A partially destroyed house and crater after missile raids in the town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on April 21, 2023

Here is the situation on Saturday, April 22, 2023:

Diplomacy and law

• Russia has announced the tit-for-tat expulsion of more than 20 German diplomats following the removal of Russian embassy staff from Germany. Berlin was destroying ties with Moscow, Russian state media said.
• Jack Teixeira, the US Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified documents about the war in Ukraine to a small group of gamers, had been posting confidential material months earlier than previously known and to a much larger chat group, the New York Times has reported, citing online postings it had seen.

Fighting

• Russia’s Defence Ministry has reported the capture of three more city blocks by Russian forces fighting in the western part of the destroyed Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
• At least five Russian missiles have hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and surrounding districts late on Saturday night, causing some damage to civilian buildings, local officials said. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Sinegubov said one missile hit a house in the village of Kotliary, while another sparked a major fire in the city.

• Seventeen apartment buildings have been evacuated in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border after an explosive device was found at the site where a bomb was accidentally dropped by a Russian warplane on Thursday. Russia has acknowledged that one of its Su-34 bombers had accidentally caused the explosion.
• The son of Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has fought alongside the Wagner mercenary force in Ukraine, according to Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Peskov’s son, Nikolay Peskov, who lived in the United Kingdom for several years and is also known as Nikolai Choles, previously told the tabloid KP in Moscow that he fought in Ukraine because he considered it his duty.

Aid and economy

• A cargo of Russian fertiliser seized by Latvia last year is being shipped to Kenya by the UN World Food Programme, Latvia said. It was not immediately clear if Russia approved of the shipment.
• Ukrainian state-owned gas company Naftogaz has held talks with Exxon Mobil Corp, Halliburton and Chevron about projects in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported.