sanctions brought by the West against Moscow while parroting Russian disinformation about the war.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian earlier warned at a daily briefing that his country “disapproves of solving problems through sanctions, and we are even more opposed to unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law."
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official said on April 2 that China would continue to support talks on a cease-fire, but noted that China’s role should “not be overestimated.”
China has come under increasing international criticism over abuses committed against Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim groups in northwestern Xinjiang Province through mass internment, forced labor, population control, and the elimination of the minorities’ religious beliefs and culture.
Beijing denies abuses, saying it "reeducating" Uyghurs to prevent radical Islam and terrorism.
The United States and many rights groups have alleged that Beijing is carrying out genocide.
Almost 14 percent of China’s total trade is done with the EU, and 12 percent with the United States, compared to just 2.4 percent with Russia.
A Red Cross convoy travelling to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port on April 2 as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country was bracing for scaled-up attacks in the east, while warning that Russian forces were creating a complete “disaster” outside the capital as they leave mines across “the whole territory.”
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The port on the Sea of Azov has been devastated by some of the heaviest urban fighting of the war; thousands are believed to have been killed, and many thousands more have fled.
Tens of thousands there are trapped with scant access to food and water.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent a team on April 1 to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and other private vehicles out of the city, but they turned back, saying conditions made it impossible to proceed.
"They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians," the ICRC said in a statement.
An advisor to Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said he was hopeful about the Mariupol evacuations. "I think that today or maybe tomorrow we will hear good news regarding the evacuation of the inhabitants of Mariupol," Oleksiy Arestovych told Ukrainian television.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a top aide to Zelenskiy, said on his Telegram account that roughly 3,000 people had managed to escape on April 1, and that more than 3,000 had been evacuated from other cities.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy said retreating Russian forces were leaving mines outside of Kyiv, including around homes and corpses.
“They are mining the whole territory. They are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address to the nation. “There are a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers.”
Zelenskiy warned of difficult battles ahead as Russia redeploys troops. “We are preparing for an even more active defense,” he said, adding that he expected violent Russian attacks in the east of his country.
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"The Russian militaries are being accumulated in Donbas, in the Kharkiv direction. They are preparing for new powerful blows."
He did not say anything about the latest round of talks, which took place on April 1 by video.
British military intelligence said on April 2 that Ukrainian forces continued to advance against withdrawing Russian forces near Kyiv, and that Russian troops had abandoned Hostomel airport in a northwest suburb of the capital, where there has been fighting since the first day.
The British daily assessment also said Ukrainian forces had secured a key route in eastern Kharkiv after heavy fighting.
In the early hours on April 2, Russian missiles hit two cities - Poltava and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, Dmytro Lunin, head of the Poltava region, wrote in an online post. He said infrastructure and residential buildings were hit, but he had no casualty estimates.
Russian officials, meanwhile, accused Ukraine of mounting a helicopter attack on a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, not far from the border early April 1. Ukrainian defense officials declined to comment directly on reports.
If confirmed, the attack would be a bold offensive move by Ukraine, which has been under assault from multiple directions since February 24, and it would be the first military attack on Russian soil by a foreign force since World War II.
A new Russian opinion poll shows that President Vladimir Putin has gotten a boost in ratings since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The Levada Center said in a survey released on March 30 that more than 80 percent of Russian respondents support his actions.
The poll was the first Levada has conducted since the conflict began on February 24.
The survey also showed 83 percent of Russians backing Putin, up from 71 percent in early February.
The survey was conducted on March 24-30 in face-to-face interviews with 1,632 Russians across the country. The margin of error was 3.4 percentage points.
The findings match up with those of Kremlin-backed, state-funded pollsters, which also showed Putin's approval ratings at above 80 percent.
Levada is one of Russia's most reputable and longest-operating independent polling agencies.
In 2016, the organization was labeled a "foreign agent" under Russia's draconian "foreign agent" law -- a label that carries Cold War-connotations of espionage or treason.
The law has also been used as a cudgel against civil society groups, nongovernmental organizations, and independent media organizations, including RFE/RL.
That's led to an exodus of reporters, who have fled the country since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Since the invasion, Russian state media have trumpeted Kremlin messaging on the Ukraine war, including promoting falsehoods and outright lies about battlefield successes and about justification for the war.
Kazakhstan will not help Russia to evade Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, a top Kazakh official has said.
