Russia’s defence ministry has vowed it will conduct further missile strikes against Kyiv after Ukraine claimed responsibility for the sinking of the Russian navy’s Black Sea flagship.
Powerful explosions that were heard in the capital city this morning appeared to be among the most significant in Ukraine’s capital region since Russian troops withdrew from the area earlier this month.
A Ukrainian military factory outside Kyiv that produced missiles allegedly used to hit Russia’s Moskva warship was partially destroyed by overnight Russian strikes, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
A workshop and an administrative building at the Vizar plant, which lies near Kyiv’s international Zhuliany airport, were seriously damaged. Russia had earlier announced it had hit the factory.
Explosions were also recorded in the southern city of Kherson, the eastern city of Kharkiv and the town of Ivano-Frankivsk in the west.
It comes a day after Ukraine said it had hit the Moskva missile cruiser with a Neptune anti-ship missile. Over 500 crew were evacuated, the Russian ministry said, without acknowledging an attack.
The ship’s loss comes as Russia’s navy continues its bombardment of Ukrainian cities on the Black Sea coast nearly 50 days after it launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Follow the latest updates below.
12:28 PM
Russian regulator says French radio RFI’s website blocked
Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor on Friday blocked access to the website of French radio station RFI, saying it had violated a law banning the dissemination of false or extremist information.
The RFI website appeared in Roskomnadzor’s database of blocked websites and AFP journalists in Moscow were unable to access the station’s English, French or Russian-language websites.
12:16 PM
Five million people have fled war in Ukraine, UN says
More than five million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, United Nations figures showed on Friday.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 4,796,245 million Ukrainians had fled across the borders, while the UN’s International Organization for Migration says nearly 215,000 third-country nationals have also escaped to neighbouring countries.
12:06 PM
North Macedonia orders another six Russian diplomats to leave the country
North Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered six Russian diplomats to leave the country over violations of diplomatic norms, the second such expulsion in less than a month, a statement said.
A diplomatic note has been handed over to Sergey Bazdnikin, Russia’s ambassador to Skopje and the diplomats have five days to leave the country, it said.
“The six Russian diplomats in question were engaging in activities contrary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” said the statement posted on ministry’s website.
Officials from the Russian embassy in Skopje could not immediately be reached for comment.
On March 28, North Macedonia which is a Nato member and wants to join the European Union, expelled five other Russian diplomats.
The Balkan country joined has joined international sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
12:05 PM
Ministry of Defence shares latest Defence Intelligence update on Ukraine
12:02 PM
Ukraine’s top steelmaker says it will never work under Russian occupation
Ukraine’s biggest steelmaker Metinvest said on Friday its enterprises would never operate under Russian occupation and that Ukraine had lost access to 30 per cent to 40 per cent of its metallurgy production capacity in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
It told Reuters in a statement that Ukraine, one of Europe’s biggest suppliers of iron ore, had already more than halved its iron ore production due to the invasion that Russia launched on Feb. 24.
11:41 AM
Russian Deputy PM says several buyers agree to pay in roubles for Russian gas
Several buyers of Russian gas have agreed to switch to payments in roubles, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.
“We expect the decision (to switch to roubles) from other importers,” he added, in comments published in the ministry’s in-house magazine. He did not disclose the identities of customers who had already switched.
President Vladimir Putin said last month that buyers of Russian gas from “unfriendly” countries should pay in roubles, a move rejected by European Union authorities under the bloc’s sanctions regime against Moscow.
Putin has warned Europe it risked having gas supplies cut unless it pays in the Russian currency as he seeks to retaliate over the sanctions, imposed over what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
In March, he proposed that energy buyers open accounts at Gazprombank, where payments in euros or dollars would be converted to roubles.
Armenia made several payments for supplies of Russian natural gas in roubles, its Economy Minister Vagan Kerobyan said in an interview with Russian media outlet RBC on Friday.
11:15 AM
Pictured: Man stands among the remains of his home in village near Kyiv
10:53 AM
Russia says 20 buildings and school damaged by Ukrainian shelling in Belgorod
More than 20 buildings and a school were damaged as a result of Ukrainian shelling of a Russian village in the Belgorod region on Thursday, TASS news agency reported on Friday, citing regional authorities.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
10:35 AM
Russia blocks The Moscow Times website
Russia’s communications watchdog has blocked access to the website of The Moscow Times, an English language newspaper that has covered Russia for three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
10:34 AM
Ukraine says seven killed in Russian attack on evacuees
Ukraine said Friday that seven people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a Russian attack on buses ferrying civilians from the war-torn east of the country.
“On April 14, Russian servicemen fired on evacuation buses carrying civilians in the village of Borova in the Izium district. Preliminary data shows seven people died. Another 27 people were injured,” the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said in a statement on social media.
10:22 AM
Russia says it wants to expand rouble use in energy exports but no deadlines yet
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia wanted to expand the use of the rouble for energy exports, but that it was too early to talk of deadlines and details.
“The president has set a methodical and step-by-step approach to expanding the use of national currencies”, Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the role of national currencies in export deals should rise, amid Russia’s stated desire to switch to roubles in payments for its gas supplies, mainly to Europe.
