Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin says war was ‘unleashed’ on Russia

The Russian president delivered his annual Victory Day speech.

More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's forces are readying a spring counteroffensive, but Putin appears to be preparing for a long and bloody war.

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Russian passports pushed on occupied Ukraine

Russian officials have warned Ukrainians in occupied Kherson that they may be "deported" if they don't accept Russian passports, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said Monday.

"Russia is using passports as a tool in the 'Russification' of the occupied areas, as it did in Donetsk and Luhansk before the February 2022 invasion," the ministry on Twitter.

Residents of Kherson have been warned of penalties for those who don't accept Russian passports by June 1. Some may be removed from the territory or may have their property seized, according to the U.K.


Russia says US has denied journalist visas, vows it ‘will not forgive’

Russia said Sunday that the U.S. has denied visas to Russian journalists who wanted to cover Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's trip to New York.

Lavrov promised that the decision will not be forgotten by their side.

"The country that calls itself the strongest, smartest, most free, fairest has chickened out, has done a silly thing and shown what its sworn assurances on protecting freedom of speech, access to information and so on are worth," he told reporters at the airport before his flight to New York.

"Most importantly, you can be sure: we will not forget, we will not forgive this," the minister told the pool of journalists who have not been granted U.S. visas.

The journalists had planned to cover Lavrov's appearance at the United Nations to mark Russia's chairmanship of the Security Council.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the U.S.’s decision “outrageous” on Sunday, Interfax, a Russian news agency, reported.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department about the claim of refused visas, according to AP.

-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva, Edward Szekeres, Natalia Shumskaia


Over 16,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in the EU so far

Over 16,000 Ukrainian soldiers trained in the European Union, Josep Borrell, an EU representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said Friday.

The EU has delivered over $600 million of ammunition and missiles to Ukraine, according to Borrell.

-ABC News' Oleksiy Pshemyskiy


Russian warplane accidentally fires weapon into Russian city of Belgorod: Defense ministry

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that ammunition from a Russian Su-34 military aircraft fell in Belgorod, a city in the southern region of Russia.

"On the evening of April 20, during the flight of the Su-34 aircraft over the city of Belgorod, an abnormal descent of an aviation munition occurred," the agency said.

The ministry claimed buildings were damaged but there were no immediate reports of victims. An investigation is underway, according to the agency.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky


Russia detains man who spoke with WSJ reporter

Russia's security services have arrested an anti-Kremlin political commentator who the jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich met with shortly before his own arrest.

Yaroslav Shirshikov has said he spent two days showing Gershkovich around the city of Yekaterinburg during a reporting trip there a couple of weeks before Russia seized Gershovich.

Shirshikov said he had been due to meet with Gershkovich again the week the reporter was arrested in the city.

This morning, local media published video showing masked security officers detaining Shirshikov in his apartment and searching it.

A local news outlet cited a security services representative saying Shirshikov may have been arrested for posting comments cheering the assassinations of two ultra-nationalist pro-war figures, Daria Dugina and the blogger Vladen Tatarsky.

The site UralLive quoted a law enforcement source that Shirshikov was detained on a charge of “justifying terrorism”, which carries a maximum sentence of 7 years prison. It linked the charge to a social media post in which Shirshikov wrote he wasn’t sad over the death of Tatarsky, who was killed in a bomb attack in St. Petersburg this month.

Shirshikov spoke to several international media outlets including ABC following Gershkovich's arrest. He said that Gershkovich had acted entirely as a professional journalist in Yekaterinburg, conducting interviews openly and doing usual reporting.

Shirshikov is a critic of the Russian government and has spoken publicly about his opposition to the war in Ukraine.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell