This live blog is now closed. For the latest updates please check here.
Russia began a new offensive Monday in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Russia in recent days had been building up its forces for an attack on what is Ukraine’s industrial heartland, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv for eight years.
“We will not give away anything Ukrainian, and we do not need anything that is not ours,” Zelenskyy said.
Explosions also rocked Lviv on Monday in a rare and deadly attack on the western Ukrainian city — up to now a safe hub for refugees, Western officials and the media — as the world braces for a major Russian offensive farther east.
At least seven people were killed in the Russian missile strikes, Ukrainian officials said, with Russian forces striking areas across Ukraine while readying a new ground offensive in the east.
In Mariupol, the strategically crucial southeastern port city, the last Ukrainian resistance refused to surrender despite a Russian ultimatum and an unrelenting siege.
Time 'not quite ripe yet' for cease-fire to allow aid into Ukraine, U.N. official says
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief said it seems “the time is not quite ripe yet” to establish a cease-fire to get humanitarian aid into Ukraine, but he held out hope as the Orthodox Easter holiday approaches this weekend.
“Maybe there will be some ripeness,” Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths said at a news conference Monday.
After traveling to Kyiv and Moscow for high-level meetings with Ukrainian and Russian officials this month, he told The Associated Press he had sensed little trust between the adversaries and was “not optimistic.”
Griffiths called for Russia and Ukraine to return to talks to end the war and for “much, much more willing acceptance, primarily of the Russian Federation, to allow convoys in and convoys out.”
“For now, let’s get aid to people where they need it,” he said.
The U.N. says 12 million people have been uprooted by the war, with about 5 million of them pouring across the borders and the rest seeking safety elsewhere in Ukraine.
U.S. expects to move forward with training on howitzers in the coming days
The U.S. expects to start moving forward on training Ukrainians to use howitzers being sent to the country in the coming days, a U.S. defense official said Monday.
The plan is to “train the trainers” outside Ukraine, the defense official said, according to a transcript. Howitzers were among the weapons listed in the latest military aid package to Ukraine, along with radar and helicopters.
Defense Department press secretary John Kirby said last week that while some of the systems, such as the radar and howitzers, would require some training, “it’s not exorbitant.”
Included in the $800 million aid package authorized last week are 18 of the 155 mm howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds, as well as counter-artillery radar, helicopters, javelin missiles and other equipment, according to the Pentagon.
Spain set to reopen embassy in Kyiv in coming days
MADRID — Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says Spain will reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in a few days.
Following similar decisions by several European neighbors, Sánchez said the reopening will “show again the commitment of the Spanish government and Spanish people with the Ukrainian people.”
“Spain is with Ukraine, and we are against Putin,” Sánchez said in an interview on Spain’s Antena 3 television. “This is a war by Putin against what the European Union stands for.”
Spain closed the embassy within hours of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24.
Russians fight in streets of Ukrainian town
KVIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian military official said street battles have begun and evacuation is impossible in the town of Kreminna. That’s one of only two spots where the Ukrainians said the Russians managed to break through on Monday along a front stretching for hundreds of miles.
Luhansk regional military administrator Serhiy Haidai said the town came under heavy artillery overnight, setting seven residential buildings on fire, and that the Olympus sports complex where the country’s Olympic team trains was targeted.
Haidai later said on Ukrainian TV that Russians took control of the city after “leveling everything to the ground,” so his forces retreated to regroup and keep on fighting. “It simply makes no sense to stand in one place, to die for everyone, without causing significant damage to the enemy,” he said.
Russia starts new offensive in the Donbas region
Stymied by fierce Ukrainian resistance in the rest of the country, Russia on Monday launched its expected new offensive in the southeastern Donbas region.
“Right now, we can already state that the Russian military began the fight for Donbas, for which they were preparing for a long time,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced. “A big part of all of the Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive. No matter how many Russian soldiers are being sent there, we will be fighting.”
Russia in recent days had been building up its forces for an attack on what is Ukraine’s industrial heartland, an area where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv for eight years.
“We will not give away anything Ukrainian, and we do not need anything that is not ours,” Zelenskyy said.
World Bank to discuss ‘next-phase’ financing for Ukraine
WASHINGTON — More countries are expected to announce contributions to help war-torn Ukraine maintain its government through the World Bank’s multidonor trust fund and parallel funds this week, World Bank President David Malpass said Monday.
Malpass said the World Bank was working during spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to put together a $3 billion package of aid to help Ukraine maintain essential government services.
The situation was “rapidly evolving,” he said and predicted more bilateral announcements on humanitarian assistance and other aid this week.
Ukrainian officials: Russian strikes kill at least 7 in Lviv
LVIV, Ukraine — At least seven people were reported killed in Lviv on Monday as plumes of thick black smoke rose over the city, which has become a haven for large numbers of civilians fleeing intense fighting elsewhere.
To the Kremlin’s increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major conduit for NATO-supplied weapons and for foreign fighters joining the Ukrainian cause.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, meanwhile, vowed to “fight absolutely to the end” in strategically vital Mariupol, where the last known pocket of resistance in the seven-week siege consisted of Ukrainian fighters holed up in a sprawling steel plant. The holdouts ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from the Russian forces Sunday.
