Russia-Ukraine latest: Moscow claims capture of new Bakhmut areas
The claim by Russia’s defence ministry comes as Kyiv says its forces control a key supply route into the embattled city.
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Sunday, April 30:
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Sunday, April 30:
- Russia’s defence ministry says Russian forces have taken new areas of the eastern city of Bakhmut.
- Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk says the Chinese who are offering to broker peace talks are “pursuing their own interests, but a peaceful solution and end of hostilities are more in line with Beijing’s interests than this huge never-ending earthquake for the entire world order”.
- The head of Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries threatens to withdraw his troops from the key battle for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine as casualty rates mount. Ukraine’s military authorities say Russian forces have been unable to cut their supply routes to the front-line city.
- Two civilians have been killed in Ukrainian shelling that hit a village in Russia’s Bryansk region, its governor says.
- Russia says a drone strike caused a fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, sending a column of black smoke into the sky before it was extinguished.
Foreign fighters: Georgians and other volunteers train in Kyiv
About 5,000 foreigners are fighting for Ukraine against Russian forces.
That includes many Georgians, who came to the front lines still angry about Russia’s attack on their country in 2008.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Russian army replaces logistics commander
The Russian army replaced its highest-ranking general in charge of logistics ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Kyiv.
The announcement followed days of rumours about the sacking of Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, under British sanctions for his role in the siege of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which Russian troops captured a year ago. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said Alexei Kuzmenkov – a former official from the National Guard – had replaced Mizintsev.
“Kuzmenkov was appointed to the position of deputy defence minister of the Russian Federation, responsible for the logistical support of the Armed Forces,” the ministry said. The statement did not say why Mizintsev was replaced after just seven months on the job.
What’s at stake in Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive?
The war in Ukraine could soon enter an important new phase as Ukrainian forces prepare to begin a widely-anticipated spring offensive.
For military expert Justin Bronk, Ukraine has a window of opportunity to win the war this year, but it could come at a cost.
Ukraine says it controls key supply route into Bakhmut
A Ukrainian military spokesperson says Kyiv is in control of a key supply route into Bakhmut.
Russian forces have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the shattered remains of what was once a city of 70,000. Kyiv has pledged to defend Bakhmut, which Russia sees as a stepping stone to attacking other cities.
“For several weeks, the Russians have been talking about seizing the ‘road of life,’ as well as about constant fire control over it,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east, said in an interview with local news website Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.
“Yes, it is really difficult there … [but] the defence forces have not allowed the Russians to ‘cut off’ our logistics,” Cherevatyi said.
The “road of life” is a vital road between the ruined Bakhmut and the nearby town Chasiv Yar to the west – a distance of just over 17km (10.56 miles).
Ukraine says more than 10 oil tanks destroyed by Crimea blast
Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence official speaking to RBC Ukraine, says more than 10 tanks of oil products with a capacity of around 40,000 tonnes were destroyed in an explosion in the Russian-occupied port of Sevastopol on Saturday,
Yusov did not claim Kyiv was responsible for the explosion, instead describing the blast as “God’s punishment” for a Russian strike on a Ukrainian city on Friday.
Ukrainian fencers ready to boycott Olympics over Russian readmission
Ukrainian fencers, gathered in Paris for a training camp, say they are outraged that Russians and Belarusians have been readmitted to international competition and refuse to compete against them.
“It was a really shocking decision for all [the] fencing family because nothing changed since the war started,” Svitlana Sopit told AFP news agency.
“People in my country die every day,” she said. “Militaries fighting for our freedom. We will not compete against Russians. They should not take part because it is unfair and impossible in a civilised world.”
“I come from Mykolaiv in the south of the country. It was bombed today by Russians,” said the 20-year-old, a bronze medallist at the Turin Grand Prix in February. “I am tired to talk about the war,” she said.
