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Added on the 27/04/2022 18:43:59 - Copyright : AFP EN
An unoccupied school building in the town of Bakhmut, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, lies in ruins after being shelled on Wednesday morning. No injuries or deaths were reported. IMAGES
Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov meets with Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region. Western countries have raised the alarm this month over reported Russian military activity near Ukraine, with the United States saying it has "real concerns" over a new troop build-up on the border. IMAGES
A Russian court sentences top human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov to two and a half years in jail for denouncing Russia's offensive against Ukraine. The judge finds Orlov guilty for "committing a crime under article 280" ("calls for extremist activity") and orders "imprisonment for a period of two years and six months." Orlov was accused of discrediting the Russian army after writing a column written for the French online publication Mediapart, and fined in October after a first trial. IMAGES
"In the ongoing counteroffensive progress has accelerated in the past few weeks. This new assistance will help sustain it and build further momentum", says US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during his unannounced visit to Kyiv. SOUNDBITE
A Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow leaves a building damaged in a central business district, after the sixth straight night of aerial attacks on Russia's capital region. IMAGES
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voices hope that a successful offensive by Ukraine would force Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending its invasion. "Success in the counteroffensive would do two things -- it would strengthen its position at any negotiating table that emerges, and it may have the effect as well of actually causing Putin to finally focus on negotiating an end to the war that he started," Blinken tells a joint news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. SOUNDBITE