April 1, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Director-General of IAEA Rafael Grossi

Beginning next week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will start assisting Ukraine in preserving the safety of nuclear installations, including Chernobyl, Director-General of IAEA Rafael Grossi told CNN.

Returning from a trip to Ukraine and Russia, where he visited the closest nuclear reactors to the war zone, Grossi said the operations continue in a “satisfactory way.”

An attack on a nuclear reactor is “not a probable scenario,” and “nuclear facilities have not been targeted,” he said Friday.

The Director-General said there was an occurrence in sight of a nuclear reactor, which was “quite concerning,” adding it was an exchange of fire, probably shelling, that targeted an administrative building. 

On the reports of Russian troops being exposed to radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, Grossi said the agency has contacted its Russian counterparts for more information.

“In general terms, I would say that the radiation levels around the Chernobyl site are low. At the beginning when the Russian troops occupied the site because of the movement of heavy armored vehicles approaching the site, some areas, the moving of the ground released some radiation there, and there was a slight increase in the levels,” he said.

“It is probably that the same thing happened when the same vehicles or similar ones were on their way out, that there was dust in the air that contained some radiation that was lying on the ground,” he added.

While Ukrainian forces have been able to retake Irpin from the Russians, the city outside Kyiv has been left in ruins.

According to local authorities, around 50% of the critical infrastructure was destroyed.

Officials are now in the process of recovering bodies of those killed in previous weeks.

“Some have been laying in the streets for weeks and can only now be removed,” CNN’s Fred Pleitgen reported.

Read more about CNN’s reporting from Irpin here and watch video from the scene below:

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03:35 - Source: cnn

Russia’s economy is getting devastated by Western sanctions and the ruble’s swift recovery has only been made possible by Moscow’s efforts to prop the currency up, a senior official of the US Department of the Treasury said Friday.

The comments come after some argued the rapid recovery of the ruble from its initial crash is a sign that Western sanctions have not gone far enough to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

During a call with reporters, the senior Treasury official said Russia’s economy is plunging into recession and getting crushed by crippling inflation.

Although the ruble has bounced back to pre-invasion levels, the Treasury official argued the currency’s purchasing power has been decimated by skyrocketing prices in Russia.

As CNN has previously reported, officials in Russia have sought to prop the ruble up, in part by ordering exporters to swap 80% of their foreign currency revenue for rubles, banning Russian brokers from selling securities, forbidding Russian residents from making bank transfers outside of Russia and other steps. The steps have artificially boosted demand for the ruble.

In a sign of the ruble’s underlying weakness, a black market has emerged in recent weeks for the exchange of the ruble for foreign currency, the senior Treasury official said, adding that the ruble is significantly depreciated in this black market. 

Smoke billows from a damaged oil refinery in Belgorod, Russia, on April 1.

Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, declined to comment on Russian allegations of a strike by Ukrainian helicopters on a fuel base in the southern Russian city of Belgorod.  

“I would like to emphasize that Ukraine is performing a defensive operation against Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine,” he said in a televised statement Friday. “That doesn’t mean Ukraine has to be responsible for every miscalculation or event or catastrophe that occurred on the territory of the Russian Federation. This is not the first time we are witnessing such accusations. Therefore, I will neither confirm nor deny this information.” 

A fire broke out at a fuel depot in Belgorod, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel Friday morning. He accused Ukraine of being behind the blaze without providing further evidence.

CNN is unable to verify this claim. 

About 16,000 cubic meters (3.52 million gallons) of fuel are on fire at the depot, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing the Russian emergency services ministry. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday that two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters carried out an attack on a fuel storage facility in southern Russia.

“On April 1, at about 5:00 a.m. Moscow time, two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters entered the airspace of the Russian Federation at extremely low altitude. Ukrainian helicopters launched a missile attack on a civilian oil storage facility located on the outskirts of Belgorod. As a result of the missile hit, individual tanks were damaged and caught fire,” Russian MOD spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

Konashenkov added that “only civil transport was supplied with fuel from this facility. The tank farm has nothing to do with the Russian armed forces.”

Russian energy giant Gazprom announced Friday it has separated from its German subsidiary Gazprom Germania, the company said in a statement.

“On March 31, the Gazprom Group terminated its participation in the German company GAZPROM Germania GmbH and all its assets, including Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd.,” Gazprom said via its telegram channel.

Gazprom Germania will provide a comment on the matter on Monday, an employee told CNN.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which is the country’s utility regulatory office said on its website that “gas supply is stable in Germany” and that “no disturbances of gas deliveries to Germany were recorded. The operators of the gas networks do not report any extraordinary events.”

Filling levels are comparable to those of 2021 and 2017, according to the statement. 

Germany issued an “early warning” of possible natural gas shortages on Wednesday over a payments dispute with Russia that could lead to energy rationing in Europe’s biggest economy.

Moscow said last week that it wanted to be paid in rubles, rather than US dollars or euros as per existing gas supply contracts, and threatened to cut off supplies if that didn’t happen. The Kremlin’s demand has been rejected by Germany and the G7 group of leading developed economies.

The German government said Wednesday that the country had enough gas for now, but it urged all consumers — from companies to hospitals and households — to reduce their use as far as possible with immediate effect.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told CNN that the responsibility for ending the war in Ukraine lays firmly at the feet of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It’s in Putin’s hands. He’s the one who started the war without any reason. It is now his responsibility to end the war,” Baerbock told CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview. 

