Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would meeting with top US officials on Sunday in Kyiv, as fierce fighting continues in the east and south of the country over Ukraine’s Easter weekend.
The White House has yet to confirm the visit, which Zelensky said would include Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
As a new day begins in the capital, here’s what you need to know.
Planned visit: Zelensky said he “expects concrete things and concrete weapons” from world leaders visiting the country, after announcing that he would meet Blinken and Austin in Kyiv on Sunday. The potential visit would be the first by top US officials since the outbreak of war. The White House declined to comment on the potential trip.
Odesa phone number: At least eight people have died, including a three-month-old baby, following a Russian missile attack on the southwestern port city of Odesa, Zelensky said on Saturday, condemn the attack comes a day before many Ukrainians celebrate Easter.
Humanitarian crisis: Evacuation corridor from the besieged southern city of Mariupol “obstructed” by Russian forces on Saturday, according to a Ukrainian official. Ukrainian officials say more than 100,000 people remain in the shelled city, which the Russian government claims control. Ukrainian fighters continued to hold out in the city’s huge Azovstal steel mills, where civilians could sheltered for weeks and supplies are running out.
Moscow’s plan: Russia disclosure the goal of the invasion was to gain “full control” of southern Ukraine as well as Eastern Donbas region and establish a land corridor linking Russia with Crimea, a peninsula it annexed in 2014. A British Defense Department briefing on Saturday said Russian forces had made no gains. in the last 24 hours, in the face of the Ukrainian counterattack.
Forced Expulsion: Ukrainian officials on Saturday announced Russia had forcibly deported several Mariupol citizens to Primorsky Krai in Russia’s Far East, about 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) from Ukraine. In early April, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereschuk estimated around 45,000 Ukrainian nationals have been deported to Russia since the war began.
Mandatory command: Ukrainian intelligence has also accused Russia intends to enlist in the Ukrainian civilian army from the occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, according to an update of UK military intelligence on Saturday. A statement from the British Ministry of Defense said this would violate international law.
