April 29, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Aditi Sangal, Steve George, Seán Federico O'Murchú, Jessie Yeung, Sana Noor Haq, Ben Morse, Ed Upright, Adrienne Vogt, Meg Wagner and Melissa Macaya, CNN

Updated 12:17 AM ET, Sat April 30, 2022
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12:08 a.m. ET, April 30, 2022

Our live coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

10:35 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

There could be "no winners" in a nuclear war, Russia's foreign minister says

From CNN's Talia Kayali in Atlanta

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said a nuclear war must never be launched as there could be "no winners," and he urged countries to adhere to this in an interview with the Dubai-headquartered news outlet Al Arabiya Friday.

Lavrov added that Russia had "been champions of making pledges by all countries never to start a nuclear war."

When asked if the Russian army wants full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine to provide a land corridor to Crimea, Lavrov said, "the military means to achieve (Russia's) goals is not for me to discuss" and said he deferred from discussion on "speculation."

Lavrov also did not confirm, when asked, whether operations in the Donbas would end by May 9, Russia's annual Victory Day, which some analysts and US officials have suggested could be a target date for Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a victory, instead saying: "They will be completed when the goals I just described to you have been implemented, have been achieved."

Lavrov also downplayed the pressure of sanctions from Western governments on Russia.

"They don’t know history. Russia always had sanctions. This latest outrage and the wave of sanctions have shown the real face of the West … to believe this it will make Russia cry uncle and to beg for being pardoned … they don’t know anything about foreign policy of Russia or how to deal with Russia," he said.

8:20 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

Ukrainian evacuated 200 people out of Mariupol in damaged van

Mykhailo Puryshev used his van to evacuate people from Mariupol.
Mykhailo Puryshev used his van to evacuate people from Mariupol. (Courtesy Mykhailo Puryshev)

Mykhailo Puryshev spoke to CNN about how he organized convoys to help evacuate 200 people from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

He turned his night club into a bomb shelter and used his own van to move people outside of the city and bring food back inside.

Despite Puryshev's van being badly damaged by shelling and gunfire, it didn't stop him from continuing to conduct his rescue missions. He described witnessing people in desperation fighting to get the food and water they were passing out as the humanitarian aid was not enough for all those waiting.

"And they're all there just fighting. During one of those trips actually they nearly turned my van over, and it was just a survival. I would watch and understand this is just survival happening near our vans which came with all the humanitarian aid and it was an absolutely horrible picture," he told CNN's Erin Burnett via a translator.

"Frankly, a couple of times, I actually caught myself thinking that I do not want to come back. I do not want to see this again. And yet, I still kept coming back because I understood there wouldn't be anyone else to do this," he continued.

Puryshev said that as the bombs were coming and he was close to death, he feared not seeing his children again, but also kept thinking about the people that still needed his help and more trips that he needed to make.

"It is painful that this is the 21st century, that this is happening in our country. This is happening in my city. This is pain. This is pain of our country," he told CNN.

Watch the interview:

7:28 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

Mother of American killed in Ukraine: He had a "high moral value... he wanted to do the right thing"

From CNN's Ellie Kaufman and Oren Liebermann

Rebecca Cabrera, the mother of an American citizen who was killed fighting alongside Ukrainians earlier this week, said her son had a “high moral value” and “wanted to do the right thing,” which is why he chose to join the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian invasion.

“He has made all of us proud doing what he felt in his heart was right, and ya know, everybody that he’s come in contact with in his life said that they were proud to serve next to him, to be a part of his life, and just everybody remember who he was, he was a hero, and he was doing the right thing,” Cabrera told CNN.

Cabrera last spoke with her son, Willy Joseph Cancel, last Thursday before he was killed on Monday.

“We got to FaceTime a little bit on Thursday, and I got to talk to some of the people in his unit,” Cabrera said. “The correspondence obviously was not a lot because the towers were being blown up and things like that, so we never knew when we would be able to talk to him but he tried communicating to us as much as he could.”

Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news of the American's death, saying "it is very sad. He left a little baby behind."

More background: The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed. The company sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel's mother had told CNN.

Cancel, a former US Marine, according to his mother, signed up to work for the private military contracting company on top of his full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennessee shortly before the war in Ukraine broke out at the end of February. When the war broke out, the company was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.

The White House press secretary today cautioned against Americans traveling to Ukraine to take up arms, saying the administration encourages Americans to find other ways to help.

CNN's Sam Fossum and Maegan Vazquez contributed reporting to this post. 

