April 28, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

An American citizen, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed this week while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, members of his family told CNN. 

The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on Monday. The company had sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel's mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN.

Cancel, a former US Marine, according to his mother, signed up to work for the private military contracting company on top of his full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennessee shortly before the war in Ukraine broke out, Cabrera said. When the war began, the company, according to Cabrera, was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

"He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn't come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn't have to be involved in it," Cabrera said. 

Read more here

Few beyond the metals industry had heard of Mariupol’s Azovstal Steel and Iron Works before it became the scene of a desperate last stand against Russia’s invading forces.

Until recently Azovstal was a major player on the global stage, producing 4 million tons of steel annually and exporting the majority across the globe, according to its owner Metinvest Holding, Ukraine’s biggest steelmaker.

From London’s Shard skyscraper to Hudson Yards in Manhattan to Genoa’s San Giorgio Bridge (which replaced the collapsed Morandi Bridge), steel produced at Azovstal is used in some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks.

But for weeks now, the world has been gripped by the battle raging over the steelworks on the coast of the Sea of Azov.

“The city’s literally under siege for almost two months now. And the Russians, they don’t allow us to bring food into the city or water into the city,” said Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding which owns the plant.
“They’re not allowing us to take the civilians out of the city in a centralized manner. They make the people either move out in their own automobiles or even walk by foot through the minefields. It’s a humanitarian disaster there.”

Asked why Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to take Azovstal so badly, Ryzhenkov tells CNN, “I don’t think it’s the plant that he wants.”

At least 150 employees have been killed and thousands remain unaccounted for, he says.

Read the full story:

Ukrainian officials have condemned Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv Thursday night, saying it occurred as the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was finishing a visit to the Ukrainian capital. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his daily video message, said that "Today, immediately after the end of our talks [with Guterres] in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. 5 missiles. This says a lot about Russia's true attitude to global institutions, about the Russian leadership's efforts to humiliate the UN and everything that the organization represents. And therefore requires an appropriate, powerful response."

"Russian missile strikes on Ukraine — on Kyiv, Fastiv, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi and other cities — prove once again that one cannot relax yet, one cannot think that the war is over. We still need to fight, we need to drive the occupiers out," Zelensky said

If you're just joining us, here's a look at other key updates about the invasion and the global response so far:

10 Russian soldiers identified as suspects in "crimes committed" in Bucha, Zelensky says: President Zelensky said 10 Russian service members have been identified as suspects in the “crimes committed against our people in Bucha.”

In his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday, Zelensky said the investigation into crimes committed by the Russian military is underway and that the “first ten Russian servicemen from the 64th motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Ground Forces who committed crimes against our people in Bucha, Kyiv region, received the status of suspects.”

UN chief urges evacuation corridors to open in Mariupol: "Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance": The United Nations secretary-general urged on Thursday for evacuation corridors to open up in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, saying that the besieged city is a “crisis within a crisis.” 

“Today the people of Mariupol are in desperate need for such an approach. Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis,” Guterres said in Kyiv, speaking at news conference alongside  Zelensky .

“Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance. Many are elderly need medical care or have limited mobility, they need an escape route out of the apocalypse,” he added.  

The UN chief met with Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday following a visit to Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. 

Russian forces are trying to eradicate Ukrainian identity in Kherson: Russian forces occupying much of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson are trying to extend their grip over the area and eradicate its Ukrainian identity.

They have made modest advances on the battlefield, with the Ukrainians acknowledging a loss of territory in the direction of Mykolaiv to the northwest.

In recent days the Russians have appointed their own officials to run Kherson, replacing elected Ukrainian officials. On Thursday one of those newly installed officials said Kherson would begin to use the ruble from next week and the Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, would be replaced within four months.

Additionally, Russian television channels have taken the place of Ukrainian networks.

Now one of the Ukrainian representatives on Kherson's regional council has accused the Russian forces of threatening educators.

45 Ukrainians freed in latest prisoner exchange with Russia, official says: Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Thursday that 45 Ukrainians were freed in the latest exchange of prisoners of war with Russia. 

“Today 45 of our people have been released from Russian captivity: 13 officers and 20 soldiers, including 5 wounded,” Vereshchuk said in a post on Telegram. 

“We are also returning 12 of our civilians home,” she added. 

The deputy prime minister did not provide details on how many Russian prisoners were freed in the exchange. Russia is yet to confirm the swap.

The Ukrainian military is strengthening security at its border with Transnistria, a Russian-backed region in Moldova, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said Thursday.

"Forces of defense continue to carry out the set combat tasks to protect and defend Odesa and the Odesa region. Also, in particular, we have strengthened the protection of the state border with the so-called Transnistria, where Russian provocations continue in order to create certain generators of tension for Odesa and the Odesa region," Serhii Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odesa regional military administration, said on Telegram Thursday.

More background: Earlier this week a series of unexplained explosions occurred in parts of Transnistria which Ukraine described as a planned provocation by Russian security services. On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed “sensational” claims about Russia preparing an offensive using its troops stationed in the region, as well as conscripts from Transnistria.

Russian forces have made some progress in Moscow's renewed assault on eastern Ukraine, according to US and NATO officials, as their military tries to fix the myriad problems that plagued the early weeks of the invasion. 

The US has seen "some evidence" of improvement in Russia's ability to combine air and ground operations, as well as its capacity for resupplying forces in the field, officials say.

