The day before, units of the Air Force and the Land Forces shot down eight air targets of the occupiers: one plane, one cruise missile, and 6 drones. During the night in the temporarily occupied Kherson, there was a series of explosions near the TV tower, which stopped the broadcasting of Russian propaganda in the region for some time. Subsequently, the signal was restored. In addition, a railway bridge near Melitopol, through which the Russian military delivers weapons and fuel from the occupied Crimea, was blown up. During the day in the Luhansk oblast, Russia shelled peaceful people 29 times, killing four people and wounding four more. The occupiers inflicted 11 artillery strikes on Kharkiv — 8 people were wounded and one died.
In the evening, the occupiers fired rockets at Kyiv. Two hits in the Shevchenkivskyi district. There were also explosions in Kyiv oblast. It is known in advance that the infrastructure facilities were damaged.
The occupiers attacked a military hospital at the "Azovstal" plant in Mariupol. The Russians massively dropped multi-ton bombs capable of breaking through any concrete defenses. Then they continued to shell the ruins with naval artillery. An operating room collapsed in the "Azovstal" warehouse. Among the wounded servicemen there are dead, newly wounded, and injured.
The seventh exchange of prisoners took place. Today, 45 Ukrainians were released from Russian captivity — 13 officers, 20 soldiers, 5 of whom were wounded, and 12 civilians.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Ukraine must decide for itself whether to transfer or expand hostilities to Russia. The Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom Ben Wallace stated that Ukraine has the right to strike at military facilities in the territory of the aggressor country.
Ukraine has already received most of the howitzers provided by the US support package. Denmark sends M113 armored personnel carriers, mines, and mortar shells to Ukraine.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has called for the immediate establishment of a special international criminal tribunal to investigate Russiaʼs crimes in Ukraine.
In Kherson oblast, the Russian occupiers want to introduce rubles from May 1. According to their plans, the transition period will take up to 4 months: during this time, both the ruble and the hryvnia will go, and then there will be a full transition to the ruble. In addition, they export grain and food from the region to Russia.
In the temporarily captured city of Melitopol, the Russian military seized the cityʼs museum of local lore. Collaborators showed the Russians the location of Scythian gold, which archaeologists found in the 1950s. Prior to that, the Russians took possession of paintings and exhibits of the Museum of Local Lore and Art Museum after Kuindzhi in Mariupol.
The Canadian Parliament has unanimously recognized Russiaʼs crimes in Ukraine as genocide. The ruling said that the killing of civilians, the desecration of corpses, the forced removal of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the torture and rape by Russian soldiers were genocide. The decision to declare genocide is not binding and does not require the Canadian government to take any action.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov in Kyiv. He said that the Bulgarian side agreed to repair Ukrainian military equipment. In addition, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyy. They discussed how to evacuate civilians from "Azovstal" in Mariupol.
Coty cosmetics company will cease its activities in Russia. This is the last large American company that remained in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Coty sells products under 80 brands, including Max Factor, Bourjois, Kylie Cosmetics, Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Tiffany & Co. Shell will no longer accept Russian-sourced petroleum products. Earlier, the London oil trader Shell accepted products from Russia in the form of mixtures, but now refused.