April 16, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The head of the Lviv regional military administration in western Ukraine said Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems downed Russian cruise missiles that were fired on Saturday morning toward the Lviv region.

"In the morning of April 16, missiles were fired at the Lviv region from Su-35 aircraft of the Russian occupiers," Regional military governor Maksym Kozytsky said. "Units of anti-aircraft missile forces Air Command West of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed four cruise missiles." 

Kozytsky also claimed the Russian aircraft that fired the missiles had taken off from Baranovichi airfield in neighboring Belarus.

Some context: Belarus has been used as a springboard for many of Russia's air operations in Ukraine, according to intelligence collected by NATO surveillance planes.

The Ukrainian military previously said it has shot down several missiles fired towards its territory from Belarus.

After Russia failed to gain the ground it wanted around Kyiv, forces retreated back into Belarus to regroup and redeploy. Belarus has also been recognized as a key ally for Russia on the world stage.

While NATO fears that the Kremlin may call on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to deploy his army to bolster Moscow's forces on the battlefield, US President Joe Biden leveled twin sanctions against both countries on April 8.

One bill suspends normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus and punishes the countries by paving the way for higher tariffs on imports from them, while the other prohibits energy imports from Russia, including oil, coal and natural gas.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Sarah Dean, Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou and Nikki Carvajal contributed reporting to this post.

Civilians fleeing the besieged port city of Mariupol have been told to make their own way to the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, as wet weather has halted bus evacuations.

Buses are unable to travel through a washed-out section of road between the town of Vasylivka and Zaporizhzhia to its north, according to a social media post by Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Instead, people leaving the cities of Mariupol, Berdiansk, Tokmak and Enerhodar have been told to travel to Zaporizhzhia themselves.

Five evacuation corridors have been set up in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. All are directed toward Bakhmut, directly east of the town of Luhansk.

Vereshchuk called on Russia to respect the corridors. She added that the evacuation corridors in the Luhansk region "will operate subject to the cessation of shelling by the occupying forces."

Some context: Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of stalling evacuation efforts across the country.

Vereshchuk announced nine evacuation routes on Thursday, adding that there were no corridors on Wednesday in the Zaporizhzhia region because "the occupiers blocked evacuation buses, and in Luhansk region, they are violating the ceasefire."

Up to 180,000 people are waiting to be evacuated from in and around the strategic port city of Mariupol, Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on Wednesday during an online media briefing. Boychenko’s comments were interpreted in English via Ukraine’s government-supported Media Center.

At the end of March, Boychenko echoed the words of his compatriots and said that evacuation corridors had come largely under the control of Russian forces.

"Not everything is in our power," Boychenko said, in a live television interview at the time. "Unfortunately, we are in the hands of the occupiers today."

CNN's Nathan Hodge and Amy Cassidy contributed reporting to this post.

Kyiv has once again come under fire on Saturday, with several explosions on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, according to the city's mayor Vitali Klitschko.

More than 900 bodies of Ukrainian civilians have been discovered in the Kyiv region since Russia's withdrawal.

And a senior US defense official said Ukrainian missiles hit Russia's flagship in the Black Sea earlier this week -- supporting Ukraine's account.

If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a statement that the Ukrainian capital "came under fire" on Saturday morning. 

"The explosions were in Darnytsky district on the outskirts of the city," he said. "Rescuers and medics are currently working on the scene. Information about casualties is being clarified." 

Some residents have begun returning to Kyiv after the failure of a Russian offensive launched from the north of Ukraine. Klitschko urged Kyiv residents to reconsider returning for the time being, saying: "I ask you to refrain from this and stay in safer places."

Maksym Kozytskyy, the military governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine, said Saturday that "air defenses were working" during an air raid alarm that began at 5:46 a.m. local time and lasted until 7:02 a.m. 

When President Joe Biden labeled Russia's actions in Ukraine "genocide" this week, the response by his team looked much different than when he declared, also unplanned, that Vladimir Putin shouldn't be in power.

Both comments caught advisers off guard, appearing nowhere in his scripted remarks and going well beyond the official government position. His remark about genocide happened inside an ethanol processing plant in Iowa, standing atop a stage covered in straw.