“The brutal reality is that Putin himself has chosen … to fight a war against civilians and to fight a war against the European peace order,” she said. 

Germany has approved the delivery of 56 type Pbv 501 combat tanks to Ukraine, according to a German defense ministry spokesperson Friday. Germany’s increased defense spending has marked a historic shift in the country’s foreign policy. 

Baerbock said that Germany is offering increased military assistance to the Ukrainian government as “we are in situation where NATO is standing there in solidarity with Ukraine and on the other hand, there is Russia which has made clear that there is no red lines for themselves.”

“We had to change our course in Germany by 180 degrees because Ukraine needed our military support; we tried everything to avoid this war, but it was Putin’s decision to do the opposite and that’s why now we are also delivering weapons to Ukraine,” she said.

The foreign minister said that sanctions have been effective in leaving Putin “totally isolated,” but said that there are still strong energy links between Russia and Europe that needed severing. “The question we are raising about fossil fuels, oil, and energy, Europe is connected with Russia. Therefore we are working every day to phase out our fossil fuel dependency on Russia,” she told CNN. 

When asked by Amanpour as to what Putin is saying in diplomatic talks, Baerbock stated that the Russian president had “entered into this war with a false narrative, with lies. … This wrong narrative he has been telling to the world is obviously also something he believes himself.”

“When my chancellor, when others like the president of France are speaking to Putin, obviously they are telling him that he started this war with lies, that he broke with international law… but he is obviously not listening to my chancellor, and to other international partners,” she said.

“The few people that are left behind him or around him who can actually speak to him do not dare to tell him the truth about the reality in Ukraine, that his troops are not being as successful as they obviously thought in the past,” she added. 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced Friday following an emergency meeting that its member countries will release additional oil from emergency reserves to cushion the blow caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, the IEA did not disclose key details on the size and timing of this additional emergency action, which would be in addition to the historic released announced by the White House on Thursday. 

The IEA said details will be made public early next week. The latest steps from the IEA mark just the fifth time in the agency’s history that it has coordinated a release of emergency stockpiles. 

In a statement, the IEA said energy ministers from its 31 member countries “reiterate their concerns about the energy security impacts of the egregious actions by Russia and voiced support for sanctions imposed by the international community in response.”

IEA members include the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia.

More background: After announcing a record release of 180 million barrels of oil, US President Joe Biden said Thursday other countries could release as many as 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil. That would be in addition to the historic US release.

“The higher the number, the more likely the prices come down,” Biden told reporters.

In early March, the IEA announced the coordinated release of 60 million barrels from emergency reserves of member nations, including 30 million from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

In addition to the reserve releases, the IEA said its governing board recommends governments and consumers “maintain and intensify conservation efforts and energy savings.”

Russia exports about 5 million barrels a day of crude oil, representing roughly 12% of global trade, according to the IEA.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would like to bring him together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Turkish Presidency said. 

Erdoğan underlined the importance of “acting with common sense and maintaining dialogue,” according to a statement. 

“President Erdoğan expressed Turkey’s desire to crown the peace efforts by bringing together President Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine,” it continued.

“President Putin of Russia for his part thanked President Erdoğan for having hosted the meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian negotiation delegations in Istanbul,” the statement added. 

The Russian assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, may have abated for now, but fighting still rages in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, amid signs that it will become the focus of the war in coming weeks.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden said of Russian leader Vladimir Putin that “thus far there is no clear evidence that he’s pulling all of his forces out of Kyiv. There’s also evidence that he is beefing up his troops down in the Donbas area.”

And later that same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned citizens of tough times ahead in the east, saying that in “Donbas, Mariupol, in the Kharkiv direction, Russian troops are accumulating the potential for strikes. Powerful blows. We will defend ourselves.”

“The situation in the southern direction and in the Donbas remains extremely difficult,” Zelensky added. It was the second time in 24 hours he had warned of an expanding Russian offensive in Donbas.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also expects Donbas to become pivotal. “Russia is trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas region,” he said Thursday.

An analysis of what’s happening on the ground in eastern Ukraine supports this view, with Russian armor and artillery intensifying their attacks, and yet more Ukrainian civilians fleeing westwards. The Russian offensive is being conducted in several directions simultaneously.

When Putin announced the invasion on Feb. 24, he claimed the goal of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” was the liberation of Donbas from neo-Nazis and the protection of its people from alleged “genocide” by the Ukrainian authorities.

The Russian campaign since has been a smorgasbord of operations that have included a stuttering ground offensive and hugely destructive missile and artillery fire, and its ultimate goals are still difficult to divine. But the focus of Russia’s military effort — and rhetoric — has recently shifted to the south and east of Ukraine.

Continue reading the analysis here:

TOPSHOT - A Ukrainian serviceman smokes a cigaret in a trench at the front line east of Kharkiv on March 31, 2022. - Russian forces are repositioning in Ukraine to strengthen their offensive on the Donbass, Nato said on March 31, 2022, on the 36th day of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as shelling continues in Kharkiv (north) and Mariupol (south). (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP) (Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Russia may be intensifying its assault in eastern Ukraine. Here's what that means

As Ukrainian refugees continue to cross into neighboring European countries, the need for food only mounts.

