Ukraine

Latest Developments in Ukraine: April 11

Road workers examine a destroyed Russian tank on the highway to Kyiv, Ukraine, April 11, 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 11
FIGHTING
* Britain’s defense ministry said Russian forces continued shelling the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
* Russia’s defense ministry said it has destroyed S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems that had been supplied to Ukraine
HUMANITARIAN
* The conflict has forced about one-quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes, with the U.N. reporting more than 4.5 million refugees have left the country.
DIPLOMACY
* Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung said that it will seek to promote democracy in Russia even though it has been barred from working in the country.
* Finland and Sweden, two nations that prize neutrality and have long resisted joining NATO, are reconsidering the stance and could join as soon as this summer.
*The Norwegian defense ministry said that Norway will extend its current NATO enhanced Forward Presence troop deployment in Lithuania.
SANCTIONS
* Ireland’s foreign minister says the European Union should consider imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil industry.
*More European Union sanctions on Russia are an option, the bloc’s top diplomat said
ECONOMY
* Global stock markets and Wall Street futures sank Monday. Investors are uneasy about higher interest rates, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and China’s efforts to contain coronavirus outbreaks.
* Russian state-owned gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM continued to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine in line with requests from European consumers.
MEDIA
* Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned that Russia could target “foreign media and politicians” with its disinformation campaign.

11:05 p.m.: The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave the bodies of Mariupol’s people “carpeted through the streets.” The Associated Press has the story.

8:24 p.m.: In a video address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned separatists’ statements calling for the use of "chemical forces" against Ukrainian troops defending Mariupol, according to an Associated Press report. Donetsk People’s Republic militia spokesman Eduard Basurin said on Russian State TV that to defeat Ukrainian forces that have held off Russian assaults near the Azovstal Metallurgy plant on the outskirts of Mariupol, it was necessary to approach "chemical troops who will find a way to smoke out molls from their holes."

7:57 p.m.: Helsinki Commission members U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, Senator Roger Wicker and Rep. Joe Wilson issued the following joint statement late Monday following Monday’s arrest of prominent pro-democracy Russian statesman and outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza in Moscow: “We are alarmed to learn that Vladimir Kara-Murza has been detained in Moscow. Vladimir is not a criminal but a true patriot motivated by the potential of a democratic future for Russia and freedom for its people. He must be allowed access to his lawyer and should be released immediately.”

6:29 p.m.: The U.S. Pentagon’s reaction to allegations of Russian chemical weapon use in Ukraine:

6:04 p.m.: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted Monday: "Reports that Russian forces may have used chemical agents in an attack on the people of Mariupol. We are working urgently with partners to verify details. Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict and we will hold Putin and his regime to account."

5:45 p.m.: VOA’s U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer reports that the United Nations said Monday that Ukrainian women and children are at heightened risk of sexual violence, rape and trafficking as reports grow of such violations. “These allegations must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability," U.N. Women Executive Director Sima Bahous told the Security Council.

4:50 p.m.: Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion, according to the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, The Associated Press reported. The agency verified that at least 142 children have been killed, though the numbers is almost certainly much higher, it added.

3:58 p.m.: Ukrainian authorities exhumed dozens of bodies from mass graves in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha for forensic tests and to prepare them for proper burial. The head of Ukraine’s National Police told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that many victims were shot in the temple at point-blank range. (WARNING: Viewers may find the content of this video disturbing.)

3:13 p.m.: The European Union has warned that Russia’s war against Ukraine is putting the world on the brink of a food crisis as the Ukrainian economy, based in large part on agriculture, collapses. A day after the World Bank said that Ukraine’s economy will shrink by nearly half this year, the EU’s top diplomat said on Friday that Russia’s bombing of fields and the blocking of ports keeping ships from leaving with grain is sending shockwaves well beyond the country’s borders. "They are causing scarcity. They are bombing Ukrainian cities and provoking hunger in the world," Josep Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this story.

2:16 p.m.: Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Monday confirmed that the U.S. has seen indications Russian forces pulled from northern Ukraine to Russia and Belarus are now starting to move into eastern Ukraine. He said the U.S. is wary now that Russia has appointed General Alexander Dyomikov to oversee the invasion of Ukraine, saying Dyomikov and other Russian commanders in the past have shown “utter disregard” for the laws of war. “We can certainly say…that we are probably turning another page in the same book of Russian brutality,” he said. VOA’s Jeff Seldin shared more details from the press briefing on Twitter.

