April 3, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Simone McCarthy, Steve George, Sana Noor Haq, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Maureen Chowdhury and Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 2:12 PM ET, Mon April 4, 2022
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5:58 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

Russian forces hold 11 Ukrainian mayors captive and kill one in detention, says Ukrainian minister

From CNN's Niamh Kennedy and Anastasia Graham Yooll in London

Russian forces are holding 11 mayors of Ukrainian local areas captive and have killed one mayor in detention, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday.

In a message posted to social media, Vereshchuk said that 11 local mayors from Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and the Donetsk regions "are in Russian captivity."

She added that Ukraine will "inform the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN and other organizations about their captivity."

Vereshchuk said the Ukrainian government learned on Saturday that Olga Sukhenko, the mayor of Motyzhyn -- a village in the Kyiv region -- was killed in captivity by Russian forces.

This is a war crime, those responsible will be punished in line with international humanitarian law," Vereshchuk said, adding that Ukraine will push to ensure "our civilians, our mayors, priests, journalists, and activists are liberated" from detention.

CNN could not independently verify those claims. Russian forces have detained local government officials in a number of instances around Ukraine.

The bodies of at least 20 civilian men have been found lying strewn across the street in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the area in shocking images released by AFP on Saturday.

CNN has requested comment from the Russian defense ministry regarding allegations of the execution of civilians in the Kyiv region and other parts of Ukraine.

5:52 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

Evacuation attempts from Mariupol will pick up again on Sunday, Ukrainian minister says

From CNN's Niamh Kennedy in London

Attempts to evacuate people from the besieged port city of Mariupol will pick up again on Sunday, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. 

Vereshchuk said a total of 17 buses will set off from near the southern city of Berdiansk, with a view to evacuating people from Berdiansk and neighboring Mariupol. 

"10 (buses) to evacuate the people of Mariupol and local residents from Berdiansk ... seven buses will try to approach Mariupol accompanied by the Red Cross," Vereshchuk said in a video posted to social media Sunday.

On Saturday, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team that had set off from Zaporizhzhia failed to reach Mariupol, spending the night en route to their destination, according to an ICRC press officer. 

Mariupol, which is ringed by Russian checkpoints, has been under weeks of intense bombardment. Ukrainian officials have described the situation there for the remaining residents as a major humanitarian emergency. 

Ukrainian authorities are also planning on evacuating people from Severodonetsk, Popasna, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, and the village of Nizhny in the Luhansk region on Sunday, Vereshchuk added.

Some background: Evacuation efforts across Ukraine have been ongoing, with over 4,000 civilians evacuated through corridors on Saturday, according to Vereshchuk.

Humanitarian convoy with 42 buses arrive at a refugee hub in Zaporizhzhia from Mariupol after 42 hours evacuation process on Saturday April 1.
Humanitarian convoy with 42 buses arrive at a refugee hub in Zaporizhzhia from Mariupol after 42 hours evacuation process on Saturday April 1. (Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

In a statement on Telegram, Vereshchuk said 1,263 people from the besieged city of Mariupol and the Russian-held city of Berdiansk reached the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia using their own vehicles. 

An evacuation convoy of 10 buses from the city of Berdiansk with more than 300 Mariupol residents also passed Vasylivka en route to Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, she said. 

CNN's Mariya Knight and staff in Lviv contributed reporting to this post.

4:51 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

Russian military confirms fuel facility strike on the southern coastal city of Odesa

From CNN's Yulia Kesaieva and Nathan Hodge in Lviv

A man stands with his dog as smoke rises after an Russian attack in Odesa, on April 3.
A man stands with his dog as smoke rises after an Russian attack in Odesa, on April 3. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

The Russian defense ministry on Sunday confirmed a strike on an oil refinery and fuel storage facilities in the key Ukrainian port city of Odesa, which has largely been spared the full brunt of Russian assaults since the invasion began in February.

"This morning, high-precision sea and air-based missiles destroyed an oil refinery and three storage facilities for fuel and lubricants near the city of Odesa, from which fuel was supplied to the group of Ukrainian troops in the Mykolaiv direction," a statement on Telegram read.

Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov said there were no casualties following the strike.

"Today the occupiers struck Odesa's critical infrastructure objects with missiles," Trukhanov said in televised remarks. "There's fire, there's smoke. Luckily, there are no casualties. Only buildings are damaged. The situation is under control."

Trukhanov said civilian buildings and private houses were damaged in the attack. 

