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Ukraines forces are concluding their preparations for a long-expected spring counteroffensive against invading Russian troops, the countrys defence minister has said, and are, broadly speaking, ready. Oleksii Reznikov told an online briefing on Friday: As soon as there is Gods will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it. He gave no date for when the counteroffensive would start but said: Globally speaking, we are to a high percentage ready. Kyiv has been preparing a counterattack for several months aimed at repelling Russian forces from the east and south.

Russia on Friday launched a wave of missile attacks across many of Ukraines biggest cities, killing a mother and young child in the port city of Dnipro, and 14 people at a high-rise apartment building in the central city of Uman. Air raid alarms were active across the country in the early hours of Friday morning, while explosions were heard in Kyiv, and southern Mykolaiv was targeted again.

The New York Times has reported that Amnesty International has been sitting on an independent review criticising its controversial allegation that Ukrainian forces were illegally endangering civilians. Amnestys accusation that Ukrainian troops were illegally putting civilians in harms way by basing themselves nearby and launching attacks from populated areas caused widespread anger when it was published last August. Russia claimed it as vindication but critics including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was poorly researched, ignored wartime realities and drew a moral equivalence between Russia, the aggressor, and Ukraine, the victim.

Reports are emerging that the Russian colonel general Mikhail Mizintsev, known as the butcher of Mariupol, has been removed as deputy defence minister in charge of logistics and supplies. Reuters cites a military blogger, Alexander Sladkov, and the news website RBC as saying Mizintsev, who orchestrated the siege of the devastated city of Mariupol last year, was no longer in the role he was appointed to last September.

The Kremlin has said Russian military units that have fought in Ukraine will be represented in a parade in Moscow on 9 May to mark the anniversary of the Soviet victory in the second world war, Reuters reports. The holiday is one of the most important in the Russian calendar, usually featuring a huge show of military hardware on Red Square and a speech from President Vladimir Putin.

At least seven civilians were killed and 33 injured between Wednesday and Thursday, Ukraines presidential office said, including one person killed and 23 wounded when four Kalibr cruise missiles hit the southern city of Mykolaiv.

The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe has voted that the forced detention and deportation of children from Russian occupied territories of Ukraine is genocide.

Russia said its patience should not be tested over nuclear weapons in another repeat of hardline rhetoric. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russia will do everything to prevent the development of events according to the worst scenario but not at the cost of infringing on our vital interests.

The Biden administration is sanctioning Russias Federal Security Service for wrongfully detaining Americans. The sanctions are largely symbolic, since the organisation is already under sweeping existing sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 429 of the invasion - The Guardian

This tank story is not satisfactory, he added. The decisions been made, OK. Then lets get ready to execute it and cut through whatever the red tape is.

The independent, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, said there is a bipartisan concern over the time frame, warning that not sending the tanks soon could prove to be a tragic mistake.

Our country has thousands of main battle tanks, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said earlier in the hearing. It would seem like its not that hard to find 31 and get them there.

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill had long pressed President Joe Biden to send Kyiv U.S.-made main battle tanks, a move the administration finally agreed to in January. On Thursday, during a hearing with U.S. European Commands Gen. Christopher Cavoli, and U.S. Transportation Commands Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, senators were animated about why the administration cant get them there much sooner.

The initial January announcement said the U.S. would provide M1A2 tanks, which would need to be overhauled in a process that could take as long as two years. But the Pentagon said in March the military would pull out some of its older M1A1 Abrams that need less refurbishment and would arrive by the fall.

A separate tranche of tanks is set to arrive in Germany next month for Ukrainian troops to begin training.

The Army and defense contractor General Dynamics are working on the tanks slated to be sent this year, which have been pulled from Army depots to send to Ukraine this spring and summer.

The armor on the tanks turret and the optical sights are not eligible for export, so they need to be swapped out before they are sent overseas, something that can happen within weeks.

The work is being done at the Armys facility at Lima, Ohio. The line has been exceptionally busy in recent months, with tanks for Poland and Taiwan along with other allies going through the upgrade process side-by-side.

The Polish order in particular is a rush job, with Warsaw slated to begin receiving its 116 M1A1 tanks that it ordered in January by this spring.

