Coronavirus
The Cabinet of Ministers will not change adaptive quarantine arrangements for the May holidays because they have proved effective, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said on Facebook.
Chief sanitary officer Viktor Lyashko earlier urged Ukrainians to abstain from visiting family and friends for Easter to prevent the virus spread. According to him, Lviv, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhya, Odesa and Poltava regions and the city of Kyiv are expected to leave the red coronavirus zone next week.
Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Epifaniy has said that churches will hold Easter services while observing all quarantine restrictions. He noted that church-goers are advised to keep a safe distance and wear face masks.
Some 526,916 Ukrainians have got vaccinated against the coronavirus by 25 April.
This morning Ukraine logged 7,930 new Covid-19 cases, the Health Ministry has said. Most new cases were registered in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odesa and Kyiv regions. There were 231 fatalities.
Donbas
Russia-backed militants violated the ceasefire nine times on 24 April, the Joint Forces Operation HQ has said. They fired with banned 120-mm and 82-mm mortars, grenade launchers of various systems and small arms near Vodyane, underbarrel grenade launchers and small arms near Pisky, anti-tank grenade launchers, heavy machine-guns and small arms near Novhorodske, Lebedynske and Troyitske.
The so-called health minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Oleksandr Opryshchenko, bought a flat worth around 55,000 dollars in Russia's Rostov-on-Don in March 2021, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Savik Shuster's Freedom of Speech talk show on 23 April. He added that Opryshchenko also holds Russian citizenship. Reznikov accused Russia of blocking the traffic through checkpoints on the line of contact in Donbas, thus preventing Ukrainian citizens in occupied territories, where the Covid-19 fatality was the highest, from access to health care.
Security
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Oleh Holovash as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) directorate in Kyiv and Kyiv Region and replaced him with Serhiy Zayats, who was dismissed from the post of SBU chief in Ivano-Frankivsk Region. Viktor Nazaruk was put in charge of the SBU in Ivano-Frankivsk Region.
Media
YouTube has blocked the channels of the 112 Ukrayina, ZIK and NewsOne TV channels affiliated with pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, which were earlier forbidden to broadcast in Ukraine.