Russia-Ukraine war highlights: Putin 'not serious' about diplomacy to end Ukraine war, says Blinken

As the Ukraine war entered Day 62 on Tuesday, Russia told the world not to underestimate the risks of nuclear war, which it said it wanted to reduce. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday warned that there’s a “serious” danger of nuclear conflict, and said talks with Ukrainian negotiators will continue.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged more than $700 million in additional military financing for Ukraine and its allies during a trip to Kyiv on Monday, the highest-level visit by American officials since Russia’s invasion. Austin said that Washington’s goal was to see Russia weakened.

Meanwhile, Attacks continued on the Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern port city of Mariupol. Ukraine’s foreign minister on Monday urged the UN chief to press Russia for an evacuation of the besieged port of Mariupol, calling it something the world body is capable of achieving.

An estimated 100,000 people are trapped in the seaside city while a contingent of Ukrainian fighters hold out against Russian forces in a steel mill where hundreds of civilians also are taking shelter.

Nearly five million Ukrainians have fled the country, cities have been shattered and thousands have died since the start of the invasion on February 24.

Russia calls its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls “dangerous nationalists”. The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.

Follow all the updates here:

• Apr 26, 2022 10:00 PM IST

  Blinken says Putin ‘not serious’ about diplomacy to end war

  “We've seen no sign to date that President Putin is serious about meaningful negotiations,” says US secretary of state Antony Blinken to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

• Apr 26, 2022 09:11 PM IST

  Russia removed as host of 2023 Ice Hockey World Cup

  International Ice Hockey Federation Council shifts 2023 World Cup, scheduled to be held in St. Petersburg from May 5-21, 2023, out of Russia. Alternative host will be confirmed during next month's world championships in Finland.

• Apr 26, 2022 08:40 PM IST

  Discussed Ukraine issue with India, says Polish foreign minister

  The burning issue of Russian aggression against Ukraine was one of the key topics touched upon in my conversation with PM Modi and as well as discussions with my counterpart Dr. S Jaishankar: Zbigniew Rau, Poland's foreign minister, in Delhi

• Apr 26, 2022 07:19 PM IST

  ‘Russia trying to destabilise Moldova’s breakaway region'

  “Moscow is trying to destabilise Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria,” says Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after a series of explosions in the region.

• Apr 26, 2022 06:36 PM IST

  9 killed in strikes in Ukraine

  Three people died and seven others wounded in Kharkiv. Another three people killed in Popasna, two in Donetsk and one in Zaporizhzhia.

• Apr 26, 2022 05:59 PM IST

  Moldova calls for meeting after blasts in Transnistria

  Moldovan President Maia Sandu to hold a meeting of the country's Supreme Security Council over blasts in its separatist, Russian-controlled region of Transnistria, amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

• Apr 26, 2022 05:18 PM IST

  'Russia's occupation of Chernobyl was very, very dangerous'

  Russia's occupation of the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster was ‘very, very dangerous’. The situation was absolutely abnormal: Rafael Grossi, director general, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

• Apr 26, 2022 04:46 PM IST

  ‘Russia is already a weaker state’: Pentagon

  Russia is already a ‘weaker’ military, ‘weaker’ state right now: John Kirby, Pentagon spokesperson, to CNN

• Apr 26, 2022 04:32 PM IST

  Russia expels 3 Swedish diplomats

  The Russian foreign ministry has announced it is expelling three Swedish diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of three of its diplomatic staff by Stockholm.

• Apr 26, 2022 03:43 PM IST

  Poland sanctions 50 Russian oligarchs, companies

  Poland's interior ministry announces sanctions against 50 Russian oligarchs and companies, including billionaire Mikhail Fridman, aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska and Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky.

• Apr 26, 2022 02:46 PM IST

  Over 8 million people will eventually flee Ukraine: UN

  As many as 8.3 million will eventually flee Ukraine as refugees, up from the some 5.2 million who have already fled the war: United Nations

• Apr 26, 2022 01:40 PM IST

  Forty countries meet in Germany on bolstering Ukraine defence

  Forty countries will hold emergency talks in Germany on Tuesday on bolstering the defence of Ukraine, which the US Pentagon chief believes "can win" against Russia if given the necessary means and backing, AFP reported.

