Live blog: Sharp rise in civilian casualties in Ukraine in March — UN

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

1539 GMT — United Nations monitors have recorded a sharp increase in civilian casualties in Ukraine last month as Russian forces have stepped up attacks, the UN Human Rights Office said.

The toll included at least 57 children killed or injured in March, double the number from February, it said.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission had verified at least 604 civilians killed or injured in Ukraine in March, a 20 percent increase from February.

"The March increase in civilian casualties was mainly due to attacks by the Russian armed forces using missiles and loitering munitions across Ukraine and increased aerial bombardments near the frontline," the Rights Office said.

The mission found that most civilian casualties — 93.5 percent — as well as most damage to educational and health facilities and to critical infrastructure occurred in government-controlled areas.

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1558 GMT — Zelenskyy inspects fortifications around Kharkiv amid Russian attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has inspected recently dug defensive fortifications in the northeastern Kharkiv region and issued his latest call for military aid as Russia intensified its aerial attacks on the area.

In a sign of the pressure Moscow is exerting on the region, Russia fired a guided bomb at the city of Kharkiv just as Zelenskyy announced his visit. It injured at least three people, the mayor said.

"Kharkiv region is a very important area. We have to be prepared. And the Russians must see that we are ready to defend ourselves," Zelensky said on Telegram.

He posted a video showing him talking to troops and walking through a trench as excavators dug. "Russian terrorists must see the reinforcement of the Kharkiv region," he commented.

1547 GMT — US seeing technologies to support Russia coming from China, elsewhere: Blinken

The US is seeing technologies to support Russia's defence industrial base flowing from North Korea, Iran and China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said on Tuesday, adding that it is an area of particular concern for Washington and its allies in Europe.

Blinken, speaking to reporters after a meeting with British Foreign Minister David Cameron at the State Department, said he discussed with his counterpart ways to prevent the transfers of weapons and material to Russia for use in Ukraine.

1449 GMT — Trump, UK's Cameron discuss NATO defence spending in Florida meeting

Donald Trump and British Foreign Minister David Cameron have had dinner at the Republican presidential candidate's Florida home, where they discussed "the need for NATO countries to meet their defence spending requirements," Trump's campaign said in a statement.

The two also discussed "the upcoming U.S. and UK elections, policy matters specific to Brexit ... and ending the killing in Ukraine," the statement said.

1416 GMT — EU's Borrell warns of high-intensity, conventional war in Europe

Saying that war is "certainly looming around us," the EU foreign policy chief has warned that Europe must prepare for a potential high-intensity war, and perhaps without the US by its side.

"The possibility of a high-intensity, conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy," Josep Borrell said at an event in Brussels, the de facto EU capital.

Saying that "Russia threatens Europe" via both its war in Ukraine and hybrid attacks on EU states, he said: "War is certainly looming around us."

"We have to do everything to avoid it," said Borrell, adding they need to have the means to do so.

1404 GMT — Russia opens 'financing terrorism' probe implicating Western countries

Russia has opened a probe into financing terrorism that implicates Western countries, saying funds received by US firms in Ukraine — including one that employed Joe Biden's son — were used for terrorism acts in Russia.

The announcement came with Moscow continuing to blame the West and Ukraine for the attack on a concert hall last month that left 144 dead.

1403 GMT — Russia says Ukraine struck nuclear plant again, Kiev denies attack

Russia said on Tuesday that Ukraine attacked the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant for a third day with a drone but Ukrainian military intelligence denied that Kyiv had anything to do with the attacks.

Ukraine has denied it is behind a series of drone attacks on the plant over the past three days, including three drone attacks on Sunday, which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said had endangered nuclear safety.

"The unique training center of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was attacked," the Russian-controlled plant said in a statement.

The drone fell on the roof of the training centre, it said. No one was injured.

1343 GMT — Russia not been invited to Ukraine summit in Switzerland

Switzerland has not invited Russia to the summit on Ukraine it plans to host, and Moscow will not participate, the RIA news agency cited the Russian embassy in Switzerland as saying.

1227 GMT — Russia says Ukrainian energy firm Burisma financed 'terrorist' attacks

Russia's state investigative committee has said that money flowing through Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma had been used to finance "terrorist attacks" and assassinations in Russia and other countries in recent years.

Burisma was dissolved last year.

It has in the past attracted attention as Hunter Biden, the son of American president Joe Biden, was a board member.

1227 GMT — US transfers seized weapons from Iran to aid Ukraine

Washington has given Ukraine small arms and ammunition that were seized while being sent from Iranian forces to Houthis in Yemen, the US military said.

"The US government transferred over 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPG-7s and over 500,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces" on Thursday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on social media.

"These weapons will help Ukraine defend against Russia's invasion" and are enough material to equip a brigade, it said.

The arms and ammunition were seized between May 2021 and February 2023 from four "stateless vessels" as the supplies were being transferred from Iran's Revolutionary Guards to Yemen's Houthis, CENTCOM said.

1203 GMT — Russia, China vow to strengthen strategic cooperation

Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov has met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing to discuss a host of regional and global issues, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, state media said.

Lavrov arrived in China for a two-day official visit on Monday, with the two countries looking to strengthen bilateral ties and strategic cooperation.

The two sides agreed to discuss ways to deepen security cooperation across Europe and Asia to counter US attempts “to impose its will on the region.” Lavrov told a news conference after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported.

