By The Related Press
WASHINGTON — Russia’s newly appointed battlefield commander in Ukraine made his fame crushing resistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout that nation’s devastating civil warfare.
Russian forces led by Gen. Alexander Dvornikov destroyed complete cities whereas dropping barrel bombs that focused civilians. With Moscow supporting Assad, the warfare in Syria has killed greater than 350,000 folks.
Lt. Col. Fares al-Bayoush, a Syrian military defector, mentioned Sunday he expects the same “scorched-earth” technique below the commander in Ukraine. Talking by phone from Turkey, al-Bayoush mentioned he believes the goal of naming Dvornikov as Ukraine warfare commander is to trigger widespread destruction in lots of locations directly.
“He has excellent expertise on this coverage,” al-Bayoush mentioned. “This commander is a warfare legal.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— US: Russia’s new battlefield commander has historical past of brutality
— Ukraine digs in to battle Russia’s looming jap offensive
— Evaluation: Conflict, financial system might weaken Putin’s place as chief
— Biden, Modi to talk as India avoids exhausting line on Russia
— Zelenskyy, in AP interview, says he seeks peace regardless of atrocities
— Poland-Ukraine ties seen as goal of Russian disinformation
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for extra protection
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
KYIV, Ukraine — The mayor of Kyiv and his brother mentioned the go to of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to their capital exhibits who Ukraine’s actual associates are at this important time. However they perceive if safety issues maintain U.S. President Joe Biden from visiting for now.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir have been skilled boxers and now outspoken defenders of Ukraine. Interviewed Sunday on ABC Information “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” they mentioned they anticipate Russia’s army to return and goal Kyiv once more. And once they do, they mentioned they'll’t defend Ukraine with their fists — they want weapons.
Wladimir Klitschko additionally pleaded for the world to isolate Russia economically, saying “each cent that Russia is getting, they’re utilizing for weapons to kill us.”
Vitali Klitschko mentioned everybody was shocked when the Russians who pushed on Kyiv retreated after killing a whole bunch of civilians throughout their occupation. He referred to as it genocide to kill girls, kids, previous folks and youngsters for no cause.
To defend Ukraine now, the mayor mentioned, is to defend democracy and peace in Europe.
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WILMINGTON, Del. — The White Home mentioned President Joe Biden will press Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a tough line in opposition to Russia’s Ukraine invasion. Press Secretary Jen Psaki says the leaders plan a digital assembly on Monday.
India’s impartial stance within the warfare has raised issues in Washington and earned reward from Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov, who lauded India this month for judging “the state of affairs in its entirety, not simply in a one-sided means.”
India abstained when the U.N. Common Meeting voted Thursday to droop Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council over allegations of warfare crimes. India continues to buy Russian power regardless of Western strain to keep away from shopping for Russian oil and fuel. And the U.S. has thought of sanctions on India for its latest buy of superior Russian air protection techniques.
Psaki’s assertion says Biden will talk about how Russia’s warfare in opposition to Ukraine is destabilizing the worldwide meals provide and commodity markets, and the necessity to strengthen the worldwide financial system whereas ”upholding a free, open, rules-based worldwide order to bolster safety, democracy, and prosperity.”
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BERLIN — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer mentioned he'll meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.
The Austria Press Company reported that Nehammer informed reporters in Vienna on Sunday that he plans to make the journey. It follows a visit on Saturday to Kyiv, the place he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
APA reported that Nehammer goals to encourage dialogue between Ukraine and Russia and likewise tackle “warfare crimes” in his assembly with Putin.
Austria is a member of the European Union and has backed the 27-nation bloc’s sanctions in opposition to Russia, although it up to now has opposed slicing off deliveries of Russian fuel. The nation is militarily impartial and isn't a member of NATO.
Nehammer mentioned he was taking the journey on his personal initiative, and that he had consulted with the European Union’s prime officers. He mentioned that he additionally knowledgeable Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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BERLIN — The U.N. nuclear watchdog mentioned Ukraine mentioned the employees on the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant has been rotated for the primary time in three weeks after Russian troops left the realm.
The Vienna-based Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company has expressed concern in regards to the well-being of the employees because the Russian army took management of the positioning of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe at the start of the warfare.
The company mentioned Ukraine knowledgeable it on Sunday that it has now rotated the employees, however the state of affairs stays removed from regular. They needed to be transported to and from the positioning by water, with the Pripyat River being the one means for folks residing within the metropolis of Slavutych to at present attain the plant.
The IAEA mentioned Ukraine has knowledgeable it that analytical laboratories for radiation monitoring on the web site have been destroyed, with analytical devices “stolen, damaged or in any other case disabled.” The automated transmission of radiation monitoring information has been disabled.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The governor of the area that features Ukraine’s fourth-largest metropolis, Dnipro, says the airport was hit twice by missile assaults on Sunday. The Ukrainian army command mentioned Russian forces additionally maintain shelling Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis, Kharkiv, and have stored up their siege of Mariupol, the important thing southern port metropolis that has been below assault for practically six weeks.
