Monday, April 29

Russia’s war against Ukraine

People sit at a subway station during an air alert on April 27, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ivan Samoilov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Syrskyi: Ukrainian forces retreat west from 3 villages in Donetsk Oblast. The villages are in the Pokrovsk District in the western part of Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, which remains one of the hottest sectors of the front line as Russia continues its offensive.

Military intelligence: 2 locomotives destroyed in Russia. Two diesel locomotives have been destroyed in Russia over the past few days, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) reported on April 28.

ISW: Russia unlikely to achieve significant near-term gains near Avdiivka, despite limited Ukrainian retreat. Russian forces are unlikely to achieve “operationally significant penetration” in the areas west of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, despite limited Ukrainian troop withdrawals in surrounding villages, the U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on April 28.

DTEK: Russia has attacked Ukraine’s thermal power plants nearly 180 times since the start of full-scale invasion. Moscow has recently intensified its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, launching large-scale attacks on energy facilities across the country on March 22, March 29, April 11, and April 27.

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Polish FM: Returning draft-aged men to Ukraine is ‘ethically ambiguous.’ Returning men of draft age to Ukraine is “ethically ambiguous” and Ukraine will thus have to “take the in initiative” in the process, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in an interview with Polish channel TVN24 on April 27.

Russian stabbed to death two Ukrainian soldiers in Germany. The men born in 1987 and 2001 were in a medical rehabilitation in Germany.

Prosecutor’s Office: Over 2,500 gambling websites blocked in Ukraine. More than 2,500 gambling websites that had operated without a license were blocked in Ukraine as of April 27, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: Ukrainian forces retreat from 3 villages as Russia gains foothold on eastern front.

Ukrainian troops have retreated west from Berdychi, Semenivka, and Novomykhailivka villages in Donetsk Oblast, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said on April 28.

Photo: Anatolii Stepaov/AFP via Getty Images

Human cost of war

Russian attacks in Kharkiv Oblast injure 2 civilians. Russian troops struck the cities of Kupiansk and Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast on April 28, injuring two people, local authorities reported.

Border Guard: Bodies of 2 men pulled out of Tysa River. Ukrainian border guards found the bodies of two men in the Tysa River in Zakarpattia Oblast on the evening of April 27, the State Border Guard Service reported.

Russia attacks 10 communities in Sumy Oblast. Russian forces attacked ten border areas and settlements of Sumy Oblast on April 28, firing 35 times and causing at least 127 explosions, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported.

Mediazona confirms identities of over 51,600 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. Through open-source research, Mediazona, a Russian independent media outlet, together with BBC Russia, confirmed the names of 51,679 Russian soldiers who had been killed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

International response

Polish FM: Trump’s stance on Ukraine is ‘not as black and white.’ Radoslaw Sikorski said he hoped that Donald Trump realized that opposition to helping Ukraine “is not actually popular in the U.S.” and is harming his chances to be re-elected.

Russia detains 2 journalists on ‘extremism’ charges, accuses them of having worked with Navalny. Two Russian journalists were detained on “extremism” charges in Russia on April 28 for having allegedly worked for a group founded by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Opposition rally held in Tbilisi denouncing ‘foreign agents’ law. On April 28 in Tbilisi, Georgia, an opposition rally opposing the foreign agents law occurred, starting from Republic Square and culminating at the Parliament. Participants chanted slogans denouncing the legislation and projecting messages onto the Parliament building, including “No to the Russian law.”

FT: Turkey in talks with ExxonMobil to secure LNG deal, aims to reduce reliance on Russian natural gas. Turkey is in talks with ExxonMobil to secure a long-term liquified natural gas (LNG) deal worth billions of dollars, aiming to diversify its energy sources, says Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar. The potential agreement could provide up to 2.5 million tons of LNG annually for 10 years.

Opinions and insights

The Counteroffensive: Behind the scenes with a Ukrainian drone-hunting unit

While most Ukrainians take shelter during Russian attacks, Ukrainian soldier Kostiantyn Chernyshov heads toward the drones.

Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Toma Istomina, Olga Rudenko, Kateryna Hodunova, Teah Pelechaty, Alexander Khrebet, Kateryna Denisova, Dmytro Basmat, and Sonya Bandouil.

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