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The Kremlin has said there are no plans for an Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, Russian state media reported. So far, there havent been any initiatives on this matter but our Holy Week has just begun, Russias state-run Tass news agency quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying. His comments came after the Institute for the Study of War warned that Russia may try to use the upcoming Orthodox Easter holiday on 16 April to delay Ukrainian counteroffensives by calling for a ceasefire out of respect for religion.

Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraines ground forces, has accused Russian troops of using scorched earth tactics in the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut. The situation in Bakhmut was difficult but controllable, he said, adding that the defence of the city continued. His claims have not been independently verified.

The Russian-installed head of Ukraines Donetsk region said Russian forces controlled more than 75% of the besieged city of Bakhmut. It was still too soon to announce a total victory in the battle over Bakhmut, Denis Pushilin said on state television while visiting the embattled city in eastern Ukraine. His claims have not been verified.

A Russian fighter jet nearly shot down a British surveillance plane last year, according to a leaked US military document circulating online. The near miss occurred on 29 September off the coast of Crimea, the Washington Post reported, citing the document which is among a number apparently leaked from the Pentagon. The authenticity of the documents has not been verified.

Ukraine has been forced to amend some of its military plans before an anticipated counteroffensive due to a leak of highly classified Pentagon documents, according to a report. One of the documents, citing signals intelligence collected using intercepted communications, outlines how the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in late February suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russias Rostov oblast using unmanned aerial vehicles. Ukraines presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Kyivs strategic plans remained unchanged but that more specific tactical plans were always subject to change.

The US defence department has said an interagency effort is assessing the impact that leaked intelligence documents, many concerning the war in Ukraine, could have on US national security and on its allies and partners. Officials say the breadth of topics addressed in the documents which touch on the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa suggest they may have been leaked by an American rather than an ally.

South Koreas main opposition party has urged the government to verify the Pentagon documents, which include claims that the US attempted to eavesdrop on senior officials in Seoul over arms sales. The floor leader of the Democratic party, Park Hong-keun, made the demand after reports that CIA operatives had been monitoring an internal discussion about concerns that artillery shells South Korea planned to sell to the US could ultimately end up in Ukraine.

The documents suggest that without a huge boost in munitions, Ukraines air defences could be in peril, allowing the Russian air force to change the course of the war, the New York Times has reported. One of the documents, dated 23 February and marked Secret, outlines in detail how Ukraines Soviet-era S-300 air defence systems would be depleted by 2 May at the current usage rate.

Russia plans to increase air defences over its north-western border to counter Finlands accession to Nato, a commander in its aerospace forces has said. Lt Gen Andrei Demin, the deputy commander-in-chief of aerospace forces, also said further reforms of Russian air defences were undoubtedly planned and will be implemented.

More than 200 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have returned home in a prisoner swap, according to both sides. Russias defence ministry said 106 Russian soldiers were released from Ukrainian custody as part of an agreement with Ukraine. Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to the Ukrainian president, said Russia freed 100 Ukrainian prisoners.

Only 1,800 civilians are still living in the ruins of Avdiivka, the embattled eastern Ukrainian city that had a prewar population of 32,000, according to the local governor. The Russians have turned Avdiivka into a total ruin, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsks regional governor. In a separate statement, the Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were continuing to mount offensive operations around Avdiivka but were suffering heavy losses of personnel and equipment.

Russia continues to prioritise operations around Donetsk in eastern Ukraine expending significant resources for minimal gains, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in its daily briefing. The MoD said that over the past seven days Russia had increased armoured assaults around Marinka, a small town about 12 miles (20km) south-west of Donetsk city.

The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, held a meeting on Monday with Russias defence minister, Sergei Shoigu. Lukashenko said he needed guarantees that Russia will defend Belarus like its own territory in the case of aggression, state media reported.

Brazils president, Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, this week where the pair will talk about the war in Ukraine, Brazils foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, said. Lula, who is due to arrive in China on Tuesday and meet Xi on Friday, is hoping to promote his proposal for mediated talks to end the war.