In an interview with Euractiv news, however, Timur Suleimenov, the deputy chief of the Kazakh presidential office, said Kazakhstan will continue its economic ties with Russia within the Eurasian Economic Union.
Kazakhstan "will continue to invest in Russia and attract investment for Russia: there is no way for our economy to do it differently," he said. "But we will do our best to control the sanctioned goods.
"We will do our best to control any investment from a sanctioned person or entity in Kazakhstan, and this is something we wanted to convey to Europeans openly," Suleimenov said in the March 29 interview.
He said Kazakh authorities were working to change laws to make it possible to cooperate with Russia without violating sanctions.
Kazakhstan is one of Russia's largest trading partners, and the two countries share a 7,600-kilometer border.
Kazakhstan's government watched warily as Russia first annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and fomented a war in the eastern Donbas. And the government has reportedly been even more concerned about the new invasion of Ukraine, though Kazakh officials have voiced little public criticism.
"Kazakhstan respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine," Suleimenov was quoted as saying, adding that Astana "did not recognize and will not recognize" the Crimean annexation, nor the independence of the two separatist-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine.
"Kazakhstan is not part of this conflict. Yes, we are part of the Eurasian Economic Union but we are an independent state with our own system, and we will abide by the restrictions imposed on Russia and Belarus. We don't want and will not risk being placed in the same basket," Suleimenov said.
The Eurasian Economic Union is a trading bloc dominated by Russia, and includes Belarus, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Kazakhstan. The grouping was conceived by Moscow as a counterweight to the European Union, though experts view it as being mainly a way for Moscow to exert economic leverage over the other countries.
MOSCOW --- Prosecutors are seeking correctional labor sentences for four former editors of the Doxa student magazine in Moscow for allegedly engaging minors in activities that might be "dangerous" because of a video they posted online questioning whether it was right for teachers to discourage students from attending rallies for opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
The request was made on April 1 at the trial in Moscow of Armen Aramyan, Natalya Tyshkevich, Alla Gutnikova, and Vladimir Metyolkin.
The prosecutor wants the four to be handed two years of correctional labor each, while also barring them from being administrators of websites over the same period.
According to Russian legislation, those handed correctional labor sentences must pay the State Treasury a portion of their wages if they are already employed. If they are unemployed, they must work at jobs assigned by the Federal Penitentiary Service during the term of their sentence.
The four journalists were detained in mid-April 2021 for questioning at the Investigation Committee after their homes and the magazine's offices were searched over the video, which the publication posted online in January 2021.
The video questioned teachers' motives as to why they warned students about repercussions they could face for participating in unsanctioned rallies on January 23 and January 31, 2021, in protest at Navalny's arrest.
Doxa editors say the video was deleted from the magazine's website following a demand from Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor to remove it.
More than 10,000 supporters of Navalny were detained across Russia during and after the January rallies. Many of those detained were either fined or handed several-day jail terms. At least 90 were charged with criminal offenses and several have been fired by their employers.
Human rights groups have called on Moscow repeatedly to stop targeting journalists because they are covering the protests or express solidarity with protesters, since both are protected under the right to freedom of expression.
Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17, 2021, upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poisoning in Siberia in August 2020 that several European laboratories concluded was from a military-grade chemical nerve agent.
Navalny has insisted that his poisoning was ordered directly by President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin has denied.
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In February, a Moscow court ruled that while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely regarded as politically motivated.
Navalny's 3 1/2-year suspended sentence from the case was converted to a jail term, though the court said he will serve 2 1/2 years in prison given the amount of time he had been held in detention.
Last week, a court sentenced Navalny to nine years in prison after finding him guilty of embezzlement and contempt charges in a separate case that Navalny and his supporters also rejected as politically motivated.
Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who sought Russian citizenship nearly a decade ago to escape French taxes, has strongly criticized Russian leader Vladimir Putin for his decision to invade Ukraine.
"The Russian people are not responsible for the crazy, unacceptable excesses of their leaders like Vladimir Putin," Depardieu, who has praised Putin in the past, told AFP on March 31
Depardieu, who gained international fame in films like Cyrano De Bergerac, Hamlet, and The Life Of Pi, obtained Russian citizenship in 2013 Putin after criticizing France high taxes. Putin himself an executive order expediting the citizenship process.
