Top news stories about the Russia-Ukraine war on Russia's Channel One on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

By Madeline Roache

What follows is NewsGuard’s summary and translation of top news stories from Russia’s state TV Channel One. NewsGuard presents these stories in the order that they appear on the program. NewsGuard shares this summary as part of our mission to monitor and report all categories of misinformation, including Russian disinformation. Please note that these summaries of Russian state TV broadcasts may well contain falsehoods or propaganda, and NewsGuard does not vet them for accuracy or balance.

Russia asks militants and foreign mercenaries at the besieged Azovstal plant to lay down their arms

Russia has once again invited nationalists and foreign mercenaries who are staying in Azovstal to cease hostilities and lay down their arms from 2pm today. The Russian Armed Forces are guided by humane principles. After all, the Ukrainian authorities have not taken any action to save the military personnel of their own country. And the commanders of the armed formations are not ready to surrender without an order from Kyiv, fearing a military tribunal.

This was announced by the head of our National Defense Control Center Mikhail Mizintsev. He particularly stressed once again: To everyone who lays down their arms, our country guarantees the preservation of life, complete security, and the provision of medical care. Russia has already confirmed its humane attitude towards prisoners of war. All this has been said more than once yesterday, when Russia declared a period of silence. Buses and ambulances were ready for those who were at Azovstal.

No one came out along the humanitarian corridor. But our military evacuated more than 100 civilians, who were not on the territory of the plant itself, but in houses located nearby. They are all being helped now.

In areas under shelling by Ukrainian militants, people are forced to hide in basements

There is no life, only survival — no medicine, no food. And a chilling habit of not flinching from nearby explosions was developed. The Russian military and volunteers come to the rescue, bringing humanitarian supplies. Russian football fans also sent a car with essential items. 

Residents say that they have been fighting to survive not only for the past two months. The Kiev regime has oppressed the Russian-speaking population for the past eight years as much as it could. One resident, Valeriya Norchenko, said: “We are not people to them. Since 2014, we have had to lay barbed wire around us. We have had to throw bombs. Here we have defective people. We’re not people at all.”

Russian humanitarian aid arrives in various Ukrainian regions

The path, of course, is not safe  — the radicals can open fire at any moment. In one district, the passage of a column is monitored from the air with the help of an air balloon. According to reports, a group of saboteurs was spotted in the forest thanks to the air balloon.

Every day, the Russian military defending Donbass show resilience, courage, and professionalism

Private Vasily Shpilchin was involved in the liberation of a town. He discovered the militants, who had been tasked with preventing our troops from reaching the station, which was controlled by the nationalists. Shpilchin destroyed the radicals and their equipment. As a result, the militants who occupied the station were left without fire support and they retreated.

Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service Khazbi Makoev was so shell-shocked during an attack that he lost consciousness. But as soon as he regained consciousness, he organized the evacuation of the wounded from the field hospital. He provided first aid to a total of 120 soldiers during fierce fighting.

In Kherson, which was liberated from Ukrainian gangs, a replica of the Banner of Victory was raised

In Kherson, our soldiers raised a replica of the Banner of Victory. They had hoisted it over the Reichstag in 1945. One of the main symbols of the Great Patriotic War has returned to the city memorial complex. And the residents acknowledged that they has been waiting a long time for this to happen. So far, many are afraid to speak openly about what they really feel — years of living in fear has taken its toll. 

One resident, Natalia, said: “We want the banner to be here, I want my grandson to learn Russian, Russian history and know victory. We support this. And many of us here support this.”

Another resident, Sergei said: “I specifically came to look at the eternal flame, at the flag that was raised on the flagpole. The red flag is the flag of victory. For me, this means liberation from what has been on this territory for 30 years,” 

Another symbol that Ukraine tries to forget is the eternal flame. In Kherson, it had been extinguished. This saved gas. It was turned on twice a year. The new administration ordered that the fire must always burn.

The West calls for peace in its rhetoric, but in reality it pumps Ukraine with weapons

Its rhetoric calls for peace, its actions incite war. Such is the contradictory West, ready to pump Ukraine with new weapons without stopping.

Romania now wants to change its legislation so that it is possible to legally donate weapons from state reserves to Kiev. Norway sent another 100 missile systems. Britain promised to  send new artillery. Germany shrugs its shoulders: its own reserves are practically depleted, but there is a way out — Kiev can buy everything it needs from German defense reserves, and Berlin will compensate for the costs later.

The United States is not excluded from this. Lockheed Martin Corporation, a manufacturer of attack drones and anti-tank Javelins, has begun negotiations with the Pentagon to increase military supplies. However, according to the CNN channel, the US is worried about who will actually get the weapons. Deliveries are increasing, but in the end, they can’t be responsible for them.

What happens to weapons that are sent to Ukraine? The US doesn’t really know.

CNN reported: “Because the US military is not on the ground, the US and NATO are heavily reliant on information provided by Ukraine’s government. Privately, officials recognize that Ukraine has an incentive to give only information that will bolster their case for more aid, more arms and more diplomatic assistance.”

One source told CNN, “We have almost no information in the fog of war.”CNN reported: “Everything drops into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time.”

UN Security Council Members yet again failed to reach an agreement on any points of dispute 

This irresponsible behavior can, in fact, only mean one thing: the West needs Ukrainians like cannon fodder. The First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, was forced to say this at a meeting of the Security Council. It was yet another meeting that yielded no results. There was a fundamental refusal to hear about Kiev’s crimes and complete disregard for Moscow’s arguments. The sad truth, it turns out, is that financial gain for the West is more important than the fate of people.

Polyansky also said that biologists in Kharkiv, linked to America’s military industrial complex, carried out experiments on people. Polyansky said: “The US scientists from a laboratory in Merefa, Kharkiv region were testing potentially dangerous biological drugs in the regional, clinical psychiatric hospital No. 3, between 2019 and 2021. Persons with mental disorders were selected for experiments on the basis of their age, nationality, and immunity status.”