April 8, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news?here?or read through the updates below.

At least two men have died in the small town of Dvorichna in the Kharkiv region, according to a Telegram post from local Ukrainian authorities.

Russian shelling killed the the two men, aged 65 and 34, said Oleh Syniehubov, the head of Kharkiv’s military administration.

Dvorichna lies on the east side of the Kharkiv region, close to the front line in the neighboring Luhansk region.?

Even though Ukraine succeeded in driving Russian fighters out of the area in September, it has remained in Russian sights, especially over recent months when Russian forces attempted a winter offensive.

Iryna embraces her son Bogdan after being reunited in Kyiv on April 8.

One day after crossing back into Ukraine, 31 children have finally been reunited with their families, months after they were taken from their homes and moved to Russian-occupied territories.

A CNN team in Kyiv on Saturday watched as the last of the children climbed off a bus to embrace waiting family members, many unable to hold back the tears as months of separation came to an end.

Bogdan’s mother, Iryna, 51, said she had received very little information about her son in the six months they were apart.?

“There was no phone connection. I was very worried. I didn’t know anything, whether he was being abused, what was happening to him. … My hands are still shaking,” she said.

Anastasiia holds her daughter Valeriia and son Maksym after being reunited in Kyiv on April 8.

The reunions took place in the Ukrainian capital and were coordinated by the humanitarian organization Save Ukraine. According to the group, it has now completed five missions bringing home Ukrainian children it says were forcibly deported by Russia.

At the same press conference, Kuleba said tragedy had struck during the latest rescue mission: One of the women traveling with the party – a grandmother – passed away during the journey. The woman had been due to pick up two children on the mission, but because of her death, the pair was not permitted to travel back to Ukraine.???

Remember:?Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of?war crimes charges?brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior official, Maria Lvova-Belova, by the International Criminal Court last month.

A report released in February detailed allegations of an expansive network of dozens of camps where kids underwent “political reeducation,” including Russia-centric academic, cultural and, in some cases, military education.

Ukraine’s head of the Office of the President recently estimated the total number of children forcibly removed from their homes is at least 20,000. Kyiv has said thousands of cases are already under investigation.

Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal, claiming it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety.?

Smoke billows during shelling on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar on April 7.

The blasts in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar echo between buildings every minute or two, a CNN team reports.

Artillery, grad rockets and mortar fire were all audible in the town at different points Saturday?—?most of it believed to be outgoing from Ukrainian positions, but also some incoming from Russian forces.

The CNN team, which last visited Chasiv Yar eight days ago, said the amount of indirect fire appeared to have increased from the previous visit. It seems to indicate Ukrainian forces are working hard to keep open their key supply route into nearby Bakhmut, despite mounting Russian pressure.

Russian forces continue “to conduct offensive actions (in their attempt) to take full control of the city of Bakhmut,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its latest situation update Saturday.

Unofficial reports suggest Russia’s troops have maintained their slow advance through the center of the long-embattled city, located just east of Chasiv Yar. The long fight for Bakhmut has seen Moscow’s fighters begin to enter western parts of the city, according to the reports, with the railway station as a possible next key target.

Life under constant fire: Back in Chasiv Yar,?Ivan, a university student majoring in psychology, appeared unfazed by the constant sound of fire.

Ivan and his mother Ira are among the few civilians left in the town.?

“As long as I can, I will stay here,” he said, before going back to sawing the trunk of a small tree. The logs will make a fire where his mother can cook.

Ira, a woman in her fifties with short hair and a gold pendant of the Virgin Mary around her neck, focused on the day’s chores — not the danger.

“We wake up every morning, light a fire and start preparing food,” she told CNN. “Every day Ivan fetches water and collects firewood.”

She’s already planning ahead for Orthodox Easter, next weekend. No church services have been conducted in a while, but she and Ivan will observe Easter with the few people left in their aging apartment complex.

While most residents have left, the town is far from empty, teeming with soldiers, tanks, armored personnel carriers and army trucks, which have left a thick layer of drying mud on the town’s streets.

Daria Trepova, the anti-war activist who Russia formally accused of a bombing that killed a well-known blogger at a cafe in St. Petersburg last weekend, is cooperating with investigators, Russian state media reported Saturday.

Meanwhile, Trepova’s?husband, Dmitry Rylov, has told an independent Russian publication he is convinced she has been framed.

What we know so far: Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, fervently supported the war but also served at times as a rare critic of Kremlin setbacks and strategy.