Ukraine would like India to be engaged and involved in helping resolve its conflict with Russia to a great extent, its first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova has said. Dzhaparova, the first Ukrainian minister to travel to India since Russias full-scale invasion, said the Ukrainian president had requested a phone conversation with Indias prime minister, Narendra Modi.

The Kremlin has said it is hard to imagine France playing a role in brokering peace in Ukraine, since Paris is both indirectly and directly involved in this conflict on the side of Ukraine. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, visited China last week, where he urged his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to bring Russia back to reason over the war in Ukraine.

Russian journalists and rights activists have appealed for the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent opposition politician who faces up to 25 years in jail on charges including treason. Prosecutors last week requested a 25-year sentence for Kara-Murza, one of a small number of prominent opposition figures who stayed in Russia, who has been on trial in a closed court in Moscow on charges his supporters say are politically motivated.

A Russian court has sentenced two men to 19 years in prison each for setting fire to a government building in a demonstration against the war in Ukraine. Roman Nasryev, a former driver for the Russian national guard, and Alexei Nuriev, an officer in the emergency situations ministry, threw a molotov cocktail on 11 October 2022 into an administrative building in the town of Bakal in Russias Chelyabinsk region in protest of the war in Ukraine and Russias partial mobilisation.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia nearly shot down British spy plane near Ukraine, alleged leaked US document claims as it happened - The Guardian

Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of several classified US military documents posted on social media, US officials told Reuters. The news agency reported that they said the documents offer a partial, month-old snapshot of the war and appear to have been doctored to downplay Russian losses.

The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was charged with espionage in Russia and entered an official denial, the Associated Press (AP) reported, citing the Russian state news agency Tass. Leaders of both the Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate denounced Gershkovichs arrest and called for his immediate release, in a rare joint statement.

Ukraine said on Friday that Russia was concentrating all its efforts on capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, where it described the situation as difficult but said it was holding out despite Russias numerical superiority. Eastern Military Command spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi said that Ukraine controlled the situation in Bakhmut, understood Russian intentions and that Moscow had tactical success in some places but was paying a high price for it.

Earlier, the UK Ministry of Defence said in its daily intelligence briefing that Russian forces have highly likely advanced into the [Bakhmut] town centre, and has seized the West Bank of the Bakhmutka River. Ukraines key supply route to the west of the town is likely severely threatened.

The Pentagon is investigating a reported security breach after documents providing details of US and Nato plans to help prepare Ukraine for a spring offensive against Russia were leaked to social media platforms, the New York Times reports. The documents were spread on Twitter and Telegram, and reportedly contain charts and details about weapons deliveries, battalion strengths and other sensitive information, the Times said. Information in the documents is at least five weeks old, with the most recent dated 1 March, the report said.

The documents also detail expenditure rates for munitions under Ukraine military control, including for the Himars rocket systems, the US-made artillery rocket systems that have proved highly effective against Russian forces. The New York Times report quotes military analysts who warn that some documents appear to have been altered in a disinformation campaign by Russia. In one document Ukrainian troop deaths are inflated and Russian battlefield losses are minimised.

The Ukrainian headquarters of the armed forces supreme command has discussed measures to prevent leaks of military information at a meeting. The presidential statement made no mention of a leak having occurred. Kyiv also dismissed the leaked documents as a Russian disinformation effort.

Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday during a news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlt avuolu, that obstacles to Russian agricultural exports were increasing, and that they had discussed what Lavrov described as a failure to implement the terms of the Black Sea grain initiative. avuolu said he agreed with Russia on the need to lift restrictions on Russian grain and fertiliser exports before the deal could be extended further.

Imports of Ukrainian grain to Poland will be temporarily halted to mitigate the impact on prices, but transit will still be allowed, the new Polish agriculture minister, Robert Telus, said on Friday. The move comes as thousands of farmers protested across Romania over the impact of Ukrainian grain imports on prices, blocking traffic and border checkpoints with tractors and trucks and urging the European Commission to intervene.

The Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports that Russian security forces claim to have detained an agent of the security service of Ukraine and his accomplice in the Kherson region, who were collecting data on the deployment and movement of troops.

