Ukraine: What happened today, Friday, April 1?
Ukrainian soldiers inspect trenches used by Russian soldiers during the occupation of villages on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Talks to stop the fighting in Ukraine resumed Friday, as another desperate attempt to rescue civilians from the encircled city of Mariupol failed and Russia accused the Ukrainians of a cross-border helicopter attack on a fuel depot.
Russian forces are being pushed back around Kyiv but fighting is still fierce in some areas near Ukraine's capital, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.
Repeated efforts to deliver aid to Mariupol and help civilians evacuate have failed, with both sides blaming the other.
Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said.
Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pull-out at Chernobyl came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant, although there was no independent confirmation of that.
Meanwhile, a fuel depot was ablaze at one of Russia's main logistics hubs for its Ukraine war effort on Friday, after what Moscow described as a cross-border air raid by Ukrainian helicopters, the first of its kind in the five-week war.
A Russian threat to cut off gas supplies to Europe unless buyers paid with roubles by Friday was averted for now, with Moscow saying it would not halt supplies until new payments are due later in April.
Friday's peace talks, by video link, picked up from a meeting in Turkey on Tuesday, where Ukraine offered to accept neutral status, with international guarantees for its security.
"We are preparing a response. There is some movement forward, above all in relation to the recognition of the impossibility of Ukraine" joining NATO, Russia's Lavrov said on Friday.
- Red Cross team attempting to help civilians in Mariupol forced to retreat.Â
- 'We stand with you' says European Parliament chief on Ukraine visit.Â
- Urgent referral service set up in Rotunda for pregnant Ukrainian refugees.Â
- Ukraine poultry producer restarts exports in optimistic sign for region.Â
- Concerns on Mariupol relief effort as Russia accuses Ukraine of oil depot strike.Â
Russian troops continued withdrawing from areas around Kyiv, three days after Moscow said it would reduce military activity near the capital and the northern city of Chernihiv to promote trust between the two sides.
Ukrainian forces exploited the pullback by mounting counterattacks and retaking towns and villages.
Hours after the reported attack on the Russian oil depot, an eyewitness reached by telephone in Belgorod, who asked not to be identified, said aircraft were flying overhead and there were continuous explosions from the direction of the border.
Ukraine said it would neither confirm nor deny responsibility for the huge fire at the fuel depot in Belgorod.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the incident did not create comfortable conditions for the peace talks.
Russia now says it has turned its focus to the Donbas, a southeastern area where it has backed separatists since 2014.Â
Russia's biggest target in that area is Mariupol, where the United Nations believes thousands of civilians have died under a month-long siege, suffering relentless bombardment without access to food and water supplies, medicine or heat.
While the International Committee of the Red Cross said a convoy it had organised had been denied permission to bring aid into Mariupol, it did not say who had refused permission.
The city has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war.Â
Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka, south of the besieged northern city of Chernihiv and along one of the main supply routes between the city and Kyiv, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
Ukraine has also continued to make successful but limited counter-attacks to the east and northeast of Kyiv, the ministry said.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian withdrawals in the country’s north and centre were just a military tactic to build up strength for new attacks in the southeast.
“We know their intentions,” Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation.
“We know that they are moving away from those areas where we hit them in order to focus on other, very important ones where it may be difficult for us.” “There will be battles ahead,” he added.
The Department of Health has said a specific urgent referral service has been set up at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin for pregnant women arriving into the country from Ukraine.
The HSE is providing care support at emergency accommodation, including for expectant mothers who’ve fled since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, the Department has admitted Ireland has “acknowledged capacity challenges” within its hospital system at present and it is not yet possible to estimate the additional expenditure required to meet the health needs of Ukrainian refugees.
Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson has told TDs and senators that claims the airline has raised prices for refugees on flights from Poland were 'FALSE' and “invented on social media”.
In a letter sent earlier this week to the Oireachtas joint committee on transport and communications, Mr Wilson said Ryanair and its staff “have gone to significant efforts” to support Ukrainians since the Russian invasion in February and would continue to do so into the future.
A Kilkenny woman has told how she was able to rescue the family of her Ukrainian surrogate from the war-torn country thanks to the help of two landscape gardeners from Scotland.
After Cathy Wheatley heard Joe McCarthy and Gary Taylor had rescued Carlow medical student Racheal Diyaolu from the city of Sumy, she got in touch with them on March 7.
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