Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Zelenskyy asks Biden to designate Russia a 'state sponsor of terrorism'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently made a direct appeal to US President Joe Biden for the United States to designate Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism," the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing people familiar with their conversation.

Biden did not commit to specific actions during that call, the newspaper reported.

The label can be applied to any country that has "repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism," the newspaper said, citing a State Department fact sheet. The list currently includes four countries: North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria. - Reuters.

. The United States now believes the sunken Russian missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, was hit by two Ukrainian missiles, a senior US official said on Friday.

The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said these were Neptune anti-ship missiles. The US believes there were Russian casualties, though numbers are unclear, the official added. - Reuters.

. Moscow said Friday that 18 members of the EU mission in Russia had been declared "persona non grata" and must leave the country.

"Eighteen employees of the EU Delegation to Russia have been declared 'persona non grata' and will have to leave the territory of the Russian Federation in the near future," the foreign ministry said in a statement. - AFP.

. Ukraine said Friday that Russia will seek revenge after the sinking of its flagship missile cruiser, the Moskva, which Kyiv claimed to have hit with Neptune missiles.

"The Moskva cruiser strike hit not only the ship itself: it hit the enemy's imperial ambitions. We are all aware that we will not be forgiven for this," Natalia Gumeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine's southern military forces said during a briefing. - AFP.

. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to spend an additional €2 billion on new military equipment, mostly to help Ukraine, a government source said on Friday.

About €400 million of the new money is earmarked for the European Peace Facility, which buys weapons for Ukraine, while some other spending will be for bilateral supplies to Ukraine and elsewhere, the source said. - Reuters.

. Ukraine's defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on Friday that for, the first time since the start of its invasion, Russia used long-range bombers to attack the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Motuzyanyk said Russia was concentrating its efforts on seizing the cities of Rubizhne, Popasna and Mariupol. - Reuters.

. More than five million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, United Nations figures showed on Friday.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 4,796,245 million Ukrainians had fled across the borders, while the UN's International Organization for Migration says nearly 215,000 third-country nationals have also escaped to neighbouring countries. - AFP.

. North Macedonia's Foreign Ministry on Friday ordered six Russian diplomats to leave the country over violations of diplomatic norms, the second such expulsion in less than a month, a statement said.

A diplomatic note has been handed over to Sergey Bazdnikin, Russia's ambassador to Skopje and the diplomats have five days to leave the country, it said.

"The six Russian diplomats in question were engaging in activities contrary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," said the statement posted on ministry's website. - Reuters.

. Ukraine's biggest steelmaker Metinvest said on Friday its enterprises would never operate under Russian occupation and that Ukraine had lost access to 30% to 40% of its metallurgy production capacity in the besieged port city of Mariupol.

It told Reuters in a statement that Ukraine, one of Europe's biggest suppliers of iron ore, had already more than halved its iron ore production due to the invasion that Russia launched on Feb. 24. - Reuters.

. A Ukrainian military factory outside Kyiv that produced missiles allegedly used to hit Russia's Moskva warship was partially destroyed by overnight Russian strikes, an AFP journalist at the scene saw Friday.

A workshop and an administrative building at the Vizar plant, which lies near Kyiv's international Zhuliany airport, were seriously damaged. Russia had earlier announced it had hit the factory.

. More than 20 buildings and a school were damaged as a result of Ukrainian shelling of a Russian village in the Belgorod region on Thursday, TASS news agency reported on Friday, citing regional authorities.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

. Ukraine said Friday that seven people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a Russian attack on buses ferrying civilians from the war-torn east of the country.

"On April 14, Russian servicemen fired on evacuation buses carrying civilians in the village of Borova in the Izium district. Preliminary data shows seven people died. Another 27 people were injured," the office of Ukraine's prosecutor general said in a statement on social media. - AFP.

. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia wanted to expand the use of the rouble for energy exports, but that it was too early to talk of deadlines and details.

"The president has set a methodical and step-by-step approach to expanding the use of national currencies", Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the role of national currencies in export deals should rise, amid Russia's stated desire to switch to roubles in payments for its gas supplies, mainly to Europe. - Reuters.

. Russia's foreign ministry on Friday warned of unspecified "consequences" should Finland and Sweden join the US-led NATO defence alliance, after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

"The choice is up to the authorities of Sweden and Finland. But they should understand the consequences of such a step for our bilateral relations and for the architecture of European security as a whole," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. - AFP.

