April 30, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

A memorial to those who have lost their lives in the Russian war on Ukraine is visited by people in downtown Lviv on Saturday, April 30.

Evacuation has started at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where hundreds of people, including dozens injured during an intense Russian bombardment over the past several weeks, are thought to be trapped.

Here are the latest developments:

The Azovstal steel plant:?Nearly every building at the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, the?last Ukrainian holdout in Mariupol, has been?destroyed,?new satellite images from Maxar Technologies show. Some civilians?have been evacuated?from the plant after a ceasefire was introduced, according to a Ukrainian commander inside.

Russian submarine: Russia has released video showing it is using a submarine in the Black Sea to launch cruise missile attacks on Ukraine, confirming earlier Ukrainian military claims.

Explosions in Odesa: Multiple explosions in the southern city of Odesa were reported soon after 6 p.m. local time by Ukrainian media and witnesses. One witness told CNN she saw at least one combat plane over the city. The runway at Odesa’s airport had been damaged, according to the Ukrainian military.

Russian tanks destroyed: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian army has already destroyed more than 1,000 Russian tanks, nearly 200 Russian aircraft, and almost 2,500 armored fighting vehicles.

Rebuilding and recovery: 69% of de-occupied settlements in Ukraine now have “full-fledged local self-government” again, Zelensky said in his Saturday night address, adding the work of humanitarian offices has already begun in 93% of liberated settlements.

A man rides a motorbike past a destroyed Russian tank on a road in the Kyiv region on April 16.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian army has already destroyed more than 1,000 Russian tanks, nearly 200 Russian aircraft, and almost 2,500 armored fighting vehicles.

Despite these losses, Russian troops still have equipment to launch additional attacks, Zelensky said.

?“Of course, the occupiers still have equipment in stock. Yes, they still have missiles to strike at our territory,” he added. “But this war has already weakened Russia so much that they have to plan even fewer military equipment for the parade in Moscow.”

Russia plans to hold its traditional Victory Day parade in Red Square May 9, commemorating the German surrender to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

The Ukrainian President also said Russia has already lost more than 23,000 soldiers since the invasion began. CNN cannot independently verify this claim.?

Russia has sporadically released casualty figures that are low and which observers deem to be a massive underestimate. Two days prior to Russia’s update,?two senior NATO military officials estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000. Around the same time,?other US officials?had put Russian losses in a similar range – between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers killed – but they have expressed “low confidence” in those estimates.

Earlier in the month,?Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov briefly admitted Russia had suffered “significant” losses of its troops in Ukraine, calling the losses “a huge tragedy” for the country in an interview with Sky News.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gives his nightly address on April, 30.

Ukraine’s president struck a theme of resilience in his nightly address to the nation Saturday, saying the country is at work to rebuild and get back to normal in areas no longer held by Russian forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 69% of de-occupied settlements in Ukraine now have “full-fledged local self-government” again.

“We are doing everything to return normal life to the de-occupied part of our Ukraine,” Zelensky said in his Saturday night address, adding the work of humanitarian offices has already begun in 93% of liberated settlements.

“We are actively demining the liberated territory. Every day several dozen settlements are added to the list of those where demining has been completed,” he said.

Zelensky also said officials are “doing everything” to restore roads and access to medical, educational and financial services.

The Odesa airport runway destroyed in Saturday’s missile strikes will also be rebuilt, according to the president.

“Today the occupiers again fired missiles at the Dnipropetrovsk region and Odesa,” Zelensky said. “Again and again, Russian troops prove that the people of Odesa are the same enemies for Russia as all other Ukrainians. The runway of the Odesa airport was destroyed. We will, of course, rebuild it. But Odesa will never forget such a Russian attitude towards it.”

Angelina Jolie poses for photo with kids in Lviv, Ukraine, on Saturday, April 30.

Actress Angelina Jolie, who is also a United Nations special envoy for refugees, visited a boarding school and medical institution in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, according to Maksym Kozytskyy, the head of Lviv’s regional military administration.

“In one of the medical institutions, she has visited children who suffered from a missile strike by the Russian military on the Kramatorsk train station. She was very moved by their stories. One girl was even able to tell Ms. Jolie about her dream privately,” according to Kozytskyy.

When visiting a boarding school in the region, “she promised to come again,” he said.

“This visit was a surprise for all of us,” Kozytskyy added.

UNHCR’s Head of Global Communications Joung-ah?Ghedini-Williams told CNN Saturday that “Angelina Jolie is traveling to the region in her personal capacity and UNHCR has no involvement in this visit.”?

Earlier on Saturday, Jolie was photographed visiting a coffee shop in Lviv. CNN has reached out to Jolie’s representatives for comment.?

A satellite image shows an overview of the Azovstal?steel?plant, the site of Ukrainians last military holdout which is also serving as a civilian shelter in?Mariupol, Ukraine on April 29.

Some civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol after a ceasefire was introduced, according to a commander in the Azov Regiment, one of the Ukrainian soldiers trapped at the plant.

Capt. Svyatoslav?Palamar, the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, said the?ceasefire, which was supposed to begin at 6 a.m. local time, ended up starting at 11 a.m. local time.

“As of now, it’s the truth, both sides follow the ceasefire regime,” he said.

The evacuation convoy was very delayed, he said. “Since 6 a.m., we’ve been waiting for the evacuation convoy to arrive, which only arrived at 6:25 p.m.”

“We have brought 20 civilians to the agreed meeting point, whom we’ve managed to rescue from under the rubble. These are women and children. We hope these people will go the agreed destination, which is Zaporizhzhia, the territory controlled by Ukraine,” Palamar said.

“As of now, the rescue operation is ongoing, conducted by the servicemen of Azov - we rescue the civilians from under the rubble,” he added.

“These are women, children and the elderly,” he said in a video message on the regiment’s Telegram channel.

“We hope that this process will be further extended and we will successfully evacuate all civilians,” he said.

TASS, Russia’s state news agency, said earlier Saturday that a group of civilians left the steel plant. A correspondent on the scene told TASS that a total of 25 people came out, including six children under the age of 14. CNN cannot independently verify the TASS reporting.

There are thought to be hundreds of people inside the steel complex, including dozens injured during an intense Russian bombardment over the past several weeks. The latest satellite images of the plant show that many of its buildings have been reduced to ruins.

The defenders of the Azovstal plant said that attacks on Wednesday night had hit the makeshift hospital inside the complex, greatly adding to the number of injured.?

Here’s what a part of the plant looked like approximately six weeks ago:

A satellite image from March 22 shows an overview of the?Azovstal?steel?plant, in Mariupol, Ukraine.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses media representatives during a press conference at a European Union summit at EU Headquarters in Brussels on March 24.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the presidency’s media office said Saturday, where they discussed developments in the war in Ukraine.

