TOP HEADLINES

• Russian forces are being pushed back around Kyiv but fighting is still fierce in some areas near Ukraine's capital, Ukrainian officials have said. Russia said it would scale down operations in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, but officials in both regions say fighting has continued in some areas.

• Ukrainian helicopters have carried out a strike on a fuel storage facility in Russia's western town of Belgorod, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border, according to the local governor. Ukraine said it would neither confirm nor deny responsibility for the attack.

• Ukraine has exchanged 86 servicemen with Russia, senior Kyiv officials said.

• The UN's cultural agency UNESCO said it had confirmed that at least 53 Ukrainian historical sites, religious buildings and museums had sustained damage during the conflict.

• Ukraine is seeking to export the farm goods that many countries depend on via the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta, as it continues to face a Russian blockade of its own ports.

• The governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region accused Russia of breaking its promises in terms of allowing humanitarian aid to reach the city of Mariupol, which is encircled by Russian troops.

• Russia's foreign minister praised India's refusal to condemn the military action in Ukraine, saying Moscow and Delhi would find ways to circumvent "illegal" western sanctions and continue to trade.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sacked two senior members of the Ukrainian national security service, calling them traitors.

• The European Union and China agreed that the war in Ukraine was threatening global security, the head of the European Council said on Friday, while warning China against helping Russia's war.

• Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for Russia and Ukraine to act with common sense and maintain dialogue in a call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, his office said on Friday.

• Human Rights Watch has called on Ukrainian authorities to launch an investigation into possible war crimes following the emergence of video footage that appears to show its soldiers shooting Russian war prisoners in the legs.  

• The EU has proposed a plan to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to access the EU currency given that many banks across Europe refuse their local hryvnia banknotes.

• Russia has launched its spring draft of young men eligible for national service, vowing conscripts will not be sent to fight in Ukraine, where more than 1,000 troops have been killed. This time, Putin has set a recruitment goal of 134,500 men, according to a Kremlin decree.

• Roberta Metsola, the head of the European Parliament, said during a visit to Kyiv on Friday that the people of Europe stand with Ukraine and will help rebuild its towns and cities.

• Ukraine's reigning football champion club Dynamo Kyiv said on Friday it was planning to play a series of friendlies, including against PSG and Barcelona, to raise money for the country.

• Russia will not turn off gas supplies to Europe from Friday as payments on deliveries due after April 1 come in the second half of this month and May, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

• U.S. President Joe Biden says Putin may be "isolated" and could have placed some of his advisors under "house arrest".

• Russia's refocusing of its military efforts on the Donbas could herald a "more prolonged conflict" as Ukrainian forces put up fierce resistance there, a senior U.S. defense official says.

• Putin's ratings have received a boost since the start of the military action in Ukraine, Russia's independent Levada-Center polling institute says, with more than 80 percent of Russians saying they support his actions.

IN DETAIL

Russia's logistics hub attacked

A fuel depot was ablaze at one of Russia's main logistics hubs for its Ukraine war effort on Friday. Moscow described it as a cross-border air raid by Ukrainian helicopters, the first of its kind in the weeks-long conflict.

Ukraine said it would neither confirm nor deny responsibility for the huge fire at the fuel depot in Belgorod, a Russian city near the border which has served as a logistics hub for Russian troops fighting in nearby eastern Ukraine.

Security camera footage of the depot, from a location verified by the Reuters news agency, showed a flash of light from what appears to be a missile fired from low altitude in the sky, followed by an explosion on the ground. 

The regional governor said two Ukrainian helicopters had been involved in the raid.

EU asks China not to help Russia

The European Union and China agreed that the conflict in Ukraine was threatening global security, the head of the European Council said on Friday, while warning China against helping Russia's war.

"The EU and China, we agreed that this war is threatening global security and the world's economy," Charles Michel told a news conference after a virtual EU-China summit.

"Any attempts to circumvent sanctions or provide aid to Russia would prolong the war. This would lead to more loss of life and greater economic impact," he said. "We will also remain vigilant on any attempts to aid Russia financially or militarily. 

"However, positive steps by China to help end the war would be welcomed by all Europeans and by the global community."

China itself has concerns that European countries are taking harder-line foreign policy cues from the United States and has called for the EU to "exclude external interference" from its relations with China.

Relations were already strained before the Ukraine war. The EU abruptly switched in 2019 from soft diplomatic language to call China a systemic rival, but sees it as a potential partner in fighting climate change and the pandemic.

Russia-India talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a meeting with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi on Friday, April 1, after seeing his Chinese counterpart earlier in the week.

Moscow has been trying to keep the Asian powers on its side amid Western sanctions.

"We appreciate that India is taking this situation in the entirety of facts and not just in a one-sided way," Lavrov said in his opening remarks during a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Lavrov's mission to shore up support from a country Moscow has long regarded as a friend comes a day after senior U.S. and British officials held talks in New Delhi to persuade the Indian government to avoid undermining sanctions imposed after the conflict in Ukraine began in late February.

India and Russia are working on a rupee-ruble mechanism to facilitate trade and get around western sanctions on Russian banks, according to media reports.

Russia has written to India's defense ministry requesting clearance of payments worth $1.3 billion that have been halted since last month, according to the local Economic Times newspaper.