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    • Ukraine updates: UN chief concerned by Trans-Dniester reports

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    What's happening in Ukraine today and how are countries around the world responding? Read live updates on Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

    POKROVSK, Ukraine -- As Russian forces intensify their shelling of eastern Ukraine, more people are leaving their homes in search of safety.

    In Pokrovsk, a town in the Donetsk region, people lined up Tuesday to board a train headed to the far west of the country along the border with Hungary and Slovakia. One person was lifted onto the train in a wheelchair, another on a stretcher.

    The passengers took with them cats, dogs, a few bags and boxes, and the memory of those who did not flee in time.

    "We were in the basement, but my daughter didn't make it and was hit with shrapnel on the doorstep" during shelling on Monday, said Mykola Kharchenko, 74. "We had to bury her in the garden near the pear tree."

    He said his village, Vremivka, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Pokrovsk, was under heavy fire for four days and everything was destroyed. With tears in his eyes, Kharchenko said he somehow held himself together at home, but once he reached the train station he fell apart.

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    UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol.

    U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that during their one-on-one meeting Tuesday, Guterres and Putin "discussed the proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, namely in relation to the situation in Mariupol."

    The sprawling Azovstal steel plant has been almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks but it is the last pocket of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.

    An estimated 2,000 troops and 1,000 civilians are said to be holed up in bunkers underneath the wrecked structure.

    Dujarric said that following the Guterres-Putin agreement in principle, discussions will be held with the U.N. humanitarian office and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation.

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    UNITED NATIONS -- The UN says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about reports of new security incidents in a Russian-backed separatist region of Moldova 鈥渁nd urges all concerned to refrain from any statements or actions that could escalate tensions.鈥

    UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Tuesday that Guterres has called for efforts to lower tensions throughout Trans-Dniester. Explosions rocked the region for the second day in a row, knocking out two powerful radio antennas close to the Ukrainian border. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Ukraine all but blamed Russia.

    Russian speakers of the strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine nominally seceded from Moldova in 1990, one year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, fearing the country might shortly merge with Romania, whose language and culture it broadly shares.

    The separatist region fought a brief war with Moldova in 1992 and declared itself an independent state, though it remains unrecognized by any country, including Russia which bases about 1,500 troops there, calling them peacekeepers. Concerns are high that those forces could be used to invade Ukraine from the west.

    Haq said the UN continues to fully support efforts by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to reach a political settlement of the Trans-Dniester conflict in the so-called 5+2 process which comprises Trans-Dniester, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE with the United States and the European Union as observers. The aim is to strengthen Moldova's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, with a special status for Trans-Dniester.

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    BERLIN -- Germany's vice chancellor says his country has come "very, very close" to independence from Russian oil and an embargo on deliveries would now be "manageable."

    Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy, has said so far that it aims to end Russian oil imports by the end of this year.

    Speaking Tuesday during a visit to Poland, Economy Minister Robert Habeck -- who is also the vice chancellor and responsible for energy -- said that his country has cut Russia's share of its oil supply from 35% before the war in Ukraine to about 12%.

    Habeck said "the situation is such that an embargo has become manageable for Germany." He added that "the problem that just a few weeks ago seemed very big for Germany has become significantly smaller so that independence from Russian oil imports has come very, very close."

    Russian gas imports, however, are a bigger issue for Germany. Berlin has said that it will need longer to do without gas supplies from Russia.

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    LONDON -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain does not want war "to escalate beyond Ukraine's borders," and rejected an allegation by Moscow that the West is fighting a proxy conflict with Russia.

    But Johnson said Ukrainians "are being attacked from within Russian territory" and "have a right to protect and defend themselves" by striking inside Russia.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused NATO of "pouring oil on the fire" with its support for Ukraine, and said the risk of World War III should not be underestimated. Russia has singled Britain out for criticism after a U.K. government minister said it was legitimate for Ukraine to hit fuel depots in Russia with U.K.-supplied weapons.

