April 11, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Kremlin critic who has survived two suspected poisonings, has been detained outside of his apartment building in Moscow on Monday, according to Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin and media reports.

Yashin told CNN he learned about the detention from Kara-Murza’s lawyer. 

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti also reported Kara-Murza’s detention citing his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov.  

“I just found out about his detention, so far I can't say the details," Prokhorov told RIA Novosti.

An interview with Kara-Murza aired on "Big Picture with Sara Sidner" on CNN+ earlier Monday. The opposition figure has condemned what he calls Russian President Vladimir Putin's "aggression" in Ukraine. 

He told Sidner that he believes the war in Ukraine will ultimately end Putin's regime.

"I have absolutely no doubt that the Putin regime will end over this war in Ukraine, doesn't mean it's gonna happen tomorrow. The two main questions are time and price and by price, I do not mean monetary — I mean the price of human blood and and human lives and it has already been horrendous, but the Putin regime will end over this and there will be a democratic Russia after Putin," Kara-Murza told Sidner.

The White House said Vladimir Putin's decision to appoint Army Gen. Alexander Dvornikov as theater commander of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine “is not going to erase the fact that this is a strategic failure.”

Dvornikov, 60, was the first commander of Russia’s military operations in Syria, after Putin sent troops there in September 2015 to back the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

During Dvornikov’s command in Syria from September 2015 to June 2016, Russian aircraft backed the Assad regime and its allies as they laid siege to rebel-held eastern Aleppo, bombarding densely populated neighborhoods and causing major civilian casualties.

Looking forward, Psaki said the Biden administration anticipates Russian forces “will seek to surround and overwhelm Ukrainian forces,” in Eastern Ukraine, where they’ve coalesced forces after unsuccessful efforts to capture Kyiv and the surround areas, while continuing “to launch air and missile strikes across the rest of the country to cause military and economic damage.”

“And we expect this stage of the conflict could last a long time, and we should have no illusions that Russia is going to adjust their tactics and make them less brutal, and certainly changes in leadership reflect a continuation of the type of atrocities we've seen, or the type of approach that we've seen, and we've also predicted from the beginning,” she added.

The White House is not planning for US President Joe Biden to travel to Ukraine right now after a high-profile visit to Kyiv by his British counterpart.

"We’re not currently planning a trip by the President of the United States to Ukraine," press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Over the weekend, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv and toured the capital's streets with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also visited Kyiv and Bucha, the site of atrocities, last week.

During a last-minute visit to Europe last month, Biden told aid workers he would have liked to visit Ukraine to see the situation at close range.

“They will not let me, understandably, I guess, cross the border and take a look at what’s going on in Ukraine,” Biden said. The White House had said before the trip they had not explored any visit to Ukraine. 

Since then, Russian forces have withdrawn from the area around Kyiv.

Psaki said more important than a presidential visit was a continued supply of weapons and support.

Psaki declined to say who at the White House makes the call on whether Biden can visit the war-torn country, "I’m not going to get into private conversations," she said.

On Monday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US President Joe Biden he had suggested the leaders of Russia and Ukraine hold direct talks.

Modi's comments came during his opening remarks ahead of a virtual meeting with Biden. His remarks were streamed on both his official Twitter account and the account of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Modi also spoke on the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, describing the incident as “very worrying.”

“We have also placed importance on the safety of the civilian population in Ukraine and the uninterrupted supply of humanitarian aid to them. On our behalf, we have sent medicines and other relief materials to Ukraine and its neighboring countries. And on the request of Ukraine, we are sending another consignment of medicines very soon," he said.

US President Biden shared his "candid" view on India's neutral stance in the war in Ukraine during an hour-long virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, according to a senior administration official.

But he did not make a specific ask of the Indian leader to take a side, nor did he receive any firm commitment from Modi to back off energy purchases from Russia. 

