Russia-Ukraine war: Here are the key updates for April 26

Here are the key updates on the war and its impact across the world.
United Nations Chief calls for Ukraine ceasefire
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while he was visiting Moscow, called upon creating conditions for ceasefire in Ukraine.
At a meeting with Russian Foreign Miner Sergei Lavrov, Guterres said, “We are extremely interested in finding ways in order to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, create the conditions for a peaceful solution.”
Top Russian diplomat warns Ukraine against provoking World War 3
Russia’s top diplomat warned Ukraine against provoking World War III and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated” as his country unleashed attacks against rail and fuel installations far from the front lines of Moscow’s new eastern offensive.
Russian Foreign Miner Sergei Lavrov said Russia has “a feeling that the West wants Ukraine to continue to fight and, as it seems to them, wear out, exhaust the Russian army and the Russian military industrial war complex. This is an illusion.”
UK dismisses Lavrov’s “bravado”, says no imminent threat of escalation in Ukraine
Britain’s armed forces miner played down comments Russian foreign miner Sergei Lavrov on the possible use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, dismissing them as “bravado”. Asked about the possibility of Russia using a tactical nuclear weapon, Heappey said he thought there was a “vanishingly small” possibility of that sort of escalation. Heappey said that while Nato had been reinforcing its eastern flank, it was not providing military aid.
“Lavrov’s trademark over the course of 15 years or so that he has been the Russian foreign secretary has been that sort of bravado. I don’t think that right now there is an imminent threat of escalation,” James Heappey told BBC Television. “What the West is doing to support its allies in Ukraine is very well-calibrated.”
Ukraine can win war with Russia, says US defense secretary
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin kicked off defense talks with more than 40 countries on Tuesday expressing confidence that Ukraine can prevail against Russia in the two-month-old conflict. “Your resance has brought inspiration to the free world,” Austin said, as he denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “indefensible.” Ukraine clearly believes that it can win, and so does everyone here,” he said.
➡️ The United States will host more than 40 countries on Tuesday for Ukraine-related defence talks in Germany that will focus on arming Ukraine. The United States pledged $713 million in new aid on Monday.
➡️ Russia’s defence minry said its high-precision missiles destroyed six facilities powering railways used to deliver foreign weapons to Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region.
➡️ Russia said it had hit 56 Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities overnight.
➡️ Four people were killed and nine were wounded in Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synegubov, the region’s governor told Ukraine’s public broadcaster.
➡️ Two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region came under fire from Ukraine, and at least two people were wounded, the region’s governor said. Officials have in the past few weeks reported cross-border shelling.
➡️ Ukraine’s general staff said Russia was shelling its second-biggest city, Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine and towns and villages to the south but that Ukrainian forces had repelled assaults on three settlements.
➡️ Russian forces carried out strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Azovstal steel plant, the main remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol where more than 1,000 civilians are also sheltering, Ukrainian officials said.
➡️ Britain said Russia had made minor advances since shifting its forces to fully occupying the Donbas but had tied up many units with its focus on Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant.
➡️ Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said the Russian military had destroyed 347 health facilities including all in the Luhansk part of the Donbas, threatening thousands of lives. All of Luhansk province was without electricity on Monday after Russian attacks, the governor said.
➡️ The International Criminal Court will take part in a joint team investigating allegations of war crimes in Ukraine, the European Union’s agency for criminal justice cooperation said.
(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press updates)