- Explosions hit Kyiv in the north, Lviv in the west
- Zelenskyj speaks of 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed
- About 20,000 Russian soldiers were killed, he says
- Ukraine says street fighting in Mariupol continues
- Russia’s Moskva – largest ship sunk in 40 years of war
Kyiv, April 16 – Blasts were heard in Kyiv and the western city of Lviv early on Saturday, and the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said rescue workers and medics were working at the scene of a blast on the outskirts of the city.
There were no immediate details of casualties or damage.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that in seven weeks of war with Russia about 2,500-3,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and about 10,000 injured, but there were no civilian casualties.
He told CNN on Friday that 19,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war. Moscow said last month that 1,351 Russian soldiers were killed and 3,825 wounded.
Reuters could not independently verify the numbers from either side.
Russia vowed on Friday to launch more attacks on Kyiv and said it had deployed cruise missiles at the Vizar factory on the outskirts of Kyiv, which manufactured and repaired missiles, including anti-ship missiles.
The attack followed Thursday’s sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.
Ukraine said one of its rockets sank the Moscow River, a powerful symbol of its resistance to a better-armed enemy. Moscow said the ship sank while being towed in stormy seas after a fire caused by a munitions explosion and that more than 500 sailors were evacuated.
The United States believes the Moscow River was hit by two Ukrainian missiles and that there were Russian casualties, although the numbers were unclear, a senior US official said.
None of the reviews could be independently verified.
Ukraine’s military said on Saturday the presence of Russian warships in the Black Sea armed with sea-launched missiles indicates an increased likelihood that Russia will use them to attack Ukraine’s defense industry and logistics infrastructure.
It also said the Russian Navy was active in the Sea of Azov to blockade the port of Mariupol, where ground fighting has intensified as Ukraine said it was trying to break the siege on Russia.
Mariupol, home to 400,000 people before the Russian invasion, has been reduced to rubble. Thousands of civilians have died and tens of thousands remain trapped. Continue reading
“The situation in Mariupol is difficult and tough. Fights are going on. The Russian army is constantly calling in additional units to storm the city,” Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said at a briefing. He said the Russians had not fully captured it.
Graves of Ukrainian soldiers killed during the Joint Forces operation in the country’s eastern regions are damaged by a shell fired by a Russian tank during Russia’s attack on Ukraine April 6, according to a local Orthodox priest. REUTERS/Serhii Nuzhnenko
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“SIGNIFICANT” VICTORIES
Zelenskyy said the military situation in the south and east was “still very difficult” and praised the work of his armed forces.
“Our military’s achievements on the battlefield are truly significant, historically significant. But they are still not enough to cleanse our country of the occupiers. We’re going to hit them some more,” he said in a late night video address, calling again for allies to send heavier weapons and for an international embargo on Russian oil.
Zelenskyy has appealed to US President Joe Biden for the United States to declare Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” and join North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with their conversation . Continue reading
A White House spokesman replied: “We will continue to explore all options to increase pressure on Putin.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and senior finance officials will attend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington next week, sources told Reuters.
It is the first opportunity for key Ukrainian officials to meet face-to-face with tax officials from advanced economies since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. read more
ENDURE IN MARIUPOL
If Moscow captures Mariupol, it would be the first major city to fall.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had captured the Illich town steelworks. The report could not be confirmed. Ukrainian defenders are believed to be mostly in Azovstal, another huge steelworks. Continue reading
Both plants are owned by Metinvest, the empire of Ukraine’s wealthiest businessman and the backbone of Ukraine’s industrial east – which told Reuters on Friday it would never run its businesses under Russian occupation. Continue reading
Moscow has used its naval power to blockade Ukrainian ports and threaten a possible amphibious landing along the coast. Without the Moskva, the largest warship sunk during the conflict since Argentine General Belgrano in the 1982 Falklands War, its ability to threaten Ukraine from the sea could be crippled.
Russia initially described its goals in Ukraine as “a special military operation” to disarm its neighbor and defeat nationalists there.
After driving its invading forces from the outskirts of Kyiv this month, Moscow has said its main war aim is the capture of the Donbass, the eastern region partly held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
Kyiv and its Western allies say these are false justifications for an unprovoked war of aggression that has driven a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes and resulted in the deaths of thousands.
Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Adaptation by William Mallard