While the timeline for the Ukraine-bound tanks has been sped up, the autumn delivery schedule still didnt sit well with senators.

Cotton accused the Biden administration of dragging its feet on following through on the January decision to provide the Abrams, which it had initially resisted but announced in tandem with a decision by Germany to send its own Leopard 2 tanks.

I think the main reason for that is [also] the main reason why we didnt even agree to supply the tanks for a year, which is that President Biden didnt want to supply them, Cotton said. And again, I think we could supply them faster than eight or nine months if there was the political will.

Cavoli, quizzed by Cotton about when tanks will arrive beyond those that will be used for training Ukrainians, said military planners were moving to speed up the process.

The dates are moving right now, Cavoli said. Were trying to accelerate it as much as we can.

Another GOP senator, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, pressed Cavoli and Van Ovost on whether the nearly three dozen Abrams tanks had been identified, if they were located in the U.S. or in Europe and how quickly they could be delivered once ready. Van Ovost, who oversees the movement of military equipment and personnel around the globe, said her command has multiple avenues to deliver Abrams tanks by air or by sea and could do so quickly once given orders to transport tanks.

Rounds argued the holdup amounts to a policy decision that [the administration is] not prepared to deliver 31 Abrams tanks at this time.

The bottom line is, if we needed those tanks, it shouldnt take eight months for the United States Army to be able to access 31 Abrams tanks, Rounds said. If we needed them tomorrow, wed get them very very quickly.

Paul McLeary contributed to this report.

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Biden gets bipartisan blowback on getting U.S. tanks to Ukraine faster - POLITICO

Russia said its patience should not be tested over nuclear weapons, in another repeat of hardline rhetoric over their use. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russia would do everything to prevent the development of events according to the worst scenario but not at the cost of infringing on our vital interests.

Vladimir Putin has previously made comments saying he wants to avoid nuclear war, but his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a UN hearing on Monday that the world was possibly more dangerous than during the cold war.

The Kremlin said that relations with European countries are at their lowest possible level amid more expulsions of diplomats.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it welcomed anything that could hasten the end of the Ukraine conflict when asked about Wednesdays phone call between the Chinese and Ukrainian leaders.

Natos secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, also welcomed the discussion between President Xi and President Zelenskiy and repeated the possibility of the war ending at the negotiating table.

Stoltenberg said 98% of promised combat vehicles have now been delivered to Ukraine. This comprises 1,550 armoured vehicles and 230 tanks. This equates to nine new Ukrainian brigades.

The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe has voted that the forced detention and deportation of children from Russian occupied territories of Ukraine is genocide, at a session on Thursday.

A resolution on deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to Russian Federation or to Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied: create conditions for their safe return, stop these crimes and punish the perpetrators passed with 87 votes in favour, meaning an overwhelming majority. One representative voted against and another abstained.

Russias defence ministry has claimed that its forces had taken four blocks in north-western, western and south-western Bakhmut, Russia state-owned news agency RIA reported.

Russias foreign ministry has rejected a bid by the US embassy to visit the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in prison on 11 May. It said the measure was taken in response to Washingtons failure to process visas for representatives from the journalistic pool of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, during his visit to the United Nations on Monday.

The Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine during a visit to the Vatican. He asked the pontiff for help to return children from the east of Ukraine who have been forcibly taken to Russia by Kremlin forces.

Andrij Melnyk, Ukraines former ambassador to Berlin, said Germany was still failing to provide the support it should. The Germans are helping much more than they were, and for that we Ukrainians are very grateful, but the government is only delivering as much as it feels it should, he told Die Zeit in an interview in Kyiv.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russias Wagner, claimed he was joking when he said the mercenary group would suspend fire in Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces on the other side of the frontline to show the city to visiting US journalists.

Russia has reinforced its defences before a widely expected counterattack by Ukrainian forces, analysts have suggested. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the 500 miles (800km) of Russian lines protecting occupied Ukraine have been triple fortified and included a gush of manpower. The timing comes as the usual winter freeze has begun to thaw and dry, making mobilisation more likely.

Britains opposition Labour party has asked the government why there has been no new weapons announcement since February and no fresh update from ministers to parliament since January.

