April 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Russia has sanctioned 287 members of the British Parliament, including Downing Street Chief of Staff Steve Barclay and speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday.

The retaliatory move bans the politicians from entering Russia and comes in response to the UK sanctioning 386 Russian lawmakers on March 11, it says. 

Both Conservative and Labour party lawmakers are among those sanctioned by Moscow.

“The hostile rhetoric and far-fetched accusations coming from the mouths of British parliamentarians not only condone the hostile course of London, aimed at demonizing our country and its international isolation, but are also used by opponents of mutually respectful dialogue with Russia to undermine the foundation of bilateral cooperation,” it said. 

British Environment Secretary George Eustice, Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Conservative lawmakers Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker are among the most prominent British political figures to feature in Russia’s list. 

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday accused Russia of a “direct attack” on his country by halting gas supplies.

Speaking in Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm, Morawiecki sought to reassure lawmakers about increased supply through other pipelines, and that come the fall, “Poland will not need Russian gas.”

He announced that Poland’s Świnoujście terminal is operational and will expand its production from six billion cubic meters of LNG (liquified natural gas) to between seven and eight billion cubic meters. 

Morawiecki also noted a new gas pipeline under construction in Norway called the Baltic Gas Pipeline will be completed in three months time, which he said will pump 10 billion cubic meters of LNG into Poland.

A new cross-border pipeline under construction with Slovakia will pump more than five billion cubic meters of LNG once completed, he said.

Poland also has interconnectors with Germany and the Czech Republic, and “in a few days, we are opening an interconnector with Lithuania,” he said. He said this was all on top of between 20 and 21 billion cubic meters of domestic LNG production.

“Ukraine is on the front line. We, all European countries, must be aware that this is a fight for peace, a fight for sovereignty, a fight for security, and we must not bow,” he said. 

The Ukrainian-held city of Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region, was subject to heavy shelling during a CNN team’s visit on Wednesday.

The team was able to hear the launch, flight and impact of what appeared to be heavy Russian artillery rounds -- an indication that Russian forces are within just a few kilometers of the city center.

Local police told CNN that the artillery was landing at or near the city’s hospital.

The Ukrainian military said Wednesday that the Russian military was advancing through the town of Rubizhne, to the north, in order to further contest Severodonetsk city.

Though most civilians appear to have left, some remain -- both sheltering in basements and walking the streets.

An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made cryptic references to reports of overnight explosions in regions of Russia bordering Ukraine. 

Myhailo Podolyak said that "the Belgorod, Voronezh, and Kursk regions are now also beginning to actively study such a concept as 'demilitarization.'" 

It comes after blasts were heard early Wednesday in three Russian regions bordering Ukraine, local authorities and Russian state media reported.

A blast in Belgorod 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.

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.

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. 

Podolyak added: "How can this be explained? Very simply. If you (the Russians) decide to attack another country en masse, kill everyone there en masse, crush peaceful people en masse with tanks, and use warehouses in your regions to provide the killings, then sooner or later the debts will have to be paid back.

"That is why disarming the Belgorod-Voronezh depots is an absolutely natural process. Karma is a cruel thing," Podolyak said.

There has been no acknowledgment by the Ukrainian military or Ministry of Defense that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the latest incidents across the border.

There will be “a case to answer in due course” on Russia’s alleged war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan told CNN Tuesday. 

Khan made the comments while reviewing images shared with CNN by Ukrainian prosecutors, as they investigate alleged Russian war crimes. 

Located on the outskirts of Kyiv, Bucha was occupied by Russian forces for roughly three weeks in March. The photos -- which were taken from March 5-7 -- show the bodies of civilians littered in the streets of several locations around the town.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the mass killings of civilians in Ukraine, while reiterating baseless claims that images of bodies on the streets of Bucha are “fake.”

