April 16, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine here, or scroll through the updates below.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu in Moscow on Sunday, with both sides hailing their close military cooperation, according to the Kremlin.

Putin said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Russia was “very productive,” and relations between Russia and China are developing well in all areas, the Kremlin said.

️Russia said Putin used the meeting to highlight military cooperation as a key area of strength between the two countries.

In his first overseas trip since becoming defense minister, Li said Moscow and Beijing “have very strong relations, that far surpass the military-political alliances of the Cold War,” according to the Kremlin statement.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was also present at the meeting. 

Key background: The latest diplomatic sit-down between Russian and Chinese officials comes at a time of increased Western scrutiny about the two governments’ relationship — and how it plays into the war in Ukraine.

Putin and Xi posed as peacebrokers during a friendly visit in Moscow last month, but the Chinese leader’s proposals on ending the conflict in Ukraine include no provision that Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukrainian land, and was drawn up without any involvement from Kyiv.

While China and Russia have strengthened ties in recent months, the US has not seen evidence that China has provided systemic material support to the Kremlin, as Putin looks for avenues to evade Western sanctions and backfill its military, according to senior US Treasury officials.

CNN’s Sam Fossum and Simone McCarthy contributed to this report.

The European Commission denounced a decision by Poland and Hungary to ban imports of grain and other agricultural products from Ukraine.

“Unilateral actions are not acceptable. In such challenging times, it is crucial to coordinate and align all decisions within the EU,” EU Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà told CNN in a statement Sunday.

Podestà said trade policy is an “exclusive competence” issue, referring to the alliance’s policies around decisions that must be made as a group, and not by individual member states.

The commission is requesting more information from the involved countries to assess the measures, the spokesperson said.

The bans in question: On Saturday, Poland banned imports of grain and other food products from Ukraine “to protect the Polish agricultural market against destabilization,” the Polish prime minister’s office said in a statement.  

Hungarian Agriculture Minister István Nagy announced Sunday that Budapest would take similar steps, temporarily banning the import of grain, oil seeds and other agricultural products from Ukraine.

“The government is committed to representing the interests of the Hungarian economic society,” Nagy said in a Facebook post Sunday, adding he was taking the step “in the absence of meaningful EU measures.”

What led up to the bans: When Russia invaded Ukraine, it blocked ports and sea routes used to export Ukrainian grain to Africa and the Middle East. Fearing widespread famine, the European Union lifted duties on grain from Ukraine to ease distribution to those global markets.

Ukrainian grain has since flowed into Poland, but much of it has remained in the country, bringing down the price and causing Polish farmers to suffer significant financial losses.

That’s spurred protests and calls for the European Commission — effectively the EU’s cabinet government — to intervene. But the international body only spurred further anger when it announced a draft decision to extend duty-free and quota-free imports of Ukrainian grain until June 2024.

CNN’s Mariya Knight and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.

The death toll from Friday’s Russian missile barrage on residential buildings in Sloviansk, Ukraine, has reached 15, according to a regional Ukrainian official.

A further 24 people were wounded in the strikes, up from the previously reported total of 22, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk region’s military administration, said in a Telegram post Sunday.

Kyrylenko said rescuers pulled five people, including a 14-year-old girl, from under the rubble. The bodies of 10 of the victims were recovered.

Some context: The strikes, which killed a 2-year-old boy, are among the worst attacks on Sloviansk since the year began.

At least eight explosions rocked the city Friday afternoon local time, as Russian forces targeted it with S-300 rockets, according to Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Liakh. The strikes hit apartment buildings, houses, administrative buildings and a schoolyard.

The embattled city of Bakhmut — currently the scene of the fiercest fighting between Russia and Ukraine’s troops — has been rocked by nearly 100 shellings over the last 24 hours, a Ukrainian army spokesperson told CNN.

Some 30 firefights have taken place as both militaries wage street-by-street — and even house-by-house — battle for control of the city, said Serhii Cherevatyi, of the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

New video released by Ukraine’s military illustrates the intensity of the fighting. 

In one, Ukrainian soldiers from the 3rd Assault Brigade can be seen firing from a position inside a shattered first-floor apartment, its corner entirely blown away.

The constant sound of gunfire exchanges and explosions speaks to what Cherevatyi described yesterday as the “bloodiest of battles, unprecedented in recent decades.”

Russia reports gains: Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed Sunday that Wagner mercenaries have captured two more blocks in the north and the south of Bakhmut, according to RIA Novosti. Units of Russia’s Airborne Forces, the VDV, were providing support, the Defense Ministry added.

CNN is unable to independently verify the report, but the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, DC, appeared to back up the Russian claims, based on geolocated footage.