Guterres briefed Erdogan about his meetings this week in Moscow and Kyiv, according to a statement from the Turkish Communications Directorate.

During the call, Erdogan said that Turkey is ready to support the UN-led work on both evacuations and humanitarian aid.

Stating that they will continue to encourage both Ukraine and Russia to act in common sense for reconciliation, Erdogan said that they will pursue peace, according to the statement.

Guterres said via Twitter on Friday that the?UN would redouble its efforts to save lives and reduce human suffering in Ukraine.

His tweet came after his visit to Ukraine and meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday following a visit to Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.?

The Turkish president has previously held phone calls with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts with the hope of meeting them both in Istanbul to end the conflict.

Turkey has a unique profile and position, as a NATO member that also has maritime borders with both Ukraine and Russia. Turkey is also Russia’s largest trade partner in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The country has both competed and cooperated with Russia through conflict zones in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh in recent years.

Ukrainian media and witnesses are reporting multiple explosions in the southern city of Odesa soon after 6 p.m. local time. One witness told CNN that she saw at least one combat plane over the city.

The military’s Operational Command (South) said on Telegram that the runway at Odesa’s airport had been damaged.

The blasts were heard soon after air raid sirens sounded across the city.

A witness to the explosions told CNN she was about one kilometer (.62 miles) away from the airport when she heard two explosions. She said the attack lasted about 10 minutes and she was still experiencing hearing difficulties because of the noise from the impacts.

An elderly man walks past a heavily damaged apartment building, on April 30, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

If you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine, including what we know about the besieged city of Mariupol.

The Azovstal steel plant: Nearly every building on the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, the?last Ukrainian holdout in Mariupol, has been destroyed, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies show. There are large holes in the roofs — the telltale sign of a military strike. Some roofs are completely collapsed, and some buildings have been reduced to rubble. Many of the residential and government buildings directly east of the plant have also been completely destroyed.

Evacuation routes are reportedly tentative: Russia has been rejecting all evacuation proposals for Mariupol, but now, there are signs of a possible breakthrough in securing at least one evacuation route, Mariupol city council said. Although the council is still waiting for confirmation, its post says the evacuation would be today (Saturday) from Port City, which is a shopping mall.

Russian assault: In other missile and aircraft strikes, Russian forces hit 10 locations housing Ukrainian troops and equipment, the Russian defense ministry said, killing up to 120 soldiers and destroying four tanks and six other armoured vehicles.

People gather to receive humanitarian aid at the parking lot of a store in Mariupol, Ukraine on April 29.

There are signs of a possible breakthrough in securing at least one evacuation route in the besieged city of Mariupol.

“There is hope for the evacuation of Mariupol residents to territory controlled by Ukraine,” Mariupol city council said on its Telegram account.

Although the council is still waiting for confirmation, its post says the evacuation would be today (Saturday) from Port City, which is a shopping mall.

“The occupiers allowed movement between the Left Bank district and other districts of the city on the right bank. The movement is open across the bridge to Mukhino,” said Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor, on Telegram.

At this stage, it’s unclear whether any evacuation would include people trapped at the Azovstal steel plant complex.

Altogether, some 100,000 people are still in Mariupol, a quarter of its pre-war population.

The United Nations mission and Red Cross are negotiating on securing the evacuation of hundreds of local people who are trapped in the Azovstal steel plant, Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boichenko says.

Speaking on Ukrainian television on Saturday, he urged “all international partners to unite for one goal — to save the lives of the locals, to save the fortress and those locals who are now hiding in the Azovstal bomb shelters.”

The Ukrainian President’s office said Friday it had a plan for evacuating Azovstal, but Ukrainian officials later said that the Russians had blocked access to the plant.?

A popular Ukrainian supermarket in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia announced a grand reopening Saturday under new – Russian – management. It is the latest sign of attempts by Moscow’s occupying forces to rub out Ukrainian identity in territories under its control.?

Formerly, the shop in Melitopol was part of the ATB chain, a Dnipro-based business. But a leaflet posted on a local TV station’s Telegram channel boasts the supermarket is now part of the MERA chain, which is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia.?

The leaflet promises that shoppers spending at least 500 hryvnia (about $16) will be entered into a “super prize draw” – though details of what the winner could take home are not revealed.?

Elsewhere in the region, a large Ukrainian coat of arms has been removed from the front of the mayor’s office in the town of Tokmak. Photos circulating on social media show the distinctive Ukrainian symbol – a yellow trident on a blue background – propped up against the entrance of the building. An earlier photo on the same Telegram channel shows a man up a ladder apparently working to loosen the trident from its place.?

And as if to underline the sense of a clock being turned back, video has emerged from the neighboring region of Kherson — also under Russian occupation — of a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin being re-erected in the town of Nova Kakhovka.?

One video captures the statue of the Russian revolutionary and first leader of the Soviet Union being carried flat on a truck through the city.?

A later photo shows the statue being winched onto a plinth in front of the city council building.?

“While Ukraine is the first in the world to introduce e-passports, ‘orcs’ are restoring Lenin’s monument in temporarily occupied Nova Kakhovka,” Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister, said in a Telegram post under the photo, using the popular Ukrainian slang term for Russian forces.?

Statues of Vladimir Lenin were a hallmark of towns and cities across the Soviet Union, but many have been removed from Ukrainian locations in recent years as relations with Russia have deteriorated.?

Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine is seen in this satellite image taken April 29.

Nearly every building on the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, the last Ukrainian holdout in Mariupol, has been destroyed, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies show.

There are large holes in the roofs — the telltale sign of a military strike. Some roofs are completely collapsed, and some buildings have been reduced to rubble.

Many of the residential and government buildings directly east of the plant have also been completely destroyed.

CNN has previously reported that Ukrainian forces and hundreds of remaining residents have taken refuge in the deep basements at the steel plant. It’s unclear from the satellite images taken on Friday whether any of the military strikes have destroyed any of the basement facilities.

Sviatoslav Palamar, an Azov Regiment commander at the plant, told CNN on Friday that the plant has been intensely shelled by artillery, ships and airstrikes.

“There are cellars and bunkers that we cannot reach because they are under rubble,” Palamar said. “We do not know whether the people there are alive or not. There are children aged four months to 16 years. But there are people trapped in places that you can’t get to.”

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, according to a statement by the?Elysee Palace.?

“The President of the Republic reaffirmed to President Zelensky his willingness to work actively during his second term of office to restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, always maintaining close coordination with his European partners and allies,” the statement said, adding that Macron expressed concern about the continued bombing of Ukrainian cities and the “unbearable” situation in Mariupol.

Macron told Zelensky that military support to Ukraine “will continue to grow, as well as the humanitarian assistance provided by France,” which so far amounts to more than 615 tons of equipment, including medical supplies, generators for hospitals, food aid, shelter assistance, and emergency vehicles, according to the?Elysee.?