In comments made not long after gaining citizenship, Depardieu dismissed his critics, which included Russians: "The Russian opposition has no program; it has nothing."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Depardieu's criticism of Putin, saying he "most likely does not fully understand what is happening."
"If necessary, we will be ready to tell and explain him everything so that he understands. If he wants to," Peskov said.
Days after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the 72-year-old actor called for negotiations to stop the war.
In 2015, Ukraine blacklisted Depardieu and barred him from entering the country for five years for his public statements about Ukraine and Russia.
Media reports at the time quoted Depardieu as saying, "I love Russia and I love Ukraine, which is part of Russia."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Kyrgyz authorities to stop "harassing" independent media after a spate of criminal cases against journalists.
"The Kyrgyz authorities say they protect freedom of expression, yet try to silence critical voices and clamp down on independent media through criminal investigations and bogus charges. The authorities should release Taalaibek Duishenbiev and drop all unfounded charges against him and other media targets that violate the right to freedom of expression," HRW Central Asia researcher Syinat Sultanalieva said in a statement on April 1.
The statement noted the arrest of Duishenbiev, the director of the private Next television channel, for rebroadcasting a report by a Ukrainian television channel in which a fugitive former top Kazakh security official suggested the country would send troops to Ukraine to support Russia's military was an exampled of the stepped-up harassment of the media.
In late March, a court in Bishkek labeled Next TV "extremist" following a request by the Prosecutor-General's Office.
"The authorities should release Taalaibek Duishembiev, and drop all unfounded charges against him and other media targets that violate the right to freedom of expression," Sultanalieva said.
HRW said the media crackdown was taking place against the backdrop of other efforts to censor freedom of speech.
Most notably, HRW said a draft decree on false information, signed by President Sadyr Japarov, "paves the way for state-managed censorship and runs counter to Kyrgyzstan's national and international human rights obligations."
The draft decree allows a person alleging that an outlet has published false information to ask the owners of the website or the social-media page to take down the information. If they refuse, the person would be able to ask a yet-to-be-established Communications Regulation and Supervision Service under the Ministry of Digital Development to suspend the website or page for up to two months.
It also says Internet providers must register their clients in a unified identification system and provide officials with full information related to users if a court or a state organ requests such data, and owners of websites and social-network accounts must have their personal data and e-mail addresses open and accessible to everyone.
"Investigative journalism is an important cornerstone of a free and democratic society, and Kyrgyz authorities should immediately stop trying to stifle it, whether through bogus criminal investigations or oppressive laws. They cannot just pay lip service to the importance of freedom of expression but need to demonstrate they are upholding their international human rights obligations," Sultanalieva said.
The Czech Foreign Ministry urged Russian diplomats to step down so that they are not accomplices to Moscow's "apocalyptic destruction" of Ukraine.
In an open letter posted on Twitter on April 1, the ministry said it was imploring "those of you who have a conscience and who maintain the capacity to recognize evil: take yourself out of this circle of accomplices."
"When the dust of this unjust war finally settles, these elites will be held accountable for war crimes. Russia will face consequences of the responsibility of an apocalyptic destruction of its sovereign neighbor," the letter, written in both English and Russian, said.
"We call on you, those with morals and good hearts, to please, leave this sinking ship, which only attracts the wrath of freedom-loving people around the world," it added.
The Czech Republic, along with several other European Union members, announced the expulsion of some Russian diplomats earlier this week for alleged espionage as Moscow's unprovoked war against Ukraine, launched on February 24, continues to rage.
Russian embassies in the countries affected issued angry statements against the "unfriendly" actions and promised retaliation.
Human Rights Watch has called on Ukraine to investigate any alleged war crimes its troops may have carried out after unverified reports surfaced that Ukrainian soldiers tortured Russian troops captured in the fighting since Moscow launched an attack on its neighbor.
Videos posted online on March 27 appear to show Ukrainian forces abusing captured Russian fighters or combatants, who have prisoner of war status, including shooting three of them in the leg.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the next day that Kyiv took the allegations "very seriously" and would investigate.
"If confirmed, the beating and shooting of captured combatants in their legs would constitute a war crime, and Ukraine needs to demonstrate that it is able and willing to prevent and punish serious violations of international humanitarian law," Human Rights Watch said in a statement on April 1.