Khan addressed Russia’s disinformation directly. “Those bodies that are in those bags on the screen are not fake. I’ve seen them. I stood beside them. The issue is how did they die, who is responsible and in what circumstances?” Khan said, adding that the world was watching to see how “effective the rule of law” would be regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

On Monday, the ICC joined an EU investigation into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine during Russia’s invasion, marking the court's first joint investigation in its twenty-year history. 

“The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC in The Hague will become a participant in the joint investigation team (JIT) on alleged core international crimes committed in Ukraine,” the EU’s judicial cooperation agency said in a statement. 

During a visit to the towns of Bucha and Borodianka in mid-April, Khan said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC” were being committed there. 

But Khan also warned that it would be “challenging” to guarantee justice would be served in Ukraine, given Russia’s decision to withdraw its signature from the ICC statute, which gives the court jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. 

Russia also doesn’t extradite its citizens to other countries.

Evidence of mass graves in the towns of Bucha and Borodianka has continued to emerge since early April, following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region. 

A steady flow of people have been making their way across fields and rivers dotting southern Ukraine's countryside through the day. As night falls, the crowds swell. They travel on foot, by bicycle, or wheelbarrow.

They are desperate to leave behind the Russian occupation of their hometown, Kherson, and are willing to take — and risk — any route possible out of the city to the rest of the country.

The occupied areas around Kherson — the first to be taken by advancing Russian forces in the opening days of the war — have been terrorized in the past week by both the advancing second phase of Moscow's offensive, but also fears of a referendum on Wednesday.

Ukraine has said Russia plans to hold a vote in the region — widely viewed there as a sham referendum -- to try to show popular support for the creation of a new entity called the Kherson People's Republic, which would mirror similar entities in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Multiple locals and several Ukrainian officials told CNN the vote had been scheduled for April 27.

Yet the day before, Russian-backed officials announced a series of new government officials in the occupied city, leading some observers to think the referendum may have been postponed in favor of these new appointments.

Ukrainian officials also say Russia is running into trouble over plans to hold a poll as early as Wednesday.

Regardless, fear of the impending vote and its implications — a possible strengthening of Russia's control — has led many residents to flee fast.

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British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will urge Western allies to supply Ukraine with warplanes and other heavy weapons, according to a news release from the UK’s Foreign Office published Tuesday.

In a keynote foreign policy speech that she is expected to deliver at London’s Mansion House on Thursday, Truss will argue the need to “double down” on supporting Ukraine’s military.

“We cannot be complacent -- the fate of Ukraine remains in the balance,” Truss will say, according to the release. 

“Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes -- digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this,” she is expected to say.

The global security architecture “that was designed to guarantee peace and prosperity has failed Ukraine” and a “new approach” is needed, Truss will say.  

It comes as NATO countries ramp up their military support for Ukraine. In a major policy U-turn on Tuesday, Germany announced it will supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft tanks. Canada and the UK also announced they would supply more heavy weapons on Tuesday.

This post has been updated to correct the name of Mansion House, where Foreign Secretary Truss is expected to deliver her speech on Thursday.

Russia has cut off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, dramatically escalating its response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Russian state energy giant Gazprom tweeted Wednesday that it had fully halted supplies to Polish gas company PGNiG and Bulgaria's Bulgargaz after they refused to meet a demand by Moscow to pay in rubles, rather than dollars or euros.

The European Commission described the decision to halt supplies as attempted "blackmail" and said it was coordinating a response among EU member states.

The news sent US natural gas futures up about 3% Tuesday. European gas prices jumped nearly 20% on Wednesday morning, Reuters reported.

But Russia’s attempts at using Poland and Bulgaria to send a message to the West and prop up its weak currency are likely to have their limitations.

In preparation for such a situation, European states reliant on Russian gas have been increasing their stored supplies. Polish gas company PGNiG, for example, says the country’s stores are 80% full. Europe is also at the end of its heating season, so demand will be low.

Bulgaria typically gets 100% of its gas from Russia, and Poland is almost as reliant, but the two countries don’t use that much gas in their energy mix in the first place, largely because they still depend heavily on coal for power generation.

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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.