Russian invasion of Ukraine: tanks and rocket attacks on the cities. Breaking news

In the Luhansk region, during the Easter celebration, the Russians ruined seven houses (three apartment buildings and four private houses) and stroke the oil refinery in Lysychansk, the head of Luhansk RSA Serhiy Haidai informs. On Sunday all parts of the region were under heavy shelling by the Russians. Several cars, including trucks, were involved in an accident due to enemy fire. On April 24 Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, and Hirske suffered the most.

Global military spending in 2021 for the first time in history exceeded $ 2 trillion reaching $ 2 113 billion more, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Russia is among the top five in terms of military spending, while Ukraine is in the top forty.

The General Staff: In Donetsk and Tavriisk directions occupants continue to fire on the AFU positions. In Mariupol, the enemy shelled the Azovstal plant with missiles and bombs. Occupants continue the assault on Popasna. In Pivdennyy Buh direction the enemy fired on the positions of our forces in the districts of Knyazivka and Mykolaivka.

The General Staff: In Slobozhanske direction occupants fire artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers on the settlements of Kharkiv, Karasivka, Prudyanka, and Korobochkyne. The enemy tried to assault the directions of Izyum — Barvinkove and Izyum — Slovyansk and failed. Occupants fired on the districts of Velyka Komyshuvakha, Virnopillya, and Nova Dmytrivka.

CNN shows new photos of the destruction in Horenka, Kyiv region, taken by drone.

In the last three days 5 000 residents of the Kherson region were able to evacuate in different directions, the head of Kryvyy Rih Military Administration Oleksandr Vilkul informs. In total, more than 100 000 migrants have already passed through Kryvyy Rih, and 50 000 are now in the city.

Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton compared the war in Ukraine to the events of the 1930s when Hitler's Third Reich attacked Poland. He drew this parallel on air of local TV Channel Nine on Monday when Australia and New Zealand celebrate the ANZAC day, remembering the fallen in wars and war conflicts.

Main news that happened overnight:

— Russia has war plans against Estonia but this country will continue to give Ukraine military support.
— European Union prepares the sixth package of sanctions against Russia that includes a "certain form" of oil embargo aiming to deprive the Kremlin of income and minimize economical damage to Europe.
— OSCE calls on to free four representatives of the organization who were detained while performing their official duty on the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are not controlled by the Ukrainian government.
— Over 5 million refugees (5 186 744 people) have left Ukraine in the last two months of the full-scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine.
— Ukrainian refugees who flee from the war to Europe may stay in the countries for a longer period and become a necessary labor force.
— The work of the Russian Embassy in the USA is "blocked", its bank accounts are closed.
— G7 Ambassadors met with the first deputy head of the NABU Hizo Uhlava to discuss the effectiveness of the Bureau in the times of the war.
— US President Joe Biden congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his victory in the presidential elections in France and expressed hope for further cooperation, including the support of Ukraine.
— Lithuania calls on to provide sanctions to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kyrylo for his support of the Russian war against Ukraine.
— Current President of France Emmanuel Macron is officially re-elected for the second term, the MIA of France informed after the count of 100 % of the voices.

“The friendship and partnership between the USA and Ukraine are strong like never before,” Zelenskyy replied to Biden in Twitter.

The Centre for Countering Disinformation has published the main messages pushed by the Russian propagandist mass media over the past week:

• Orthodox Christians are oppressed in Ukraine
• A powerful informational attack against the Russian Federation is underway
• Ukraine is losing the war

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Head of Pentagon Lloyd Austin are talking to Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, advisor to the President's Office chairman Oleksiy Arestovych said.

Kyiv returns curfew hours to 10 PM–5 AM, Kyiv City State Administration informs.

Two out of the five civilians killed in the Donetsk Region today were children aged 5 and 14, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Regional Administration, informs.

Over a hundred Ukrainian defenders have received meritable promotions, service awards, valuable gifts, and medals of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “For sacrifice and love for Ukraine”.

The Russians killed five civilians in the Donetsk Region on Easter, Pavlo Kyrylenko informs. Another five were injured. The data on Mariupol and Volnovakha are hard to get.

France has elected its next president. According to exit polls, Macron came ahead of Le Pen.

The 24 April update from the Joint Forces Operation troops:

• Seven enemy attacks have been fended off.
• 13 tanks, 3 artillery systems, 17 armour material, 4 ACVs, 18 automotive materiel, and 4 refuellers of the enemy have been destroyed.
• 3 Orlan-10 drones have been downed.

Weekly summary:

• 63 enemy attacks have been fended off.
• 1 air defence missile system, 55 tanks, 20 artillery systems, 97 armoured material, 6 ACVs, 2 specialized engineering equipment, 62 automotive materiel, and 5 refuellers of the Russian army have been destroyed.
• 5 warplanes, 1 helicopter, 28 drones, and 3 cruise missiles of the enemy have been downed.

Civilians hiding in a bomb shelter in Mariupol get Easter treats from the Azov.

Nine Russian missiles have hit Kremenchuk, Poltava Region, on Easter, Dmytro Lunin, the head of the Regional Administration, informs.

The USA will continue to support Ukrainians, Joe Biden wrote. “Two months after Putin launched an unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine, Kyiv still stands. President Zelenskyy and his democratically-elected government remain in power,” his tweet reads.

Putin is no longer interested in peace talks with Ukraine and has switched to capturing as much territory as possible in the shortest possible time instead after the sinking of the Moskva cruiser, Financial Times reports, citing a source in the Kremlin.

Russia has lost 90% of its best paratroopers in Ukraine, claims the Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev.

Donbas. This is the area near the mortar battery of the Kholodnyi Yar 93rd Mechanized Brigade that kept working under enemy fire, holding back the enemy infantry’s advance, volunteer Roman Donik wrote.