Human Rights Watch has previously warned Russia for acts is has committed that may be considered war crimes, including air strikes on a theater in the port city of Mariupol, which Ukrainian officials say was sheltering civilians when it was hit. Around 300 people were reportedly killed in the bombing.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has opened an investigation into potential war crimes by either side in the conflict in Ukraine.
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, says he will lead a support and assistance mission to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant "as soon as possible."
"It will be the first in a series of such nuclear safety and security missions to #Ukraine," Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a tweet on April 1.
Grossi was in Ukraine this week for talks with senior government officials on the delivery of "urgent technical assistance" to ensure the safety and security of the country’s nuclear facilities.
He is expected to hold a news conference later on April 1 upon his return to Vienna.
Previously Grossi has said he is “extremely concerned” about the situation in Ukraine after Russia launched an unprovoked invasion.
Russian forces have taken control of several of Ukraine's nuclear sites, including Chernobyl, where one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents occurred in 1986.
Ukrainian staff have continued to manage the site even after Russian forces took control of the plant on February 24, the day that Moscow launched the invasion.
The Chernobyl plant is located north of Kyiv and close to the Belarusian border. Its nuclear reactors are enclosed in a giant steel and concrete sarcophagus and are not operating.
Although the plant is decommissioned, it needs electricity to power cooling systems for the spent nuclear fuel storage facility and other systems. Tons of waste at the plant must be constantly cooled to keep radiation from leaking.
ARKHANGELSK, Russia -- A court in Russia has reinstated the prison sentence of an associate of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, reversing an appeal court decision that ordered a retrial of Andrei Borovikov for “distributing pornography” by sharing a video by the German rock band Rammstein.
A court in Russia's northwestern city of Arkhangelsk ruled on April 1 that the 27-month prison sentence handed to Borovikov in 2021 must be reinstated. It did not disclose the reasoning behind the decision.
Borovikov was initially sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in April 2021 after a court found him guilty of distributing a video clip from the Rammstein song "Pussy,” which was deemed to be pornographic by Russian authorities though it was not officially banned. The prison term was later trimmed by three months.
Earlier this year, a court of appeals struck down the sentence and sent the case back for retrial.
Amnesty International has called the case "utterly absurd," saying that Borovikov was being “punished solely for his activism, not his musical taste.”
Borovikov is an eco-activist and a former coordinator of one of Navalny's regional offices.
Many of Navalny’s associates and supporters have left Russia in recent months amid a crackdown by the Kremlin on those around Russian President Vladimir Putin's most-vocal critic.
Last June, the Moscow City Court designated all organizations linked to Navalny as extremist, preventing people associated with the anti-corruption campaigner and his network of regional offices across Russia from seeking public office.
The music video posted by Borovikov in 2014 came to the authorities’ attention in 2020 when a former volunteer at his office informed the police. Amnesty International said it suspected the volunteer was employed as an agent provocateur to help fabricate the case.
Rammstein guitarist Richard Kruspe expressed his support for Borovikov after his sentence was handed down.
Russian soprano Anna Netrebko's concert in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk has been canceled after she condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The Opera and Ballet Theater in Novosibirsk said in a statement on March 31 that Netrebko's concert scheduled for June 2 had been canceled due to a Facebook statement she made a day earlier where she wrote "I expressly condemn the war against Ukraine and my thoughts are with the victims of this war and their families."
Netrebko added that she is "not a member of any political party, nor am I allied with any leader of Russia.”
In announcing the cancelation of the concert, the theater accused Netrebko of choosing European stages over her "Motherland's fate" by making the statement.
Netrebko had announced last month that she was retiring from concert life after her performances with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, and Metropolitan Opera in New York were canceled because she refused to publicly distance herself from President Vladimir Putin in the wake of Russia's unprovoked full-scale attack against Ukraine that started on February 24. She said in her Facebook statement that she has met Putin “only a handful of times” and these meetings were “most notably on the occasion of receiving awards” and at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi.
“I have otherwise never received any financial support from the Russian government, and live and am a tax resident in Austria," Netrebko wrote, adding that she had decided to resume performing in late May.
The 50-year-old singer is no stranger to controversy.
In December 2014, Netrebko was in the center of a scandal over her decision to donate a significant amount of money to Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
Netrebko's announcement comes amid sanctions imposed by the West on organizations and individuals supporting Putin and his associates over the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Many high profile Russian artists have lost their positions or had shows canceled for failing to distance themselves from Russia's leadership and the war.