Fencing became the first Olympic sport to invite Russians and Belarusians back into competition in March. The International Fencing Federation (FIE) said it needed to make a decision before qualifying for the Paris Games started. While Poland and Germany responded by cancelling fencing events, Russians and Belarusians are due to return to World Cup competition in foil in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on May 5. Ukrainian authorities have banned their athletes from participating if Russians or Belarusians are present.
The fencers accept that they could jeopardise their chances of competing in the Olympics.
“We keep working; we never stop because we believe in a fair decision,” said Sopit. But, she added, “There are things much more important than sports competitions.”
Death toll in west Russian village rises to four
The death toll in an overnight Ukrainian strike on the Russian border village of Suzemka has risen to four, the governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region said.
“Two more civilians have been found and removed from the rubble. Unfortunately, both of them died,” Alexander Bogomaz, the local governor, said on Telegram. Earlier on Sunday, he said two people were killed.
Bogomaz initially said two people were killed when “the Ukrainian army shelled Suzemka”.
Two other villagers were taken to hospital with injuries, the official said.
Bogomaz said Ukrainian shelling hit the village twice overnight and that Russian air defence had “shot down several shells”. He said one shell hit a residential house, sparking a fire, and that two more houses were damaged.
The village has declared a state of emergency, Bogomaz said.
“Work is continuing on the removal of rubble,” he said, adding that “In the areas where operational measures have been completed, a damage assessment commission has begun working.”
Russian forces have taken four blocks in western Bakhmut: Russian news agency
Russia’s Ministry of Defence says its forces have taken four blocks in western Bakhmut, Russian state-owned news agency RIA has reported.
The claim could not be confirmed independently.
The Wagner Group explained
The Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, provide guns for hire in a murky global operation with links to Putin and the Russian state.
Start Here with Sandra Gathmann explains who they are, what they do and why the war in Ukraine has shifted things.
Ukrainians who grew up speaking Russian learn a new mother tongue
Oleksandr Zahalskyy spent most of his life speaking only Russian.
Born in 1960 in what was then the Soviet Union, Zahalskyy hails from the largely Russian-speaking Ukrainian city of Kherson.
Now at 63 and living in Kyiv, Zahalskyy and his wife, Natasha, are in the midst of a difficult but voluntary transition – making the Ukrainian language their own.
“At first, we thought we needed to know our national language, but with the start of this full-scale war, the feeling changed from ‘I have to’ to ‘I want to,’” Zahalskyy told Al Jazeera.
For many, switching from Russian to the Ukrainian language is an act of resistance as the war continues to devastate lives and cities. Read more here.
Pope Francis urges Europe to open doors to refugees
Pope Francis has urged Hungarians to open their doors to others as he wrapped up a weekend visit with a plea for Europe to welcome migrants and the poor and for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Francis issued the appeal from the banks of the Danube as he celebrated Mass on Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos Square at the end of his three-day visit, which was dominated by the Vatican’s concerns for the plight of neighbouring Ukraine.
Upon arrival, Francis urged Hungary and Europe as a whole to welcome those who are fleeing war, poverty and climate change, calling for safe and legal migration corridors.
“How sad and painful it is to see closed doors,” Francis said.
“The closed doors of our selfishness with regard to others, the closed doors of our individualism amid a society of growing isolation, the closed doors of our indifference towards the underprivileged and those who suffer, the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor,” Francis said.
In a final prayer at the end of the Mass, Francis prayed for peace in Ukraine and “a future of hope, not war, a future full of cradles, not tombs, a world of brothers and sisters, not walls”.
Russia slams Polish ‘seizure’ of embassy school in Warsaw
Russia has promised that it will respond harshly to what it says is Poland’s illegal seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, an act it called a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
Polish state-run news channel TVP Info reported that police had shown up on Saturday outside the Russian embassy school on Kieleckiej Street in Warsaw.
Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the Polish authorities had burst onto the embassy school’s grounds with the aim of seizing it.
It said Poland’s “hostile actions” are a “blatant violation” of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 and another encroachment on Russian diplomatic property.
