Russia-Ukraine war updates for April 16 2022

The head of the Russian navy met with crew members from the sunken Moskva missile cruiser on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing Russia’s defense ministry.

Admiral Nikolai Yevmeno was shown in a short ministry video reviewing about 100 sailors, Reuters said. Russia claimed this week that the entire crew of the Moskva, which had a crew of about 500, survived the ship’s destruction.

Russia’s Black Sea flagship Moskva sank after it was struck by two Ukrainian Neptune missiles, the Pentagon now believes. Ukraine said earlier this week that it hit the Moskva with missiles; Russia then said that the ship was the victim of an ammunition explosion.

The Moskva was the Russians’ command vessel in the region and the primary ship for anti-air defense. A senior Defense official told NBC News that it’s unclear why the Moskva’s air defense systems didn’t work against Ukraine’s missiles.

Low-flying cruise missiles can be more difficult to spot on radar during stormy seas. The Russian defense ministry told Russia’s state-controlled media that the Moskva went down as it was being towed back to port “in a storm.”

Russia’s defense ministry said that the Moskva’s sailors will continue their service with the navy.

— Ted Kemp

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainian media that the continuing siege of Mariupol could scuttle any attempts to find a negotiated end to the war.

“The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol – what they are doing now – can put an end to any format of negotiations,” Zelenskyy said in an interview.

Zelenskyy also said he spoke with the leaders of Britain and Sweden about how best to help those defending Mariupol and the tens of thousands of civilians trapped there.

Mariupol’s fate can be decided either through battle or diplomacy, he said.

“Either our partners give Ukraine all of the necessary heavy weapons, the planes, and without exaggeration immediately, so we can reduce the pressure of the occupiers on Mariupol and break the blockade,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation. “Or we do so through negotiations, in which the role of our partners should be decisive.”

Zelenskyy said the situation in Mariupol remains “inhuman” and that Russia “is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there.”

The president’s office said the southern port city is holding out but the situation is critical. The battle for Mariupol has come at a horrific cost to trapped and starving civilians. Locals reported seeing Russian troops digging up bodies from residential courtyards and prohibiting new burials. It was unclear why.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that Ukrainian forces have been driven out of most of the city and remain only in the huge Azovstal steel mill.

Mariupol’s capture would allow Russian forces from the Crimean Peninsula to fully link up with troops in the Donbas region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

— Associated Press

Russia says it has seized the urban area of Mariupol and only a small contingent of Ukrainian fighters remain inside the steelworks in the besieged southern port, according to a report from Reuters. It would be the first major city to have fallen to Russian forces since the Feb. 24 invasion.

“The situation is very difficult” in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Ukrainska Pravda news portal. “Our soldiers are blocked, the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian crisis … Nevertheless, the guys are defending themselves.”

Mariupol is the main port of the Donbas, a region of two provinces in the southeast which Moscow demands be fully ceded to separatists.

Ukraine says it has so far held off Russian advances elsewhere in the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where at least one person was killed in shelling overnight.

— Sarah Whitten

Russian general Vladimir Frolov has died in Ukraine, according to a statement from Alexander Beglov, the governor of St. Petersburg. At least seven other Russian generals have died since the war began.

Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Guards Army in east Ukraine, died in battle, according to a report published by the New York Times. No details were given about when or where he died. He was buried in St. Petersburg on Saturday. 

He became the 42nd high-ranking officer known to have died in a war, according to news reports.

— Sarah Whitten

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