Russia-Ukraine war latest: Russian warship sunk by Ukraine missile strike, say US officials; bodies of 900 civilians found in Kyiv region – live | Ukraine

More air raid sirens across Ukraine reported in the last hour, in the capital Kyiv, as well as in the central and western regions of the country including Rivne, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr.

The Associated Press fact-checking unit has assessed some videos flying around purporting to be the destruction of the Moskva. Upshot: they’re not.

The clips, which some have claimed shows missiles striking the Russian warship, is actually 2013 footage of a Norwegian Navy test missile strike.

Following the destruction of the Moskva – which Ukraine claims they hit with anti-ship missiles but Russia says was a victim of bad weather and an on-board fire – social media users shared images and videos out of context to claim they showed the aftermath of an attack.

One such widely-shared video showed a large warship exploding, sending a plume of thick, dark smoke into the air.

A Twitter user shared it on Thursday, calling it “a video of the explosion of a Russian cruiser after being hit by a Ukrainian missile,” another post claimed the footage was from “yesterday in Ukraine.”

However, the footage was actually taken about nine years ago off the coast of Norway, and shows a Naval Strike Missile being tested on a decommissioned Norwegian ship during a military exercise, according to reports at the time from military.com, the British news agency South West News Service and others, which all used the same footage.

CNN also aired a June 2013 report about the exercise, using the footage and crediting it to the Norwegian navy.

A reverse image search using frames from the clip shows that the same video has been circulating online for years, predating the current war between Russia and Ukraine.

In the last hour, air raid sirens have gone off across multiple cities in central, eastern, and southern Ukraine, including: Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy, Donetsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Poltava and Mykolaiv, according to official Ukrainian Telegram channels.

US media is reporting senior US defence officials confirming the Russian warship, Moskva, was destroyed by Ukrainian missile strikes.

The Moskva was destroyed in the black Sea earlier this week. Ukraine says it hit the ship with two Neptune anti-ship missiles, and is bracing for revenge attacks. Russia’s defence ministry said a fire onboard and “stormy sea conditions” were to blame (although Russian state TV presenters are not unanimously toeing that line). On Friday senior US defence officials confirmed Ukraine’s version of events, according to the Washington Post and New York Times.

In the CNN interview Zelenskiy was also asked about the Moskva, but was circumspect in his response.

“We know that it does not exist anymore. For us it is a strong weapon against our country so its sinking is not a tragedy for us,” Zelenskiy said.

He said “history will tell” what happened to it.

There is very little information about the fate of the 510 personnel on board the Moskva, a significant and well known flagship of Russia’s fleet. Moscow has given not details or released photos.

The Guardian’s Luke Harding in Kyiv and Andrew Roth reported yesterday:

An article published by the Tass state-run news agency initially claimed the “entire crew” had been evacuated. It was later edited to remove the word “entire”. One unconfirmed Ukrainian report said 14 sailors including the chief of Moskva’s medical service were taken to the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The fate of the other 494 was unknown, it said. If they are confirmed to have drowned it would amount to the largest number of deaths of Russian servicemen in a single incident since the second world war.

Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser who has a popular Telegram channel, posted a photo of the Moskva’s captain, Anton Kuprin. Kuprin was killed during the explosion and fire on the ship, Gerashchenko claimed.

It was Kuprin who gave the order for the Moskva to shell Snake Island in the Black Sea during the first hours of Moscow’s invasion. Its Ukrainian defenders refused to surrender and said: “Russian warship ‘go fuck yourself’” – a slogan that has become a national meme.

Zelenskiy has spoken to CNN, saying the world should be prepared for the possibility that Russia decides to use nuclear or chemical weapons against Ukraine.

He said the Russians could do it because Putin did not value the lives of the people.

“We should think not be afraid, not be afraid but be ready. But that is not a question for Ukraine, not only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think,” he said.

US officials have warned of the potential for Putin to use nuclear weapons in the conflict.

“Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low yield nuclear weapons,” CIA Director Bill Burn said on Thursday.

