KHARKIV, Ukraine — Multiple rockets struck the center of the eastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday, according to AP journalists in the city.
The barrage slammed into apartment buildings and left broken glass, debris and part of at least one rocket scattered on the street. Several apartments caught fire, with firefighters and residents scrambling to douse the flames.
At least two bodies were seen, and four other people were injured, though the scale of the attack suggested the casualty toll could rise further.
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MOSCOW — The Russian military has warned that Ukrainian troops refusing to surrender in the besieged port of Mariupol will be destroyed.
The Russian Defence Ministry gave the Ukrainians at Mariupol’s giant Azovstal steel mill until 1 p.m. Sunday (1000 GMT) to surrender, saying that those who put down their weapons will be "guaranteed to keep their lives."
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that the Ukrainian military command had banned its troops from surrendering. He said the Russian military received the information from intercepted communications.
Konashenkov warned that "all those who will continue resistance will be destroyed."
He claimed that along with Ukrainian troops, there are about 400 foreign mercenaries encircled at Azovstal, most of them from European countries and Canada, communicating in six languages, according to intercepts. Konashenkov’s claim couldn’t be independently verified.
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VATICAN CITY — In an Easter Sunday message aimed at the world but heavily focused on Ukraine, Pope Francis raised two worries — the risk of nuclear warfare and that other armed conflicts on the globe will go unnoticed.
In a speech from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope quoted a declaration from scientists in the 1950s in which they posed the question: "Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war?"
The Pope has repeatedly made anguished pleas for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. In his Easter message, Francis lamented that "so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing."
He expressed hope that the war in Europe will "also make us more concerned about other situations of conflict, suffering and sorrow" in situations "that we cannot overlook and do not want to forget." Among the places he cited were Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. He singled out Yemen, suffering from a conflict "forgotten by all, with continuous victims."
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MILAN — Italian Premier Mario Draghi is calling Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion "heroic," depriving Russia of what it expected to be a rapid victory and setting the stage for a "prolonged" war.
Draghi told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published Sunday that "what awaits us is a war of resistance, prolonged violence with destruction that will continue. There is no sign that the Ukraine population can accept a Russian occupation."
Draghi noted that Italy remained close to the Ukrainian people, with the reopening of its embassy in Kyiv. The ambassador returned to the capital on Friday, and the embassy is expected to be fully operational on Monday.
Draghi, who spoke to Putin before the war broke out and again at the end of March, said he has come to believe that speaking with the Russian leader "is just a waste of time."
Draghi said: "I have the impression that the horror of the war, with its carnage, with what they have done to children and women, is completely independent of the words and the phone calls."
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s deputy defence minister says that the key port of Mariupol is holding despite the continuing Russian attacks.
Hanna Malyar said Sundxjmtzyway that the defenders of the key Sea of Azov port have tied up significant Russian forces besieging the city. She described Mariupol as a "shield defending Ukraine" that prevents the Russian troops encircling the city from advancing to other areas of the country.
Malyar said that the Russians have continued to hit Mariupol with air raids and were possibly preparing an amphibious landing to beef up their forces in the city.
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LONDON — In his Easter sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has called for Russia to declare a cease-fire and withdraw in Ukraine.
The leader of the Anglican church said Easter is a time for peace and not "blood and iron."
Noting that in the Eastern Orthodox church followed by many in Russia and Ukraine Sunday marks the start of Holy Week — the week leading to Easter — he said "let this be a time for Russian cease-fire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks."
Welby said God "hears the cry of the mothers in Ukraine, he sees the fear of boys too young to become soldiers, and he knows the vulnerability of the orphans and refugees."
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MOSCOW — The Russian military has told Ukrainian troops in the besieged port of Mariupol that if they lay down their weapons they will be "guaranteed to keep their lives."
The Russian Defence Ministry made the announcement early Sunday. Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said that the Ukrainians encircled at the giant Azovstal steel factory were given until 1 p.m. (1000 GMT) to surrender.
It was the latest such offer to the Ukrainian defenders of the key Sea of Azov port during a siege that has lasted for more than 1.5 months. Capturing Mariupol is a key strategic goal for Russia, allowing it to secure a land corridor to Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014. The fall of Mariupol would also free the Russian forces involved in the siege for a planned offensive in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called Donbas.
The giant Azovstal steel mill that covers an area of more than 11 square kilometeres (over 4.2 square miles) is the last major section of Mariupol still under Ukrainian control.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that about 2,500 Ukrainian troops remain at Azovstal, a claim that couldn’t be independently verified. The Ukrainian officials didn’t mention any numbers for the city defenders.
