April 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Monday show Russian forces redeploying and moving into eastern Ukraine.

A number of military deployments were observed along a major highway and the corridor that leads from the towns of Soloti and Valuyki in western Russia's Belgorod region, toward the Ukraine border.

The deployments consist of dozens of armored vehicles, troops with tents and support equipment, the images appear to show. They can be seen in the satellite images in fields and farms west of Soloti and near the Russian towns of Dubrovka, Biriuch and Leonovka, which is about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the Ukraine border. 

Across the border in eastern Ukraine, several convoys of military equipment were seen along a highway near Vilkhuvatka. Additional military convoys were also seen on Monday in and near the Donbas region near the Ukrainian towns of Bilokurakyne and Kyslikva, according to Maxar.

Together, the convoys contain more than 200 vehicles and include tanks, armored personnel carriers, towed artillery and support equipment, Maxar said.

Some context: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia would launch full-scale combat actions in the east, but said: "We are ready." It comes as Russian troops pour into Ukraine, with a large column of military vehicles also seen heading in the direction of Donbas.

The presidents of the Baltic states and Poland are on their way to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The party includes Polish President Andrzej Duda, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, Latvian President Egils Levits and Estonian President Alar Karis, according to a Twitter post from Karis on Wednesday.

They will meet with Zelensky during their visit to "show strong support to Ukrainian people," Karis said.

Key topics to be discussed in the meeting will be providing aid to Ukrainian civilians and defenders and the investigation of alleged war crimes, according to Estonia's presidential office.

President Karis will return to Estonia on Thursday, his presidential office said in a statement. 

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday the atrocities being uncovered in Ukraine qualify as genocide, saying "it’s become clearer and clearer that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian."

Here's how we got to this point:

What is genocide?

When has the US used the term before?

US President Joe Biden described the atrocities in Ukraine as "genocide" for the first time Tuesday, saying "it's become clearer and clearer that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian."

Here are the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he cannot say with certainty if chemical weapons were used in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Zelensky warned other leaders to pay attention to the possibility of chemical weapons put in use.

“However, given the repeated threats of Russian propagandists to use chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol and its repeated use by the Russian army, such as phosphorus munitions in Ukraine, the world must respond now,” he cautioned. "React preventively. Because after the use of weapons of mass destruction, any response will not change anything. And it will only look like a humiliation for the democratic world."

More context: Reports that chemical weapons were used in Mariupol have not yet been confirmed by the United States, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in an interview with CNN Monday.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States could not confirm the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine but noted that they “had credible information that Russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents."

CNN cannot independently verify that there has been any kind of chemical strike in Mariupol. CNN teams on the ground have so far not seen evidence of such an attack, or any imagery from Mariupol sources to verify this.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed swapping detained pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk for captured Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Zelensky also warned Russia that Ukrainian forces would capture more soldiers.

"We will establish the full truth about all these savages. No matter how much time and effort it takes, we will find them all. Let Medvedchuk be an example for you,” Zelensky said.

Medvedchuk was detained in a "special operation," Zelensky announced Tuesday.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday the atrocities being uncovered in Ukraine qualify as genocide, a designation he'd previously avoided but that he now believes is warranted as scenes of devastation emerge from towns once overrun by Russian troops.

It was a dramatic rhetorical escalation in the US view of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, which Biden has previously deemed war crimes. And it appeared to be the latest example of the President allowing his emotion-driven views of the war to outpace official US policy toward the conflict, even as he was voicing a position held by many Americans horrified by the scenes of brutality in Ukraine.

It garnered near-immediate praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who began accusing Russia of committing genocide inside his country last week.

"True words of a true leader @POTUS," Zelensky wrote on Twitter. "Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities."

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Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and oligarch, was detained in a "special operation," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday on Telegram.

Prior to Russia's invasion, Medvedchuk had faced allegations of treason in Ukraine and had been under house arrest. His whereabouts had been unknown in the weeks following the invasion. Some observers speculated that Medvedchuk or one of his allies might be the Kremlin's preference to lead a puppet government in Ukraine if the Feb. 24 invasion succeeded in toppling Zelensky.

Putin ties: Medvedchuk was sanctioned by the US in 2014 "for threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for undermining Ukraine’s democratic institutions and processes."

But the businessman also served as a go-between for Moscow and Kyiv after the outbreak of the Donbas conflict in 2014 by leveraging his personal ties with Putin. In a 2019 interview with filmmaker Oliver Stone, Putin acknowledged that he was godfather to Medvedchuk's daughter.

"I would not say that we are very close but we know each other well," Putin said. "He was [former Ukrainian] President [Leonid] Kuchma’s chief of staff, and it was in this capacity at the time that he asked me to take part in the christening of his daughter. According to Russian Orthodox tradition, you can't refuse such a request."

Medvedchuk also had notoriety in Ukraine for his role as the Soviet state-appointed defense attorney for the Ukrainian dissident poet Vasyl Stus, who died in a Soviet labor camp in 1985.

CNN was not immediately able to reach a legal representative for Medvedchuk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that peace talks with Ukraine had hit "a dead end." 

"Now, security requirements are one thing, and the issues of regulating relations over Crimea, Sevastopol and Donbas are taken out of the scope of these agreements. That is, we have again returned to a dead-end situation for ourselves and for all of us," he added, speaking alongside his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at a news conference.  

The Russian leader also dismissed the reports of atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha as “fake” and compared them to “fake” reports about the use of chemical weapons in Syria by the Assad regime.   

"There were provocations in Syria, when the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government was planted. Then it turned out that it was fake, the same fake is in Bucha,” he said.   

CNN saw firsthand a mass grave while on the ground in the Kyiv suburb, and at least 20 bodies were seen on just one street.