Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
– Nearly 1,000 Mariupol fighters remain: separatist –
More than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers including senior commanders, remain inside the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol, a pro-Russian separatist leader, Denis Pushilin, says.
Russia says that a total of 959 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered at the plant, including 80 wounded, since Monday.
It said that the injured are being treated in a hospital in a part of the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
Kyiv’s defence ministry says it will do “everything necessary” to rescue the personnel still in the plant’s tunnels.
Ukraine says it hopes to exchange Azovstal fighters for Russian soldiers it is holding.
– First war crimes trial starts –
A 21-year-old Russian soldier pleads guilty to killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian at a war crimes trial in Kyiv, in the first such case to go to court since the start of the offensive.
Vadim Shishimarin from Irkutsk in Siberia admitted gunning down the 62-year-old man near the central village of Chupakhivka to prevent him reporting a carjacking by fleeing Russian troops.
He faces possible life imprisonment for war crimes and premeditated murder after the case heard by a district court in Kyiv.
“By this first trial, we are sending a clear signal that every perpetrator, every person who ordered or assisted in the commission of crimes in Ukraine shall not avoid responsibility,” Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Iryna Venediktova tweeted.
– Finland, Sweden submit NATO bids –
Finland and Sweden submit their bids to join NATO, sealing their decision to jettison decades of military non-alignment, despite threats of reprisals from Moscow.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg calls it a “historic step”. He has promised to welcome them “with open arms” despite Turkey’s threat to veto their membership over its claim that the Nordic neighbours harbour members of armed groups opposed to Ankara.
NATO ambassadors are expected to discuss the applications on Wednesday.
Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden fear they could be future targets of Russian aggression following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Public support in the two countries for NATO membership skyrocketed after the war began.
– Moscow expels dozens of diplomats –
Russia expels dozens of French, Italian and Spanish diplomats in tit-for-tat responses to the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the Ukraine conflict.
The foreign ministry says 27 Spanish, 24 Italian and 34 French diplomats have been declared “persona non grata”.
All three countries condemn the move, with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi calling it a “hostile act” which will make resolving the war through peaceful means more difficult.
– Peace talks on hold –
Russia and Ukraine both admit that peace talks have stalled, with both accusing the other of blocking progress.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of failing to find areas for compromise.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blames the “complete lack of will of Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process.”
The two sides reported progress at talks in Istanbul in late March but the process stalled shortly after, following revelations of atrocities in towns that were controlled by Russian forces.
– Russia closes CBC offices –
Russia says it is closing the Moscow offices of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in retaliation for Ottawa’s banning of Russian state media outlet RT.
– US ends debt exemption –
The United States will likely end an exemption allowing Moscow to pay its foreign debts with dollars held in Russia, the US treasury secretary Janet Yellen says, a move that could push it into default.
– Russian fire intensifies in north –
Russian forces have intensified artillery fire on Ukrainian border settlements around the city of Sumy to the north and close to the Russian border and Chernihiv to the east of the capital over the past few weeks, the Ukrainian army reports.
Moscow has switched its focus from the north to Donbas, a region near the Russian border that is home to pro-Russian separatists.
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