What the world's news on 1 April 2022 followed from late March
A look back at the reports that framed 1 April 2022: a promised Mariupol corridor, strikes on fuel depots and diplomatic fallout.
What was the picture on 1 April 2022? It was shaped by reports from the final days of March, when a humanitarian corridor, attacks on fuel depots and a diplomatic row dominated coverage of the war in Ukraine.
On 31 March, Russia's Ministry of Defence said its forces would again open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia the following day, 1 April, at the request of the leaders of France and Germany.
Fuel depots under fire
In the preceding days, Russian missiles had struck oil storage facilities in western Ukraine. On 27 March, the head of the regional administration, Yurii Pohuliaiko, said a missile had hit an oil depot in Volyn region. On 28 March, the head of the Rivne regional administration said a Russian missile attack had hit an oil depot in Rivne region. It was the second such attack on an oil facility in the region and the latest in a series of similar strikes over several days.
Diplomatic fallout
On 26 March in Warsaw, US President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin could not remain in power. Within minutes, a senior administration official told journalists that 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.
Slavutych
Also on 26 March, the local mayor said three people had died when Russian forces took control of Slavutych in February. The town is home to workers from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.
Elsewhere
On 26 March, Russia said Azerbaijani forces had entered the Russian peacekeeping zone in Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijani officials said it was a false flag operation by Armenian soldiers. On 29 March, a regional court in Hajnówka ruled that pushbacks of migrants on the Belarus–Poland border had violated Polish law.
