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What happened on 1 April 2022 in the war?
Summary
A look back at the reports surrounding 1 April 2022, from a promised Mariupol corridor to strikes on fuel depots in western Ukraine.
What was the situation around 1 April 2022, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine moved through its second month? The reports from the preceding days point to a humanitarian corridor, attacks on fuel depots and diplomatic fallout.
A corridor for Mariupol
On 31 March 2022, Russia's Ministry of Defence said its forces would again open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on the following day, 1 April. The ministry said it was acting at the request of the leaders of France and Germany.
Fuel depots struck in the west
The days before 1 April brought a series of strikes on oil facilities in western Ukraine. On 27 March 2022, a missile hit an oil depot in Volyn region, according to the head of the regional administration, Yurii Pohuliaiko. On 28 March, a Russian missile attack hit an oil depot in Rivne region, according to the head of the regional military administration. It was the second attack on an oil facility in that region and the latest in a series of similar attacks over recent days.
Slavutych and the Chornobyl workers
A report from 26 March 2022 added detail about Slavutych, the town where workers from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant live. According to the local mayor, three people died when Russian forces took control of the town in February.
Words from Warsaw
In Warsaw on 26 March 2022, US President Joe Biden said that Vladimir Putin could not remain in power. Within minutes, a senior administration official told reporters the president's point was that Putin must not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region, and that he had not been discussing Putin's rule in Russia or regime change.
Tensions elsewhere in the region
Other regional disputes also featured in the reporting. On 26 March 2022, Russia said Azerbaijani forces had entered the Russian peacekeeping zone in Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijani officials called it a false flag operation by Armenian soldiers. On 29 March, a regional court in the Polish border town of Hajnówka ruled that pushbacks of migrants on the Belarus–Poland border violated Polish law.
Taken together, the reports from the days around 1 April 2022 show a war that was reaching well beyond the front lines, from the besieged southern port to fuel depots in the west, with diplomacy continuing in parallel.
