Russia-Ukraine war highlights: Putin to meet UN secretary general next week

Moldova on Friday summoned Russia's ambassador after a senior Russian commander said Moscow sought "control over the south of Ukraine" that could provide access to Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria, AFP reported. "Moldova's foreign ministry views these statements as unfounded and contradicting Russia's position in support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country within internationally recognised borders," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian defence ministry says rest of the Ukrainian fighters from Azov battalion are blocked on Azovstal territory in Mariupol, Reuters reported.

The United Nations spokesperson says secretary general Antonio Guterres hopes to talk with Putin about what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine, Reuters reported. 

Russian president Vladimir Putin to meet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres next week, Reuters reported.

European Council president Charles Michel said he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call Friday to allow humanitarian access to the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol during Orthodox Easter, Reuters reported.

"Strongly urged for immediate humanitarian access and safe passage from Mariupol and other besieged cities all the more on the occasion of Orthodox Easter" this weekend, Michel said on Twitter after the call.

Talks between Moscow and Kyiv to put an end to Russia's near two-month military campaign in pro-Western Ukraine have stalled, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. "They (negotiations) have stalled now," he said after talks with his Kazakh counterpart in Moscow, adding that Russia has still had not received an answer to a latest proposal sent around five days ago.

Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Friday said that it was impossible to collaborate with Russia in the G20, a group that meets to discuss ways to foster global economic growth, as long as it is waging war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. "The G20 can't function effectively with Russia at the table," Freeland said in a joint news conference with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.

Lev Ponomarev, a veteran Russian rights defender who was earlier detained for protesting the Kremlin's military operation in Ukraine, said Friday he has "temporarily" left the country, AFP reported. The 80-year-old former parliament member has been engaged in activism since the last years of the Soviet Union, helping create the now-dissolved Memorial organisation in 1988.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that his sending several heavy artillery pieces to Ukraine.  "We are delivering significant equipment, from Milan (anti-tank missiles) to Caesar (self-propelled howitzers)," Macron told newspaper Ouest-France.

A new satellite image by U.S firm Maxar technology has revealed a mass grave in besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. According to the satellite image, the mass grave site which contains more than 200 new graves has expanded in recent weeks. After the revelation, Mariupol mayor, Vadym Boychenko said that as many as 9000 civilians could be buried in the mass grave. Watch full video

A total of 5,133,747 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded on February 24, AFP quoted the UN refugee agency.  The figure marks an increase of 48,387 from Thursday's data, UNHCR said. Some 1,098,000 Ukrainians have left the country during April so far, compared with 3.4 million for the whole of March.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has told European Union president Charles Michel that possibility of talks with Zelensky depends on concreate results of talks between Moscow and Kyiv, Reuters quotes TASS agency

Ukraine's national postal service Ukrposhta said it had been hit by a cyberattack on Friday after sales of a postage stamp depicting a Ukrainian soldier making a crude gesture to a Russian warship went online, Reuters reported. Queues formed to buy the stamp when it went on sale at the postal headquarters in Kyiv last week following the sinking of the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet.

A Russian general said Moscow aims to extend control over the entire south of Ukraine, including Black Sea ports critical to its export economy. Germany’s chancellor pledged to continue shipping weapons to Ukraine but said a “direct military confrontation” with nuclear-armed Russia must be avoided, Bloomberg reported. 

Britain plans to reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv next week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday during a two-day visit to India, Reuters reported. The British government said in February, days before Russia invaded Ukraine, that its embassy office in Kyiv was relocating temporarily and staff were operating from an embassy office in the city of Lviv.

Germany will allocate additional 37 million euros (over USD 40 million) for the reconstruction of Ukraine, to build housing and restore the power grid, Sputnik quoted German Economic Development Minister Svenja Schulze. "Ukraine urgently needs housing for internally displaced persons, it needs the undamaged power grid ... My ministry has redistributed funds for these purposes as part of the emergency program," Schulze told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

Russia pressed its new offensive in eastern Ukraine on Friday while in the port city of Mariupol, teams of volunteers collected corpses from the ruins after Moscow declared victory there despite Ukrainian forces holding out, Reuters reported. Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces had increased attacks along the whole frontline in the east of the country and were trying to mount an offensive in the Kharkiv region, north of Russia's main target, the Donbas.

A United Nations mission to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha has documented that 50 civilians had been killed there, including by summary execution, Reuters quoted the United Nations. "During a mission to Bucha on the ninth of April, UN human rights officers documented the unlawful killing including by summary execution of some 50 civilians there," said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Kremlin on Friday condemned the nine-month suspension of Olympic champion swimmer Evgeny Rylov over his presence at a rally in support of Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, Reuters reported. "We believe this is absolutely contrary to the ideas of sport," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the decision by swimming's world governing body FINA to suspend Rylov. "When the strongest (competitors) lose the opportunity to participate, this ultimately harms international federations and international competitions."

The Ukraine Armed Forces have claimed that Russia lost 21,200 troops, 838 tanks since the start of war, The Kyiv Independent reported. The Ukrainian forces have claimed that Putin's forces lost 2,162 armed personnel carriers, 176 planes and 153 helicopters.

Swimming's world governing body FINA said on Friday it had suspended Russian Olympic gold medallist Evgeny Rylov for nine months after he attended a rally in Moscow in support of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, Reuters reported. Rylov, who won gold in 100 and 200 metres backstroke events at last year's Tokyo Olympics, was among several athletes who attended a massive rally at Moscow's Luzhniki stadium last month hosted by President Vladimir Putin.

British PM Boris Johnson said the Ukrainian soldiers travelled to Britain to be trained in using UK-supplied armoured vehicles in their war against Russia, news agency AFP reported. "A couple of dozen troops arrived last week to train on the 120 Mastiff, Wolfhound and Husky armoured vehicles being supplied to Kyiv," an official said.

Russia's military says control of Ukraine's South will give Russia another gateway to breakway transnistria region of Moldova, reports news agency Reuters. 

No evacuations of civilians will take place in war-torn Ukraine on Friday as the situation on the roads is too dangerous, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says. "Because of the insecurity along the routes, there will be no humanitarian corridors today, April 22" the prime minister said, according to news agency AFP.

Australia has imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on the adult daughters of President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, following similar moves by the US and the UK earlier this month.

Also sanctioned were the 144 Russian senators who supported Putin by approving the “illegitimate” recognition of independence in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Australia’s foreign ministry said.