Yesterday at 1: 12 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 9: 59 p.m. EDT
Yesterday at 1: 12 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 9: 59 p.m. EDT
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The last Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol showed no signs of surrender Sunday, and Russian officials warned that the holdouts “will all be eliminated” as Moscow’s forces seek to complete their takeover of the strategically important southeastern port city.
Russia targeted Mariupol early in its invasion and has besieged it for weeks. A Washington-based think tank reported that Kremlin troops probably captured the city’s port area Saturday, reducing the resistance there to a steel plant and isolated pockets around Mariupol. The think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, projected Russian forces could capture the city in the coming weeks, but it said the final assaults probably would “cost them dearly.”
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, five people were killed and at least 13 wounded in the latest attack in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is expected to intensify its offensive in the days ahead.
In Kyiv, the mayor is urging residents against returning despite the withdrawal of the invading forces, and a Russian missile attack struck a town in the capital region early Sunday, officials said.
Here’s what to know
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Sunday that his country is running a $5 billion-a-month deficit and needs financial assistance. This week, he is scheduled to travel to Washington.
- Russian forces are issuing passes for movement around the areas they control in Mariupol. Starting in the coming days, they will be required for anyone leaving their homes, said Petro Andrushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor.
- Moscow did not agree to cease-fires to allow humanitarian evacuations on Sunday, a top Ukrainian official said, hampering the dire ongoing rescue effort.
- The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates.
Ukrainian leaders say Russia’s siege of Mariupol may stop peace talks
Ukrainian leaders have in recent days signaled that Russia’s destruction of Mariupol could derail peace negotiations, putting an end to the war even further out of reach.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said Sunday that the siege of the southeastern port city — which has killed thousands of civilians — “may be a red line.” Speaking to CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Kuleba said that the only diplomatic discussions taking place are between lower-level bureaucrats and lawmakers, and that “no high-level talks are taking place” between Moscow and Kyiv.
“After Bucha, it became particularly difficult to continue talking with the Russians,” Kuleba said of the Kyiv-area suburb where bodies left by retreating Russians showed signs of torture and execution. He said that the destruction of Mariupol could be the end to any hope for a peaceful solution.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told local media outlets on Saturday that “the destruction of all our boys in Mariupol” could end “any format of negotiations” with the Kremlin.
“This is a big mistake if they definitely want to end the war as they say,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky and his top diplomat are presenting a more hard-line posture than in early April, when gruesome images from Bucha and other cities slowed talks. At the time, Zelensky said there was “no other choice” but to negotiate toward an end to the war, even as he acknowledged that it would be exceedingly challenging.
What is genocide, and is Russia carrying it out in Ukraine?
In the nearly eight decades since the term was first used, “genocide” has conjured images of gas chambers, killing fields in Rwanda and mass graves in Srebrenica.
Evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukrainian towns like Bucha, combined with ominous rhetoric in Russian media suggesting “de-Ukrainization,” has fueled discussion about whether Russia is carrying out genocide in Ukraine.
President Biden used the term on Tuesday, saying, “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is trying to wipe out the idea of being Ukrainian.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has described Russian atrocities as genocide, praised Biden’s comments and called on the United States to send additional heavy weapons.
Other Western leaders have been more hesitant. “Genocide has a meaning,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the France 2 television broadcaster on April 13. “The Ukrainian people and the Russian people are brethren people.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has compounded Sri Lanka’s economic crisis
MORATUWA, Sri Lanka — Life for Hasun Peiris began to unravel a year ago under the pull of powerful forces he didn’t understand.
Climbing food prices drained the 32-year-old woodcutter’s savings, and his family sold their truck. They began to feel hungry and pawned their gold. After war broke out in Ukraine thousands of miles away, diesel became more scarce in Sri Lanka. Daily power cut began last month. Peiris now has to cut back on his lumber shipment — as well as his food. Peiris’s money goes towards buying eggs for his wife, who is pregnant.
Sri Lanka is mired in an unprecedented economic crisis brought on by mostly domestic factors: Years of foreign-debt-fueled government spending, badly timed tax cuts, policies that hurt crop yields and a precipitous drop in tourism during the coronavirus pandemic have hollowed out its foreign reserves. The country’s struggling finances suffered another setback this year due to the rise in fuel prices and war in Europe.
Mariupol in final siege; Ukrainian forces ‘will fight till the end’
Ukrainian forces defied Russian demands to surrender in the key port city of Mariupol by a Sunday deadline, though the situation appeared bleak as forces remained holed up in the bombed-out city where tens of thousands of stranded civilians struggle to access basic necessities.
