April 29, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

US President Joe Biden and his advisers are still in conversations about how to approach November’s G20 summit, whose hosts received confirmation Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend.

Biden has said Russia should be ejected from the G20. Senior members of his administration have walked out of G20 events where Russian delegates are present. And there were discussions with Indonesia, who is hosting the summit, about stepping up its condemnation of Russia and how to approach the sticky situation.

But no decision on boycotting the leaders’ summit, still six months away, has been made. And officials are weighing the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.

White House aides are realistic the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks, since the decision requires consensus and China has been clear they don’t support such a move. That makes this a different scenario than when Russia was expelled from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea.

That sets up a potentially complicated summit on the Indonesian island Bali, which is scheduled to begin in the beginning of November. White House officials have mulled a number of different scenarios, including potentially sending a lower-level delegation or participating remotely. But Biden attending in person is still considered the likeliest outcome, even if Putin is also there.

NATO fighter jets stationed in both the Baltic and Black Sea regions scrambled “multiple times over the past four days” to track and intercept Russian aircraft near alliance airspace, according to a statement posted by NATO’s Allied Air Command.

NATO radars tracked a number of unidentified aircraft over the Baltic and Black Sea since Tuesday. NATO noted that Russian aircraft often “do not transmit a transponder code indicating their position and altitude, do not file a flight plan, or do not communicate.”

In the Baltic region, fighter jets from Poland, Denmark, France and Spain were used at various times to intercept and identify approaching aircraft. In the Black Sea region, aircraft from Romania and the UK were used to investigate tracks of unknown aircraft approaching allied airspace, the statement said. There is no indication that US aircraft participated in the interceptions.

NATO said that the Russian aircraft never entered the alliance's airspace, and the “interceptions were conducted in a safe and routine manner.”

Norway has said it is following the European Union's fifth sanctions package on Russia and will introduce a ban on Russian road transport and Russian vessels being allowed to dock.

In a statement Friday, Anniken Huitfeldt, the Norwegian minister of foreign affairs, said, “We know that sanctions work best when several countries agree on them,” and “with this, we are implementing the EU's fifth and final sanctions package.”

A news release from the Norwegian government announced that starting on May 7, “there will be a ban on port calls for Russian-flagged vessels,” including commercial ships, yachts, some pleasure craft and recreational vessels.

Due to the special agreement between Norway and Russia on the management and conservation of fish stocks in the Barents Sea, the ban will not include fishing vessels, search and rescue vessels or research vessels, according to the news release. 

“The ban on freight transport by road will apply to transport companies established in Russia and apply immediately,” the news release added. 

The European Union adopted a fifth round of sanctions against Russia on April 8. 

Norway is part of the European Economic Area which gives the country access to the European Union’s internal market, but the country does not have to adopt EU foreign policy or rules on justice and home affairs.

Two regions of Russia that border Ukraine — Kursk and Bryansk — said that their territory has been shelled.

According to Starovoit, “the firing points were suppressed by the return fire of [Russian] border guards and the military.” There were no casualties or destruction, he added.

The head of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said the border department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) had reported shelling in the village of Belaya Berezka, allegedly carried out from Ukrainian territory.

“On April 29, a branch of the border department of the FSB of Russia in the Bryansk region in the village of Belaya Berezka, Trubchevsky district, was subjected to mortar fire from the territory of Ukraine,” Bogomaz said in a Telegram post on his official channel Friday. He said there were no casualties.

Water and electricity networks were damaged as a result of the shelling in the Bryansk region, Bogomaz added.

The mayor of Mariupol said that more than 600 people were injured in Russian bombing that struck the makeshift hospital facility within the besieged Azovstal steel complex.

"You already know that they dropped bombs on the hospital, aerial bombs destroyed the hospital, and that is a sign of a war crime, because the number of wounded before that was 170, and now it is over 600," the mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said on Ukrainian television.

The Azovstal plant was heavily bombed on Wednesday night, according to multiple accounts.

Boichenko also claimed that the Russians had set up four "filtration" centers in the city where those who want to be evacuated are screened.