Like his declaration at Warsaw's royal castle that Putin "cannot remain in power," Biden identifying genocide in Ukraine prompted questions about what, if anything, the new rhetoric meant for the grinding conflict. 

But unlike with the earlier remark, Biden had been discussing the prospect of genocide in Ukraine for the past week, according to a person familiar with the matter, making his comment less of a shock. And instead of a carefully written statement attributed to an unnamed official, which in Warsaw only led to more questions, Biden made a decision to do the explaining himself.

As Biden confronts a war officials believe could go on for months, he is navigating both the weight of the presidency and its confines. His words are closely parsed for official meaning, even when they are ad-libbed, leading to worries about escalating the crisis.

At the same time, his impulse to visit Ukraine and witness the situation firsthand has been hampered by the bubble that accompanies him everywhere. And domestic concerns are pulling him in other directions, his remit extending well beyond a foreign war -- leading to sometimes-discordant scenarios like declaring genocide inside a biofuel plant, bits of corn dust floating from above.

Read the full story here.

More than 900 bodies of Ukrainian civilians have been discovered in the Kyiv region since Russia's withdrawal. Ukrainian officials reported strikes across multiple regions Friday, as an official warned the situation was getting more tense.

And a senior US defense official said Ukrainian missiles hit Russia's flagship in the Black Sea earlier this week -- supporting Ukraine's account.

If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN Friday that "all of the countries of the world" should be prepared for the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use tactical nuclear weapons in his war on Ukraine.

Zelensky told CNN's Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview from the office of the president in Kyiv on Friday that Putin could turn to either nuclear or chemical weapons because he does not value the lives of the people of Ukraine.

"Chemical weapons, they should do it, they could do it, for them the life of the people, nothing. That's why," Zelensky said. "We should think not be afraid, not be afraid but be ready. But that is not a question for Ukraine, not only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think."

Zelensky has remained in Ukraine throughout the course of the 50-day war with Russia, as Ukraine's forces have resisted the Kremlin's attempts to seize Kyiv and forced Russia to refocus its war efforts on the eastern and southern regions of the country, where Ukraine is anticipating a significant escalation in fighting in the days to come.

One of Russia's most important naval warships sunk in the Black Sea this week, which Ukraine said was the result of a missile strike, while Russia claimed it was due to a fire from the detonation of ammunition.

At the same time, Russia is firing cruise missiles into the outskirts of Kyiv and still maintains the ability to target Ukraine's capital with long-range weaponry.

US officials have warned about the possibility that Putin, if backed into a corner, could turn to the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. CIA Director Bill Burns said Thursday that the CIA watches "very intently" over the possibility, while emphasizing that the US has not yet seen any signs that Russia is preparing to take such a step.

"Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they've faced so far militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low yield nuclear weapons," he said in public remarks at Georgia Tech.

Watch a clip of the interview here.

You can see more of the interview on "The Lead" at 4 p.m. ET and the full interview will run on Sunday at 9 a.m. ET on "State of the Union."

Two Ukrainian Neptune missiles hit the Moskva — Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea — earlier this week, a senior defense official said Friday.

A more detailed assessment from an American official said that the strike and subsequent sinking of the ship was the result of a Ukrainian missile.

CNN reported yesterday the US believed with “medium confidence” that Ukraine’s version of events regarding a missile strike on the warship — which Moscow has disputed — was accurate, according to a source familiar with the intelligence.

More than 900 bodies of civilians have been discovered since the Russian army withdrew from the area, the head of the Kyiv regional police said during a briefing on Friday. 

Andrii Niebytov said the bodies were examined and transferred to forensic medical institutions for detailed examination. 

Niebytov also said that the bodies of some people in the village of Shevchenko ​had been identified, adding that "they were ordinary locals, unfortunately also tortured, and we see that they were shot." 

Niebytov said some of the people that were shot had white armbands on them to try to protect themselves from Russian forces.

"During the occupation of our cities, the occupiers forced citizens to wear white armbands as if this person had already been checked and was therefore not treated so meticulously. Therefore, in order to save their lives, our citizens wore these bandages themselves to protect themselves from gunshots," he said.  

He said that wearing white armbands did not always work, "even if they hung white rags on the fences of their apartments," adding that there were also children who were living in those apartments.