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MOSCOW — The Russian military says it has struck a military plant on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital with missiles.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday the military has used precision-guided air-launched missiles to attack the ammunition plant in Brovary outside Kyiv overnight.
He said that other Russian air raids also destroyed Ukrainian air defence radars near Sievierodonetsk in the east and several ammunition depots elsewhere.
The strikes were the latest in a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s weapons factories, air defence assets and other facilities as Moscow prepares for a massive offensive in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called Donbas.
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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria has banned Russian-flagged ships from entering its Black Sea ports as part of expanded EU sanctions, the country’s Maritime Administration announced on its website on Sunday.
"All vessels registered under Russian flag, as well as all vessels that have switched their Russian flag, or flag or maritime register registration to any other state whatsoever after Feb. 24, are forbidden access to Bulgarian maritime and river ports," the authority said.
Exceptions will be made only for ships in distress or seeking humanitarian assistance, or ships transporting energy products, food and pharmaceuticals to EU countries.
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KHARKIV, Ukraine — Russia’s bombardment of cities around Ukraine on Saturday included an explosion in Kharkiv that destroyed a community kitchen.
Associated Press journalists at the scene recorded the immediate aftermath of the apparent missile attack. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said three people were killed and 34 wounded by missile strikes Saturday in that city alone.
The kitchen was set up by World Central Kitchen, which is run by celebrity chef Jose Andres to establish feeding systems in disaster and war zones. Andres tweeted that the non-governmental organization’s staff members were shaken but safe.
The organization says it has now reached 30 cities across the country, providing nearly 300,000 meals a day. Andres said the attack in Kharkiv shows that "to give food in the middle of a senseless war is an act of courage, resilience and resistance" and that his group’s chefs will keep cooking for Ukraine.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke Saturday with the leaders of Britain and Sweden about how best to help those defending Mariupol and the tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside the besieged city.
Mariupol’s fate can be decided either through battle or diplomacy, he said.
"Either our partners give Ukraine all of the necessary heavy weapons, the planes, and without exaggeration immediately, so we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and break the blockade," he said in his nightly video address to the nation. "Or we do so through negotiations, in which the role of our partners should be decisive."
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NEW YORK — A Russian general whose troops have been besieging the Ukrainian port of Mariupol was buried on Saturday in St. Petersburg after dying in battle, the governor said.
Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov was deputy commander of the 8th Army, which Russian media identified as being among the forces battering Mariupol for weeks.
Gov. Alexander Beglov released a statement saying Frolov "died a heroic death in battle" without saying where or when he was killed. Photographs on Russian news websites showed his grave at a St. Petersburg cemetery piled high with red and white flowers.
Ukraine has claimed that several Russian generals and dozens of other high-ranking officers have been killed during the war.
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WASHINGTON — Austria’s chancellor said after meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow this past week that the Russian president is "in his own war logic" when it comes to Ukraine.
Karl Nehammer told NBC in an interview that he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war. Nehammer was the first European leader to meet Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. He said "we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine."
Before arriving in Moscow last Monday, Nehammer had visited Bucha, Ukraine, the town outside of Kyiv where graphic evidence of killings and torture has emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces.
Nehammer told "Meet the Press" that he confronted Putin with what he had seen in Bucha, and "it was not a friendly conversation."
He said Putin said "he will cooperate with an international investigation, on one hand, and on the other hand, he told me that he doesn’t trust the Western world. So this will be the problem now in the future."
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VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis invoked "gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war" in an Easter vigil homily Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica, attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol and three Ukrainian parliamentarians.
The pontiff noted that while "many writers have evoked the beauty of starlit nights, the nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death."
Francis’s call for an Easter truce in order to reach a negotiated peace appeared in vain Saturday, as Russia resumed missile and rocket attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond in a reminder that the whole country remains under threat.
At the end of his homily, Francis directly addressed directly Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov and Ukrainian lawmakers Maria Mezentseva, Olena Khomenko and Rusem Umerov, who sat in the front row.
"In this darkness of war, in the cruelty, we are all praying for you and with you this night. We are praying for all the suffering. We can only give you our company, our prayer," Francis said, then with emotion he added that "the biggest thing you can receive: Christ is risen," the last three words in Ukrainian.
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RELATED IMAGESview larger image
A local resident looks at a damaged apartment building near the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, the second largest metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine on April 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