Zelenskiy also said his information was that about 2,500-3,000 Ukrainian military personnel had been killed, and Russia’s military had lost about 19,000-20,000. He said about 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers were injured, some seriously.

Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal and top finance officials will visit Washington next week, according to a Reuters report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.

The delegation, also including finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, and central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko, will be there at the same time as the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, it said.

Shmyhal, Marchenko and Shevchenko are expected to have bilateral meetings with finance officials from Group of Seven countries and others, the report said, and would take part in a World Bank-hosted roundtable on the Ukraine conflict on Thursday.

The event will be the first chance for key Ukrainian officials to meet in person with a host of financial officials from advanced economies since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Thursday’s meeting will be more of a roundtable than a donors conference, although both the IMF and World Bank have set up separate accounts to be able to process and relay donations, and additional pledges are expected to be announced next week.

It will give officials a chance to discuss the physical devastation and economic consequences of the war, as well as the continued functioning of Ukraine’s banking and financial sector.

“Without support now, there will be no reconstruction in the future,” one of the sources said.

The World Bank had no immediate comment on the event.

Hello, this is Helen Davidson to take you through the next few hours of developments.

The German government says it plans to release more than a billion euros in military aid for Ukraine.

On Friday the country’s finance minister, Christian Lindner, confirmed the government had decided to increase its international aid in the defence sector to €2bn, with the largest portion going to Ukraine as military aid. The funds must mainly be used by Ukraine for military equipment purchases, the Associated Press reported.

It follows pressure from Ukraine – where president Zelenskiy again today pushed for more weapons from supportive states – and criticism from other EU governments for Germany’s apparent lack of weapons support to Kyiv.

Diplomatic feathers were ruffled earlier in the week after Kyiv rejected a proposed visit by Germany’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a former foreign minister who recently acknowledged “errors” in a too conciliatory stance toward Moscow in the past, the AP reported.

The Ukrainian presidency instead said it wanted to welcome Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Kyiv, but the chancellor indicated he had no plans to visit anytime soon, despite coming under pressure from Ukrainian and opposition figures to follow in the footsteps of several other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

• The captain of the Russian warship Moskva was killed during the attack that sank it, Ukraine claimed. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, said Anton Kuprin died during an explosion and fire onboard the ship.

• Ukraine is now bracing for revenge attacks for its hand in sinking the Moskva. Western intelligence corroborates Ukraine’s account that two of its missiles sunk the warship, though Russia has provided an alternative explanation. Russian strikes targeted the factory near Kyiv where the Ukrainian missiles used to sink the flagship are made.

• More than 900 civilian bodies have been discovered in the region surrounding Kyiv after the withdrawal of Russian forces, local police said. Almost all of them were shot dead, indicating execution during the Russian occupation, it was claimed. Their number was far greater than previously thought. In Kharkiv, officials also said that 10 people, including baby were killed and 35 wounded following Russian air strikes.

• The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, recently made a direct appeal to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, for Washington to designate Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism. The Washington Post first reported the news. It would be a rare and radical sanction. But Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.

• In his latest address, Zelenskiy once again pushed for more weapons, and more sanctions – so the war could end sooner. Zelenskiy also spoke about a return to “normal life” in some parts of the country – or efforts to regain normality amid the tragedy. In parts of Ukraine, Zelenskiy noted that four-fifths of Ukranian enterprises have returned to work in safe areas.

• Sweden and Finland said they were deliberating Nato membership. Tytti Tuppurainen, Finland’s minister for European affairs, said: “The people of Finland seem to have already made up their mind”. She added the decision was “highly likely” but “not made yet” pending discussions in parliament.

• Outgunned, outnumbered and surrounded by Russian forces, one of Europe’s biggest metallurgical plants has become Mariupol’s redoubt. The factory is “an enormous space” in which the Russians “simply can’t find” Ukrainian forces, Oleh Zhdanov – a military analyst based in Kyiv – told Reuters.

