‘Life Can Prevail’ – War in Ukraine: Update for April 1

On a day that Catholics and Protestants celebrated Easter Sunday, and at least two civilians were killed by Russian air strikes in Lviv, President Volodymyr Zelensky reassured the nation that “our spirit does not give up” and that “life can prevail.”

Russian cruise missiles had targeted energy infrastructure in major Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv over the weekend, and blasted other infrastructure in the western region of Lviv on Sunday, killing two civilians, the governor of that region, Maksym Kozytsky, posted to social media. One man was killed after a civilian building was destroyed, while rescuers discovered the body of another man underneath the debris.

“There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” Zelensky posted to social media on Sunday. “But we defend ourselves, we endure, our spirit does not give up and knows that it is possible to avert death. Life can prevail.”

Moscow said that the recent attacks on the energy grid, especially in eastern and central Ukraine, were in response to counterattacks from Ukraine on Russia’s border region. The nation’s single operator of high-voltage lines asked consumers on Sunday to cut down on electricity usage while repairs are made.

Woman killed in Belgorod region as thousands of children evacuated

A woman was killed by air strikes in the Russian border village of Dunaika on Sunday, in the Belgorod region, as thousands of children are being evacuated from the area, Russian officials said.

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“The village of Dunaika, in the Graivoron urban district, came under Ukrainian fire. To much grief, a civilian was killed,” the regional governor posted to social media.

About 5,000 children have been evacuated from the region, the governor said on Saturday. At the same time, roughly the same number likely will be moved to other towns in the future, authorities said, according to AFP. About 1,300 children were shuttled out of villages over the weekend, as Ukrainian strikes continued to rain down on villages just over its border. Many of the children have moved to cities such as St. Petersburg and Bryansk.

Ukrainian forces smash 12 Russian tanks in Tonenke, push Moscow’s forces back

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on Sunday that Ukrainian forces seem to have pushed back a massive mechanized assault near Avdiivka on Saturday, “the first battalion-sized mechanized assault since Russian forces began the campaign to seize Avdiivka in late October 2023,” ISW analysts wrote.

Ukrainian sources on Sunday said that Russian forces committed 36 tanks and 12 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to an assault on Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) units near Tonenke on Saturday. Geolocated images published on Sunday show a large number of destroyed and damaged Russian armored vehicles and tanks along a road northwest of Tonenke (west of Avdiivka). AFU sources claimed that the counter-assault destroyed 12 Russian tanks and eight IFVs in what appears to be “the first report of any elements of the 90th Tank Division participating in assaults following the Russian seizure of Avdiivka,” the ISW wrote.