7:44 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

Woman recounts surviving Kyiv strike that shredded her apartment building: "I was so scared, it was horror"

A Ukrainian serviceman stands close to the rubble of an apartment block destroyed amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 29.
A Ukrainian serviceman stands close to the rubble of an apartment block destroyed amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 29. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

It had been weeks of relative quiet in Kyiv when a couple of bangs and a plume of black smoke quickly changed that, CNN correspondent Matt Rivers reported.

Ukraine and Russia both confirmed cruise missiles were fired into a central district of Kyiv on Thursday evening, miles away from where the UN secretary general had wrapped up a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Rescuers worked through the night, Rivers reported, and in the morning, a clearer picture emerged of what happened. An apartment complex was shredded by shrapnel, leaving those in the neighborhood shaken. 

"This wall saved my life," a resident of the destroyed apartment building, Larysa Poberezhna, said as Rivers translated her remarks. "Or otherwise, it would've been the end. There was a lot of fire. I could see everything was burning. I was so scared, it was horror."

The woman told CNN she didn't die because she wasn't sitting near the window. Her son Alexi injured his hand, telling Rivers that there was "a clap and a blast, then panic. That's it. I didn't see it until later, I saw my hand was covered blood."

Some of the residents in the neighborhood, however, did not survive. A 54-year-old Ukrainian journalist was killed in the strike.

Rivers reported that Russia's Ministry of Defense said they were aiming for a factory near the apartment complex which is one of Ukraine's top producers of air-to-air guided missiles as well as aircraft parts. 

"The factory was damaged in the strike, but so is that apartment complex just behind me.  Yet another example of Russia targeting places that have supposed military relevance, but killing ordinary civilians in the process," Rivers reported from the site in Kyiv.

Watch the full report:

7:01 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

The White House is trying to figure out how to approach G20 summit after news Putin will attend

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

US President Joe Biden and his advisers are still in conversations about how to approach November's Group of 20 summit, whose hosts received confirmation Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend.

Biden has said Russia should be ejected from the G20. Senior members of his administration have walked out of G20 events where Russian delegates are present. And there were discussions with Indonesia, which is hosting the summit, about stepping up its condemnation of Russia.

But no decision on boycotting the leaders' summit, still six months away, has been made. Officials said there wouldn't likely be a decision in the near-term as they weigh the downsides of skipping the event and ceding the table to Russia and China.

"The President has expressed publicly his opposition to President Putin attending the G20," press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

She said it was too early to say how the summit would look.

"It is six months away. So we don't know how to predict, we can't predict at this point, what that will look like," she said, adding: "We've conveyed our view that we don't think they should be a part of it publicly and privately as well." 

The White House is realistic the G20 will not collectively remove Russia from its ranks, since the decision would likely require consensus and China has been clear it doesn't support such a move. That makes this a different scenario than when Russia was expelled from the G8 after its annexation of Crimea.

Psaki said the White House's understanding was that Indonesia invited Putin to attend prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yet in a statement, the country's President stressed unity among the member countries.

"Indonesia wants to unite the G20. Don't let there be a split. Peace and stability are the keys to the recovery and development of the world economy," President Joko Widodo said in a statement from Indonesia's Cabinet on Friday, confirming Putin had accepted his invitation to attend.

Read more:

7:01 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

It's midnight in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

From CNN staff

A screen grab shows what is said to be the aftermath of Russian bombardment of a military field hospital in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 28.
A screen grab shows what is said to be the aftermath of Russian bombardment of a military field hospital in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 28. (Azov Regiment/Reuters)

If you're just joining us, here are the latest developments in Russia's war in Ukraine:

  • Mariupol continues to suffer assault: The mayor of Mariupol said that more than 600 people were injured in a Russian bombing that struck the makeshift hospital facility within the besieged Azovstal steel complex. A commander inside the plant told CNN that there was not much food and water left for the plant's defenders and that they had a limited amount of ammunition. "We don't have the possibility to destroy the aircraft and vessels that are shelling us," Sviatoslav Palamar of the Azov Regiment said. Even so, he insisted: "We do not consider giving up or the conditions of giving up. We only consider guarantees of leaving the territory of the plant. If there is no other choice left but giving up, we won't give up." Palamar stressed that the soldiers in the plant wanted civilians who were sheltering there to be evacuated. An operation to evacuate civilians from plant in Mariupol was planned for Friday, according to the president's office.

