April 8, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below.

At least two men have died in the small town of Dvorichna in the Kharkiv region, according to a Telegram post from local Ukrainian authorities.

Russian shelling killed the the two men, aged 65 and 34, said Oleh Syniehubov, the head of Kharkiv's military administration.

Dvorichna lies on the east side of the Kharkiv region, close to the front line in the neighboring Luhansk region. 

Even though Ukraine succeeded in driving Russian fighters out of the area in September, it has remained in Russian sights, especially over recent months when Russian forces attempted a winter offensive.

One day after crossing back into Ukraine, 31 children have finally been reunited with their families, months after they were taken from their homes and moved to Russian-occupied territories.

A CNN team in Kyiv on Saturday watched as the last of the children climbed off a bus to embrace waiting family members, many unable to hold back the tears as months of separation came to an end.

“We went to the summer camp for two weeks but we got stuck there for six months,” Bogdan, 13, said as he hugged his mother. “I cried when I saw my mom from the bus. I’m very happy to be back.”

Bogdan’s mother, Iryna, 51, said she had received very little information about her son in the six months they were apart. 

“There was no phone connection. I was very worried. I didn’t know anything, whether he was being abused, what was happening to him. ... My hands are still shaking,” she said.

The reunions took place in the Ukrainian capital and were coordinated by the humanitarian organization Save Ukraine. According to the group, it has now completed five missions bringing home Ukrainian children it says were forcibly deported by Russia.

“It is thanks to our joint and coordinated work that we once again experience these incredible emotions when, after a long separation, children run across their native land into the arms of their families. When you see tears of joy on the faces of young Ukrainians, you realize that it is not all in vain,” Save Ukraine founder Mykola Kuleba said in a press conference earlier Saturday.

At the same press conference, Kuleba said tragedy had struck during the latest rescue mission: One of the women traveling with the party – a grandmother – passed away during the journey. The woman had been due to pick up two children on the mission, but because of her death, the pair was not permitted to travel back to Ukraine.   

Remember: Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of war crimes charges brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior official, Maria Lvova-Belova, by the International Criminal Court last month.

A report released in February detailed allegations of an expansive network of dozens of camps where kids underwent "political reeducation," including Russia-centric academic, cultural and, in some cases, military education.

Ukraine's head of the Office of the President recently estimated the total number of children forcibly removed from their homes is at least 20,000. Kyiv has said thousands of cases are already under investigation.

Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal, claiming it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety. 

The blasts in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar echo between buildings every minute or two, a CNN team reports.

Artillery, grad rockets and mortar fire were all audible in the town at different points Saturday — most of it believed to be outgoing from Ukrainian positions, but also some incoming from Russian forces.

The CNN team, which last visited Chasiv Yar eight days ago, said the amount of indirect fire appeared to have increased from the previous visit. It seems to indicate Ukrainian forces are working hard to keep open their key supply route into nearby Bakhmut, despite mounting Russian pressure.

Russian forces continue “to conduct offensive actions (in their attempt) to take full control of the city of Bakhmut," the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its latest situation update Saturday.

Unofficial reports suggest Russia's troops have maintained their slow advance through the center of the long-embattled city, located just east of Chasiv Yar. The long fight for Bakhmut has seen Moscow's fighters begin to enter western parts of the city, according to the reports, with the railway station as a possible next key target.

Life under constant fire: Back in Chasiv Yar, Ivan, a university student majoring in psychology, appeared unfazed by the constant sound of fire.

Ivan and his mother Ira are among the few civilians left in the town. 

“As long as I can, I will stay here,” he said, before going back to sawing the trunk of a small tree. The logs will make a fire where his mother can cook.

Ira, a woman in her fifties with short hair and a gold pendant of the Virgin Mary around her neck, focused on the day’s chores — not the danger.

“We wake up every morning, light a fire and start preparing food,” she told CNN. “Every day Ivan fetches water and collects firewood.”

She’s already planning ahead for Orthodox Easter, next weekend. No church services have been conducted in a while, but she and Ivan will observe Easter with the few people left in their aging apartment complex.

While most residents have left, the town is far from empty, teeming with soldiers, tanks, armored personnel carriers and army trucks, which have left a thick layer of drying mud on the town’s streets.

Daria Trepova, the anti-war activist who Russia formally accused of a bombing that killed a well-known blogger at a cafe in St. Petersburg last weekend, is cooperating with investigators, Russian state media reported Saturday.

Meanwhile, Trepova’s husband, Dmitry Rylov, has told an independent Russian publication he is convinced she has been framed.

What we know so far: Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, fervently supported the war but also served at times as a rare critic of Kremlin setbacks and strategy.

He was appearing as a guest of a pro-war group at the cafe when he was killed by an explosion. A bomb had apparently been hidden inside a figurine, which was presented to him as a gift at the event.

Russian investigators formally charged Trepova with terrorism offenses over Tatarsky’s killing and arrested her this week.

The United States and its allies will work to shore up any weaknesses in their unprecedented series of sanctions against Russia when leaders of the global financial system meet in Washington, DC, next week, senior US Treasury officials told CNN.

The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will provide the latest venue for the US to trade best practices on preventing Moscow from funding its war machine in Ukraine, according to the officials.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the US and its partners have imposed thousands of sanctions on the Kremlin. But observers note concerns over Russia's ability to reorient trade routes and acquire what it needs through neighboring countries or more permissive jurisdictions, such as the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

The US has made major efforts to share information with allied countries and businesses on how the Kremlin is trying to evade sanctions, and it has seen encouraging results of late, Treasury officials said.

