Day 429 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• New explosions in Kyiv and the region
• ISW: The Russians sent more troops to Bakhmut
• Putin allowed Ukrainians without Russian citizenship to be deported from the annexed regions
• The Ukrainian Prime Minister: Kyiv is ready to start negotiations on EU membership by the end of the year
• The war in Ukraine and migration will be the focus of the Pope's visit to Hungary

New explosions in Kyiv and the region

Uman... The rubble is still being cleared. There are already 13 dead. Two of them are children that can’t be identified. The fate of their parents is unknown... The rescuers will work until they make sure that no one else is left under the rubble. We can defeat Russian terror… pic.twitter.com/j6jk8HZWkq

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 28, 2023

Russia attacked a number of cities in Ukraine early this morning. Air raid sirens sounded across the country. The capital, Kyiv, as well as the central and southern regions of the country were affected. At least 14 people were killed, officials and local media said.

"Exactly on target"

This is how the #Russian Ministry of Defence commented on the attack on a multi-storey building in #Uman which killed eleven people. pic.twitter.com/5nEaQkLEOk

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 28, 2023

A young woman and a three-year-old child were killed in a Russian attack in the city of Dnipro, Mayor Boris Filatov announced in Telegram. In the central city of Uman, unknown number of people were killed after a rocket hit a residential building and set it on fire. In Kyiv, 11 missiles and two attack drones were shot down by the air defense system, officials said. The head of Kyiv's city military administration said it was the first Russian missile attack on the capital in 51 days.

⚡️Russia strikes Cherkasy Oblast overnight on April 28, injuring 5.

Russian forces attacked the city of Uman in central Cherkasy Oblast with cruise missiles in the early hours of April 28, regional governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram.

Video: Zoya Vovk, Cherkasy Oblast… pic.twitter.com/j5yznTcCSy

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 28, 2023

There were also explosions in the cities of Kremenchuk and Poltava in central Ukraine, and in Mykolaiv in the south. The Russian attacks come amid an expected offensive by Ukrainian forces with new military equipment, including tanks, supplied by Western allies.

On the battlefield, heavy fighting continues for Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Yesterday, Russian troops tried to cut off important supply routes to the city and thus put more pressure on defense forces, Ukrainian officers said.

Yesterday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that more than 98 percent of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine by the member countries of the alliance have already been delivered. For the expected counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces already have 230 Western tanks and another 1,550 armored fighting vehicles. Stoltenberg welcomed the conversation between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which was seen in Moscow as a possible step towards peace talks. However, the head of NATO pointed out that Beijing has not yet condemned the Russian invasion.

ISW: The Russians sent more troops to Bakhmut

In the last few days, the Russian occupiers have not made any progress in Bakhmut and its surroundings.

This is according to a new report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). As analysts note, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have successfully repelled Russian attacks in the Orekhovo, Bogdanovka and Ivanivskoye regions near Bakhmut.

At the same time, the Institute refuted Russian claims that they reached the main exit of Bakhmut from Khromovo and cut off the main, but not the last, Ukrainian logistics route to the city.

"ISW cannot confirm this claim," the analysts stressed.

The institute noted that the Russian occupiers may have transferred parts of the Eastern Military District to reinforce PMC Wagner in the fighting for Bakhmut.

Analysts said the Russian 305th Artillery Brigade (5th United Army of the Eastern Military District) had been operating in this direction for a month, which was the first report of the presence of units of the Eastern Military District near Bakhmut.

"Units of the 5th combined army of the armed forces recently operated along the front line in Zaporizhzhia region, while other parts of the eastern military district suffered heavy losses near Ugledar in the western part of Donetsk region," the analysts explain.

Fierce fighting has been going on in Bakhmut for a month now. Despite the fact that the enemy has thrown all its forces into capturing the city, it has not succeeded so far, and the Ukrainian armed forces are inflicting heavy losses on the Russians.

Putin allowed Ukrainians without Russian citizenship to be deported from the annexed regions

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing the deportation from the annexed territories of Ukraine of people without Russian citizenship if they do not wish to accept one.

This is indicated by the official legal information portal of the Russian government.

According to this document, citizens of Ukraine or passport holders of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" (which declared secession from Ukraine in 2014) must either become citizens of Russia or declare that they do not wish to. The second, however, makes them foreigners as of July 1, 2024, and so they may be deported.

Those who create a "threat to the national security" of Russia can also be deported if, for example, they want to "forcibly change the foundations of the constitutional order in Russia, finance terrorist and extremist activities or participate in unauthorized (actions)". This is effectively a ban on any resistance to the annexation.

The measure also affects the four regions annexed last September - Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - which, however, Russia does not fully control. Putin announced their "joining" last fall after "referendums" that the West and other countries considered a farce. Then the Russian president explained that although Moscow is ready to negotiate with Kyiv, "the choice of the people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson" is not up for discussion.

Also, according to the Kremlin website, Putin has tasked the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Russian Academy of Sciences to consider the issue of organizing a study of the history of the "special military operation" (as Russia calls the war in Ukraine). He also ordered the creation of museums dedicated to the events of a special military operation and the exploits of its participants.