DC-based chef David Guas is volunteering with World Central Kitchen in Poland, where a massive operation is helping to fill plates and stomachs.

Guas and those alongside him are working 12-hour days, constantly focusing on feeding incoming refugees.

“We’re doing volume like I’ve never seen before. Our day starts between 7 and 7:30 … usually we’re leaving around 8 p.m., or 8:30. And we’ve done that every day since I’ve been in town,” he said. “So it’s not really any end in sight because like, you know, everybody keeps coming over and we want to make sure they have a hot meal.” 

Part of the focus of the World Central Kitchen is to not only feed displaced Ukrainians, but to make certain the meals make sense, and offer a taste of home.

“We’re attempting to cook the local cuisine as best we can. I’m sure there’s plenty of people that would think otherwise, in the sense of getting it exact right,” Guas joked. “We’re doing a lot of borscht and a lot of beets, amazing vegetables, a lot of vegetables, a lot of beef, just heavy stews with a lot of nourishment. Rice, potatoes, bulgar wheat, you name it, and we’re doing it.”

European Council President Charles Michel, left, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, speak with China's President Xi Jinping via video-conference during a EU China summit at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, on April 1.

President of the European Council Charles Michel said China “cannot turn a blind eye to Russia’s violations of international law” after a virtual summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. 

The EU and China agreed that “this war is threatening global security and the world economy,” Michel said.

The European Union would welcome positive steps by China to help end the war between Russia and Ukraine, European Council President Charles Michel also told reporters in Brussels on Friday.

“We will remain vigilant to any attempt to help Russia financially or militarily” and circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Michel said, “but any move on China to help end the war will be welcomed.” 

“We had the chance to explain the EU’s position, to call on China to act, to commit to participating actively in all efforts which are being made to restore peace and stability,” he added.  

Michel made the comments following a virtual summit with Chinese officials held alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Both EU leaders “made very clear China should not interfere with (EU) sanctions,” von der Leyen added.

Von der Leyen said that a “very open and frank exchange” was had with Xi.

“China as a permanent member of the UN Security Council has a very special responsibility,” she said. “This is what we discussed in a very frank and open manner. We the EU are determined to support the multilateral order.”

“The fact that no European citizen would understand any support to Russia’s ability to wage war” was also discussed, per von der Leyen. “Moreover, it would lead to a major reputational damage for China here in Europe.”

The director of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant said it was impossible to determine the degree of radiation Russian troops were exposed to while occupying the territory. 

In a statement on the Telegram channel of Energoatom, the state-owned operator of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, Chernobyl director Valery Seida said, “On the territory of the station itself, the occupiers did not dig anything, but the thick dust raised by passing vehicles and the radiation particles in it may have entered the body of rashists [racist-fascists, a Ukrainian slur for Russian troops] through the lungs.”

It was unclear what Russian troops were doing in the so-called “Red Forest,” a contaminated area, and it is possible they could have received significant radiation exposure when digging or entrenching there, according to the statement.

“At the same time, all the staff who were at the station during this period did not receive radiation, because people worked, albeit under great pressure, on a regular basis,” Seida said.

Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, fell into the hands of Russian troops in the first week of the war in Ukraine. Energoatom said Thursday that Russian forces had withdrawn from the plant and its territory.

Germany has approved the delivery of 56 infantry fighting vehicles of type Pbv 501 to Ukraine a German Defense Ministry spokesperson told CNN Friday.

The armored vehicles are stemming from the Cold War era East German army and had been sold to Sweden, then resold to the Czech Republic who will deliver them to Ukraine, according to the ministry. 

According to the German war weapons control act, the Federal Security Council must approve of the export of weapons that originated from Germany at any time.

Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly described the type of vehicle that Germany has approved the delivery of to Ukraine. Germany plans to send infantry fighting vehicles.

Members of the Bundeswehr help to register arriving Ukrainian refugees at an aid center on March 25, in Berlin, Germany.

Nearly 300,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine have arrived in Germany, according to the German Ministry of the Interior.

As of Friday, 294,508 refugees had been registered by German police. 

The actual number of incoming refugees could be significantly higher due to the absence of border checks between Poland and Germany, an interior ministry spokesperson told CNN. The majority of refugees arriving in Germany are women, children and elderly people, the spokesperson said.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi is seen at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on March 7.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Mariano Grossi said Friday he will head a mission to the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

What we know: Grossi said the IAEA has an agreed framework with Ukraine and Russia to assist in the safety and security of the nuclear plants in Ukraine.

Grossi told reporters in Vienna Friday that the IAEA has delivered some equipment to Ukraine and has discussed sending staff to assist Ukrainian authorities. 

“We agreed to have a rapid assistance mechanism” in case a situation takes place, Grossi said. “We are setting up a mechanism whereby we could be sending a team to assess and to assist almost immediately.”

Estonia has proposed that part of energy payments to Russia be put aside to pay for the costs of Ukraine’s recovery, the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Eva-Maria Liimets told journalists on Friday. 

“Russia must be held accountable for the devastating destruction they have caused and the war crimes they have committed in Ukraine,” she said, speaking alongside her French, Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts in Tallinn, Estonia.

Liimets added that assets frozen as part of sanctions against Russia could also be used “as a source of recovery funds for Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.”