“Such an impudent step by Warsaw, which goes beyond the framework of civilized interstate communication, will not remain without our harsh reaction and consequences for the Polish authorities and Poland’s interests in Russia,” the ministry stressed.
Wagner Group threatens to retreat from Bakhmut
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has threatened to withdraw his troops from the key battle for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine as casualty rates mount and while Ukraine’s military authorities say Russian forces have been unable to cut their supply routes to the front-line city.
Losses in Bakhmut are five times higher than necessary because of a lack of artillery ammunition, Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov published on Saturday.
“It would have been five times fewer if we had more ammunition,” said Prigozhin, who has previously accused Russia’s regular armed forces of not giving his men the ammunition they need. He has also accused Russia’s top brass of betrayal.
‘Lack of battlefield success fuelling blame game’
The latest threat by Yevgeny Prigozhin to pull his mercenaries out of Bakhmut is part of a “blame game” between him and the Russian Ministry of Defence, according to analysts.
“Prigozhin promised that the city [Bakhmut] will be taken, but it is still divided, and the Russian side is trying to allocate blame on him,” Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst, told Al Jazeera.
Felgenhauer said Wagner Group mercenaries have been the “stormtroopers that were thrown into this battle to dislodge the Ukrainians out of the fortress city of Bakhmut”, where the fighting has been going on for more than eight months.
The Moscow-based analyst said the Russian winter offensive has achieved “very little at a very high price”, and the Russian defence ministry faces a logistical problem in supplying artillary shells to all troops.
“It is a lack of battlefield success that is fuelling this public exchange of accusations,” he said.
Russian athletes say IOC participation plan ‘excessive and discriminatory’
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) recommendation to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to international competition as neutrals is “excessive and discriminatory”, the Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC’s) athletes commission says.
The IOC sanctioned Russia and its ally Belarus after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 but last month recommended that their athletes be allowed to return to international competition as neutrals, with no flag or anthem, while athletes who support the war or are contracted to military or national security agencies be excluded.
In March, ROC head Stanislav Pozdnyakov denounced the recommendations, a position backed by the athletes commission chaired by former Olympic 800-metre champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy.
“The proposed reintegration and admission criteria are excessive and discriminatory – by nationality and by passport, by discipline and sport, and by affiliation to certain entities developing sports for decades in most post-Soviet states,” the commission said in a statement.
“Today we, athletes, are detained as hostages of political games that divide the international sports community and at the same time sow discord within the Olympic family – dictating the parameters of admission, defining who is eligible to perform and who is not.”
Russia’s Wagner mercenary force boss threatens Bakhmut withdrawal
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has threatened to withdraw his troops from the key battle for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine as casualty rates mount while Ukraine’s military authorities say Russian forces have been unable to cut their supply routes to the front-line city.
Losses in Bakhmut are five times higher than necessary because of a lack of artillery ammunition, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov.
“Every day we have stacks of thousands of bodies that we put in coffins and send home,” Prigozhin said, adding that he has written to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu asking for ammunition as soon as possible.
“If the ammunition deficit is not replenished, we are forced – in order not to run like cowardly rats afterwards – to either withdraw or die,” he said.
Ukrainian shelling kills two people in Russia’s Bryansk, governor says
Russian authorities say two people have been killed in the western border region of Bryansk by shelling from Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces destroyed a residential building and damaged two other houses in the Russian village of Suzemka, the governor of the
Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, wrote on his Telegram channel.
Top Ukrainian diplomat says China’s role as mediator ‘not unrealistic’
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has described the possibility of China taking on a mediation role in the Ukraine war as “not unrealistic.”
Melnyk told Germany’s Funke Media Group that the Chinese are “pursuing their own interests but a peaceful solution and end of hostilities are more in line with Beijing’s interests than this huge never-ending earthquake for the entire world order”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping – the first since the war began just over 14 months ago – “was a big step forward in strengthening our relations with China and ending Russian aggression”, Melnyk said.
The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany pointed out, however, that for Kyiv, the withdrawal of all Russian troops is a necessity.