The Ukrainian Prime Minister: Kyiv is ready to start negotiations on EU membership by the end of the year

Ukraine plans to fulfill all the conditions necessary for the start of negotiations on joining the European Union by the end of this year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday, quoted by DPA and BTA.

"Ukraine has fulfilled all seven recommendations of the European Commission that we received when we acquired the status of a candidate for membership," the Ukrainian Prime Minister said at a press conference in Rome.

Shmyhal participated in a conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine hosted by Italy. Yesterday he met Pope Francis in the Vatican.

Kyiv will carry out all the reforms needed to join the EU, despite the Russian invasion of the country, he said. Shmyhal pointed out that the anti-corruption measures that Kyiv has already introduced "are fully implemented, as Ukraine has agreed with its European partners.”

Currently, 27,000 legal acts are being brought into line with EU standards. The Ukrainian prime minister also said that he hoped the European Commission would soon publish an interim report on the implementation of the seven recommendations and that this report would "open the door" for Kyiv to start concrete accession negotiations.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday called on the EU to speed up Ukraine's accession process as a reward for its contribution to Europe's security in the fight against Russian invasion.

Ukraine, which gained EU candidate status last June along with Moldova, has been pressing its European partners to quickly integrate it into the bloc, a process that usually takes years. In January, Shmyhal told Politico that he was aiming to secure EU membership within two years, which would mean opening accession talks by the end of 2023.

But Brussels has so far carefully avoided confirming Kyiv’s ambitious goals.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Brussels in February, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised Ukraine's progress on the EU path, but said there was no "firm timetable" for joining, adding that it was a "merit-based process".

Earlier yesterday, the Ukrainian Prime Minister was received by Pope Francis in the Vatican for a half-hour private audience. Shmyhal asked the pontiff to work for the return home of a number of children, some of them orphans, who had been deported from Ukraine to Russia.

The war in Ukraine and migration will be the focus of the Pope's visit to Hungary

Pope Francis begins a three-day visit to Hungary today, where the war in Ukraine, migration and Europe's Christian roots are expected to be the focus of his public appearances and one-on-one talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The pope is heading to Hungary to fulfill his promise of an official visit after his stop there for just seven hours to close a 2021 church council in Budapest en route to Slovakia left many Hungarians feeling left out.

It will be his first trip since being treated in hospital for bronchitis in March.

While Pope Francis' main goal is to meet Hungarian Catholics, he acknowledged Sunday that the agenda of his visit will be influenced by current events.

"It will also be a journey in the center of Europe, which continues to be shaken by the cold winds of war, after the displacement of so many people has brought urgent humanitarian issues to the agenda," the Pope said.

Orban said Hungary and the Vatican were the only two European countries that could be described as "advocating for peace" regarding the conflict in Ukraine.

Both Orban, 59, and Pope Francis, 86, have called for a ceasefire and talks to end the war, and the Holy Father has invited Ukraine to be open to the idea of dialogue with "aggressor" Russia - something that, for now, Kyiv rejects. Hungary, which supports Ukraine's sovereignty but still maintains strong economic ties with Russia, has refused to send weapons to Kyiv. And while the pope has often called for a blanket ban on arms trafficking and a reduction in arms production, he has also said that sending weapons to Ukraine is morally acceptable if they are used solely for self-defense.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, millions of Ukrainian refugees have fled through Hungary and settled in other countries. Nearly 35,000 of them applied for temporary protection status.

Orban and Pope Francis are in diametrically opposed positions on how to approach migration from the Middle East and Africa, as well as on the role of the European Union, with which Hungary has a number of disagreements.

The Holy Father believes that migrants fleeing poverty must be well received and integrated, because they can culturally enrich their host countries and inject fresh energy into the countries of Europe whose populations are declining. He believes that while countries have the right to protect their borders, migrants should be redistributed across the EU.

Orban does not want to allow Hungary to become an "immigrant country", as he says other countries in Europe have become just that.

When Orban met the pope in 2021, he said he asked him "not to let Christian Hungary" perish. Then he presented the Holy Father with a gift that needed no comment: a copy of a letter that the Hungarian king Béla IV had sent in the 13th century to Pope Innocent IV, asking him for help in the fight against the Tatars. "Orban sees himself as a defender of Christianity and seeks a relationship with the pope," said Pastor Csaba Torok, who leads a parish in the city of Esztergom, the historic center of Catholicism in Hungary. Torok is also the press secretary of the Hungarian Congregation of Catholic Bishops.

Torok, who spoke to Vatican journalists via video conference last week, said Hungarian officials wanted the Holy Father to visit other parts of the country but had been asked to limit the events to Budapest "because of the health of Pope Francis".

The Pope gets around with a cane and a wheelchair because of a knee problem.

Novinite is still the only Bulgarian media that publishes a summary of events and highlights related to the conflict, every single day. Our coverage began on day one - 24.02.2022 and will not stop until the war has concluded. Despite the pressure, our independent media will continue to provide its readers with accurate and up-to-date information. Thank you for your support! #stayinformed

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