Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 53 of the invasion

Mariupol forces defy Russian demand for surrender, as European Commission chief urges fast supply of arms to Ukraine

The remaining Ukrainian forces in the southern port city of Mariupol were still fighting on Sunday and continued to defy a Russian demand that they surrender, according to the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, urged member states to supply Ukraine with weapons systems “quickly” and suggested that a new round of EU sanctions could target Russia’s powerful Sberbank and include an embargo on Russian oil.

A Ukrainian health official said at least five people were killed in the Russian shelling of Kharkiv on Sunday. Maksym Haustov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration’s health department, said another 13 residents were wounded in the bombardment of Ukraine’s second largest city.

At least two people were killed and four injured on Sunday in shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Zolote, the local governor said. “In one of the high-rise buildings, two floors were destroyed … we have at least two dead citizens, four more wounded,” said Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk.

Ukraine and Russia failed to agree on humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas, according to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk.

Another missile attack in the early hours of Sunday damaged infrastructure in Brovary, near Kyiv, said the city’s mayor, Igor Sapozhko, in an online post.

Russian armed forces destroyed an ammunition factory near Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said.

Many of the nearly 5 million people who have fled Ukraine will not have homes to return to, the United Nations warned.

Ukraine has asked G7 nations for $50bn (£38bn) in financial support and is also considering issuing 0% coupon bonds to help it cover a war-linked budget deficit over the next six months, the president’s economic adviser Oleg Ustenko said.

Russia said it was “concerned” about increased activity of Nato forces in the Arctic and that it saw risks of “unintended incidents” occurring in the region, Reuters reported.

In his Easter Sunday address, Pope Francis urged leaders to hear the people’s plea for peace in Ukraine and implicitly criticised Russia for dragging the country into a “cruel and senseless” conflict.

Christ’s message that good will triumph over evil resonated even more this year amid the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, Boris Johnson said.

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‘I think he will’: Zelenskiy hopeful President Biden will visit Ukraine

Ukrainian president also reiterates in interview that he is not willing to cede territory in country’s east to end war with Russia

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged US president Joe Biden to visit Ukraine and reiterated that he is not willing to cede territory in the country’s east to end war with Russia, during an extended interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday.

“I think he will,” Zelenskiy said in English when asked if he was aware of any plans for a US presidential visit. “But it’s his decision, of course, and [it] depends on the safety situation, of course. But I think he’s the leader of the United States and that’s why he should come here to see.”

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Russia-Ukraine war: Fighters in last Mariupol pocket of resistance ignore surrender-or-die ultimatum – live

Troops dug in at huge steel mill despite a midday deadline to surrender from Moscow

A missile attack in early hours of Sunday damaged infrastructure in the city of Brovary, near Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, Igor Sapozhko, mayor of Brovary said in an online post.

There were no details on the extent of the destruction and potential casualties.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow attacks UK’s ‘anti-Russian hysteria’; billionaire vows to rebuild Mariupol – live

Russia says the ban on Boris Johnson and senior ministers from entering the country will soon be expanded to other politicians

Stay or go?

The question was a difficult one for Ukrainian officials in occupied areas, when deciding whether to follow President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s lead after he made the decision to remain in Kyiv as Russia invaded.

During occupation the main thing is to preserve life, and the people most in danger are the heads of the city. If the city is occupied, what should the mayor do, what should the team do? There was no single algorithm. Nobody gave us any orders. Everyone acted as they felt right.”

The situation in Mariupol is difficult and hard. Fighting is happening right now. The Russian army is constantly calling on additional units to storm the city.”

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Kyiv arms plant hit by Russia may have made missiles that sank Moskva

After two weeks of relative calm, mayor of city warns residents who have left that it is not safe to return

An arms plant in Kyiv destroyed by Russian long-range air-launched rockets allegedly produced at least one of the missiles used to sink the Moskva warship.

The attack on Friday was widely regarded by both parties as the most significant revenge strike by the Kremlin after the sinking of Russia’s flagship vessel in the Black Sea and a reminder that, despite being liberated from the occupants, the war in the Ukrainian capital is far from over.

Russia’s foreign ministry has barred entry to the country for the prime minister, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace and 10 other British government politicians and members. The move was taken “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the British government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials”, Reuters reports the ministry said in a statement.

The battle for Mariupol is continuing. If Moscow captures the city, home to 400,000 people before the invasion, it would be the first big city to fall.

Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Saturday, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, announced. Five of the nine evacuation corridors are from the east, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which local officials have said is under heavy shelling.

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How Zelenskiy’s team of TV writers helps his victory message hit home

Influences from Churchill to Tolkien are woven in to the Ukrainian president’s compelling video addresses

On day 50 of Russia’s invasion, Volodymyr Zelenskiy made his nightly address to the Ukrainian people. Vladimir Putin had confidently expected to seize Ukraine in five days, Zelenskiy said, standing outside his neo-classical administration building in central Kyiv. Putin was now “making friends with reality”, he added mordantly, hailing the bravery and staunchness of his citizens.

