Cease-fire talks between negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow were expected to resume as attempts to deliver aid and evacuate civilians from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol stalled while Ukrainian forces continued to push back Russian troops around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Russia’s Defense Ministry had said it would open a humanitarian corridor on April 1 from 10 a.m. local time to allow civilians out of Mariupol, where tens of thousands have been trapped for weeks with little food, water, and other supplies.
Ukrainian officials had said a convoy of 45 buses was headed to Mariupol to deliver aid and leave with residents who have been trapped for weeks in the city.
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But a Mariupol official said Russia continued to block aid from getting into the city on April 1 and is still preventing the opening of the humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to escape heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor, said in a post on Facebook that the city remained closed on April 1 to an aid convoy trying to get badly needed supplies into the city.
“The city remains closed to entry and very dangerous to exit by private transport,” Andryushchenko said.
“Since yesterday (March 31), Russian forces have categorically not allowed any humanitarian aid, even in small quantities, into the city. The reasons for such actions are still unclear, but this is disappointing. We do not see a real desire form the Russians to allow Mariupol residents to evacuate to other territory controlled by Ukraine,” Andryushchenko added.
In the north, Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka near the northern city of Chernihiv and located along main supply routes between the city and Kyiv, British military intelligence said on April 1.
“Ukraine has also continued to make successful but limited counterattacks to the east and north east of Kyiv,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.
Chernihiv and Kyiv have been subjected to continued air and missile strikes despite Russian claims of reducing activity in these areas, the ministry added in a statement.
The Ukrainian military said in its daily update on April 1 that some Russian forces from northern Kyiv were withdrawing toward the border with Belarus.
The Russian columns include buses, trucks and vans, which were stolen by Russian forces, the Ukrainian military said, adding that Russian forces also took looted property with them.
In a new development, a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine was on fire and the regional governor claimed it had been hit by two Ukrainian military helicopters. If confirmed, it would be the first Ukrainian air strike on Russian soil.
Ukrainan President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised his troops’ advances in his daily video address late on March 31, but warned of “battles ahead” in the Donbas and Mariupol.
Zelenskiy also said he was stripping two generals of their ranks for unspecified offenses.
“Right now I don’t have time to deal with all the traitors, but gradually all of them will be punished,” he said.
Ahead of an expected fourth round of talks, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said Turkey and Germany had offered to serve as security guarantors in any eventual agreement between the two sides.
Across the continent, European buyers of Russian gas faced an April 1 deadline to start paying in rubles after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to halt gas contracts unless the countries pay in the Russian currency — a demand several European countries have rejected.
But despite the standoff, Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said pipelines were still sending gas westwards on April 1.
There will be 104.4 million cubic meters of gas pumped to Europe on April 1, said Gazprom spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency. That is almost the maximum daily amount allowed under current contracts.
The announcement indicates that shipments continue despite the Kremlin threats to shut off the taps unless payments for gas start coming in rubles.
European governments have said they would study a mechanism that Putin put forth allowing customers to send foreign currency to a designated account at Russia’s Gazprombank, which would then return rubles for the gas purchases.
“They must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payments will be made for gas delivered starting from tomorrow,” Putin said on March 31.
“If such payments are not made (in rubles), we will consider this a default on the part of buyers, with all the ensuing consequences…existing contracts will be stopped.”
Several European governments say Putin’s demand for ruble payments would be a breach of the contracts.
As the gas payment issue headed for a showdown in Europe, U.S. President Joe Biden launched the largest release ever from the U.S. oil reserve to provide Americans with some relief when filling up their tanks.
“This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world,” Biden said at the White House as he announced the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve.
Oil prices tumbled after Biden made the announcement, which he said was aimed at fighting soaring gas prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Separately, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in an interview on March 31 that Russia is now a “lesser country” as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.
“President Putin is not the force he used to be. He is now a man in a cage he built himself,” Wallace told Sky News.
“His army is exhausted, he has suffered significant losses. “The reputation of this great army of Russia has been trashed,” Wallace said.
