Residents in front of a high-rise apartment block damaged by Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine, April 18, 2025 (Reuters)

EA on TVP World: Europe is Back in Ukraine Talks; A Ukraine-US Minerals Deal?

Friday’s Coverage: Russia Rejects Ceasefire

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1751 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin’s proclamation of a 30-hour Easter pause in Russia attacks is “another attempt” by the Kremlin “to play with human lives”.

He noted that “air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine” even as the Russian leader spoke: “[Iran-type] Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life”.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted that Russia rejected the “full interim ceasefire” which Ukraine accepted on March 18:

Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for a ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days.

Unfortunately, we have had a long history of his statements not matching his actions.

UPDATE 1711 GMT:

Ukraine and Russia have exchanged more than 500 prisoners of war.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said 277 Ukrainian service personnel had returned from Russian captivity, while the Russian Defense Ministry said 246 servicemen had been handed over.

UPDATE 0907 GMT:

About 100 Russian servicemen have again attempted to escape from their unit in the Krasnodar region in western Russia.

The men had previously left the unit without permission. On Friday evening, they broke through the fence around the area of the commandant’s office where they were being held.

The commandant’s office is now cordoned off by police and the Russian National Guard.

UPDATE 0858 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 33 of 87 drones launched by Russia overnight, and 36 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

The Russians also fired eight missiles as they caused damage in five regions across the country.

UPDATE 0830 GMT:

Darya Kozyreva, 19, has been sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in a penal colony by a court in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Kozyreva’s “crime” was “discrediting the Russian army” by sticking a quote from a Ukrainian poem onto a monument.

She was arrested in February 2024 when she affixed the verse from Taras Shevchenko’s “My Testament” to his statue in St. Petersburg:

Oh bury me, then rise ye up/And break your heavy chains/And water with the tyrants’ blood/The freedom you have gained.

A second case was filed against her in August over her interview to Radio Free Europe in which she called Russia’s war in Ukraine “monstrous” and “criminal”.

Kozyreva defended her actions by saying she had “merely recited a poem, and pasted a quote in Ukrainian, nothing more”. In her final statement in court, she said:

The national flag still flies over Kyiv, and it always will.

I still dream that Ukraine will reclaim every inch of its territory: Donbas, Crimea, all of it. And I believe that one day, it will.

History will judge, and judge fairly. But Ukraine has already won. It has won. That’s all.

UPDATE 0755 GMT:

Russian strikes have caused blackouts in the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine, hours after the Kremlin declared an end to a “pause” on attacks on energy infrastructure.

The Kremlin nominally accepted a Ukraine-US proposal on March 18 for a halt to the attacks, but continued daily, deadly missile and drone strikes on civilian sites.

On Friday afternoon, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “The month has indeed expired. As of this time, there have been no other instructions from the supreme commander-in-chief, President Putin.”

Explosions were heard near Sumy city around 8:00 p.m. There were no casualties or injuries, but residents reported the loss of power and water.

Local energy officials confirmed that the blackouts were a result of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

UPDATE 0710 GMT:

At its meeting with Ukrainian and European officials in Paris on Thursday, the Trump Administration shared a draft concept for monitoring a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, according to a Western official.

The official did not give details of the concept.

But at the same time, the Administration is prepared to recognize Russia’s control over Crimea, seized by Moscow in 2014, as part of an agreement to end the Kremlin’s invasion, say “people familiar with the matter”.

Donald Trump’s envoy to Russia, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, favors handing over Crimea and four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — to Russia.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In its latest missile attack on Ukraine’s civilians, Russia has killed one and injured 112 in strikes on the country’s second city Kharkiv on Good Friday.

Nine children are among the wounded.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the Russians used four ballistic missiles, three with cluster munitions: “That is why the affected areas are so extensive.”

The strikes damaged 21 apartment buildings, two schools, two kindergartens, a children’s arts center, and a factory.

“Everything went flying in all rooms, the windows shattered,” said Inna Khrystych. “My husband died.”

Andriy Ponomarenko said he and his wife were woken by the strike and rushed to find their 4-year-old daughter amid smoke and shattered glass.

“We first thought the blood was mine but turned out she got a cut by her eye.”

Zelensky: “A Terrorist Cannot Escape Consequences”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted, “This is how Russia began this Good Friday – with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, Shaheds – maiming our people and cities.”

He added in the evening:

There must never be a situation where one nation is deemed more deserving of assistance than another. Besides, helping is the Christian thing to do. Especially when there is a real opportunity to help.

And there must never be a situation where one terrorist can somehow escape consequences, even though they destroy lives just as others do. Russia deserves at the very least severe sanctions as retribution for all it is doing.

Zelensky announced new sanctions on almost 100 entities, “most of whom are involved in the production of such missiles—Iskanders — like those that struck our Kharkiv”.

Among them are three Chinese companies: Beijing Aviation and Aerospace Xianghui Technology Co. Ltd; Rui Jin Machinery Co. Ltd; and Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Xining Co. Ltd.

Zelensky spoke on Thursday of “information” that China was supplying gunpowder and artillery to Russia, and of Chinese representatives involved in weapons production on Russian territory.

Beijing’s Foreign ministry responed on Friday, “The Chinese side has never provided lethal weapons to any party in the conflict, and strictly controls dual-use items….We have always actively made efforts for a cessation of hostilities and peace talks.”