UN says it has “increasing information” corroborating existence of mass graves in Mariupol 

These are the most important updates thus far on Friday because the struggle in Ukraine will get into its fifth week:

Preventing on the bottom: Ukrainian forces have retaken cities and defensive positions on the japanese outskirts of Kyiv, Britain’s Ministry of Defence mentioned Friday in its newest intelligence replace.

In the meantime, Russian protection ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Friday that Russian forces destroyed “the most important of the remaining gasoline depots” close to Kyiv, with a strike carried out with sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles. 

Mariupol theater survivors: An adviser to Mariupol’s mayor mentioned about 600 persons are believed to have survived a Russian airstrike on a theater within the metropolis on March 16.

The Mariupol metropolis council mentioned earlier that primarily based on eyewitness experiences, it now believes round 300 individuals died within the strike. CNN has not independently verified the casualty figures. New footage has emerged on social media exhibiting individuals making their escape from the theater.

Biden in Poland: US President Joe Biden lauded the bravery of Ukrainian civilians whereas chatting with US troops in Poland, saying they “have a whole lot of spine.” He additionally addressed the rising refugee disaster, thanking humanitarian organizations in Poland for sending help to Ukraine and helping refugees. One in each two Ukrainian kids has been displaced since Russia started its invasion on Feb. 24, in line with a press release from the UN Kids’s Fund on Thursday.

He’s set to satisfy with Polish President Andrzej Duda and ship a “main tackle” on Saturday, in line with the White Home. Learn extra about Biden’s occasions in Poland right here.

Russia offers replace on navy deaths: The Russian navy mentioned in a briefing on Friday that greater than 1,300 navy personnel had been killed in Ukraine and over 3,800 had been wounded, within the first main casualty replace since March 2. US, Ukrainian and NATO estimates put Russian troop losses drastically larger. 

Two senior NATO navy officers on Wednesday estimated the variety of Russian troopers killed in motion in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000. Different US officers have put Russian losses in an analogous vary — between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian troopers killed — however they’ve expressed “low confidence” in these estimates. 

Ukrainian forces additionally mentioned they’d killed a Russian normal within the Kherson area.

Putin claims “cancel tradition:” Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a grievance about so-called “cancel tradition” in a videoconference Friday, saying the West was attempting to “cancel” Russia.

He in contrast his nation’s remedy to a public backlash towards “Harry Potter” creator JK Rowling, who has come underneath criticism previously for views which have been referred to as transphobic. Putin, who casts himself as a flag-bearer for conservative cultural values, has railed towards transgender and homosexual rights. Rowling responded, saying that critiques of cancel tradition are “not greatest made” by these “slaughtering civilians” in Ukraine and posting a hyperlink to a information article on jailed Kremlin critique Alexey Navalny.

In his remarks, Putin went on to check the present state of affairs with Russian tradition within the West to censorship in Nazi Germany. Putin has forged his invasion of Ukraine — a rustic with a Jewish president — as a marketing campaign of “denazification,” an outline roundly dismissed by historians and political observers.