🟡18.04.2022
23:29 Operational Command “South”
The Russians stormed the Ukrainian positions in the Oleksandrivka area for almost an hour. The enemy retreated to regain strength.
As a result of effective defeats by Ukrainian troops of enemy forces, 28 Russians and 5 units of equipment were destroyed, including armoured, engineering, automobile equipment, and UAVs.
In the Black Sea Operational Zone, an enemy naval group of missile and landing craft has moved almost 200 km off the Ukrainian coast. But the blocking of shipping and the threat of missile strikes persist.
23:26 State Border Guard Service
The possibility of crossing the border by citizens of Ukraine with domestic passports has been extended.
This decision was made taking into account the situation on the territory of Ukraine during martial law when citizens of Ukraine can not quickly and timely issue a passport of a citizen of Ukraine to travel abroad (international passport).
Due to humanitarian circumstances and previously reached agreements with neighbouring countries the border guards will allow Ukrainian citizens to pass with a domestic passport document. That applies to all citizens, regardless of the region from which they come.
22:25 Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine
Centre for Countering Disinformation collected fakes, manipulation, and disinformation that the enemy spread on April 18, 2022:
- Fake: during a report at a meeting of the Commission to Investigate Biolaboratories in Ukraine, Vice Speaker of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya said that Russia “discovered the fact of bacteriological terrorism against children in the Luhansk region in 2020”;
- Manipulation: Russian media published words taken from the publication of the former President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus for the Czech magazine “iDNES”: “Now everyone is literally radiating love for Ukraine and Ukrainians, but isn’t this love just a screen that hides “hatred for Russia”;
- Disinformation: Russian propagandists said that “the United States has already handed over to Kyiv more than a third of its missile reserves for Javelin anti-tank systems, and Germany and Canada have already exhausted opportunities for military assistance.”
21:41 Head of the Lviv Region Military Administration Maksym Kozytskyi
The wreckage of Russian missiles that hit Lviv in the morning was found on the territory of the orphanage. It is a shelter where children from all over Ukraine are now brought. There are no casualties among the wards or staff.
20:56 Mariupol city council
Russian occupiers strike “Azovstal” metallurgical combinate with heavy aircraft bombs. There are at least 1,000 civilians in the underground shelters of the metallurgical plant. Mostly women with children and the elderly.
20:01 Ukraiinska Pravda citing CNN
The United States estimates that since the end of last week, Russia has added 11 more battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to its forces in eastern and southern Ukraine, bringing the total number of Russian BTGs to 76
19:14 Novoye Vremya
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has awarded the 64th Brigade, which occupied Bucha in the Kyiv region in March, the honorary title of “Guards”.
The relevant document was published on the government portal of the Russian Federation.
The document notes that the Russian occupiers received this title “for mass heroism and courage.”
19:00 Serhii Haidai, head of Luhansk Regional Military Administration
Russian troops destroyed 10 homes and an Olympic training base in the Luhansk region, most of which took place in Kreminna, which the enemy captured on April 18, killing at least four civilians.
18:31 General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Operational information as of 18.00 on 18.04.2022 regarding the Russian invasion.
The fifty-fourth day of the heroic fight of the Ukrainian people against the Russian military invasion continues.
The Russian Federation continues to conduct full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine. The occupiers are launching missile and bomb strikes on industrial and civilian infrastructure.
The main efforts of the enemy are focused on establishing full control over the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and maintaining the previously captured territory.
Signs of the beginning of the offensive operation in the Eastern Operational Zone are recorded. In the Slobozhanshchyna and Donetsk operational districts, the aggressor intensified offensive and assault operations in some areas.
In order to strengthen the offensive capabilities, the invaders continue to form additional units in the Rostov region and in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It is planned to use them to support the fighting of the main forces in the second echelon, protection of administrative buildings and important infrastructure in the occupied territories. According to available information, the approximate date of formation is April 24 this year.
Provocative actions and the use of aircraft by the enemy in the border areas of the Russian Federation with Ukraine are possible, including strikes on civilian targets.
- No significant changes in the activities of enemy troops were noted in the Volyn, Polissya, and Sivershchyna directions.
