Tuesday, April 11

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Damaged Russian military equipment at Studenok Village in Kharkiv on April 10, 2023. The village has been liberated from Russian forces in September 2022, and almost 500 people live here. (Photo by Sofiia Bobok/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Land Forces chief visits Bakhmut, says Russia resorts to ‘scorched earth’ tactics. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s Land Forces and Eastern Operational Command, visited Ukrainian positions on the Bakhmut front line in Donetsk Oblast on April 9, according to the Defense Ministry media center.

100 Ukrainian POWs freed in prisoner exchange. One hundred Ukrainian POWs have returned home from Russian captivity in a prisoner exchange, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced on April 10.

24 kidnapped children from Kherson Oblast returned to Ukraine. Twenty-four Ukrainian children from Kherson Oblast who had been illegally deported by Russia returned home on April 10, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported.

Official: Ukraine creating international coalition to return orphans illegally deported by Russia. The coalition will also aim “to punish those guilty of crimes against Ukrainian children,” according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Defense minister: 5,000 specialists needed to demine Ukraine. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov estimated that it could take up to 30 years to fully remove Russian-planted mines from Ukrainian territory.

Russian attack on boat in Kherson Oblast injures 2 civilians. A man and a woman, aged 20, from Beryslav were “seriously injured” by a grenade dropped from a Russian drone on April 10, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Support the Kyiv Independent for as little as $5 a month. Become a member today.

Member of Parliament: Verkhovna Rada votes to return bonuses for military personnel. Ukraine’s parliament has approved returning Hr 30,000 ($800) bonuses for soldiers “regardless of the tasks assigned to them or the areas of service,” the lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said on April 10. Earlier, Ukrainian fighters serving outside an active combat zone stopped receiving the bonuses as a result of a controversial payment overhaul.

63 churches have switched to Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2023. Sixty-three churches previously linked to the Moscow Patriarchate have joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine so far in 2023, according to info published by Opendatabot, a service that provides government data.

ISW: Russia ‘weaponizes religion’ to discredit Ukraine, achieve military goals. Russia “continues to weaponize religion” to discredit Ukraine in the international arena and uses information operations about religion to achieve its military goals, the Institute for the Study of War wrote in its latest update.

Media: Russian parliament to introduce electronic summonses for conscripts. The Russian State Duma will pass a law prohibiting men who ignore military enlistment summons from leaving the country, Russian independent media Meduza reported on April 10.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: 100 Ukrainian POWs freed in latest prisoner swap; top Ukrainian commander visits Bakhmut

Bakhmut, once a peaceful city of about 70,000 people, is nearly encircled by Russian forces and is now the epicenter of the war, but Ukraine has vowed to hold on to it as long as it can.

Photo: Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

Russia’s new guided bombs pose increasingly serious threat to Ukraine

Early this year, Russia introduced guided bombs — essentially, the regular gravity bombs modified to be dropped by multirole fighter-bombers from safe distances and deal precise and very damaging strikes in front-line areas and beyond.

Photo: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

Human cost of Russia’s war

General Staff: Russia has lost 178,820 troops in Ukraine since Feb 24, 2022. Ukraine’s General Staff reported on April 10 that Russia had also lost 3,633 tanks, 7,016 armored fighting vehicles, 5,587 vehicles and fuel tanks, 2,722 artillery systems, 533 multiple launch rocket systems, 281 air defense systems, 306 airplanes, 292 helicopters, 2,291 drones, and 18 boats.

International response

Denmark to transfer Leopard 1 tanks, Caesar howitzers to Ukraine by summer. Denmark is aiming to start supplying Ukraine with Leopard 1 tanks “by the summer,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on April 10.

Survey: 80% of Poles view Polish-Ukrainian relations positively. Nearly 80% of Poles view Polish-Ukrainian relations positively, according to the results of a survey published by Rzeczpospolita.

Washington Post: Leaked US documents indicate Egypt secretly planned to supply rockets to Russia. Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi recently ordered subordinates to produce up to 40,000 rockets to be covertly shipped to Russia, according to a document exclusively obtained by the Washington Post.

In other news

Parliament supports measures to exempt defense goods from VAT, customs duties. Ukraine’s parliament has supported a measure to exempt security and defense goods from both value-added tax (VAT) and customs duties, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported.

Want to get the news faster? Follow our website: kyivindependent.com.

Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Toma Istomina, Dinara Khalilova, Oleg Sukhov, Kate Tsurkan, Teah Pelechaty, Haley Zehrung, Olena Goncharova, and Brad LaFoy.

If you’re enjoying this newsletter, consider becoming our patron on Patreon or donating via GoFundMe. Start supporting independent journalism today.