Live blog: Ukraine damaged Russian rescue ship in Crimea — military

Sunday, April 21, 2024

1803 GMT — Ukraine's military has said it had struck and damaged a long-serving Russian rescue vessel in Sevastopol, the headquarters in occupied Crimea of Moscow's Black Sea Fleet.

Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said the vessel, the Kommuna, had been hit in Sevastopol Bay and it was "clear that the ship is no longer in a state to carry out assignments."

A post on the Ukrainian Armed Forces Telegram channel said the ship was one of the oldest operated by the Russian Navy and had been launched in 1913.

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1545 GMT — Germany's Scholz hopes for quick decision on Ukraine funding in US Senate

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that he hoped the US Senate would quickly approve funding for Ukraine aid after the House of Representatives on Saturday passed a legislative package providing security assistance.

1534 GMT — Ukraine's Zelenskyy: 'We must reduce the time between decisions and enable our soldiers'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for efforts to reduce to a minimum the time between political decisions to provide military aid to Ukraine and enable the country's soldiers.

"The time between political decisions and inflicting real defeats on the enemy at the front, between the approval of the aid package and providing the strength to our guys - this should be reduced to a minimum," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

"And this strength is what is truly needed to change the situation at the front ."

1437 GMT — US aid shows Ukraine will not be 'second Afghanistan': Zelenskyy

The decision by the US House of Representatives to earmark $61 billion in long-delayed aid for Ukraine shows the country will not become "a second Afghanistan," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"This aid will strengthen Ukraine and send the Kremlin a powerful signal that it will not be the second Afghanistan," Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press."

"The United States will stay with Ukraine, will protect Ukrainians, and... they'll protect democracy in the world," he added.

1233 GMT — Russia says deeper US involvement in Ukraine to result in 'same loud, humiliating fiasco' as that of Vietnam, Afghanistan

As the United States House of Representatives approved a $60.8 billion aid package for Kiev, Russia said that Washington’s deeper involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war will result in the same "loud and humiliating fiasco" that it faced in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

“We confirm that Washington's actions as the de facto party to the conflict (in Ukraine) will receive an unconditional decisive rebuff, and its deeper and deeper immersion in a hybrid war against Russia will result in the same loud and humiliating fiasco of the US as in its time in Vietnam and Afghanistan,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement published by the ministry.

“The ruling elites in the US, regardless of party affiliation, are ready to pump up the regime in Kiev with weapons so that it is able to fight to the last Ukrainian … To do this, Washington resorts to the banal theft of frozen Russian assets, for which Congress gives the 'green light' to the Biden administration,” Zakharova said.

1002 GMT — Russia says it has captured Bohdanivka in eastern Ukraine

Russia said its forces had completely captured Bogdanivka, a frontline village less than three kilometres (two miles) northeast of the Ukrainian-held town of Chasiv Yar.

"Units of the southern grouping of troops have completely liberated the settlement of Bogdanivka," Russia's defence ministry said in a daily briefing.

Bogdanivka lies between Chasiv Yar and Bakhmut, a Ukrainian city that Moscow's forces claimed to fully capture in May 2023 after one of the bloodiest battles of Moscow's two-year offensive.

Kiev's forces said earlier this month that the battlefield situation around Chasiv Yar was "difficult and tense", and that Russia was unleashing constant fire.

Chasiv Yar, which had a population of around 13,000 before the conflict, has been largely destroyed by fighting and most of its residents have fled.

0934 GMT — Russia says deeper US hybrid war using Ukraine will end in Vietnam-style humiliation

Russia said that US lawmakers' approval of $60.84 billion more in support for Ukraine showed that Washington was wading deeper into a hybrid war with Russia that would end in a humiliation on a par with Vietnam or Afghanistan.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that it was clear that the United States wanted Ukraine "to fight to the last Ukrainian" including with attacks on Russian sovereign territory and civilians.

"Washington's deeper and deeper immersion in the hybrid war against Russia will turn into such a loud and humiliating fiasco for United States as Vietnam and Afghanistan," Zakharova said.

She said that ordinary Ukrainians were being "forcibly driven to slaughter as 'cannon fodder'" but that the United States was now no longer betting on a Ukrainian victory against Russia.

0656 GMT — Russia repels anti-ship missile attack in Sevastopol: governor

Russian forces repelled an anti-ship missile attack on one of its vessels in the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Sunday, the Russian-installed governor of the region said.

The fallen fragments caused a small fire, which was promptly extinguished, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said.

For our live updates from Saturday, April 20, click here.