Ukraine has rejected the suggestion from the Brazilian president Luiz Incio Lula da Silva that it give up Crimea to end the war with Russia, which annexed the peninsula in 2014.

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Kremlin says its strategic aim is to create a new world order as it happened - The Guardian

13.03EDT

RT France has been put into liquidation by a French court, the organisations former president said.

The French arm of Russias RT broadcasters accounts were frozen over Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine.

Xenia Fedorova, RT France ex-president, tweeted: The court of Nanterre took the decision to put RT France into liquidation - a media outlet which has not pleased Emmanuel Macron since its launch and which was sanctioned by the EU a year ago as [a preventative measure] due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Fedorova added that more than 100 employees will be made redundant.

The EU banned Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik in March 2022 in a bid to crack down on disinformation over the war in Ukraine.

Updated at 13.03EDT

The funeral of the prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed when an explosion tore through a St Petersburg cafe last Sunday, has taken place in Moscow today.

Dozens of mourners including Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private mercenary Wagner group, turned out for the service, with many carrying red flowers.

Investigators in Russia have charged Darya Trepova, a 26-year-old St Petersburg resident, with terrorist offences over Tatarskys killing.

Moscow and Kyiv have pointed the finger at each other over the attack.

Updated at 12.35EDT

Ukraines ministry of defence with the latest figures on the conflict.

It said 177,680 Russian troops have been killed and 7,020 armoured combat vehicles have been destroyed.

"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching."Thomas Jefferson

Total combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to April 8, 2023: pic.twitter.com/Z1TUHuSN2S

Updated at 12.39EDT

Mykola Kuleba, the founder of the humanitarian organisation Save Ukraine, has provided an update after 31 children were reunited with their families in Ukraine this week after a long operation to bring them back from Russia where they had been taken from occupied areas during the war.

Now the fifth rescue mission is nearing its completion. It was special regarding the number of children we managed to return and also because of its complexity, Kuleba said.

A grandmother who had been due to reunite with two of her grandchildren died suddenly on the trip and the children had to remain in Russia, Kuleba, Ukraines former commissioner for childrens rights, told a media briefing in Kyiv.

He said all of the children who had been brought back to Ukraine by Save Ukraine had said no one in Russia was trying to find their parents in Ukraine, Reuters reports.

There were kids who changed their locations five times in five months, some children say that they were living with rats and cockroaches, he said.

The children were taken to what Russians called stays in summer camps from occupied parts of Ukraines Kharkiv and Kherson regions, Kuleba said.

Moscow, which controls chunks of Ukraines east and south, denies abducting children and says they have been transported away for their own safety.

Updated at 11.49EDT

Ukrainian forces are working to strengthen defensive lines and positions along the border with Belarus and Russia, the defence ministry has said.

The ministry, citing Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of Ukraines armed forces, posted to Facebook:

The expansion of the system of engineering barriers in the areas bordering Belarus and Russia is ongoing. Anti-tank minefields are being created in tank accessible areas and probable paths of pushing the enemy deep into our territory which are roads, forest lanes, bridges, power lines, etc.

Nayev added that Ukrainian engineering units have equipped several dozens of mine fields using more than 6,000 anti-tank mines in the past week. Ukrainian soldiers were working around the clock, despite the weather conditions, he said.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, met with his Belarusian counterpart and close ally, Alexander Lukashenko, for talks in Moscow on Wednesday. Moscow is Minsks closest political and financial backer.

Lukashenko allowed Putin to use the territory of Belarus as a launch pad for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Last month, Putin announced that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Updated at 09.25EDT

Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared Iftar with Ukrainian Muslim soldiers observing Ramadan on Friday, in what he said would become an annual new tradition of respect.

The Ukrainian leader said he participated in the first official Iftar alongside representatives of the Muslim clergy and leaders of the Mejlis, the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars.

Addressing participants at the dinner, Zelenskiy said we affirm that Ukraine values every person, values every community, adding that diversity is part of Ukraines character.

Updated at 07.25EDT

Ukrainians have been marking the one-year anniversary of a missile strike on a Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, which killed at least 58 people, including several children.

