Blinken, Austin meet with Zelenskyy in Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s leader has congratulated Emmanuel Macron on winning a second term as president of France — and beating a far-right rival seen as close to Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelenskyy called Macron “a true friend of Ukraine” Sunday and expressed appreciation for his support.

Tweeting in French, Zelenskyy said: “I’m convinced that we will advance together toward new joint victories. Toward a strong and united Europe!”

Macron has sought a diplomatic solution to Russia’s war in Ukraine. France has also sent significant weapons to Ukraine, and Macron is planning more.

In a TV debate ahead of Sunday’s runoff, Macron assailed challenger Marine Le Pen’s past ties to Russia, notably a loan her party got from a Russian-Czech bank in 2014.

BERLIN — Switzerland has rejected two requests by Germany to export Swiss ammunition to Ukraine, citing its strict neutrality.

The decision was first reported Sunday by the Swiss weekly Sonntagszeitung.

Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs confirmed that “both requests from Germany, whether the ammunition received from Switzerland can be passed on to Ukraine, were answered negatively with a reference to Swiss neutrality.”

Germany needs Switzerland’s consent for the arms delivery as part of the original sale contract. The Swiss office declined to specify what type of ammunition Germany had sought to export to Ukraine.

Emmanuel Macron has held off a challenge from far-right leader Marine Le Pen to retain the French presidency, according to projected results from French polling agencies.

Macron, the centrist incumbent, is projected to get 57 percent to 58.5 percent of the vote in Sunday’s second-round runoff, compared to 41.5 percent to 43 percent for Le Pen, his nationalist rival.

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SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates — Hundreds of Russians and Ukrainians crowded into the only Russian Orthodox Church on the Arabian Peninsula on Sunday to celebrate Easter — far from home and in the shadow of a war that has brought devastation to Ukraine and international isolation to Moscow.

Although the two nationalities, united in language and history, typically celebrate Easter in harmony in this corner of the world where they’ve forged new lives as expats, this year there was unspoken tension.

“I don’t have any problems with Russians as people,” said Sergei, a Ukrainian businessman from Kyiv and Dubai resident of five years, who like others interviewed declined to give his last name for privacy reasons. “But war changes people. Children are dying. The Russians now hate my country.”

A few Russians interviewed said they did not support the war and felt sick or guilty about it. But to avoid any confrontation in the pews, they stuck to small talk with Ukrainians about the festivities and warming weather, they said.

Ordinary Russians say Dubai has become an increasingly rare haven as anti-Russian hostility escalates around the world over the grinding war, which has rocked the stability of Europe, sent oil prices soaring and triggered the continent’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has discussed the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol in a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Zelenskyy said on Twitter that he “stressed the need for immediate evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, including Azovstal, and immediate exchange of blocked troops” in Sunday’s call with Erdogan. He noted that the call came before Erdogan’s planned conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has urged Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians holed up at the giant Azovstal steel plant, the last remaining Ukrainian pocket of resistance in the strategic Sea of Azov port. It also has pushed Russia to conduct talks on a safe exit for the Ukrainian defenders of the plant, but Moscow has stonewalled the demands.

Zelenskyy said he and Erdogan also discussed the course of the negotiation process and possible security guarantees for Ukraine from Turkey and other nations.

Erdogan’s office said he told Zelenskyy in their call that Turkey is ready to mediate and assist in talks between Ukraine and Russia.

An attack on apartment block in Odesa that Ukrainian officials said killed eight people including a 3-month-old baby is being investigated by the city's regional prosecutors.

Criminal proceedings were started for “violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder” in relation to the strike, their office said in a statement on its website late Saturday.

Investigators found that Russian missiles destroyed living quarters between the second and fifth floors, blocking exits and trapping people, the statement added.

Eight civilians were killed, including a 3-month-old child, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that another 18 people were injured and houses and cars were also damaged. There were no military facilities in the area, it said.

NBC News could not independently verify these claims and Russia has consistently denied that its forces are targeting Ukrainian civilians.

Separately, Russian news agency Tass quoted Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying Saturday that the country's armed forces destroyed a logistics terminal at a military airfield near Odesa, where foreign-supplied weapons were stored.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has renewed his call for an Easter truce as Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter Sunday, when the faithful mark the resurrection of Jesus.

Without naming countries, Francis urged aggressors to “stop the attack to help the suffering of the exhausted people.”

Francis told a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square that two months had passed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said that “instead of stopping, the war got worse. It is sad that in these days that are the holiest and most solemn for all Christians, the deadly clamor of arms is louder than the sound of bells announcing the Resurrection.”

Natalia Demish escaped the horrors of besieged Mariupol last month.

But while she is now in relative safety in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, she was cut off from her 21-year-old son, Yuri, by the ongoing fighting when she fled. 

Demish, 40, says Yuri has now been forcibly deported to Russia, and she worries that he will be forced to fight against his own country. 

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