- In the Slobozhanshchyna direction, the enemy group, which includes separate units of the 6th General Army of the Western Military District, the coastal troops of the Baltic and Northern Fleets, continues to partially block the city of Kharkiv and destroy residential areas with artillery fire.
- In the Izyum direction, the aggressor operates in separate units of the 1st Panzer Army, the 20th All-Military Army of the Western Military District, the 35th and 68th All-Military Armies of the Eastern Military District and the Airborne Forces. Attempts to advance in the Izyum-Slovyansk and Izyum-Barvinkove directions are expected to continue.
In the area close to the state border with Ukraine, in the Belgorod region, there is the deployment of helipads.
- In the Donetsk and Tavriia directions, the occupying forces continue to focus their efforts on capturing the settlements of Lyman, Kreminna, Popasna and Rubizhne, as well as establishing full control over the city of Mariupol.
The enemy intensified offensive operations in the Severodonetsk, Popasna, Kurakhiv and Zaporizhzhia areas.
To increase efforts, the enemy continues to concentrate additional tank and artillery units.
The battles for Mariupol continue. The enemy is storming the seaport.
- In the South Bug direction, some units of the occupiers continue to focus their main efforts on maintaining the occupied borders and shelling the positions of the Defense Forces. The enemy does not stop trying to establish full control over the territory of Kherson region. He is fighting in the area of the settlement of Oleksandrivka, however has no success.
- Enemy naval groups in the waters of the Black and Azov Seas continue to isolate the sea coast of our state, as well as conducting reconnaissance.
The occupiers continue to cynically violate international humanitarian law, block initiatives to evacuate civilians from occupied settlements, refuse to coordinate humanitarian routes, and fire on areas near possible “green corridors.”
In the occupied territories, the enemy steals and exports to the Russian Federation equipment, machinery and products of local enterprises, bypasses agricultural fields.
The defense forces continue to hold certain borders, destroy the enemy and, in some areas, liberate the Ukrainian lands from the invaders.
We believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine! Let’s win together! Glory to Ukraine!
#stoprussia
17:32 Office of the President of Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy handed over a completed questionnaire to the head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, in order to obtain the status of a candidate for EU membership
16:57 Liudmyla Denisova, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights
The aggressor country is militarizing children in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In the city of Starobilsk it is planned to open the largest in the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region Cossack cadet corps with 400 seats. This decision was made at the end of March in Luhansk during an extended meeting on the support and development of the Cossack component in the education system “LPR”.
In addition, the occupying power plans to open cadet corps and classes in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
As of the end of 2021, there were 62 cadet classes in the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region, with more than 1,200 children, and two cadet corps with 417 children.
Among the graduates of the cadet corps are already dead. In particular, in early April 2022, Andriy Degtyarenko, a graduate of the Republican Cossack Cadet Corps named after Marshal of Aviation Alexander Yefimov (Luhansk), a 2017 graduate, died while performing the “combat missions” of the occupiers.
By promoting the entry of civilians into the army, including children from the temporarily occupied territories, Russia grossly violates the laws and customs of war under the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on Armed Conflict.
I appeal to the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during Russia’s Military Invasion of Ukraine to take into account these facts of violations of children’s rights in Ukraine.
15:52 Evropeiska Pravda
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi believes Europe can reduce its energy dependence on Russia faster than it was previously thought.
“Diversification is possible and feasible relatively quickly, in less time than we imagined just a month ago”, he said. “We have gas in storage and there will be new gas from other suppliers.”
Internal measures to reduce supply will be moderate. For example, lowering the heating temperature by 1-2 degrees and similar changes for air conditioners.
15:52 Ukraiinska Pravda
In the city of Henichesk, in the captured by Russian troops Kherson region, collaborators erected a monument to the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.
15:00 Suspilne TV, Ukrinform
During the missile attacks in Lviv, shrapnel hit the territory of an orphanage, where orphans evacuated from different regions are staying.
This information was confirmed to Ukrinform by Volodymyr Lys, Head of the Children’s Service of the Lviv Regional State Administration.