Macron also said, “at the request of the Ukrainian authorities, the mission of French experts contributing to the collection of evidence to fight against impunity and allow the work of international justice on crimes committed in the context of Russian aggression, will continue.”

The videos show women and children living underground in a dark, damp basement. One mother said they’ve not seen the sun in weeks and will soon run out of food. An old woman, her head bandaged and bloodied, shivers on a cot. A baby wears a plastic bag fastened with duct tape around its small waist – there are no diapers left.

The harrowing footage was posted on YouTube by the Azov regiment, a unit of the Ukrainian armed forces, which said it was filmed in the vast network of tunnels underneath the Azovstal steel plant – Mariupol’s last remaining holdout.

Smoke rises above Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on April 18.

After relentless bombardment by air, sea and sky, Russian troops have taken control of what is left of the rest of the city. Once a thriving port and beloved vacation spot on the Black Sea, much of Mariupol now lies in ruins. The steel plant is the last remaining shelter for hundreds of soldiers and civilians still stuck in the city.

In a clip published last week, a young boy, his cheeks pale, made a heart-wrenching plea for a path out.

Increasingly, it seems there is little chance of their rescue.

Myhailo Podoliak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Saturday that Russia was refusing to help save the people of Mariupol and had shown “absolute unwillingness to talk.”

The videos shared by the Azov regiment, which are accompanied by pleas for help, give a sense of the desperate situation unfolding for Mariupol residents left behind. In the absence of journalists on the ground – an Associated Press team, the only Western news media reporting from the city, left in March – and almost no internet or cell service, the clips posted by Azov to social channels are among few windows into the plight of people trapped in the plant.

On Thursday, Ukrainian officials said Russia had carried out airstrikes on a field hospital within the plant. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said that more than 600 were injured in the bombing. The attack renewed calls from the United Nations for humanitarian corridors to open up to the city.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking alongside Zelensky in a press conference in Kyiv, said that the besieged city was a “crisis within a crisis” and that the people stranded there were in desperate need of help.?According to Guterres, Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle for the involvement of the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal. But so far those corridors have not become a reality. Last week, Putin told his defense minister in Moscow that the plant should bee sealed off but not stormed.

Footage and photos shared by the Azov regiment on Friday shows graphic scenes in what is described as the aftermath of the attack on the makeshift hospital in the plant. CNN could not independently verify the location of the videos.

An Azov commander inside the?Azovstal?steel complex told CNN on Friday that children from 4-months to 16-years-old were trapped inside – some in cellars and bunkers that are now unreachable because they had been covered by rubble.

Some background: The Azov regiment was originally formed in 2014 as the Azov Battalion, to defend Mariupol from attack by Russian-backed separatists. When it was created, it was known for having members with nationalist and neo-Nazi leanings, which Russia has cited to justify its war. But since the regiment was integrated into the Ukrainian military, analysts and Ukrainian officials say it has reformed. The unit has played a major role in defending the city in recent weeks and its soldiers have repeatedly pled for civilians to be evacuated from the plant.

Natalya Kalugina, 64, stands in a courtyard near a block of destroyed apartment buildings in Mariupol, Ukraine on April 29.

The residents of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol are facing the threat of diseases, in addition to the shelling by Russian forces and lack of food and water, Ukrainian officials warned Saturday, describing the living conditions in the city as “medieval.”

“Cholera, dysentery, and Escherichia coli: about 100,000 Mariupol residents are in mortal danger not only due to shelling but also to intolerable living conditions and unsanitary conditions,” reads a post from the Ukrainian Parliament’s official Twitter account.?

It added, “The occupiers cannot provide the existing population with food, water, and medicine. They block all evacuation attempts. And without that, people will die. Now in the ruined Mariupol, there are medieval living conditions. Immediate and complete evacuation is needed!”

Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska is seen during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on September 1, 2021.

Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has said she believes Russia intends to destroy her country.

Speaking in an interview in which she revealed the profound upheavals the conflict has wrought on her family and fellow citizens, Zelenska told?Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita that the invasion of Ukraine “completely changed everything, including our lives.”

In a remote interview released on April 28, Zelenska said that since the invasion began on February 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky “moved to Bankowa Street (the president’s office in Kyiv), at his place of work,” while she has stayed with their children.?

“There are no days off from work and no time off in the war. Often, you don’t even know the day of the week. There is only what today is, what needs to be done,” she added.?

Zelenksa said her children are studying remotely while she works through her initiative with other first ladies, governments of individual countries, activists and volunteers to organize evacuations of sick and orphaned children to safe places.?

When asked if the war has changed her husband, she said: “For some reason, I hear this question a lot. But the war didn’t change him.”

In response to a question about what she thinks?Vladimir Putin wants to achieve in Ukraine, Zelenska said Russia’s message keeps evolving and “this leads to the conclusion that their plans are constantly changing or not operating logically. But I don’t judge them by declarations but by deeds.

“What the Russian troops are doing in Ukraine leads directly to the conclusion that the Russians are trying to annihilate the Ukrainians, which is their true purpose.

“This conclusion comes to my mind when I see the destruction of Mariupol, from which even safe evacuation through humanitarian corridors was not allowed, when I see the bombing of residential buildings in Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Odesa, the railway station in Kramatorsk, destroyed by a Russian missile, where more than 50 people who tried to leave were killed,” she said.

“And of course, I came to this conclusion after the war crimes committed by the Russians in the Kyiv region, where we continue to discover the mass graves of murdered, executed non-combatants, women, and children,” she said.

“Yes, I am convinced that the Russians want to destroy us and commit genocide. And it doesn’t matter what they say because their words do not match their deeds.”

Zelenska added that she is grateful to Poland for helping Ukrainian refugees as they are?“looking forward to the most important news – that we have won and that they can go home.”

She added: “I will be happy when I can pass it on to them one day, hopefully as soon as possible.”?

Russia says missile strikes have targeted ammunition and fuel depots in eastern Ukraine, as Moscow continues its efforts to capture more territory and possibly encircle Ukrainian forces in the region around the town of Kramatorsk.?

Four such targets were struck near the towns of Barvenkovo, Pokrovskoe, Vozdvizhenka and Berezovoe, according to the Russian defense ministry.

In other missile and aircraft strikes Russian forces hit 10 locations housing Ukrainian troops and equipment, the ministry said, killing up to 120 soldiers and destroying four tanks and six other armoured vehicles, the ministry said in a briefing released on Saturday morning.

Russian artillery units carried out 389 firing missions overnight, targeting among other sites 35 command posts, 33 artillery positions, and 15 missile-artillery weapons and ammunition depots, the ministry added.