• Russia threatened to intensify its attacks on Kyiv if Ukrainian forces carry out any operations on Russian territory. A spokesperson for Moscow’s defence ministry said: “The number and scale of missile strikes against targets in Kyiv will increase in response to the Kyiv nationalist regime committing any attacks of a terrorist nature or sabotage on Russian territory.”

• Russia designated journalist and Youtuber Yury Dud and political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann as “foreign agents” today, a continuation of Russia’s crackdown on those critical of the Russian government within the country. Dud and Schulmann have both been publicly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

– Maanvi Singh, Gloria Oladipo, Kevin Rawlinson

In his latest address, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy once again pushed for more weapons, and more sanctions – so the war could end sooner.

He said:

If someone says: year or years, I answer: you can make the war much shorter. The more and the sooner we get all the weapons we have requested, the stronger our position will be and the sooner peace will come. The more and the sooner we get the financial support we have requested, the sooner there will be peace. The sooner the democratic world recognizes that the oil embargo against Russia and the complete blockade of its banking sector are necessary steps towards peace, the sooner the war will end.

So the number one task is to speed up the restoration of peace.

Zelenskiy also spoke about a return to “normal life” in some parts of the country – or efforts to regain normality amid the tragedy.

The restoration of normal life in those areas and districts where the occupiers were expelled continues. The amount of work is really huge. 918 settlements of different scales, but equally important for us, for Ukraine, have already been de-occupied.

We carry out demining. We restore the supply of electricity, water and gas. We restore the work of the police, post office, state and local authorities.

Humanitarian headquarters have started working on the territory of 338 liberated settlements. We are resuming the provision of regular and emergency medical care, the work of educational institutions – where it is really possible. In total, on this day, Russian troops have destroyed or damaged 1,018 educational institutions across our country.

Restoration of roads and railways has begun. In particular, from tomorrow the railway connection with Chernihiv and Nizhyn will be restored. Trains are already running between the cities of the Sumy region.

The teams of Ukravtodor and Ukrzaliznytsia work quite efficiently, and I am grateful to them for this speed. For giving people back a sense of normal life, which the occupiers tried to destroy forever.

In parts of Ukraine, Zelenskiy noted that four-fifths of Ukranian enterprises have returned to work in safe areas.

Transport networks are being rebuilt. Good performance is shown in trade and services. And all this is also the fulfillment of the national task of accelerating the restoration of peace.

That is why I am grateful to everyone who keeps jobs, who employs our people, who helps businesses adapt to these difficult conditions and gives Ukraine the necessary economic strength to live.

No matter what, in all cities and communities where there are no occupiers and hostilities, it is necessary to restore the economy to the maximum.

And finally. The important words that hope always wins even under seemingly insurmountable circumstances.

This Saturday, the Jewish community celebrates Passover. Holiday of liberation. Holiday of life. I sincerely wish all those who celebrate in Ukraine and in the world peace, good and the inevitable defeat of any evil that threatens freedom and life on earth.

The death toll in Kharkiv is up to 10, according to Nexta:

According to Kharkiv region governor Oleh Synehubov, there has not been a single day without air strikes since the Russian invasion began.

A mass grave in Bucha, the aftermath of the Russian attack on the station in Kramatorsk, young Ukrainian refugees in Tijuana and the shelling of Kharkiv: here photographs from the seventh week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Please take care: readers may find some of these images distressing.

If the US designates Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy has reportedly requested, it would be a rare and radical sanction.

But Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, and this is no exception as his country endures atrocities from its northern neighbor.

He asked the US president in a recent phone call, but the question has not previously been reported, the Post adds, citing unnamed sources, who apparently indicated that “Biden did not commit to specific actions during the call.”

The Washington Post reports that “even during the cold war, Washington refrained from designating the Soviet Union in this manner despite Moscow’s support for groups considered terrorist actors throughout the 1970s and 1980s.”

Justification for the designation would have to be arrived at by secretary of state Antony Blinken.

The designation is normally applied to nations that “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism”, according to a State Department fact sheet cited by the Post, which adds that there are four countries on the department’s list right now: North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria.