14:42 Andrii Sadovyi, mayor of Lviv
Update on the morning shelling of Lviv – 7 people died. These are the first deaths of civilians in our city. The youngest victim is 30 years old.
11 people were injured. Among them is three-year-old Artem. He came with his mother from Kharkiv to escape the war. But a Russian missile found them in Lviv. The child was provided with all necessary assistance. There is no threat to life. Another 3 victims are in critical condition in intensive care. Our doctors are doing everything possible to save them.
14:04 Ukrainska Pravda
Austria is exploring the possibility of launching its own investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine. According to Euractiv, this was stated by the Ministry of Justice, writes “Evropeiska Pravda”.
10:06 Austria will be able to give up Russian natural gas, probably in a few years – the country is 80% dependent on Russian gas, so “it is impossible today, or tomorrow”. This was stated by Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on the air of the program “Meeting with the Press” on NBC, writes Bloomberg.
13:57 Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
the occupiers are again using the “information alibi” technique, warning of possible provocations in Ukrainian cities during Easter.
In particular, several propaganda media reported that “more than 70 mobile groups have been formed from nationalists in cars that will fire mortars at Orthodox churches on Easter night, only to accuse the Russian military of doing so”. At the same time, the propagandists provide a specific list of regions of Ukraine where this “may happen”:
⚠ Zaporizhzhia;
⚠ Mykolayiv;
⚠ Odesa;
⚠ Sumy;
⚠ Kharkiv.
We pay attention! In all these regions there is a high probability of enemy’s sabotage activity.
We urge all Ukrainians to be very attentive and as careful as possible.
13:52 Liudmyla Denisova, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights
The occupiers remain captives of the crews of three cargo ships – “Azburg” under the flag of Dominica, Smarta and “Blue Star-1” under the flag of Liberia.
42 members of the ship’s crew and the wife of the captain of the ship Smarta were taken hostage in the Mariupol sea trade port.
According to the captain of the ship “Azburg” Sergei Dzysyak, the crews were “tested” at the filtration camp in Mangush. They are currently in the temporarily occupied Donetsk under the constant supervision of the armed russian military.
13:42 Ukraiinska Pravda
The Foreign Ministry said that the accusations of the President of Serbia about Ukraine’s involvement in reports of mines of Serbian planes were not true.
This was stated in a comment to “Evropeiska Pravda” by Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko.
“We categorically reject the baseless accusations of the President of Serbia. His allegations of Ukraine’s alleged involvement in reports of mines on the Serbian airlines flying to Russia are untrue”, he said.
The Foreign Ministry also expressed disappointment that Serbia has not yet joined the EU sanctions imposed on Russia over its unprovoked war against Ukraine.
13:40 Valentyn Reznichenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration
Again, a “strategic” hit by a Russian missile. They aimed at country houses in the Dnipro district.
12:57 Security Service of Ukraine
Member of Verkhovna Rada Viktor Medvedchuk, detained by the Security Service, addressed the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the President of the Russian Federation Volodymyr Putin with a proposal to exchange him for defenders and residents of Mariupol.
12:05 Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration
Tonight there was a rocket attack on Kramatorsk, there is destruction of infrastructure – at least 8 residential buildings, educational and infrastructural facilities were destroyed
11:58 Suspline TV
On the morning of April 18, Russian troops continued shelling Kharkiv – there are casualties.
As a result of the shelling of Novi Budynky neighborhood, according to preliminary data, one person was killed and six were injured, said Viktor Zabashta, director of the Center for Emergency Care and Disaster Medicine. According to Suspilne, the shells fell near the point of humanitarian aid.
At about 11:50 a.m., the Russian military fired on a residential area in the Osnovyansky district of Kharkiv. A man and a woman were killed in the shelling.
The shells fell on the territory of playgrounds near residential buildings, the press service of the Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office reports. A number of houses were damaged.
11:43 Petro Andriushchenko, Adviser to the Mayor of Mariupol
According to updated data, the occupiers are currently holding at least 20,000 people in filtration camps along the Mangush-Nikolske-Yalta line, preventing the possibility of evacuating due to deliberate delays and slowing down the filtration procedure. Also, around 5-7 thousand people are in the filtration camp in the village Bezimenne at the stage of preparation for deportation.