“The NATO-Russia founding act is obsolete,” she added, calling for a “long-term containment policy,” regarding Russia and a continued policy of non-recognition of Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the details of new European Union sanctions against Russia would be decided “in the coming days,” with the aim to “force Putin to put an end to this crazy aggression.”

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs added that “a permanent (NATO) forward defense needs to be considered and agreed” upon at the next NATO summit in June 2022. He said the EU should consider “other commodities” beyond the energy sector that the bloc should explore for sanctions against Russia.

Some background: Europe — which gets about 40% of its natural gas from Russia — has recently been making efforts to reduce its reliance on Russian oil and gas.

US President Joe Biden announced a joint task force alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on March 25, which would include the United States supplying Europe with at least 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas in 2022, in partnership with other nations, the White House said.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an ultimatum to “unfriendly” nations to pay for their energy in rubles starting April 1 or risk being cut off from vital supplies. 

While the Kremlin today said that Russia will not immediately cut off gas supplies under the new decree, his high-stakes threat still sent shockwaves through Europe, which would struggle to keep its economy running for long without Russian energy.

CNN’s Mark Thompson contributed reporting to this post.

Around 2,000 civilians are now on buses heading from the coastal city of Berdyansk to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia, carrying civilians evacuating from the besieged port of Mariupol. 

CNN is at the hub in Zaporizhzhia where the evacuees will arrive and then be processed.

“The evacuation convoy left Berdyansk for Zaporizhzhia,” Mariupol city council said in a statement on Telegram. “Many private vehicles have joined the 42 buses escorted by Red Cross and SES (State Emergency Service) vehicles. Today we expect the arrival of a record number of Mariupol residents.” 

More than 100,000 residents remain trapped in the southern port city, according to officials.

The hub in Zaporizhzhia where the evacuees will be processed.

Refugees from Ukraine queue to file for residency permits at the regional assistance centre for refugees in Prague's Congress Centre in Prague, Czech Republic, on March 7.

The Czech Republic has seen more than a quarter of a million Ukrainian refugees apply for special long-term visas since the start of the Russian invasion, according to the Czech Ministry of the Interior.

A total of 251,713 Ukrainians have applied to stay in the country since late February, according to the latest ministry figures released Thursday.

On Thursday, 2,909 refugees registered with Czech authorities. That number dropped below the seven-day average of 3,554 arrivals per day.

As Ukrainians do not require visas for entry to the Czech Republic, the number of refugees in the country is likely to be considerably higher, a Czech Ministry of Interior press officer told CNN.

A column of buses evacuating civilians from the Russian-held city of Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia had departed Friday, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

“About 500 people are on buses departing from Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia,” Tymoshenko said on Telegram. “About 300 private cars joined the evacuation column.”

Fedorov said more than 1,000 people had assembled near an exit point to wait for the evacuation.

“I assure those thousands of Melitopol residents who wanted to, but for various reasons could not evacuate today, our team will not stop!” he said. “We are already forming another humanitarian convoy, which will soon deliver the necessary aid to Melitopol and pick up people from the city on the way back.”

The conflict following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has now entered its sixth week. Here are the latest developments:

Blaze at a fuel depot: A huge fire has broken out at a fuel depot in Belgorod, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, and Russia says an air strike from Ukrainian helicopters is to blame. CNN is so far unable to verify this claim and the Ukrainian defense ministry told CNN it has no information about the incident. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday that the purported strike could have a potential negative impact on negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow. Talks between the two nations are due to resume Friday.

Mariupol evacuations: Around 2,000 civilians are on buses heading from the coastal city of Berdyansk to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia, carrying civilians evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol. CNN is at the hub in Zaporizhzhia where the people will be processed. More than 100,000 civilians remain trapped in Mariupol, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Death toll: At least 153 children have been killed since the Russian invasion began five week ago and 245 children have been injured, Ukrainian officials said Friday. Bombing and shelling have also damaged 859 educational institutions, including 83 that have been destroyed, they said.

EU-China Summit: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will meet with European Union leaders in an online summit on Friday, and the war in Ukraine will be a “main focus” of the summit, the European Council said. China continues to face pressure to condemn the Russian invasion.

Heavy shelling continues: Ukrainian officials have continued to report heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine on Friday, particularly in the Luhansk region of the Donbas amid an apparent shift by Russia to redirect military efforts to the region. NATO’s chief has warned Russian forces are repositioning rather than withdrawing, while Ukrainian and US officials say say Russians may be regrouping in Belarus.

Russia says it won’t start cutting gas supply to “unfriendly countries” immediately under a new decree requiring payment to be made in rubles from April 1. 

Peskov said that payments for deliveries made today are not due until the end of April or beginning of May. 

“But once again, I repeat that for the nuances, it is better to contact Gazprom,” Peskov said.

According to the new decree published yesterday, Gazprombank would open accounts in the name of Western gas buyers, convert their euros or dollars and then deposit the rubles into another account which would then be used to pay Gazprom.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted Thursday that Berlin will make payments for Russian gas only in euros. “We have looked at the contracts on gas delivery and other deliveries. [The contracts state] that payments are to be made in euros, sometimes in US dollars, but mostly in euros. And I made clear in my conversation with the Russian President that this will remain as it is,” Scholz said in Berlin during a joint news conference with his Austrian counterpart Karl Nehammer.

