Relatives of victims console each other near an apartment block destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Uman in central Ukraine, April 28, 2023

Friday’s Coverage: 19+ Killed in Russia Missile Strikes Across Country

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1341 GMT:

A Russian baker has been fined 35,000 rubles (about $440_ for decorating her cakes with peace slogans.

A Moscow court ruled Anastasia Chernysheva was “discrediting” the Russian army.

Chernysheva posted pictures of her colorful cakes and their slogans in opposition to more than 25,000 followers on Instagram.

She was detained on Thursday after an ultra-conservative media outlet flagged her work in January.

UPDATE 1147 GMT:

Ukrainian military intelligence says 10 oil tanks, holding up to 40,000 tons of fuel, were destroyed in the fire — apparently from a drone strike — on the depot in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea early Saturday (see 0635 GMT).

Russian proxy governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said the blaze is now contained.

UPDATE 1032 GMT:

Marina Novikova, a 65-year-old lawyer, has been fined 1 million rubles ($12,430) in one of the first criminal cases for “fake news” about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Novikova had asked the court in Tomsk to sentence her to a pneal colony since she has no money to pay a fine. The prosecution had asked for a three-year prison term.

The defense intends to appeal the verdict.

The prosecution of Novikova started March 16, 2022, less than two weeks after the Kremlin instituted punishment of up to 15 years in prison for “fake news” about the Russian military and Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

The lawyer was prosecuted for social media posts about the shelling of Ukrainian cities. She argued in court that all the posted were confirmed by information from open sources and from Ukrainian friends.

UPDATE 1027 GMT:

The body of a fifth child has been found in the rubble of a 9-story apartment block destroyed by Russian missiles on Friday.

The recovery brings the toll in Uman in central Ukraine to 24.

UPDATE 0956 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for assistance in bringing back Ukrainian children deported by Russia.

Zelenskiy and Xi spoke on Wednesday, in their first call since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Afterwards, China struck a position of neutrality, declaring a “strategic relationship” — the same two words used for Xi’s visit with Putin in Moscow on March 21 — with Kyiv.

See also Ukraine War, Day 428: China Puts Kyiv and Moscow on Same Footing

In his nightly address to the nation on Friday, Zelenskiy said:

We need to involve everyone…to put pressure on the Russian aggressor and the terrorists who kidnapped so many of our children.

The UN, many others want to do something, but so far the results have been poor. So I have appealed to the leader of China.

UPDATE 0940 GMT:

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has repeated that, in a historic policy shift, Seoul may send lethal military aid to Ukraine.

Up to last week, Yoon had stuck to South Korea’s long-time refusal to give military assistance to any belligerent in a conflict.

However, Seoul began providing ammunition to the US, freeing up Washington to send munitions to Kyiv. Then Yoon said that direct aid could be sent “if there is a situation the international community cannot condone, such as any large-scale attack on civilians, massacre or serious violation of the laws of war”.

In a speech in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday, he said of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, “We should prove that such attempts will never reach success, to block further attempts being made in the future.”

UPDATE 0635 GMT:

An oil depot in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea is on fire after an apparent drone strike, said the Russian proxy governor on Saturday.

Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram that the fire spread over 1,000 square meters. Details on casualties and damage are being determined.

Ukraine has carried out regular attacks on Russian military positions in Crimea, including air and naval bases and fuel depots, since last summer. Earlier this week, one drone was intercepted and a second exploded before impact.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The latest wave of Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine has killed 25 civilians, including five children, and wounded at least 17.

Of the victims, 23 were in Uman, a pilgrimage city in central Ukraine. Russian missiles levelled and set afire a 9-story apartment block, with the dead and injured pulled out of the rubble throughout the day. A child’s body was discovered about 7 p.m., and two 10-year-olds and another juvenile were found earlier in the day.

In Dnipro in south-central Ukraine, a mother and her 2-year-old child were killed.

While deadly, the Russian wave was small compared to about 20 predecessors since October 10. The Ukraine Air Force said 23 missiles were launched, of which 21 were downed. Two Iranian-made drones were also intercepted.

Moscow’s last mass attack was on March 9, when 95 missiles were fired from at least 31 warplanes and three carriers in the Black Sea. With at least 21 advanced Kh-22, Kh-47, and S-300s — capable of avoiding interception — launched, only 34 of the missiles were downed.

Russia tried and failed to knock out Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with the attacks. At one point, half of the country’s grid was offline.

However, with diminishing stocks of missiles, Russia could not sustain the assault. Ukrainian engineers repaired the damage, with power fully restored throughout the country by the start of April.

Russia is no longer focusing on energy sites, instead firing into residential areas. On Tuesday, Russian S-300 missiles killed two people in a history museum, including the director, in Kupyansk in northeast Ukraine. On Thursday, one person was killed and 23 wounded in Mykolaiv in the south.

On Friday night, Russian shelling of a 57-year-old woman and injuring three more people.

The woman was found under the rubble of her house. A hospital was also damaged.