[Korrespondent] 22:55 Borrell called unacceptable the statements of the Chinese Ambassador to France, Lou Shaye, about the status of the former USSR countries: "The statements of the Chinese Ambassador to France, calling into question the sovereignty of the countries that became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, are unacceptable. The EU can only assume that these statements are not official Chinese policy."
Earlier, the Chinese ambassador to France said that the former Soviet countries "do not have an effective status in international law," and the ownership of Crimea "depends on how you perceive the problem," because "it is not so simple" and the peninsula "originally belonged to Russia."
21:52 The Patriot air defense system, one of which has already taken up combat duty in Ukraine, and the rest are on their way, is capable of shooting down S-300 missiles, but the Russians have too many of them, Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said: what is expensive, here is that there are a lot of them: 6-7 thousand S-300 missiles were a few months ago.It is more rational to destroy them on the ground ... We need to understand how many missiles we will have for Patriot and how many missiles they will have for S -300. They will launch like "Shaheds", depleting our air defense."
20:36 The Russians intensified shelling of the Kherson and Berislav regions after ISW informed about a possible counter-offensive by the Ukrainian military, Natalia Gumenyuk, speaker of the OK Pivden, said: "Reacting to such informational stuffing, the enemy has significantly increased attacks on the opposite bank. We have a powerful shelling of the Kherson and Berislav regions ... Inspired by this information, the enemy launched an air attack, pulled up artillery and tried to prove that he was still in control of the positions.
Gumenyuk added that as a result of the attack, about 30 residential buildings and schools were destroyed, there are victims.
19:49 Prigozhin said that Wagner PMC mercenaries would no longer take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner. He explained this by the fact that the Ukrainian military, in an allegedly intercepted "conversation" that is being distributed through Russian telegram channels, discussed the murder of a wounded Wagnerian who had been captured by them.
19:02 Servicemen of the RF Armed Forces and mercenaries of PMC Wagner shift responsibility for their own tactical miscalculations and losses to each other. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, recently in Stanytsia Luhanska a fight broke out between them, which turned into a shootout. As a result of the conflict, there are casualties on both sides.
18:50 The Russians fired mortars at Kherson, one person died, said the head of the OVA Alexander Prokudin.
18:36 The Russians have begun to use Iranian kamikaze drones in a new way, trying to probe Ukrainian air defense, said Natalya Gumenyuk, speaker of OK Pivden. According to her, the first 3-4 drones reveal the work of air defense, and the next ones are sent directly to these places. At the same time, small batches of drones are used - 14-17 compared to 20-25, as it was before.
In addition, the Russians are trying to target places where, in their opinion, Ukrainian equipment for a counteroffensive can be stored, and electrical substations remain their targets.
18:01 Speaker OK Pivden Natalya Gumenyuk announced in the Crimea "the season of bavovny", not a resort. According to her, the inhabitants of the occupied peninsula need to get used to the sounds of air raids.
17:42 Russians attacked Nikopol from drones in Dnepropetrovsk region, at least four explosions were heard. As a result of the attack, three people were injured, said the head of the OVA, Serhiy Lysak.
16:35 The Russians fired artillery at the village of Kizomys, Belozersky community, Kherson region - the building of a local school and about 25 residential buildings were damaged, two people were injured, said the head of the OVA, Alexander Prokudin.
In addition, in the village of Gavrilovka, Novoaleksandrovsky community, Berislavsky district, on Memorial Sunday, Russian artillery attacked a cemetery, there were no casualties.
16:14 Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called "an outrageous and unacceptable method" the refusal to issue visas to Russian journalists who were supposed to accompany Lavrov to the UN. According to him, the Russian Federation "will find forms of the US response" to the non-issuance of visas to Russian journalists, and "they will remember this for a long time."
15:36 An illegal cellar for Russian refuseniks has reopened in Zaitsevo, Luhansk region, writes ASTRA. A year ago, this place for holding soldiers who refused to fight was dispersed after media publications, but now it is working again. According to journalists, about 300 Russian conscripts who refused to fight in Ukraine were held in the basement of the former House of Culture in Zaitsevo last year. There, the men were threatened, not fed, not allowed to go to the toilet, not allowed to wash, and not provided with medical assistance.
14:57 Elon Musk said he donated $100 million to Ukraine. He announced this in a tweet with Stephen King, who urged him to donate money to Ukraine instead of paying for his blue tick.
14:31 Medvedev said that if the G7 bans the export of goods to Russia, "in this case, the grain deal and many other things that they need will end for them."
12:19 Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk criticized the statement of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who believes that Ukraine will not join NATO in the near future and that such a decision should be made not out of a sense of solidarity, but "on a cold head." According to Wawrzyk, if Germany had not previously blocked Ukraine's accession to NATO, the current war would not have happened.