1:44 p.m.: Authorities in four Russian regions bordering Ukraine and in Russian-controlled Crimea announced they were stepping up security measures on Monday over what they said were "possible provocations" from the Ukrainian side, Reuters reported. The authorities in the Belgorod, Voronezh, Bryansk and Krasnodar regions and in Crimea said they were boosting security and urged citizens to be more vigilant. Another region bordering Ukraine, Kursk, was the first to announce similar measures on Sunday.

1:12 p.m.: Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv came under heavy shelling on Monday, causing multiple casualties including one dead child, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a televised interview. When asked about the risk of a new Russian assault on the city, which Ukraine’s defense ministry recently warned of, Terekhov said that Ukrainian forces were focused and ready to defend the city, Reuters reported. "There is no panic in the city," Terekhov said.

Residents stand outside their apartments as shops burn after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, April 11, 2022.

1:03 p.m.: A disputed compound in the Polish capital of Warsaw, which the Russian embassy had built in the 1970s but which has remained empty since the 1990s, is now being taken over by the city and will be made available to the Ukrainian community there, the mayor said Monday. Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was at the site early Monday and said a bailiff had entered the two empty buildings, nicknamed “Spyville” by Warsaw residents, to check their condition and mark them as seized by the city. One of Trzaskowski’s proposals for the 100-odd apartments there is to accommodate war refugees from Ukraine. The Associated Press has this story.

12:42 p.m.: U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held virtual talks on Monday, Reuters reported. The talks took place as the United States seeks more help from India in applying economic pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Viewing each other from video screens, Biden and Modi both expressed growing alarm at the destruction inside Ukraine, particularly in Bucha, where many civilians have been killed. The United States has made clear it does not want to see an uptick in Russian energy imports by India. The Biden-Modi meeting will precede a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, the White House said.

12:23 p.m.: Nora Love, Team Lead for the International Rescue Committee in Ukraine, said Monday that the war there “has been rife with severe breaches of international humanitarian law and attacks on public infrastructure” and that “the Age of Impunity in which we live” means there is seemingly no accountability. “The International Rescue Committee is calling on all warring parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law including the protection of civilians and safe provision of humanitarian access,” she said in a statement.

11:55 a.m.: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer says he held "direct, open, and hard" talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. A statement from Nehammer’s office said the meeting in the Russian capital on Monday, which lasted just over an hour, was not "a visit of friendship." Nehammer said, "I mentioned the serious war crimes in Bucha and other locations and stressed that all those responsible have to be brought to justice." The Austrian chancellor "told President Putin very clearly that the sanctions will remain and be intensified as long as people keep dying in Ukraine." Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has the story.

11:26 a.m.: NATO ships are deploying to the Baltic Sea to conduct routine operations and training, the Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) said in a statement Monday. These include two of four task groups composed of ships from various allied countries, it said. They are currently part of the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force “exhibiting forward presence and contributing to operational coherence among allied naval forces to support greater regional security and stability,” according to the statement.

11:01 a.m.: A senior U.S. defense official on Monday provided the latest assessment of the situation in Ukraine. He said Russia appears to be resupplying and reinforcing its presence in the eastern Donbas region with a convoy north of Izyum, as well as with artillery units southwest of Donetsk, but he said “we do not assess a new offensive has started.” He also said that there is “no evidence” to back up Russia’s claims that it destroyed an S300 missile defense system near Dnipro, although the official confirmed a Russian airstrike there and said it “did destroy some airport infrastructure.” VOA’s National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin shared the details on Twitter.

10:48 a.m.: Hungary plans to modify its natural gas contract with Russian energy company Gazprom in order to satisfy a demand by President Vladimir Putin that Russian gas be paid for in rubles, The Associated Press reported. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjiarto told a news conference on Monday that the subsidiary of Hugary’s energy group MVM, CEE Energy, would pay its gas bills in euros to Russia’s Gazprombank, which would convert the payments into rubles and transfer them to the gas provider Gazprom Export. Szijjiarto said that modifying Hungary’s contract with Gazprom ensured the country’s energy supply while staying in line with the EU’s sanctioning policy.

10:37 a.m.: French banking group Societe Generale has said it is ending its activities in Russia and selling its stake in Russia’s Rosbank and the Russian lender’s insurance subsidiaries. Societe Generale said in a statement on Monday that its withdrawal from Russia would cost the bank $3.4 billion. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this story.

10:21 a.m.: The Republic of Moldova on Monday received a questionnaire from the European Commission to assess the small country’s readiness to become a European Union member, The Associated Press reported. “A period of hard work is ahead starting today,” Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu wrote online. The former Soviet republic of around 2.6 million people is one of Europe’s poorest nations. Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has pushed to accelerate joining the EU since Russia launched its attacks on Ukraine in late February.