The Russian Protection Ministry says it’s air-launched missiles hit Ukraine’s S-300 air protection missile techniques in two areas, whereas sea-launched cruise missiles destroyed a Ukrainian unit’s headquarters within the Dnipro area. Neither aspect’s army claims might be independently verified.
The Pentagon mentioned Russia has a transparent benefit in armored forces for its subsequent part in its warfare on Ukraine. Press secretary John Kirby mentioned Friday that the Russians unfold themselves too skinny to take the capital, however now they’re extra centered on a smaller area, and nonetheless have the overwhelming majority of their fight energy. A significant effort by Ukrainian defenses and extra Western help might be wanted to push them again.
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WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. official mentioned Russia has appointed a brand new commander to supervise its warfare on Ukraine.
The official talking on situation of anonymity mentioned Russia has turned to one in every of its most skilled army officers, Gen. Alexander Dvornikov. U.S. officers say the 60-year-old basic has a document of brutality in opposition to civilians in Syria and different theaters of warfare.
The White Home nationwide safety adviser, Jake Sullivan, informed CNN on Sunday that “this basic will simply be one other creator of crimes and brutality in opposition to Ukrainian civilians.” And he mentioned “no appointment of any basic can erase the truth that Russia has already confronted a strategic failure in Ukraine.”
The brand new battlefield management comes as Russia gears up for what is anticipated to be a big and extra centered push to increase Russian management within the Donbas after failing to beat the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Sullivan reiterated assist for the Ukrainian authorities, saying the US is decided to do all it could possibly to assist Ukrainians resist this basic and the forces he instructions.
— Robert Burns and Hope Yen
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s border guard company says that about 2,200 Ukrainian males of preventing age have been detained up to now whereas making an attempt to go away the nation in violation of martial regulation.
The company mentioned Sunday that a few of them have used solid paperwork and others tried to bribe border guards to get in another country.
It mentioned some have been discovered useless whereas making an attempt to cross the Carpathian mountains in antagonistic climate, with out specifying the quantity.
Below martial regulation, Ukrainian males between 18 and 60 are barred from leaving the nation in order that they are often referred to as as much as battle.
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WARSAW, Poland — Sirens have sounded in some Polish cities to mark the anniversary of a 2010 aircraft crash that killed the nation’s president, regardless of protests that their sound can be unnecessarily traumatic for refugees from the warfare in Ukraine.
The sirens early Sunday have been supposed so as to add to the importance and the plaintive character of observances honoring the late President Lech Kaczynski, the primary girl and 94 different distinguished Poles killed 12 years in the past within the crash of the presidential aircraft in Russia. Kaczynski was the dual of Jaroslaw Kaczynski — the chief of the principle governing Regulation and Justice occasion.
Provincial governors ignored calls to not use the sirens out of concern for refugees from neighboring Ukraine, traumatized by air raid alarms. Authorities despatched textual content messages to refugees’ telephones that the sirens would imply no hazard.
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KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army says Russia has been beefing up its forces and making an attempt to probe Ukrainian defenses.
The Ukrainian army command mentioned Sunday that the Russian troops have continued makes an attempt to interrupt Ukrainian defenses close to Izyum, southeast of Kharkiv. It reported that Russia was sending reinforcements to Izyum whereas persevering with the shelling of Kharkiv.
The army added that the Russians additionally continued their makes an attempt to take management of Mariupol, the Sea of Azov port that has been besieged by Russian forces for practically 1 ½ months.
After Russia’s try to seize Kyiv and different huge cities in northeastern Ukraine shortly failed, Ukrainian and Western officers anticipate Moscow to launch a brand new offensive in jap Ukraine, the place Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he centered on the necessity to monitor down perpetrators of warfare crimes in a telephone name with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Zelenskyy mentioned on Twitter that in Sunday’s name “we emphasised that every one perpetrators of warfare crimes have to be recognized and punished.”
Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities in opposition to civilians in Bucha and different locations close to Kyiv, the place a whole bunch of slaughtered civilians, many with their palms sure and indicators of torture, have been discovered after Russian troops retreated.
Zelenskyy additionally mentioned he and Scholz “mentioned anti-Russian sanctions, protection and monetary assist for Ukraine.”
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has opened Holy Week with a name for an Easter truce in Ukraine to make room for a negotiated peace, highlighting the necessity for leaders to “make some sacrifices for the great of the folks.”
Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass earlier than crowds in St. Peter’s Sq. for the primary time because the pandemic, Pope Francis referred to as for “weapons to be laid down to start an Easter truce, to not reload weapons and resume preventing, no! A truce to achieve peace via actual negotiations.”
Francis didn't refer on to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however the reference was clear. He has repeatedly denounced the warfare and the struggling dropped at harmless civilians.
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HELSINKI — Finland says that a cargo of artwork works from Russian museums has been returned to Russia after it was seized below European Union sanctions in opposition to Moscow.