He was appearing as a guest of a pro-war group at the cafe when he was killed by an explosion. A bomb had apparently been hidden inside a figurine, which was presented to him as a gift at the event.

Russian investigators formally charged Trepova with terrorism offenses over Tatarsky’s killing and arrested her this week.

The United States and its allies will work to shore up any weaknesses in their unprecedented series of sanctions against Russia when leaders of the global financial system meet in Washington, DC, next week, senior US Treasury officials told CNN.

The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will provide the latest venue for the US to trade best practices on preventing Moscow from funding its war machine in Ukraine, according to the officials.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the US and its partners have?imposed thousands of sanctions on the Kremlin. But observers note concerns over Russia’s ability to reorient trade routes and acquire what it needs through neighboring countries or more permissive jurisdictions, such as the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

The US has made major efforts to share information with allied countries and businesses on how the Kremlin is trying to evade sanctions, and it has seen encouraging results of late, Treasury officials said.

Lashing out in Moscow: While the US seeks to bolster the impact of Western sanctions, former Russian President Dmitry?Medvedev —?who is now vice chair of the country’s National Security Council — slammed Washington and European governments for their support of Ukraine.

In a lengthy post Saturday on the Russian social media network VKontakte, Medvedev claimed support for Kyiv has caused “real financial and political hell” for Europe, blaming inflation and high utility costs on the governments’ support for Ukraine at “the detriment of their own citizens.”

He also said the US was wasting money on the conflict when it should instead focus on domestic issues.

Some context: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 only exacerbated existing issues for a global economy that was still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. It pushed inflation to?record highs?and triggered an?energy crisis in Europe.

Several rounds of Western sanctions have roiled markets further, driving up the cost of commodities like fuel. Meanwhile, efforts to address the global hunger crisis by boosting Ukrainian grain imports have angered some farmers in central and eastern European countries who say they can’t compete.

Western governments, however, place the blame for economic turmoil squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion. And there are signs that more than a year of?the unprecedented, US-led sanctions have left Russia weakened,?if not incapacitated.

CNN’s Anna Cooban and Mariya Knight contributed to this report.

While it’s relatively quiet for Ukrainian soldiers that CNN spoke with in the northeast Kharkiv region, they are on alert for any Russian offensive.

The weapons they have are outdated, with one Swedish-made rocket launcher dating back to 1978.

In September 2022, Ukrainian forces pushed back Russian troops from much of the Kharkiv region.

But many fighters have seen battle on the front lines in the east. During the winter, “it was a nightmare” in the Donbas region, a soldier named Yevgen told CNN.

Vitali, 52, served with the Russians he is now fighting against during his time in the Soviet army. “We ate from the same pot,” he said, illustrating just how much has changed.

Watch Wedeman’s report here:

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Romanian farmers protest in their tractors Friday, April 7.

Farmers in central and eastern Europe protested this week against the impact of cheap?Ukrainian grain?imports, which have undercut domestic prices and hit the sales of local producers.

Protesters blocked traffic and border checkpoints with tractors along the border between Romania and Bulgaria in an effort to prevent Ukrainian trucks from entering their country, according to local news outlets.

Local producers say they cannot compete with the price of Ukrainian grain and have demanded compensation from the European Commission.

What led to the tensions: Ukraine, often called the “breadbasket of Europe” due to the vast quantities of grain it produces, had its Black Sea ports?blockaded by Russia?following the launch of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Fearing the situation was “threatening global food security,” the European Commission?set up?what it called “solidarity lanes” in May to facilitate exports.

The Commission also temporarily eliminated all duties and quotas on Ukraine’s exports, allowing a glut of cheap Ukrainian grain to flow into Europe.

This has caused “huge market distortions” in neighboring countries, according to European farmers’ association?Copa-Cogeca.

Protesters carry signs in Bucharest, Romania, on Friday.

Plans for an extension: Anger grew this week after the European Commission announced a draft decision to extend duty-free and quota-free imports of Ukrainian grain until June 2024, prompting Polish agriculture minister Henryk Kowalcyzk to?resign from his post?Wednesday.

In Kowalczyk’s resignation statement, he said that the Polish government – along with those of Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria – had submitted a request to the European Commission to “activate the protection clause in the field of duty-free and quota-free imports of grain from Ukraine.”

Read more here.

The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, DC on March 3, 2022, more than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine.?

Both the Pentagon and US Department of Justice are investigating leaks of?a trove of apparent US intelligence documents?that were posted on social media in recent weeks.

