April 8, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The US has seen indications that Russia is looking to recruit “upwards of 60,000 troops” between new conscripts and mobilizing reservists to reinforce their invasion forces, according to a senior US defense official.

The official cautioned that “it remains to be seen” how successful Russia would be in meeting that target, how much training those forces would get, or where they would be sent. 

The official also said the US has not seen that there are “fresh reinforcements, fully trained, fully armed” ready to reinforce depleted Russian battalion tactical groups.

With regards to their current ability, Russia is now “below 85% of their assessed available combat power” that Moscow had amassed prior to the invasion of Ukraine in February, a senior US defense official said Friday during a briefing with reporters.

The official would not put a specific number on the total number of Russian troops that have been killed to date in the Ukraine operation.

“The aggregate tells us they are under 85% of their assessed available combat power when they started this invasion,” the official said.

The US also believes the Russian military has not solved “their logistics and sustainment problems,” include those problems that existed outside Ukraine, according to a senior US defense official.

The official said those problems mean that they will be unlikely to be able to reinforce their forces in the eastern part of Ukraine “with any great speed.”

“We don’t believe that in general this is going to be a speedy process for them, given the kinds of casualties they’ve taken and the kind of damage that they’ve sustained to their units’ readiness,” said the official. 

On Friday, the General Staff of Ukraine said stated that Russian forces have completed their withdrawal from Ukraine's northern Sumy region, while continuing a buildup of forces in the country's east.

Russia's military announced previously it was withdrawing from northern Ukraine and around Kyiv to concentrate efforts in the eastern Donbas region.

The General Staff statement also noted that Russian troops continued a buildup in the southern Zaporizhzhia and eastern Donetsk regions, and continued an offensive in the direction of Popasna and Severodonetsk, in the eastern Luhansk region.

The European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, has strongly condemned a rocket strike on a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, which killed around 30 people and wounded about 100 on Friday, according to officials.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday she is "appalled" by the "despicable" missile attack on the railway station.

Borrell and von der Leyen will be meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the strike “abominable” in a tweet posted Friday.

“Ukrainian civilians were fleeing to escape the worst. Their weapons? Strollers, stuffed toys, luggage. This morning, at the Kramatorsk train station, the families who were about to leave experienced horror,” Macron said. “Dozens dead, hundreds injured. Abominable."

The French president expressed his condolences to the victims of the strike in Kramatorsk and to victims from past attacks, namely Bucha, Mariupol and Kharkiv. He also called for investigations. 

Macron reiterated that the European Union will continue to provide humanitarian, military and financial supports to Ukraine. 

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has responded to the deadly attack on the Kramatorsk railway station in Ukraine, calling the strike on civilians “completely unacceptable”. At least 50 people were killed in the missile strike on a train station, according to Ukrainian authorities. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the strike "completely unacceptable" in a statement Friday.

The statement added that the secretary general reiterates his appeal to all concerned “to bring an immediate end to this brutal war.”

European Council President Charles Michel also condemned the strike.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Friday she is "appalled" by the rocket strike.

"The targeting of civilians is a war crime. We will hold Russia and Putin to account," Truss said on her official Twitter account.

CNN’s Xiaofei Xu and Camille Knight in Paris contributed to this reporting.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he thinks thinks Germany will be able to stop importing Russian oil "this year," he said Friday.

Speaking at a press conference with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to London, Scholz said Germany was "actively working" on becoming independent from Russian oil imports. The German chancellor said he believed Germany would be able to end imports this year but added it would take Germany longer to wean itself off Russian gas.

Ending Russian energy imports required investment and infrastructure, Scholz said, adding that Germany had prepared steps to become independent from Russian energy imports "before the war began because we knew that this problem would come up."

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktovae revealed on Friday that 164 bodies have been found in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where a massacre of civilians was uncovered following the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Venedyktova said 26 bodies had been retrieved yesterday from under the rubble of a collapsed building in another Kyiv suburb, Borodianka, and that two more bodies had been recovered Friday. She warned that more bodies were likely to be found in destroyed buildings in the town.

Ukrainian authorities in the southern region of Odesa have imposed a curfew for the next day and a half following deadly Russian missile strikes on a train station in the east on Friday.

Due to the threat of Russian forces launching missile strikes in the province, residents have been told to stay home from 9 p.m. local time Friday until 6 a.m. local time Sunday morning.

During the curfew it will be prohibited to be out on the streets or in public places without special permissions, the Odesa Regional State Administration said in a statement.

“I appeal to Odessa residents and residents of the region to understand the restrictions imposed and not to violate them. Such measures are necessary, first of all, for your safety, which will save your life, because the consequences can be fatal," the Head of Odessa Regional Military Administration Maxim Marchenko said.

Hungary will be breaking EU sanctions if they make good on their promise to pay for Russian energy in rubles, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has told CNN.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had indicated that his country would be willing to pay for Russian gas in rubles after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree demanding that ‘unfriendly countries’ will be required to pay for gas in the currency. 

The EU were in discussions with Budapest, Von der Leyen told CNN.

“So far Hungary has stuck to the sanctions, so until we don’t see the opposite, it’s fine. Never before have we seen the European Union so united, so determined, so fast. And I think for each of our member states, also a question, do I want to be the first one to break that unity? I think no,” she said. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it will expel 45 Polish diplomats from Russia on Friday in response to Poland expelling 45 Russian diplomats. 

“As a response to Poland's unfriendly actions to expel Russian diplomats, based on the principle of reciprocity, 45 employees of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and the consulates general of the Republic of Poland in Irkutsk, Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg were declared 'persona non grata'," the Russians Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on Telegram.

“They must leave the territory of the Russian Federation before the end of the day on April 13. The corresponding note was handed over to the Ambassador of Poland in Russia,” the statement said.

The Polish Ambassador to Moscow, Krzysztof Kraevsky, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday to express “strong protest” over Poland’s decision to expel 45 Russian diplomats as persona non grata, according to the statement. 

Persona non grata literally means "an unwelcome person."

“The ambassador was told that we regard this step as confirmation of Warsaw's conscious desire to finally destroy bilateral relations. The responsibility for this lies entirely with the Polish side,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

A meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has started in Kyiv, Zelensky's office said in a statement Friday.

Borrell and von der Leyen arrived in Ukraine earlier on Friday.

During a visit to Bucha, von der Leyen said those responsible for the atrocities committed there "will be brought to justice."

"It was important to start my visit in Bucha. Because in Bucha our humanity was shattered. My message to Ukrainian people: Those responsible for the atrocities will be brought to justice," von der Leyen said on her official Twitter account Friday. 

"Your fight is our fight. I’m in Kyiv today to tell you that Europe is on your side," she added.