Relations with European countries are at their lowest possible level, the Kremlin has said, adding that each wave of expulsions of Russian diplomats is reducing the space for diplomacy. Germany is one of the latest country to send diplomats home, expelling 20 on Saturday. Russia responded by expelling 40.

EU diplomats are still seeking to convince central and eastern European countries to extend Ukraines tariff-free access to the EU market for another year.

The EU dropped tariff barriers on Ukrainian grain after the Russian invasion last year and is now seeking to extend the policy, which expires on 5 June. But logistical bottlenecks have meant much of the grain has stayed in the EU, depressing prices and farm incomes in neighbouring countries.

At least seven civilians were killed and 33 injured between Wednesday and Thursday, Ukraines presidential office has said, including one person killed and 23 wounded including a child when four Kalibr cruise missiles hit the southern city of Mykolaiv.

The remains of an unidentified aerial military object have been found in northern Poland near the city of Bydgoszcz, Polands defence ministry and its justice minister have said. The broadcaster RFM FM said the object was an air-to-surface missile measuring several metres, with its head missing.

Russian forces pounded the city of Bakhmut, for months the focal point of their attempts to capture the eastern Ukrainian industrial region of Donbas, and the head of Russias Wagner mercenary force said Ukrainian troops were pouring in ahead of an inevitable counteroffensive.

Chinas president, Xi Jinping, spoke to Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Wednesday for the first time since Russias invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv had publicly sought such talks for months. Zelenskiy described the hours phone call as long and meaningful. Xi told Zelenskiy that China would send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties seeking peace, Chinese state media reported.

The White House welcomed the phone call, but said it was too soon to tell whether it would lead to a peace deal.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 428 of the invasion - The Guardian

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Pope Francis will outline his vision for the future of Europe during a three-day visit to Hungary that started Friday, with Russias war in Ukraine, migration flows and Hungarys tense relations with Brussels looming large over the pontiffs weekend journey.

Hungarian officials say Francis pilgrimage was designed primarily to let the pope minister to the countrys Catholic community and to encourage its members in their faith. But with the war unfolding next door and Hungary butting heads with other European Union nations over rule of law issues and LGBTQ+ rights, Francis words and deeds in the heart of Europe will carry strong political undertones.

After landing at Budapests Liszt Ferenc International Airport, Francis met with President Katalin Novak and Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He was set to deliver his main political speech to Hungarian authorities and diplomats later Friday.

He will have chance to speak to Hungarian society and Europe at large in his final event Sunday, when he is scheduled to address academic and cultural figures at Budapests Catholic University.

In between, Francis is set to meet with some of the 35,000 Ukrainian refugees who have remained in Hungary after 2.5 million fled across the country's border with Ukraine early on in Russias invasion. It will be another opportunity for Francis to raise immigration as a topic and and to reiterate his belief that European countries should, within their means, open their arms and borders to people fleeing poverty as well as conflicts.

Orban is a populist whose hard line on migration is well known. In 2015-2016, Hungary built a razor wire fence on its border with Serbia to stop people from entering. However, Francis has expressed appreciation for Hungarys recent welcome of Ukrainian refugees.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis would use his time in the heart of Europe to look to the continent's future.

Its difficult to not think about the European Union and all of Europe, Bruni said of the trip. He noted that the passion for Europe had perhaps faded over the years and that Francis aimed to revive the Europe of peoples, with its own history and responsibility in the commitment to global peace.

For the 86-year-old pontiff, the visit will once again test his frail health after he spent four days in the hospital last month with bronchitis. While Hungarian officials had hoped Francis would travel around the country, the Vatican opted to keep him in Budapest, where he spent seven hours in 2021 to close out a church congress.

The visit comes as the European Union's parliament continues to put pressure on Hungary to counter what EU lawmakers consider a deterioration in the rule of law and democratic principles under Orban's government, including rolling back the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

The four biggest groups in the European Parliament have called on the EU's executive commission to withhold pandemic recovery funds for Hungary until liberal democracy principles are met.

The European Commission has accused Orban for years of dismantling democratic institutions, taking control of the media and infringing on minority rights, allegations the prime minister has denied.