The EU’s Economics Commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, told CNN’s Richard Quest on Thursday that this “is an attempt to circumvent European sanctions and to blackmail the European Union.”

Responding to a question, Peskov told reporters Friday that the decision to sell gas for rubles could be reversed in the future but for now the ruble is Russia’s preferred option.

“Absolutely. If other conditions come up. In this case, there is nothing concrete reinforced, but in the current conditions, the ruble is a more preferable and reliable option for us,” he said.

The mayor of Chernihiv Vladyslav Atroshenko talks to CNN on April 1.

The mayor of Chernihiv said that Russian shelling destroyed the oncology ward of a hospital in the northern Ukrainian city, just days after Russia said it would “drastically reduce” its military assault on Kyiv and Chernihiv.

“Some shells hit the regional hospital direct, and one of the buildings of the hospital, in fact the oncological unit, was completely destroyed. Three people sustained heavy injuries,” Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko told CNN’s John Berman via a translator.

He also said there is no water or electricity, and the city could run out of food and medicine within a week. The only supplies coming in are being provided by the military and volunteers.

“At the moment, we are going through full humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.

He himself caught an acute case of pneumonia, he said, but added that he’ll “be fine.”

A still image taken from video footage shows a fuel depot on fire in the city of Belgorod, Russia, on April 1.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday that a purported strike by Ukrainian helicopters on a fuel depot in the southern Russian city of Belgorod could have a potential negative impact on negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.

A fire broke out at a fuel depot in Belgorod, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, the regional governor said on his Telegram channel Friday morning.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod region, accused Ukraine of being behind the blaze without providing further evidence. CNN has not been able to verify this claim.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense told CNN it had no information about the incident. 

Belgorod is close to the northeastern Ukraine-Russia border, beyond which lies the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The Belgorod area was used as a staging ground for Russian before the invasion.

French President's wife Brigitte Macron, center, meets three Ukrainian refugee children in a school in Epinay-sur-Seine, north of Paris, France, on March 15.

French schools have enrolled 6,783 children from Ukraine since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, according to figures released by the French education ministry on Friday.

The children are attending schools spread across every region of mainland France and Corsica, according to the ministry data.

About 61% of the children are age 11 or under, with one in five between ages three and six.

More than 30,000 refugees arrived in France from Ukraine between Feb. 24 and March 25, according to the latest French interior ministry figures. 97% of those refugees were Ukrainian citizens.

Some background: The news comes a day after UNICEF said that two million children have now been forced to flee Ukraine.

More than 1.1 million have arrived in Poland alone, with hundreds of thousands in nearby countries of Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

UNICEF warned of a heightened risk of exploitation and trafficking for children fleeing violence. In an effort to quell those risks, the UN agency is scaling up “Blue Dots,” which are one-stop safe spaces for traveling families. 

More than 100 children have been killed in the conflict, UNICEF added, with more than 130 injured. 

And over 2.5 million children have been internally displaced within Ukraine, according to UNICEF.

CNN’s Richard Roth contributed reporting to this post.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday it is sending humanitarian aid from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol in the form of “three cars and nine staff members.”

Speaking at a virtual United Nations briefing on Ukraine, ICRC spokesperson Ewan Watson said the teams traveling from Zaporizhzhia are hoping to “assist with the safe passage operation” but added that “this effort has been and remained extremely complex,” with a full plan not “yet in place to ensure that this happens in a safe manner.”

“Today, we remain hopeful we are an action moving towards Mariupol. That is obviously a good thing, but it’s not yet clear that this will happen today,” Watson said.

“If and when it does happen, the ICRC his role as a neutral intermediary will be to lead the convoy out from many of Mariupol to another city in Ukraine. We’re unable to confirm which city at the moment as this is something the parties must agree to. The latest information we have is that there will be potentially 54 buses, and we can expect many other civilian vehicles,” Watson added.

Watson reiterated that the evacuation from Mariupol – expected to include thousands of people – can only take place if specific criteria are fulfilled.

“The details that we insist on cemented in place include the exact safe passage route, its exact start time, and its duration. We have to be certain that the ceasefire holds of course we have to be certain that this humanitarian convoy can safely move through military checkpoints,” Watson said.

Local residents walk past a destroyed apartment building in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 31.

Watson went on to address the horrors seen in this conflict in Ukraine, particularly in Mariupol, while stressing the importance that “people be allowed to leave and aid supplied allowed in.” 

“The people of Mariupol have suffered weeks of heavy fighting with dwindling water, food and medical supplies,” Watson added.

Some background: Residents in the southern port city face a worsening humanitarian situation amid Russian airstrikes, weeks of shelling by Russian forces, and stifled evacuation efforts.

Statistics released by Ukrainian officials on Sunday paint a grim picture of what has come from weeks of destruction in Mariupol.

Some 90% of residential buildings in the city were damaged, the data shows. Of those, 60% were hit directly and 40% were destroyed.

Seven of the city’s hospitals – 90% of its hospital capacity – were damaged, of which three were destroyed. Also damaged were three maternity hospitals (one destroyed), seven institutes of higher education (three destroyed), and 57 schools and 70 kindergartens, with 23 and 28 destroyed, respectively.

A number of factories were damaged and the city’s port sustained damage.