Russia targets supply route: Moscow’s troops launched an assault Saturday on the town of Khromove, which lies along Bakhmut’s main supply route from Chasiv Yar to the west, Cherevatyi said.

Logistics operations were not easy, the spokesperson told CNN, but they continued. 

“We can still deliver ammunition, provisions, medicines, food, and take our wounded out. Of course it is difficult, but it is possible,” he said. “Our artillerymen are engaged in counter-battery operations to prevent the enemy from constantly firing on the delivery routes.”

Russian forces continue to mount heavy attacks on Ukrainian towns and positions in the eastern part of the country, according to new information from a Ukrainian army spokesperson.

The area between Lyman and Kupyansk — which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces six months ago, and constitutes the northernmost stretch of the front line — is under the heaviest fire with 300-400 attacks per day, Serhii Cherevatyi, of the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN.

Ukrainian paratroopers shot down a Russian Su-25 aircraft over the nearby town of Chervonopopivka, Cherevatyi said.

All Russian offensives in the area were unsuccessful Saturday, the Ukrainian military claimed.

Kyiv’s forces also reported Russian mine-laying operations in four eastern locations.

Russian forces are trying to remove children from their families in occupied southeast Ukraine in an effort to “intimidate people,” a Ukrainian military spokesperson claimed Sunday.

The warning from the official, Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi, on Ukrainian national TV echoed claims from local Telegram groups in Enerhodar, a city in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region.

Users have shared unverified reports about children getting deported to Russian-occupied Crimea, using Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant buses as transport. 

What we know about family separations in Ukraine: The International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued an arrest warrant for Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin over an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia, an alleged practice that CNN and others have reported on.

The Ukrainian presidential office recently estimated the total number of Ukrainian children forcibly removed from their homes is at least 20,000. Thousands of cases are already under investigation, Kyiv has said.

On Monday, authorities in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region said 24 more children have returned home after being taken to Russian territory. Others have recently returned to parents in the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Ukrainian special forces training on US-made Black Hawk helicopters have shown immediate promise, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said Sunday.

The Black Hawks are superior to helicopters Ukraine had been using, the Mi-8 and Mi-24 in “nearly all respects,” according to the ministry.

“Recently, the Ukrainian Defence Intelligence special forces have conducted regular training on the Black Hawk multi-purpose helicopter in one of the frontline areas. Special forces practiced landing combat groups on the battlefield, evacuation, landing from landing cables, and night flights,” it said in a statement.

Ukrainian pilots were impressed with the aircraft’s “reliability, ease of operation and combat survivability,” state media Ukrinform quoted a helicopter flight engineer as saying.

“Having experience operating the Mi-8 and Mi-24, we flew on the Black Hawk on the first day we received it. We just sat down and made the flight,” Ukraine’s military intelligence service quoted a Ukrainian pilot as saying. 

The skill of Ukraine’s pilots over the past year has risen “tremendously” the pilot added. 

Two teenagers were killed by Russian attacks on a town in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region early Sunday, the regional prosecutor’s office said.

Russian missiles hit residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in Snihurivka, a town east of the city of Mykolaiv, around 2:10 a.m. local time (7:10 p.m. Saturday ET), the office said on Telegram.

A 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl were killed, according to the office.

“It is estimated that the occupiers fired about ten S-300 missiles at the civilians of Snihurivka,” it added, referring to Moscow’s forces.

The shelling also damaged an education center, hospital and business, said Vitaliy Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv region military administration.

Poland on Saturday banned imports of grain and other food products from Ukraine “to protect the Polish agricultural market against destabilization,” the Polish prime minister’s office said in a statement. 

Ukraine responded to the move saying it “regrets the decision of its Polish counterparts” and is ready to cooperate with Poland in an investigation of any possible abuses. 

Some context: When Russia invaded Ukraine it blocked ports and sea routes used to export Ukrainian grain into Africa and the Middle East. 

Fearing widespread famine, the European Union lifted duties on grain from Ukraine to ease distribution to those global markets. 

Ukrainian grain has since flowed into Poland but much of it has remained in the country, bringing down prices and causing Polish farmers to suffer significant financial losses.  

Recent demonstrations: Farmers in central and eastern Europe protested last week against the impact of the cheap Ukrainian grain imports.

Protesters blocked traffic and border checkpoints with tractors along the border between Romania and Bulgaria, in an effort to prevent Ukrainian trucks from entering their country, according to local news outlets.

Mercenary fighters of Russia’s Wagner group captured two more areas of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday. 

“Wagner assault units have successfully advanced, capturing two districts on the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut,” the ministry claimed. 

