Russia-Ukraine War: Key Events on Day 1,161
As reported by Al Jazeera, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to escalate, with both sides suffering heavy losses. On Wednesday, April 30, the situation on the ground remains dire, with multiple attacks and counterattacks reported across the region.
Fighting Intensifies
According to Al Jazeera, swarms of Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Dnipro late on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding at least 38, including two children, officials said. The Russian Ministry of Defence also claimed to have captured the Ukrainian village of Doroshivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region. The governor of the Ukrainian province of Sumy stated that Russian troops are trying to carve out a buffer zone in the northeastern region, which borders Russia’s Kursk, but have "not had any significant success".
The attacks have been relentless, with officials reporting that Russian drone attacks overnight killed a 12-year-old girl in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region and wounded three people in the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian officials have also ordered the evacuation of seven villages in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, which used to be remote from the front lines but are now under threat as Russian forces close in.
In response, Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed to have destroyed 91 Ukrainian drones overnight, with 40 of them downed over the border Kursk region. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated that the country lost almost half its domestic gas production during the winter due to Russian attacks and is still making up for the shortfall through imports.
Diplomatic Efforts
Al Jazeera reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again called on Russia to agree to a complete and unconditional ceasefire, after Moscow declared a three-day truce, from May 8-10, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War II. However, Zelenskyy also expressed concerns that Russia is "preparing something" in Belarus this summer, using military drills as an excuse.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the United States would step back as mediator unless Russia and Ukraine delivered "concrete proposals" on ending the three-year war. A spokesperson for Rubio stated that Washington was seeking a "complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict", not a "three-day moment so you can celebrate something else".
The UN’s political affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, welcomed the intensified efforts to bring the parties to negotiations, saying they "offer a glimmer of hope for progress towards a ceasefire and an eventual peaceful settlement". However, Russia rejected Ukraine’s proposal to extend the three-day truce to 30 days, saying it would be "difficult to enter into a long-term ceasefire" without first clearing up a number of "questions".
Politics and Human Rights
According to Al Jazeera, an investigation by the European nonprofit Forbidden Stories found that Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in Russian captivity, was tortured and had organs removed before her body was returned. A Russian military court sentenced a man to 27 years in jail for attempting to kill army pilots with poisoned alcohol and cakes at a graduation party on Ukrainian orders.
Ukraine has detained defence officials suspected of supplying the army with faulty mortar shells. Latvia has sentenced one of its citizens to six years in prison for fighting for Russian forces in Ukraine, according to the Latvian prosecutor’s office. France has also accused Russia’s military intelligence of staging cyberattacks on a dozen French entities, including ministries, defence firms, and think tanks since 2021, in an attempt to destabilise the country.
As the conflict continues to rage on, the humanitarian toll is mounting, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. The international community remains engaged, with diplomatic efforts ongoing to broker a ceasefire and bring an end to the war.
