Donbas region: The second phase of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced Friday, adding that its objective is the “complete liberation” of the entirety of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Friday that Ukrainian armed forces were deterring attacks in the east and south. “The Izyum direction, Donbas, Pryazovia, Mariupol, Kherson region are the places where the fate of this war and the future of our state is being decided,” he said.
Kharkiv region: The armed forces of Ukraine warned Friday of a possible Russian offensive in the region, where Ukrainian defenders have intelligence that the Russian military is conducting aerial reconnaissance near the town of Izyum.
Mariupol: A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the shattered Ukrainian port city, the president of the European Council said he “strongly urged” Putin to immediately open up humanitarian access to residents. A small pocket of resistance, about 1,000 Ukrainian fighters and citizens who remain holed up in a steel plant, are surrounded. Also, newly surfaced images of two mass graves near Mariupol underscored the scope of the devastation.
Kyiv region: A majority of cities around the capital — where residents who fled are now returning — suffered massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, the United Nations confirmed Friday with satellite imagery. Around 77 percent of the Horenka, 71 percent of Irpin and 58 percent of Hostomel, all city areas, were damaged or destroyed as of the end of March, U.N. spokesman Eri Kaneko said.
Sloviansk: Shelled by Russian forces in the eastern Ukrainian city Friday damaged a secondary school building and residential buildings, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office said on Telegram, announcing an investigation into the use of cluster missiles, prohibited under international law.
