Ukraine

Latest Developments in Ukraine: April 10

Rescuers search for bodies among remains of residential building destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 10, 2022.

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.​

For the latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EDT:

Recap of April 10
FIGHTING
* Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said early Monday that Russian forces would focus not only on the besieged port of Mariupol, but also on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
* Russian forces shelled a school and residential buildings in eastern Ukraine, local Luhansk officials reported.
* Two people were killed and several wounded by Russian shelling in the Ukrainian town of Derhachy in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
HUMANITARIAN
* Pope Francis called for an Easter truce in Ukraine and condemned the "folly of war" as he led Palm Sunday services in St. Peter's Square.
* The BBC reported that Ukraine has arranged nine humanitarian corridors for Sunday, hoping to help people flee the fighting.
* The U.N. refugee agency said the number of people who have left Ukraine since the beginning of the war has reached 4.5 million.
ECONOMY
* In a report released Sunday, the World Bank issued dire forecasts for Ukraine's economy. The World Bank predicted Ukraine’s economy will collapse by 45.1% this year, far worse than the 10% to 35% downturn the International Monetary Fund projected last month, according to an Agence France-Presse story.

11:10 p.m.: Russian forces shelled a school and residential buildings Sunday in eastern Ukraine, local officials reported. Ukrainian artillery unit prepares to fight in Ukraine's Luhansk region.

10:55 p.m.: The U.N. refugee agency said the number of people who have left Ukraine since the beginning of the war has reached 4.5 million, The Associated Press reported.

A regular update Sunday of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ online portal on numbers of refugees fleeing Ukraine since February 24 brought the total to some 4.504 million. About 2.6 million of those fled at least initially to Poland and more than 686,000 to Romania. However, UNHCR notes that there are very few border controls within the European Union and it believes “a large number of people” have moved on from the first country they arrived in.

8:28 p.m.: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said early Monday that Russian forces would focus not only on the besieged port of Mariupol, but also on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, Reuters reported. "There will be an offensive ... not only on Mariupol, but also on other places, cities and villages," Kadyrov said in a video posted on his Telegram channel. "Luhansk and Donetsk - we will fully liberate in the first place ... and then take Kyiv and all other cities."

7:47 p.m.: During his nightly speech Sunday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the coming week would be as crucial as any in the war that began February 24. “Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our state,” he said, according to an Associated Press report.

He accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for war crimes: “When people lack the courage to admit their mistakes, apologize, adapt to reality and learn, they turn into monsters. And when the world ignores it, the monsters decide that it is the world that has to adapt to them. Ukraine will stop all this.”

“The day will come when they will have to admit everything. Accept the truth,” he added, according to the AP.

6:18 p.m.: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is providing investigative support to efforts to document war crimes in Ukraine, and he said Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible, according to an Associated Press report. “It is clear that Putin is systematically targeting civilians, whether it’s hospitals or train stations or maternity wards. This is one of the reasons why Canada was one of the first countries to call on the International Criminal Court to look into Putin’s war crimes,” Trudeau said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

5:29 p.m.: The next phase of battle in Ukraine is expected to be a showdown in the country’s east region. On Sunday, newly released Maxar Technologies satellite imagery showed a 13-kilometer convoy of Russian military vehicles headed south through Ukraine to the Donbas. ​

FILE - A satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a convoy of armored vehicles and trucks moving south, around Velykyi Burluk, east of Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, on April 8, 2022.

3:15 p.m.: Ukraine prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told Britain’s Sky News Sunday that more than 1,200 bodies have been discovered so far in the Kyiv region, which had been partly occupied by Russian forces for several weeks, according to an Agence France-Presse report. She also said that and 5,600 investigations opened into alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops since its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

2:30 p.m.: "I'm going to meet Vladimir #Putin in Moscow tomorrow," Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Sunday on Twitter. He will meet with the Russian president in Moscow on Monday, adding he hoped to help build bridges between Russia and Ukraine and stop the "war of aggression,” according to a Reuters report. The meeting would be the first face-to-face encounter between Putin and a European Union leader since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Reuters reported.

1:30: p.m.: U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken to Ukrainian troops who trained in the United States and are preparing to return home. “The Secretary thanked them for their service and for their courage, noting the skill with which the Ukrainian Armed Forces are fighting Russia's unprovoked invasion. And he pledged continued U.S support for providing and coordinating additional security assistance.,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Sunday.

1:21 p.m.: With its plans thwarted for a quick takeover of Ukraine, Russia has named a new commander for its continuing assault on eastern Ukraine, a military leader U.S. officials say has a record of brutality against civilians in Syria and other war zones. U.S. officials on Sunday identified the new Russian military commander in Ukraine as Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, one of Russia's most experienced officers.

12:47 p.m.: Russian forces shelled a school and residential buildings in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, local Luhansk officials reported, even as the officials implored residents to escape the region “before it’s too late.” Luhansk Governor Serihy Haidai said three apartment buildings in Severodonetsk burned down and two elderly residents had to be evacuated, but there were no casualties.

10:45 a.m.: Ukraine’s border guard agency says that about 2,200 Ukrainian men of fighting age have been detained so far while trying to leave the country in violation of martial law, according to AP. Under martial law, Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 are barred from leaving the country so that they can be called up to fight.

9:19 a.m.: White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC News that intelligence indicates that "there was a plan from the highest levels of the Russian government to target" Ukrainian civilians. Russia has denied his but Sullivan says attacking the Ukrainian people “is something that was planned.”

8:38 a.m.: Two people were killed and several wounded on Sunday by Russian shelling in the Ukrainian town of Derhachy in the northeastern Kharkiv region, regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said in a Facebook post. He said that Russian forces had carried out 66 artillery attacks across several regions, causing civilian casualties. RFE/RL has the story.

7:00 a.m.: Pope Francis called for an Easter truce in Ukraine and condemned the "folly of war" as he led Palm Sunday services in St. Peter's Square before an audience of tens of thousands of people, Reuters reported. The pope also urged negotiations to find a solution to the conflict. In an apparent reference to Russia, he said: "What kind of victory would be one that plants a flag on a heap of rubble?"

5:41 a.m.: The BBC reported that Ukraine has arranged nine humanitarian corridors for Sunday, hoping to help people flee the fighting.

5:04 a.m.: Al Jazeera reported that Ukraine's State Emergency Service says that it has defused more than 46,000 explosive devices since the Russian invasion began.

4:29 a.m.: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Britain's The Telegraph newspaper that NATO is planning a permanent military presence on its border. He went on to say NATO is "in the midst of a very fundamental transformation."

3:19 a.m.: The U.K. Ministry of Defense's latest intelligence update said that Russia is trying to recruit soldiers from the unrecognized Transnistria region of Moldova. It's also bringing back troops discharged from the military since 2012.

2:06 a.m.: CNN reported that satellite images show what appears to be an 8-mile-long Russian military convoy moving through the Ukrainian town of Burluk on April 8.

1:22 a.m.: The Associated Press reported that Russian shelling has made it dangerous for people to use humanitarian corridors to flee, trapping people in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

12:01 a.m.: Al Jazeera reports that 26 Ukrainian prisoners are headed home in an exchange with Russia.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.