While Russia has not provided many details on what exactly happened to the Moskva, a crowd in Crimea gathered to mourn the ship’s demise.

From Reuters:

Dozens of people gathered in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Friday to mourn the sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a symbol, the crowd heard, of hope, revival and power until its demise.

Some embraced and others laid flowers in memory of the Moskva missile cruiser at a monument to the 1696 foundation of the Russian navy in the centre of Sevastopol, headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.

Moscow, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, said the ship sank while being towed in stormy seas after a fire caused by an ammunition explosion.

Ukraine said one of its missiles had caused it to sink.

“Even for those who have not been on it, the Moskva was a symbol for everyone, a symbol of our power, of our hope, of the revival of the fleet in the 1990s” following the collapse of the Soviet Union, said Reserve Captain Sergei Gorbachev, who spoke to the crowd in his naval uniform.

“There will be victories, there will be tragedies, but the memory remains,” Gorbachev said.

The crowd, which included a number of people who served on the ship, stood in respectful silence. Some wore the ribbon of St. George, a symbol of the Russian military.

“The loss of every ship, especially a flagship, is a tragedy for all those tens of thousands of people who served there for over 20 years,” said priest Georgiy Ployakov.

Russia sent tens of thousands of soldiers into Ukraine on Feb 24 on what it calls a “special operation”.

Air strike sirens are reportedly sounding off in Kyiv, according to online reports.

From the Guardian’s Luke Harding:

Ambassadors from several countries are coming back to Kyiv after evacuating amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Italy’s ambassador to Ukraine will return to Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv, with plans to resume working on 18 April.

France also announced today that their embassy will reopen shortly, with plans to move the embassy back to Kyiv, after the embassy was temporarily relocated to Lviv.

From the Kyiv Independent:

Russia blocked the websites of Radio France Internationale and the Russian-language service of The Moscow Times in an ongoing crackdown against independent media, reported Reuters.

The English-language website for the Moscow Times has not been affected, confirmed Moscow Times in a statement. The news organization said the move to block its website by Russian officials was because of a story it published on the conflict in Ukraine.

Radio France Internationale said it had not been provided with an explanation on why the website was blocked in Russia.

A stamp featuring the Russian warship Moskva that sank is now a collector’s item, reports AFP.

A stamp depicting a Ukrainian soldier making an obscene hand gesture at the Russian Black Sea flagship Moskva has become a collector’s item for Ukrainians who see it as a sign of “victory”.

At the central post office in the capital Kyiv, hundreds of Ukrainians of every age could be seen queueing for hours on Friday to get their hands on one of the one million copies printed so far.

“That ship was the biggest one they had…. They gambled a lot on it and we destroyed it!” said Yury Kolesan, 22, who waited for two-and-a-half hours to get a set of 30 stamps.

“It’s a new phase of the war, one of victory!”

The warship sank on Thursday after an explosion and fire that Ukraine claimed was caused by a missile strike – while Russia said the damage was caused by an explosion of munitions on board.

The missile cruiser gained notoriety in the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when its crew called on a unit of Ukrainian border guards to surrender, only for them to defiantly refuse.

The incident quickly became a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s assault.

Ukraine’s postal service last month launched a competition to illustrate the episode.

Out of more than 500 submissions, Lviv designer Boris Groh’s winning entry shows a Ukrainian soldier from behind swearing at the warship.

It has proved a hit, selling out in many post offices and quickly appearing for resale online.

“We wanted to print more but the bombing last night in Kyiv affected the work of the factory and we did not manage to print the necessary quantity,” Ukrainian postal service Igor Smelyansky told AFP.

Russian officials have provided few details about the Moskva ship that was sunk by Ukraine missiles, but created a memorial for the ship’s sinking.

From the Guardian’s Andrew Roth:

Russia designated journalist and Youtuber Yury Dud and political analyst Ekaterina Schulmann as “foreign agents” today, a continuation of Russia’s crackdown on those critical of the Russian government within the country.

Dud and Schulmann have both been publicly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.