    In an interview with British station Talk TV, Johnson said "it's very, very important that we don't accept the way that the Russians are trying to frame what is happening in Ukraine."

    He said: "They are trying to frame this as a conflict between Russia and the West, or Russia and NATO. That's not what is going on."

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    BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Slovakia's President Zuzana Caputova released a video addressing the invading Russian soldiers, their commanders and all whom it may concern, urging them to stop the war in Ukraine.

    In the three-minute video in Russian with the subtitles in Slovak, Caputova condemned war crimes against women, children and civilians.

    "You justify your invasion by talking about `liberation,"' Caputova told them. "How were you intending to `liberate' Tatiana from Irpin, killed by a Russian grenade together with her two children? Or Olena from Hostomel, raped by one of you in a car?" she asked.

    Referring to testimonies of women who have survived, Caputova says they "find that words are not enough when they try to describe the pain you have made a part of their lives simply because... Well, why even? None of us knows. Do you?"

    She says "with each passing day, you are only increasing the army of wounded souls and bodies of women, children and innocent people."

    "If you still feel any leftover of humanity in you, bring it to life and end this horrible war."

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    MOSCOW - Russia's President Vladimir Putin says Moscow still hopes to negotiate a peaceful settlement with Ukraine, even as the fighting has continued.

    Speaking at a Kremlin meeting Tuesday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Putin noted that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators made what he described as a 鈥渟erious breakthrough鈥 in their talks in Istanbul, Turkey, last month. He claimed, however, that the Ukrainian side later walked back on some of the tentative agreements reached in Istanbul.

    In particular, Putin said Ukrainian negotiators have changed their position on the issue of the status of Crimea and separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, offering to leave it for the countries' presidents to discuss. Putin charged that the shift in the Ukrainian stand makes it hard to negotiate a future deal.

    Putin has demanded that Ukraine recognize Russia's sovereignty over Crimea and recognize independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine as part of a future agreement on ending the hostilities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that those issues could only be decided by a future nationwide vote.

    During Tuesday's Kremlin meeting, Guterres criticized Russia's military action in Ukraine as a flagrant violation of its neighbor's territorial integrity. He also urged Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped at a giant steel mill in Mariupol surrounded by the Russian forces.

    Putin responded by claiming that the Russian forces have offered humanitarian corridors to civilians holed up at the Azovstal steel plant, charging that the Ukrainian defenders of the plant were using civilians as shields and not allowing them to leave.

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    KYIV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed concern about the tensions in a Moscow-backed separatist region of Moldova.

    The ministry noted that an attack on an administrative building in Tiraspol, the centre of the separatist Trans-Dniester province of Moldova, along with explosions that hit broadcast antennas and other facilities in the region follow a Russian officer's statement about Moscow's intention to fully take control of Ukraine's south and build a land corridor to Trans-Dniester.

    It said in a Tuesday statement that Ukraine "resolutely supports Moldova's territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders and condemn attempts to draw the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova into the full-fledged war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine and call for deescalating tensions."

    Trans-Dniester, a strip of land with about 470,000 people, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops in the breakaway region, nominally as peacekeepers.

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    WARSAW, Poland -- The Polish climate minister gave assurances on Tuesday that the country has plenty of natural gas on reserve, following reports that Russia has suspended gas supplies to Poland.

    Anna Moskwa, minister for climate and environment, tweeted: "Poland has the necessary gas reserves and sources of supply that protect our security -- we have been effectively independent from Russia for years. Our warehouses are 76% full. There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes."

    Her tweet followed reports by the Onet news portal that Russia has suspended gas supplies to Poland under the Yamal contract. Onet reported that a crisis team had gathered at the Ministry of Climate to deal with the matter. Onet said, citing unnamed sources, that Russia had insisted on a Friday deadline for payment in rubles and that Poland has said it would not pay in rubles.

    Poland has been working to wean itself off of Russian energy sources and was due to end its reliance on Russian gas this year.