Eighteen Ukrainian drones were shot down, among them three Bayraktar TB-2, a Turkish-designed armed drone that has been used to considerable effect by the Ukrainian army against Russian targets.??

Russia has destroyed 142 Ukrainian aircraft and 112 helicopters, 658 drones, 279 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,656 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 307 multiple launch rocket systems, and 1,189 field artillery and mortar launchers in total, according to the ministry.

CNN is unable to independently verify these numbers.?

Russia’s defense ministry finally confirmed it is using submarines in the Black Sea to carry out cruise missile attacks on Ukrainian targets.

Meanwhile Ukraine says its troops continue to resist Russian attacks on several fronts, despite new evidence that Russian units are making their way across the border.

Here are the latest developments:

Russian submarine launches missiles at Ukraine: Footage released by the Russian defense ministry on Friday purported to show the launch of Kalibr cruise missiles from a diesel submarine somewhere in the Black Sea.?“The crew of a diesel-electric submarine of the Black Sea Fleet has launched a salvo of Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea against the military infrastructure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. A week ago, the Ukrainian armed forces reported that two dozen units from the Russian fleet were still operating in the Black Sea, including “submarines with missile weapons.” On Monday, they added that Russian troops were “launching missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure, including from strategic bombers, ships and submarines.”

Ukraine holds off Russian forces amid ramped-up attacks: The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russian troops are increasing their presence in eastern Ukraine, by bringing in units normally based in Russia’s Far East. It said Russian soldiers’ latest effort to break through in the Izium area had been resisted, but they continued to press an offensive towards the town of Lyman – an important railway hub, which was?hit by Russian artillery?on Friday. The General Staff added there was also heavy fighting around Rubizhne and Popasna, two towns the Russians have been trying to take for several weeks.?

Shelling on Russian border: The bombardment of a village in the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, caused damage but no casualties, according to Governor Alexander Bogomaz. He said in a statement that the village of Zhecha came under fire as air defense systems intercepted a Ukrainian aircraft entering Russian territory. The blast wave from the incident damaged the casing of “technological buildings of the oil terminal” and the surrounding area, Bogomaz said, adding that no one was hurt.

Russia rejects evacuation efforts from Mariupol: Russia is rejecting all evacuation proposals for Mariupol, according to a senior Ukrainian official. Myhailo Podoliak said that Russia is rebuffing efforts to help evacuate people from the besieged port city “because it is symbolic for the enemy to destroy the city and its defenders – the Azov Regiment.” “The president and the head of the president’s office are continuously appealing to world leaders to help us convince the Russian side of the need for a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol,” Podoliak said in a statement posted on the governing Servant of the People party’s website. He added that the Russians showed “absolute unwillingness to talk” or make concessions.

UK ambassador returns to Kyiv: Ukrainian President?Volodymyr Zelensky?has thanked the UK for returning its ambassador to Kyiv.?While there has been no official announcement from London that Melinda Simmons is back at work in the Ukrainian capital, she?tweeted?on Friday, “It was a long drive but worth going the distance. So good to be in Kyiv again.”?In his Friday evening video address, Zelensky said the return of Britain’s ambassador meant that diplomatic missions from 27 countries were now operating again in Kyiv.?“This is an extremely important gesture of support for Ukraine, and we are grateful to all of them,” he said.

Poland sends reinforcements to Ukraine: Poland has sent over 200 T-72 tanks to Ukraine over the past few weeks, Polskie Radio, Poland’s national public-service radio said Friday, citing IAR news agency.?So far, Poland has provided Ukraine with military equipment worth $1.6 billion, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said last week.?In addition to the tanks, Polskie Radio said, equipment also included dozens of infantry fighting vehicles and the 2S1 Carnation self-propelled howitzers, drones, Grad multiple rocket launchers and Piorun (Thunderbolt) man-portable air defense systems.?

When Lyudmila and her husband Anton arrived at an evacuation center in the town of Przemysl on the Polish border with Ukraine, the rooster quickly settled in, wandering the corridors.

The tens of thousands of people who have fled the besieged city of Mariupol have carried what they can on their journeys, including mementoes, heirlooms, cats and dogs. One man is reported to have walked for five days with his dog to reach safety.

Not many have brought with them a prize rooster. But Lyudmila did.

When Lyudmila and her husband Anton arrived at an evacuation center in the town of Przemysl on the Polish border with Ukraine, their rooster quickly settled in by wandering the corridors.

All seemed fine until the next morning – or 3 a.m. to be precise – when more than 1,000 people sleeping at the evacuation center were awoken by insistent cackling and crowing.

Sasha Pechenka, a volunteer at the center, told CNN he went looking for the source of the noise.?

“I asked volunteers from England and America: ‘Have you seen a rooster here?’ In the end, I found this beast.”

Normally the unnamed rooster would begin his morning call at 4 a.m., but he had not yet adjusted to the change of time zone.

Sasha said that Lyudmila had told him:?“We survived under the bombs with this rooster, because he lived with me. How can I leave my friend after that?”

The next day Lyudmila and Anton moved on, but photographs of the rooster that Sasha took quickly went viral, with one tweet garnering 1.5 million views.?

Sasha himself is a refugee, from Tajikistan. He said he worked with an opposition politician in Russia and was expelled from the country in 2021. He also worked with several organizations now described by the Russian government as “foreign agents” and “extremist.”?

He said he has been working at the Polish-Ukrainian border as a volunteer since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began two months ago.?

Smoke rises from the grounds of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine on April 29.

Russia is rejecting all evacuation proposals for Mariupol, according to a senior Ukrainian official.

Myhailo Podoliak said that Russia?is rebuffing efforts to help evacuate people from the besieged port city “because it is symbolic for the enemy to destroy the city and its defenders – the Azov Regiment.”

The?Azov Regiment, sometimes referred to as the Azov Battalion, is a unit that began as an?ultra-nationalist volunteer battalion?but has since integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.

“The president and the head of the president’s office are continuously appealing to world leaders to help us convince the Russian side of the need for a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol,” Podoliak said in a statement posted on the governing Servant of the People party’s website.

“Some political leaders turn to Putin through their personal channels, urging him to do this for humanitarian reasons. However, unfortunately, there is no response from the Russian side,” Podoliak added.

He said the Russians showed “absolute unwillingness to talk” or make concessions.

Some background: Ukrainian officials have said that about 100,000 civilians require evacuation from Mariupol, which has been devastated by weeks of Russian shelling.

On Friday Russian troops cordoned off an area in the city potentially ahead of another attempt to storm the Azovstal steel plant – a large industrial complex where they have increased attacks as part of their efforts to fully capture Mariupol.

There are thought to be hundreds of soldiers and civilians still in the plant, which remains under the control of Ukrainian forces.

The site has become a symbol of Ukraine’s unwavering resistance in the face of an enemy that?far outnumbers them.