Finland’s customs service mentioned late Saturday that the Overseas Ministry granted a particular allow to return the consignment with a complete insured worth of round 42 million euros ($46 million). It mentioned that vans carrying the artwork works from the Hermitage Museum and the Pavlovsk State Museum in St. Petersburg, amongst others, left Finnish territory on Saturday afternoon.
The cargo was seized on the Vaalimaa border crossing at the start of April. The works have been en path to Russia after mortgage to museums in Europe and Japan. Specialists say that artwork works loaned from Russia usually journey overland through Finland.
Russia has demanded the return of all works on mortgage to “unfriendly” nations that imposed sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
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MOSCOW — The Russian army says it has struck Ukrainian air protection batteries within the nation’s south and east.
Russian Protection Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov mentioned Sunday that the army used air-launched missiles to hit Ukraine’s S-300 air protection missile techniques in Starobohdanivka within the southern Mykolaiv area and at an air base in Chuhuiv within the jap Kharkiv area.
Konashenkov additionally mentioned that sea-launched cruise missiles destroyed the headquarters of a Ukrainian army unit close to Zvonetske within the Dnipro area.
The Russian army claims couldn’t be independently verified.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says extra civilians are anticipated to go away Mariupol Sunday of their private automobiles.
Evacuations are additionally deliberate from Berdyansk, Tokmak and Enerhodar within the south and Sieverierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna and Rubizhne within the east.
Mariupol, a strategic port metropolis on the Sea of Azov, has been besieged by Russian forces for practically 1 ½ months, reduce from meals, water and energy provides and pummeled by relentless bombardment that has killed at the least 5,000, in response to native officers.
Ukrainian authorities have urged civilians within the east to evacuate within the face of an imminent Russian offensive. They accused Russia of killing 52 folks on Friday on the practice station within the jap metropolis of Kramatorsk as they have been making ready to evacuate.
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GENEVA — The U.N. refugee company says the quantity of people that have left Ukraine because the starting of the warfare has reached 4.5 million.
A daily replace Sunday of the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Refugees’ on-line portal on numbers of refugees fleeing Ukraine since Feb. 24 introduced the overall to some 4.504 million.
About 2.6 million of these fled at the least initially to Poland and greater than 686,000 to Romania. Nonetheless, UNHCR notes that there are only a few border controls throughout the European Union and it believes “numerous folks” have moved on from the primary nation they arrived in.
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LONDON — Britain’s Ministry of Protection says that Russia’s armed forces are in search of to answer mounting losses by boosting troop numbers with personnel who had been discharged from army service since 2012.
In an intelligence replace on Twitter, the ministry additionally mentioned Sunday that the Russian army’s efforts to “generate extra preventing energy” additionally embrace making an attempt to recruit from Trans-Dniester, a breakaway area in Moldova that borders Ukraine.
Russia maintains some 1,500 troops within the area, which isn't internationally acknowledged.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed The Related Press on Saturday that he's dedicated to in search of peace regardless of Russian assaults on civilians which have surprised the world.
He mentioned nobody needs to barter with individuals who tortured their nation — “as a person, as a father, I perceive this very effectively.” However he mentioned “we don’t need to lose alternatives, if we now have them, for a diplomatic resolution.”
Zelenskyy mentioned he’s assured Ukrainians would settle for peace regardless of the horrors they've witnessed within the warfare. However in the meantime, Russian troops are regrouping for an anticipated surge in preventing in jap Ukraine, together with the besieged port metropolis of Mariupol that Ukrainian defenders are battling to retain.
So Zelenskyy renewed his plea for international locations to ship extra weapons. He says they must battle for all times — not “for mud when there's nothing and no folks. That’s why you will need to cease this warfare.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — U.Ok. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, promising a lot assist that his nation would possibly by no means be bullied once more.
Johnson’s shock go to included a pledge of 120 armored automobiles and new anti-ship missile techniques, a part of one other 100 million kilos ($130 million) of high-grade army tools. Johnson additionally confirmed an extra $500 million in World Financial institution lending, taking Britain’s complete mortgage assure as much as $1 billion.
Johnson mentioned Ukraine defied the percentages pushing Russian forces “from the gates of Kyiv, reaching the best feat of arms of the twenty first century.″
The prime minister credit “Zelenskyy’s resolute management and the invincible heroism and braveness of the Ukrainian folks” for thwarting what he calls the “monstrous goals” of Russian chief Vladimir Putin.
Johnson says Britain and its companions “are going to ratchet up the financial strain … not simply freezing property in banks and sanctioning oligarchs however shifting away from use of Russian hydrocarbons.”
Johnson additionally described a imaginative and prescient for a future Ukraine so fortified and guarded by the tools, expertise and know-how of Britain and its companions that it could possibly by no means be threatened in the identical means once more. Within the meantime, Johnson mentioned, “there's a large quantity to do to be sure that Ukraine is profitable, that Ukraine wins and that Putin should fail.”