1205 GMT — Two killed by shelling in Russia's Bryansk region, governor says

A woman and a child have been killed when Ukrainian forces shelled the village of Klimovo in Russia's Bryansk region, governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

1203 GMT — IAEA says status of Ukrainian nuclear plant occupied by Russia is 'extremely serious'

An explosion caused by an alleged drone attack at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine posed no direct threat to its safety but underscored the “extremely serious situation” at the facility that repeatedly has been caught in the war's crossfire, the UN’s atomic watchdog agency has said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said its team was aware of an explosion at a training centre next to the plant. It said it was “informed” the blast was from a drone attack.

The IAEA, announcing the incident on the social platform X, gave no further details but its information presumably came from Russians occupying and running the plant since the early stages of the war.

1043 GMT — Polish support for accepting refugees from Ukraine down by a third since war started

About 60 percent of Poles believe Poland should accept refugees from Ukraine, according to a CBOS survey, a share much lower than at the beginning of the Russian war over two years ago.

The CBOS survey, done on March 7-17, asked whether Poland should accept Ukrainian refugees. Some 61 percent of respondents said yes (17 percent chose the option "definitely yes" and 44 percent "probably yes").

Some 31 percent of Poles are against accepting refugees from Ukraine (19 percent "rather not," 12 percent "definitely not"), while 8 percent have no opinion.

In March 2022, weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine, 94 percent supported accepting refugees.

1038 GMT — West failing to give Ukraine air defences it needs: EU's Borrell

Ukraine's Western backers are failing to give Ukraine the air defence systems it desperately needs to protect itself from Russian bombardments, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

Borrell said Kiev was asking its allies to urgently send seven Patriot missile systems to help counter Russian attacks.

"It would be inconceivable that we are not able to provide them given that the Western armies have about 100 batteries of Patriot. And still, we are not able to provide the seven they are asking desperately," Borrell said.

Borrell said he would press European Union foreign and defence ministers again to come up with more air defences for Kiev, when they meet in Luxembourg later this month.

1014 GMT — Three killed by shelling in Russian-held part of Kherson region, official says

Three people have been killed in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's southern Kherson region by Ukrainian shelling on Monday, the Russian-installed regional head Vladimir Saldo said.

0720 GMT — China supports holding conference between Russia, Ukraine: FM

China supports the holding of a timely conference between Russia and Ukraine, which will recognise equal participation of all parties and discuss all peace proposals on an equal footing, the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Foreign Minister Wang Yi as saying.

Wang made the remarks in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Beijing, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press briefing.

0425 GMT — Russia says it destroys Ukraine anti-ship missile, downs four drones

A Ukraine-launched, anti-ship Neptune missile was destroyed over the Black Sea, and four drones were downed over the Belgorod and Voronezh regions, the Russian Ministry of Defence has said.

"Duty air defence systems destroyed four Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territories of the Belgorod (2 UAVs) and Voronezh (2 UAVs) regions, and (the Neptune) Ukrainian missile was destroyed over the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula," the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

0342 GMT — Ukraine says it destroys all 20 drones launched by Russia

Ukraine's air defence systems destroyed all 20 attack drones that Russia launched targetting Ukraine, Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk has said.

The drones were destroyed over the Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Vinnytsia and Lviv regions, Oleshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app.

He added that Russia also launched four missiles from the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, but he did not say what happened to those missiles.

0024 GMT — UK's Cameron to meet Blinken, press US Congress on Ukraine aid

British Foreign Minister David Cameron will meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his US trip and press lawmakers in Congress to pass an aid package for Ukraine.

Last week, Cameron said he would see Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and urge him to pass a $60 billion package of military aid for Ukraine, which he had held up for months.

"Success for Ukraine and failure for Putin are vital for American and European security," Cameron said in a statement, saying it was important to demonstrate to Russian President Vladimir Putin that "aggression doesn't pay."

"The alternative would only encourage Putin in further attempts to re-draw European borders by force and would be heard clearly in Beijing, Tehran and North Korea."

2242 GMT — EU agrees tougher restrictions on Ukraine farm imports

EU states and the European Parliament agreed on tougher restrictions on some Ukraine farm imports, European Union presidency holder Belgium said.

The accord extends the duty-free access the bloc has given to Ukrainian agricultural goods since Russia's 2022 invasion, but sets caps for poultry, eggs, sugar, maise, groats and honey to average volumes seen between mid-2021 and end-2023.

No cap was applied to wheat, which countries such as France and Poland had initially argued for.

Lawmakers are eyeing June elections that will usher in a new parliament. Many, especially conservatives and on the far-right, are keen to show European farmers that they are in their corner.

2126 GMT — US Republicans urge Ukraine aid vote after 'Russian propaganda' warnings

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has added his voice to growing calls from prominent Republicans to pass billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, after some party members accused aid opponents of succumbing to Russian propaganda.

Pompeo, a former House member, issued a public letter urging Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to bring up the bill in the House.

"We encourage you to lead with conviction and bring the aid package to a vote," Pompeo said in a letter written with John Walter, president of the Hudson Institute, where Pompeo is a fellow.

Representative Michael McCaul, who leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News last week: "Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected a good chunk of my party's base."

And on Sunday, Representative Mike Turner, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN's "State of the Union" McCaul's contention was "absolutely true."

Turner said: "We see directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor."

For our live updates from Monday, April 8, click here.