- Ukrainian rescue officials say at least 10 people have been injured after two explosions hit the capital during UN chief Antonio Guterres’ visit.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba condemns the attack in Kyiv as a “heinous act of barbarism”.
- Guterres says the United Nations is working to secure evacuations from a steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
- US President Joe Biden asks Congress for $33bn to support Ukraine.
Here are all the latest updates:
UK says Russia military focused on ‘Battle of Donbas’
Britain’s Ministry of Defence has also given an update on the latest situation on the ground.
“The Battle of the Donbas remains Russia’s main strategic focus, in order to achieve its stated aim of securing control over the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts,” it said in its latest intelligence update.
Fighting has been particularly heavy around the towns of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, it added.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 29 April 2022
Find out more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/94lb8T09GX
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Shgw19Ejz0
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 29, 2022
Russia has made ‘minor advances’: ISW
Russia made “minor advances” in eastern Ukraine on Thursday but did not gain any new territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Its latest assessment says military reinforcements are being deployed through the border town of Belgorod.
“Russian and proxy forces continued to mobilize in Transnistria and set conditions for a false flag attack,” it added.
OSCE to close down Ukraine monitoring mission
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has announced it will take “immediate steps” to end its monitoring mission in Ukraine.
“This is not an easy decision to take. We have explored all possible options through political dialogue with participating States to achieve the renewal of the Special Monitoring Mission’s mandate, but the position of the Russian Federation left us with no choice but to take steps to close down the Mission,” Zbigniew Rau, the Polish foreign minister and the OSCE’s current chairman said in a statement.
“The Mission played a crucial role in providing objective information on the ground, facilitating ceasefires and working to ease the effects of the conflict on the civilian population. The work of the SMM’s members deserves our appreciation and gratitude”.
The special mission was deployed to Ukraine in March 2014.
Guterres expresses ‘regret’ that UN was not part of Ukraine talks
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid managed to grab a few minutes with the UN chief Antonio Guterres while he was in Kyiv and spoke to him about the political negotiations to bring peace to Ukraine.
He said it was a source of “regret” that the UN had not been invited to be part of the Minsk process or Minsk Agreement, which was brokered by France and Germany, and followed Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and moves by Russian-backed separatists to take control of parts of eastern Ukraine.
Guterres stressed that the UN was “following with a lot of interest” the latest talks between Russia and Ukraine and that it was “not by chance” that he had stopped over in Turkey and met President Erdogan on his way to Moscow earlier this week.
“Turkey has been very active, very engaged in bringing the parties to Turkey and strongly supporting this political discussion.”
Japanese PM Kishida on way to Indonesia
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is on his way to Indonesia as he tries to rally Southeast Asia to respond more robustly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy and is the current chair of the G20, while Japan is the region’s sole member of the G7.
In Southeast Asia, while most countries backed a UN General Assembly vote condemning the invasion, only Singapore has imposed sanctions. Indonesia is under pressure to ban Putin from the G20 summit in Bali later this year. Analysts have said it is unlikely to do so.
Ukraine suffers serious losses, but not as many as Russia: Aide
An aide to Ukraine’s president has said the country has suffered serious losses in the war with Russia, but Moscow has lost many more soldiers.
In a video posted online, the aide, Oleksiy Arestovych, said the military situation was difficult but controllable.
Russia should pay to rebuild Ukraine: Slovakia deputy PM
Slovakia’s deputy prime minister has said Russian aggressors have destroyed entire cities and the lives of millions of people in Ukraine, and when the war is over Moscow should pay to rebuild the country and restore its cultural heritage.
In what she acknowledged as “quite an unorthodox view”, Veronika Remisova also said that after the war “there will be a big need to integrate Russia, even though Russia is an aggressor, even if Russia is doing horrible war crimes”.
Pentagon says US is analysing attacks on Kyiv
The United States is analysing attacks on Kyiv that the Ukrainian authorities blamed on Russian missiles, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby has said.
“We’re still trying to analyse this and figure out what happened here, what was struck and with what kind of munition,” he told CNN.
AP revises earlier report of one death in Kyiv explosions
The Associated Press news agency has revised an earlier report saying that one person had been killed in explosions in Kyiv. The agency said the person was alive, but had lost a leg.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the Shevchenkivskyi district in the northwestern part of the city was hit twice, causing fires in at least two high-rise buildings.
Possibility of ‘large’ economic shocks in future, Yellen warns
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the global pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlight the possibility of big economic shocks in the future, adding that downturns are “likely to continue to challenge the economy”.
“Countries will fare better if their economies are more resilient and less fragile,” she said at the Brookings Institution.
“Improved understanding of breaks in supply chains, increases in commodity prices, bursting of asset bubbles, and labour and productivity shocks can help policymakers implement reforms that bolster our economic resilience.”