Conductor and Kremlin loyalist Valery Gergiyev -- the man who discovered Netrebko -- was fired on March 1 from his position as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. The 68-year-old's dismissal came after he did not respond to demands by the orchestra that he distance himself from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Some Russian stars have been vocal in their opposition to the war and have chosen to leave the country.
Olga Smirnova, the principal dancer for the famed Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, left Russia for the Netherlands in protest at the war against Ukraine.
Chulpan Khamatova, a prominent Russian actress known for roles in international films, has said she is now in exile in Latvia.
Eight people have been killed and 20 others injured after an explosion at the Soko coal mine in eastern Serbia.
The accident happened at around 5 a.m. local time on April 1, when part of the pit mine collapsed after what officials said may have been a methane-gas blast.
Rodoljub Zivadinovic, director of the nearby Aleksinac Health Center, said there are fears more people could be trapped in the mine.
He said the mine's management told him that a total of 49 miners were on duty when the accident occurred.
An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol says Russia is blocking aid from getting to the besieged city and is preventing a planned "humanitarian corridor" from opening to allow civilians to escape heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Petro Andryushchenko said in a post on Facebook on April 1 that Mariupol remained closed to an aid convoy trying to get badly needed supplies into the city, where tens of thousands of residents remain trapped with no electricity and few basic supplies.
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"The city remains closed to entry and very dangerous to exit by private transport," Andryushchenko said.
"Since yesterday (March 31), Russian forces have categorically not allowed any humanitarian aid, even in small quantities, into the city. The reasons for such actions are still unclear, but this is disappointing. We do not see a real desire from the Russians to allow Mariupol residents to evacuate to other territory controlled by Ukraine," he added.
Ukrainian officials said on March 31 that a convoy of 45 buses was headed to Mariupol to deliver aid and leave with residents who have been trapped for weeks in the city. Russian military officials had said they were willing to adhere to a cease-fire to allow for the opening of a "humanitarian corridor."
Russian officials did not comment immediately on the situation, but several similar agreements have been reached in the past, only to collapse before their implementation.
The southern port city, home to some 430,000 people before the war, has seen intense fighting for weeks amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian attacks have struck a maternity hospital, fire department locations, cultural venues, and civilian homes.
Tens of thousands of civilians are said to be trapped in the city with no electricity and extremely limited food and water supplies.
No media source currently available
On March 30, an aid warehouse for the International Committee of the Red Cross was hit by what Ukrainian authorities say was a Russian air strike even though the building's roof is clearly marked with the Red Cross' symbol.
Russia launched its unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24.
The European Union is expected to seek assurances from Beijing that it won't assist Russia in bypassing economic sanctions imposed over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine at a virtual summit between the 27-member bloc and China on April 1.
EU officials say they will also look for indications that China is ready to cooperate on bringing an end to the war.
The two sides are also scheduled to discuss Beijing’s travel ban on members of the European Parliament, China’s economic boycott of EU member Lithuania over the latter's relations with Taiwan, the status of a stalled investment agreement, and civil and political rights in authoritarian China.
China has come under increasing international criticism over abuses committed against Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim groups in northwestern Xinjiang Province through mass internment, forced labor, population control, and the elimination of the minorities’ religious beliefs and culture.
Beijing denies abuses, saying it is "reeducating" Uyghurs to prevent radical Islam and terrorism.
The United States and many rights groups have alleged that Beijing is carrying out genocide.
China has refused to condemn Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, criticizing punishing economic sanctions brought by the West against Moscow while parroting Russian disinformation about the war.
“We are looking for assurances that China has no intention of providing an economic lifeline or other support to Russia during this war,” an EU official told reporters on March 31, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
Almost 14 percent of China’s total trade is done with the EU, and 12 percent with the United States, compared to just 2.4 percent with Russia.
European Council President Charles Michel, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will first meet with Chinese officials led by Premier Li Keqiang, then later with President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
British military intelligence said on April 1 that Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka to the south of Ukraine's northern city 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 Defense said.
It added that both Chernihiv and Kyiv have been subjected to continued air and missile strikes despite Russian claims of reducing activity in these areas.
A Russian fuel depot not far from the Ukrainian border has exploded and Russian officials say Ukrainian forces used helicopters to attack the facility.
