April 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The Ukrainian armed forces have acknowledged the loss of several towns and villages in eastern regions as Russia steps up its ground offensive.

Heavy fighting is ongoing on three fronts, with Russian forces being reinforced and resupplied from bases inside Russia, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military on Wednesday.

Despite the loss of territory, Ukrainian authorities said nine enemy attacks were repulsed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions alone, with Russian equipment destroyed — including nine tanks and 11 artillery systems.

Ukrainian troops are essentially fighting in three directions to prevent Russian forces from taking over all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which has been the Kremlin's declared goal.

From the north, Russian units are attacking in the direction of Barkinove, a town south of Izium, and had taken the village of Zavody which has been contested for several days, the Ukrainian military said.

The Ukrainians also acknowledged that Russians had seized the outskirts of the settlement of Velyka Komyshuvakha in the same area.

From the east, Russian forces have taken control of the town of Zarichne, and have started attacking nearby Yampil.

The spokesman said Russian offensive operations were also focused on the Severodonetsk, Popasna and Kurakhiv areas. Russian troops have also taken control of the settlement of Novotoshkivske, and are trying to advance further westward.

In the south, Russian forces are trying to consolidate a land bridge to Crimea and occupy Ukrainian coastal regions.

The southern command of the Ukrainian armed forces said that Russian units were regrouping and conducting air reconnaissance, and are trying to push north toward the city of Kryvyi Rih and into the Zaporizhzhia region.

It also accused the Russians occupying the region of Kherson of further "filtration" of civilians in two districts. 

Reported damage includes energy infrastructure in the town of Zelenodolsk and a severe fire in Dnipropetrovsk.

He added that Russian prisoners had been taken.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accused Russia of trying to “blackmail” the bloc with gas, after Russian energy giant Gazprom halted supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday. 

In a separate statement, von der Leyen said a meeting between the EU's gas coordination group was underway to map out a response. 

Some context: Gazprom halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after both countries refused to pay in rubles. Russia had warned "unfriendly" countries last month that they would need to pay for gas in the Russian currency starting April 1, or risk being cut off.

The payment spat threatens gas supplies that have continued to flow, even as Russian troops shelled major cities in Ukraine and the West imposed crippling sanctions on Russia's economy.

The EU is planning to slash the consumption of Russian natural gas this year as it prepares for a complete break with its single biggest energy supplier. But Europe would struggle to survive for long without Russian gas, and finding alternative sources presents a huge logistical challenge.

Read more here.

When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on the morning of Feb. 24, Darijo Srna was awoken at 6 a.m. by the sound of air-raid sirens.

It was a noise the former international football star says immediately transported his "head and body" back to his native Croatia, where he lived as an 8-year-old when war broke out in what was then Yugoslavia.

So when his football club Shakhtar Donetsk was forced to leave Kyiv, the city that had been one of the team's many temporary bases since 2014, at the start of the invasion, it was unfortunately a scenario Srna was all too familiar with.

Though he's just 39 years old, he has already experienced three wars in his life; first in Croatia in the early 1990s, then in 2014 in Ukraine's Donbas region -- Shakhtar's real home -- and now across much of the rest of the country.

Srna — who, along with the rest of the team, managed to escape Ukraine the day after Russia began its invasion — has found his strength in helping those most affected by the war.

Read the full story:

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Gazprom halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday after both countries refused to pay the Russian energy giant in rubles, the company said in a statement. 

The "decree" refers to legislation introduced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, which orders gas exports to be paid for with Russia's currency. 

Poland was notified of the suspension Tuesday when its national energy company PGNiG was told by Gazprom that all supplies along the Yamal pipeline would be “entirely suspended.”

In late March, Russia announced that “unfriendly” foreign nations would need to pay for their gas in rubles starting April 1, or risk being cut off. Since then, gas shipments to the bloc have largely continued until now. 

Ukraine has maintained control "over the majority of its airspace" some two months into Russia’s invasion, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) said in an intelligence update Wednesday.

“Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace. Russia has failed to effectively destroy the Ukrainian Air Force or suppress Ukrainian air defenses. Ukraine continues to hold Russian air assets at risk,” the report read. 

According to the assessment, Russia’s air activity is now “primarily focused on southern and eastern Ukraine” to provide support to its ground forces there. Meanwhile, Russia’s access to the “north and west of Ukraine” remains “very limited," said the report.

Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and military assets across the country remain ongoing, according to the MOD.

Blasts were heard early Wednesday in three Russian regions bordering Ukraine, local authorities and Russian state media reported.

The depot fire in Belgorod: The blast was followed by a fire at the ammunition depot in the village of Staraya Nelidovka, about 10 miles north of the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram on Wednesday. He added that there were “no casualties among civilians.”

Explosions in Kursk: In the region of Kursk, residents “heard explosions” around 2:45 a.m. local time. The governor, Roman Starovoyt, said the details surrounding the explosions are still "being clarified," but that there were no casualties or destruction.

The Kursk explosions come just two days after two Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian air defense crews in the region's village of Borovskoye, according to Starovoyt. 

Bangs heard at dawn in Voronezh: Two loud bangs were heard by residents in the Shilovo neighborhood of the Russian city Voronezh at 4:40 a.m., according to Russian state media TASS, citing authorities. 

Voronezh is located roughly 200 miles from the Ukrainian border and is a major military and transport hub. 

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Ukraine of mounting cross-border attacks on fuel depots and military installations, claims which Ukrainian government agencies say are intended to stoke "anti-Ukrainian sentiment."

CNN could not independently confirm that there was no damage to residential buildings, or that there were no civilian casualties following Wednesday’s explosions.

The chairman of the Ukrainian railway network, Oleksandr Kamyshin, says another missile has hit a rail and road bridge linking the port city of Odesa with the far southwest portion of Ukraine.

There were no injured railway workers, he said.

The bridge had been struck by a Russian missile attack on Tuesday, city authorities said -- essentially cutting off the region as it's the only link between southwest Ukraine and the rest of the country. Repair work had just started when the Wednesday strike hit.

The Belgorod region, which neighbors Ukraine, is extending its high "terrorist danger" security level status through May 10, according to a notice published on a local government website.

The yellow security status — which has been in place since April 10 — is the second-highest alert level, as it signifies authorities have information suggesting the real possibility of a terrorist act, according to the Russian government. 

The regional government is asking citizens in the region to not attend mass gatherings and to bring their identification documents when they go out. Setting off firecrackers and fireworks is also forbidden by the order.  

The extension comes as a fire broke out Wednesday at an ammunition depot in the village of Staraya Nelidovka, which is about 10 miles south of the city of Belgorod. It's unclear how that fire began, but several military installations in the region have caught fire or exploded since the war in Ukraine began.

Russia has accused Ukraine of being responsible for some of the past fires and explosions at Russian military installations. 

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced Tuesday that it will relocate the 2023 World Championship from Russia, which had previously been awarded hosting rights. 

The tournament had been scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg in May 2023. An alternative host nation will be determined next month, according to the IIHF.

In February, the IIHF moved to ban Russian and Belarusian national and club-level teams from IIHF competition and also stripped Russia of its hosting rights for the World Junior Championship in 2023.