  • Kyiv tells citizens to minimize vehicle fuel usage: Authorities in Ukraine's capital have urged people not to use their cars to save fuel for the military. Mykola Povoroznyk, deputy head of Kyiv City State Administration, said authorities are keeping the needs of the Ukrainian military and defenders in mind. The authorities in the capital have urged citizens not to return yet because of the continuing danger of missile attacks. At one point about one-third of Kyiv's population was thought to have left.
  • Russian troops advance: Russian forces “appear to be advancing” toward Sloviansk and Baranivka, a senior US defense official said Friday, adding that they are making “some incremental, uneven, slow advances to the southeast and southwest of Izium” in Ukraine. Meanwhile, a railway bridge across the Siverskyi Donets river was blown up on Friday, new video shows. CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video. The bridge was located along a highway between the Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Lyman. A satellite image from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellite shows the bridge intact on Thursday. 
  • Another journalist killed: Ukrainian journalist Vira Hyrych is the 23rd member of the media to be killed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Friday. Hyrych died as a result of a missile attack on Kyiv’s Artem plant, according to a Kyiv police spokesperson. 54-year-old Vira Hyrych was identified in a rescue operation early Friday, after the Kyiv mayor initially reported no casualties. Six people have been hospitalized with injuries and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the explosion and subsequent fire. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the attack on Friday.
  • Biden mourns American killed in Ukraine: US President Joe Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news that an American, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. "It is very sad. He left a little baby behind," Biden told reporters at the White House where he was hosting a meeting of federal inspectors general. Cancel was killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, members of Cancel's family confirmed to CNN. The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on April 25. The company sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel's mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN. White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated that the administration's advice "has been that Americans should not travel to Ukraine for any reason."
4:46 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

Belarusian opposition leader calls on US to enact sanctions on Lukasenko that mirror those on Moscow

From CNN's Jennifer Hansler

The leader of the Belarusian opposition called on the United States to enact sanctions on the government of Belarus that mirror those imposed on Moscow.

In meetings with the US State Department and members of Congress this week, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she discussed both strengthening future sanctions and closing loopholes on existing ones.

She also said she presented the US government with evidence of Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko’s involvement in the Russian war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Tsikhanouskaya said sanctions “must be the same on strength” as those imposed on Russia “but different in structure,” and should target state banks and state enterprises.

The opposition leader said she spoke with officials in Washington, DC, about ways of “making sanctions more effective, closing remaining loopholes, freezing Lukashenka’s assets and blocking the money given to him by the (International Monetary Fund).”

Tsikhanouskaya said suggested the use of secondary sanctions to close such loopholes.

“We see how Russia uses Belarus to circumvent their own sanctions,” she said, citing the example of steel.

She said sanctions are hitting the Lukashenko regime, however, citing what she described as letters from the Minister of Foreign Affairs seeking rapprochement sent in recent weeks.

“I hope that Lukashenka will not manage to fool democratic countries again, as he did many times before,” she said.

Tsikhanouskaya met with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman – a meeting that was attended in part by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – as well as Jim O’Brien, head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the US State Department.

Tsikhanouskaya told reporters she gave O’Brien “documents with the evidence of Lukashenka’s involvement in the war against Ukraine, as well as the list of companies and countries that helped to circumvent the sanctions.”

She said that includes “massive evidence of launching missiles from our territory, movement of Russian equipment in the territory of Belarus.”

“It's inside information about some internal orders about deployment of different Russian military equipment in our territory,” she continued. “So people have been collecting this information for the full period of the war. They are well documented and we passed this evidence to the government.”

Tsikhanouskaya said she does not believe that the Belarusian army participated in launching these missiles, and instead Lukashenko gave the land to Russian President Vladimir Putin to use as he wanted. 

“It's already World War. We are so afraid of World War the third but it's already going on,” she said. “It's war between democracy and autocracy.”

 

5:18 p.m. ET, April 29, 2022

Biden on American killed in Ukraine: "It is very sad. He left a little baby behind"

From CNN's San Fossum and Maegan Vazquez

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with Inspectors General iat White House in Washington, DC, on Friday, April 29.
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with Inspectors General iat White House in Washington, DC, on Friday, April 29. (Susan Walsh/AP)

US President Joe Biden expressed dismay Friday at the news that an American, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. 

"It is very sad. He left a little baby behind," Biden told reporters at the White House while he was hosting a meeting.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier on Friday offered condolences to Cancel's family and said the US government had not officially confirmed his death, cautioning Americans against traveling to Ukraine for any reason.

Cancel was killed Monday fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, members of Cancel's family confirmed to CNN. The 22-year-old was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on April 25. The company sent him to Ukraine, and he was being paid while he was fighting there, Cancel's mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN.

Cancel, a former US Marine, according to his mother, signed up to work for the private military contracting company on top of his full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennessee shortly before the war in Ukraine broke out at the end of February. When the war broke out, the company was searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera said.