The latest updates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine are available here. You can follow us on Telegram.
Moscow's chief negotiator said that Russia and Ukraine would resume talks by video on Monday. A top Ukrainian official said that evidence of Russian military war crimes is coming to light.
Russia's defense ministry said it targeted an oil refinery and fuel depots in Odesa. Transnistria, a pro-Russian enclave in neighboring Moldova, denied a Ukrainian claim that Moscow is preparing to attack the Odesa region from the northwest.
The president said that his forces are fortifying defenses in eastern Ukraine and Donbas, where Russia wants to complete its takeover of the region. A Ukrainian negotiator said he thinks talks are advanced enough to set the stage for Zelenskiy and Putin to talk.
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Following a visit by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio to Azerbaijan, the country will increase gas exports to Italy to over 7 billion cubic meters this year. Russia accounted for 42% of Italy's gas consumption last year.
Italy's economy is being hurt by higher energy prices and declining sentiment. If the war continues for the whole year and oil and gas prices remain at present levels, the business lobby estimates that the gross domestic product will grow 1.9% this year.
Humanitarian corridors are open on Sunday to try to bring civilians to safety, despite fighting and shelling in eastern Ukraine. Buses will try to get closer to Mariupol from Berdyansk.
The General Staff of the Ukrainians said that it had regained full control of the region around Kyiv. There have been casualties during shelling in the Kherson region.
Over 10 million Ukrainians have left their homes. More than two million people have crossed into Poland since February 24. More than 23,800 travelers were admitted on Saturday and early Sunday.
Russian troops are holding 11 Ukrainian local government leaders hostage in occupied territories, according to a video statement from the presidential office in Kyiv. She said that a representative of the village had been killed.
Vereshchuk said that negotiations were continuing with Russia to release civilians as part of a prisoner exchange.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that bodies of civilians who had been shot by Russian forces and had their hands tied were found in the streets of the town of Bucha. Russia hasn't commented on the accusation yet.
Bucha, Kyiv region. The bodies of people with tied hands, who were shot dead by soldiers lie in the streets. These people were not in the military. They had no weapons. They posed no threat. How many more such cases are happening right now in the occupied territories? (1/2) pic.twitter.com/AJloZ81JIt
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) April 2, 2022
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that it has documented cases of Russian military war crimes against civilians in occupied areas, including a case of repeated rape and summary executions.
The Biden administration made a determination that Russian troops had committed war crimes. The Secretary of State said at the time that the U.S. had seen reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities.
A draft treaty between the two sides isn't ready for submission to a leaders summit, but Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said that Ukraine is becoming more realistic about adopting a neutral and nuclear-free status.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will resume talks on Monday, he said.
A missile strike targeted infrastructure during a two-hour air raid alert from 4:30 a.m. local time. There were no casualties reported. Russia's defense ministry said it hit an oil refinery. There was black smoke near the city.
The intensity of missile strikes has declined according to Ukrainian army officials.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said that Russian troops were planting mines along their routes and in some towns and villages.
The ministry said in an email that Dendias will visit Odesa on Sunday to deliver humanitarian aid to the city. Greece plans to reopen its consulate in the Black Sea port city in order to create a permanent mechanism for aid distribution.
Sweden's top army officer has been waiting for a long time to get back to Gotland.
When Sweden withdrew its military from the center of the Baltic in 2005, it took advantage of the post-Cold War peace. He thought the move was ill-judged.
Disbanding large parts of the armed forces in the peace euphoria of that time may have made sense to a lot of people.
Koichi Hagiuda, Japan's trade minister, said on NHK that the sanctions against Russia will only increase if a peace agreement with Ukraine is reached.
Hagiuda said that Japan and other nations will judge what other measures can be taken to further restrict the Russian economy, which has already been crippled by a wide-ranging series of trade and finance curbs. The government has not stopped Japanese companies from doing business in Russia, but the longer the war continues, the harder it will be to do business there.
Donald Trump called Russia's invasion "outrageous" and "genius" and defended his comments before the assault.
At a rally in Michigan, Trump said that he thought Putin was using a negotiating tactic in massing troops at the border. The forces invaded Ukraine in February.
The invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if I was in the White House, Trump said. That is a good thing. We didn't have a conflict, remember?
The president said that the Ukrainian forces are shifting their focus eastward, while maintaining control of the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.
He said in a video message that they were bolstering defense in east and in Donbas.
He said that Ukraine has not received enough modern anti-missile systems.
According to accounts by both sides, Russian strikes hit the oil refinery. The governor of the Poltava region said that the facility was shut down by the attack.
The facility supplied Ukrainian troops in the central and eastern parts of the country.
The governor said a Russian missile strike damaged an airfield. Missiles destroyed two Ukrainian airfields on Saturday.
David Arakhamia said peace talks with Russia could lead to direct contact between Zelenskiy and Putin.
Arakhamia said on Ukrainian television that the latest talks in Turkey confirmed that drafts of the documents are prepared enough to conduct direct consultations between the two leaders.
He said that the task was to prepare a final stage not of the draft, but of the issues that were touched upon.
In Irpin, a suburb of the capital that saw heavy fighting in early March, the mine-clearance units found 643 explosives.
The towns of Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel, and the entire Kyiv region are free from the invaders, according to the Ukrainian deputy defense minister.
There was no comment from Russia on the claim on the Facebook page that Russian troops were pulling out of positions north of the capital.
Russia offered this week to fundamentally cut back on military operations in northern Ukraine.
The next decisive battle will be in the Donbas where Russian units are regrouping and attempting to push UKR forces out. That’s the front to watch in the coming weeks. How this battle turns will probably inform Moscow's thinking on prospects in a sustained war. 4/
— Michael Kofman (@KofmanMichael) April 2, 2022
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that the situation in the off-limits highly radioactive zone around the site is "unclear." Ukrainian officials said that while Russian forces have left the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, the situation in the off-limits highly radioactive zone around the site
The director general of the IAEA said in a statement that Ukraine is examining the possibility of restarting regulatory control of the site.
The International Criminal Court should issue arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Kremlin officials, according to a former war crimes prosecutor.
Del Ponte is best known for investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, including those involving Slobodan Milosevic. She spoke to the newspaper.
She said that Putin is a war criminal.
With help from Ros Krasny.
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