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    RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin says the war in Ukraine has already weakened Russia's military capability.

    Austin said after meeting allies and partners at the United States' Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Tuesday that, since Russia began the invasion, its land forces have sustained "pretty substantial" casualties, as well as lost a lot of equipment and used a lot of precision-guided munitions.

    He said that "they are, in fact, in terms of military capability, weaker than when they started, and it'll be harder for them to replace some of this capability as they go forward because of the sanctions and the trade restrictions that have been placed on them."

    Austin reiterated that "we would like to make sure, again, that they don't have the same type of capability to bully their neighbours that we saw at the outset of this conflict."

    He criticized Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's warning that the threat of a nuclear conflict "should not be underestimated."

    Austin said that "it's unhelpful and dangerous to rattle sabers and speculate about the use of nuclear weapons."

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    MOSCOW -- A senior Kremlin official says that Ukraine may split into several parts.

    Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said in remarks published Tuesday that "the policies of the West and the Kyiv regime controlled by it would only be the breakup of Ukraine into several states."

    The statement comes as Russia says it has focused on expanding control over Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian troops there since 2014 when conflict erupted following Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.

    Moscow launched military action in Ukraine on Feb. 24, days after recognizing the separatist regions' independence.

    Last week, a senior Russian military officer said that along with taking control over Donbas, Russia also wants to overtake southern Ukraine, saying such a move would also open a land corridor between Russia and the separatist Trans-Dniester region of Moldova.

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    MADRID -- Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Tuesday he was "very worried" by the explosions this week in the separatist region of Trans-Dniester, adding that they reminded him too much of occurrences in the Donbas region immediately prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine late February.

    "I remember before Feb. 21, there have been some series of `false-flag' operations in Donbas region, so called people republics, that were used as the pretext by Russia to recognize and then to sign the so-called friendship and assistance treaties and then to start the military operation," Rinkevics told reporters in Madrid.

    "I'm very worried about the current trend in Trans-Dniester because that resembles a little bit that pattern that we have seen," he added.

    Police in Trans-Dniester say two explosions Tuesday in a radio facility close to the Ukrainian border knocked two antennas out of service. On Monday, several explosions were reported to have hit the Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol, the region's capital.

    Trans-Dniester, a strip of land in Moldova, has been under the control of separatists since a 1992 war with Moldova. Russia bases about 1,500 troops there. The United States has warned that Russia could launch "false-flag" attacks in nearby nations as a pretext for sending in troops to those nations.

    Rinkevics was in Madrid to meet his Spanish counterpart and discuss the Ukraine war and the upcoming NATO summit in the Spanish capital.

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    The Russian military has warned it could strike Ukrainian "decision-making centres" in the Ukrainian capital and said wouldn't be stopped by the possible presence of Western advisers there.

    The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday accused the U.K. of making statements encouraging Ukraine to use Western weapons to carry out strikes on the Russian territory, warning that if it happens the Russian military could retaliate by hitting government structures in Kyiv.

    It directly pointed at U.K. Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey, who told Times Radio that it was "not necessarily a problem" if Ukraine British-donated weapons were used to hit sites on Russian soil.

    The ministry said in a statement that "the Russian armed forces are ready to deal retaliatory strikes with long-range precision guided weapons on Kyiv centres that would make such decisions." It noted that "the presence of citizens of one of Western countries in the Ukrainian decision-making centers won't necessarily pose a problem for Russia in making a decision to launch retaliatory action."

    The Russian military so far has avoided striking presidential, government and military headquarters in Kyiv during its campaign in Ukraine that has entered a third month.

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    WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging Congress to fully fund the Biden administration's proposed budget for the State Department, telling lawmakers the spending is critical to ensuring that the war in Ukraine is a "strategic failure" for Russia and a message to other countries that might invade their neighbors.

    Blinken said his weekend visit to Kyiv with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had left him with the "indelible impression" that Ukraine is winning, particularly in the capital. "It was right in front of us: the Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv," he said.

    Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that the U.S.-led global response to Russia's invasion had "underscored the power and purpose of American diplomacy." He said the US$60.4 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year was needed to continue to rally partners and allies in the cause.

    "We will, we have to continue to drive that diplomacy forward to seize what I believe are the strategic opportunities and address risks presented by Russia's overreach, as countries reconsider their policies, priorities, their relationships," Blinken said. "The budget request before you predated this crisis, but fully funding it is critical in my judgment to ensuring Russia's war in Ukraine is a strategic failure for the Kremlin and serves as a powerful lesson to those who might consider following its path."

    Blinken did not name other nations that might be considering following Russia's lead but his comment was seen as a veiled reference to China, which has sided with Russia in the Ukraine conflict and has made no secret of its desire to re-unify the island of Taiwan with the mainland.

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    CHERNOBYL, Ukraine -- The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency says it was possible that an accident could have occurred when Russian troops seized control of the site of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster during the war in Ukraine.

    Speaking on a visit to the former nuclear power plant Tuesday on the 36th anniversary of the meltdown, Rafael Mariano Grossi said "the situation in 1986 was completely different. In this case, what we had was a nuclear safety situation which was not normal, and could have developed into an accident."

    Russian troops moved into the radiation-contaminated Chornobyl exclusion zone in February on their way toward the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and withdrew late last month as Russia switched its focus to fighting in eastern Ukraine. The site is now back in Ukrainian hands and communications which were disrupted have been restored.

    Russian forces continue to hold a working nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia plant, where there was fighting nearby in early March which damaged the plant's training facility.

    "Clearly, the physical integrity of one nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, was compromised, we also had situations where the external power was interrupted including here (Chornobyl) so there were a number of events that were compromising the normal operations of any nuclear power facility," Grossi said.

    "Those were avoided but of course, as I was saying, the situation was not stable and we have to stay on alert."

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    TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday announced a 6.2 trillion yen (US$48.7 billion) emergency package to reduce the impact of rising prices of gasoline, grains and other raw materials due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

    The package includes additional gasoline subsidies, financial support for small and medium-scale businesses hit by the pandemic, as well as support for low-income households.

    At a time when the pandemic still impacts people's daily lives and the economy, the Russian invasion of Ukraine heightened global uncertainty while triggering rising costs of oil and grains, disrupting the stable supply of seafood and raw materials, and causing insecurity to people's lives, Kishida said. "We need to ensure sense of security among the people."

    About one quarter of the package will be used to address soaring crude oil prices. To limit gasoline price increases, the government will raise subsidies to oil distributors and extend the program until the end of September.

    The package will also support small and medium-size businesses hit by the pandemic and provide support for low-income households, as well as fisheries, lumber and wheat companies.

    Kishida also said Japan will maximize renewable energy and promote nuclear energy following a decision to phase out coal imports from Russia. He said the government will ensure stability of energy, materials and food supply by diversifying exporters.

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    KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian officials say the Russian military has hit a strategic bridge linking the southern Odessa region with neighboring Romania.

    Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the state-run Ukrainian Railways, said the bridge across the Dniester Estuary where the Dniester River flows into the Black Sea was damaged in Tuesday's missile attack by Russian forces. He said there were no injuries.

    The strike has cut off the railway connection to areas of the Odessa region west of the estuary and Romania.

    The Russian attack follows a series of strikes on key railway facilities in Ukraine unleashed by the Russian military on Monday.

    It comes after last week's claim by a senior Russian military officer that Russia aims to take control of the entire south of Ukraine and build a land corridor to the separatist Trans-Dniester region of Moldova, where tensions have escalated in recent days.

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    WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's government says it is imposing sanctions on 50 Russian entities and individuals over Russia's war against Ukraine.

    Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said Tuesday that the Polish measures come on top of European Union sanctions and target many Russian individuals and companies that do business in Poland.