According to those official statistics, up to 140,000 people left the city before it was surrounded, and around 150,000 managed to leave during the blockade. Ukrainian officials claim 30,000 people from Mariupol were deported to Russia.

CNN’s Nathan Hodge and Julia Presniakova contributed reporting to this post.

A screen grab captured from a video shows firefighters responding to a fire at a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod on April 1.

A fire broke out at a fuel depot in Belgorod, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, the regional governor said on his Telegram channel Friday morning.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod region, accused Ukraine of being behind the blaze without providing further evidence.

CNN is unable to verify this claim. 

The fire “engulfed fuel reservoirs,” Russian state media TASS reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

A still image taken from video footage shows a fuel depot on fire in the city of Belgorod, Russia, on April 1.

Two employees of the depot were injured in the fire but their lives are not in danger, Gladkov said. Residents in the vicinity of the depot are being evacuated, he added.

The emergency services are at the scene fighting the fire, and there is no threat to the population of the city, Gladkov said.

Some 16,000 cubic meters (3.52 million gallons) of fuel are on fire at the depot, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing the emergency services. 

Eight tanks with 2,000 cubic meters of fuel each are on fire and there is a threat of the blaze spreading to another eight tanks, the emergency services said, according to RIA Novosti.

CNN has sought comment from Ukraine regarding reports of a purported strike by Ukrainian helicopters on the fuel storage facility in Belgorod.

Putin informed: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed about the fire.

“The president was informed about Belgorod,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “You know that the Ministry of Emergency Situations was sent there. Steps are being taken to re-organize fuel supply points so that what happened in no case affects the level of supply of all necessary types of fuel.”

The Russian military has claimed air superiority over Ukraine. 

“Air superiority during an operation is an absolute fact,” Peskov said. “And as for what happened, it probably should not be us giving out assessments, but our law enforcement agencies.”

On Wednesday, Gladkov said separate explosions at an ammunition dump in Belgorod region late Tuesday night may have occurred because of a fire, citing preliminary information.

Some context: Belgorod is close to the northeastern Ukraine-Russia border, beyond which lies the major Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The Belgorod area was used as a staging ground for Russian forces shortly before the invasion, and Kharkiv has since been relentlessly shelled and hit with missiles.

Video shows large fire at Russian fuel depot:

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00:18 - Source: cnn

Around 2,000 civilians are on evacuation buses heading from the coastal city of Berdyansk to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia, carrying civilians evacuating from the besieged city of Mariupol. 

“The evacuation convoy left Berdyansk for Zaporizhzhia,” Mariupol city council said in a statement on Telegram. “Many private vehicles have joined the 42 buses escorted by Red Cross and SES (State Emergency Service) vehicles. Today we expect the arrival of a record number of Mariupol residents.” 

Some background: Russia’s ministry of defense said in a statement on Thursday that the Russian military would reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders.

The ministry’s announcement came as Ukrainian officials said that humanitarian convoys ran into several issues on Thursday, including Russian troops confiscating aid and blocking buses.

Russian forces had confiscated 14 tons of humanitarian aid from buses bound for Melitopol in southern Ukraine, according to Ukranian minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Vereshchuk said the food and medication was loaded on 12 buses. She added that Russian forces also blocked 45 buses going to Berdyansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol, where about 100,000 civilians remained trapped.

CNN’s Nathan Hodge and Hira Humayun contributed reporting to this post.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for intensified military, financial and humanitarian support for Ukraine, while talking to reporters in Tallinn, Estonia.

“Russia must not hope to win,” Le Drian said. “The stakes for us are strategic.”

Le Drian said that France wants to show to partners “on every continent” that “because the Russian war in Ukraine is the negation of the principles and commitments that protect us all, it is everyone’s business.”

He also warned against trusting promises of a reduction in fighting, saying, “We can only judge acts and for the moment we are not there.”

He also reiterated calls for Europe to divest from Russian hydrocarbons.

“While we don’t all have the same dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, we will have the same interest in exiting them (in Europe).”

Le Drian has been on a tour of Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania since Wednesday. 

Some background: The minister’s comments come two days after he told CNN there has been little progress in Russia-Ukraine talks.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Le Drian said there was “nothing new” and “no breakthrough” in what has been discussed at negotiations in Istanbul.

He added that “the issues are still the same” and that Russian President Putin “still wishes to impose his diktat on Ukraine.”

Le Drian said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “wants some security guarantees to be given to his country and at the moment there is nothing like that in the discussion.” 

A girl injured in the conflict receives treatment at a regional children's hospital in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on March 22.

At least 153 children have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion five weeks ago, and more than 245 children have been injured, the country’s general prosecutor’s office said in news release Friday. 

Bombing and shelling have also damaged 859 educational institutions, including 83 that have been “completely destroyed,” according to the news release. 

The Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office said it is still working to establish the total number of child casualties in Mariupol as well as in some areas of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Luhansk regions.

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are seen before their meeting in New Delhi, India, on April 1.

Speaking on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov thanked India for “taking this situation in its entirety of facts” during a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.

“We appreciate that India is taking this situation in its entirety of facts, not just in a one-sided way,” Lavrov said at the conference in New Delhi on Friday.

“Our Western colleagues would like to reduce any meaningful international issue to the crisis in Ukraine, you know our position, we do not hide anything,” Lavrov added.