Analysts expect Russia to capture the devastated city soon while it refocuses its military might on Ukraine’s eastern region after failing to seize the capital, Kyiv.
The battle for control over eastern and southern cities is the latest stage in a war now in its eighth week, as Russia attempts to solidify its grip on an area that provides strategically important access points to the Black Sea and beyond. On Sunday’s news broadcasts, Ukrainian leaders appealed for more U.S. support. support.
The officials said besieged cities including Mariupol remain under their control but described conditions as increasingly dire.
The “city still has not fallen,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “There is still our military forces, our soldiers. They will continue fighting until the end. “
5 dead, 13 wounded in Kharkiv, Ukrainian government says
Five people were killed and at least 13 wounded Sunday in shelling in Kharkiv, the Ukrainian government said — the latest attack in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are expected to intensify their offensive in the days ahead.
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said on Telegram that authorities are investigating the early-afternoon attack, which damaged residential and city buildings.
In video remarks on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lamented the “constant shelling” in Kharkiv. He described the attacks as “nothing but deliberate terror.”
The most recent strikes, he said, held symbolic significance — Russian forces hit three streets with the names Culture, Shevchenko and Darwin, according to Zelensky.
“Apparently, these are especially dangerous words for Russia,” he said, adding: “This is something that threatens its existence.”
Though he did not specify which Shevchenko, Zelensky may have been referring to 19th-century Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.
Earlier Sunday, Oleg Sinegubov, the head of Kharkiv’s regional administration, said three people were killed and 31 injured in Russian shelling over the previous 24 hours. He appealed for those who were still living in Kharkiv to stay off the streets.
Moscow’s forces have been massing around Izyum, a city about 70 miles southeast of Kharkiv, as Russia refocuses on eastern Ukraine.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based public policy research nonprofit, said Saturday that Russian forces around Kharkiv “generally held their positions,” though Ukrainian officials said this weekend that they had regained some territory.
Annabelle Chapman contributed to this report.
In Lviv, displaced artists create antiwar, anti-Russian work
LVIV, Ukraine — When one of Ukraine’s most renowned visual artists left her home in Kyiv in the first days of the Russian invasion, she went to the Lviv Municipal Art Center. Vlada Ralko moved in with hundreds of people who had been displaced at the center last month.
Now it’s an art gallery again, showcasing the wartime work of artists from around Ukraine — including Ralko, who spent several weeks here in silence, churning out more than 100 drawings depicting the invasion.
During the same period, Stepan Burban, a 27-year-old rapper from Lviv, added to his soon-to-be released album a track that amounts to a call to arms for Ukrainians. The cover artwork was replaced by one of Ralko’s latest drawings. It shows a bomb hitting a crushed womb.
“The first week I felt very angry,” Burban said. “Now it’s just a constant hate.”
Ukrainian daily life away from the front lines in the last two months has seen a wholesale rejection of all things Russian, paired with a need to tell the world — and especially Russians — what’s happened here. Contemporary artists in Ukraine, who have for many years fought against the Soviet rigidity that governed freedom of expression, are now at the forefront.
The latest on key battlegrounds in Ukraine
Russian-held areas and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
POL.
Separatist-
controlled
area
Kyiv
Lviv
Kharkiv
UKRAINE
Mariupol
ROMANIA
Odessa
200 MILES
Control areas as of April 17
Sources : Institute for the Study of War ,
AEI Critical Threats Project Report
THE WASHINGTON POS
Russian-held areas
and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
Chernihiv
POLAND
Kyiv
Sumy
Lviv
UKRAINE
Kharkiv
Separatist-
controlled
area
Odessa
Mariupol
Berdyansk
ROMANIA
Kherson
Crimea
Annexed to Russia
in 2014
100 MILES
Black Sea
Control areas as of April 17
Sources : Institute for the Study of War. AEI’s Critical Threats Project. Post reporting
Russian-held areas
and troop movement
BELARUS
RUSSIA
Chernihiv
POLAND
Sumy
Kyiv
Lviv
UKRAINE
Kharkiv
Separatist-
controlled
area
Mykolaiv
Mariupol
Berdyansk
ROMANIA
Kherson
Odessa
Crimea
Annexed to Russia
in 2014
100 MILES
Control areas as of April 17
Sources : Institute for the Study of War. AEI’s Critical Threats Project. Post reporting
Kharkiv region: Ukrainian officials reported new casualties this weekend as Russian forces continue their buildup in the east. The governor of this eastern region, Oleh Synyehubov, warned of increased attacks on residential areas and businesses, including a World Central Kitchen partner restaurant. Shelling in Kharkiv killed five people and injured 13 on Sunday afternoon, Ukrainian officials said.
