Russia will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, foreign ministry spokesman Alexei Zaitsev said on Friday. Zaitsev told reporters the use of nuclear weapons by Russia – a risk that Western officials have publicly discussed – was not applicable to what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
CIA director William Burns said on April 14 that given the setbacks Russia had suffered in Ukraine, “none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”
Defenders inside Ukrainian steel mill refuse to surrender
Ukrainian fighters battling Russian forces in the tunnels beneath Mariupol’s immense steel plant refused to surrender in the face of relentless attacks, with the wife of one commander saying they had vowed to “stand till the end.” The fight in the last Ukrainian stronghold of the strategic port city reduced to ruins by the Russian onslaught appeared increasingly desperate amid growing speculation that President Vladimir Putin wants to present the Russian people with a battlefield triumph — or announce an escalation of the war — in time for Victory Day on Monday.
Here are the key updates on the war and its impact across the world:
➡️ Ukraine said a new attempt was underway on Friday to evacuate scores of civilians trapped in a heavily bombed steelworks in the city of Mariupol, after bloody fighting with Russian forces thwarted efforts to bring them to safety the previous day.
➡️ Russian forces in Ukraine’s port of Mariupol continued their ground assault on the Azovstal steel plant for a second day, British military intelligence said.
➡️ Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles destroyed a large ammunition depot in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. It also said its air defences shot down two Ukrainian warplanes, an Su-25 and a MiG-29, in the eastern Luhansk region.
➡️ Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has devastated hundreds of hospitals and other medical institutions and left doctors without drugs to tackle cancer or the ability to perform surgery, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
➡️ Hungary cannot support the European Union’s new sanctions package against Russia in its current form, including an embargo on Russian crude oil imports, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.
➡️ US President Joe Biden said he would speak with leaders from the G7 advanced economies this week about more sanctions.
➡️ Germany will deliver seven self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, on top of five howitzers the Dutch already pledged, German Defence Minister Lambrecht said.
(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press updates)