S. Jaishankar said the meeting was taking place “in a difficult international environment,” adding that India “has always been in favor of resolving differences and disputes through dialogue and diplomacy.”

Lavrov said economic matters and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic would also be on the agenda.

Some background: Lavrov’s meeting with S. Jaishankar came hot on the heels of his summit with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday.

Both India and China have been under pressure to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine as the death toll from the unprovoked conflict rises. They have refused to condemn Russia’s brutal invasion outright, and both abstained from voting on United Nations resolutions demanding Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine.

However, by the end of Lavrov’s first day in China, Beijing had made its stance clear. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said there is “no ceiling for China-Russia cooperation,” according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

Meanwhile, there has also been a flurry of diplomatic activity involving India recently. Earlier this month, leaders from Japan and Australia held summits with their Indian counterparts. Also this week, diplomats from Germany and the European Union are visiting Delhi.

And Lavrov’s trip coincides with the visits of Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and the United States’ Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics, Daleep Singh.

CNN’s Jessie Yeung contributed reporting to this post.

Local residents walk past a destroyed apartment building in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 31.

Russian forces have not allowed aid supplies to reach the besieged city of Mariupol, an adviser to the city’s mayor said Friday, and it remains exceptionally difficult for trapped residents to leave the city.

Some context: Ukrainian minister Iryna Vereshchuk said about 100,000 civilians remained trapped in the city, which has suffered weeks of bombardment. Russian forces also blocked 45 buses en route to Mariupol on Thursday, she added.

Russia said it will reopen the evacuation corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia at 10 a.m. Moscow time Friday at the request of French and German leaders, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. France said the evacuation corridor on Thursday was “insufficient” to allow rescue from Mariupol.

Several towns in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region have been hit by “heavy shelling” from Russian forces, the regional military governor said on Friday.

Some of the towns and cities struck include Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Lysychansk, Kreminna and Ivanivka, Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration said in a statement.

Ukrainian forces had also fought off attempts by Russian troops to bypass their positions near the settlements of Popasna and Novotoshkivske, Haidai said in a separate statement.

Some context: Ukrainian military governors in the country’s east also reported heavy shelling on Thursday amid an apparent shift by the Russian military to redirect military efforts to the Donbas region. Haidai said earlier this week efforts had been underway to evacuate civilians from small towns in his region, even without such agreements with the Russian side.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Russia is “trying to concentrate” missile systems in southeastern Belarus for potential use against Ukraine.

The assessment comes despite Russia’s recent claims of a de-escalation around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv.

Ukrainian forces are seeing Russian missile systems being sent near Gomel city in Belarus, Maliar said.

Asked if she expected to see continued missile strikes on Ukrainian territory, Maliar said, “We have to be ready for this. The war continues. And it should be said that the enemy is not slowing down. Rocket attacks, their intensity is all the same as it was, sometimes even increasing.”

Some context: NATO’s chief warned that Russian forces are not withdrawing, but are repositioning as they maintain pressure on Kyiv and other cities. Ukrainian and US officials have also said Russians may be regrouping in Belarus.

Western intelligence agencies are waging a psychological war over Ukraine directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an expert at the genre, who is now effectively taking a dose of his own medicine.

The United States and its allies are painting a picture of a bogged down, demoralized and dysfunctional Russian military taking disastrous losses on the battlefield, and are simultaneously conjuring a vision of growing political tension inside the Kremlin.

They claim the Russian leader is isolated, poorly advised and lacking real intelligence on just how badly the war is going.

Western governments are preventing Putin from defining the narrative of the war.

It is a tough position for a Russian leader who has often deployed information warfare himself, notably while meddling in US and European elections.

The remarkable detail of the declassified intelligence assessments must also be especially galling to Putin, a former KGB officer and intelligence chief. And they leave open the possibility that Western intelligence agencies have the capacity to see deep into the Kremlin’s war effort and internal politics, which is likely to infuriate the Russian leader and could open further cracks in his regime.

Read the full analysis here:

Russian President Vladimir Putin seen before the negotiations of leaders of states in Normandy format in Berlin. (Photo by Mykhaylo Palinchak / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Related article Analysis: Western spy agencies weaponize intelligence in attempt to undermine Putin

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives in New Delhi, India, on Thursday March 3.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — who arrived in New Delhi on Thursday — is set to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

A senior Indian government official familiar with preparations for the talks said Modi will reiterate and stress the need for a cessation of hostilities and sovereignty as inviolable.

Lavrov will also meet Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.

View from the US: Ahead of Lavrov’s visit to India, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that every country has its own relationship with Russia.

UK Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss also met with Jaishankar on Thursday, repeatedly pointing out how countries across the world have stepped up in denouncing Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Some context: India has declined to take a stance on the conflict in Ukraine and has abstained from multiple United Nations votes. India has welcomed several foreign leaders to the country this week with various discussions on Ukraine.

Read more about Lavrov’s visits to China and India here:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet in Tunxi, China.

Related article Analysis: Russian Foreign Minister visits China and India under shadow of Ukraine war

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivers an address to the Federal Budget Lunch in Sydney, Friday, April.

Australia will send locally produced armored vehicles to Ukraine after a request from President Volodymyr Zelensky, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.

Morrison did not say when or how many vehicles — known as Bushmasters — would be sent to Ukraine.

