Zelensky issues stark warning Russia will pull Belarus back into Ukraine war
Citing an intelligence report from Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Mr Zelensky revealed concerns over “road construction in areas leading to Ukraine and the establishment of artillery positions… in the Belarusian border area”.
He added: “We believe that Russia will once again try to involve Belarus in its war.”
James Reynolds19 April 2026 11:33
Russia loses nearly 1,100 troops in 24 hours
Russia lost nearly 1,100 troops in 24 hours of war, according to Ukraine’s military.
In its latest tally, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russia has lost 1,318,220 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, on 24 February 2022.
That figure includes 1,070 casualties recorded in the last day.
James Reynolds19 April 2026 09:16
Russian attacks on Ukraine kill one and wound dozens
A civilian has been killed and dozens more wounded in overnight Russian attacks across Ukraine, local officials said.
One person was killed in a strike on Mykolaivka in the eastern Donetsk region, local leader Vadym Filashkin said in a post on social media.
Other officials reported at least 26 people had been hurt in attacks across northern and eastern Ukraine, including a strike on port infrastructure in the city of Odesa.
Ukraine’s air force said on Saturday that Russia launched 219 drones overnight, of which 190 were shot down.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike targeted industrial areas in Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran in Russia’s Samara region, governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. Both cities are home to large oil refineries.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had destroyed 258 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
Namita Singh19 April 2026 08:00
Ukraine strikes two Russian landing ships and warship
Ukraine’s SBU security service said it also struck two Russian landing ships and a warship based on the peninsula.
According to Ukraine’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, a series of recent strikes on Russia’s oil logistics at Primorsk, Ust-Luga, Sheskharis and Tuapse reduced total daily oil shipments by about 880,000 barrels. Reuters could not immediately verify the figure.

Separately, authorities in the southern Krasnodar region yesterday said that a fire at an oil depot in Tikhoretsk, and another at an oil terminal at the Black Sea port of Tuapse, which had burned since Thursday, have been extinguished.
Both fires, authorities have said, were caused by Ukrainian drone strikes.
Namita Singh19 April 2026 08:00
Ukraine strikes Russian refineries, Crimea oil depot, Baltic Sea port
Ukrainian drones struck a handful of Russia’s oil facilities overnight, including two oil refineries in the Samara region, an oil depot in Crimea and a Baltic Sea port that exports petroleum products, Russian local governors and a Ukrainian army official said on Saturday.
Kyiv’s troops have in recent weeks stepped up attacks on Russian oil depots and refineries – key sources of revenue for Moscow’s war budget – sometimes targeting sites thousands of kilometres from Ukraine’s borders.
In the Leningrad region, which surrounds St Petersburg and borders Finland, governor Alexander Drozdenko said a fire had been extinguished at the Vysotsk port, which houses a terminal operated by Lukoil handling exports of fuel oil, naphtha, diesel and vacuum gas oil.
In a statement on the Telegram messaging app acknowledging the port attack, Ukraine’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Ukrainian forces also attacked oil refineries in the cities of Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran in the Samara region. Both sites have been repeatedly struck in the course of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Make Russian Oil Great Again,” he wrote sarcastically.
Brovdi also criticised the US decision to renew a waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea.
Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, the Samara regional governor, said industrial targets came under attack. He did not name the facilities.
On the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, the Moscow-backed governor of Sevastopol said that 22 drones had been downed, with incidents of damage across the city, including a fire at a fuel tank. Ukraine’s Brovdi said Kyiv had targeted an oil depot.
Namita Singh19 April 2026 07:00
Mass shooting suspect kept to himself
A woman who identified herself as Hanna said the suspect was a neighbour who steered clear of other residents.
“He didn’t want to communicate with anyone,” she told Reuters.
“When I sat outside on the street – he knew me by my face – he would greet me briefly and hurry off to run his errands. He wasn’t close with his neighbours or anyone else.”
Interior minister Ihor Klymenko said police stormed the supermarket after unsuccessfully trying to negotiate with the suspect for 40 minutes.

He said the man, who owned a registered weapon and secured a medical certificate to use it, moved down the street and fired at people without warning before entering the supermarket.
“He was simply shooting people at close range. He approached and shot them,” Klymenko said.
“So people had very little chance of survival.”Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said the shooter had been identified as a native of Moscow, born in 1958, and was brandishing an automatic weapon.
He posted a photo showing a blurred prone figure covered in blood inside a store, with a weapon lying nearby.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the suspect had a criminal record and had set fire to the apartment where he was registered before going into the street with the gun.
The president said he had lived for some time in the eastern Donetsk region, one of the focal points of the four-year war with Russia.
“Everything that can be known about him and why he did this is being clarified. Every detail needs to be checked,” Mr Zelensky said. “The investigators have several versions. All his electronic devices, phone, all contacts will be checked.”
Namita Singh19 April 2026 06:00
Six killed in Kyiv shooting, police shoot suspect dead
Six people were killed when a Russian-born man opened fire on passersby in a Kyiv district on Saturday before barricading himself in a supermarket with hostages, where he was shot dead by police, authorities said.
Ukraine’s Security Service said the shooting was being investigated as a terrorist act, but offered no motive.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, said the shooting happened in the leafy Holosiivskyi district, injuring 14 people.
“He took hostages and unfortunately, one of them was killed,” Zelensky said.
“Four people died simply on the street. One woman died in hospital after being seriously wounded.”One of the wounded was a 12-year-old boy whose parents were also killed, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said.
Reuters video footage showed emergency crews loading bodies into vehicles.
Shootings of this nature are extremely rare in Ukraine, whose cities face regular Russian airstrikes.
“I was shocked when I saw photographs of the people who had been killed,” Lesia Rybzha, 45, said.
“I still can’t understand why, on top of (Russians) killing us with airstrikes, people are being killed on the streets as well.”
Namita Singh19 April 2026 05:14
Full story: Russian billionaire bemoans Ukrainian drone attacks disrupting key industry
Dan Haygarth19 April 2026 03:00
Recap: Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight into Saturday kill one and wound dozens
A civilian was killed and dozens more wounded in overnight Russian attacks across Ukraine, local officials said on Saturday, as reported by the Associated Press.
One person was killed in a strike on Mykolaivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, local leader Vadym Filashkin said in a post on social media.
Other officials reported at least 26 people had been hurt in attacks across northern and eastern Ukraine, including a strike on port infrastructure in the city of Odesa. Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia launched 219 drones overnight, of which 190 were shot down.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike targeted industrial areas in Novokuibyshevsk and Syzran in Russia’s Samara region, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. Both cities are home to large oil refineries.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces had destroyed 258 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
Daniel Haygarth19 April 2026 02:00
Full story: Zelensky issues stark warning Russia will pull Belarus back into Ukraine war
Dan Haygarth19 April 2026 00:30



