New leak of classified information about Ukraine, return of Ukrainian children: highlights of the day

New leak of classified information about Ukraine

New York Times journalists discovered that on April 7, a new batch of classified documents allegedly revealing US security secrets about Ukraine, the Middle East, and China appeared on social media. Analysts say that more than 100 documents could have been leaked. The scale of the leak, along with the confidentiality of the documents themselves, could cause significant damage.

The documents were found on Twitter, the 4chan message board, and other sites. In particular, 4chan published a map that allegedly shows the situation in Bakhmut, where fierce fighting is taking place.

Mykhailo Podolyak, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, noted that the purpose of the data leak is to divert attention, create doubts and divide. "This is a standard game of Russian special services. You take open briefings, add fictitious information or certain elements of intercepts and publish them on social media, legalizing the leak," Podolyak said.

Return of Ukrainian children

Another 31 children have been returned to Ukraine. Russians were taking them from the occupied territories to Russia and annexed Crimea. 24 children were kept in recreation camps in Yevpatoria, another seven in Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod oblasts.

The charity organization Save Ukraine, which organized the return of the children, explained that the last rescue mission was the most difficult. In particular, a grandmother who was supposed to return her two grandchildren died due to stress. The children's mothers also had to undergo a 13-hour interrogation by the FSB.

Metropolitan Onufriy's Russian passport

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church — Moscow Patriarchate denied the information of Ukrayinska Pravda outlet that the head of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Onufriy, has a Russian passport. Later, Onufriy admitted that he did have a Russian passport, but eventually allegedly got rid of it. He says that he was a de facto citizen of Russia before the collapse of the USSR, because he had a permanent residence in Russia, and then took a Ukrainian passport.

According to the Metropolitan, he did not get rid of his Russian passport because he wanted to end his service in the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. "The bad relations between Russia and Ukraine, the collapse of the CIS, and especially Russia's war against Ukraine destroyed my hope, and now I do not consider myself a citizen of any other country but my native Ukraine," Onufriy said.

Shelling of Ukraine

According to the Ministry of Defense, on April 7, Russian occupation forces shelled 115 settlements in eight oblasts of Ukraine. As a result, 33 infrastructure facilities were damaged. The shelling resulted in casualties and wounded.

The occupiers continued to shell Ukraine on April 8. For example, in Kharkiv Oblast, two people were killed and another person was injured.

Situation at frontline

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on April 8, the Defense Forces repelled more than 35 Russian attacks on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiyivka and Maryinka axes, where Russian troops focused on conducting an offensive. During the day, Russian troops launched two missile and 34 air strikes, and fired more than 36 times from multiple launch rocket systems.

At the same time, the aviation of the Defense Forces carried out 8 strikes on the clusters of the occupiers. Ukrainians also shot down an enemy reconnaissance drone. The probability of Russian missile and air strikes remains high throughout Ukraine, the General Staff warns.

According to Ukrainian command estimates, Russia has lost 177,680 of its soldiers since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and until the morning of April 8. On April 7 alone, the Ukrainian military killed 570 Russian soldiers.

Other news

• St. Michael's Cathedral, the largest church in Shepetivka, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, held its first service in Ukrainian;
• a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — Moscow Patriarchate, Ihor Slobodian, who beat a soldier in a church in Khmelnytskyi, was put on the wanted list;
• The Security Service of Ukraine exposed the head of a military medical commission in one of Kyiv's districts, who was illegally issuing documents to persons liable for military service to be removed from military registration for health reasons for money. He faces up to 10 years in prison;
• in Sumy, an 11-year-old girl saved three children aged one, four and five during a fire;
• in Moldova, a bus traveling on the Chisinau-Kyiv route crashed. As a result, people were injured, including five Ukrainians.
• the Vatican once again united Ukraine and Russia on the Way of the Cross: the church organizers combined the testimonies of Ukrainian and Russian teenagers. a Russian boy said he felt as if his happiness and dreams for the future had been torn away from him: "I'm a Russian guy, and when I say this, I almost feel guilty, and at the same time I don't understand why, so I feel twice as bad."