CNN’s Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Isa Soares, Madalena Araujo and Oleksandra Ochman contributed reporting to this post.

Russia’s defense ministry has confirmed what the Ukrainian military has been saying for nearly a week: it’s using submarines in the Black Sea to carry out cruise missile attacks on Ukrainian targets.

Footage released by the ministry on Friday purported to show the launch of Kalibr cruise missiles from a diesel submarine somewhere in the sea.?

A week ago, the Ukrainian armed forces reported that two dozen units from the Russian fleet were still operating in the Black Sea, including “submarines with missile weapons.” On Monday, they added that Russian troops were “launching missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure, including from strategic bombers, ships and submarines.”

Amid acts of sabotage this week in?the breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova, Ukraine’s military said that Russian?submarines “continue to maintain tensions over the likelihood of missile strikes on Ukraine. Enemy forces are also preparing provocations with missile strikes on Transnistria to accuse Ukraine of attacking the unrecognized republic.”

Some background: Throughout the war, Russia’s defense ministry has boasted that its frigates have targeted Ukraine with missiles. On April 22, the ministry published a video on Telegram described as showing a warship launching four Kalibrs from the Black Sea, taking aim at Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities. But information about submarine launches have been largely shrouded in secrecy, due to the strategic importance of the vessels and their activities. In mid-April, photographs emerged of Russian submarines in the port of Sevastopol in Crimea being loaded with Kalibr missiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the UK for returning its ambassador to Kyiv.?

While there has been no official announcement from London that Melinda Simmons is back at work in the Ukrainian capital, she tweeted on Friday, “It was a long drive but worth going the distance. So good to be in Kyiv again.”?

Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Ukraine Melinda Simmons.

The tweet was accompanied by a picture of the British flag against the sky.?

The UK government announced on April 22 that it would soon be reopening its diplomatic mission in Kyiv. The embassy was closed in February due to the Russian invasion, although some operations and support staff were moved to the western city of Lviv.

In his Friday evening video address, Zelensky said the return of Britain’s ambassador meant that diplomatic missions from 27 countries were now operating again in Kyiv.?

“This is an extremely important gesture of support for Ukraine, and we are grateful to all of them,” Zelensky said. “With strong defense and political and financial support from the free world, such gestures mean that the need to end the war is becoming increasingly clear for Russia.”

The US is among those still absent from the list of diplomatic missions up and running in Kyiv.?

On Tuesday, US diplomats made a day trip from Poland to Lviv, the first such visit since the Russian invasion began on February 24, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.?

Without confirming that visit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the same day that US officials “will begin to assess how we can most effectively and securely reopen the embassy in Kyiv.”??

The top US diplomat said the US was “moving forward on that,” but did not provide a timeline.???

Shelling has hit a village in the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, causing damage but no casualties, according to a local official.?

Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a statement that the village of Zhecha came under fire as air defense systems intercepted a Ukrainian aircraft entering Russian territory.

The blast wave from the incident damaged the casing of “technological buildings of the oil terminal” and the surrounding area, Bogomaz said, adding that no one was hurt.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have not commented on the incident.

The governor’s announcement comes a day after he said the border department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported another incident of shelling in the nearby village of Belaya Berezka, allegedly carried out from Ukrainian territory.

“On April 29, a branch of the border department of the FSB of Russia in the Bryansk region in the village of Belaya Berezka, Trubchevsky district, was subjected to mortar fire from the territory of Ukraine,” Bogomaz?said?Friday in a post on his official channel on messaging app Telegram. He said there were no casualties.

Water and electricity networks were damaged as a result of the shelling in the Bryansk region, Bogomaz added.

At the train station in Lviv, on the westernmost edge of?Ukraine, women are at a physical and psychological crossroads.

After arriving in the city, now a waypoint for displaced people, humanitarian aid and weapons, they’ve had to ask themselves a set of daunting questions. Where should we go next? Will my children be safe there? How long will we stay?

In the back of their minds is a gnawing fear: Will we even have a home to return to?

If there’s one thing to know about the dilemma they face, it’s that many are having to make snap decisions about their family’s future alone.

Liudmyla Sobchenko, 28, searches for the information about trains bound for Korosten and fighting in the region.

Military conscription rules in Ukraine mean that men between the ages of 18 and 60 are blocked from leaving the country. And, in any case, many have chosen to sign up and join the fight.

So while millions of Ukrainians have fled?Russia’s invasion?since it was launched by President?Vladimir Putin?more than two months ago, almost all of those who have crossed the border are women and children. They make up a staggering 90% of Ukraine’s refugees.

Mothers have largely borne the brunt of the migration crisis, picking up the pieces after their families were torn apart, caring for children and elderly parents. CNN spoke with several who had uprooted their lives in the wake of the war and were weighing whether it was time to take their families back to Ukraine.

One woman, Liudmyla Sobchenko, a 28-year-old from the Zhytomyr region northwest of Kyiv, spent three weeks in Poland with her young son and mother before deciding it was time to come home.

Liudmyla Sobchenko, 28, and her son Nazar, 3, returned to Ukraine after three weeks in Poland.

Since late March, when CNN visited the station in?Lviv, the flow of Ukrainians back to the country has continued to increase and is now about 30,000 a day, according to Andrii Demchenko, a press officer for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. “We have no right to ask the purpose of the trip, but many women shared that they no longer want to stay abroad,” he told CNN on Tuesday.

Some of the most heart-wrenching, early images of the war were from railway stations across Ukraine. Crowds clambered into carriages, babies held aloft. Couples embraced in passionate, desperate goodbyes. Little hands and faces pressed against foggy windows as fathers stood alone, sobbing on platforms.

Many passed through Lviv station before traveling on to neighboring Poland, or further afield. Hour after hour, a wave of women and children would disembark. The names of the cities and towns they left — Sumy, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson — created a constellation of suffering that criss-crossed Ukraine, reflecting in real time where fighting had flared.

Weeks after the initial exodus, the grand Art Nouveau building, two miles from the city’s old town, was still busy with families on the move. But not all were heading west. Some, like Sobchenko, were beginning to return.

Read the full report here:

Nadiia Taratorina, 22, and her 6-month-old son Artem fled to the relative safety of the Carpathian Mountains, in early March. Weeks later, she decided to return home to Kryvyi Rih despite ongoing fighting there.

Related article They fled Ukraine to protect their children. Now these mothers are returning home

Ukraine says its forces continue to resist Russian attacks on several fronts despite evidence that fresh Russian units are coming across the border, while also claiming that Russian artillery has targeted villages close to the border in the northeast corner of the country, an area that has seen little activity for several weeks.

The assessment, which came from the latest bulletin of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that the Russians continued to strengthen their presence in the Izium area in eastern Ukraine by bringing in units normally based in Russia’s Far East.