Speaking afterward, the official said the two leaders were able to exchange their views in a "warm" fashion, even though India's position has caused increasing concern in Washington.

India has not backed off purchases of Russian oil or gas, despite efforts by the United States to rally the world behind crippling economic sanctions on Moscow. The official said in their meeting, Biden did not specifically demand India halt its purchases.

"Other countries have to make their own choices," the official said. "That said, we don't think India should accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy."

Instead of making demands, Biden sought to underscore areas where India could help "mitigate the destabilizing impacts of Putin's war," the official said, citing food supplies as one place India has already shown a willingness to help.

"There was discussion about what more India might be able to do," the official said.

In the meeting, Modi expressed concerns about the close ties between Russia and China — a factor the official said could impact India's thinking in its stance on the war in Ukraine.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Monday that he was not "particularly optimistic" from his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Nehammer — the first European leader to have met with Putin face-to-face since the invasion of Ukraine began — said that he confronted the Russian president "with the facts."

"I made it clear to Mr. Putin, his attitude, his view is not shared by anybody. He sees it as a kind of self-defense operation of the Russian federation. He calls it special military operations. I call it the war," he said.  

Nehammer, however, noted that "it was also clear and recognizable that the Russian president still has confidence" in the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey.  

Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he raised alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine during a "tough" and unfriendly meeting Monday with Vladimir Putin. It was the first Western sit-down with the Russian President since he launched his invasion in February.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country is "ready" for a major Russian offensive in the east of the country, as he accused Moscow of lying to deflect the blame for the war.

Nine evacuation corridors were agreed for Sunday, as the death toll rose from a Russian missile strike last week on a train station packed with evacuees.

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine conflict:

Increased reports of rape and sexual violence against Ukrainian women and children must be thoroughly and independently investigated to ensure accountability, Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, said Monday morning. 

She later added that there is also an increased risk of human trafficking at border crossings, with young women and unaccompanied teenagers at particular risk. 

Bahous was addressing the UN Security Council in New York City upon her return from Moldova, where she observed the humanitarian response at temporary shelters erected for people fleeing Ukraine. There are an estimated 95,000 Ukrainians being hosted in Moldova to date, Bahous said.

UN Women, a United Nations entity dedicated to advancing gender equity and the empowerment of women, is working with refugee response teams and civil society teams on the ground in Moldova “to ensure that the gendered nature of this crisis is addressed with a gender sensitive response.”

Bahous stressed the imperative need to have a “gender-sensitive” humanitarian response, including “services to provide with a focus on protection and to address the increased trauma and psycho-social support needs.”

“Women make up 80% of all health and social care workers in Ukraine, and many of them chose not to evacuate,” Bahous said. “I heard from women in the shelters that they too, are taking on leadership roles, and supporting the refugee response in the host countries.”

Despite this, Bahous said women remain largely absent from any current negotiation efforts. She called for the UN Security Council and all UN member states to "to ensure the meaningful participation of women and girls, including from marginalized groups, in all decision-making processes, peace, diplomacy, and humanitarian. Without this, we will not have peace, development, or human security.”

Nearly two-thirds of Ukraine’s children have been displaced in just six weeks and nearly half of the children who remain in Ukraine may face food insecurity, Manuel Fontaine, director of emergencies for UNICEF, said Monday.

Fontaine added that the situation for children in Ukraine is even worse in Mariupol and Kherson, “where children and their families have now gone weeks without running water and sanitation services, a regular supply of food, and medical care. They are sheltering in their homes and underground, waiting for the bombs and violence to stop.”

The UNICEF emergencies director also expressed his concerns about the presence of “explosive remnants of war” which can expose children to death and injury, as well as the disruption of education for children across the country. 

“Nationwide school closures are impacting the learning — and the futures — of 5.7 million school-age children and 1.5 million students in higher education. In the Donbas region, a whole generation of children have already seen their lives and education upended during the past eight years of conflict,” Fontaine said.