    Kaminski said the targeted companies will have their assets frozen and will be excluded from participation in public tenders, while Russian oligarchs on the list will be banned from entering Poland.

    Gas giant Gazprom and Moshe Kantor, who owns a share of Poland's state-owned chemicals group Azoty, are on the new list.

    Kantor recently resigned as head of the European Jewish Congress after Britain imposed sanctions on him over his alleged ties to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Poland, a strong supporter of Kyiv, has taken in millions of refugees and on Monday announced plans to send an unspecified number of tanks to Ukraine.

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    STOCKHOLM -- Sweden's foreign minister has decried as "unjustified and disproportionate" a decision by Russian authorities to expel several Swedish diplomats.

    Ann Linde vowed in a social-media post that Sweden would respond "appropriately" to the expulsions announced Tuesday of four Swedish diplomats by Moscow. Separately, Russia's Foreign Ministry said three diplomats "from the Swedish Embassy in Russia" be expelled.

    Swedish news agency TT reported that three of the diplomats were based in Moscow, where the embassy is located, and one in St. Petersburg.

    Linde wrote on Twitter: "By expelling Western diplomats, Russia is isolating itself internationally."

    Russia has generally sought to keep expulsions symmetrical to moves by European countries to kick out Russian diplomats over President Vladimir Putin's military campaign in Ukraine.

    Earlier this month, Sweden expelled three Russian diplomats.

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    KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian officials were reporting more civilian deaths in various parts of eastern Ukraine as Russian forces stepped up attacks on Tuesday.

    Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said three people died after Russian shells hit a residential building in the city of Popasna, which Russian forces have been trying to capture.

    Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko of the neighbouring Donetsk region said two people were killed and six others wounded in his region, writing on social media that "Russians continue to deliberately fire at civilians and to destroy critical infrastructure."

    To the north in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said shelling of civilian areas killed three people and wounded seven more.

    And further south, regional authorities in Zaporizhzhia said a missile strike killed at least one person and wounded another. Russian forces fired several missiles targeting one of the factories in the city of Zaporizhzhia, they said.

    The UN human rights office said Tuesday it has counted 2,729 people killed and 3,111 injured in fighting since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, though it acknowledges that tally only includes confirmed casualties and is likely to understate the real toll.

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    ISTANBUL -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart.

    The call comes in the wake of Turkish diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis over Russia's war in Ukraine, including by hosting Ukrainian and Russian negotiators for talks in Istanbul late last month.

    The Turkish presidency said in a statement Tuesday that Erdogan proposed taking the "Istanbul process to the level of leaders, a crucial threshold in the Russia-Ukraine negotiations." It sought to continue the "positive progress of the Istanbul talks" toward peace.

    Talks stalled after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of committing war crimes. Putin later said peace efforts were at a dead end.

    Ankara, which maintains close ties to both Kyiv and Moscow, has presented itself as a neutral broker in a bid to end the fighting.

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    MOSCOW -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a ceasefire in Ukraine at his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

    Guterres is visiting Moscow and is then scheduled to visit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, this week.

    "We are extremely interested in finding ways in order to create the conditions for effective dialog, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, create the conditions for a peaceful solution," Guterres said, speaking in televised comments at the start of the meeting.

    Guterres also said he wanted to reduce the impact of fighting in Ukraine on food security in other parts of the world. Lavrov said they would discuss "the situation around Ukraine that acts as a catalyst for a great number of problems which had piled up over recent decades in the Euro-Atlantic region."

    Guterres is also expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin later Tuesday.

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    GENEVA -- The UN refugee agency is launching a new appeal for funds for the crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine that projects up to 8.3 million people will have to flee the country by year-end.

    The projection was announced Tuesday as part of a new US$1.85 billion regional response plan from UNHCR aimed at supporting refugees from Ukraine after Russia's war began on Feb. 24. It far outstrips the agency's previous refugee estimates, which now stand at just over 5.2 million.