It said Russian forces’ latest effort to break through in the Izium area had been resisted, but they continued to press an offensive towards the town of Lyman – an important railway hub, which was hit by Russian artillery Friday.

The General Staff said there was also heavy fighting around Rubizhne and Popasna, two towns the Russians have been trying to take for several weeks.?

It claimed one Russian aircraft had been brought down.

The General Staff also said that Russian units had targeted Ukrainian positions in four villages in Sumy region in the northeast corner of Ukraine, an area that has seen little activity in recent weeks.

Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said two schools and 20 houses were destroyed Friday as the Russians continued their assault on Rubizhne and Popasna. He said the Russians had launched 16 massive artillery attacks over the past day, with Hirske and Orikhovo among the targets. Both are towns close to the front lines that have sustained heavy damage this month.?

Hayday said 31 people had been evacuated from Popasna, but two evacuation buses had been shot at and there had been no contact since with the people in the vehicles.

Mykola Khanatov, head of the Popasna City Military-Civil Administration, said the drivers were volunteers.

On the southern front, Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council, said the Russians had opened fire on the outskirts of a contested village near Kryvyi Rih. There were no casualties, he said.

Poland has sent over 200 T-72 tanks to Ukraine over the past few weeks, Polskie Radio, Poland’s national public-service radio said Friday, citing IAR news agency.??

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

In addition to the tanks, Polskie Radio said, equipment also included dozens of infantry fighting vehicles and the 2S1 Carnation self-propelled howitzers, drones, Grad multiple rocket launchers and Piorun (Thunderbolt) man-portable air defense systems.?

Some context: NATO members have provided military aid to help Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion. Last week, a senior US Department of Defense official told reporters the US has established a control center to coordinate shipments and “streamline the delivery” of military assistance to Ukraine with both US and allied forces in Stuttgart, Germany, within the US European Command area of responsibility.

Fighting continues in the country’s east, with a senior US defence official on Friday saying Russian advances had been “slow and uneven” in several areas over the past 24 hours, as Ukrainians continue to mount “stiff” resistance.

Here’s what you need to know:

Eastern assault:?Heavy shelling by Russian forces continued along?“the entire line of contact”?in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk Friday, according to the Ukrainian military, and Russian troops struck an important railway hub and supply line for troops in the country’s east, according to video footage published on Thursday and Friday. Russian forces “appear to be?advancing” toward Sloviansk?and Baranivka in the east, a senior US defense official said Friday, adding that they are making “some incremental, uneven, slow advances to the southeast and southwest of Izium” in Ukraine.?

Bombing in Kyiv: Survivors of a bombing in Kyiv, which shattered the relative peace in the capital city, are picking up the pieces after Russian cruise missiles were?fired into a central district?of Kyiv on Thursday evening, miles away from where the?UN secretary general?had wrapped up a meeting?with?Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A Ukrainian journalist?was killed in the strike, and several people were injured.

G20 Dilemma: US?President Joe Biden?and his advisers are still in conversations about how to approach November’s Group of 20 summit, after host country Indonesia on Friday said it received confirmation that?Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend. Biden has called for Russia to be ejected from the group. US officials said there wouldn’t likely be a decision in the near-term about a potential boycott of the summit, as they weigh the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.

Crisis in Mariupol: The mayor of Mariupol said that?more than 600 people were injured?in a Russian bombing that struck the makeshift hospital facility within the?besieged Azovstal steel complex. The plant was heavily bombed on Wednesday night, according to multiple accounts. A commander inside the plant?told CNN that there was not much food and water left for the plant’s defenders and that they had a limited amount of ammunition. An operation to evacuate civilians from plant in Mariupol was planned for Friday, according to the president’s office.

Biden mourns American killed in Ukraine: US President Joe Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news that an American,?Willy Joseph Cancel,?was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. “It is very sad. He left a little baby behind,” Biden told reporters at the White House. Cancel was killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, members of Cancel’s family confirmed to CNN. The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said a nuclear war must never be launched as there could be “no winners,” and he urged countries to adhere to this in an interview with the Dubai-headquartered news outlet Al Arabiya Friday.

Lavrov added that Russia had “been champions of making pledges by all countries never to start a nuclear war.”

When asked if the Russian army wants full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine to provide a land corridor to Crimea, Lavrov said, “the military means to achieve (Russia’s) goals is not for me to discuss” and said he deferred from discussion on “speculation.”

Lavrov also did not confirm, when asked, whether operations in the Donbas would end by May 9, Russia’s annual Victory Day, which some analysts and US officials have suggested could be a target date for Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a victory, instead saying: “They will be completed when the goals I just described to you have been implemented,?have been achieved.”

Lavrov also downplayed the pressure of sanctions from Western governments on Russia.

Mykhailo Puryshev used his van to evacuate people from Mariupol.

Mykhailo Puryshev spoke to CNN about how he organized convoys to help evacuate 200 people from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

He turned his night club into a bomb shelter and used his own van to move people outside of the city and bring food back inside.

Despite Puryshev’s van being badly damaged by shelling and gunfire, it didn’t stop him from continuing to conduct his rescue missions. He described witnessing people in desperation fighting to get the food and water they were passing out as the humanitarian aid was not enough for all those waiting.

“And they’re all there just?fighting. During one of those trips?actually they nearly turned my?van over, and it was just a?survival.?I would watch and understand?this is just survival happening?near our vans which came with?all the humanitarian aid and it?was an absolutely horrible?picture,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett via a translator.

“Frankly, a couple of?times, I actually caught myself?thinking that I do not want to?come back.?I do not want to see this again.?And yet, I still kept coming?back because I understood there?wouldn’t be anyone else to do this,” he continued.

Puryshev said that as the bombs were coming and he was close to death, he feared not seeing his children again, but also kept thinking about the people that still needed his help and more trips that he needed to make.

“It is painful that this is the?21st century, that this is?happening in our country.?This is happening in my?city.?This is pain.?This is pain of our country,” he told CNN.

Watch the interview:

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08:11 - Source: cnn

Willy Joseph Cancel

Rebecca Cabrera, the mother of an American citizen who was killed fighting alongside Ukrainians earlier this week, said her son had a “high moral value” and “wanted to do the right thing,” which is why he chose to join the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian invasion.

Cabrera last spoke with her son, Willy Joseph Cancel, last Thursday before he was killed on Monday.

“We got to FaceTime a little bit on Thursday, and I got to talk to some of the people in his unit,” Cabrera said. “The correspondence obviously was not a lot because the towers were being blown up and things like that, so we never knew when we would be able to talk to him but he tried communicating to us as much as he could.”

Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news of the American’s death, saying “it is very sad. He left a little baby behind.”

