Latest News
Russia invades Ukraine
11 min agoIt’s 2 p.m. in Kyiv. Here’s what you need to knowRescuers search for bodies under the rubble of a building destroyed by Russian shelling, in Borodianka, Kyiv region, on Monday. (Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto/Getty Images)At Monday’s United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting, the director of UN Women said the organization is increasingly hearing of rape…
It’s 2 p.m. in Kyiv. Here’s what you need to know
At Monday’s United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting, the director of UN Women said the organization is increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence being committed in Ukraine. Sima Bahous told the meeting the allegations “must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability.”
Bahous added that the risk of human trafficking is increasing as the situation becomes more desperate, with young women and unaccompanied teenagers particularly at risk.
Here’s the latest from the war in Ukraine:
- Russian troops start pouring into east: A large column of Russian military vehicles facing the Donbas region was seen in a video shared on social media that CNN has geolocated in Russia’s Rostov region. The vehicles are seen facing north-west, in the direction of the Donbas region.
- Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children displaced: UNICEF says two-thirds of Ukrainian children are now displaced due to the ongoing conflict. UNICEF’s emergency programs director Manuel Fontaine told the UNSC on Monday that the war was a “nightmare” for children.
- Russia accused of more than 5,800 war crimes: Ukraine’s prosecutor general told CNN Monday that her office is building more than 5,800 cases accusing Russia of war crimes, starting “more and more such proceedings” every day.
- More devastation near Kyiv: After Russian troops withdrew from areas surrounding the capital to focus their theater of war on eastern and southern Ukraine, residents returning or emerging from hiding are confronted by the invasion’s devastating aftermath. CNN’s Clarissa Ward toured a pair of villages that were occupied by Russians for more than a month and reported they found “endless accounts of horror, executions, arbitrary detentions and more.”
- Russian troops leave thousands of mines: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops retreating from the north of the country had deliberately left thousands of mines in their wake, in what he considered a war crime.
- Mariupol defense: Ukrainian Marines in the besieged port city of Mariupol said they are “holding out to the end” despite being surrounded by Russian forces and running low on supplies. The head of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic said Monday the city’s port had fallen to Russian and Russian-backed forces, Russian state news agencies reported, which could not be immediately verified. Ukrainian officials have said about 100,000 civilians remain in the city.
- Unconfirmed reports of chemical attacks: After reports emerged Monday of a possible strike involving chemical substances of some kind in Mariupol, Zelensky warned the possibility should be taken seriously, though a Mariupol official said any such attack remained unconfirmed. Other nations such as the UK said they are working to verify details. CNN cannot independently verify that there has been any kind of chemical strike in Mariupol.
- More than 4,000 evacuated Monday: A total of 4,354 people were evacuated from areas where fighting continues, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, including more than 500 from Mariupol. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly decried Russian forces for often not allowing safe passage of citizens away from combat zones.
- Russia hit by further Japanese sanctions: Japan imposed additional sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, freezing the assets of 398 Russian citizens, including President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, Katerina Tikhonova and Mariya Vorontsova, according to a news release from Japan’s Foreign Ministry.
- Austrian leader visits Moscow: A face-to-face meeting between Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow was ”not a friendly visit,” Nehammer said in a statement. “I have just come from Ukraine and have seen with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by the Russian war of aggression,” he said.
- Russia to resupply forces in Donbas: Russia is attempting to resupply and reinforce its forces in eastern Ukraine, according to a senior US defense official, as evidenced by a convoy of vehicles approaching the city of Izyum from the north. The vehicle line includes a “command and control element, a support battalion, basically enablers, perhaps rotary-wing aviation support, and other infantry support,” according to the official.
Nokia announces it will exit the Russian market
From CNN’s Chris Liakos
Nokia has officially announced its exit from the Russian market.
“It has been clear for Nokia since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine that continuing our presence in Russia would not be possible,” the Finnish telecoms company said in a press release Tuesday.
Nokia said its top priority continues to be the safety and wellbeing of its employees.