10:16 a.m.: Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Monday became the latest Western leader to visit Ukraine to express support to the nation under Russian attack. During the unannounced visit, she is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who plans to address the Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday. Starting her visit in Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, Simonyte shared photos of some of the destruction on Twitter, saying “No words could possibly describe what I saw and felt here.”

10:10 a.m.: Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian state media journalist detained briefly after protesting the war live on air, is to work with German newspaper Die Welt, Agence France-Presse reported. Ovsyannikova will work as a freelance correspondent, “reporting from Ukraine and Russia, among other places,” the paper said in a statement. Ovsyannikova made headlines last month when she held up anti-war signs during a live news broadcast on Russia’s Channel One. She was detained for 14 hours and fined before being released. Ovsyannikova says Die Welt "stands for what is being defended so vehemently by the courageous people on the ground in Ukraine right now: for freedom."

10:02 a.m.: South Africa’s citrus farmers are facing millions of dollars in losses due to sanctions that have closed off the Russian market. South Africa is the world’s second largest citrus exporter and farmers are scrambling to find other markets before the fruit spoils. South Africa normally sends about 10% of its annual two billion dollars in citrus exports to Russia. That’s now on hold because of sanctions imposed after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Following two years of export disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, unrest, and cyberattacks on the ports, the loss of the Russian market is another blow to South African farmers. VOA’s Linda Givetash has the story.

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South Africa’s $2 Billion-Citrus Industry Fears Russia Exports Losses

9:53 a.m.: Croatia on Monday told 24 Russian embassy staff to leave over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “brutal aggression”, the foreign ministry said in a statement, following similar moves by other EU countries. The 24 included 18 diplomats, it said. The ministry said that the Russian ambassador was summoned in a protest over the “brutal aggression on Ukraine and numerous crimes committed (there),” according to Reuters. “The Russian party was informed about the reduction of administrative-technical staff of the Russian Federation’s embassy in Zagreb,” the statement said.

9:40 a.m.: The U.N. Human Rights office on Monday released an updated report on civilian casualties in Ukraine, saying that since Russia’s armed attack against Ukraine began, it has recorded 4,335 civilian casualties – including 1,842 killed, and 2,493 injured. “Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the U.N. Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights said in a statement, cautioning that actual casualty figures may be considerably higher.

A family mourns a relative killed during the war with Russia, as dozens of black bags containing more bodies of victims are seen strewn across the graveyard in the cemetery in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 11, 2022.

9:31 a.m.: Russia will not pause its military operation in Ukraine for subsequent rounds of peace talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday. Speaking in an interview with Russian state television, Lavrov said he saw no reason not to continue talks with Ukraine, but he insisted Moscow would not halt its military operation when the sides convene again. In the interview aired on Monday, Lavrov also said that calls by Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, for the bloc to continue arming Kyiv marked a "very serious U-turn" in European policy, Reuters reported.

9:23 a.m.: The Vatican says a Ukrainian and a Russian family will be among those taking turns carrying a cross as part of the traditional Good Friday procession presided over by Pope Francis at the Colosseum later this week, The Associated Press reported. The Vatican released some details on Monday about the torchlit Way of the Cross ceremony at the ancient arena that draws tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists in Rome during Holy Week. Family members of a Ukrainian nurse and a Russian nurse who work at the same hospital in Rome will join together in helping to carry the cross, Italian TV said. Handing the Ukrainian and Russian families the cross will be a family that has dealt with the loss of a child. The Ukrainians and Russians in turn will pass the cross to a family of migrants.

9:19 a.m.: The wheat has been sown for the coming season but nobody in Yakovlivka, a small farming village outside Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, knows if it will be harvested, Reuters reported. A week after Russian forces launched their invasion on February 24, the village was bombed. The head of the village administration said four people were killed and 11, including children, were wounded in the attack. With the country at war, the uncertainty facing Yakovlivka is shared across the country by farmers who produce the grain that has historically made Ukraine, the world’s fifth biggest wheat exporter, one of the great breadbaskets of the world.

An aerial view shows a tractor spreading fertilizer on a wheat field near the village of Yakovlivka after it was hit by an aerial bombardment outside Kharkiv, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, April 5, 2022.

9:06 a.m.: Ukrainian men – and a dog – are risking their lives to remove explosives from the battlefield as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters a new phase. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this photo essay showing what it takes to clear the lethal litter of the war.

A member of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team carries a dog, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in the village of Yahidne, near to Chernihiv, Ukraine, April 6, 2022.