"The question is when the time will come for this" cold head ". Five, ten or 30 years after the end of the war? years ago in Munich, Ukraine received an invitation to the alliance, then today there would be no war in Ukraine,” Wawrzyk is convinced. He also stressed that the countries of Western Europe - France and Germany - in general have always been against Ukraine's accession to either the EU or NATO.
11:26 Over the past few weeks, there has not been a single day that the Russians did not hit with guided bombs, Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said. According to him, at least two dozen enemy tactical aircraft are operating along the entire front line.
10:51 The Russians are likely to resume assaults on Vugledar, Alexey Dmitrashkovsky, spokesman for the defense forces of the Tauride direction, believes: "Having lost a lot of personnel in the Avdeevsky and Maryinsky directions, I think that the enemy will again focus on the Vugledar direction in the near future."
10:48 British intelligence states that the Russian Ministry of Defense has launched a new large-scale campaign to recruit volunteers, trying to delay any new open mandatory mobilization as long as possible. At the same time, analysts consider it extremely unlikely that this campaign will achieve Moscow's goal of 400,000 volunteers.
10:17 Russians at night fired at the city of Slavyansk of Donetsk region from S-300, Mayor Vadim Lyakh said. The rocket hit in the Lesnoy microdistrict near the quarry. Several private houses were damaged, but people were not injured.
10:02 Speaker OK Pivden Natalya Gumenyuk commented on the ISW information about the alleged landing of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region: "I want everyone to understand: when the front line runs along such a wide powerful river as the Dnieper, it is very difficult to overcome such an obstacle difficult work. Therefore, even the best "students" of the Institute for the Study of War need to be patient here."
She stressed that the conditions of the military operation require information silence until security is ensured for the Ukrainian forces.
08:59 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that Ukrainian forces have taken up positions on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region. The experts made such conclusions after analyzing the messages of Russian military correspondents, who provided enough geographically linked video materials. In particular, Ukrainian forces appear to have taken up positions on the banks of the Dnieper River north of Oleshki (7km southwest of Kherson) and advanced to the northern edge of the settlement on the E97 highway, as well as west of Dacha (10km south of Kherson). Kherson).
08:52 In the Kherson region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, one person was killed, two were injured. In the Donetsk region, four were injured, according to the IVA.
08:44 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of April 23.
- personnel - about 186,420 (+690) people liquidated,
- tanks - 3675 (+3),
- armored combat vehicles - 7131 (+1),
- artillery systems - 2837 (+5),
- MLRS - 539 (+0),
- air defense systems - 289 (+0),
- aircraft - 308 (+0),
- helicopters - 294 (+1),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 2402 (+4),
- cruise missiles - 911 (+0),
- ships/boats - 18 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 5730 (+12),
- special equipment - 339 (+2).
08:31 The Russian army is focusing its main efforts on conducting offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Avdeevsky and Maryinsky directions - 58 enemy attacks have been repelled. The most fierce battles are going on for Bakhmut and Marinka, the General Staff reported in the morning report .
02:39 The EU, within the framework of the 11th package of sanctions, plans to ban the transit of a number of goods through the territory of Russia in order to complicate the circumvention of existing restrictions, writes Bloomberg. The transit ban will apply to technology and goods, including certain types of vehicles. But, perhaps, not all of them will be banned from passing through the Russian Federation on their way to third countries.
01:20 Since the beginning of a full-scale war on the territory of Ukraine, 124 people have died from mines, including six children, Ruslan Beregulya, head of the Department of Environmental Safety and Mine Action of the Ministry of Defense, said. 286 people were injured, including 33 children. The territories of Kharkiv, Nikolaev and Kherson regions suffered the most from mines and explosive objects.
Potentially contaminated territories are considered to be all territories where active hostilities were or are being conducted, as well as territories under occupation, and territories against which rocket and air strikes were carried out. Today it is about 174 thousand square meters. km, including sea areas, said Beregulya.
00:36 Russians are holding deported Ukrainian children in more than 70 camps in Russia. At the same time, underage Ukrainians are constantly transported so that Kyiv cannot find out where they are, said Daria Gerasimchuk, Commissioner for Children's Rights of the President of Ukraine.
According to her, almost 19.4 thousand Ukrainian minors have been confirmed to have been kidnapped by the Russians, but the real figure could be much higher - 200 or 300 thousand. Gerasimchuk stressed that the Russians are trying to select the healthiest children, arranging so-called "medical examinations" before their deportation. “After medical examinations, these healthy children suddenly have amazing terrible diagnoses, after which they are offered treatment in the Russian Federation,” she explained.
"They are trying to break them. They are humiliated in every possible way, and most importantly, the Russians are doing everything to make the child hate his own parents - they impose on the child the opinion that his parents and relatives no longer need him," summed up Gerasimchuk.