Live blog: Drone causes major fire at Crimea fuel depot - Russian official

Saturday, April 29, 2023

A massive fire has erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraine's drones, a Russia-appointed official there reported, the latest in a series of attacks on the annexed peninsula as Russia braces for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea, posted videos and photos of the blaze on his Telegram channel.

Razvozhayev said the fire at the city's harbour was assigned the highest ranking in terms of how complicated it will be to extinguish. However, he reported that the open blaze had been contained.

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1338 GMT — Pelosi says Ukraine, democracy 'must win'

The Russian attack had just begun in 2022 when Nancy Pelosi made a surprise visit to Ukraine, the House speaker then the highest-ranking elected US official to lead a congressional delegation to Kiev.

Pelosi and the lawmakers were ushered under the cloak of secrecy into the capital city, an undisclosed passage that even to this day she will not divulge.

“It was very, it was dangerous,” Pelosi told The Associated Press before Sunday’s one-year anniversary of that trip.

“We never feared about it, but we thought we could die because we’re visiting a serious, serious war zone,” Pelosi said. “We had great protection, but nonetheless, a war — theater of war.”

“We must win. We must bring this to a positive conclusion — for the people of Ukraine and for our country,” Pelosi said.

“There is a fight in the world now between democracy and autocracy, its manifestation at the time is in Ukraine.”

1214 GMT — Medvedev urges 'crushing defeat' on Ukraine forces

Deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has urged a "crushing defeat" and "acts of retaliation against key figures" in Ukraine, saying it's necessary to stop the ongoing Moscow-Kiev war.

In a post on Telegram, Medvedev said the mentioned measures are "the only possible response" to Ukrainian officials' calls demanding more weapons, their promises to take back Crimea, and warnings that the war may last for decades.

"Otherwise, they will not calm down, ... and the war will last for a long time. Our country doesn't need it," he said.

1150 GMT — Russian occupied Ukrainian city under 'intense' fire

Russian occupational authorities in southern Ukraine have said Ukrainian forces were subjecting the city of Novaya Kakhovka to "intense artillery fire" that had cut off electricity.

Novaya Kakhovka is in the part of the southern Kherson region that Russia controls. It lies upstream the Dnipro River from Kherson, the regional capital from which Russia withdrew last November.

"Novaya Kakhovka and settlements around the district are under very intense artillery fire from the armed forces of Ukraine," the city's Russian-installed authorities said on Telegram.

0904 GMT — Ukraine welcomes EU deal on continued farm exports

Ukraine has welcomed the European Union’s hard-fought deal to keep farm exports flowing into and through the bloc to world markets, saying that the Middle East and Africa would specifically stand to benefit from it.

Late Friday, the 27-nation EU ended a damaging internal standoff over a destabilising glut of Ukraine farm imports by granting five eastern member countries the right to temporarily ban the most problematic produce while allowing all farm products to transit onward.

Resolving the issue allows the EU to maintain a unified stance in the face of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

"We welcome that we resolved this issue," Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Stockholm.

0835 GMT — Ukraine passes protest notes to Poland, EU over grain import ban

Ukraine's foreign ministry has said it passed notes to Polish and European Union representatives in Ukraine on Friday describing the limiting of Ukrainian grain imports into EU countries as "categorically unacceptable".

"Such restrictions, whatever the justification for them, do not comply with the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU and the principles and norms of the EU Single Market," the ministry said.

"There are full legal grounds for the immediate resumption of exports of Ukrainian agricultural goods to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria, as well as the continuation of unhindered exports to other EU member states," it continued.

2303 GMT — Seoul considering options over lethal aid to Ukraine: Yoon

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has said it was necessary to ensure Russia's offensive in Ukraine does not succeed and that Seoul was considering its options when it came to lethal aid to Kiev.

In a speech at Harvard University's Kennedy School on the fifth day of a state visit to mark the 70th anniversary of the US-South Korean alliance, Yoon said the Russian offensive was a violation of international law and the rights of Ukrainians.

"We should prove that such attempts will never reach success, to block further attempts being made in the future," he said, according to simultaneous translations of his remarks.

Yoon was asked about the possibility of South Korea providing lethal aid to Ukraine, and replied:

"We are closely monitoring the situation that's going on the battlefield in Ukraine and will take proper measures in order to uphold the international norms and international law.

"Right now we are closely monitoring the situation and we are considering various options."

2217 GMT — Putin to be arrested if he visits South Africa: opposition leader

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be arrested if he sets foot in South Africa's Western Cape province during an expected visit in August, according to the leader of the province.

"Putin has consistently and violently eroded the freedoms of the Ukrainian people and those in his own country who dare take a principled stand against his brutal actions." Alan Winde, an opposition premier for the Democratic Alliance party [DA] which governs the province, said in a statement.

The International Criminal Court [ICC] issued an arrest warrant last month for Putin who is expected to attend the BRICS conference in Western Cape Province.

BRICS is a bloc of emerging economies that includes Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

For our live updates from Friday (April 28), click here.