“For humanitarian reasons, Western governments have expressed concerns about the risk of critical telecommunication network infrastructure in Russia failing,” the press release read.
They have also emphasized the importance of ensuring the continued flow of information and access to the internet which provides outside perspectives to the Russian people.
“Therefore, as we exit we will aim to provide the necessary support to maintain the networks and are applying for the relevant licenses to enable this support in compliance with current sanctions,” Nokia added.
Nokia said that it does not expect this decision to impact its financial outlook and that Russia accounted for less than 2% of its net sales in 2021.
This comes after Swedish telecoms company Ericsson said Monday it was suspending its business in Russia indefinitely.
Ukrainian Marines are “holding out to the end” in besieged city of Mariupol
From CNN’s Maria Kostenko in Chernivtsi and Nathan Hodge in Lviv
Ukrainian Marines in the besieged port city of Mariupol said they are “holding out to the end” despite being surrounded by Russian forces and running low on supplies.
“We are the defenders of Mariupol, the 36th Marine Brigade, which is holding the defense of this city to the last,” one of the marines said in a video on Facebook.
“We did not give up our positions. We kept every inch of this city as best as we could. But the reality is that the city is under siege, in a ring. There has been no supply of ammunition or food. We have been holding out to the end. We are grateful to every Ukrainian who believed and continues to believe in the Marines. We have held on to this faith for so long. We did not leave our positions. We have always remained faithful.”
Independent analysis of the situation in Mariupol on Sunday published by the Institute for the Study of War assessed that the defense of Mariupol had reached a critical stage.
“Russian forces bisected Mariupol from the city center to the coast on April 10, isolating the remaining Ukrainian defenders in two main locations: The main port of Mariupol in the southwest and the Azovstal steel plant in the east,” the analysis stated.
CNN cannot independently verify the situation on the ground in the areas of heaviest fighting in Mariupol. The city, which has been battered by weeks of relentless bombardment, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resolve in the war against Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said “tens of thousands” have died in Mariupol, a figure that cannot be independently verified.
Ukrainian officials report more shelling in east but hope rains will impede Russian advance
From Yulia Kesaieva in Lviv, Maria Kostenko in Chernivtsi and Tim Lister
Ukrainian officials have reported further shelling by Russian forces and civilian casualties in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which have become the focus of Russian attacks.
Serhii Haidai, head of Luhansk regional military administration, said the cities of Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Kreminna, Novodruzhesk and Rubizhne had been targeted again, with 12 residential buildings struck in the last day.
“Unfortunately, there were casualties in Lysychansk — one man died, three more people were injured,” Haida said. “The number of missile and air attacks on the Luhansk region has increased significantly.
Yesterday Lysychansk was bombed from planes and there was a missile attack.”
“It is most difficult to evacuate people from the cities of Popasna and Rubizhne,” he said, as they were partially occupied by Russian forces. “Our troops repel constant attacks. We can’t go to certain areas of cities and pick up people due to constant shelling.”
“In the cities of Kreminna, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk evacuation takes place daily,” Haidai said, adding it can sometimes be as many as 2,000 people.
He said that hospitals are still operating in Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.
Haidai said that heavy rains could impede Russian efforts to advance.
“Within last two days they began to collect hundreds of units of heavy equipment, pulling it closer to the front line. This suggests that the offensive should begin today and tomorrow, but it is raining today. According to the forecast, it will rain for several days.”
He said the rains would force vehicles to use roads, “and this makes an easy target for our defenders. I hope the rains slows down the offensive.”
Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks by air are moving further west to the borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Mykola Lukashuk, head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, said that the night in the Dnipropetrovsk region was “restless.”
“We had two air attacks on Synelnykiv district at the border of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions,” Lukashuk said, adding there were no casualties.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Tuesday that Russian forces continued to regroup along Ukraine’s eastern borders and said it expected further ground attacks towards Popasna in Luhansk region and Kurakhove in Donetsk, “with the aim of reaching the administrative boundaries of Donetsk region.”
It accused Russian forces of “placing their military equipment and troops directly in residential facilities,” as well as in “agricultural enterprises, energy and social infrastructure facilities.”
