Rescuers remove the body of a victim from an apartment block a demoilshed by a Russian missile strike, Uman, Ukraine, April 28, 2023 (Brendan Hoffman/New York Times)

Saturday’s Coverage: Death Toll from Russian Missile Strikes Rises to 26

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1642 GMT:

After days of reports by Russian military bloggers, the Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the dismissal of yet another top commander.

Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the Deputy Defense Minister in charge of logistics, has been replaced by Alexei Kuzmenkov, a former official from the National Guard.

No reason was given for the move. However, Mizintsev — appointed just after Vladimir Putin announced his mass mobilization last September — has been criticized for Russian difficulties with supplies on the frontline as Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine stalled during the winter and spring.

On Saturday, Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin — embroiled in his battle with the Defense Ministry — said Mizintsev could become “First Deputy Head” of the mercenary group.

Mizintsev is under UK sanctions because of his role in the 12-week asault and siege of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine last spring, reportedly killed tensof thousands of civilians.

UPDATE 1258 GMT:

Survivors of Friday’s Russian missile strike on Uman, destroying a 9-story apartment building and killing 23 people, speak about their experience….

UPDATE 1244 GMT:

Shelling has killed four civilians in the Russian border village of Suzemka, says the governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz.

He said two people are being treated in hospital. Rubble is still being removed and Suzemka has declared a state of emergency.

UPDATE 0859 GMT:

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General says 477 children have been killed and at least 955 wounded during the Russian invasion.

The Prosecutor General added the standard caveat that the total is likely to be far higher, as casualties are difficult to verify on the frontline or in Russian-occupied areas.

UPDATE 0737 GMT:

UK military intelligence reports that Russian commanders are punishing troops by putting them in “Zindans”, holes in the ground covered with a metal grille.

The punishment is being used for offenses such as drunkenness and attempts to terminate contracts.

In the initial months of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, many commanders used “a relatively light touch”, allowing those refusing duties to return home quietly.

However, in the autumn, as Ukraine pursued a successful counter-offensive in the northeast and south of the country, the commanders toughened their approach. It accompanied the appointment of Russia’s Chief of Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov as overall commander for the invasion in January.

UPDATE 0642 GMT:

Yevgeny Prigozhin has threatened to withdraw his Wagner Group mercenaries from Russia’s 11-month assault on Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

Continuing his running battle with the Russian Defense Ministry, Prigozhin said in a Saturday interview with a military blogger that his fighters must “withdraw in an organized manner or stay and die” if the situation does not improve.

The mercenaries hold about 85% of the center of Bakhmut. However, Prigozhin said Wagner needs about 80,000 shells per day — its supply before the Defense Ministry tries to curb Prigozhin’s influence — and is only receiving 800 of 4,000 shells per day that it is currently requesting.

See also EA on Ireland’s RTE: The Ukraine War from Bakhmut to Moscow

The mercenary leader also repeated that Russia is failing to prepare for a Ukrainian counteroffensive which could start before May 15.

He offered the position of “First Deputy Commander” of Wagner forces to Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, reportedly dismissed as Deputy Defense Minister on Thursday.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volydymyr Zelenskiy has emphasized that Russia must be held accountable over its mass killings of civilians in Vladimir Putin’s 14-month invasion.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy spoke of Friday’s Russian missile strikes that killed 23 people, including six children, in the destruction of a nine-story apartment block in Uman in central Ukraine.

We will do everything possible to make the terrorist state answer as soon as possible for what it has done. Anyone who prepares such missile attacks cannot but know that he will be an accomplice in the murder. Anyone who guides and launches missiles, who handles planes and ships for terror.

Not only those who give orders but all of you: you are all terrorists and murderers and you must all be punished. And definitely those who committed the primordial crime, from which all others began the crime of aggression against our people, against our state.

The President said “next week will be quite important…for punishment for the terrorist state and all its war criminals”. He referred to the creation of an international tribunal to try those accused of crimes, and of new sanctions against individuals, companies, and foreign entities involved in Russia’s defense industry.