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It’s 11 p.m. in Kyiv. Catch up on the latest developments here
As Sunday approaches in Ukraine, Russian forces appear to be focusing on areas in eastern Ukraine ahead of a planned ground offensive while carrying out strikes in other regions.
Attacks across Ukraine on Saturday:
- East: Russia has intensified attacks in several locations in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military and regional officials. The Luhansk region military administration said there was extensive damage to civilian infrastructure following Russian strikes in the region.
- South: The Mykolaiv and Kherson regions in southern Ukraine have been under heavy shelling on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said in a statement. The statement alleged that Russian forces were “enraged by the losses in the Black Sea” — an apparent reference to the sinking of the Russian guided-missile cruiser Moskva.
- Kyiv: At least one person was killed and several others injured in the capital of Kyiv after the Ukrainian capital “came under fire” on Saturday morning, the city’s mayor said.
- Northeast: The Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office said Saturday that two civilians were killed and 18 injured in a cruise-missile strike in the northeastern Ukrainian city.
- West: 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.
Worries over ammunition: There is growing concern about the need to get more ammunition — and in particular artillery ammunition — to Ukrainian forces more rapidly as heavy ground combat against Russian units is expected to unfold in the coming days, according to a US official. Even the amount of security assistance from the US could be expended within several days, raising the prospect of Ukraine forces running out of ammunition, the official said.
Meanwhile, Russian leaders — angry over the loss of its Black Sea Fleet flagship — have warned of “unpredictable consequences” if the US continues supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Evacuations: Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Saturday that nearly 1,500 people have been evacuated so far from areas in southern and eastern Ukraine affected by fighting.
It took six hours for one elderly woman who spoke with CNN to be evacuated from a frontline town to the relative safety of a care home further west due to shelling threats, she said.
Nearly 1,500 Ukrainian civilians evacuated from areas of fighting Saturday, Ukraine’s deputy PM says
From CNN’s Jonny Hallam
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Saturday that 1,449 people have been evacuated so far from areas in southern and eastern Ukraine affected by fighting.
Vereshchuk said that only 170 people managed to escape from Mariupol by their own means of transport to Zaporizhzhia on Saturday. Another 1,211 residents of Polohy, Vasylivka, Berdiansk and Melitopol made safe passage to Zaporizhzhia.
Despite constant shelling, 68 people were evacuated from the cities of Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Kreminna in the Luhansk region, Vereshchuk said.
Vereshchuk said that due to heavy and mass shelling, the evacuation of people from Lysychansk was completely disrupted.
UK “will stop at nothing to ensure Ukrainians” have resources to defend themselves, prime minister says
From CNN’s Cecelia Armstrong
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that “the UK will stop at nothing to ensure Ukrainians have the resources they need” to defend their country against Russia’s invasion, according to a statement on social media.
Johnson spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Saturday afternoon, according to the tweet.
In his own statement on Twitter, Zelensky said the two spoke about the agreements reached during Johnson’s recent visit to Kyiv earlier this month, adding that they spoke about defense and macro-financial support as well as the situation in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
According to a statement from Downing Street, “the Prime Minister paid tribute to the bravery of Ukrainian forces who continue to valiantly defend their country’s freedom.”
“President Zelenskyy updated the Prime Minister on the situation in Mariupol, and the Prime Minister said he saluted Ukrainian resistance in the city. The pair discussed the need for a long-term security solution for Ukraine, and the Prime Minister said he would continue to work closely with allies and partners to ensure Ukraine could defend its sovereignty in the weeks and months to come,” the Downing Street statement said.
“The Prime Minister updated President Zelenskyy on new sanctions from the UK that came into force last week and said the UK would continue to provide the means for Ukraine to defend itself, including armoured vehicles in the coming days. The Prime Minister said international support for Ukraine only grew stronger and that he remained convinced Ukraine would succeed, and Putin would fail,” according to the statement.
Bodies in Bucha mass grave are being exhumed to recover and identify the dead
Hundreds who died in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha are now being exhumed more than two weeks after Russia’s occupation of the area.
There is a wide-scale operation to recover and identify the dead in the town’s mass grave and those buried in other shallow graves, according to CNN’s Phil Black.
The Russian retreat revealed at least 20 bodies lining a single street. The widow of a man who was killed while riding his bicycle said she urged her husband not to go outside, but he insisted on leaving their home. He was killed as soon as he reached the road, she said via translated remarks, and his bike still remains there.
There is a social media database that people can search to find images and information about their dead loved ones, Black reported, which is “harrowing” to go through.
More than 900 bodies of civilians from the Kyiv region have been discovered since the Russian army withdrew from the area, police said Friday.
Watch the report below. (Note: It contains graphic imagery.)
