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US searching for source of suspected leak, with an American rather than an ally suspected; Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Easter attacks place Russia ‘in even greater isolation’
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. I’m Helen Livingstone and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they happen.
The US Department of Defense says an interagency effort is assessing the impact that leaked intelligence documents, many concerning the war in Ukraine, could have on US national security and on its allies and partners.
Russian shelling killed at least seven civilians in the cities of Kupiansk and Zaporizhzhia over the weekend, Ukrainian authorities said. “This is how the terrorist state marks Palm Sunday,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly address. “This is how Russia places itself in even greater isolation from the world.” Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christian and will celebrate Easter on 16 April.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, chaired a full security council session on 5 April, the first since 2022, according to the latest intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence. The main report was presented by interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, a choice the MoD said was likely an attempt by the Kremlin to portray the situation in those territories as being “normalised”. However “in reality, much of the area remains an active combat zone, subject to partisan attacks, and with extremely limited access to basic services for many citizens”.
A Ukrainian government minister is due to visit India on Monday and will seek humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during Russia’s invasion, according to the Hindu newspaper. Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzhaparova, will make the first visit to India by a minister from Kyiv since the Russian invasion.
Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, used their Easter messages to call for peace. The pope asked God to “shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia”, appearing to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had destroyed a depot containing 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia as well as Ukrainian military warehouses in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
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