War Highlights: Russia says sanctions being discussed with Ukraine, Kyiv denies

Russia's armed forces said they had hit 17 Ukrainian military facilities with high-precision missiles on Saturday. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia is part of peace talks with Ukraine, but senior Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak denied that this was the case, reported Reuters. 

Ukraine carried out a prisoner exchange with Russia on Saturday, with seven soldiers and seven civilians coming home, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a online posting.

Actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie visits Ukraine, spotted at a cafe in western Ukrainian city of Lviv on April 30, reported Ukrainian media. 

French President Emmanuel Macron assured Zelensky in their hourlong conversation on Saturday that “military material” and humanitarian assistance would keep flowing to Ukraine.

Russian forces have stolen "several hundred thousand tonnes" of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Ukraine's deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday.

The bodies of three men with their hands tied were found in a pit near Bucha, Kyiv, said Ukrainian police, reported AFP. 

Putin rejected Pope Francis’ call for Mariupol humanitarian corridors three times, reported Ukrainian media. 

Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow has evacuated over 1 million people from Ukraine since the war there began.

Russia said on Saturday that its artillery units had struck 389 Ukrainian targets overnight, including 35 control points, 15 arms and ammunition depots, and several areas where Ukrainian troops and equipment were concentrated.

Russian air defences prevented a Ukrainian aircraft from entering the Bryansk region on Saturday, Russian news outlets reported citing the region's governor, adding that as a result shelling hit parts of an oil terminal and adjacent territory, Reuters reported.

Russian forces have stolen "several hundred thousand tonnes" of grain in the areas of Ukraine they occupy, Ukraine's deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

Russia has been forced to merge and redeploy depleted and disparate units from failed advances in northeast Ukraine, a British military update said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian forces fought to hold off Russian attempts to advance in the south and east, where the Kremlin is seeking to capture the country’s industrial Donbas region, and a senior U.S. defense official said Moscow's offensive is going much slower than planned, AP reported.

Russia's foreign minister urged the US and NATO to stop supplying Kyiv with arms if they are "really interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis", AFP quoted Chinese state media. "If the US and NATO are really interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis, then first of all, they should wake up and stop supplying the Kyiv regime with arms and ammunition," Russian foreign minister Lavrov said.

The United States said it is considering approach to the G20 summit over reports of Russian president Vladimir Putin attending it, The Kyiv Independent reported. White House Press Secretary said that it is too early to predict what the summit will look like.

Ukrainian forces fought to hold off Russian attempts to advance in the south and east, where the Kremlin is seeking to capture the country’s industrial Donbas region, and a senior U.S. defense official said Moscow's offensive is going much slower than planned, AP reported.

Ukraine will soon stamp out fuel shortages, even though Russian forces have damaged a number of oil depots, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday. This week, Russia struck Ukraine's main fuel producer, the Kremenchuk oil refinery, as well as several other large depots.

Russia is seeking to move away from the U.S. dollar and rely less on imports while strengthening its independence in key technologies in response to sanctions over the war with Ukraine, Chinese state media reported, citing Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

More than 1 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine into Russia since Feb. 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published early on Saturday. The 1.02 million includes 120,000 foreigners and people evacuated from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics, which Russia recognised as independent just before launching its invasion.

The United Nations doggedly sought to broker an evacuation of civilians from the increasingly hellish ruins of Mariupol on Friday, while Ukraine accused Russia of showing its contempt for the world organization by bombing Kyiv when the UN leader was visiting the capital. Full report

Ukraine continues to block foreign ships, creating a threat of shelling in its internal waters and territorial sea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"Russia is taking measures to ensure civil navigation in the waters of the Black and Azov seas. Every day a humanitarian corridor is opened, which is a safe lane for the movement of ships," he said in an interview with Xinhua.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to destroy the Donbas and all who live there, AP reported. “The constant brutal bombardments, the constant Russian strikes on infrastructure and residential areas show that Russia wants to empty this territory of all people. Therefore, the defense of our land, the defense of our people, is literally a fight for life,” he said late Friday in his nightly video address to the nation.

As the Ukraine war enters 66th day of Russian assault, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s aide has revealed that the Russian troops came to Kyiv with the intention of “capturing the president and his family,” and were just “minutes away from finding them in the first hours of the invasion” on February 24. Read More

A senior U.S. defense official said Friday the Russian offensive is going much slower than planned in part because of the strength of the Ukrainian resistance. “We also assess that because of this slow and uneven progress, again, without perfect knowledge of every aspect of the Russian plan, we do believe and assess that they are behind schedule in what they were trying to accomplish in the Donbas,” the official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. military’s assessment.