There was a reference to Russia’s flagship Moskva, which Ukraine says it audaciously sank last Wednesday with two lethal Neptune missiles. The warship has become a meme and symbol of national defiance, ever since Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea told it in the first days of the conflict to “go and fuck yourself”.

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Zelenskiy reportedly asks Biden to name Russia a state sponsor of terrorism – as it happened

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made a direct request to Joe Biden that the US designates Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, the Washington Post reports.

This would be a rare and radical sanction, but Zelenskiy has been firm in putting pressure on the west to assist in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, and this is no exception as his country endures atrocities from its northern neighbor.

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Russia says warship ‘seriously damaged’ by explosion as Putin builds forces in east Ukraine

Ukraine says it struck the Moskva with two anti-ship missiles without giving evidence as Zelenskiy says Russia ramping up offensive in east and south

Russia says the flagship of its Black Sea fleet has been seriously damaged and its crew evacuated following an explosion that a Ukrainian official said was the result of a missile strike.

“As a result of a fire, ammunition detonated on the Moskva missile cruiser. The ship was seriously damaged,” the Russian defence ministry was quoted as saying by state-run news agency TASS, adding that the cause of the fire was being determined and that the crew had been evacuated.

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Vladimir Putin insists Russia will achieve its ‘noble’ goals in Ukraine

President dismisses killing of civilians in Bucha by Russian forces as ‘fake’

Vladimir Putin has insisted that his bloody campaign in Ukraine will continue until its “noble” goals have been achieved, arguing that the invasion was proceeding as planned, despite fierce Ukrainian resistance and heavy losses among Russian forces.

“We will achieve our objectives, there are no doubts,” Putin told workers at the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s far east, in his first public comments on the war since his forces were forced to retreat from northern Ukraine more than a week ago.

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Civilians flee eastern Ukraine ahead of new Russian offensive

Governor of Luhansk urges people to evacuate as Vladimir Putin insists Moscow will achieve its ‘noble’ aims

Civilians have fled eastern Ukraine in advance of a forecast attack, as Russian forces closed in on the ruins of Mariupol – where 21,000 civilians have reportedly died – and Vladimir Putin said Moscow’s invasion would proceed “calmly” and to plan.

Ukrainian forces in the east dug in on Tuesday for a major new Russian offensive, with the governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Gaidai, urging all residents to evacuate as soon as possible using agreed humanitarian corridors. “It’s far more scary to remain and to burn in your sleep from a Russian shell,” Gaidai said on social media. “Evacuate: with every day the situation is getting worse. Take your essential items and head to the pickup point.”

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: Zelenskiy announces capture of Putin ally in Ukraine – live

Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of Ukraine’s biggest opposition party, had been in hiding since the early days of the invasion

More than 6,000 alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are under investigation, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has said.

A total of 6,036 cases have been reported and 186 children have been confirmed to have been killed, the office added.

Security work is under way in the northern regions of our country, from where the occupiers were expelled.

First of all, it is mine clearance. Russian troops left behind tens if not hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects. These are shells that did not explode, mines, tripwire mines. At least several thousand such items are disposed of daily.

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Ukraine president warns of ‘new stage of terror’ as west probes chemical weapons claims

Volodymyr Zelenskiy taking chemical weapons threat ‘seriously’ as Mariupol mayor says thousands have died in devastated port city

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has voiced concerns that Russian forces are preparing “a new stage of terror” that could involve the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, as the mayor of Mariupol said that more than 10,000 civilians had died so far in the Russian siege of his city.

“Today, the occupiers issued a new statement, which testifies to their preparation for a new stage of terror against Ukraine and our defenders,” Zelesnkiy said early on Tuesday. “One of the mouthpieces of the occupiers stated that they could use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol. We take this as seriously as possible.”

US officials pointed to new signs that Russia’s military is gearing up for a major offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, switching its focus after failing in their initial drive to capture Kyiv. A senior US defence official described a long convoy now rolling toward the eastern city of Izyum with artillery, aviation and infantry support, as part of redeployment to the east.

Ukrainian authorities are warning people not to go near what they say are landmines being dropped on Kharkiv. Zelenskiy also spoke of “hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects” including mines and unexploded shells left by Russian forces in regions in Ukraine’s north.

Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, has said he told Putin during frosty talks that “all those responsible” for war crimes must be brought to justice and warned that western sanctions would intensify as long as people kept dying in Ukraine.

Sweden’s ruling party has begun debating whether the country should join Nato, and neighbouring Finland expects to reach a decision within weeks, as Moscow warned that the Nordic nations’ accession would “not bring stability” to Europe.

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The United Nations calls for an investigation into violence against women and children in Ukraine – as it happened

This liveblog is now closed

There have been no successful major prosecutions over the last 30 years in Ukraine, with the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general dogged by accusations of corruption and inefficiency since the country declared independence. Now Iryna Venediktova, appointed to the role in 2019, is attempting to gather evidence of Russian war crimes.