Kyiv region: With Russian forces turning toward the east, the Ukrainian capital is coming back to life — but the mayor has urged those who fled to stay in safer areas, and more missiles struck the area this weekend, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials. A Saturday attack on the capital killed at least one person and injured several, the mayor said. Another strike hit the Kyiv suburb of Brovary.
Luhansk region: The eastern region’s governor said Sunday that Russian shelling hit a residential part of Zolote, killing two people and wounding four. Local officials also accused Russia of shelling a church in the city of Severodonetsk on Sunday and said many other religious sites in the area have suffered damage.
Mariupol: Ukrainian leaders on Sunday defied Russian demands to surrender the southern port city, saying the fighting continues in multiple locations. Russian officials have threatened to “eliminate” the final holdouts and say the resistance is limited to a large factory. Elsewhere in the Donetsk region, two people were killed by Russian shelling, the governor said on Telegram.
Ukraine is running a $5 billion-a-month deficit, prime minister says
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Sunday that his country is running a $5 billion-a-month deficit and needs financial assistance.
“Only half of our economy is working, so we ask for financial support,” Shmyhal said on ABC News’s “This Week.”
Shmyhal thanked Ukraine’s Western partners but said that in addition to ammunition and sanctions, “we need more finances to support our people, our refugees, our internally displaced persons — to save our economy for future recovery.”
World Bank economists recently estimated that Ukraine’s economy could shrink 45 percent this year, depending on the length and severity of the conflict. An economic collapse of that magnitude would dwarf the 11.2 percent the Russian economy is expected to shrink over the same time because of unprecedented sanctions, and would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Ukraine’s financial team will meet with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury in Washington this week, Shmyhal said. According to the World Bank, a package of $3 billion is being prepared for Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted Sunday that he had met with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss “financial stability & preparations for post-war reconstruction.”
Russian forces ‘likely captured’ Mariupol’s port area, think tank says
As the battle drags on in Mariupol, the Institute for the Study of War says Russian forces have pressed forward and may completely capture the city “in the coming weeks” — an assessment that comes as Ukrainian authorities insist their forces there will fight on.
Russian forces “likely captured” the port area Saturday, reducing Ukrainian defenses in the city to the Azovstal steel plant in the east. According to the Institute for the Study of War (a think tank supporting U.S. security objectives), footage of Russian forces at various “key locations” including the port is available.
“Isolated groups of Ukrainian troops may remain active in Mariupol outside the Azovstal factory, but they will likely be cleared out by Russian forces in the coming days,” reads the institute’s latest assessment.
A map included areas of “significant” fighting in the past day, which includes Azovstal, where the institute notes that “Ukrainian defenders will likely fight to the last man.”
The evaluation adds that Russian forces could try to force the remaining defenders in the factory to “capitulate through overwhelming firepower.” Ukrainian forces, it says, “appear intent on staging a final stand.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal insisted in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week” that the city was not under full Russian control. Ukrainian officials, he added, have no intention to surrender.
“Russian forces will likely complete the capture of Mariupol in the coming week,” the institute said, “but final assaults will likely continue to cost them dearly.”
Venice Biennale to include exhibition of wartime Ukrainian art
On Friday, the Venice Biennale announced that, when the 59th edition of the contemporary art showcase opens later this month, it will include an open-air exhibition of work by Ukrainian artists — nearly all of which was created since the Russian invasion began in February. Titled “Piazza Ucraina,” the last-minute addition comes a week before the April 23 start of the highly anticipated art event, which features national pavilions curated by participating countries, along with other art happenings.
Organized by the curators behind Venice’s Ukrainian Pavilion — Borys Filonenko, Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko — the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund (UEAF), the exhibition will spotlight artists selected from the UEAF’s Wartime Art Archive. The artworks, which have been gathered from social media, will be printed out as posters and will be viewable in a space designed by Ukrainian architect Dana Kosmina that will be regularly updated with new work in the high-profile Giardini section of the biennale.
According to curator and UEAF CEO Ilya Zabolotnyi, it is important to elevate Ukrainian artists, not just to draw attention to the war but also to assert Ukraine’s cultural independence. “We don’t just fight for democracy. We fight for identity,” Zabolotnyi said, in a joint Zoom interview from Kyiv with Olga Balashova, an arts administrator and curator with whom Zabolotnyi shares oversight of UEAF. “The Russian imperial narrative wants clearly to erase that.”
