Ukraine

KYIV, April 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine's deputy prime minister on Monday accused Russia of holding civilians, including journalists, activists and elected officials, in prisons on Russian territory.

"We have many priests, journalists, activists, mayors, and in general civilians who are in prisons, not, for example, even on the territory of Ukraine, but in (the) Kursk, Bryansk, Rostov (regions of Russia)... They are forcibly held" there, Iryna Vereshchuk said in televised comments.

April 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv came under heavy shelling on Monday, causing multiple casualties including one dead child, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a televised interview.

When asked about the risk of a new Russian assault on the city, which Ukraine's defence ministry recently warned of, Terekhov said that Ukrainian forces were focused and ready to defend the city.

"There is no panic in the city," Terekhov said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said Monday that it destroyed air defense systems in Ukraine over the weekend, in what appeared to be a renewed push to gain air superiority and take out weapons Kyiv has described as crucial ahead of a broad new offensive in the east.

Moscow’s initial invasion stalled on several fronts as it met with stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces, who prevented the Russians from taking the capital and other cities.

April 10 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted on Sunday that he had discussed possible additional sanctions on Russia in a call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Zelenskiy has called for an embargo on imported gas and oil from Russia, but Germany so far resisted pressure to do so.

Scholz said on Friday that Germany could end Russian oil imports this year but stopping gas imports would be tougher because the country would need to build infrastructure to import gas from alternative sources.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia is targeting all of Europe with its invasion of Ukraine, and stopping Moscow’s aggression is essential for the security of all democracies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as Russian forces prepared for battle in the east of his country.

Addressing the “free people of a brave country,” Zelenskyy said in a late night video message to Ukrainians that Russia’s war aim “was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone” and the “entire European project is a target.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Civilian evacuations moved forward in patches of battle-scarred eastern Ukraine on Saturday, a day after a missile strike killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a train station where thousands clamored to leave before an expected Russian onslaught.

KYIV, April 8 (Reuters) - European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the deaths of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha showed the "cruel face" of Russian President Vladimir Putin's army, pledging to support Kyiv in its defence of the "border of Europe".

During a visit to Bucha, where forensic investigators started to exhume bodies from a mass grave, von der Leyen looked visibly moved by what she saw in a town where Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian forces. 

BUCHA, Ukraine, April 8 (Reuters) - Forensic investigators began exhuming a mass grave in Bucha on Friday, wrapping in black plastic and laying out the bodies of civilians who officials say were killed while Russian troops occupied the town just northwest of Kyiv.

Ruslan Kravchenko, from the prosecutor's office in Bucha, said they had exhumed 20 bodies, 18 of whom had firearms and shrapnel wounds. He said two women had been identified, one of whom had worked at a supermarket in the town centre.

KYIV, April 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine said at least 50 people were killed on Friday and many more wounded in a rocket strike at a railway station packed with civilians fleeing the threat of a major Russian offensive in the country's east.

As regional authorities scrambled to evacuate the vulnerable, European Union leaders visited Kyiv to offer President Volodymyr Zelenskiy support and assure him there would be a path to EU membership for Ukraine.

CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian leaders predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in reclaimed cities and towns as Russian soldiers retreat to focus on eastern Ukraine, where officials said a Russian rocket attack on a packed train station used to evacuate civilians killed over 30 people Friday.