Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
– Civilian evacuation paused –
Ukraine says it is pausing the evacuation of civilians from the war-scarred east of the country for a day because of a failure to agree terms with Russian forces.
“As of this morning, April 17, we have not been able to agree with the occupiers on a ceasefire on the evacuation routes. That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk stated.
– Military plant hit: Russia –
Russia’s defence ministry says it has struck a military plant outside Kyiv, as Moscow intensifies its attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
“During the night, high-precision, air-launched missiles destroyed an ammunitions factory near the settlement of Brovary, Kyiv region,” the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
– ‘Inhuman’ situation in Mariupol –
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the situation in the eastern city of Mariupol is “inhuman”, warning the “elimination” of the last Ukrainian troops defending would end peace talks with Russia.
“Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there,” he says in a video address.
– Russian ultimatum –
Russia’s defence ministry says it has cleared the whole of Mariupol’s “urban area” of Ukrainian forces.
They say the only remaining Ukrainian soldiers are in the Azovstal metalworks — and that their only chance to live is to “lay down their arms and surrender”.
– Pope urges peace during ‘Easter of war’ –
Pope Francis on Sunday calls for peace in Ukraine during this “Easter of war” as he delivers the traditional Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi address on St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” the pontiff says.
– ‘Useless’ talking to Putin: Draghi –
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has complained in a newspaper interview that Western diplomatic efforts to persuade Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine had so far led nowhere.
“I am beginning to think that those people are right when they say ‘It is useless to talk to him, it’s just a waste of time’,” Draghi told the daily Il Corriere della Sera, adding Putin’s goal appeared not peace but “to annihilate the Ukrainian resistance, occupy the country and entrust it to a friendly government.”
– Sanctions and reprisals –
Amid escalating tit-for-tat sanctions, Russia bans entry to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and several of his senior ministers.
The Kremlin also steps up a crackdown on dissent at home, adding nine prominent Kremlin critics and journalists to its growing list of “foreign agents”.
A Russian court orders the pre-trial jailing of a Siberian news editor for alleging that 11 riot police refused to join the military campaign in Ukraine.
– Three killed in de-mining operation –
Three sappers have been killed and four wounded while trying to clear mines near the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s interior minister Denys Monastyrsky says.
– Russia says shot down arms shipment –
Russia’s defence ministry claims to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane carrying weapons supplied by western countries in the Odessa region.
– No homes to return to: UN –
Many of the nearly five million people who have fled Ukraine will not have homes to return to, the United Nations warns.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, says 4,836,445 million Ukrainians have left the country since the Russian invasion on February 24 — up 40,200 on Friday’s total.