The mayor also speculated that Russia would at some point use a contingent of troops stationed in Transnistria -- a separatist republic in the neighboring country of Moldova -- echoing concerns previously raised by Ukrainian officials.

"Of course, at some point sooner or later they will use them," he said. "It's difficult to say in which direction, but there's a threat. (Ukraine's Armed Forces) know this and are working on this."

Russian troops stationed in Transnistria are not known to have been involved in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Some background: A CNN team witnessed the aftermath of the strike, which occurred on Sunday morning and sent thick black clouds of smoke over the city.

A fuel depot in the Ukrainian city of Odesa was burning, the CNN team on the scene witnessed, with one local telling CNN they heard six explosions at the fuel depot before sunrise.

Speaking about the strike, Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman of the Operational Staff of Odesa regional military administration said, "One of the critical infrastructure objects was hit this this morning."

"Currently the situation is under control, the respective services are working on site. The details will be announced later," Bratchuk added.

The Odesa City Council confirmed an air attack on their Telegram account Sunday morning, saying that some Russian missiles were downed by their air defense system and that fire had broken out in some districts.

2:26 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

'Critical infrastructure' in Odesa hit: Regional military administration

From CNN's Yulia Kesaieva

(CNN)
(CNN)

A Russian strike had hit "critical infrastructure" in the southern port city of Odesa, Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman of the Operational Staff of Odesa regional military administration said Sunday.

"One of the critical infrastructure objects was hit this this morning," he said on national television. "Currently the situation is under control, the respective services are working on site. The details will be announced later."

A black plume of smoke was visible over the city Sunday morning, and a fuel depot in the Ukrainian city of Odesa was burning, according to a CNN team on the scene, with one witness telling CNN they heard six explosions at the fuel depot before sunrise.

The Odesa City Council confirmed an air attack on their Telegram account Sunday morning, saying that some Russian missiles were downed by their air defense system and that fire had broken out in some districts.

1:56 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

Russian aircraft remain "vulnerable" to Ukrainian defenses: UK Ministry of Defense

Ukraine continues to present a "significant challenge" to Russian air and missile operations, leaving Russian aircraft vulnerable to short and medium range air defense systems, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense said Sunday.

"Russia’s inability to find and destroy air defence systems has seriously hampered their efforts to gain broad control of the air, which in turn has significantly affected their ability to support the advance of their ground forces on a number of fronts," the ministry wrote in a defense intelligence update posted on Twitter.

The ministry also reported a concentration of Russian air activity towards south eastern Ukraine, "likely a result of Russia focusing its military operations in this area," it said.

Russian naval forces continued to prevent Ukrainian resupply by sea with a "distant blockade" of the Ukrainian coast in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, the ministry said, though an amphibious landing from Russian forces was likely to be "increasingly high risk" due to Ukrainian preparations.

Reported mines within the Black Sea also "pose a serious risk" to maritime activity, the ministry said, adding that although the origin of such mines remains unclear and disputed, "their presence is almost certainly due to Russian naval activity."

2:29 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

Odesa hit by Russian strikes: local government

From CNN’s Nathan Hodge

(CNN)
(CNN)

Russian missile strikes hit Ukraine's southern city of Odesa Sunday morning local time, according to the city council. 

“Odesa was attacked from the air. Some of the missiles were downed by our air defense system. In some districts fire has broken out,” the Odesa City Council posted to its official Telegram account.

A fuel depot in the Ukrainian city of Odesa is burning Sunday morning, according to a CNN team on the scene, with one witness telling CNN they heard six explosions at the fuel depot before sunrise.

Some context: The coastal city of Odesa has been a place of relative calm during the Russian invasion and a haven for displaced Ukrainians from areas that have seen the worst fighting. But Odesa has been bracing for a Russian attack for weeks, with its city center full of anti-tank barricades to fortify against an invasion. 

1:20 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

Analysis: Russians in the dark about true state of war amid country's Orwellian media coverage

Analysis from Jill Dougherty

The heartbreaking video looks just like the pictures western TV viewers are getting from the war in Ukraine: a grandmother, bundled up in a thick jacket against the cold, stands weeping in front of her wooden house that's smoldering from a rocket that hit her village. “They destroyed everything!” she cries. “Nothing is left.”

But this is the Russian government-controlled TV channel Rossiya24 and, in this report, the soldiers attacking her village are Ukrainian, not Russian. The Russian correspondent calls them “nationalists.” Other reports on the channel call them “neo-Nazis,” “fascists,” or “drug addicts” who use civilians as “human shields.”