    The exodus has exceeded the worst-case predictions of the Geneva-based agency, which it has called the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.

    The response plan would help refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries including Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, but also other countries in the region, including Belarus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

    The UN estimates that nearly 8 million people are displaced within Ukraine, and another 13 million people are believed to be trapped in war-affected areas of Ukraine. The country had a pre-war population of about 44 million.

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    RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is vowing that Ukraine's allies will "keep moving heaven and earth" to fulfill Kyiv's defence requirements as the war enters a new phase.

    Austin convened a meeting with officials from around 40 countries on Tuesday at the United States' Ramstein Air Base in Germany to work out ways to keep military aid to Ukraine going. Guests included Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

    He said "this gathering reflects the galvanized world" since Russia's invasion, with more than 30 allies and partners joining the U.S. in sending security assistance to Ukraine and more than US$5 billion worth of equipment committed.

    Austin cautioned that "we have much more to do: Ukraine needs our help to win today, and they will still need our help when the war is over."

    He said of Ukraine: "We know, and you should know, that all of us have your back and that's why we're here today -- to strengthen the arsenal of Ukrainian democracy."

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    BERLIN -- Germany's defence minister says her country will enable the delivery of self-propelled armored anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine.

    Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht made the announcement at a U.S.-hosted meeting on arming Ukraine at the United States' Ramstein Air Base in Germany, according to the text of her remarks Tuesday provided by her ministry.

    Chancellor Olaf Scholz has faced mounting pressure, including from within his governing coalition, to approve the delivery of heavy weapons such as tanks and other armored vehicles to Ukraine. Germany has already delivered other equipment.

    Lambrecht also reiterated plans for eastern European allies to send Soviet-era material to Ukraine, and then have Germany fill the resulting gaps. She said Germany is working together with the U.S. to train Ukrainian troops on artillery systems on German soil.

    Germany decided on Monday to clear the delivery of Gepard anti-aircraft guns, Lambrecht said, without providing details. German media reported that defence company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann would get the green light to deliver technically upgraded guns from former German military stocks.

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    LONDON -- A top British government official says Russia is making "unsound" military decisions because of President Vladimir Putin's desire to secure some kind of victory in Ukraine by May 9, when Russia marks its victory in the Second World War.

    U.K. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said Tuesday that Russian forces were "giving away whatever advantage they may have won" by launching an offensive in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region before enough troops were assembled.

    He told Sky News that Putin's "desire to stand there on the steps of the Kremlin on May 9 and be a hero, means that thousands of Russian lives are going to be lost and the Russians are going to hand over the numerical advantage that they should have."

    Heappey also rejected Russia's claim that NATO is provoking Russia by arming Ukraine, calling accusations of aggression by the alliance "utter nonsense."

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused NATO of "pouring oil on the fire" by supply Ukraine with weapons.

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    BUCHAREST, Romania -- Police in the Moldovan separatist region of Trans-Dniester say two explosions on Tuesday morning in a radio facility close to Ukrainian border knocked two powerful antennas out of service.

    The incident occurred in a small town of Maiac roughly 12 kilometres (7 miles) west of the border with Ukraine, according to the region's Interior Ministry. It comes just a day after several explosions believed to be caused by rocket-propelled grenades were reported to hit the Ministry of State Security in the city of Tiraspol, the region's capital.

    No one was hurt in the explosions, officials said.

    Trans-Dniester, a strip of land with about 470,000 people between Moldova and Ukraine, has been under the control of separatist authorities since a 1992 war with Moldova.

    Russia bases about 1,500 troops there nominally as peacekeepers, but concerns are high that the forces could be used to invade Ukraine.

    A senior Russian military official, Rustam Minnekayev, said last week that Russian forces aim to take full control of southern Ukraine, saying such a move would open the way to Trans-Dniester.

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    KYIV, Ukraine -- Four people died and nine more were wounded on Monday in the Russian shelling of the Donetsk region, the region's governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Tuesday.