Ukrainians honored victims of missile attack at Kramatorsk train station that happened last year. On April 8, 2022, at 10:28 a.m., the Russian army shelled the train station, where thousands of civilians were waiting to be evacuated. At least, 58 people died, 121 were injured. pic.twitter.com/epGdn5OOu6

The attack took place on 8 April 2022, when the station was packed with women, children and elderly waiting to be evacuated. The authorities had urged residents to leave the region before an expected Russian military assault.

More than 100 people were wounded in the strike, Human Rights Watch said. Many lost limbs.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at the time that it was a deliberate attack on civilians using a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile. The US also blamed Russia, saying it believes it used a short range ballistic missile. Russia has denied responsibility.

Updated at 06.24EDT

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Russia-Ukraine war as it happened: Ukraine to boost defences along border with Belarus - The Guardian

WAGNER Group warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin fears Ukraine has built up a 200,000-strong reserve of troops ready to launch a huge counter-blitz.

The Russian billionaire has warned his feared mercenary army to "prepare for the worst".

Ukrainian political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko denied the country's armed forces has extra troops trained and ready to strike.

But he added that if Kyiv did, the soldiers would attack the Wagner Group.

Putin's "favourite chef"Prigozhinhas been waging war in eastern Ukraine - but with 50,000 men the private army would be heavily outnumbered should they come to blows with 200,000 reserve troops.

Prigozhin, who heads the group, said they have used reconnaissance satellites to spot the reserves.

In a post published by Concord group on Telegram, he said: "There is a joke that ends with the phrase: 'So big, but you believe in fairy tales'.

"Therefore, the political scientist Ishchenko and other very positive kind guys may turn out to be the best military analysts in the world.

"But I think that it is better to prepare for the worst, especially since there are already all tendencies towards this.

"And who sees how many people, I can say this: 'Tell me, who in our country has reconnaissance satellites, except for Wagner PMC?Therefore, we see 200,000 Ukrainian reserves, but we dont see 60,000 UAF soldiers fleeing in fear'."

Prigozhin - dubbed Putin's chef - was doubling down on comments he made last month as he claimed Ukraine was preparing for an attack along the eastern frontline.

But ruthless Prigozhin could be attempting to drum up more supplies for his troops by exaggerating, according to think tank Institute for the Study of War.

The research group said: "Prigozhins exaggerated statements about the imminent threat to Russian forces are likely an attempt to secure more supplies and reinforcements from the Russian MoD to save his forces in Bakhmut."

The UK Ministry of Defence reported in December that the Wagner Group was using readily available convict recruits as expendable soldiers to feed Putins war machine as he takes on heavy losses.

The recently liberated lags traded in their long prison sentences for military service, but also likely death.

One defected convict-soldierdescribed being used as cannon fodderin Putins wargames.

He was later suspected to have been killed by the Wagner Group.

Prigozhin is reported to have personally toured the penal colonies for recruits to take a major role in Russias eastern offensive -including in the bloodiest battles forSoledarand Bakhmut.

It comes as Putin has a 45-mile-long trench dug across Ukraines invaded Zaporizhzhia region.

TheRussian tyrantsmove is in preparation for a counter-offensive fromKyivsforces.

The deep scar across the countryside can be seen from space and was captured in images taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite.

Putin appears worried about holding the region despite illegally annexing itinto the Russian Federation.

TheWorld War One-style mega-trench has been highlighted by the Ukrainian Centre for Journalistic Investigations.

It is nearly 50 miles behind the current front line, indicating Putins fear as to how far back his forces could be pushed.

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Russia trembling as Putins Wagner Group warlord claims Ukraine is preparing massive attack with 200,000 t... - The Sun

BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainians marked the anniversary Friday of the liberation of Bucha with calls for remembrance and justice after a brutal Russian occupation that left hundreds of civilians dead in the streets and in mass graves, establishing the town as an epicenter of the wars atrocities.

We will not let it be forgotten, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a ceremony in Bucha, vowing to punish those who committed outrages there that are still raw. Human dignity will not let it be forgotten. On the streets of Bucha, the world has seen Russian evil. Evil unmasked.