Ukrainian defense officials declined to comment directly on reports that Ukrainian forces were behind the April 1 attack. The secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council outright denied the report
If confirmed, it would be the first attack on Russian soil by Ukraine since Moscow invaded more than a month ago. It would also be the first military attack on Russian soil by a foreign force since World War II.
Video posted to social media early on April 1 showed an explosion and flames in the predawn night sky near Belgorod, which is around 25 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
Other videos showed what they said were helicopters near Belgorod firing rockets or missiles.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, meanwhile, said on messaging app Telegram that the helicopters struck the facility after crossing the border at low altitude. Gladkov said that two workers were injured.
Speaking to reporters, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman refused to comment directly on whether its forces were responsible for the blast, but said its armed forces were conducting "defense operations" against Russia more broadly.
"Ukraine is currently conducting a defensive operation against Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine, and this does not mean that Ukraine is responsible for every catastrophe on Russia's territory," Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said. "I will not confirm or deny these allegations."
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, later issued an outright denial. "For some reason they say that we did it, but in fact this does not correspond with reality," Danilov said on Ukrainian television.
State-owned oil company Rosneft, which owns the fuel depot, said in a separate statement that no one was hurt in the fire. It gave no information on the cause.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, said the incident could undermine the negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives.
"Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks," Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
Negotiators have resumed talks to end Russia's 37-day-old war on Ukraine as humanitarian aid groups struggled to get food and supplies into the besieged city of Mariupol and Ukrainian forces pushed back Russian troops from the capital and another northern city.
The new round of talks on April 1 comes four days after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met for the first time for face-to-face talks in Istanbul.
"We are continuing talks by video conference," Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said on Telegram. "Our positions on Crimea and the Donbas have not changed."
The fresh round of talks comes after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held face-to-face talks in Istanbul on March 28.
Ahead of the start of the talks, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said Turkey and Germany had offered to serve as security guarantors in any eventual agreement.
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Turkey's president earlier voiced optimism about the talks, though there have been few indications of major progress.
In Mariupol, a local official said Russia continued to block aid from getting into the city despite a pledge to open a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to escape.
The port on the Sea of Azov has been devastated by some of the heaviest urban fighting of the war; thousands are believed to have been killed, and many thousands more have fled.
Ukrainian officials had said a convoy of 45 buses was headed to Mariupol to deliver aid and leave with residents who have been trapped for weeks in the city with little food, water, and other supplies.
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor, said in a post on Facebook that the city remained closed on April 1 to the aid convoy.
"The city remains closed to entry and very dangerous to exit by private transport," Andryushchenko said.
In the north, Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka near the northern city of Chernihiv and located along main supply routes between the city and Kyiv, British military intelligence said on April 1.
"Ukraine has also continued to make successful but limited counterattacks to the east and north east of Kyiv," Britain's Ministry of Defense 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 in a statement.
No media source currently available
The Ukrainian military said in its daily update on April 1 that some Russian forces from northern Kyiv were withdrawing toward the border with Belarus.
The Russian columns include buses, trucks, and vans, which were stolen by Russian forces, the Ukrainian military said, accusing Russian forces of taking looted property.
Western officials have downplayed suggestions the Russian forces were withdrawing, saying instead they were likely repositioning and resupplying -- and possibly gearing up for a new offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
Russian officials, meanwhile, accused Ukraine of mounting a helicopter attack on a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, not far from the border early April 1. Ukrainian defense officials declined to comment directly on reports.
If confirmed, it would be the first Ukrainian air strike on Russian soil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised his troops' advances in his daily video address late on March 31, but warned of "battles ahead" in the Donbas and Mariupol.
Zelenskiy also said he was stripping two generals of their ranks for unspecified offenses.
"Right now I don't have time to deal with all the traitors, but gradually all of them will be punished," he said.
Across the continent, European buyers of Russian gas faced an April 1 deadline to start paying in rubles after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to halt gas contracts unless the countries pay in the Russian currency -- a demand several European countries have rejected.
But despite the standoff, Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said pipelines were still sending gas westwards on April 1.
There will be 104.4 million cubic meters of gas pumped to Europe on April 1, said Gazprom spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov in comments reported by the Interfax news agency. That is almost the maximum daily amount allowed under current contracts.
The announcement indicates that shipments continue despite the Kremlin threats to shut off the taps unless payments for gas start coming in rubles.