The investigation comes as new documents surfaced Friday covering everything from US support for Ukraine to information about key US allies, widening the fallout from an already alarming leak. The?Pentagon?said Thursday it was looking into the matter as reports emerged.

The additional leaked documents that open-source intelligence researchers surfaced Friday appear to have been posted online in the past few weeks. The documents appear to contain classified information on a range of topics, including:

CNN could not independently verify whether the documents had been altered. But they are similar to a tranche of classified documents about Ukraine that have been circulating online in recent weeks, which US officials on Friday morning confirmed to CNN to be authentic.

Much like those documents, Friday’s discoveries were photos of printed-out, wrinkled documents. All bore classified markings, some top secret – the highest level of classification. They also all appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March.

It is unclear who is behind the leaks and where, exactly, they originated.

“The Department of Defense is actively reviewing the matter, and has made a formal referral to the Department of Justice for investigation,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said Friday.

A Justice Department spokesperson told CNN the department has “been in communication with the Department of Defense related to this matter and have begun an investigation,” declining to comment further.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said on his Telegram channel he believes Russia is behind the purported leak.

Images of some of the documents – which include estimates of Russian casualties and a list of Western weapons systems available to Ukraine – were posted to the social media platform Discord in early March, according to screenshots of the posts reviewed by CNN.

Read the full story here.

Workers repair infrastructure at a power station in Kyiv, Ukraine that was damaged by a Russian air attack in October, 2022.

Russian forces have used over 1,200 missiles and drones to attack Ukraine’s energy system, according to a statement from the Ukrainian energy company Ukrenergo.

Ukrenergo did not indicate a specific time period in its statement.

Since October, Moscow’s forces have launched hundreds of missiles and drones at energy infrastructure far from the front line, temporarily cutting off electricity, heat and water to millions.

Of the 1,200 missiles, 250 hit Ukrenergo sites, causing damage to 43% of Ukraine’s main power grid, according to the utility. All thermal and hydroelectric power plants sustained varying degrees of damage, the company said.

The cost of emergency repairs to the energy grid will reach more than $1 billion, the statement said, citing an estimate by the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme.

Ukrenergo said it has received almost 500 units of replacement equipment, and more is set to be manufactured and sent to Ukraine.

Pallbearers carry the coffin of Russian military blogger Maxim Fomin during his funeral in Moscow, on April 8.

Supporters of Russian war military blogger Maxim Fomin, known under the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarsky, attended his funeral in Moscow on Saturday.?

Tatarsky was killed on April 2 in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg where he was appearing as a guest of a pro-war group. Russian investigators formally charged anti-war activist Daria Trepova with terrorism offenses, claiming she was responsible for the killing.

Among those who showed up for the funeral was Wagner private military company head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who brought an engraved sledgehammer — a notorious symbol of Wagner that is used to execute deserters.?

The engraved writing on the sledgehammer read: “To Vladlen Tatarsky from PMC Wagner fighters. Your work will live on.”

Near the sledgehammer was an Order of Courage award signed by President Vladimir Putin, according to live footage from the funeral.?

Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, said during a formal part of the funeral at the Troekurovsky cemetery that “the point of no return has long been passed.”

“We will win, including for the sake of Maxim. His whole life was like a bright flash,” he continued.

Some background: A video from the scene appears to shows Tatarsky and Trepova interacting with each other moments before the explosion. According to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, a witness said Terpova gave the statuette to the host, before moving to a different part of the room. The video itself does not show her handing the statue to him.

On Monday, Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee accused Ukrainian intelligence and associates of jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny of organizing the killing of Tatarsky.

Also, Russia’s independent news outlet Fontanka has reported that the cafe belongs to Prigozhin, citing a mention of the company Concord’s ownership on the cafe’s receipt. Prigozhin is the founder and sole owner of Concord, according to public records.

When asked to confirm whether he was the owner of the cafe, Prigozhin did not deny it. In comments published Monday by Concord on its VK social media page, Prigozhin said: “Indeed, I gave the cafe to the patriotic movement Cyber Front Z, and they held various seminars there.”

Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s head of the Office of the President, held an online conversation with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to discuss protecting Ukrainian children and holding Russia accountable for its alleged crimes against them, according to a statement released by the presidency Saturday.

Yermak said he emphasized the “importance of getting all the deported Ukrainian children back to their homeland and punishing the Russian criminals.” Going forward, he said Kyiv would develop new methods for protecting children’s rights and preventing future attempts to harm them.

