(Reuters) – Ukraine was set to ask U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin for more powerful weapons to repel a Russian offensive in the south and east during talks in Kyiv as the Russian invasion enters its third month.
FIGHTING
* Russian forces again attempted to storm the Azovstal steel plant, the main remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said, adding that more than 1,000 civilians are also sheltering there.
* Eight people were killed in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s Luhansk region on Saturday, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said on social media, adding that an unspecified number of civilians were killed on Sunday.
* Russia has deployed Iskander-M mobile battlefield missile launchers within 60 km (40 miles) of the Ukrainian border, Ukraine’s military said. Each of the system’s two ballistic missiles has a range of up to 500 km (300 miles) and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
* Russia’s defence ministry said its high-precision missiles struck nine Ukrainian military targets, including four arms depots in the Kharkiv region, where artillery was stored.
ORTHODOX EASTER
* Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “light would defeat darkness” as Ukrainians observed a bitterly emotional Orthodox Easter.
* Ukrainian refugees filled churches across central Europe for Orthodox Easter, giving thanks for escaping a Russian invasion and dreaming of a return home.
* Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, called for the opening of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine where he said “an indescribable human tragedy is unfolding”.
* Pope Francis called for halt to attacks in Ukraine so that aid can reach the exhausted population.
DIPLOMACY
* The trip by U.S. officials Blinken and Austin is the highest-level visit of its kind since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24.
* The European Union is preparing “smart sanctions” against Russian oil imports, possibly an oil embargo, the Times newspaper said https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brussels-prepares-to-hit-russia-with-smart-sanctions-on-oil-imports-k3f230l3j on Monday, citing the European Commission’s executive vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis.
* Turkey is ready to give all possible assistance during negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, President Tayyip Erdogan told Zelenskiy during a telephone call, the Turkish presidency said.
* U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Ankara before heading to Moscow next week to meet Putin and then to Ukraine for talks with Zelenskiy, the U.N. said.
QUOTES
* “This great holiday gives us hope and an unwavering belief that light will defeat darkness, good will defeat evil, life will defeat death and therefore Ukraine is certain to triumph,” Zelenskiy told Ukrainians in an Easter message from Kyiv’s 1,000-year-old Saint Sophia Cathedral.
* “It’s my first Easter celebration not in Ukraine. It’s sad and my heart hurts because so many people have died. We pray every day for our people and our children,” said Diana Shyndak, a 23-year-old refugee from Kyiv, celebrating the holiday in Berlin.
(Compiled by Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Robert Birsel)
