Live blog: Thousands take streets in Germany to call for peace in Ukraine

Monday, April 10, 2023

Thousands of protesters took part in traditional Easter rallies in various German cities to call for peace in Ukraine.

In the northern German city of Hamburg, around 1,500 participants gathered for the “Prevent the Third World War” rally.

The Hamburger Forum, which organized the rally, called on the German government to stop arms deliveries to Ukraine, and step up diplomatic efforts to achieve an immediate cease-fire between Kiev and Moscow.

In Frankfurt, around 4,000 people took to the streets, calling for peace negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

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2108 GMT - US urges Russia to free 'wrongfully detained' American journalist

The United States officially determined that Russia had wrongfully detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and urged his immediate release, stepping up pressure on his behalf.

The formal decision by the State Department on Gershkovich, who was taken into custody on March 29, was unusually swift and indicated the seriousness attached by Washington to the case, the first time Moscow has accused a US journalist of espionage since the Soviet era.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken "made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.

2012 GMT - 75 percent of Bakhmut controlled by Russia - pro-Moscow official 

The pro-Russian head of the Moscow-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, has claimed that more than 75 percent of the city of Bakhmut is under the control of Russian forces.

“I can say with absolute certainty, that more than 75 percent of the city is under the control of our units,” Denis Pushilin told state-run Rossiya-24 TV channel after his visit, though he cautioned it was too early to talk about Bakhmut’s fall.

Pushilin awarded medals to fighters belonging to Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group fighting in Bakhmut, praising them for showing “what the Russian spirit is, what the Russian weapon is”.

1936 GMT - Kremlin critic facing 25 years in jail strikes defiant tone

Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday he stood by all of his political statements, including against the Ukraine offensive, that led him to face 25 years in jail.

“I subscribe to every word that I have said, that I am incriminated for today,” Kara-Murza said, citing his fight against the Ukraine offensive and President Vladimir Putin.

“Not only do I not repent for any of it – I am proud of it,” he said in his last words to the court, which were published on journalist Alexei Venediktov’s Telegram channel.

Kara-Murza, 41, is accused of several charges including treason, spreading false information about the Russian Army.

A letter calling for his release was signed by many Russian journalists who have fled the country.

1528 GMT – Ukraine and Russia swap more than 200 POWs
Ukraine had released 106 Russian prisoners of war (POWs) in exchange for 100 Ukrainians, both countries say.

In a Telegram post, Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said the released Ukrainians included defenders of the southeastern city of Mariupol and its Azovstal steel plant, captured in the war’s opening months.

The Russian news outlet Tass reported the Ministry of Defence saying in a statement, “On April 10, as a result of the negotiation process, 106 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime, who were in mortal danger in captivity.”

The POWs will be sent to Moscow, where they will be given medical treatment and rehabilitation, the ministry said.

1340 GMT – Ukraine seeks visit by Indian PM Modi, deputy foreign minister says

Ukraine would like India to be engaged and involved in helping resolve its conflict with Russia “to a great extent”, its first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova has said.

Dzhaparova arrived on Monday for a four-day visit to New Delhi, the first time a Ukrainian minister has travelled to India since Russia’s full-scale offensive in Ukraine in February last year.

She is expected to hold talks with officials from India’s ministry of external affairs, including Meenakshi Lekhi, the minister of state for external affairs and culture. She will also meet India’s deputy national security adviser, Vikram Misri.

India’s newspaper The Hindu reported that Dzhaparova would call on India to send a “strong message for peace” to Vladimir Putin, who will visit India in July for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

Dzhaparova added that Ukraine expected India, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 this year, to invite Kiev officials to participate in G20 events and intensify political dialogue.

0924 GMT –  Russia switching to 'scorched earth' tactics in Bakhmut: Kiev

The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces has said that Russian troops had switched to "scorched earth" tactics in the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut and were destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery.

Russia's assault on Bakhmut, a small city in the Donetsk region, has been the focus of the biggest battle of Moscow's full-scale attack launched in February 2022. 

"The enemy switched to the so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire," said Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces.

Ukraine's defence of the city of Bakhmut continued, he said.

0640 GMT - Ukraine conflict on Lula's agenda in delayed China visit

Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing this week to discuss trade and Ukraine mediation, having overcome pneumonia that forced him to postpone the trip.

Lula, 77, also hopes to reclaim Brazil's role on the geopolitical stage following a period of isolation under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Expected to arrive in China on Tuesday, Lula, who was originally due to visit the Asian powerhouse from March 25-30, will meet Xi on Friday.

They "will talk about the war in Ukraine," Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told reporters, with Lula hoping to promote his proposal for mediated talks to end Russia's attack on the country.

0246 GMT – Ukraine's Zelenskyy denounces Russian strikes in Donetsk region

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denounced Russian air strikes coinciding with the observance of Orthodox Palm Sunday, including an attack that killed a father and daughter at home in the city of Zaporizhzhia. 

Ukraine's military reported Russian attacks and shelling throughout the front, with the heaviest fighting still focused on two cities in the eastern Donetsk region -- Bakhmut and Avdiivka. Russian forces have been besieging Bakhmut for months in the longest battle in more than a year of the conflict.

Ukraine's State Emergencies Service said a 50-year-old man and his daughter, 11, were killed after Russian forces struck a residential building in Zaporizhzhia, in the southeast.

A woman identified as the wife and mother of the victims was pulled from under the rubble.

Zaporizhzhia is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant and one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in September. Since then, Russia's military has sought to oust Ukraine's troops from those areas, especially Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which make up the industrial region known as the Donbass.

For our live updates from Sunday (April 9), click here.