    Two of the victims were children: a 9-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, Kyrylenko said in the messaging app Telegram.

    Governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said the Russians have shelled civilians 17 times over the past 24 hours, with the cities of Popasna, Lysychansk and Girske suffering the most.

    "Popasna withstood four powerful artillery attacks, and Lysychansk withstood two. There is damage to two houses in Lysychansk, two in Popasna, at least one in Girske. We are checking the information about the victims," Haidai said Tuesday on Telegram.

    Rocket strikes were also reported in the Zaporizhzhia region Tuesday morning by local officials.

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    KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian forces have repelled six attacks in the past 24 hours in the two regions that comprise the Donbas, Ukraine's industrial heartland, the General Staff said in its Tuesday morning update.

    The Ukrainian army has destroyed four Russian tanks, five artillery systems, 13 units of armored vehicles, 15 units of motor vehicles, two tankers and one anti-aircraft gun, the update said.

    Ukraine's General Staff says Russian forces continue offensive operations in the country's east in an effort to take full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and establish a land corridor to Crimea.

    Fighting continues around the cities of Rubizhne and Popasna in the Luhansk region, the update said. The Russian forces also continue to shell Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, and to block Ukrainian units in the area of Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol -- the last remaining stronghold of the Ukrainian forces in the besieged port city.

    In the area of Velyka Oleksandrivka, a village in the Kherson region largely controlled by the Russians, Ukrainian forces destroyed an ammunition depot and "eliminated" more than 70 Russian troops, the General Staff said.

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    LVIV, Ukraine -- The British Defence Ministry says Russian forces have taken the Ukrainian city of Kreminna.

    Street-to-street fighting had been going on for days in the city in Ukraine's Luhansk region, with civilian evacuations there made impossible by the war.

    In a tweet early Tuesday, the British military said: "The city of Kreminna has reportedly fallen and heavy fighting is reported south of Izium as Russian forces attempt to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east."

    There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian government. Russia claimed days earlier to have taken the city.

    Kreminna is some 575 kilometres (355 miles) southeast of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

    The United Kingdom has been providing daily intelligence reports publicly since the start of the war. The British military did not say how it knew that Kreminna had fallen.

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    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Monday that Ukraine risks provoking "World War III" and said the threat of a nuclear conflict "should not be underestimated."

    In an in-depth Russian TV interview, Lavrov blamed Ukraine for stalled talks between the two countries, and accused the United States and Britain of pressuring Kyiv not to reach agreement.

    "Everyone is reciting incantations that in no case can we allow World War III," Lavrov said, and accused Ukrainian leaders of provoking Russia by asking NATO to become involved in the conflict.

    By providing weapons, NATO forces are "pouring oil on the fire," he said, according to a Russian transcript on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website.

    Lavrov apparently made the remarks after U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the United States wants "to see Russia weakened to the point where it can't do things like invade Ukraine."

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that only discussions between Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin would bring resolution.

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    KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's foreign minister on Monday urged the UN chief to press Russia for an evacuation of the besieged port of Mariupol, calling it something the world body is capable of achieving.

    Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Associated Press in an interview he was concerned that by visiting Moscow on Tuesday before traveling to Kyiv, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could be vulnerable to falling into a Kremlin "trap" in the war.

    Kuleba said Guterres "should focus primarily on one issue: evacuation of Mariupol.

    An estimated 100,000 people are trapped in the seaside city while a contingent of Ukrainian fighters hold out against Russian forces in a steel mill where hundreds of civilians also are taking shelter.

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    MARIUPOL, Ukraine -- Officials in the embattled Ukrainian city of Mariupol say a new mass grave has been identified north of the city.

    Mayor Vadym Boychenko said authorities are trying to estimate the number of victims in the grave about 10 kilometres (about 6 miles) north of Mariupol.

    Satellite photos released over the past several days have shown what appear to be images of other mass graves.

    Mariupol has been decimated by fierce fighting over the past two months. The capture of the city would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

    ___

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