These are the key events of day 1 139 of the Russian war against Ukraine.
Here is where things are on Tuesday April 8:
Struggle
- The Russian Defense Ministry said its units intercepted and destroyed 19 Ukrainian drones overnight, 13 of which were destroyed on the Azov Sea.
- The ministry also said that Ukraine had attacked Russia’s energy infrastructure six times in the past 24 hours despite a mutually agreed moratorium on energy strikes. He said that the attacks struck electricity installations and electrical substations in the Russian regions of Rostov, Voronezh and Bryansk, as well as in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Donetsk, including Moscow Controls.
- A Ukrainian drone suppressed by Russia air defense systems damaged the railways in the Southwest Krasnodar Russian region, regional authorities announced.
- Russian troops have taken control of the Katerynivka colony in the Donetk region of eastern Ukraine, reported the state agency Ria Novosti, citing the Ministry of Defense.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations of Ukraine that Russia shot civil infrastructure after a deadly attack against the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih who killed 20 people, including nine children.
- The Russian forces have launched multiple attacks against the villages of the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, said the Ukrainian army staff.
Ceasefire
- Russian President Vladimir Putin supports a ceasefire, but a “large number” of questions remain unanswered, Peskov told journalists. He also said that there was a common understanding between Russia and the United States that mutual contact should continue.
- President Donald Trump said he was “not happy” from Russia for bombing Ukraine “like a madman”. However, he also said that Kyiv and Moscow were “somehow close” to an agreement.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that a kyiv team should go to Washington this week to discuss an agreement that would give the United States access to minerals in Ukraine’s rare land.
- kyiv launched an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday after the Russian missile attack last week against Kryvyi Rih, said Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha on X, calling for a “solid international response to Russian atrocities”.
- For the first time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recognized that Ukrainian troops were present in the Russian region of Belgorod. “We continue operations active in the border areas of the enemy and this is absolutely justified,” said Zelenskyy in his night video address.
