Russia confirms car bomb death of top officer near Moscow – DW – 04/25/2025

Latvia’s planned building of a defensive line along its border with Russia and Belarusis on course for completion by 2028, the country’s Defense Minister Andris Spruds has said.

“The work is proceeding according to plan,” Spruds said on Friday while visiting a storage site near the town of Zilupe, close to the frontier with Russia.

The site holds concrete blocks and tank barriers to be erected for the fortification and securing of Latvia’s eastern border. 

Latvia‘s efforts are part of a wide one to create the Baltic defense line also protecting fellow Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania from potential attacks from Russia and Belarus. Belarus is a major Russian ally and was used as a staging post by some of the Russian military to launch Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The main goal is to stop, distract and destroy a potential intruder,” Spruds stressed. 

Latvia is working to fortify its border with its largest neighborImage: GINTS IVUSKANS/AFP/Getty Images

Additional tank trenches, ammunition depots and mine storage facilities are also to be built. 

In some sections of the roughly 440-kilometer-long (about 170-mile) border with Russia and Belarus, the construction is already complete.

Latvia’s government last year decided to invest some €300 million ($340 million) in strengthening the border and building the line in line with NATO defense plans.

Latvian army chief Kaspars Pudans said the Baltic States have been guided by the lessons of the war in Ukraine in building the defensive barrier. 
 

Russian media sites have reported that a high-ranking Russian military officer has been killed after a car explosion in the town of Balashikha in the Moscow region.

Media outlets Mash and Baza named the officer as Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

Authorities gave no initial confirmation about what happened or the identity of the individual targeted.

Baza, which has sources inside Russian law enforcement, said a bomb in a parked car was detonated remotely when the officer, who lived nearby, walked past it.

Russian military launched 103 drones overnight targeting five regions, Ukraine’s air force said on Friday.

The attacks caused damage in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast, in the Dnipropetrovsk and Cherkasy regions in the center, as well as in the Donetsk region, the air force wrote on Telegram. 

Ukrainian air defense units shot down 41 drones, and 40 additional drones were redirected through electronic warfare, it added. 

Three people were killed and eight more were wounded on Friday in a Russian attack on the central-eastern city of Pavlohrad in Ukraine, said Dnipropetrovsk regional Governor Serhiy Lysak. 

“Unfortunately, there are already three dead in Pavlohrad. Among them is a child,” Lysak said on the Telegram messaging service. 

“The aggressor again conducted a mass attack on the region with drones,” he added. 

Several fires broke out in the city, including a multi-story building, sites of enterprises in the Synelnykivskyi and Samarivskyi districts, he said, adding that 11 drones were destroyed over the region. 

Six injured were hospitalized, and two others, including a 15-year-old girl, were treated on-site. Search and rescue operations were ongoing, Lysak added.

The industrial city of Pavlohrad had a pre-war population of approximately 100,000 people. It serves as an important railway hub for the Dnipropetrovsk region, connecting it to Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, much of which is now occupied by Russian forces.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said parts of a possible deal between his country and the United States to end the war in Ukraine must still be “fine-tuned.”

However, Lavrov said the process, which has not involved Ukraine, is moving in the right direction.

“There are still some specific points — elements — of this deal which need to be fine-tuned and we are busy with this exact process,” Lavrov told US broadcaster CBS.

“There are several signs that we are moving in the right direction,” Lavrov said, adding that Russia is “ready to reach a deal.”

The remarks came after a combined Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 80. 

The onslaught drew rare direct criticism from US President Donald Trump, urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the violence.

Ukraine may have to surrender territory to secure “temporary” peace with Russia, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has said in an interview published Friday.

The comments followed a Russian combined missile and drone attack on the capital city killed at least 12 people, injuring dozens.

“One of the scenarios is… to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution, temporary,” the former boxing champion told the UK’s BBC broadcaster.

Klitschko said he was “responsible for the capital of Ukraine” and that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have to accept a “painful solution” to achieve temporary peace.

However, he added that the Ukrainian people would “never accept occupation” by Russia.

Welcome to DW’s coverage of developments from Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine on Friday, April 25.

Ukraine may need to surrender territory to secure “temporary” peace with Russia, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has said.

The comments came after a Russian missile-and-drone onslaught against his city that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more. 

US President Donald Trump is putting pressure on Ukraine to accept a deal in which it gives up land to Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said parts of the possible deal agreed between Moscow and Washington still need to be “fine-tuned.”

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force says Russia launched 103 drones in overnight attacks targeting Ukraine.

In this blog, we will keep you updated as the day unfolds.