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12 sec ago
Ukrainian forces take a key village in the Donetsk region while encircling Russian units
By Tim Lister and Victoria Butenko
Ukrainian troops said they seized the village of Yampil in the eastern Donetsk region, a major target in their efforts to encircle Russian and pro-Russian forces in the town of Lyman.
"Yampil is ours," a soldier said in a short video posted by Ukrainian troops.
He is standing in front of a building with a sign that says "Yampil School Complex".
Pro-Russian Telegram channels have described a grim situation for the estimated 2,000 soldiers left in the area.
A prominent channel with more than 800,000 subscribers commented on Friday that the Russian Armed Forces "withdrew from Yampil to Lyman."
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to break the defensive orders of the RF (Russian Federation) Armed Forces and force the Russian troops to retreat to the city (Lyman)," the channel, which goes by the name Rybar, said. .
"Lyman's defensive line has been reduced to the administrative limits of the city itself. If emergency measures are not taken in the near future to free Lyman and transfer a significant portion of the reserves, then the city, together with its defenders , will fall, and nothing will prevent the Ukrainian formations from developing an offensive deep into Russian territories," Rybar added.
10 mins ago
One Dead, Dozens of Buses Destroyed in Dnipro Missile Attack, Ukrainian Officials Say
By Olga Voitovych
Russian cruise missiles have hit a transport company depot in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing one person and setting dozens of buses on fire.
Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said one person was killed and five wounded after Russian "Iskander" cruise missiles hit the city.
"Fifty-two buses burned, another 98 were damaged. Several high-rise buildings, a gym, a store and administrative buildings were damaged," Reznichenko said.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President's Office in Kyiv, said two missiles had hit the area.
30 mins ago
Attack on civilian humanitarian convoy in Zaporizhia leaves more than 20 dead, Ukraine says
By Olga Voitovych and Idris Ibrahim
(Ivan Fedorov)
Ukrainian authorities say 23 people were killed and 28 wounded in an attack by Russian forces on a civilian convoy leaving the city of Zaporizhia.
"The enemy launched a rocket attack on a civilian humanitarian convoy as it left Zaporizhia," Oleksandr Starukh, head of the Zaporizhia regional military administration, told Telegram.
"People were lining up to leave for the temporarily occupied territory, to pick up their relatives, to deliver aid."
Images and video from the scene show wrecked vehicles and some bodies on the road.
Ivan Fedorov, mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, said on Telegram: "People leave Zaporizhia every day to support their relatives, deliver vital medicines to the civilian population and return.
For now it is impossible to even count the number of dead and wounded."
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy director of the president's office, says that Russian forces launched a total of 16 missiles in the area where the civilian convoy was attacked.
Tymoshenko said on Telegram: "According to preliminary information, 16 missiles were launched using the S-300 missile system. Twenty-three killed and 28 wounded."
"Four missile strikes were launched on the car market area, as well as on the assembly point of vehicles and citizens for exit/entry to/from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. There was a column of vehicles with civilians on the way to the temporarily occupied territory to collect their relatives," Tymoshenko said.
Russian forces frequently use S-300 missiles in the Ukraine conflict.
60 mins ago
Russia is expected to begin formally annexing four occupied Ukrainian territories on Friday.
By Anna Chernova, Joshua Berlinger and Rob Picheta
Russia will begin formally annexing up to 18% of Ukrainian territory on Friday, and President Vladimir Putin is expected to host a ceremony in the Kremlin to declare four occupied Ukrainian territories as part of Russia.
The ceremony will take place on Friday at 3 pm local time (8 am ET) in the Kremlin's St. George's hall, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Putin will make a speech and meet with Russian-backed leaders of the four occupied regions on the sidelines of the ceremony, he added.
The announcements come after people in four occupied areas of Ukraine reportedly voted in large numbers to join Russia, in five-day elections that were illegal under international law and dismissed as a sham by Kyiv and the West.
The so-called referendums were organized by Russian-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting has erupted since rebels took control of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014.
The other two areas where so-called referendums were held were Kherson and Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine.
Russia has occupied the two regions since shortly after it invaded the country in late February.
On Thursday, Putin signed decrees recognizing the two regions as independent.
If Russia proceeded to annex the territories, it would violate "everything that the international community should stand for," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
"Any decision to proceed with the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine would have no legal value and deserve to be condemned," Guterres said.
“It is a dangerous climb.
It has no place in the modern world.
It should not be accepted."
Meanwhile, the European Union on Wednesday proposed additional sanctions in retaliation for Moscow's annexation plan, targeting "those involved in Russia's occupation and illegal annexation of areas of Ukraine," including "Russian deputy authorities in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson and Zaporizhia and other Russian individuals who organized and facilitated the fake referendums in these four occupied territories of Ukraine”.
war in ukraine