Two people have been killed and eleven injured in the Russian shelling of the Kharkiv Region on 24 April, Syniehubov said on the air of the TV news marathon.

The invaders moved an enterprise out of Vovchansk, the Kharkiv region, and set up a prison on its premises, where they use torture, said Oleh Synehubov, the chief of the oblast military administration, on the national telethon.

From April 25 the curfew in the Luhansk Oblast will last from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., says Serhii Haidai, head of the Regional Administration.

The Centre for Countering Disinformation believes that the Russians want to cause famine in Ukraine. According to Denysova’s information, the enemy moves the grain taken from the Ukrainian farmers to the occupied Crimea. Farmers in the Kherson Region are forced to give up 70% of their future crops.

17 air targets were destroyed by Ukrainian soldiers on April 24, said Oleksiy Arestovych.

Missile strikes have been reported in the Poltava Region. Five blasts have been heard, the Head of the Poltava Regional State Administration Dmytro Lunin informs.

“You there, in the Kremlin, won’t like what’s coming if you don’t do it,” Oleksiy Arestovich, advisor to the President's Office chairman, warned the Russians about the consequences of their refusal to meet near Azovstal and negotiate the ceasefire in Mariupol.

The removal of rubble after yesterday’s Russian missile strike on a residential building in Odessa has been completed, Suspilne reports.

Russia wants to force Ukrainian prisoners to donate blood for the invaders, informed the Ombud Liudmyla Denisova. "This fact is the evidence to the Russians committing similar atrocities as the Nazis in concentration camps during the World War II," she wrote. This violates Article 26 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

The Marines showed how they destroy a Russian T-72 tank with an ATGM.

Last night Russia fired two missiles at Odessa, aiming into a residential area. They were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, said the Chief of the regional military administration Maksym Marchenko.

"It's convenient to close eyes and pretend nothing is happening. Especially when you’ve been lining pockets with Russian money for years. ", wrote Mykhailo Podoliak on Twitter in response to Dusseldorf's mayor Thomas Geisel questioning if "the news about Russian war crimes in Ukraine can be trusted." "Ask questions to a man who lost his family in Odesa or parents of a raped girl from Bucha," said Podoliak.

The invaders took temporary control over a part of Zarichne (the Donetsk oblast). They tried to gain a foothold in Rubizhne, but to no avail - the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Up to seven Belarusian battalions are involved at the military operations on the border with Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports.

The Russians fired at Chuhuiv, the Kharkiv region, reports Suspilne, with the reference to the town's mayor Halyna Minaieva. Provisionally, there's one dead, three wounded, including a mother with a 12-year-old child.

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is involved in the illegal deportation of Ukrainians to Russia, according to the journalists of Slidstvo.Info, referring to the correspondence of the "charity wing" of the ROC. Thus, the RF sends them information about the state of occupation and provides information about the deportees. The ROC in an organized manner puts them into churches and monasteries.

The invaders in sight. The Ministry of Defense showed how Ukrainian snipers of the 28th MB work.

Answering a journalist's question if the United States are ready to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said that the administration continues to look into "additional steps" when it comes to punishing the Kremlin for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. (CNN).

French, German and Israeli dual-use items are found in the seized Russian military equipment, although sanctions imposed in 2014 should have made it impossible to supply such parts to Russia, deputy Chief of the President's Office Andrii Sybiha said.

A US Congresswoman Victoria Spartz (born in Ukraine) sent a letter to the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken suggesting to redeploy the evacuated US diplomatic missions to Lviv. She points out that many EU countries have already returned their embassies to Kyiv (CNN).

The Belarusian partisans helped disrupt Russia's offensive against Kyiv by mass sabotage of the railway. Partisans disrupted control panels and automatic traffic control systems, causing trains carrying Russian military equipment to move more slowly than planned.  

Occupiers’ tanks with Ukrainian flags on them were spotted on the outskirts of the Hrozove village, Kherson region, then the tank column headed for the Molodetske village, as reported by the operations command "Pivden’” (South). The military warn that "the enemy is trying to simulate the presence of Ukrainian Armed Forces units on the occupied territories, and then does the shelling of the occupied settlements by the same tanks", to make up a fake picture of civilians attacked by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

After treatment and rehabilitation, more than 80% of wounded servicemen of the Armed Forces are back in action, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said in a national TV marathon.

Well-known human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy told Sky News about her work in the legal group investigating war crimes in Ukraine. In particular, she said that the international community is inclined to "recognize rape as a weapon of war" even when the order to rape does not come from the command intself, but when there is an unspoken permission for that (The Guardian)

Bank of America has closed the accounts of Russian consulates general in Houston and New York, stated Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov on Russia 24 propaganda TV channel. "In fact, the embassy is under blockade by US government agencies," he said.

Zelensky had a telephone conversation with Turkish President Erdogan.

(1/2) I just had an important telephone conversation with the President @RTErdogan. The day before his talks with Putin, I have stressed on the need for immediate evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, in particular – from “Azovstal”, and the immediate exchange of the blocked troops.

(1/2) Провів важливу телефонну розмову з Президентом @RTErdogan. Напередодні його перемовин із Путіним наголосив на необхідності негайної евакуації цивільних з Маріуполя, зокрема з «Азовсталі», негайного обміну заблокованих військових.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 24, 2022

International solidarity and support are one of the strongest means of Ukraine in the fight against Putin, wrote Viktor Yushchenko, the third president of Ukraine, in a column for The Guardian. He calls on the world community not to decrease attention to Russia's aggression and war crimes of Russia, no matter how "tired" the world coud become of this topic. "Those of us staying in Ukraine, cannot afford succumbing to fatigue, otherwise we are at risk of missing victory," Yushchenko wrote.