8:46 a.m.: Slovakia has denied the S-300 air defense missile system it transported to Ukraine has been destroyed by the Russian armed forces. “Our S-300 system has not been destroyed,” Lubica Janikova, spokeswoman for Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. She said any other claim is untrue. Earlier on Monday, the Russian military said it destroyed a shipment of an air defense missile system, provided by the West, on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

8:23 a.m.: Sweden’s ruling Social Democrat party, which has until now rejected membership of NATO, is reviewing its international security policy in the light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it said on Monday. The Social Democrats, the biggest party in parliament and who form a single party, minority government, have consistently rejected calls to join NATO, arguing that military non-alignment has served the country well. But an increasingly belligerent Russia has forced a rethink across the political spectrum in both Sweden and neighbor Finland, which is also outside the 30-member NATO alliance. Daily DN quoted Social Democrat party secretary Tobias Baudin saying the review would be complete before the summer. Finland is expected to outline its path regarding NATO in the coming weeks, Reuters reported.

8:12 a.m.: Russia’s defense ministry says sea-launched cruise missiles were used to destroy four S-300 air defense missile systems in Ukraine, but Slovakia says it cannot confirm that the S-300s it supplied have been destroyed by Russian armed forces. “We have no evidence of this” Slovakian Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok said when asked by The Associated Press. “We’ve been hearing news to that end, but based on information provided by the Ukraine side we cannot confirm that. The Ukrainian side has excluded that,” he said at an EU meeting in Luxembourg.

7:51 a.m.: Nearly 6,000 orphans have been evacuated from the war zone in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian law, they can’t be adopted during the war. Correspondents Yuliia Zhukova and Serhii Syvko visited one of the shelters for evacuated orphans in the village of Yaremche in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk region, and have this report for Current Time, a co-production of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and VOA.

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7:36 a.m. : The European Commission has added 21 Russian airlines to a list of carriers banned from operating in the bloc because they do not meet international safety standards, Reuters reported. "The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has allowed Russian airlines to operate hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft without a valid certificate of airworthiness," Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean said. She said the decision to ban the airlines certified in Russia, which include Aeroflot, was not another sanction against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, but a measure taken only on the basis of technical and safety grounds. The Commission said that after the addition of the 21 Russian airlines, the EU black list of carriers banned from EU skies now contained 117 companies.

7:21 a.m.: President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the White House said, at a time when the United States has made clear it does not want to see an uptick in Russian energy imports by India. Biden, who last spoke to Modi in March, recently said that only India among the Quad group of countries was "somewhat shaky" in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The South Asian nation has tried to balance its ties with Russia and the West but unlike other members of the Quad countries - United States, Japan and Australia - it has not imposed sanctions on Russia.

7:17 a.m.: Ukrainian forces may need to change tactics as they focus their attention on Russian troops in the east and south. Russia is currently repositioning and refitting its forces as it adapts its goals for its invasion of Ukraine following heavy losses, with Moscow hoping it can control Mariupol, capture all of the territory claimed by Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, and encircle Ukrainian forces in the area. To better understand what lies ahead, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty spoke with Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine colonel and senior adviser at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

7:02 a.m.: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is visiting Russian leader Vladimir Putin Monday, the first such visit by a European leader since Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February. Nehammer's visit is meant to tell the Russian president the truth about the war in Ukraine, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said. "It makes a difference to be face to face and tell him what the reality is: that this president has de facto lost the war morally," Schallenberg said upon his arrival for a meeting with EU counterparts in Luxembourg, Reuters reported. "It should be in his own interest that someone tells him the truth. I think it is important and we owe it to ourselves if we want to save human lives," he added.

6:51 a.m.: Ukraine’s economy is forecast to nearly halve this year due to Russia’s invasion, which has destroyed major factories and housing projects and sent millions of people fleeing the country, according to a new World Bank report. The country’s economic output is expected to contract by 45 percent, the bank said, adding that the final extent of the country's economic decline will ultimately depend on the "duration and intensity of the war," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. "The Russian invasion is delivering a massive blow to Ukraine’s economy and it has inflicted enormous damage to infrastructure,” said Anna Bjerde, World Bank vice president for the Europe and Central Asia region.

6:45 a.m.: Global stock markets and Wall Street futures sank Monday, the Associated Press reported. Investors are uneasy about higher interest rates, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and China’s efforts to contain coronavirus outbreaks. Oil prices have fallen back on expectations of weaker demand after peaking above $130 per barrel last month due to anxiety about disruption of supplies from Russia, the world’s No. 2 exporter.