Lashing out in Moscow: While the US seeks to bolster the impact of Western sanctions, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev — who is now vice chair of the country's National Security Council — slammed Washington and European governments for their support of Ukraine.

In a lengthy post Saturday on the Russian social media network VKontakte, Medvedev claimed support for Kyiv has caused "real financial and political hell" for Europe, blaming inflation and high utility costs on the governments' support for Ukraine at "the detriment of their own citizens."

He also said the US was wasting money on the conflict when it should instead focus on domestic issues.

Some context: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 only exacerbated existing issues for a global economy that was still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. It pushed inflation to record highs and triggered an energy crisis in Europe.

Several rounds of Western sanctions have roiled markets further, driving up the cost of commodities like fuel. Meanwhile, efforts to address the global hunger crisis by boosting Ukrainian grain imports have angered some farmers in central and eastern European countries who say they can't compete.

Western governments, however, place the blame for economic turmoil squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion. And there are signs that more than a year of the unprecedented, US-led sanctions have left Russia weakened, if not incapacitated.

CNN's Anna Cooban and Mariya Knight contributed to this report.

While it's relatively quiet for Ukrainian soldiers that CNN spoke with in the northeast Kharkiv region, they are on alert for any Russian offensive.

"We have enough ammunition and we have enough weapon(s) and different armor, equipment. But it's all for defense, weapons for the counterattack. It will be better because we sooner free our land," Oleskii, who used to work as a nuclear physicist, said in English to CNN's Ben Wedeman.

The weapons they have are outdated, with one Swedish-made rocket launcher dating back to 1978.

In September 2022, Ukrainian forces pushed back Russian troops from much of the Kharkiv region.

But many fighters have seen battle on the front lines in the east. During the winter, "it was a nightmare" in the Donbas region, a soldier named Yevgen told CNN.

Vitali, 52, served with the Russians he is now fighting against during his time in the Soviet army. "We ate from the same pot," he said, illustrating just how much has changed.

Watch Wedeman's report here:

Farmers in central and eastern Europe protested this week against the impact of cheap Ukrainian grain imports, which have undercut domestic prices and hit the sales of local producers.

Protesters blocked traffic and border checkpoints with tractors along the border between Romania and Bulgaria in an effort to prevent Ukrainian trucks from entering their country, according to local news outlets.

Local producers say they cannot compete with the price of Ukrainian grain and have demanded compensation from the European Commission.

What led to the tensions: Ukraine, often called the “breadbasket of Europe” due to the vast quantities of grain it produces, had its Black Sea ports blockaded by Russia following the launch of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Fearing the situation was “threatening global food security,” the European Commission set up what it called “solidarity lanes” in May to facilitate exports.

The Commission also temporarily eliminated all duties and quotas on Ukraine’s exports, allowing a glut of cheap Ukrainian grain to flow into Europe.

This has caused “huge market distortions” in neighboring countries, according to European farmers’ association Copa-Cogeca.

Plans for an extension: Anger grew this week after the European Commission announced a draft decision to extend duty-free and quota-free imports of Ukrainian grain until June 2024, prompting Polish agriculture minister Henryk Kowalcyzk to resign from his post Wednesday.

In Kowalczyk’s resignation statement, he said that the Polish government – along with those of Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria – had submitted a request to the European Commission to “activate the protection clause in the field of duty-free and quota-free imports of grain from Ukraine.”

“Bulgaria is in solidarity with Ukraine, but a local glut is being created on the agricultural market, because instead of export corridors our countries are becoming warehouses,” Bulgaria’s agriculture minister Yavor Gechev said.

Read more here.

Both the Pentagon and US Department of Justice are investigating leaks of a trove of apparent US intelligence documents that were posted on social media in recent weeks.

The investigation comes as new documents surfaced Friday covering everything from US support for Ukraine to information about key US allies, widening the fallout from an already alarming leak. The Pentagon said Thursday it was looking into the matter as reports emerged.

The additional leaked documents that open-source intelligence researchers surfaced Friday appear to have been posted online in the past few weeks. The documents appear to contain classified information on a range of topics, including:

• The mercenary Wagner Group’s operations in Africa
• Israel’s pathways to providing lethal aid to Ukraine
• Intelligence about the United Arab Emirates’ ties to Russia
• South Korean concerns about providing ammunition to the US for use in Ukraine

CNN could not independently verify whether the documents had been altered. But they are similar to a tranche of classified documents about Ukraine that have been circulating online in recent weeks, which US officials on Friday morning confirmed to CNN to be authentic.

Much like those documents, Friday’s discoveries were photos of printed-out, wrinkled documents. All bore classified markings, some top secret – the highest level of classification. They also all appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March.

It is unclear who is behind the leaks and where, exactly, they originated.

“The Department of Defense is actively reviewing the matter, and has made a formal referral to the Department of Justice for investigation,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said Friday.

A Justice Department spokesperson told CNN the department has “been in communication with the Department of Defense related to this matter and have begun an investigation,” declining to comment further.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on his Telegram channel he believes Russia is behind the purported leak.

Podolyak said the documents that were disseminated are inauthentic, have “nothing to do with Ukraine’s real plans” and are based on “a large amount of fictitious information.”

Images of some of the documents – which include estimates of Russian casualties and a list of Western weapons systems available to Ukraine – were posted to the social media platform Discord in early March, according to screenshots of the posts reviewed by CNN.

Read the full story here.