11:37 Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova
The Russian Federation continues to torture Ukrainian political prisoners.
Volodymyr Yakymenko, who was unjustifiably detained on June 13, 2017, in Crimea and sentenced to 15 years in prison on a fabricated case for his pro-Ukrainian position, is starving in the №4 penal colony in Pugachev, Saratov Oblast (Russia), where he is currently being held.
In a Russian penitentiary, Volodymyr is deprived of breakfast, lunch, or dinner because he is Ukrainian. As a result of malnutrition, he began to have stomach pain, because he has chronic gastritis and duodenal ulcer.
Due to severe pain, Volodymyr was forced to seek medical help, but he was denied treatment. When the doctor discovered that Volodymyr is Ukrainian, he said that “Ukrainians need to be killed.”
Such actions of representatives of penitentiary institutions of the Russian Federation are torture and a way of depriving the citizens of Ukraine of the right to life, which is a violation of Articles 6, 7, 9, 14, 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Failure to provide medical care in the presence of chronic diseases is a gross violation of paragraph 22 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, approved by the UN Economic and Social Council, and Article 17 of Federal Law № 103-FZ “On Detention of Suspects and Accused of Crimes,” as well as contrary to the guaranteed norms of Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
11:06 Ukrainska Pravda citing the spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service Andrii Demchenko
Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation, 1,060,000 Ukrainians have returned to their homeland.
11:05 Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhii Haidai
In Kreminna, the occupiers fired on a civilian car. According to preliminary information, four people were killed and one was injured.
10:46 Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhii Haidai
The occupiers took control of Kreminna. The fighting continues. Evacuation from the city is no longer possible.
Evacuation is still carried out from Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna, Hirske, and Rubizhne.
10:40 General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 18.04 were approximately:
personnel – about 20600,
tanks – 790,
APV – 2041,
artillery systems – 381,
MLRS – 130,
anti-aircraft warfare systems – 67,
aircraft – 167,
helicopters – 147,
vehicles – 1487,
boats / cutters – 8,
fuel tanks – 76,
UAV operational-tactical level – 155,
special equipment – 27,
mobile SRBM system – 4.
Data is being updated.
10:05 Head of the Lviv Region Military Administration Maksym Kozytskyi
There were four missile strikes on Lviv. Three were carried on military infrastructure. One hit was on a tire fitting. There were fires as a result of missile strikes. Extinguishing is still going on. The facilities were severely damaged. It is known about 6 dead and 8 injured civilians. One child was among the injured.
Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi reports 11 wounded in the shelling of the city. About 40 cars were damaged or destroyed. The shock wave shattered the windows of a nearby hotel where evacuees from other regions live.
9:40 Chairman of the Board of Ukrzaliznytsia Oleksandr Kamyshin
This morning, Russian troops shelled Lviv. Several rockets hit near railway facilities. There are no casualties among passengers and railway workers.
Earlier, Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi reported 5 targeted missile strikes on Lviv.
9:15 Head of the Zaporizhzhia Region Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh
Sixteen-year-old son of Oleh Buriak, head of the military administration of the Zaporizhzhia district, was abducted. At the checkpoint in Vasylivka, the child was taken away in an unknown direction.
8:50 Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Valentyn Reznichenko
In the morning, the invaders struck at the Dnipropetrovsk region, but 60% of the missiles were shot down by the Ukrainian air defence.
As a result of the strike on the infrastructure facility in the Synelnykove district, two people were injured. Rescuers extinguished the fire.
In the Pavlohrad district, the missile destroyed the railway infrastructure. No one was injured.
8:03 Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine
As of April 18, more than 567 children suffered in Ukraine as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation – 205 children were killed and 362 received injuries of varying severity.
Children suffered the most in regions such as Donetsk – 117, Kyiv – 107, Kharkiv – 91, Chernihiv – 54, Kherson – 43, Mykolaiv – 40, Luhansk – 36, Zaporizhzhia – 23, the capital – 16, Sumy – 16, Zhytomyr – 15.