Remember: As CNN has reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government is accused of deporting thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia and operating a network of camps where the kids underwent “political reeducation.” The alleged scheme is the subject of International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Putin and another Moscow official.

More on the call: Clooney also reaffirmed her support for Ukraine, according to the presidency’s statement. The Clooney Foundation for Justice — which the human rights lawyer co-founded with her husband, American actor George Clooney — said it would “work to promote accountability and deliver justice for victims of international crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian official thanked Clooney for the support, referencing a speech she gave at the United Nations Security Council shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Russian air defenses have shot down a missile fired from Ukraine over the Crimean port of Feodosia on the peninsula’s southern coast, according to Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of the Russian-occupied region.

An adviser to Aksyonov said fragments from the explosion had fallen in a residential area but there were no casualties, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Pictures posted on social media show a large plume of white smoke rising from behind a hill, but the photos appear to have been taken from a location that did not allow sight of any point, or points, of impact on the ground.

Ukrainian authorities have not commented about a possible missile launch, and it is not possible for CNN to verify Russian claims of an interception.

Feodosia is at least 250 kilometers (about 155 miles) from the closest Ukrainian military positions, putting it well out of range of missiles known to be in service by Ukrainian forces, be they locally sourced or part of military aid transfers from the United States and others.

Weather the storm, exhaust the enemy and then strike back.

That has been the mantra of?Ukraine’s military for months, one echoed by senior US and NATO officials since the winter.

But can it be executed? And if so, where, when and with what? Even the Ukrainian military leaders themselves may not yet know, as they study the 1,000-kilometer (about 620-mile) front line for Russian vulnerabilities, just as they did when suddenly launching the surprise September offensive in the northeast region of Kharkiv.

But they are aware it will be a crucial chapter in the conflict. Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, said in an interview last month that Russia and Ukraine will fight “a decisive battle this spring, and this battle will be the final one before this war ends.”

That suggests Ukraine may take its time to maximize capabilities. Predictions are a fool’s errand; there will be plenty of bluff and disinformation about intentions in the coming weeks.

But preparations are well underway.

Read the full analysis here.

Local residents walk past a destroyed building in Avdiivka, Ukraine, on April 4.

Just four children are known to be still living in Avdiivka, one of the frontline towns most heavily under fire in eastern Ukraine, a local official has said.

Vitali Barabash said authorities know the location of two of the four children – a nine-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother – and said they planned a forced evacuation of them next week.

Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, alluded to the difficulties convincing some families to leave their homes, even those in places seeing the heaviest fighting.

“We cannot forcibly evacuate adults, so we just have to rely on their responsibility and their instinct for survival,” he told Ukrainian television Saturday morning.

A police officer helps residents evacuate Avdiivka, Ukraine, on March 5.

Thirty-five people have been transferred to safety over the past week, making a total of more than three hundred in the last month, he said. About 1,800 people remain out of a pre-war population of 26,000.

“We are waiting for the opportunity to take the children out because there is a lot of shelling in the city, rocket attacks. We won’t put the children in danger,” Barabash said.

Some context:?Avdiivka is near the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and has also come under sustained attack by Russian forces.

A Ukrainian soldier last month said that the situation in Avdiivka was “difficult,” as Russian forces have increased the number of airstrikes and have been able to cut off supply routes.

Russia’s campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has “likely” failed, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said in an update Saturday.

Russia has been launching long-range strikes on Ukraine’s power grid since October 2022.

The relentless assault on the power grid deprived millions across the country of electricity, heat, water and other essential services as temperatures dropped, but as CNN has previously reported, Ukrainians have persevered.

Russia’s attacks violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, according to the United Nations.

“Russia’s campaign to severely degrade Ukraine’s unified energy system (UES) within the 2022-23 winter has likely failed,” the MoD statement read.

According to the statement, the “large-scale attacks” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have become rare since early March this year.

“Smaller scale strikes continue, but are highly likely having much less impact on the UES,” the statement continued.

Ukrainian companies are continuing to source replacement transformers and other critical components, however transporting and installing these components is a “major logistical challenge.”

According to the MoD, Ukraine’s energy situation will likely improve with the warmer weather, and “planning and preparations for next winter have likely already begun.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw, Poland, on April 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared?Iftar?with Ukrainian Muslim soldiers observing Ramadan on Friday, in what he said would become an annual “new tradition of respect.”

Iftar is the meal breaking the?daily fast?during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Addressing participants at the dinner which included leaders of the Mejlis, the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars, and representatives of the Muslim clergy, Zelensky thanked the Muslim community.