. Russia has warned the United States that there will be "unpredictable consequences" if Washington keeps arming Ukraine, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

"We call on the United States and its allies to stop the irresponsible militarization of Ukraine, which implies unpredictable consequences for regional and international security," the Post quoted Russia saying in a diplomatic note to the United States. - Reuters.

. Russia's defence ministry says that it has killed up to 30 Polish mercenaries fighting for Ukrainian forces in the country's northeastern region of Kharkiv.

Its strategic rocket forces "eliminated up to 30 Polish mercenaries" in a strike on the village of Izyumskoe, not far from the city of Kharkiv.[AFP Reported]

. Ukrainesaid Friday it swapped several captured soldiers with Russia in the south of the war-scarred country, where Moscow's invading forces have solidified their greatest gains.

"After tense negotiations, we managed to reach agreements on a prisoner exchange near the village of Posad-Pokrovskoye, where four Russian military personnel were exchanged for our five,"Ukraine's defence ministry said.

Russian troops have captured the city of Kherson, which is the administrative capital of the eponymous region where Friday's declared swap took place. [AFP Reported]

. Russia's defence ministry warned Friday it will intensify attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in response to strikes on Russian soil, after accusing Ukraine of targeting Russian border towns.

"The number and scale of missile strikes against targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist attacks or sabotage committed by the Kyiv nationalist regime on Russian territory," the ministry said in its daily update.

It added that Russian troops hit a "military" factory outside Kyiv late Thursday using Kalibr sea-based long-range missiles.

"As a result of the strike on the Zhulyansky machine-building plant 'Vizar', the workshops for the production and repair of long-range and medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as anti-ship missiles, were destroyed," the ministry said.

The ministry also said its S-400 missile system shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter that carried out "an attack on civilians in the locality of Klimovo in Bryansk region on April 14".[AFP Reported]

. Powerful explosions were heard in Kyiv on Friday and fighting raged in the east afterUkraineclaimed responsibility for the sinking of the Russian navy's Black Sea flagship in what would be one of the heaviest blows of the war.

The explosions appeared to be among the most significant inUkraine's capital region since Russian troops pulled back from the area earlier this month in preparation for battles in the south and east.

Ukrainesaid it hit the Moskva missile cruiser with a Neptune anti-ship missile. The Soviet-era ship sank on Thursday as it was being towed to port following a fire and explosions, Russia's defence ministry said.

Over 500 crew were evacuated, the ministry said, without acknowledging an attack.

The ship's loss comes as Russia's navy continues its bombardment of Ukrainian cities on the Black Sea nearly 50 days after it invaded the country to root out what it calls far-right nationalists. [Reuters Reported]

. As a result of multiple battles in southern Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Russia lost 39 soldiers and four vehicles. These are estimates of Russia’s combat losses, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

(The Kyiv Independent)

. Japan is preparing to attend a gathering of financial leaders from the Group of 20 economic powers next week, its finance minister said on Friday, as Western nations sought the expulsion ofRussiafrom the forum and said they would skip sessions where Moscow is represented.

Shunichi Suzuki said Japan "is not in the position to respond to each country's participation", when asked aboutRussia's plans to join the forum online, which G20 chair Indonesia announced on Thursday.

. UN: Nearly 5 million Ukrainians have fled the country in 50 days of war. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 7.1 million people have been internally displaced.

(The Kyiv Independent)

. Canada is sending soldiers to Poland to help with the care, co-ordination and resettlement of Ukrainian refugees in Poland, including some who will come to Canada.

Defense Minister Anita Anand announced the deployment of up to 150 troops Thursday.

More than 2.6 million Ukrainians have fled into Poland since the first Russian troops crossed into Ukraine on February 24 and over 2 million more have fled into other surrounding countries. ( AP )

. The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, a guided-missile cruiser that became a potent target of Ukrainian defiance in the opening days of the war, sank Thursday after it was heavily damaged in the latest setback for Moscow's invasion.

Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles, while Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moskva but no attack.

The loss of the warship named for the Russian capital is a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital, Kyiv. ( AP )

Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Zelenskyy asks Biden to designate Russia a 'state sponsor of terrorism'

Zelenskyy asked Biden to designate Russia a 'state sponsor of terrorism'

US believes sunk Russian ship Moskva was hit by 2 Ukrainian missiles

Kyiv regional police chief says bodies of more than 900 civilians found in region following Russian forces' withdrawal - AP

Russian strikes kill 7, injure 34 in east Ukraine

Moscow says 18 members of EU mission must leave Russia

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