Live – War in Ukraine: Zelensky calls for “additional pressure” on Russia

The Ukrainian security services announce the arrest of a woman after thwarting the assassination of a nationalist activist in Odessa. Blogger very followed in Ukraine, Sergui Sternenko was “victim of an assassination attempt using a firearm,” said the SBU in a message on Telegram, adding that his life is no longer in danger. “I was attacked. I was injured,” the man wrote on his Telegram channel, accusing Russia of being behind this attack. Former chief of a regional antenna of the ultra-nationalist Pravy Sektor movement in Odessa, he had an active role in the Maidan pro-European revolution in kyiv in 2014. He was sentenced in February 2021 by a court of Odessa to seven years and three months in prison for the murder by firearms of a local elected official in 2015, before being acquitted a few months later.

“For more than 50 days, Russia ignores the American proposal for a complete and unconditional ceasefire on Ukraine” and only responds with “again bombardments and assaults” against Ukraine, denounced President Volodymyr Zelensky on social networks, after the Russian attack on Odessa.

“An additional pressure on Russia is essential to force it (…) to negotiate,” he added. “The more effective the sanctions, the more Russia will have reason to end the war” against Ukraine launched three years ago, said the Head of State, also calling to strengthen the air defense of his country against the Moscow attacks.

A strike of Ukrainian drones killed at least seven people on Thursday and was more than 20 injured in the city under Russian control of Olechky, in the Kherson region located in southern Ukraine, said a local Russian official.

“Around 9:30 am, in Olechky, in the central market area, Ukrainian soldiers led a massive strike of drones (…) to civilians. Many people were at the market at the time of the attack,” said Telegram Vladimir Saldo, the regional leader appointed by Moscow.

After the Russian strike in Odessa, in the south of Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermark, called on Telegram to push with the United States “for a full cease-fire”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “will constantly have the desire to kill, until the end of his days, but diplomacy coupled with energetic economic means of influence will contrast Russia to arrest war,” wrote Andriï Iermark.

Two people were killed and 15 others injured in a “massive Russian attack” against a residential area and a school in Odessa, southern Ukraine, the country’s emergency services announced on Thursday. The Ukrainian presidency reacted by once again claiming “a complete ceasefire” and castigated “the desire to kill until the end of his days” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Simultaneously at these strikes on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, explosions were heard in a district of the city of Soumy and anti-aircraft alerts triggered, among others, in the regions of kyiv, Kharkiv, Cherniguiv, Soumy, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporijia.

The United States of Donald Trump and Ukraine signed a vast economic agreement in Washington on Wednesday in Washington set up an investment fund in the reconstruction of this country ravaged by war and giving the Americans access to Ukrainian natural resources. This agreement comes in parallel with multiple diplomatic negotiations in progress to find an outcome to the conflict, three years after its trigger by Russia.

Here is the striking information of the latest 24 hours relating to the conflict:

– At least 288 civilians were killed and hundreds injured in the Russian region of Koursk since the Ukrainians sparked an offensive in August 2024, the regional authorities said on Wednesday.

– The Russian army claimed this Wednesday, the conquest of a Ukrainian locality in the north of the eastern region of Donetsk, epicenter of the fighting where its troops pursue a slow advance. In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that units from the “West group” had seized the village of Nové, located in the north of the Donetsk region.

– The US finance ministry announced this Wednesday evening that the United States and Ukraine signed an agreement establishing “an investment fund in reconstruction”, after weeks of harsh negotiations on access to Ukrainian natural resources. “With the United States, we create this fund which will attract global investments in our country,” said the Ukrainian minister of the Economy, Ioulia Svyrydenko, who made the trip to Washington to sign the document.

Hello everyone. Welcome to TF1info to follow the latest news around the war waged by Russia in Ukraine this Thursday, May 1.