Kyiv, Ukraine — About 2,200 Ukrainian men of military age have been arrested so far while attempting to leave the country in violation of martial law, according to Ukraine’s Border Patrol Agency.
The agency said Sunday some of them used fake documents and others tried to bribe border guards to leave the country.
Some were said to have been found dead trying to cross the Carpathian Mountains in bad weather, without specifying the number.
Under martial law, Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country to be drafted into combat.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Ukraine is stepping in to combat Russia’s looming offensive in the east
— Analysis: war, economy could weaken Putin’s position as leader
– Zelenskyy says in an AP interview that he seeks peace despite atrocities
— Relations between Poland and Ukraine are seen as a target of Russian disinformation
– War Crimes Watch: A devastating walk through Bucha’s horrors
— For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
WARSAW, Poland – Sirens have sounded in some Polish cities to commemorate the anniversary of a plane crash in 2010 that killed the country’s president, despite protests that their sound would be needlessly traumatic to refugees from the war in Ukraine.
The sirens early Sunday were intended to reinforce the importance and plaintive nature of the celebrations honoring the late President Lech Kaczynski, the First Lady and 94 other prominent Poles who died in the presidential plane crash in Russia 12 years ago. Kaczynski was the twin of Jaroslaw Kaczynski – the leader of the main governing Law and Justice party.
Provincial governors ignored calls not to use the sirens out of concern for refugees from neighboring Ukraine traumatized by air raid alarms. Authorities sent text messages to the refugees’ phones that the sirens would mean no danger.
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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine’s military says Russia has increased its forces and is trying to probe Ukraine’s defenses.
Ukraine’s military command said on Sunday that Russian troops continued their attempts to breach Ukraine’s defenses near Izyum, southeast of Kharkiv. It was reported that Russia was sending reinforcements to Izyum while continuing the shelling of Kharkiv.
The military added that the Russians were also continuing their attempts to seize control of Mariupol, the port on the Sea of Azov which has been under siege by Russian forces for almost a month and a half.
After Russia’s attempt to seize Kyiv and other major cities in northeastern Ukraine quickly failed, Ukrainian and Western officials expect Moscow to launch a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces for eight years.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he focused on the need to track down perpetrators of war crimes in a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Zelenskyi said on Twitter that in Sunday’s conference call we “emphasized that all perpetrators of war crimes must be identified and punished.”
Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other locations near Kyiv, where hundreds of slaughtered civilians, many with their hands tied and signs of torture, were found after Russian troops withdrew.
Zelenskyy also said he and Scholz “discussed anti-Russian sanctions, defense and financial support for Ukraine.”
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has opened Holy Week by calling for an Easter ceasefire in Ukraine to make way for a negotiated peace, stressing that leaders must “make some sacrifices for the good of the people.”
Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass to crowds in St. Peter’s Square for the first time since the pandemic, Pope Francis called for “lay down arms to begin a truce at Easter, not to reload arms and resume fighting, no!” A truce to achieve peace through real negotiations.”
Francis was not directly referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the reference was clear. He has repeatedly denounced the war and the suffering of innocent civilians.
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HELSINKI – Finland says a consignment of artworks from Russian museums has been returned to Russia after being seized under European Union sanctions against Moscow.
Finland’s Customs Service said late Saturday that the Foreign Ministry had issued a special permit to return the shipment with a total insured value of around 42 million euros ($46 million). It was said that trucks carrying works of art from the Hermitage and the Pavlovsk State Museum in St. Petersburg, among others, left Finnish territory on Saturday afternoon.
The shipment was confiscated at the Vaalimaa border crossing in early April. After being loaned to museums in Europe and Japan, the works were on their way to Russia. Experts say artworks loaned from Russia are usually shipped overland via Finland.
Russia has demanded the return of all loans to “unfriendly” nations that imposed sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine.
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MOSCOW – The Russian military says it has attacked Ukrainian air defense batteries in the south and east of the country.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that the military used anti-aircraft missiles to hit Ukrainian S-300 air-defense missile systems at Starobohdanivka in the southern Mykolaiv region and at an airbase in Chuhuiv in the eastern Kharkiv region.
Konashenkov also said that cruise missiles launched from the sea destroyed the headquarters of a Ukrainian military unit near Zvonetske in the Dnipro region.
Russian military claims could not be independently verified.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says more civilians are expected to leave Mariupol in their private vehicles on Sunday.
Evacuations are also planned from Berdyansk, Tokmak and Enerhodar in the south and Sieverierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna and Rubizhne in the east.
Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Sea of Azov, has been under siege by Russian forces for nearly a month and a half, cut off from food, water and electricity supplies and ravaged by a relentless bombardment that has killed at least 5,000 people, according to local officials.
Ukrainian authorities have urged civilians in the east to evacuate in the face of an imminent Russian offensive. They accused Russia of killing 52 people at the train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Friday as they prepared to evacuate.
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GENEVA – The UN refugee agency says the number of people who have left Ukraine since the start of the war has reached 4.5 million.
A regular Sunday update by the UN Refugee Agency’s online portal on the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine since February 24 brought the total to about 4.504 million.
About 2.6 million of them fled to Poland, at least initially, and more than 686,000 to Romania. However, UNHCR notes that there are very few border controls within the European Union and believes “large numbers of people” have moved on from the first country they arrived in.
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LONDON – Britain’s Defense Ministry says Russian forces are trying to respond to mounting casualties by increasing troop levels with personnel discharged from military service since 2012.
In an intelligence update on Twitter on Sunday, the ministry also said that the Russian military’s efforts to “generate more fighting power” include trying to recruit recruits from Transnistria, a breakaway region in Moldova that borders Ukraine. to recruit.
Russia maintains about 1,500 troops in the region, which is not recognized internationally.