More background: The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed. The company sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel’s mother had 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 at the end of February. When the war broke out, the company was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

The White House press secretary today cautioned against Americans traveling to Ukraine to take up arms, saying the administration encourages Americans to find other ways to help.

CNN’s Sam Fossum and Maegan Vazquez contributed reporting to this post.?

It had been weeks of?relative quiet in Kyiv when a?couple of bangs and a plume of?black smoke quickly changed?that, CNN correspondent Matt Rivers reported.

Ukraine and Russia both?confirmed cruise missiles were?fired into a central district?of Kyiv on Thursday evening, miles away from where the?UN secretary general had wrapped up a meeting with?Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Rescuers worked through the?night, Rivers reported, and in the morning, a?clearer picture emerged of what?happened. An apartment complex?was shredded by shrapnel, leaving?those in the neighborhood?shaken.?

The woman told CNN she didn’t die because she wasn’t sitting near the window. Her son Alexi injured his hand, telling Rivers that there was “a clap and a blast, then?panic.?That’s it. I didn’t see it until later, I saw my hand was covered blood.”

Some of the residents in the neighborhood, however, did not survive. A 54-year-old Ukrainian journalist?was killed in the strike.

Rivers reported that Russia’s Ministry of Defense?said they were aiming for a?factory near the apartment complex which is one of Ukraine’s top?producers of air-to-air guided?missiles as well as aircraft?parts.?

“The factory was damaged in the?strike, but so is that apartment complex just behind?me.? Yet another example of Russia?targeting places that have?supposed military relevance,?but killing ordinary civilians?in the process,” Rivers reported from the site in Kyiv.

Watch the full report:

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02:19 - Source: cnn

US President Joe Biden?and his advisers are still in conversations about how to approach November’s Group of 20 summit, whose hosts received confirmation Friday that?Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend.

Biden has said?Russia should be ejected from the G20.?Senior members of his administration?have walked out of G20 events?where Russian delegates are present. And there were discussions with Indonesia, which is hosting the summit, about stepping up its condemnation of Russia.

But no decision on boycotting the leaders’ summit, still six months away, has been made. Officials said there wouldn’t likely be a decision in the near-term as they weigh the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.

“The President has expressed publicly his opposition to President Putin attending the G20,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

She said it was too early to say how the summit would look.

“It is six months away. So we don’t know how to predict, we can’t predict at this point, what that will look like,” she said, adding: “We’ve conveyed our view that we don’t think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well.”?

The White House is realistic the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks, since the decision would likely require consensus and China has been clear it doesn’t support such a move. That makes this a different scenario than when Russia was expelled from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea.

Psaki said the White House’s understanding was that Indonesia invited Putin to attend prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet in a statement, the country’s President stressed unity among the member countries.

“Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don’t let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy,” President Joko Widodo said in a statement from Indonesia’s Cabinet on Friday, confirming Putin had accepted his invitation to attend.

Read more:

Related article White House braces for potential showdown between Biden and Putin at G20

The leader of the Belarusian opposition called on the United States to enact sanctions on the government of Belarus that mirror those imposed on Moscow.

In meetings with the US State Department and members of Congress this week, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she discussed both strengthening future sanctions and closing loopholes on existing ones.

She also said she presented the US government with evidence of Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko’s involvement in the Russian war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Tsikhanouskaya said sanctions “must be the same on strength” as those imposed on Russia “but different in structure,” and should target state banks and state enterprises.

The opposition leader said she spoke with officials in Washington, DC, about ways of “making sanctions more effective, closing remaining loopholes, freezing Lukashenka’s assets and blocking the money given to him by the (International Monetary Fund).”

Tsikhanouskaya said suggested the use of secondary sanctions to close such loopholes.

“We see how Russia uses Belarus to circumvent their own sanctions,” she said, citing the example of steel.

She said sanctions are hitting the Lukashenko regime, however, citing what she described as letters from the Minister of Foreign Affairs seeking rapprochement sent in recent weeks.

Tsikhanouskaya met with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman – a meeting that was attended in part by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – as well as Jim O’Brien, head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department.

Tsikhanouskaya told reporters she gave O’Brien “documents with the evidence of Lukashenka’s involvement in the war against Ukraine, as well as the list of companies and countries that helped to circumvent the sanctions.”

She said that includes “massive evidence of launching missiles from our territory, movement of Russian equipment in the territory of Belarus.”

“It’s inside information about some internal orders about deployment of different Russian military equipment in our territory,” she continued. “So people have been collecting this information for the full period of the war. They are well documented and we passed this evidence to the government.”

Tsikhanouskaya said she does not believe that the Belarusian army participated in launching these missiles, and instead Lukashenko gave the land to Russian President Vladimir Putin to use as he wanted.?

“It’s already World War. We are so afraid of World War the third but it’s already going on,” she said. “It’s war between democracy and autocracy.”

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with Inspectors General iat White House in Washington, DC, on Friday, April 29.

US President Joe Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news that an American,?Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.?

“It is very sad. He left a little baby behind,” Biden told reporters at the White House while he was hosting a meeting.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier on Friday offered condolences to Cancel’s family and said the US government had not officially confirmed his death, cautioning Americans against traveling to Ukraine for any reason.

Cancel was killed Monday fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, members of Cancel’s family confirmed to CNN. The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on April 25. The company 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 at the end of February. When the war broke out, the company was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday offered condolences to the family of an American who was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, saying the US government had not officially confirmed his death. She cautioned Americans against traveling to Ukraine for any reason.

Willy Joseph Cancel, a 22-year-old veteran, was killed on Monday?fighting alongside Ukrainian forces?in Ukraine, members of Cancel’s family confirmed to CNN. Cancel working with a private military contracting company when he was killed. The company had sent him to?Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera, said.

“Well, first of all, our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. … We don’t have official confirmation, even though we’ve seen the reports, but we have not had that official process through the government, so I can’t speak to other specifics about him beyond that,” Psaki said during the White House press briefing when asked by CNN’s MJ Lee about Cancel’s death.

She then cautioned against Americans traveling to Ukraine to take up arms.

“It’s an active war zone. And we know Americans face significant risks, but certainly we know a family is mourning. A wife is mourning and our hearts are with them,” she continued.?

Psaki also reiterated that the administration’s advice “has been that Americans should not travel to Ukraine for any reason.”

The US State Department said Friday it was aware of reports of a US citizen killed while fighting in Ukraine but has no further information to add

Principal deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said the State Department stands “ready to provide all consular assistance to the family,” but out of respect for the family at this difficult time had nothing further to announce.

She also reiterated that the State Department continues to urge US citizens not to travel to Ukraine. Porter said she does not have an estimate of how many Americans have gone there to fight with the Ukrainian forces – the State Department does not require US citizens to register their whereabouts when going abroad.