09:41 AM
Russia warns of ‘unpredictable consequences’ if US keeps arming Ukraine
Russia has warned the United States that there will be “unpredictable consequences” if Washington keeps arming Ukraine, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
“We call on the United States and its allies to stop the irresponsible militarization of Ukraine, which implies unpredictable consequences for regional and international security,” the Post quoted Russia saying in a diplomatic note to the United States.
09:38 AM
Russia says it has captured steel works in Mariupol
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed it had captured the Ilyich steel works in Mariupol, one of the last industrial areas holding out in the besieged eastern city that has seen the war’s heaviest fighting and the worst humanitarian catastrophe.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it had repelled Russian offensives in the town of Popasna and Rubizhne, in an area north of Mariupol. Both reports could not be independently confirmed.
Moscow now says its main war aim is capturing the Donbas, an eastern region of two provinces that are already partly held by Russian-backed separatists and that Russia wants Kyiv to cede. It has sent a new column of thousands of troops into the east for what Ukraine anticipates will be a major assault.
Moscow says it hopes to seize all of Mariupol soon, which would be the only big city it has captured so far.
09:09 AM
Russia has lost approximately 20,000 troops, Armed Forces of Ukraine say
These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of April 15, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/qCuWOiMieJ
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 15, 2022
08:49 AM
Russia says killed up to 30 ‘Polish mercenaries’ in Ukraine
Russia said on Friday that it has killed up to 30 Polish mercenaries fighting for Ukrainian forces in the war-torn country’s northeastern region of Kharkiv.
The Russian defence ministry said its strategic rocket forces “eliminated up to 30 Polish mercenaries” in a strike on the village of Izyumskoe, not far from the city of Kharkiv.
08:35 AM
Ukraine says it has swapped captured soldiers with Russia
Ukraine said on Friday that it had swapped several captured soldiers with Russia in the south of the war-scarred country, where Moscow’s invading forces have solidified their greatest gains.
“After tense negotiations, we managed to reach agreements on a prisoner exchange near the village of Posad-Pokrovskoye, where four Russian military personnel were exchanged for our five,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said.
Russian troops have captured the city of Kherson, which is the administrative capital of the eponymous region where Friday’s declared swap took place.
The exchange followed an announcement from Kyiv on Thursday of a fourth swap of prisoners since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said a total of 30 people on the Ukrainian side were involved in that exchange.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky this week offered to swap pro-Kremlin tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, one of the richest people in Ukraine and who was arrested by Kyiv after escaping house arrest, for Ukrainians captured by Russia.
08:29 AM
The latest pictures from Ukraine
08:17 AM
China must ‘pay price’ for Russia backing, says US senator in Taiwan
China must pay a greater price for backing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a senior United States senator said Friday, during a trip to Taiwan in which American lawmakers vowed that Washington would not abandon the island.
Beijing threatened “strong measures” in response to the delegation led by Lindsey Graham, a vocal China hawk, which arrived in Taipei late Thursday for a two-day visit.
Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine – which Beijing has refused to condemn – has heightened fears that China might one day follow through on threats to annex its smaller neighbour.
During a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen, Mr Graham said the United States would “stand for what we love, we would stand with you”.
“To abandon Taiwan would be to abandon democracy and freedom… it would reward the worst in humanity.”
“We are going to start making China pay a greater price for what they are doing all over the world. The support for Putin must come with a price,” he added.
08:09 AM
Moody’s says Russia may be in default on dollar bonds
Moody’s Investors Service has said that Russia may be in default after it made payments on dollar bonds with roubles.
“Russia reportedly made payments on two bonds maturing in 2022 and 2042 in rubles rather than US dollars which represents a change in payment terms relative to the original bond contracts and therefore may be considered a default under Moody’s definition if not cured by 4 May, which is the end of the grace period,” Moody’s said in a statement on Thursday.
If Russia is considered in default it would be its first major default on foreign bonds since the years following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
Russia says it wants to service its debt but the West has prevented it from paying by imposing crippling sanctions after President Vladimir Putin on February 24 ordered a special military operation in Ukraine.
07:47 AM
Moscow warns it will intensify attacks on Kyiv
Russia’s defence ministry warned Friday it will intensify attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in response to strikes on Russian soil, after accusing Ukraine of targeting Russian border towns.
“The number and scale of missile strikes against targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist attacks or sabotage committed by the Kyiv nationalist regime on Russian territory,” the ministry said in a statement. Russia hit a “military” factory outside Kyiv late Thursday using Kalibr sea-based long-range missiles, it added.
07:22 AM
Ukraine’s Luhansk governor urges residents of six towns to evacuate
The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaidai, on Friday urged residents of six towns to evacuate, adding that one person had been killed and five wounded in Russian shelling of the town of Kreminna.
Mr Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app: “Don’t hesitate and leave while that possibility remains. … Choose life, buses are waiting for you at the pickup points. As are trains, of which there are enough.”
Reuters could not immediately verify Mr Gaidai’s statements.
07:21 AM
Nine humanitarian corridors agreed for Friday
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said nine humanitarian corridors had been agreed for Friday to evacuate civilians, including by private car from the besieged city of Mariupol.
Other evacuation routes include ones from Berdiansk, Tokmak, Enerhodar and Sievierodonetsk.