Zelensky and Swedish prime minister discuss Russian sanctions, Ukraine’s EU membership
From CNN’s Cecelia Armstrong
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Saturday, according to statements from both leaders on social media.
“I described the critical situation in Mariupol,” Zelensky’s statement said. “We discussed defense support for Ukraine and toughening of anti-Russian sanctions.”
Zelensky said he thanked Andersson for supporting Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.
“Sweden and EU work relentlessly to support Ukraine, impose further sanctions on Russia, and ensure accountability for war crimes,” Andersson said in a statement.
Luhansk official: Extensive damage to civilian infrastructure in multiple areas following Russian strikes
From CNN’s Kostan Nechyporenko in Vasylkiv
Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said there was extensive damage to civilian infrastructure following Russian strikes in the eastern Ukrainian region.
“In one day, the Russians damaged ten infrastructure facilities — an oil refinery and a hospital in Lysychansk,” he said. “Another 26 buildings were partially or completely destroyed. There were 16 residential buildings [hit] in Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Kreminna, and Lysychansk.”
Haidai said a strike on a market in the town of Lysychansk led to a fire that spread to two sludge tanks at a refinery, set fire to three bread vans and damaged a medical building.
2 civilians killed and 18 injured in Kharkiv cruise-missile strike, according to prosecutor’s office
Fom CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva and Kostan Nechyporenko in Vasylkiv
The Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office said Saturday that two civilians were killed and 18 injured in a cruise-missile strike in the northeastern Ukrainian city.
In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said Russian forces hit the Slobidskyi and Osnoviansky districts of Kharkiv with a Kalibr cruise-missile strike. Residential buildings, cars, a market and shops were also damaged or destroyed, the statement said.
Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said rescue workers were on the scene.
Elsewhere in the Kharkiv region, Serhii Zelensky, the mayor of the town of Lozova, urged residents to evacuate immediately by train amid signs of a stepped-up Russian offensive.
“What I posted on my social networks is not a fake,” he told residents. “I’ve been reminding you for 10 days that there are relevant threats. To date, there is no ground threat. But there is a possibility of increasing missile strikes on our city. As well as bombing. So don’t panic.”
The mayor said an evacuation train to the city of Khmelnytskyi would be available Saturday afternoon, along with evacuation buses that would depart for the city of Pavlohrad.
“You will be met there,” he said. “So don’t panic. Whoever wants, leave. There is no ground threat. Only — I repeat — missile danger. As well as bombing.”
86-year-old Ukrainian woman evacuated to safety: “Today, I will finally feel calm”
An elderly woman who was stuck in a frontline Ukrainian town that underwent heavy shelling has been evacuated to safety.
86-year-old Lidia from Avdiivka, Ukraine, told CNN’s Clarissa Ward on Thursday that she was spending her nights in pitch darkness while praying for an end to war.
“’I never imagined that my end would be like this,’ she says. ‘You can’t even die here because there’s no one to provide a burial ceremony,’” Ward reported, translating the woman’s words.
There was an outpouring of people all over the world wanting to help her after her story was told, Ward said. She was able to connect Lidia with a care home in Dnipro, she said.
“Today, I will finally feel calm,” Lidia told Ward as she hugged Ward and kissed her hand at the care facility.
It wasn’t easy to be evacuated, Ward said, translating her remarks, as there was a lot of shelling. It took six hours to make the journey west, and at one point, she and the volunteers had to pull over to wait for a few hours in a safe house, according to Ward.
Lidia’s son lives in Russia, Ward said, and she was hoping to finally get through to him today to tell him she has been evacuated.
Watch the interview here:
Concern is growing over Ukraine’s ammunition inventory, according to US official
From CNN’s Barbara Starr
There is growing concern about the need to get more ammunition — and in particular artillery ammunition — to Ukrainian forces more rapidly as heavy ground combat against Russian units is expected to unfold in the coming days, according to a US official.
While the United States is shipping 18 155mm towed howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds to Ukraine as part of the new security assistance announced by President Joe Biden’s administration this week, even that amount could be expended within several days, raising the prospect of Ukraine forces running out of ammunition, the official said.
During some of the heavy earlier fighting, Ukrainian forces fired up to thousands of artillery rounds in a given day, the official noted.
Going forward, the US believes the likely Russia strategy is to move weapons and troops into eastern Ukraine from their current positions just north, and then encircle and cut off Ukraine forces that are there, the official said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are conducting daily phone calls with counterparts in the region to encourage them to ship more weapons and supplies to Ukraine as soon as possible.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon hosted the CEOs of the military’s eight largest prime contractors to figure out how to arm Ukraine faster.
The roundtable discussion, led by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, focused on the Pentagon’s objectives to keep supplying Ukraine with arms while also being able to maintain the readiness of US forces and support the defense of allies.
