They were released in a prisoner exchange. The first since the beginning of the war. 19 Ukrainian sailors, including 13 from Snake Island, who sent the enemy into that country, who were left for dead in the hours after the invasion, are now safe. In exchange, Kiev granted Moscow the release of 11 Russian sailors, "rescued from a sunken ship off the coast of Odessa".
Ukrainian forces are struggling to recapture the important southern city of Kherson from the Russians, according to a US Department of Defense official . The Russian military no longer has such tight control over the city as before, which is why Cherson is now classified as a "contested area" again.
Kherson, at the start of the Dnipro estuary, is a strategically important port city, the official said. Should the Ukrainians manage to recapture the city, it would complicate the Russian attack on the nearby embattled city of Mykolaiv. It would also make a possible ground offensive in the direction of the port city of Odessa significantly more difficult.
The approximate number of deceased has been given by eyewitnesses, refugees under the theater at the time of the bombing. "Sadly, we start this day with bad news." The Mariupol City Council has confirmed this Friday, through its Telegram channel, the worst omen: according to eyewitnesses, some 300 people died in the Dramatic Theater, bombed by Russia on March 16.
"The Dramatic Theater in the heart of Mariupol has always been the city's business card. A meeting place, dates, a point of reference. 'Where are you? I'm at the Theater'", reads the statement from the authorities of the city in southern Ukraine, subjected to a brutal siege for weeks. "There is no Theater anymore. In its place is a new point of pain for the people of Mariupol, the ruins of what was the last refuge of hundreds of innocent people."
The European Union accuses Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine. A statement from the EU summit in Brussels early this morning said Russia was attacking civilians, targeting hospitals, schools and shelters, among other things. "These war crimes must stop immediately."
The states also wrote in the statement that Russia's aggression against Ukraine flagrantly violates international law and has resulted in massive loss of life and injuries to civilians. Those responsible and their accomplices would be held accountable in accordance with international law.
A good month after the start of the war in Ukraine, the heads of state and government of the NATO countries are discussing further action against Russia. The country had to pay a high price for its attack on Ukraine, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the start of the NATO special summit in Brussels. At the same time, he reiterated that NATO would send "neither soldiers nor planes" to Ukraine.
Before the summit, Stoltenberg had consulted with US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Brussels on Wednesday evening. The White House said the issue was "Russia's baseless and unjustified invasion of Ukraine." Biden and Stoltenberg also discussed NATO's ongoing efforts "to deter and defend against any aggression."
The Ukrainian government currently considers it unlikely that Belarus will intervene alongside Russia in the war against Ukraine. The probability that Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko will decide to take part in the war is "15 to 20 percent," said Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich, according to the Unian news agency.
The center of kyiv woke up this Monday with a scare in the body. A shell, coming from Russian soil, had hit a section of the Retroville shopping center late the night before. The resulting crash was colossal. The windows of Alexandra's home, a fourth floor of the modern block of flats closest to the scene of the attack, had all their glass missing. "We got a huge scare," recalls the young woman. "I ran to my baby, half naked, and we went down to the bunker."
In the morning, the rear area of Retroville, in the northwest of the capital, was a jumble of iron and nerves. After cordoning off the area, policemen and militiamen vehemently ordered them to move away to proceed, as one of them explained, to "carry out a controlled detonation of explosive material" present at the impact site. They did not specify the reason for their presence. Minutes later, a large explosion, this time caused by the agents, shook the scene again.
According to their own statements, the Ukrainian military has defended an important suburb of Kiev. After fierce fighting, the Russians were forced to leave Makariv, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. This prevents Russian troops from encircling the capital Kyiv from the north-west.
Volodymyr Zelenskyj wants to involve citizens in a possible deal with Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that he will let his people decide on any possible "compromise" in the negotiations with Russia. The terms of a possible deal could mark "historic" changes, the head of state said in an interview with news website Suspilne.
The Ukrainian side will ultimately decide on this in a referendum. "The people will have to vote on certain forms of compromise. And what that will look like depends on our talks with Russia," he said. He insisted on a face-to-face meeting with his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine has rejected an ultimatum to hand over the besieged port city of Mariupol to Russian forces. "There can be no question of surrendering weapons. We have already informed the Russian side about this," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. "There will be no surrender, no laying down of arms." Asked the Russian military to open a humanitarian corridor to the port city.
In addition to artillery bombardment, during the war in Ukraine, the Russians rely on new weapons. The Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that Russia has used a Kinzhal hypersonic missile for the first time to destroy a Ukrainian underground missile depot.
A "large underground repository of missiles and aerial ammunition" has been destroyed in the Ivanko-Frankovsk region, said the ministry's spokesman, Igor Konashénkov, in his daily appearance. Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were used in the operation, he added.
For the second time in a week, North Korea has apparently tested a ballistic missile. As the neighboring countries South Korea and Japan reported, North Korea fired a rocket in the interior towards the open sea.
According to the General Staff of the South Korean military, it may have been a ballistic missile. Japanese government officials also spoke of a suspected ballistic missile, according to a report by the Kyodo news agency. The rocket fell outside Japan's "exclusive economic zone" into the Sea of Japan (Korean: East Sea).
Dawn newspaper report says Russia, US, France and China are without voice-driven vehicles and the so-called hyper-sonic experience that is called Mach 5 speed.
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