He said the month of Ramadan was “respected everywhere in?Ukraine?– even at the front line, even in combat conditions.”

Read the full story here.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?has had a number of unintended consequences.

One of the less-expected impacts was that over a year into the conflict, Chinese?President Xi Jinping would receive a courting from European leaders.?Given the European Union’s?hard stance on Russia, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d take a similarly firm approach with the Kremlin’s most important ally.

Yet?this week?in Beijing, French President Emmanuel Macron stood next Xi – who has not condemned Vladimir Putin’s war and doubled down on China and Russia’s “no-limits partnership” –?and said,?“I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses, and bring everyone back to the negotiating table.”

Relations between China and the EU have been on a strange journey over the past decade.?While an investment deal was struck in 2020 after years of negotiations, it is currently on ice, in part because of political differences – the EU has called China a “system rival” –?but also because the Chinese government sanctioned European Parliament members after they criticized China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims.”?

Things have been frosty ever since and the lack of personal contact during the pandemic didn’t help.

This caused great upset to some EU members, who see good economic relations with China as essential to the?bloc’s?ambition to become a major geopolitical player.

Read the full analysis here.

Battles between Ukrainian and Russian forces for Bakhmut continue, as Russian forces try?to take “full control” of the key eastern city, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Friday in an update.

The main focus of Russian attacks remains in the?areas of Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariinka and Lyman, where Russian forces have launched more than 40 attacks over the last 24 hours, the General Staff said.

Ukrainian defense?forces repelled about 14 Russian attacks over the last 24 hours in the Bakhmut area, the General Staff said.?

CNN is unable to independently verify battlefield reports.

Some context: Russia has been trying to capture the city for months, but progress has been slow in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance. Much of the city has been destroyed and its strategic value is limited.

In this still from a video by humanitarian organization Save Ukraine, children return to Ukraine months after they were taken illegally to Russia.

Thirty-one children are back in Ukraine after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to Save Ukraine, a Kyiv-based humanitarian organization.

The children — pulling suitcases and bags of belongings, with some clutching stuffed animals — accompanied by family members, were embraced by volunteers after crossing the border into Ukraine by foot. They then boarded a coach to continue their journey.

“Children abducted by Russians from Kherson and Kharkiv regions have finally crossed the border with their families and are now safe,” Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine, said in?a Telegram post.

Save Ukraine’s Olha Yerokhina told CNN this was the fifth rescue mission arranged by the organization.

A group of 13 mothers had left Ukraine a little over a week ago, many of them granted power of attorney which allowed them to collect other parents’ children in addition to their own, she said.?

The party crossed into Poland before traveling through Belarus, Russia and finally entering Russian-occupied Crimea, where they were reunited with 24 of the children. The other seven children were collected in Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod, all inside Russia, she said.

Yerokhina said facilitating the rescue missions was difficult because Save Ukraine has no official contact with anybody in Russia. Instead, the organization received crucial help from volunteers in different locations.

Remember:?Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of?war crimes charges?brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior official, Maria Lvova-Belova, by the International Criminal Court last month.

Ukraine has said there are more than 16,000 such cases under investigation.

Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal, saying it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety.?

Evan Gershkovich, reporter for The Wall Street Journal, appears in an undated handout image.

Russian investigators have formally charged?Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich?with espionage, Russian state media reported Friday.

Gershkovich denied the accusations, according to the state news agency TASS. The newspaper has?“vehemently” denied?the Kremlin’s claims and the chief executive of Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, said it is working “around the clock” to secure his release.

The representative declined to comment further, as the journalist’s case was marked “top secret,” the state news agency said.

Dow Jones later reiterated its view that Gershkovich’s charges are “false and unjustified,” according to a statement, The company added: “We continue to demand Evan’s immediate release.”

What the US has said about the case:?US?President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to officially declare Gershkovich wrongfully detained in Russia, two US officials?told CNN earlier this week, a move that will trigger new government resources to work toward his release.

US Secretary of State?Antony Blinken?spoke last weekend?with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for Gershkovich’s immediate release. The White House has said there is?“no reason to believe”?Russia’s justification for the detention.

More background:?Gershkovich is the first US journalist detained on spying accusations by Moscow since the Cold War. His detention came a week after US authorities announced charges against a Russian national, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, accusing him of being a Russian spy.

The episode signals a significant ratcheting of both Moscow’s tensions with the United States and its campaign against foreign news media, which has been under intense pressure since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Sarah Dean,?Julia Horowitz, Eliza Mackintosh and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.