Ukraine is yet to comment. 

The Institute for the Study of War in Washington, DC, appeared to back up the Russian claims Saturday.  

“Geolocated footage showed that Wagner Group forces made marginal gains in northwestern Bakhmut and advanced in southwestern Bakhmut,” the research group said.

CNN cannot independently verify battlefield claims in Ukraine.

Some background: The battle for the besieged city of Bakhmut has seen some of the fiercest fighting and the longest engagement since the start of the Russian invasion. While the town’s strategic importance should not be overstated, its capture would carry a welcome symbolic victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A group of 130 Ukrainians prisoners have been returned from Russian captivity in a “big Easter prisoner exchange” over the last few days, said Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office.

“Military, border guards, national guards, sailors, employees of the State Special Transport Service. Privates and sergeants who were captured in the Bakhmut, Soledar, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson areas. Our people are going back home,” Yermak said.

More background: Several prisoner swaps have taken place during Russia’s war in Ukraine, involving Russians, Ukrainians and foreign nationals.

The most high-profile was in December 2022, when US basketball star Brittney Griner was released from Russian detention in a prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

In September 2022, two American veterans and five British citizens who had been held by Russian-backed forces for months were released as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday welcomed Orthodox Easter by commemorating the fallen “defenders of Ukraine” and urged his compatriots to keep fighting, as Russian strikes continued overnight, destroying a church in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. 

“Today, we celebrate the holiday of the Resurrection of the Lord. Its main symbol is victory: the victory of good, victory of truth, victory of life. We celebrate Easter with unshakable faith in the irreversibility of these victories,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that “perhaps the most difficult of the peaks is ahead of us” but exhorted Ukrainians to keep fighting until their flag is raised in “all our God-given land,” including Russian-annexed Crimea.

“We are one big family. Ukrainians. We have one big home. Ukraine. We have one big goal. Victory. For all,” Zelensky said. 

His comments come as Russian forces launched an overnight missile attack, destroying a church in a village on the outskirts of the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

“There is nothing sacred, even on the Easter night,” Yurii Malashko, head of Zaporizhzhia region military administration, posted on his Telegram account on Sunday.

At least one person was killed in Ukrainian shelling early Sunday on the city of Donetsk, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Denis Pushilin, the Russia-backed head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said a church in central Donetsk had been struck while parishioners were attending Orthodox Easter mass on Sunday.

The shelling also damaged a kindergarten, a market and a pharmacy, among other stores, he said. 

Alexei Kulemzin, head of the city administration, said the city was shelled at least 16 times on Saturday by Ukraine’s armed forces, causing damage to residential buildings. 

Tatiana’s eyes were fixed on rescue workers digging through the jumble of rubble on what was once the top floor of an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk.

Friday afternoon, several Russian S-300 missiles slammed into her community, with an eighth hitting the nearby town of Kramatorsk. Eleven people were killed, including a toddler, and more than 20 people were wounded, local authorities said. 

“The child who was killed was only 2 years old,” Tatiana told CNN, tears falling down her cheeks. “His father is still here,” she said, pointing to the building. “If they — the rescue workers — could just lift the slabs of cement they could save him.” 
“It’s cold, and he’s been there for almost 24 hours,” interjected a man standing next to her. 

The father and son were part of a family that had fled Sloviansk early in the war. Like many others, they recently returned after Russian forces were driven back in last autumn’s Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The missile made a direct hit on the building, throwing debris all over the surrounding area. 

“I knew all the ones who were killed,” said Lilya, who had lived in the adjacent apartment block since 1977. “It’s horrible.” 

Sloviansk mayor Vadym Liakh announced Saturday that a free train service would begin Tuesday, offering citizens the chance to move to safer areas in the Donetsk region, as well as accommodation, meals and social benefits. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, the mayor noted the town’s current population is 50,000 — up from 20,000 last summer.

Elsewhere, in another part of Sloviansk, a deep crater marked a missile impact point in the middle of a children’s playground. The hit had thrown dark, rich soil into the seats of a swing.

Friday had been rainy and cold, and the playground was empty when the missile struck.

At least 11 people have died and 22 more are wounded after Friday’s strikes on residential buildings in the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to an update from the State Emergency Services.

The Ukrainian agency said four more people may still be trapped under the rubble Saturday.

“A total of 75 tonnes of rubble have been dismantled at the site,” the service’s report said.

At least eight explosions rocked the city Friday afternoon local time, as Russian forces targeted it with S-300 rockets, according to Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Liakh. The strikes hit apartment buildings, houses, administrative buildings and a schoolyard.

A 2-year-old boy was among those killed in the assault.