A young kid gives an offering of food to his mother grave as his younger brother and a neighbor stand next to it, in the town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, April 4, after the Ukrainian army secured the area following the withdrawal of the Russian army from the Kyiv Oblast in previous days. (Getty Images)
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April 14 marks 50 days since Russia launched its brutal all-out war against Ukraine.
Moscow's unprovoked military aggression has already cost it approximately 19,900 servicemen and 5,260 units of weapons and other equipment, according to Ukraine's government estimates.
Russia hasn't achieved any significant success in its offensive, having captured only one regional capital, Kherson, which has been actively resisting the occupation.
Yet Ukraine can hardly celebrate this interim victory, as Russian forces are regrouping and preparing to focus on advancing in the country's east.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the upcoming Battle of Donbas will be similar to World War II, as Ukraine expects large-scale operations and maneuvers involving thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, aircraft, and artillery.
Russia's war has already killed 1,964 and injured 2,613 civilians in Ukraine, according to the United Nations. The true numbers, however, are expected to be much higher, as data about casualties from the occupied territories and the front-line cities is hardly accessible. In Mariupol, a besieged seaport in southeastern Ukraine alone, "tens of thousands" of people have been killed, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine still doesn't publish its military personnel losses.
Smoke rises over the town of Rubizhne, Donbas Oblast, on April 7, amid Russia's military invasion launched on Ukraine. Six weeks after invading its neighbor, Russia's troops have withdrawn from Kyiv and Ukraine's north and are focusing on the country's southeast, where desperate attempts are under way to evacuate civilians. (AFP/Getty Images)Cemetery workers unload bodies of civilians killed in and around Bucha before they are transported to the morgue at a cemetery on April 7, in Bucha. The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of committing a "deliberate massacre" as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bucha, 25 kilometers northwest of Kyiv. Hundreds of bodies have been found in the days since Ukrainian forces regained control of the town. (Getty Images)Two men stand in front of a residential building destroyed by Russian bombing in early March, in the town of Borodyanka in Kyiv Oblast on April 6. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)British Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 9. (Getty Images)Mourners attend a memorial service for serviceman officer of Right Sector, Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Taras Bobanych, call sign Hammer, at the Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on April 13, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFP/Getty Images)A man embraces his wife as she is about to board a train at Slovyansk central station, in Donetsk Oblast on April 12, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the Donbas have asked civilians to evacuate west in reaction to an anticipated Russian offensive to take the eastern region. (AFP/Getty Images)People walk down an avenue in Mariupol on April 12, 2022, as Russian troops intensify a campaign to take the strategic port city, part of an anticipated massive onslaught across eastern Ukraine. (AFP/Getty Images)A partially buried body is seen in a mass grave in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv on April 4. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Dmytro Sadofiev goes through his belongings in his kitchen in the town of Borodyanka in Kyiv Oblast on April 6. The town has suffered from a Russian bombing in early March. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Emergency personnel walks among injured people lying on the sidewalk in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk Oblast, on April 8. More than 50 people were killed and over 100 injured in the attack. (AFP/Getty Images)A five-story residential building destroyed by Russian bombardment in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, as seen on April 10. (AFP/Getty Images)Ukrainian soldiers on the front line with Russian troops in Luhansk Oblast on April 11. (AFP/Getty Images)Olga Antonova cries next to the grave of civilian man who was killed by Russian soldiers on the street near her house few weeks ago in Bucha, near Kyiv, on April 4. Days later, Russian soldiers allowed her to bury the man in her yard. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Thousands of people carrying banners and Ukrainian flags lie down on the ground to represent war victims during a protest against ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine, in front of the German Federal Assembly in Berlin, Germany on April 6. (Getty Images)Residents run near a burning house following a shelling of Severodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, on April 6, as Ukraine tells residents in the country's east to evacuate "now" or "risk death" ahead of a feared Russian onslaught on the Donbas region, which Moscow has declared its top prize. NATO believes Moscow aims to take control of the whole Donbas region in eastern Ukraine with the aim of creating a corridor from Russia to annexed Crimea. (AFP/Getty Images)Natalia Blyzniuk (L) and her sister Liudmila, local residents who spent last month in the city, take water from the river in the town of Borodyanka in Kyiv Oblast on April 6. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)A resident searches for the graves of relatives in a cemetery in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, on April 5. Chernihiv, just 50 kilometres from the border with Belarus, was swiftly encircled in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. City officials estimate around 350 civilians have been killed in Chernihiv since the start of the Russian invasion. (AFP/Getty Images)
"(W)e are moving in the right direction... we are ready to reach a deal, but there are some specific points, elements of this deal, which need to be defined," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"If one country in Europe is forced to give up parts of its legal territory... no country in Europe or elsewhere can feel safe, NATO or no NATO," one diplomat told CNN.
Instead of placing troops near the front lines, the U.K. and France now reportedly aim to send military trainers to western Ukraine, fulfilling a commitment to deploy personnel without engaging in direct defense roles.
The Ukrainian delegation raised the issue with the U.S. Treasury officials during negotiations on April 23, according to Reuters. Ukraine intends to continue lobbying for the initiative at an upcoming meeting with the International Monetary Fund, Pyshnyy said.
European Commission President Von der Leyen emphasized that the roadmap, set to be announced in two weeks, will lay out concrete steps to eliminate the bloc’s reliance on energy supplies from Russia.
“It has to be a compromise,” he said. “De facto this peace should come down to the fact that neither side will be able to say it won this war. Ukraine will also have to step down in some sense, because that’s what will probably happen.”
“Stopping the war, stopping from taking the whole country, pretty big concession,” Donald Trump said on April 24 when asked what Russia has offered as part of a potential peace deal.
Russia's devastating missile and drone attack on Kyiv on April 24 killed at least 12 and injured 90 people. The Kyiv Independent visited the residential district where a missile struck an apartment building to speak with witnesses and see the aftermath.
The statement marks a sharp departure from the typically measured tone of recent U.S.-Russia exchanges and signals Washington's concern over Moscow's expanding military footprint in Africa.
"If the information that this missile was made in North Korea is confirmed, it will be further proof of the criminal nature of the alliance between Russia and Pyongyang," Zelensky said in a statement.
"So we are thinking very strongly that they both want peace," Trump said during a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. "But they have to get to the table."
According to the publication, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is scheduled to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
"As for Ukraine - what do they get after three years of heroic resistance against a brutal and unprovoked invasion?" Johnson said. "What is their reward for the appalling sacrifices they have made - for the sake, as they have endlessly been told, of freedom and democracy around the world?"
“The position of France is clear and will not change. We stand for sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with international law,” Macron said. “We will continue to defend the Ukrainian people’s right to live in peace on their territory and within their internationally recognized borders.”
Ukrainian officials confirmed Roshchyna's death on Oct. 10, 2024, but said that the circumstances were still under investigation. Russia did not hand over her body for about five months.
A series of explosions rocked the capital around 1:00 a.m. local time on April 24, Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported. Additional explosions were later heard around 4 a.m. local time.
"Russia does not like the alliance around Ukraine, because Ukraine, if it is alone, is an easier target for Russia," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"I am not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, Stop!" U.S. President Donald Trump said on the Truth Social platform.
"Nobody is asking (President Volodymyr) Zelensky to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory, but if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?" U.S. President Donald Trump wrote.
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