Read more here.
Pelosi unveils Ukraine war photo exhibit
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova have unveiled a photo exhibit of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the US Capitol.
“It is a manifestation, an emotional time to the people of Ukraine with a praise for their heroism that is just almost unimaginable, but so is the brutality they are suffering,” Pelosi said during the event.
The photo exhibit will remain open for viewing between 9am and 6pm local time.
In Kharkiv, no let-up for Ukraine firefighters
Blackened by smoke and dripping with sweat, firefighters in Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv are totally exhausted after two months of chasing blazes sparked by the constant explosions of Russian rockets.
Since Russia invaded on February 24, there have been more than 1,000 fires in the eastern Kharkiv region which borders Russia, the area’s Emergency Services Spokesperson Yevgen Vasylenko said.
“Usually it’s only one major fire or two at a time to extinguish but during the war, you can have like 12 or 15 major fires at the same time,” explains Roman Kachanov, a fireman and judo expert who heads the N11 fire station.
‘I’m not afraid,’ says ex-Gazprombank executive who defected to Ukraine
Igor Volobuev, a former senior executive at Russian lender Gazprombank, has said that he fled Russia for Ukraine hoping to take up arms against Moscow’s invasion and that he believed Putin was leading Russia to catastrophe.
“I came here to defend my motherland because the war started [in places] like my hometown Okhtyrka – it was one of the first cities to be hit by bombing,” he told the Reuters news agency.
IAEA probing Ukraine report that missile flew over a nuclear power plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it was probing a Ukrainian report that a missile had flown directly over a nuclear power station, saying this would be “extremely serious” if true.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said Kyiv had formally told it the missile flew over the south Ukraine plant on April 16. The facility is near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk, some 350km (220 miles) south of Kyiv.
“Had such a missile gone astray, it could have had a severe impact on the physical integrity of the plant, potentially leading to a nuclear accident,” he said in a statement.
‘Heinous act of barbarism’: Ukraine FM says of Kyiv attack
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has denounced attacks on the capital Kyiv as a “heinous act of barbarism”.
Ukrainian officials said at least 10 people have been injured after Russia fired two missiles at the city.
“By this heinous act of barbarism Russia demonstrates once again its attitude towards Ukraine, Europe and the world,” Kuleba tweeted. Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov also said it was “an attack on the security of the Secretary General and on world security”.
Russia stroke Kyiv with cruise missiles right when UN Secretary General @antonioguterres and Bulgarian PM @KirilPetkov visit our capital. By this heinous act of barbarism Russia demonstrates once again its attitude towards Ukraine, Europe and the world.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 28, 2022
US House passes military lend-lease bill to speed Ukraine aid
The US House of Representatives has given final passage to legislation that would streamline a World War II-era military lend-lease programme to more quickly provide Ukraine and other Eastern European countries with American equipment to fight the Russian invasion.
The measure, which passed by an overwhelming 417-10 vote, now goes to the White House for Biden to sign into law.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory Meeks of New York said with unified support from the US Congress, “Ukraine will win”.
Russia maintains Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol must lay down weapons
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said Russian President Vladimir Putin had been quite clear that while civilians could leave the steel plant in Mariupol, Ukrainian fighters had to lay down their arms.
“What could be the topic of negotiations in this case?” the Tass state news agency quoted Peskov as saying.
Peskov’s comment comes after local governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russia was preventing wounded Ukrainian fighters from being evacuated from the plant in the besieged port city in southern Ukraine.
Zelenskyy thanks Biden for funding request
Zelenskyy has thanked Biden for the proposed $33bn in funding for Ukraine, calling it “a very important step” by Washington.
“I am thankful to the American people and personally to President Biden for it. I hope that Congress will quickly approve this request for help to our state,” the Ukrainian president said in a late-night video address.
Canada training Ukrainian troops on howitzer artillery
Canada’s Defence Minister Anita Anand has said Canadian troops were training their Ukrainian counterparts on how to use howitzer artillery.
The US has been training a small number of Ukrainian forces on howitzers and some other systems outside of Ukraine.
“Canadian soldiers are now training their Ukrainian counterparts in the use of these weapons,” Anand said during a news conference in Washington, DC, without specifying where the Canadian training was taking place.
White House expects other countries to step up assistance to Ukraine
The White House expects other countries to step up and continue to provide a range of assistance to Ukraine, Press Secretary Jen Psaki has said.
“Other countries, we expect them to step up as well as this is going to be a sustained effort,” Psaki said.
Her comments came hours after US President Joe Biden said he was asking Congress for $33bn in additional funding to support Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Read all the updates from Thursday, April 28 here.