CNN’s Christian?Sierra and Jennifer Hansler?contributed reporting to this post.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday, April 29.

Asked whether the Defense Department considers Russian President Vladimir Putin a “rational actor,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby got emotional speaking about Putin’s “depravity” in Ukraine.

Pressed on the characterization by CNN’s Barbara Starr, Kirby called Putin’s justifications for the invasion “BS,” at one point pounding on the podium for emphasis.

“It’s hard to square his … BS that this is about Nazism in Ukraine, and it’s about protecting Russians in Ukraine, and it’s about defending Russian national interests, when none of them,?none of them?were threatened by Ukraine,” said Kirby.

Kirby listed some of what he called “unconscionable” actions by Russian forces, including civilians being “shot in the back of the head, hands tied behind their backs. Women, pregnant women being killed, hospitals being bombed.”?

Kirby subsequently apologized for what he said was injecting his “personal perspective,” and would not elaborate further on the US assessment of Putin’s mental state.

Here’s the moment Pentagon press secretary John Kirby got emotional after a question about Putin’s actions in Ukraine:

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01:47 - Source: cnn

The White House conveyed privately to Indonesia that Russia should not be allowed to participate in this year’s G20 summit, though the country’s president announced Friday that President Vladimir Putin had accepted an invitation to attend.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted the summit was still six months away, and did not provide an update on whether President Biden would also participate. But she said his views were clear that Russia shouldn’t be there.

The White House’s understanding was that Indonesia invited Putin to attend prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she said.

Still, in a statement confirming Russia’s acceptance of the invite, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said, “Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don’t let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy.”?

Indonesia has also extended an invitation to Ukraine to participate as a guest, a step Psaki said the US welcomed, but she said it was too early to say how the summit would look.

“It is six months away. So we don’t know how to predict, we can’t predict at this point, what that will look like,” she said, adding, “We’ve conveyed our view that we don’t think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well.”?

Psaki said there were no indications Russia was willing to engage in serious diplomacy.

“There’s a lot that could happen between now and then, but we certainly haven’t seen an indication to date of Russia’s plan to participate in diplomatic talks constructively,” she said. “Our hope certainly is that will change because obviously diplomatic talks and conversations is the way to bring an end to this conflict and President Putin could end this tomorrow, could end this right now.”

The US has begun additional training for Ukrainian armed forces at US military installations in Germany, the Defense Department announced.?

Kirby said that Germany is one of “roughly three” sites being used by the US to train Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, but would not disclose the others.

He also said “the bulk of the training” will be conducted by the Florida National Guard who had been training Ukrainians before being repositioned out of Ukraine in February prior to the Russian invasion.

“The recent reunion now of these Florida National Guard members with their Ukrainian colleagues, we are told, was an emotional meeting, given the strong bonds that were formed as they were living and working together before temporarily parting ways in February,” Kirby said.

Meanwhile, a senior US?defense?official said Friday that “more than a dozen flights” carrying military assistance for Ukraine from the US are expected to arrive in the European region for transport into Ukraine “in the next 24 hours.”

Those flights will include shipments of “Howitzers, more 155 rounds, some of those Phoenix Ghost UAVs and even some of the radars that we talked about,” the official said.

This security assistance is all coming from US President Joe Biden’s latest presidential drawdown authority package, the official added, saying that 155 artillery rounds “continue to flow into Ukraine even over the last 24 hours.”

In the last 24 hours, “there have been almost 20 deliveries via airlift from seven different nations,” of security assistance, the official said.

CNN’s Ellie Kaufman contributed reporting to this post.

This photograph taken on April 29, 2022 shows a railway bridge, over the Siverskyi Donets river, destroyed by a missile strike according to Ukrainian soldiers, in Raygorodok, eastern Ukraine.

A railway bridge across the?Siverskyi Donets river was blown up on Friday, new video shows. CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video.?

The bridge was located along a highway between the Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Lyman.?A satellite image from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite shows the bridge intact on Thursday.?

Russian air strikes have pummeled infrastructure in Lyman, specifically targeting a railway hub that serves as a vital supply line for Ukrainian troops.?On Friday, a senior US defense official told CNN that Russian forces are making?“some incremental, uneven, slow advances” towards Sloviansk.?

A commander inside the Azovstal steel complex in the besieged city of Mariupol told CNN of the relentless bombardment of the plant, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been trapped for weeks.?

Sviatoslav Palamar of the Azov Regiment told CNN that there was intensive shelling of the Azovstal plant last night from both ships and aircraft.??

“At the same time they shell us from the ground,” he said. There had also been attempts to storm the area controlled by Ukrainian troops, he said, but they had been deflected.?

“On one side, the (Russians) had declared the silence and non-fighting mode, but on the parallel (at the same time) with infantry and equipment they try to storm the territory of the factory,” he told CNN.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his defense minister in Moscow that the plant should be sealed off but not stormed and said that?those who choose to surrender should be treated in accordance with international conventions.??

Palamar told CNN that there were a lot of wounded fighters and more than 500 soldiers who needed guarantees that their lives would be saved.?

“We also have civilians that will be killed if they storm the factory,” he said.?

Palamar said that on Thursday morning, a shelter for the wounded at the plant was shelled.

“It’s very hard to provide medical help to our guys, because our surgical room was destroyed where the remaining medicine and surgical equipment was stored,” he told CNN.

Asked if the Ukrainian troops left inside Azovstal were ready to surrender, Palamar said: “We do not think about any scenarios of giving up. We only see it possible through a guarantee of third party politicians, leaders, possibly the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel or Turkey, a guarantee that would allow every soldier to leave in safety.”?

“We are ready to leave this territory because it is very hard and complicated to hold here with our personal weapons. We’re ready for extraction, possibly extraction to the territory of a third country but with our weapons in our hands,” he continued.

On the situation inside the plant: Palamar told CNN that there was not much food and water left for the plant’s defenders. He said they had a limited amount of ammunition. “We don’t have the possibility to destroy the aircraft and vessels that are shelling us,” he said.

Even so, he insisted: “We do not consider giving up or the conditions of giving up. We only consider guarantees of leaving the territory of the plant. If there is no other choice left but giving up, we won’t give up.”?

Palamar stressed that the soldiers in the plant wanted civilians who were sheltering there to be evacuated.?

Speaking about the Ukrainian government’s plan to evacuate civilians stranded in the plant, which was due to go into effect Friday, Palamar said he was aware of such a convoy that would come to Mariupol but could not speak further about it for security reasons.?

Palamar said that the soldiers and civilians were in separate parts of the Azovstal plant. They were in cellars and bunkers but some had been wounded.?

“There are cellars and bunkers that we cannot reach because they are under rubble. We do not know whether the people there are alive or not. There are children aged four months to 16 years. But there are people trapped in places that you can’t get to,” he told CNN.