Zelensky appealed for the armored vehicles while speaking to Australia’s parliament via video link on Thursday, saying “we have to keep those who are fighting against this evil armed.”

Zelensky also called for further sanctions on Russia.

Some context: Australia has previously provided military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and also announced a ban on exports of alumina and aluminum ore to Russia. Russia relies on Australia for nearly 20% of its alumina needs, according to the Australian government.

Fourteen tons of food and medicine were confiscated by Russian forces along a humanitarian corridor on Thursday, a Ukrainian minister said, as focus remains on efforts to get aid in – and Ukrainians out – of bombarded areas.

Here are the latest developments in the war on Ukraine:

Russian forces said they will reopen the evacuation corridor from the besieged city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday. According to Ukrainian officials, the convoys ran into several issues on Thursday, including Russian troops confiscating aid and blocking buses.

Here’s what we know:

Aid confiscated, buses stopped:

Evacuations:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he removed two top Ukrainian generals, calling them “antiheroes” in his nightly address posted to social media on Thursday night.

The generals — former chief of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine, Naumov Andriy Olehovych, and the former head of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych — have been stripped of their rank.

Russian forces on Thursday confiscated 14 tons of humanitarian aid from buses bound for Melitopol in southern Ukraine, according to Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian minister of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

Vereshchuk said the food and medication was loaded on 12 buses.

Vereshchuk said 1,458 people reached Zaporizhzhia in their own cars on Thursday, with 631 of them escaping the besieged city of Mariupol and 827 coming from Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Polohy, Huliapole and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian forces also blocked 45 buses going to Berdiansk on Thursday en route to Mariupol, she added.

Russia will reopen the evacuation corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday at the request of French and German leaders, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Russian forces have withdrawn from Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, the state enterprise overseeing Ukraine’s nuclear power plants said on Thursday.

On April 26, 1986, an explosion ripped through the No.4 reactor at Chernobyl, killing 30 people immediately. Countless others died from radiation symptoms in the years that followed.

In late February, during the first week of the war, the plant and its surrounding territory fell into the hands of Russian troops.

On Thursday Russian troops announced their intention to leave and hand over control to Ukrainian personnel, said Energoatom.

It also posted the copy of a formal letter purportedly signed by a representative of Russia’s National Guard, a representative of Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom and a Chernobyl plant shift manager, with the heading, “The act of acceptance and transfer of protection of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.”

The letter states that “the administration of the protected facility makes no claims in relation to the troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation.”

Radiation claims: The Telegram statement from Energoatom said that a small number of “rashists” — a Ukrainian slur for Russians that combines the words “fascist” and “racist” — remained at the station.

CNN was not immediately able to verify those claims.

Read more:

Russian military vehicles are at the Chernobyl nuclear accident site near Pripyat, Ukraine, according to videos uploaded to social media. Earlier on Thursday, State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management Spokesperson Yevgeniya Kuznetsovа told CNN that the Russian military had taken control over the plant. "As you can see, we are surrounding by these tanks," an individual is heard saying on one of the videos posted to social media. In the three videos, three vehicles are seen; one of the vehicles is a Russian tank and is emblazoned with a white "v" on the front. Similar white markings have suddenly appeared on Russian military vehicles in recent days. The vehicles are parked outside of one of the main buildings in the same complex as Chernobyl's damaged nuclear reactor. They are roughly 3,000 feet from the New Safe Confinement shield. "We were attacked," a man is heard saying in the video. "There is another man with us. They all just disappeared. The station is completely empty." The man moved around a room in the complex building as he filmed. "Damn it," he said. "They've even left their helmets, there is not a single ensign anywhere. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter that Russian forces were attempting to seize control of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. "Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the Chernobyl [Nuclear Power Plant]. Our defenders are sacrificing their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated," Zelensky tweeted.

Related article Russian troops have withdrawn from Chernobyl, says Ukrainian nuclear operator

Russia has reiterated its threat to cut off natural gas supplies to Western countries that refuse to pay in rubles, raising new concerns about an energy supply crunch and rationing in Europe.

Moscow said last week it wanted to be paid in rubles, rather than US dollars or euros, and senior Russian lawmakers said supplies could be cut if customers refused. Germany, Russia’s biggest energy customer in Europe, had described the plan as “blackmail” and a breach of contract.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday that requires buyers of natural gas from “unfriendly countries” to hold accounts at Gazprombank — Russia’s third-largest bank — and settle contracts in rubles. It takes effect on Friday.

Putin had given the Russian central bank and state-owned gas giant Gazprom until Thursday to come up with detailed proposals to switch the payment currency for gas to rubles.

According to the decree, Gazprombank would open accounts on behalf of Western gas buyers, purchase rubles on their behalf and then transfer the cash to Gazprom’s accounts.

Europe’s leading economies rejected any change to the terms of existing supply agreements, and said they were prepared for all scenarios including disruption to flows of natural gas.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also said that Berlin will make payments for Russian gas only in euros.

Read more:

GERMANY, WINDHAGEN - MARCH 24: A gas-pressure regulator station (GDR) is a system for economic pressure reduction of gas from extraction to the ultimate consumer. Interior view of the gas-pressure station in Windhagen near Bad Honnef on March 24, 2022 in Windhagen, Germany. (Photo by Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images)

Related article Russia raises stakes in energy standoff by insisting on rubles for gas