6:29 a.m.: The Russian ruble has weakened sharply after the country’s central bank decided to relax some of the temporary capital control measures aimed at limiting a drop in the currency brought on by crippling sanctions. The ruble fell to 82.09 against the U.S. dollar at the market opening on the Moscow Exchange on Monday, from 71 rubles on Friday, which was its strongest level since November 11. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

6:23 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday called for South Korea to provide military arms to help his country fight back against invading Russian forces, The Associated Press reported. Zelenskyy thanked South Korea for participating in U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow, but said sanctions alone aren’t enough. Zelenkyy’s video address to South Korean lawmakers came hours after Seoul’s Defense Ministry confirmed it rejected a Ukrainian request for anti-aircraft weapons, citing the government’s principle on limiting military help to non-lethal supplies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses South Korean parliament via video link at National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, April 11, 2022.

6:20 a.m.: Ireland’s foreign minister says the European Union should consider imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil industry but cautions that it’s most important for the 27-nation bloc to remain unified, The Associated Press reported.

“We need to take a maximalist approach to sanctions to offer the strongest possible deterrents to the continuation of this war and brutality,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said, speaking as EU foreign ministers gathered Monday in Luxembourg. “That should include, in our view, oil,” Coveney said, adding that it is “very difficult for some member states and we have to keep a united position across the EU.”

The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, is assessing what more can be done with a fresh package of sanctions, the AP report said. “The European Union is spending hundreds of millions of euros on importing oil from Russia. That is certainly contributing to financing this war. And in our view, we need to cut off that financing of war,” Coveney said.

6:00 a.m.: Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the political foundation linked to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat party, said that it will seek to promote democracy in Russia even though it has been barred from working in the country, Reuters reported.

4:50 a.m.: The Norwegian defense ministry said Monday that Norway will extend its current NATO enhanced Forward Presence, or eFP, troop deployment in Lithuania meaning all of its 200 troops will remain until August following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.

The deployment was increased in February by around 50 troops on a three-month basis, and this deployment has been extended by three more months. Norway said it also plans to contribute troops to the eFP beyond August, but did not say how many would be deployed, according to Reuters.

4:25 a.m.: Russia’s defense ministry said Monday it has destroyed S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems which had been supplied to Ukraine by a European country, Reuters reported.

The ministry said that Russian sea-launched Kalibr missiles on Sunday destroyed four S-300 launchers which were concealed in a hangar on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Russia said 25 Ukrainian troops were hit in the attack, according to Reuters. Russia did not say which European country had supplied the S-300 systems.

Slovakia, which had donated such a missile system to Ukraine, denied on Sunday that the one it supplied had been hit. It said such reports were Russian lies.

The Russian defense ministry also said its forces shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft near the city of Izium and destroyed two ammunition depots, one of which was near the southern city of Mykolaiv, Reuters reported.

3:30 a.m.: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned Monday that Russia could target “foreign media and politicians” with its disinformation campaign, focusing on sanctions being imposed and arms supply to Ukraine. He urged western politicians to not “fall for it.”

3:15 a.m.: Britain’s defense ministry said Monday that Russian forces continued shelling the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, and that Ukrainian forces were “repulsing several assaults resulting in the destruction of Russian tanks, vehicles, and artillery equipment.”

A ministry statement raised concerns about “Russia’s continued reliance on unguided bombs” with more indiscriminate attacks posing higher risks to civilians.

The conflict has forced about one-quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes, with the United Nations reporting more than 4.5 million refugees have left the country.

3:00 a.m.: More European Union sanctions on Russia are an option, the bloc’s top diplomat said Monday when asked if the EU was ready to consider a Russian oil embargo in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters.

“Sanctions are always on the table. Ministers will discuss which are the further steps,” he told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Reuters reported.

2:15 a.m.: Russian state-owned gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM continued to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday in line with requests from European consumers, Reuters reported citing the Interfax news agency.

Requests stood at 95 million cubic meters for April 11, Interfax reported, citing Ukraine's gas pipeline operator, Reuters added.

1:25 a.m.: New Zealand said on Monday it will deploy a C-130 Hercules and 58 personnel to Europe to further support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. Reuters has the story.

SEE ALSO: New Zealand Sending Hercules Plane, Personnel to Europe

12:45 a.m.: Finland and Sweden, two nations that prize neutrality and have long resisted joining NATO, are reconsidering the stance and could join as soon as this summer.

There have been serious discussions between NATO officials and representatives of the two countries, according to media reports. One former Finnish prime minister told CNN the decision to join was “pretty much a done deal” when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. There has also been a significant shift in public opinion in the two countries. Observers say this shows the strategic error Russia made since its invasion may end up expanding NATO instead of weakening it.

“If you look at public opinion in Finland and Sweden, and how their views have changed dramatically over the past six weeks, I think it’s another example of how this has been a strategic failure,” a senior U.S. State Department official told CNN.

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