7:56 Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhii Haidai
Yesterday Russians shelled the building of the regional patrol police department in Lysychansk. Six employees were hospitalised.
7:22 Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Serhii Haidai
The Russians hit the Olymp sports complex in Kreminna – an area of ignition of 2,400 square metres. At least 15 houses were set on fire in the region.
The sports complex, where representatives of the Ukrainian Olympic team usually trained, was recently rebuilt under the President’s program “Great Construction”. Rescuers are trying to localise the fire because there is a danger of inflammation of the nearby forest.
6:45 General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The operational update regarding the Russian invasion on 06.00 on April 18, 2022.
Video (Spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Shtupun)
The fifty-fourth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to a Russian military invasion continues. A Russian federation continues its full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine.
- The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are completing the creation of an offensive group in the Eastern Operational Zone. The Russian enemy also continues to launch missile and bomb strikes on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine.
- In the Volyn and Polissya areas, the Russian enemy did not take active action, and no signs of the formation of offensive groups were found. Certain units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus continue to carry out tasks to cover the Ukrainian-Belarusian border in Brest and Gomel regions. In these areas, the enemy conducts electronic warfare reconnaissance. The export of damaged armoured vehicles of the Armed Forces of the Russian federation is recorded by rail from the territory of the Republic of Belarus.
- In the Siversky direction, the enemy exercises increased control over border areas. Engineering equipment of positions in the areas of checkpoints and the border areas of the Bryansk and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation continues. The involvement of sabotage and reconnaissance groups and missile strikes from the territory of the Russian Federation is not ruled out.
- In the Slobozhansky direction, the Russian occupiers continue to partially blockade Kharkiv and try to carry out fire damage to units of our troops.
- To expand the bridgehead on the left bank of the Siversky Donets River and create conditions for the rapid deployment of troops, the Russian enemy conducted reconnaissance by fighting in the settlements of Zavody, Dmytrivka, and Dibrovne. It was unsuccessful.
- In the Donetsk and Tavriia directions, the Russian enemy regains combat capability and replenishes its reserves. It is trying to improve the tactical position of its units and intensify hostilities. The Russian occupiers continue shelling the settlements of Siversk and Pokrovske.
- The Russian enemy concentrated its main efforts in the areas of the settlements of Lyman, Kreminna, Popasna, and Rubizhne, trying to establish full control over the city of Mariupol. It carried out offensive operations in the Sievierodonetsk, Popasna, and Zaporizhzhia directions.
- The Russian enemy tried unsuccessfully to gain a foothold in the areas of Kreminna and Rubizhne. It carried out assault operations in the areas of Novotoshkivske, Popasna, Avdiivka, and Marinka. It was also unsuccessful.
- In the South Buh direction, the enemy focuses its main efforts on maintaining its positions and continues to exert fire on the positions of our troops in the directions of Mykolaiv and Oleksandrivka.
- It is expected that the Russian enemy will continue to fight to reach the administrative borders of the Kherson region.
- In total, 87 battalion tactical groups of the Russian enemy were involved in the implementation of combat missions on the territory of Ukraine.
- In the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, defenders of Ukraine repulsed twelve enemy attacks, destroyed ten tanks, fifteen armoured units, and five vehicles, as well as five enemy artillery systems.
- The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has hit five air targets the day before: one plane, three helicopters, and one UAV.
0:30 Ukrinform citing the Chief of the Mariupol Patrol Police Mykhailo Vershynin
On the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, there is a large number of civilians – women, the elderly, children, and one infant.
“These people were hiding from the shelling in the factory’s warehouses; they do not trust the Russian military because they saw what was happening in the city,” the statement said.
00:00 Mariupol City Council
The Russian occupiers are preparing a massive strike on the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, where hundreds of civilians are hiding. This was reported by Ukrainian journalist Artem Popov.
According to the Ukrainian military, the occupiers plan to bomb Azovstal with FAB 1000 and FAB 3000 aircraft bombs. Currently, about 1,000 more civilians from Mariupol, including children, are in the plant’s warehouses.