European governments have said they would study a mechanism that Putin put forth allowing customers to send foreign currency to a designated account at Russia's Gazprombank, which would then return rubles for the gas purchases.
Several European governments say Putin's demand for ruble payments would be a breach of the contracts.
As the gas payment issue headed for a showdown in Europe, U.S. President Joe Biden launched the largest release ever from the U.S. oil reserve -- 1 million barrels per day -- to provide Americans with some relief when filling up their tanks.
Oil prices tumbled after Biden made the announcement, which he said was aimed at fighting soaring gas prices sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, announced on April 1 that he will lead a support and assistance mission to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant "as soon as possible."
"It will be the first in a series of such nuclear safety and security missions to #Ukraine," Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a tweet on April 1.
Previously, Grossi had said he was "extremely concerned” after Russian forces took control of several of Ukraine's nuclear sites, including Chernobyl, where of one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents occurred in 1986.
Grossi is expected to hold a news conference later on April 1 upon his return to Vienna.
A municipal lawmaker in the Siberian city of Omsk has been charged with "spreading false information about the use of the Russian Federation's armed forces." The charge against Dmitry Petrenko, who was detained on March 29, stems from his recent online posts and articles about Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The Kuibyshev district court in Omsk said on March 31 that parole-like restrictions had been imposed on Petrenko until at least May 28 as investigations against him proceed. The restrictions include a ban on using the Internet and other communication tools without investigators' permission, attending public events and gatherings, sending and receiving regular mail, and talking to the media about the case. The court said Petrenko may face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. According to a recently adopted law on the distribution of false information about the use of Russian armed forces, a person convicted of such a crime may face up to 15 years in prison if his or her actions led to "serious consequences." The new law and other measures enacted since the invasion began on February 24 have criminalized distributing allegedly "false information" about the military, diplomatic missions, and state bodies. The new legislation also restricts coverage of what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" to officially sourced information. Several broadcasters, both local and international, have suspended operations in Russia due to the restrictions and potential penalties. Petrenko, who is an independent lawmaker, used to be a member of the Communist Party. Last year he was expelled from the party’s ranks after he tried to register violations at local elections.
U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve in a bid to control energy prices for U.S. consumers.
Prices have increased since the United States and allies imposed tough sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
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Tapping into the U.S. petroleum reserve is designed to reduce prices, though Biden has twice ordered smaller releases from the U.S. reserves without causing a meaningful shift in oil markets. “The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,” Biden said. “This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families.” The White House said the scale of this release is unprecedented. “This record release will provide a historic amount of supply to serve as bridge until the end of the year when domestic production ramps up,” it said. Biden made the announcement on March 31 during a White House briefing at which he also said Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be self-isolating and may have placed some of his advisers under "house arrest." Biden did not cite evidence for his comment and told reporters that he did not "want to put too much stock in that at this time." Biden made the comments in response to a question about the information that Putin has been receiving about the war.
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said on March 30 that Putin has been misled by advisers, and earlier on March 31, British intelligence chief Jeremy Fleming said that demoralized Russian soldiers in Ukraine were refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their own equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft. Fleming added that Putin had apparently “massively misjudged” the invasion. Biden also said he was "skeptical" about Moscow's claim to be scaling back its onslaught in parts of the country.
All Russian troops who occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power station after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine have left the decommissioned plant, Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom said on March 31. The troops headed toward Ukraine's border with Belarus, Energoatom said. "According to the staff of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, there are now no outsiders on site," Energoatom said in a statement. State-owned Energoatom had earlier said most troops had gone, leaving only a small number behind. The operator said that the Russian military also left Slavutych, a nearby town where Chernobyl workers live.
Energoatom also said Russian troops got “significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches at the highly contaminated site. Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the troops or how many were affected. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had not been able to confirm reports of Russian troops receiving high doses, according to the AP news agency. It said it was seeking more information.
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Russian troops seized control of Chernobyl soon after the February 24 invasion, but the plant's Ukrainian staff continued to oversee operations there. Although the plant is decommissioned, it needs electricity to power cooling systems for the spent nuclear-fuel storage facility and other systems. Tons of waste at the plant must be constantly cooled to keep radiation from leaking. Earlier this week, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk demanded that Russian forces occupying the power station pull out of the area after Ukraine's armed forces warned of the danger of ammunition exploding at the site. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, traveled to Ukraine on March 29 for talks with senior government officials on the delivery of "urgent technical assistance" to ensure the safety and security of the country’s nuclear facilities.
