Ukraine-Russia: Kyiv mayor cautions residents who fled not to return amid Russia's renewed assault
Authorities found more than 900 civilians, most shot dead, in the villages around Kyiv after Russian troops retreated from the area. Mayor Vitali Klitschko has advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to return.
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Ukrainian fighters who were holed up at the Azovstal steel mill in the last known pocket of resistance inside Mariupol ignored Russia’s surrender-or-die ultimatum on Sunday and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port.
Moscow gave the defenders a midday deadline to surrender, saying those who laid down their arms were "guaranteed to keep their lives." The Ukrainians rejected it, just as they've done with previous ultimatums.
The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians' estimate. A maternity hospital was hit by a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter.
An estimated 100,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 450,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said during an interview on Sunday that the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol had still not fallen into Russian control.
"The city still has not fallen," Shmyhal said during a segment on ABC's "This Week."
"There is no whole control," he added via Reuters, noting armies on both sides were continuing to fight.
The Ukrainian government was continuing to provide humanitarian aid to civilians in the city.
"We need more money for executing of our humanitarian and social obligations," Shmyhal said. "Now, only half of our economy is working. So we ask for financial support."
As the war between Russia and Ukraine nears its eighth week, Project DYNAMO is managing to continue with evacuation missions for groups of people who are most at risk.
Five surrogate mothers who are carrying children for American parents were among the 60 people the rescue organization recently evacuated. They’re currently staying in a "safe location" in Ukraine that has been code-named Club DYNAMO.
"We’re just relieved these missions were successful and with all involved safely out of harm’s way," said Bryan Stern, Project DYNAMO’s co-founder, in a statement.
Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol has been razed to the ground as Russian forces make "desperate" attempts to finish taking the city "at any cost," Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Sunday.
Kuleba appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" and described how the situation in Mariupol is "dire militarily" and "heartbreaking" after seven weeks under siege at the hands of the Russian army.
"The city doesn’t exist anymore," Kuleba said, adding that Ukrainian forces and a large group of civilians in the port city are encircled by Moscow's forces. "They continue their struggle, but it seems from the way the Russian army behaves in Mariupol, they decided to raze the city to the ground at any cost."
Pope Francis on Saturday invoked "gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war" in an Easter vigil homily in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol and three Ukrainian lawmakers.
The pontiff noted that while "many writers have evoked the beauty of starlit nights, the nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death."
Russian energy giant Gazprom told Reuters it is continuing to supply European consumers with millions of tons of gas via Ukraine. The company said in a statement that requests stood at 57 million cubic meters as of Sunday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the Russian invasion of Ukraine should serve as a "lesson" for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan, arguing President Biden needs to act sooner on beefing up Taiwan’s military so it can have a better chance of defending itself.
During an Easter morning appearance on "Fox News Sunday," McCarthy, R-Calif., slammed the Biden administration for being too slow to provide arms to Ukraine ahead of the invasion.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged President Biden to visit Ukraine and see the carnage that Russian troops have exacted on the civilian population.
"It’s his decision of course, and about the safety situation, it depends," Zelenskyy told "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper. "I think he is the leader of the United States, and that’s why he should come here to see."
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Russia aired a video of a British soldier on television after capturing him during fighting in Ukraine. The soldier identifies himself as Shaun Pinner and confirms he is a British citizen.
“I was captured in Mariupol,” he says in a video that gives no indication as to when it was filmed. “I am part of the 36 Brigade First Battalion Ukrainian Marines. I was fighting in Mariupol for five to six weeks and now I’m in Donetsk People’s Republic.”
Pinner supposedly moved to Ukraine four years ago and lived with his wife in Donbas, according to The Guardian. He previously served in the Royal Anglian Regiment and took up fighting with the Ukrainian army when Russia invaded.
He previously told The Mail on Sunday that he feared capture because he thought the “Russians will treat us differently if we are captured because we are British. This is always on my mind.”
Ukraine's military has defied all expectations in its fight against the Russian invasion, even as the Kremlin sets its sights on essentially landlocking the country, retired Gen. Jack Keane told Fox News.
In an interview airing Sunday on "Life, Liberty & Levin", Keane, a Fox News senior strategic analyst and chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, told host Mark Levin that in some ways Vladimir Putin's military is telegraphing similar tactics it used when it first invaded Ukraine from the north as it tries to seal up its southern maritime region.
Many of the military vehicles closing in on the key port of Odesa and other regional cities are wheeled and are not tracked vehicles like tanks.
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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has allegedly asked for more money to cover the costs of troop funeral services.
Radio Free Europe reported that the service asked for a 17% increase in funding in a document posted to a government website. That would translate to a roughly $700-900 increase per soldier, depending on rank.
The exact number of Russian troop losses has not been confirmed, but officials in Western countries believe the losses to be heavy.
Ukraine’s military has claimed as many as 19,500 Russian troops have been killed.
In a nightly address on Saturday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the recovery effort that will following the end of the Ukraine-Russia War. He also mentioned a devastated Mairupol.
"The situation in Mariupol remains as severe as possible," he said. "Just inhuman. This is what the Russian Federation did. Deliberately did. And deliberately continues to destroy cities. Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there in Mariupol."
The comments come as Russia has renewed its assault on major Ukrainian towns.
Firefighters work to extinguish multiple fires after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
More than 900 civilians were found dead in the cities around Kyiv, as Ukrainian forces continue to retake areas previously occupied by Russia's military.
Smoke billowed over Kyiv Saturday after Russia's latest missile volley, which killed one person and wounded several others.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has cautioned residents who fled the city not to return amid these new attacks.
“We’re not ruling out further strikes on the capital,” Klitschko said. “If you have the opportunity to stay a little bit longer in the cities where it’s safer, do it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Russia’s military bombed Kharkiv on Saturday, destroying a community kitchen run by a celebrity chef.
The kitchen, set up by World Central Kitchen, was created to establish feeding systems in disaster and war zones, providing nearly 300,000 meals a day.
Celebrity chef José Andrés said his workers will continue to try and provide help to the Ukrainian people as “to give food in the middle of a senseless war is an act of courage, resilience and resistance."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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