The fate of Mariupol can be decided either through battle or diplomacy, he said.
“Either our partners give Ukraine all the necessary heavy weapons, the planes and without exaggeration immediately, so that we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers in Mariupol and break the blockade,” he said in his overnight video speech to the nation.  “Or we do it through negotiations, in which the role of our partners should be decisive.”
Zelensky said the situation in Mariupol remained “inhumane” and that Russia was “deliberately trying to destroy everyone there.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– Mother, grandmother cry over 15-year-old killed in Kharkiv bombing
– Russia renews strikes in the Ukrainian capital and other cities
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NEW YORK – A Russian general whose troops were besieging the Ukrainian port of Mariupol was buried in St Petersburg on Saturday after he died in battle, the governor said.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Frolov was the deputy commander of the 8th Army, which Russian media acknowledged was among the forces that had been hitting Mariupol for weeks.
Governor Alexander Beglov issued a statement saying that Frolov “died a heroic death in battle” without mentioning where and when he was killed.  Photos on Russian news sites showed his grave in a St. Petersburg cemetery filled with red and white flowers.
Ukraine has claimed that several Russian generals and dozens of other high-ranking officers have been killed during the war.
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WASHINGTON – The Austrian chancellor said after a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week that the Russian president was “in his own war logic” regarding Ukraine.
Carl Nehammer told NBC in an interview that he believes Putin believes he is winning the war.  Nehamer was the first European leader to meet Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.  He said: “We have to look him in the eye and we have to deal with this, what we see in Ukraine.”
Before arriving in Moscow last Monday, Nehamer had visited Bukha, Ukraine, a city outside Kyiv where graphic evidence of killings and torture had emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces.
Nehammer told Meet the Press that he treated Putin with what he had seen in Bucha and “it was not a friendly conversation.”
He said Putin had “cooperated with an international inquiry, on the one hand, and on the other, he told me he did not trust the Western world. That would be the problem now, in the future.”
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis invoked “peace gestures these days marked by the horrors of war” during an Easter vigil on Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica, attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol and three deputies.
The pope noted that while “many writers have awakened the beauty of nights with a star, the nights of war, however, are divided by streams of light that foretell death.”
Francis did not directly mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but called for a truce for Easter in order to achieve peace through negotiations.  The call came in vain on Saturday as Russia resumed rocket and missile attacks in Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond, reminding the country that the entire country remained under threat.
At the end of his speech, Francis addressed directly to the mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov and the Ukrainian MPs Maria Mezendseva, Olena Homenko and Roushem Umerov, who were sitting in the front row.
“In this darkness of war, in cruelty, we all pray for you and with you tonight. We pray for all the afflictions. We can only give you our company, our prayer,” said Francis, then added with emotion. that “the greatest thing you can receive: Christ is Risen”, the last three words in Ukrainian.
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THE HAGUE, The Netherlands – The Invictus Games for Injured and Sick Staff and Veterans opened with applause and tribute from Prince Harry to members of the Ukrainian team who left their war-torn nation to fight.
With Harry and his wife Megan in the front row for Saturday night’s opening ceremony, the contestants cheered for almost a minute as the Ukrainian team waved their country’s yellow and blue flag after being welcomed by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.  The event was delayed for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Harry founded the Invictus Games to help heal injured or sick military members and veterans by challenging them to compete in Paralympic-like sporting events.
Welcoming all the contestants, Harry singled out the 19-member Ukrainian team and its supporters.
“The courage you choose to come and be here tonight cannot be overstated,” he said, a day after meeting with Ukrainians at a reception.
“You know, we stand with you. The world is united with you. And yet you deserve more. And I hope that these events, this event, create the opportunity … for how we as a global community can do better for you.” , Harry added.
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FORT IRWIN, California —- US Army trainers use lessons learned from Russia’s war against Ukraine as they prepare soldiers for future battles against a major adversary.
Role-playing players this month at a training center in California’s Mojave Desert speak Russian, and the enemy force is using a steady stream of social media to make false accusations against the U.S. brigade that is preparing to attack.
In the coming weeks, the planned training scenario for the next brigade to come will focus on how to fight an enemy who is willing to destroy a city with rockets and missiles to conquer it.
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RIAT – Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman on Saturday, their second phone call since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  The Saudi news agency reported that the two discussed bilateral relations and “ways to strengthen them in all areas.”
The Saudi reading of the call said the successor reaffirmed his support for efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine.  The kingdom recently announced $ 10 million in humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees.
The Kremlin statement added that the two also discussed the ongoing conflict in Yemen, where the coalition under Saudi Arabia has been at war for years, as well as their joint work on an oil production agreement known as OPEC +.  The oil pact has carefully kept production from the major producers, supporting oil prices.
Ukraine has urged countries around the world to reduce their dependence on Russian oil imports, which it says are financing Russia’s military war in Ukraine.
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KIEV, Ukraine – Russian forces bombed an oil refinery in the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on Saturday and a large fire broke out, a regional governor said.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said it was not the first time the refinery had been targeted and accused the Russians of trying to “exhaust” local emergency services.  He stressed that there was no fuel at the refinery at the time of the attack and “the remnants of the oil sludge” were burning.
Ukraine’s presidential office said on Saturday that rockets and bombings had been fired in the past 24 hours in eight regions: Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv in the east, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kirovohrad in central Ukraine and Mikolaiv and Khyrov.  The strikes underscored that the entire country remained under threat despite Russia turning to launch a new offensive in the east.
In Kharkov, nine civilians were killed and more than 50 were injured on Friday, with two dead and three wounded in the area, according to the report.
The southern part of Mykolaiv was hit on Friday and Saturday.  According to the presidential office, airstrikes on Friday killed five and injured 15. The head of the regional legislature, Hanna Zamazieva, said on Saturday that 39 people had been injured in the past 24 hours.
Zamazieva said the targets included many housing estates “where there are no military installations”.
The besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol is still standing, but the situation there is critical.
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KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in televised comments Saturday that 700 Ukrainian soldiers and more than 1,000 civilians – more than half women – are currently being held captive by Russians.
Verestsuk said Kyiv intended to exchange prisoners of war, as Ukraine has about the same number of Russian troops, but demanded the release of civilians “unconditionally”.
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ROME – Italy has banned all Russian ships from its ports since Sunday, as part of expanded EU sanctions announced earlier this month.  Ships already in Italian ports must leave “immediately after the completion of their commercial activity, GCC according to a notice sent to port authorities throughout the country.
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BERLIN – Peacekeepers took part in Germany’s traditional Easter march on Saturday, calling for an end to the war in Ukraine but at least in some cases opposed to helping Ukraine defend itself with weapons.
An event in Berlin drew 400 people and one in Hanover 500, the dpa news agency reported, citing police.  Marches took place in cities such as Munich, Cologne, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Duisburg.  The banners read “End the war in Ukraine” and “He who sends weapons reaps war.”
The country’s vice chancellor, Green politician Robert Hubbek, warned protesters not to send the wrong message, saying “there will be peace only when Putin stops his aggressive war.”  In an interview with Funke media he said …