More from Guardian correspondent Isobel Koshiw in Borodianka:

Surrounded by a scrum of reporters with a backdrop of bombed-out apartment buildings and rubble in Borodianka, a town in the Kyiv region, stood Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

Venediktova is carrying the weight of bringing almost 2,000 cases of war crimes committed by Russia’s occupying forces to court at home and abroad. Her office is the only body in Ukraine with the power to investigate. It is through her office that information relating to war crimes is being collected, investigations will be conducted and domestic and international cases will be built.

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US officials warn Putin may cite Ukraine war to interfere in American politics

Intelligence believes Russia’s president may see US backing of Ukraine as direct affront, giving him further incentive to meddle

Vladimir Putin may use the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine as a pretext to order a new campaign to interfere in American politics, US intelligence officials have assessed.

Intelligence agencies have not found any evidence Putin has authorized measures like the ones Russia is believed to have undertaken in the 2016 and 2020 elections in support of Donald Trump, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Ukraine says Russia will see new sanctions as ‘permission to attack’ amid warnings of fresh offensive

Zelenskiy says sanctions unveiled by west have ‘a spectacular look. But this is not enough’, as fears mount of large-scale Russian offensive

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said new sanctions by the west against Russia do not go far enough and will be seen by invading forces as a “permission to attack”, as fears of an assault on the east of the country intensify.

It comes after the US, UK and EU unveiled a raft of new sanctions targeting Russian banks and the country’s elites. The US measures include a ban on investing in Russia as well as sanctions on president Vladimir Putin’s adult daughters. The EU sanctions include a ban on coal imports and restrictions on banks.

The Pentagon said a “small number” of Ukrainian soldiers are being trained in the United States to operate the deadly Switchblade drones that Washington is supplying to Kyiv. The troops were already in the US before Russia invaded.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby offered some optimism about the Ukraine resistance. “Of course, they can win this. And if you look at what they’ve been able to do just thus far, Mr Putin has achieved exactly zero of his strategic objectives inside Ukraine,” he said.

Nato foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday for two days of talks on providing support to bring an end to the war.

US sanctions against two of Russia’s largest banks are “a direct blow to the Russian population [and] ordinary citizens”, Tass news agency cited Russia’s US ambassador as saying on Wednesday. Anatoly Antonov made his remarks after Washington hit Sberbank and Alfabank.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia will regard weak sanctions as ‘permission to attack’, says Zelenskiy – live

Ukraine president says latest economic measures are not enough; authorities in eastern Ukraine urge civilians to leave

Zelenskiy questioned the ability of the UN Security Council to provide security, undermining the very functions for which it was created during his Tuesday night national address.

The UN Security Council exists, and security in the world doesn’t. For anyone.

This definitely means that the United Nations is currently unable to carry out the functions for which it was created. And only one state is to blame for this - Russia, which discredits the UN and all other international institutions where it still participates.

Even if we sign the most powerful agreement, we understand that in two years Russia may return. And if you and I accept this, then we act accordingly,” he said.

All this is being discussed at the level of advisers and leaders with France, the United States, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Israel, and there are many friends who want to join. So far, we have not received a specific list of guarantees and a list of countries that are ready to join us 100%.

We do not need to have 40 countries of the world that are ready to join and fight for Ukraine under the agreement. We need serious players who are ready for anything. We need a circle of states that are ready to provide any weapons within 24 hours. We need individual countries on which sanctions policy really depends, so that these sanctions are deeply elaborated in advance. So that in the first second when we feel the threat from the Russian Federation, these states will unite and within three days introduce everything at once, block everything.”

If we are offered to join Nato tomorrow, if they don’t play with our lives again, but seriously offer, we will join. But this will not happen, unfortunately, and did not happen.

That is why we will build those security guarantees that can protect us, protect people’s lives.”

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Putin’s daughters targeted in US sanctions against Russia

Joe Biden links new measures directly to accounts of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha

The US has announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s top public and private banks and two daughters of Vladimir Putin, following mounting global accusations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

The sanctions targeted Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, two adult daughters of Putin’s with his former wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva.

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Sanctions on Russia must stay till all troops leave Ukraine, says Liz Truss

Foreign secretary in discussions with Ukrainian foreign minister about intensifying sanctions after atrocities in Bucha

The West must not lift sanctions against Russia until all its troops have left Ukraine and Vladimir Putin is unable to mount such an offensive again, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.

She was speaking alongside the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in Warsaw, where the two discussed how to step up sanctions against Russia to the maximum in the wake of the alleged war crimes revealed in Bucha.

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Biden calls for Putin to face war crimes trial over civilian killings in Ukraine

Western leaders prepare fresh round of sanctions against Moscow amid outrage over reports of killings in town of Bucha, near Kyiv

Joe Biden has called for Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes as western leaders prepared a fresh round of economic sanctions against Moscow amid mounting global outrage over claims of civilian killings by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

The US president was responding to harrowing images broadcast around the world after the discovery over the weekend of a mass grave and bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands bound, in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.

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