Ukraine takes another early step in bid to join E.U.
Ukraine has filled out a questionnaire for its bid to join the European Union, an official announced Sunday, taking one more early step in a process that could stretch years.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, welcomed Ukraine’s application while visiting Kyiv earlier this month and delivered the questionnaire in person to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We are here to support you in your dream for Europe. She said that Ukraine is part of the European family.
Von der Leyen said she was there to “give [Ukraine] a first, positive answer” and said the questionnaire would be “the basis for our discussion in the coming months.”
Zelensky has acknowledged that his country is unlikely to join NATO, given that Russia views any expansion of the Western military alliance as a threat. He submitted an E.U. application. membership days into Russia’s invasion and urged the bloc to “prove that you are with us” amid an outpouring of global support.
E.U. Membership would increase Ukraine’s economic and political ties with other European countries, and make it more likely that the bloc will defend Ukraine. This could prove difficult for Western countries unwilling to wage war on Russia. Candidates must meet extensive criteria and adopt the E.U.’s laws and treaties. It could take a while to become a member.
“We will accelerate this process as much as we can, while ensuring that all conditions are respected,” von der Leyen said during her April 8 visit to Ukraine.
Ukraine has now filled out the questionnaire, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser for the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and a former deputy minister. He shared the news in a Sunday Telegram post, citing another Ukrainian official’s comments on television.
Ihor Zhovkva, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said that now “the ball will be in the court of the European Commission,” according to Gerashchenko.
Irynka Hromotska contributed to this report.
European cities protest Russia’s war in Ukraine
Demonstrations against Russia’s war in Ukraine took place across European cities over the weekend as the conflict nears the two-month mark.
In Amsterdam, dozens of Ukrainians and supporters lay on the ground at Dam Square pretending to be dead as they staged a silent antiwar protest. According to the Associated Press, this protest was intended to raise awareness about the Russian soldier’s killing of civilians.
In London, protesters gathered in front of the official residence of the British prime minister. And in Barcelona, about 200 people joined a protest organized by Ukrainians residing in the city, holding Ukrainian yellow-and-blue flags to demonstrate support.
The protesters marched down the iconic boulevard of Las Ramblas and demanded that the international community impose further economic sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government El Periodico, a local newspaper, reported.
In Berlin, hundreds of people met in the popular neighborhood of Mitte to not only condemn Russia’s attacks in Ukraine, but also emphasize support for Ukraine’s right to self-defense.
The rally occurred in the context of the many traditional peace marches held across Germany during Easter according to local media reports.
One town’s residents have spent more than 50 days in bomb shelters, official says
A Ukrainian leader compared one eastern Ukrainian town’s ordeal to the suffering in Mariupol on Sunday, saying the people of Popasna have lived in bomb shelters for more than 50 days.
“Popasna is a complete ruin,” Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, wrote on Facebook. It was destroyed by the [Russians], who failed to capture it. Every day, day and night, Popasna is under enemy fire.”
Travel in and out of the city is difficult, Haidai said, with evacuations regularly thwarted by shelling. The attacks against Popasna are a reflection of Russia’s attack on Mariupol (a port city that was long blocked by the Russian blockade), Haidai said. Troops bombarded Mariupol for weeks — leaving civilians increasingly desperate for food, water and medicine — before descending into the city and fighting in the streets for control.
Popasna is part of the Donbas region, where the Ukrainian government has fought pro-Moscow separatists for years. Officials from Ukraine and the West expect that fighting in eastern Europe will intensify, as Russia attempts to reorient its failing offense.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday on Telegram that its forces hit sites of “Ukrainian manpower and military equipment” near Popasna and other settlements.
Irynka Hromotska contributed to this report.
European Union to send additional 50 million euros to Ukraine
The European Commission is pledging an additional 50 million euros in humanitarian aid to support those affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain “extremely high,” the commission said in a news release on Sunday, as the conflict approaches the two-month mark.
The additional funds will include 45 million euros for humanitarian projects in Ukraine and 5 million for Moldova, bringing the total aid in response to the war to 143 million euros.
The funds are aimed at helping people in “hard-to-reach areas who are cut off from access to healthcare, water and electricity, and those, who have been forced to flee and leave everything behind,” Janez Lenarcic, commissioner for crisis management, said in the statement, adding that the European Union must prepare for an escalation in Russia’s attacks, principally in eastern Ukraine.
“Ukraine, we are with you,” Lenarcic said.