The progress is "slow and uneven," a senior US defense official said, allowing Russian forces to advance only "several kilometers or so" each day.  

But the US assesses that Russia is trying to learn from the mistakes it made early on, where columns of tanks and armor ran out of food and fuel, leaving them easy prey to Ukrainian hit-and-run tactics. 

Russia has placed command and control elements near its border with eastern Ukraine, according to a senior NATO official, a sign they are attempting to fix the communications and coordination failures observed in the attack on Kyiv. 

Before the invasion began on Feb. 24th, Russia amassed 125 to 130 battalion tactical groups, known as BTGs, around Ukraine and near Kyiv in particular, but when the fighting began, Russia's military leaders showed little ability to have them fight as one.  

There are 92 BTGS in country now, with another 20 just across border in Russia, according to the senior defense official.

"The attacks are somewhat better coordinated but with small formations. Company size units with helicopter support," a European defense official said. "The lowest level of mutual support. In NATO this would be basic stuff."

Still, western officials familiar with the latest intelligence say even if Russia has learned key lessons from its systemic failures in the first stage of the conflict, it's not clear that Moscow will be able to implement the necessary changes to dominate in the Donbas region.

Its military has suffered heavy losses in both manpower and equipment and officials believe that other equipment relocated from different parts of Ukraine likely isn't fully repaired yet. Many of the fighting units have cobbled together soldiers who have never fought or trained together.  

"I don't know how many lessons they can actually operationalize. It's not a simple thing," said the senior NATO official. "You don't just move tanks and personnel and say, 'Now go back into the fight!'" 

You can read more here.

Alex Marquardt and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.

Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, called the Russian missile strikes in Kyiv a "heinous act of barbarism" in a tweet Thursday.

Ukrainian officials have condemned Russia’s missile attack on Kyiv Thursday night, which they say occurred as the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was finishing a visit to the Ukrainian capital. 

View Kuleba's tweet:

CNN's Tim Lister contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 10 Russian servicemembers have been identified as suspects in the “crimes committed against our people in Bucha”.

In his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday, Zelensky said the investigation into crimes committed by the Russian military is underway and that the “first ten Russian servicemen from the 64th motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Ground Forces who committed crimes against our people in Bucha, Kyiv region, received the status of suspects.”

Zelensky said the suspects’ surnames are known and “it is established what they did.”
“We know all the details about them and their actions. And we will find everyone. Just as we will find all the other Russian thugs who killed and tortured Ukrainians. Who tormented our people. Who destroyed houses and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding that none of them will avoid responsibility.

In early April, images emerged from Bucha showing bodies lying along streets and accounts of Russian atrocities emerged as its forces retreated from areas near Kyiv.

Zelensky called it “genocide” and the alleged atrocities in Bucha have drawn international outrage, with Western leaders calling for war crimes investigations and fresh sanctions on Russia. Russia’s Ministry of Defense denied responsibility and said "not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions" in Bucha.

When 12-year-old Kira Obedinsky, orphaned by war, was whisked from her hometown of Mariupol to a hospital in a Russian-controlled area of eastern Ukraine earlier in March, she was unsure if she would ever be reunited with her remaining family members.

Now in Kyiv, against all the odds, she sits on a hospital bed with her grandfather Oleksander Obedinsky — and on Wednesday spoke to CNN for the first time about her ordeal. She continues to recover from injuries that nurses say include shell fragment wounds to her face, neck, and legs. Her scarred face and introverted manner are signs of the physical and psychological trauma she has suffered.

The Obedinsky family has been torn apart by this war. Kira’s father, Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of Ukraine’s national water polo team, was killed on March 17 as Russian forces shelled the city. In that moment, Kira was orphaned, her mother having died when Kira was two weeks old.

Days after her father’s death, Kira was taken to a hospital in the Donetsk region by Russian-speaking soldiers after sustaining injuries from a landmine while trying to flee Mariupol with her father’s girlfriend.

“The [Russian] military came running, they stopped two cars and took us to Manhush, to a hospital because we were bleeding. Then they took us from Manhush to another Donetsk hospital,” said Kira.

Speaking to CNN earlier this month from Kyiv, Oleksander told CNN that he feared he would never see his granddaughter again because it was almost impossible to travel across the war-torn country to retrieve her. He said he had spoken to the hospital where Kira was being treated and was told she would eventually be sent to an orphanage in Russia.

Their grateful reunion, more than a month after they had last seen each other, was orchestrated by negotiators from Ukraine and Russia – and involved an epic international journey.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Kira in the hospital to celebrate her return, also giving her an iPad to entertain her as she recovers.

Oleksander said he had told Zelensky that Kira was “tired but happy” and thanked him for the safe return of his granddaughter. “Nobody believed [it would be possible]. But thank God we managed,” he told CNN.

Retrieving Kira from territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists was no easy task. Following media coverage of her plight, the Ukrainian government told her grandfather they had reached an agreement that would allow him to travel to Donetsk to pick up his granddaughter — but that it would not be an easy undertaking.

Undeterred, Oleksander immediately embarked as instructed on what was to be a grueling four-day journey, taking a train to Poland, a flight to Turkey, a second flight to Moscow, followed by a train ride to the southern Russian city of Rostov, before finally reaching a tearful Kira after another car journey to Donetsk, he said.

After an emotional reunion – with countless tight hugs, they said — the pair then set off home, taking the same protracted route on the return leg to Kyiv.

Read more about Kira's journey here.