CNN TOPSTORIES

1 min ago

Massive Russian shelling kills 6 people in Kostiantynivka

From CNN's Maria Kostenko

Six people have died and at least 8 have been injured as a result of Russian shelling in the town of Kostiantynivka Sunday morning, according to Andrii Yermak, head of the Presidential Office.

"The enemy made two strikes with S-300 and fired four salvo with Uragan multiple launch rocket system," Yermak said.

Sixteen apartment buildings, 8 private houses, a kindergarten, the local state tax inspection building, gas pipes and 3 cars were damaged, he said.

“Multi-storey buildings and private residential houses were heavily damaged,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk region military administration, said.

At least 5 other people have been injured in the Donetsk region Sunday morning: three people in Toretsk and 2 in Bakhmut, Kyrylenko also said.

Some context: The worst of the fighting on the ground is focused in the east after Russia failed to make major gains elsewhere.

Authorities in the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka said this week that it is being "wiped off the face of the earth" as it comes under "almost non-stop" fire.

Avdiivka is located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the city of Donetsk.

Fighting has also centered around the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are said to be depleted and a Ukrainian counter-offensive could soon be launched.

15 min ago

Full hotels, busy ski resorts: Why Ukraine’s tourism sector is having a busy war

From CNN's Carole Rosenblat

Tourists stroll in a ski resort close to Bukovel town, southwest from capital Kyiv on March 1. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images)

The Covid pandemic caused the Hotel Leopolis in Lviv, Ukraine, to close for two months in 2020.

Yet, since then, and a little more than a year after Russia invaded, the Leopolis has continued to be open for business without a pause.

The hotel’s management even decided to continue a renovation that began in 2019, completing it in the summer of 2022, at a time when air strikes were raining down on the city.

And it seems while many aspects of life in Ukraine have ground to a halt because of the conflict, in the western part of the country, tourism infrastructure, including hotels, seems to be thriving. Even Ukraine’s ski resorts have been enjoying plenty of visitors.

Igor Gut, a frequent guest from Kyiv, often stayed at the Leopolis for Jazz Fest and business trips before the war. He’s still visiting regularly today.

“They have a lot of different places for business meetings and have maybe the best conference services in Lviv,” he says. “The room and service were important then.”

Read the full story here.

51 min ago

Life was a struggle for families of Ukrainians with disabilities before the war. It’s even harder now

From CNN's Ivana Kottasová and Yulia Kesaieva

Clients relax during an afternoon rest period at Djerela, an NGO focused on supporting families living with disabilities. (Brendan Hoffman for CNN)

The war has put a huge strain on Ukraine’s healthcare system and has had a particularly devastating impact on people living with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Their conditions are often invisible to the general public and remain widely misunderstood in Ukraine.

The community was suffering from a chronic shortage of support services even before the Russian invasion began last February. With resources diverted towards the war effort, the few that did exist are struggling to cope.

“I have been told by officials that care and support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families is ‘a luxury’ during wartime. So, we will have to wait until after the war to have this luxury,” said Raisa Kravchenko, the president of the All Ukrainian NGO Coalition for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.

Kravchenko’s own son, Oleksiy, has an intellectual disability and behavioral disorders that are possibly related to his traumatic birth.

He was born in what was then Soviet Ukraine in the mid-1980s, at a time when the standard procedure was to put disabled children in institutions.

That was not something Kravchenko was willing to do. Instead, she started researching Western approaches to care for children with intellectual disabilities and complex behavioral disorders.

By 1994, she was in charge of an after-school club. Two years later, she co-founded Djerela, one of Ukraine’s first NGOs focused on supporting families living with disabilities.

Read the full piece here.

1 hr 8 min ago

Zelensky calls Russia’s UN Security Council presidency "absurd"

From CNN's Mariya Knight

Zelensky delivers his nightly address on Saturday. (The Presidential Office of Ukraine)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called Russia's UN Security Council (UNSC) presidency "absurd and destructive."

“Unfortunately, we also have news that is obviously absurd and destructive,” Zelensky said on Saturday. “Today, the terrorist state began to chair the UN Security Council.”

“Yesterday, the Russian army killed another Ukrainian child – a five-month-old boy named Danylo from Avdiivka, in Donbas," Zelensky continued.

“His parents were injured. Russian artillery... One of the hundreds of artillery strikes that the terrorist state launches every day. And at the same time, Russia chairs the UN Security Council.”

Zelensky emphasized that such instances “prove the complete bankruptcy” of global institutions.

“And there will be no such reason that will stop the reform of global institutions, in particular, the UN Security Council,” he added.

Zelensky argued that UNSC reform “is clearly overdue.”

Some context: It is Russia's turn to run the UNSC this month -- a powerful body charged with maintaining global peace and security.

Presidency of the security council rotates alphabetically among its 15 member nations. The body is controlled by its five permanent members, including the US and Russia.

1 hr 17 min ago

Ukraine's Security Service says church leader with ties to Moscow is under investigation

From CNN's Radina Gigova

Metropolitan Pavlo, the director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, attends a court hearing in Kyiv on Saturday. (Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP/Getty Images)

An Orthodox church leader at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery is under investigation, according to a statement Saturday from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who accuse him of "inciting religious hatred" and "justifying and denying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine."

As part of the investigation, the SBU said it found that Metropolitan Pavlo, Petro Lebid, "in his public speeches repeatedly insulted the religious feelings of Ukrainians, humiliated the views of believers of other faiths and tried to create hostile attitudes towards them, and made statements justifying or denying the actions of the aggressor country."

"Investigative actions" were taken at the metropolitan's places of residence, the SBU said. The operation was conducted under the supervision of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, according to the SBU.

"The enemy is trying to use the church environment to promote its propaganda and split Ukrainian society. But we will not give him (the enemy) a single chance! The SBU systematically blocks all attempts by Russian special services to use their agents to harm the interests and security of Ukraine," SBU head Vasyl Malyuk said in the statement.

Here's what led up to the investigation: Metropolitan Pavlo is the abbot of the 980-year-old monastery, home of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), a branch of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine that has been traditionally loyal to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.

Kirill is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a supporter of his war on Ukraine.

Tensions over the presence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra have risen after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and an agreement that allowed the UOC to occupy the historic complex was terminated on March 10. The UOC was instructed to leave the premises by March 29.

In May 2022, the UOC cut ties with Moscow and declared “full independence," but some members have maintained their loyalty.

The metropolitan attended a court hearing Monday but felt unwell and had to go to a hospital, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said.

1 hr 26 min ago

Ukrainian kickboxing champion dies from wounds sustained on the battlefield, mayor says

From CNN's Maria Kostenko and Radina Gigova

Vitalii Merinov, a four-time world kickboxing champion who fought on the front lines in Ukraine, died Friday night from wounds sustained on the battlefield, the mayor of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk said Saturday.

Mayor Ruslan Martsynkiv called Merinov's death "an irreparable loss for the Ivano-Frankivsk community" in a Facebook post. Merinov also had served as a member of the city council executive committee, according to Martsynkiv.

"Vitalii Merinov left for the war on the first day of the full-scale invasion," Martsynkiv said. "He suffered a gunshot shrapnel wound to his leg during one of the battles. Merinov recovered and returned to the front and defended Ukraine until his last breath."

The mayor did not say in which battle Merinov sustained his latest wounds. He is survived by his wife and two-year-old daughter, Martsynkiv added.

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