"If someone leaves the city and he is, in one way or another, connected with the civil service, with the municipal service, they get the sad news that they go to prison. Such people are being held and tortured there," he claimed.

CNN cannot verify the mayor's allegations.

He said some families who wanted to leave for Ukrainian territory were being forced to go to Russian-controlled areas.

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of threatening global food security by stealing wheat, and there's a continued military bombardment across the east of the country. There's fresh hope for civilians trapped inside a steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, however.

Here are the latest developments:

Ukrainian officials say a town near Kharkiv has been recaptured from the Russians.

Kostiantyn Nemichev, an official at the Kharkiv Regional State Administration and a member of the Azov regiment, said Ukrainian forces had liberated the settlement of Ruska Lozova, which is just north of Kharkiv. In recent weeks, the Ukrainians say they've liberated several towns and villages in the area. 

Nemichev's comments were echoed by the Ukrainian military, which said Friday that the town had been liberated by the assault unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. 

The Russians, however, are still able to shell Kharkiv and its immediate surroundings. 

Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said the intensity of shelling had lessened. "However, it's still quite dangerous to be outside in the streets. Unfortunately, we record civilian deaths every day," he said.

"Kharkiv shellings are chaotic. Usually the residential districts are affected, these are Saltivka, Northern Saltivka, Oleksiivka," he said, adding that electrical power was lost in several districts.

Syniehubov said that in the south of the Kharkiv region, the area around Izium — which is held by the Russians — remains the "hottest" spot. He said Ukrainian forces were holding their positions.

He said evacuations continued from several towns within range of Russian artillery fire, including Barvinkove, "as we expect there might be a theater of combat operations there."

Syniehubov also claimed that a Russian military unit accused of atrocities in the town of Bucha north of Kyiv had now redeployed to Kharkiv region. "It was partially eliminated nearby Izium. With these people taken captive, we will do everything for them to be punished accordingly, or at least to testify about their commanders who gave orders for such atrocities that took place in Bucha."

The Russian economy is expected to shrink by 8 to 10% in 2022, according to new estimates from the Russian Central Bank.

It said economic activity began to decline in March 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine and sanctions were imposed. The bank said there has been a contraction in consumer and business activity, and a decline in imports and exports.

It said businesses in Russia are now experiencing considerable difficulties in production and logistics. In a statement, the bank said: “The external environment for the Russian economy remains challenging and significantly constrains economic activity.”

Earlier this month, the World Bank predicted that Russian GDP would contract by 11.2% in 2022 while last week, the IMF forecast a contraction of around 8.5% this year. 

"In 2023 Q4, output will be up by 4.0 to 5.5% on the same period in 2022. However, the overall GDP change in 2023 will be within the range of (-3.0)-0.0%”

The forecasts came as the Central Bank cut Russian interest rates from 17% to 14%. It said slowing consumer activity and the recovery in the ruble has eased the rate of inflation in the country slightly.

Price increases are still expected to remain high though, the bank is now forecasting inflation of 18 to 23% in 2022, slowing down to 5-7% in 2023.

The South Korean embassy to Ukraine will "soon" return to Kyiv, “considering the fact that the situation near Kyiv is stabilizing,” the country’s foreign ministry announced on Friday.

The ministry explained the move is “for smooth cooperation with the Ukrainian government" and the protection of South Korean nationals in the country. It said the exact timing of the move will be decided by the head of the embassy, in consideration of the safety of the embassy staff.

Several other countries, including the UK, Spain, Italy and France, have also announced plans to reopen embassies in the capital city. Slovenia reopened its embassy in Kyiv on March 28, according to Slovenia's Foreign Ministry. 

South Korea's embassy moved out of Kyiv on March 2 due to the escalation of violence near the capital region and has been operating from temporary offices in the Ukrainian cities of Lviv -- which later closed on March 18 -- and Chernivtsi, as well as Romania, according to its foreign ministry. 

The ministry also announced Friday that the South Korean government will provide an additional $50 million USD worth of non-combat support to Ukraine through the NATO-Ukraine trust fund, raising its total support for the country to about $1 billion USD.