The Armed Forces claimed that six Russian attacks in the east had been foiled Monday and tanks, armored vehicles and artillery systems had been destroyed.
As the fighting in the east continues, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced nine evacuation corridors Tuesday, including from Mariupol and Berdiansk on the southeast coast, and Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Lysychansk.
Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children now displaced, says UNICEF
From CNN’s Richard Roth and Yulia Kesaieva
Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children are now displaced due to the ongoing conflict, UNICEF has said.
UNICEF’s emergency programs director Manuel Fontaine told the UN Security Council on Monday that the war was a “nightmare” for children.
“They have been forced to leave everything behind: Their homes, their schools, and often, their family members,” he said.
Fontaine said the UN had verified the deaths of 142 children with 229 injured as of Sunday, but that “the true figures are most certainly much higher given the scale of attacks.”
Meanwhile Liudmyla Denisova, commissioner for human rights of the Ukrainian Parliament, said Tuesday that 186 children had died and 344 had been injured.
“It is not possible to establish the actual number of dead and wounded children due to the fact that the occupying forces are actively fighting in Ukrainian cities,” she added, stating that the figures were according to the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations and “other sources that need confirmation.”
In his Security Council comments, UNICEF’s Fontaine also drew attention to the 3.2 million children estimated to still be in their homes.
“Nearly half may be at risk of not having enough food,” he said. “Attacks on water system infrastructure and power outages have left an estimated 1.4 million people without access to water in Ukraine. Another 4.6 million people have only limited access.
“The situation is even worse in cities like Mariupol and Kherson, where children and their families have now gone weeks without running water and sanitation services, a regular supply of food, and medical care. They are sheltering in their homes and underground, waiting for the bombs and violence to stop.”
He also said unaccompanied children in Ukraine face a “much higher risk of violence, abuse, exploitation, and trafficking,” and pointed to the impacts of school closures on 1.5 million students in higher education and 5.7 million school-age children.
“All options are on the table” for the West’s response if Russia uses chemical weapons
From CNN’s Amy Cassidy in London
“All options are on the table” for how the West will respond if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, Britain’s junior Armed Forces minister said Tuesday.
It comes as unconfirmed reports of a possible strike involving a chemical substance in the Ukrainian port city if Mariupol emerged Monday, which the UK has been unable to verify, James Heappey told Sky News.
“I think it’s useful to maintain some ambiguity […] over exactly what the response would be, but let���s be clear, if they are used at all, then [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin should know that all possible options are on the table in terms of how the West might respond,” Heappey said.
It would be an “effective” and “well considered” response, he added.
CNN cannot independently verify that there has been any kind of chemical strike in Mariupol.
CNN teams on the ground have so far not seen evidence of such an attack, or any imagery from Mariupol sources to verify this.
“These are appalling weapons to even think about using,” Heappey said.
“That they are part of the discussion is sobering. There are some things that are beyond the pale, and the use of chemical weapons will get a response, and all options are on the table for what that response could be.”
He cautioned: “But it’s important to recognize that there are all sorts of ways in which these things could be used, from the use of tear gas which is effectively a riot control measure all the way through to utterly devastating lethal chemical weapons systems.
“So I don’t think it’s helpful to be too binary about the situation because these are highly nuanced.”
Heappey said some Ukrainian troops will be arriving in the UK in the coming days to learn how to operate 120 British armored vehicles that will be sent to Ukraine, along with defense and anti-tank missiles as part of a new package of high-grade military equipment.
“We are getting as much to the Ukrainian MoD as we can,” he said in a separate interview with LBC radio in London.
Russian military column seen heading towards Donbas
From CNN’s Maria Kostenko in Chernivtsi and Yulia Kesaieva in Lviv
CNN geolocated a video shared to social media on Monday showing a large column of Russian military vehicles near Matveev Kurgan, a settlement in Russia’s Rostov region.
The vehicles are seen facing north-west, in the direction of the Donbas region.
A senior Ukrainian official on Monday also said a Russian offensive in Ukraine’s Donbas region “has already started,” warning that Russia continued to amass forces in the region.