Almost all reports of the conflict are from the breakaway Donbas region in Ukraine’s east, specifically the two self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, primarily Russian-speaking entities that Russia recognized as independent statelets on February 21.

Police officers detain a man during a protest against Russian military action in Ukraine, in central Moscow on April 2.
Police officers detain a man during a protest against Russian military action in Ukraine, in central Moscow on April 2. (AFP/Getty Images)

On Russian broadcasts, the war in the rest of Ukraine, the war most people around the world are witnessing, is largely ignored – the wreckage of Mariupol left in the wake of Russian bombing; the charred skeletons of houses and buildings in Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, Zhytomyr and other towns decimated by Russian airstrikes; residential neighborhoods in the capital Kyiv, along with their shellshocked, bleeding residents fleeing Russian shelling – almost none of this is shown on Russian TV. When it is, it’s blamed of course on Ukrainian forces. There is also no accurate coverage of the recent military setbacks suffered by the Russian military.

In an Orwellian touch, the conflict in Ukraine can be called only a “special military operation.” Under a law passed on March 4, it’s illegal to call the war a “war,” or to describe it as an “attack” or “invasion.” Violators can be punished with up to 15 years in prison, as can news organizations that disseminate anything deemed “fake news” about the “operation” or the Russian military.

Read the full analysis here.

2:30 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

Apparent Russian strike hits Odesa fuel depot

From CNN's Sarah Sirgany, Ed Lavandera and Konstantin Hak in Odesa, Ukraine

(CNN)
(CNN)

A fuel depot in the Ukrainian city of Odesa is burning Sunday morning, according to a CNN team on the scene.

One witness told CNN they heard six explosions at the fuel depot before sunrise.

Multiple witnesses told CNN they had seen drones in the skies around the area over the past two days.

Video taken by CNN shows plumes of thick black smoke rising to the air from the fuel depot which sits next to a railway track. The plumes could be seen for miles in the distance. The CNN team heard no air raid sirens.

At least one secondary explosion was heard as firefighters were trying to control the blaze. It is unclear whether there have been casualties.

9:35 a.m. ET, April 3, 2022

It's 7 a.m. in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

Civilian bodies were found littering the streets of a Ukrainian town northwest of Kyiv following the withdrawal of Russian forces, according to images released by AFP on Saturday – the latest horrifying mark of the mounting civilian toll of Russia’s brutal assault on Ukraine.

The Russian withdrawal comes as Moscow attempts to shift its focus to eastern Ukraine and away from the areas around Kyiv, where Russian forces have faced fierce Ukrainian resistance. Ukraine's deputy defense minister said Saturday that the Kyiv region had been "liberated" from Russian forces.

As day breaks on Sunday in Ukraine, these are the latest developments in the war:

Horrors of occupation: The bodies of at least 20 civilian men have been found lying strewn across the street in the town of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv following the withdrawal of Russian forces in images released by AFP on Saturday. At least one corpse can be seen with his hands tied behind his back. The Mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, told Reuters Saturday the civilians had been executed by retreating Russian forces.

Shift to the east: Russia has revised its Ukraine war strategy to focus on taking control of the Donbas and other regions in eastern Ukraine with a target date of early May, according to several US officials familiar with the latest US intelligence assessments. A Ukrainian presidential adviser warned on Saturday that fighting in the days ahead "will not be easy" in those regions.

Pressure on Putin: Russian President Vladimir Putin is under pressure to demonstrate he can present a victory as heavy setbacks mount up, and eastern Ukraine is where he is most likely to achieve that, US officials say. US intelligence intercepts suggest Putin is focused on celebrating some kind of “Victory Day” on May 9, a prominent holiday on the Russian calendar marking the Nazi surrender in World War II.

Diplomatic potential: A member of the Ukrainian negotiating team in talks with Russia, said Saturday that the Russian side had responded positively to Ukrainian positions on several issues and there was a possibility of "direct consultations" between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the future.

Further evacuations: More than 4,000 Ukrainian civilians were able to flee via evacuation corridors on Saturday, according to the country's deputy prime minister. A renewed attempt by the International Committee for the Red Cross to reach Mariupol is expected to continue Sunday.

Tank transfer: The US is expected to help facilitate the transfer of Soviet-era tanks "within days" to Ukraine, according to a source familiar with the plan. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak earlier on Saturday called on the US and its allies to deliver heavier weaponry to Ukraine.