Hungarys Constitution, approved unilaterally by Orbans right-wing populist Fidesz party in 2011, outlaws same-sex marriage, and the government has prohibited same-sex couples from adopting children. The government has also outlawed the depiction of homosexuality or divergent gender identities to minors in media content.

Catholic doctrine also prohibits same-sex marriages, but Francis has backed legal protections for people in same-sex unions. He has long ministered to gay and transgender Catholics, while blasting gender ideology as an alleged form of the West's ideological colonization of the developing world.

In a move linked to the pontiff's visit, Hungry's president on Thursday commuted the prison sentences of several members of a far-right Hungarian group convicted of executing political acts of terrorism. The group's members have frequently harassed members of the LGBTQ+ community.

In a statement, Novak wrote that Francis' visit is a special occasion for the head of state to exercise her power of pardon. She referred directly to those members of the radical Hunnia Movement group, which espouses anti-EU, irredentist views and was linked to Molotov cocktail attacks on the homes of Socialist government officials between 2007 and 2009.

Hungarys ambassador to the Holy See, Eduard Habsburg, said he thinks Hungary is actually upholding Europes founding ideals better than many of its EU partners.

Hungary has stayed true to the values that have always been the values of the European Union, which is family, faith, Christian, Judeo-Christian roots, sovereignty and all these things, Habsburg said. And you sometimes have the idea that some of these have been lost in the western parts of Europe.

With Francis traveling closer to Ukraine than at any time since Russia invaded Ukraine, the war will also be front and center during his visit. He plans to visit a Greek Catholic church that delivered aid to Ukrainian refugees.

Francis, who met with Ukraines prime minister at the Vatican on Thursday, is likely to repeat his call for a peaceful resolution of the war and to express solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Orban has called for a cease-fire but been lukewarm in his support of Ukraine, refusing to supply Kyiv with weapons and threatening to veto EU sanctions against Moscow while maintaining Hungarys strong dependence on Russian energy.

While there was speculation that Francis might meet with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill while in Budapest, no such meeting is planned, according to the Rev. Csaba Torok, the parochial administrator for the Cathedral of Esztergom and coordinator of Catholic programming on state media.

Francis held an unprecedented meeting with Kirill in 2016 and had hoped to pursue a second encounter, but Kirills support for Russias invasion put the plans on indefinite hold. ___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Amid Ukraine war, pope to give vision for Europe in Hungary - ABC News

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference after the Fed raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on interest rate policy in Washington, March 22, 2023.

Leah Millis | Reuters

WASHINGTON Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke by phone with two Russian pranksters earlier this year who falsely claimed to be President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

Video clips circulated on Russian state TV showing Powell fielding questions from two well known pro-Kremlin comedians, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, who use the stage names Vovan and Lexus.

"Chair Powell participated in a conversation in January with someone who misrepresented himself as the Ukrainian president," a Fed spokesperson told CNBC on Thursday. "It was a friendly conversation and took place in a context of our standing in support of the Ukrainian people in this challenging time. No sensitive or confidential information was discussed."

The video appears to have been edited, the Fed spokesperson said, adding that they could not confirm the video's accuracy. "The matter has been referred to appropriate law enforcement, and out of respect for their efforts, we won't be commenting further."

Powell does not appear to have said anything controversial during his call with the Zelenskyy impersonators, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the prank.

Yet the sheer fact that two well known allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin were able to evade detection and speak to Powell directly raises serious questions about security procedures at the central bank's Washington headquarters.

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Since 2014, Vovan and Lexus have played the same phone call prank on dozens of government officials and public figures around the world, often with the apparent goal of embarrassing people who criticize the Kremlin.

Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has effectively raised the stakes of each of these hoaxes, however, as the U.S. and Europe have armed Ukraine's defense forces and waged a global sanctions campaign against Russia.

Following a missile explosion in Poland in November, Vovan and Lexus impersonated French President Emmanuel Macron on a prank call with Polish PresidentAndrzej Duda.

In January, they tricked former then German Chancellor Angela Merkel into thinking she was speaking to a former president of Ukraine.

Last month, the pair impersonated Zelenskyy again and spoke directly with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. They later released a video of the call, during which Lagarde said a European central bank digital currency could be introduced this October.

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Powell duped by Russian pranksters who claimed to be Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy - CNBC