  The meeting called by the US at its Ramstein airbase in southwestern Germany is "focused on doing things to generate additional capability and capacity for the Ukrainian forces", said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin following his visit Sunday to Kyiv.

  "We believe that they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support," Austin said.

• Apr 26, 2022 01:21 PM IST

  Explosions hit radio tower in Russia-backed Transnistria

  The interior ministry of Transnistria, a separatist Russia-backed territory in ex-Soviet Moldova, said Tuesday that two explosions targeted a radio centre near the border with Ukraine, news agency AFP reported.

  "Early on April 26, two explosions were heard in the village of Mayak in Grigoriopolsky district," the interior ministry of the breakaway republic said in a statement. It said the blasts at 6:40 am and 7:05 am (0340 GMT and 0405 GMT) targeted the "Mayak" radio centre, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the regional capital Tiraspol.

  The ministry said two "powerful" antennae that were re-broadcasting Russian radio were out of order, and shared images of them lying on the ground.

  There were no injuries, it added.

• Apr 26, 2022 12:58 PM IST

  Russia's war heats up cooking oil prices in global squeeze

  Vegetable oil prices hit a record high in February, then increased another 23% in March, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation.

  Soybean oil, which sold for $765 per metric ton in 2019, was averaging $1,957 per metric ton in March, the World Bank said.

  Palm oil prices were up 200% and are set to go even higher after Indonesia, one of the world's top producers, bans cooking oil exports starting Thursday to protect domestic supply.

• Apr 26, 2022 12:57 PM IST

  UK: Ukraine city Kreminna falls to Russia

  Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 26 April 2022
  
  Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/agUoc4mRcj
  
  🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/vnxIPbDJOZ

  — Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 26, 2022

  The British Defense Ministry says Russian forces have taken the Ukrainian city of Kreminna.

  Street-to-street fighting had been going on for days in the city in Ukraine's Luhansk region, with civilian evacuations there made impossible by the war.

  In a tweet early on Tuesday, the British military said: “The city of Kreminna has reportedly fallen and heavy fighting is reported south of Izium as Russian forces attempt to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east.”

  There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian government. Russia claimed days earlier to have taken the city.

  Kreminna is some 575 kilometers (355 miles) southeast of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The United Kingdom has been providing daily intelligence reports publicly since the start of the war. The British military did not say how it knew that Kreminna had fallen.

• Apr 26, 2022 10:22 AM IST

  40 countries to meet on Ukraine aid

  On the invitation of the United States, 40 countries will hold a security summit in Germany on Tuesday to discuss further arms to Ukraine - as well as to ensure the country's longer-term security once the war is over, AFP reported.

• Apr 26, 2022 09:06 AM IST

  Russia and India in talks to restart coking coal supplies, Reuters reports citing sources

  Russian and Indian officials met last week in an effort to resolve an impasse over the shipping of coking coal to Indian steelmakers, which has dried up since March over payment methods, a trade source and an Indian government source told news agency Reuters.

  Russia usually supplies about 30% of European Union, Japanese and South Korean coking coal needs, while India had planned to double its Russian imports to around 9 million tonnes this year.

  Imports make up around 85% of India's overall coking coal needs, which total 50-55 million tonnes a year, and New Delhi last year signed a deal to import from Russia.

• Apr 26, 2022 07:58 AM IST

  UN to vote on measure pushing states to justify veto use

  The 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly are to vote Tuesday on a resolution that would require the five permanent members of the Security Council to justify their use of the veto in future, AFP reported.

  Discussions of veto reform are rare and controversial, but have been revived by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

• Apr 26, 2022 06:46 AM IST

  Russia hits rail and fuel targets far from the eastern front

  Russia unleashed a string of attacks Monday against rail and fuel installations deep inside Ukraine, far from the front lines of Moscow's new eastern offensive, in a bid to thwart Ukrainian efforts to marshal supplies for the fight, news agency AP reported.

• Apr 26, 2022 05:33 AM IST

  UK says 15,000 Russian troops killed in war, Russia admits 1,300 deaths

  The British government says it believes 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion two months ago. Russia has acknowledged 1,351 military casualties.