Grossi arrived on March 31 in the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad for talks on April 1 with senior Russian officials. The IAEA didn’t provide further details of his agenda. Ukraine has 15 active nuclear reactors at four plants, one of which, at Zaporizhzhya, is under the Russian military’s control. The head of Energoatom on March 31 urged the UN nuclear watchdog to help ensure Russian nuclear officials do not interfere in the operation of Chernobyl and the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
The United States has slapped sanctions on several Russian technology firms, including its largest chipmaker, and people associated with them over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement on March 31 that it imposed sanctions on 13 people and 21 entities, including Joint Stock Company Mikron, the largest Russian manufacturer and exporter of microelectronics and Russia's largest chipmaker.
The U.S. Treasury said the sanctions target networks and technology companies that are "instrumental" to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The department also expanded authorities to include the aerospace, marine, and electronics sectors of the Russian economy, allowing Washington to impose penalties on any person or entity determined to operate in those sectors. The move also takes aim at "malicious cyber actors," the Treasury Department said.
"Russia not only continues to violate the sovereignty of Ukraine with its unprovoked aggression but also has escalated its attacks striking civilians and population centers," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a news release. "We will continue to target Putin's war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over," she added. Also named on the new sanctions list are AO NII-Vektor, a software and communication technology firm; hardware sector company T-Platforms; and Molecular Electronics Research Institute (MERI), which does work for the Russian government, the Treasury said. The new sanctions also apply to Moscow-based OOO Serniya Engineering, which the Treasury Department said is at the center of a network that seeks to evade sanctions. Several people alleged to be working on behalf of Serniya are named on the new sanctions list. The measures are the latest in a series of sanctions imposed on Russia and its allies since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24. The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by the individuals and the entities targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions, the Treasury said.
For its part, Russia said it had greatly expanded the number of European Union officials, lawmakers, public figures, and journalists barred from Russia for allegedly being responsible for sanctions and stoking anti-Russian feelings. "The restrictions apply to the top leadership of the European Union, including a number of European commissioners and heads of EU military structures, as well as the vast majority of members of the European Parliament who promote anti-Russian policies," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree forcing some purchasers of Russian gas to set up a special account to pay for their supplies as the country tries to cope with the impact of Western sanctions imposed because of Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last month. Putin said after signing the decree that, from April 1, buyers of Russian gas from what Russia deems "unfriendly" countries would have to set up special "K-accounts" to transfer their payments. Once the payment is received, the funds will be exchanged into rubles. The entire payment facility will be set up and run through Russia's Gazprombank, a subsidiary of state energy giant Gazprom.
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Putin also said any country refusing to use the payment mechanism will be in violation of their contracts and face "corresponding repercussions." European leaders have rejected paying for deliveries in rubles, saying such a move would undermine sanctions imposed on Moscow because of the war in Ukraine. It is not clear if Russia can demand that buyers with contracts already agreed upon use the mechanism. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the gas contracts stipulate payment mostly in euros and sometimes in dollars. He said he made clear to Putin in a phone call on March 30 “that it will stay that way.” Berlin will look closely at Putin's decree, he said, but added: "In any case, what goes for companies is that they want to and will be able to pay in euros.” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said it is "crucial" that the contracts are respected and important for European countries "not to give a signal that we will be blackmailed by Putin." Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said earlier that he had received assurances from Putin that Europe would not have to pay in rubles. Draghi said Putin assured him during a phone call on March 30 that "existing contracts remain in force...European companies will continue to pay in dollars and euros." Draghi said analysis was under way “to understand what it means,” including whether European companies can continue to pay as they have been. “The feeling is one I have had since the beginning, that it is absolutely not simple to change the currency of payments without violating the contracts,'' Draghi said.
Britain also does not plan to pay for Russian gas in rubles. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman told reporters: "That is not something we will be looking to do." Among the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia are heavy restrictions in the financial sector, including a freezing of Russia's foreign currency reserves. The move has caused the ruble to plunge, and restricted Russia's ability to participate in international financial transactions. The United States has already banned the import of Russian oil and gas, while the European Union, which has continued to receive natural gas from Russia since the invasion of Ukraine was launched on February 24, have said they are looking at ways to decrease the bloc's dependence on Russian gas.
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