In remarks on national television, Vadym Denysenko, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs, said:
“From my point of view, this big offensive [in the East] has already started. We have to understand it’s not going to be the repetition of Feb 24th, when the first airstrikes and explosions started and we said: ‘The war has begun.’ The big offensive de-facto has already started.”
Ukrainian and Western officials have said in recent days they have observed a redeployment of Russian troops to Donbas following major setbacks for Moscow in a push to take Kyiv.
“Yes, there are still no major battles that are being discussed so much in the past few days. But in general we could say the offensive has already started,” Denysenko said.
Appeal hearing in Russia for detained US citizen Trevor Reed will be held Tuesday, state media says
From CNN’s Catherine Carter
Trevor Reed, an American citizen detained in Russia for nearly three years, has an appeal hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Reed had started a second hunger strike in protest of his treatment by Russian authorities, according to his parents, who met with President Joe Biden last month after holding a protest outside the White House to bring awareness to their son’s case.
Regarding the upcoming court appeal, parents Joey and Paula Reed said in a statement they “have little hope for a successful judicial outcome,” but believe their son’s appeal rights should be pursued “vigorously.”
“Over the weekend, we were able to re-establish indirect contact with Trevor who remains in hospital as far as we know. We have not been able to confirm that directly, nor are we able to confirm Trevor is receiving any meaningful medical care,” Reed’s parents said in the statement.
“As we have said, Trevor has been to this ‘prison hospital’ numerous times and has received no medical care. Over the past 970 days, Russian authorities have lied repeatedly about Trevor’s health and continue to believe he likely has TB and is out of time. We urge the Administration to act urgently to bring our son home before it’s too late.”
Some context: Reed, a former US Marine, was detained in Moscow in 2019 for purportedly endangering Russian police officers during an altercation. In 2020, he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
His father told CNN last month that an attorney was able to pass along a handwritten note from Reed in which he said “he’s OK,” but is coughing up blood and was only receiving aspirin for treatment.
“Trevor had some sort of injury where he thinks he might have a broken rib. Plus, he has all the symptoms of active tuberculosis. He went to a prison hospital for about 10 days. And then they didn’t treat him. They took an X-ray that didn’t work,” Joey Reed said.
“And when they brought him back to his prison he said, ‘I need to go back. I’m still hurt and sick.’ And they put him to solitary confinement again, where he had been for most of the last seven months. So he is protesting that. That’s against all Russian regulations and European human rights.”
Joey Reed had previously said he’s concerned the Russian invasion of Ukraine will worsen his son’s fate.
Analysis: Why Russian TV propaganda is crucial to understanding the war in Ukraine
Analysis from CNN’s Brian Stelter
“Russians who get their truth from the state media are living in an alternate reality,” Madeline Roache says.
Every day Roache watches the morning “news” on Channel One, a top Russian state TV channel. She tracks the narratives that Russian viewers are hearing. And she writes a report for NewsGuard — a startup that rates the reliability of news sources — about the “alternative reality.”
Overall, Roache told CNN, on state-run TV, “the Russian army is portrayed as triumphant — as not sustaining any losses, any casualties, and is certainly not committing any atrocities. Meanwhile, according to the state media, it’s the Ukrainian army committing atrocities, killing civilians, sustaining heavy losses and losing territory to the Russian forces.”
This comment of Roache’s stood out to me the most: “Russians would have every reason to feel proud based on what they’re seeing on the state TV.”
Read the full analysis:
Latest News
How zoology got female animals all wrong
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. (CNN)The stereotypes of dominant male and docile female creatures have shaped zoology since the time of Charles Darwin. This interpretation all too often still goes unchallenged today in textbooks and nature documentaries.
Latest News
What would it mean if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
(CNN)Within weeks, the Supreme Court will issue an opinion in a blockbuster abortion case that will give the conservative majority the opportunity to reverse the court precedent enshrining a right to the procedure.
Latest News
Average US gas price hits $5 for first time
New York (CNN Business)For the first time ever, a gallon of regular gas now costs $5 on average nationwide, according to AAA’s Saturday reading.
