Live Updates | Shelling in eastern Ukraine kills at least 5

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Associated Press journalists in Kharkiv say at least 4 people were killed and 3 wounded in a Russian attack on a residential area.

The attack on Tuesday happened as residents attempted to maintain a sense of normalcy in the eastern city, with municipal workers planting spring flowers in public areas.

Kharkiv is near the front lines and has faced repeated shelling from the Russian forces. Earlier on Tuesday, a regional governor in Kharkiv said 5 civilians had been killed and 17 wounded in the past 24 hours.

Also on Tuesday, an explosion rocked the eastern city of Kramatorsk killing at least 1 person and injuring 3, according to AP journalists at the scene.

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By Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv; Yesica Fisch in Kramatorsk, Ukraine.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:

— Russian forces attacking along broad east front, Ukraine says

— In an apartment building in Lviv, displaced people from across Ukraine seek shelter

— Yellen to see Ukraine PM, avoid Russians at global meetings

— Global finance meeting focuses on war-driven food insecurity

— Syrian fighters ready to join Russia for next phase of Ukraine war

Follow all AP stories on Russia’s war on Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

MOSCOW — Russia said Tuesday it is expelling 15 diplomats from the Netherlands and an unspecified number of Belgian embassy staff in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats by those countries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says it has ordered 14 employees of the Dutch embassy in Moscow and one from the consulate in St. Petersburg to leave the country.

“We expected Russia to take reciprocal measures. Nevertheless I regret this step. We are now going to see what the consequences are of the fact that so many colleagues have to leave Moscow and Petersburg,” Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra said.

That follows the Netherlands expelling Russian diplomats last month. Dutch authorities said they expelled 17 and alleged they had been using diplomatic cover to work as spies. The Russian Foreign Ministry said a total 18 people with diplomatic status were expelled from its embassy in The Hague, a trade mission in Amsterdam and the Russian representation at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is based in the Netherlands.

The ministry added that the Belgian ambassador had been notified that embassy staff would have to leave by May 3, without saying how many people were affected. The ambassador of Luxembourg was summoned for an official protest after the small Western European nation expelled a single Russian diplomat this month.

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LONDON — British officials say the next phase of the war in Ukraine is likely to be “an attritional conflict” that could last several months.

A senior U.K. national security official briefed the Cabinet on Tuesday, as Russia ratcheted up its battle for control of the eastern Donbas region.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said the official told ministers that Russia’s greater number of troops was “unlikely to be decisive on its own” against fierce Ukrainian resistance.

The official told Cabinet that there are signs Russia has not learned the lessons from previous setbacks in northern Ukraine, with evidence of troops being committed to the fight in a “piecemeal fashion” and some soldiers and units refusing to fight.

Johnson’s spokesman, Max Blain, said the prime minister had told Cabinet that Ukraine’s position remained “perilous,” with Russian President Vladimir Putin “angered by defeats but determined to claim some sort of victory regardless of the human cost.”

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MOSCOW — The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya says he is certain that the Russian forces will uproot the last remaining pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the key port of Mariupol within hours.

Ramzan Kadyrov said on a messaging app channel that the Russian troops will “finish off” the Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol on Tuesday and take full control of the giant Azovstal steel mill, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city.

Ukrainian troops have defended the strategic port on the Sea of Azov for seven weeks despite the Russian blockade and relentless barrage that flattened most of the city.

The Azovstal plant, which covers the territory of about 11 square kilometers (over 4 square miles), offered Ukrainian defenders a strong fighting position thanks to its sprawling network of underground tunnels and depots.

Kadyrov, whose forces have taken part in the fighting in Mariupol, has repeatedly made blustery comments about the city’s inevitable fall.

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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says he plans to speak with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts as part of Turkey’s efforts to halt the conflict.

Cavusoglu told reporters that Turkey was also talking to P5 nations — the United States, China, France, Russia and the U.K. — and other countries about possible…