Buchas name has come to evoke savagery by Moscows military since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Ukrainian troops who retook the town near Kyiv found the bodies of men, women and children on the streets, in yards and homes, and in mass graves. Some showed signs of torture.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, fighting continued Friday: Russia used its long-range arsenal to bombard anew several areas, killing at least two civilians and damaging homes.

And the Kremlin-allied president of neighboring Belarus raised the stakes when he said Russian strategic nuclear weapons might be deployed in his country, along with part of Moscows tactical nuclear arsenal. Moscow said earlier this week that it planned to place in Belarus tactical nuclear weapons, which are comparatively short-range and low-yield. Strategic nuclear weapons, such as missile-borne warheads, would bring a greater threat.

At the official commemoration in Bucha, Zelenskyy was joined by the Moldovas president and the prime ministers of Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The Kremlins forces occupied Bucha weeks after they invaded Ukraine and stayed for about a month. When Ukrainian troops retook the town, they encountered horrific scenes. Over weeks and months, hundreds of bodies were uncovered, including children.

Russian soldiers, on intercepted phone conversations, called it zachistka cleansing, according to an investigation by The Associated Press and the PBS series Frontline.

Such organized cruelty, which Russian troops also employed in other conflicts such as Chechnya, was later repeated in Russia-occupied territories across Ukraine.

Zelenskyy handed out medals to soldiers, police officers, doctors, teachers and emergency workers in Bucha, as well as to the families of two soldiers killed during the defense of the Kyiv region. A woman and her daughter wept and nodded as they accepted an award.

Ukrainian people, you have stopped the biggest anti-human force of our times, he said. You have stopped the force which has no respect and wants to destroy everything that gives meaning to human life.

Ukrainian authorities documented more than 1,400 civilian deaths, including 37 children, in the Bucha district, Zelenskyy said. More than 175 people were found in mass graves and alleged torture chambers, he said. Ukraine and other countries, including the U.S., have demanded that Russia answer for war crimes.

Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin alleged Friday that many of the dead civilians were tortured. Almost 100 Russian soldiers are suspected of war crimes, he said on his Telegram channel, and indictments have been issued for 35 of them.

A Ukrainian court has sentenced two Russian servicemen to 12 years in prison for illegally depriving civilians of liberty, and for looting.

I am convinced that all these crimes are not a coincidence. This is part of Russias planned strategy aimed at destroying Ukraine as a state and Ukrainians as a nation, Kostin said.

In Geneva, the U.N. human rights chief said his office has verified the deaths of more than 8,400 civilians in Ukraine since Russias invasion a count believed to be far short of the true toll. Volker Trk told the U.N. Human Rights Council that severe violations of human rights and international humanitarian law have become shockingly routine during Russias invasion.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, along with announcing the possibility of the deployment of Russian strategic nuclear weapons on his countrys soil, called for a cease-fire in Ukraine. A truce, he said in his state-of-the-nation address in Minsk, must be announced without any preconditions, and all movement of troops and weapons must be halted.

Its necessary to stop now, before an escalation begins, Lukashenko said, adding that an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive using Western-supplied weapons would bring an irreversible escalation of the conflict.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that Russia has to keep fighting, again claiming Ukraine has rejected any talks under pressure from its Western allies.

Peskov also dismissed remarks by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn that the European Union was mulling the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, calling that extremely dangerous.

Russia has maintained its bombardment of Ukraine, with the war already in its second year. Along with the two civilians killed Friday, 14 other civilians were wounded early Friday as Russia launched missiles, shells, exploding drones and gliding bombs, the Ukraine presidential office said.

Two Russian missiles hit the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, damaging eight residential buildings, the office said. Nine Russian missiles struck Kharkiv, damaging residential buildings, roads, gas stations and a prison. And Russian forces shelled the southern city and region of Kherson.

A barrage at Zaporizhzhia and its outskirts caused major fires.

___

Hanna Arhirova reported from Kyiv. Jamey Keaten contributed to this report from Geneva.

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Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Ukraine marks grim Bucha anniversary, calls for justice - The Associated Press