April 25, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

No agreement on a corridor had been reached with Russia for the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday.

"So, I declare officially and publicly: unfortunately, there are no agreements on humanitarian corridors from Azovstal today," Vereshchuk added.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence issued a statement Monday offering to cease all hostilities around the Azovstal plant, a sprawling facility where Ukrainian forces are still holding out, to allow civilians to leave “in any direction they choose.”

Vereshchuk said the Ukrainian side had asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to initiate and and guarantee an evacuation corridor for civilians from Azovstal. Guterres is slated to meet separately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"In particular, we ask that representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross be present in the humanitarian column," Vereshchuk said. "We hope for the effectiveness of the UN Secretary General's talks with Russian representatives."

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has offered to cease all hostilities around the Azovstal steel plant in besieged Mariupol to allow civilians to leave “in any direction they choose.”

“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the formations of the Donetsk People's Republic from 14:00 (Moscow time) on April 25, 2022 unilaterally cease any hostilities, units are withdrawn to a safe distance and ensure the withdrawal of the specified category of citizens in any directions they choose,” the statement said.

Issued on behalf of the head of the Russian Federation Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the statement also claimed a “permanently operating round-the-clock humanitarian corridor” would be open for the evacuations of civilian plant workers, women and children.

Ukrainian officials have said Russia has repeatedly broken pledges to allow civilians safe passage from Azovstal. US and Ukrainian officials have also alleged that Russian forces have forced civilians looking to escape Mariupol into separatist-held territory and into Russia itself.

Ukrainian troops hunkered down in the vast plant have previously rejected Russia’s offers to surrender, and issued videos of women and children sheltering in the basement of the facility.

Mizintsev said Ukrainian troops should indicate readiness to accept the ceasefire by raising white flags around the Azovstal plant perimeter.

The ceasefire offer will also be broadcast to Ukrainian troops by local radio channels at 30-minute intervals, according to the statement.

“The Russian Federation publicly and officially declares that there are no obstacles to the exit of civilians from Azovstal,” the statement reads.

Some context: The CEO of the company that owns Azovstal told CNN last week that the situation was “close to a catastrophe,” with families running out of water, food and vital supplies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said there was no need for his forces to storm the Azovstal factory but ordered them to blockade it "so that a fly can't get through." He added that Russia would offer the remaining Ukrainian defenders the opportunity to lay down arms.

"This was a place people came to pose for photographs. This was a place you would dress nicely to visit. And now this is what's left of it," CNN's Clarissa Ward reported from the destroyed regional state administration building in Kharkiv as Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine's second-largest city.

The mayor told Ward that 67 schools, 54 kindergartens and 16 hospitals have been hit.

Ward explains: "Kharkiv is 30 miles (about 48 kilometers) away from Russia ... There are a lot of important supply routes for the Russians to get more ammunition and weaponry to places like Izium, and that's why it's strategically important."

Watch CNN's report on the ground in Kharkhiv:

Russian forces have made only "minor advances" in eastern Ukraine, but authorities in the country's south-central region have warned Moscow may be planning a new offensive there. Meanwhile, Russian forces have struck five railway stations in central and western Ukraine, according to Ukraine's state railway company.

Here's the latest on Russia's invasion into Ukraine if you're just joining us:

With Marine Le Pen's loss in the runoff of the French presidential election on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin may have just lost his best shot at getting a major geopolitical partner in the West.

Le Pen has, historically, been a vocal admirer of Putin, even visiting him while campaigning for the presidency in 2017. She is famously critical of France's commitments to the European Union and NATO, and wants France to pull out of the latter's integrated command. Any action along those lines would align with Putin's geopolitical goals of fracturing Western partnerships and alliances, which he views as existential threats to Russia.

Had she won, Putin might have had a future partner inside Europe and NATO and an ally among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is also one.

Le Pen backtracked on her support for Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine, but in a news conference focused on foreign policy held before the election, she said she wanted France to spearhead an approach of “strategic rapprochement" between Russia and NATO once the war in Ukraine ended. Given the West's outrage and unity in response to the Kremlin's invasion, it's highly unlikely the two sides will find common ground any time soon.

She's not done yet: During her concession speech Sunday, Le Pen chose to highlight her strong performance -- she won 41% of the vote -- and looked ahead to June's parliamentary elections in France.

"The historic score of this evening puts us in an excellent position," she said. "The game is not quite over."

Despite her decision to backtrack on her support for Putin, Le Pen's previous positions -- and her party's decision to take out a loan from a Russian-Czech bank several years ago -- almost certainly cost her votes.

Whether those positions will cost her in the next vote remains to be seen.

The Zaporizhzhia Regional Council said Monday that the region was "preparing for defense" amid warnings that Russian forces were readying an offensive in the south-central part of Ukraine. 

The city of Zaporizhzhia has been a key way station for evacuees departing the encircled city of Mariupol and Russian-held areas of southern Ukraine. 

The council said an evacuation column had departed from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol, but lost communication less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the town of Manhush, west of Mariupol.

Evacuation columns have been hampered by active fighting and have been held frequently at Russian checkpoints. 

Russian forces continue to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, shelling five railway stations on Monday morning as well as causing widespread water and power outages in the eastern Luhansk region.

Here's the latest on Russia's invasion into Ukraine if you're just joining us:

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has called for the immediate release of four members of its Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine who have been “detained in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk" in the country's east.

The OSCE announced several of its staff members were being held on Saturday but hasn't confirmed publicly who is responsible for their detention -- however, the non-government areas of Donetsk and Luhansk are controlled by Russian-backed separatists. 

On Monday, a spokesperson for OSCE told CNN they were "still working to secure the release of their mission staff."

The SMM is an unarmed civilian division of the OSCE tasked with observing and reporting on conflict zones; it has maintained a presence in Ukraine since 2014 at the request of the government, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. 

On March 31, the OSCE SMM’s mandate in Ukraine expired after Russia -- which is one of the organization’s 57 participating States -- blocked its extension, but the SMM has continued to operate in an administrative capacity in Ukraine. 

OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid said SMM staff had been subjected to “intimidation, harassment and hostile public rhetoric” in the Russian-backed separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk following the collapse of the mandate. 

The Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine has seen extensive cuts to water and power supply due to heavy Russian shelling, said Serhiy Hayday, head of the regional military administration.

There had been "7,500 more power outages, almost the entire Luhansk region is without water supply," Hayday said in a statement on Telegram on Monday. "In the last 10 days, 10 settlements have seen power cut off due to Russian shelling, nine of which have been completely cut off. That makes 30,000 families without electricity. In the past day alone, 7,500 apartments and private houses were cut off."

Hayday said Russian forces had shifted to destroying infrastructure because of a lack of progress on the battlefield. 

"In total, 39 settlements have had power cuts, 26 completely and 13 partially," he said, adding that "121,746 consumers are without electricity."

Due to power cuts, pumping stations that supply water to Severodonetsk and Popasna district have been shut down, and water supply infrastructure in Rubizhne, Popasna, and nearby villages is also damaged, Hayday said.