April 20 (Reuters) – Ukrainian officials said they hoped to get thousands of women and children out of the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol as Russia pressed ahead with a new offensive along front lines in eastern Ukraine.
More than five million people have now fled Ukraine, the United Nations refugee agency said.
COMING UP
* President Vladimir Putin is due to meet representatives of the metals industry, which the Kremlin said was facing “hostile attitudes”. Gold miner Petropavlovsk POG.L said sanctions-hit Russian lender Gazprombank had called on it to immediately repay a term loan worth $201 million.
.@WHO is providing generators to hospitals across #Ukraine with limited or no power supply to ensure the continuity of patient care.
Today, with support from @UNCERF, we dispatched 7 generators to the towns of Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka, Ivankiv, Makariv, & Vorzel in Kyiv region. pic.twitter.com/i5UPYFzn6b
* President Joe Biden will host U.S. military leaders in an annual gathering that takes on extra significance as the war enters a risky new phase. Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have pledged to send more artillery weaponry to Ukraine.
*Russia is not planning to stop foreign journalists from entering the country but it is tightening visa rules for those from “unfriendly countries”, a deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday.Yevgeny Ivanov told parliament this was in response to moves by the European Union and other countries to make it harder for the Russian business community to obtain visas.”We have responded by making it harder for journalists from unfriendly countries to obtain visas. They will now get a single-entry visa and pay a higher visa fee,” he said.
* European Council President Charles Michel is on an unexpected visit to in Kyiv. Latvia said the EU was preparing new measures to prevent Russia evading sanctions.
* State-owned Russian lender Rosselkhozbank said British sanctions had prevented it from making a $21.25 million interest payment on Eurobonds maturing in 2023, the latest Russian company to flag debt servicing issues.
Russia is overflowing with “Z-propaganda”. This is how Russians have their brains marinated by state propaganda justifying their war of aggression day after day. pic.twitter.com/V2MMpG5zHP
* Western nations are preparing to stage coordinated walk-outs to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at Wednesday’s meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington.
FIGHTING
* Russia is still building up its military presence on Ukraine’s eastern border and fighting in the southeastern Donbas region is intensifying as Russian forces seek to break through Ukrainian defences, a British military update said.
* Russia called on Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to surrender, saying its troops will observe a ceasefire while the proposal is in effect. Russian-backed separatists later said five people had surrendered, a day after Russia said no-one had responded to a similar surrender call.* Ukraine hopes to send 90 buses to Mariupol to evacuate about 6,000 women, children and elderly people, the city’s mayor Vadym Boichenko said. He said about 100,000 thousand civilians remain in the city. Russia said some 120 civilians living next to the Azovstal plant evacuated on Tuesday.
*Russian forces hit 1,053 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, destroying 106 firing positions, the country’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.
*British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Russia to treat a Briton who was captured in Ukraine with compassion, adding that he had served in the Ukrainian army for some time and was not a mercenary.Asked about a video of Aiden Aslin, a captured Briton who had joined the Ukrainian marines, Johnson urged the Russian state to treat him “humanely and compassionately”.
* Norway has donated about 100 Mistral air defence missiles to Ukraine, the Norwegian defence ministry said.
Finland 🇫🇮 trolling #Russia. After news that russian army gets ready for trainings along Finnish border, the Fins send out their tractors to the border. Keep calm and follow #Ukraine military tactics pic.twitter.com/som8r2p8li
* “Irish people are very friendly, very kind,” said Maria Nazarchuk, 20, an accountancy student among 11 Ukrainians staying in medieval castle in the west of Ireland who has found work in a local garden centre. “I have a good job, a good home. I never thought that someday I will live in a castle.”
A stork walks near the rest of a missile in Kukhari village, in Kyiv (Kiev) area, Ukraine. EPA-EFE/OLEG PETRASYUK
