LONDON (AP) — Protests over the soaring cost of fuel spread disruption across Ireland on Saturday with many gas stations running dry as truck and tractor drivers staged a fifth day of blockades at the country's sole fuel refinery and several depots.
Vehicles blocking traffic led to closures of the main highway around the capital, Dublin, as well as six other major roadways.
More than a third of the 1,500 service stations in the republic are out of fuel and that number is expected to grow dramatically if the roadblocks remain, Fuels for Ireland chief executive Kevin McPartlan said.
Irish police put all its officers on notice they could be called to duty over the weekend and the military was on standby to help remove the vehicles as the government was due to renew talks Saturday to resolve the dispute.
Frustration over the soaring cost of fuel led to the protests that began Tuesday and have continued to grow as word spread on social media.
Government officials, who had already introduced measures to ease the burden of price rises, have been baffled over the rationale behind the protests because the price spike is global and due to the conflict in the Middle East that has restricted oil exports.
Prime Minister Micheál Martin said Friday that the country was on the brink of turning tankers away during a global shortage and was in jeopardy of losing its oil supply.
“It is unconscionable, it’s illogical, it is difficult to comprehend,” Martin told the national broadcaster RTE.
Truckers, farmers, and taxi and bus operators are among those who have staged the blockages and called for caps in fuel prices or cuts to excise or carbon taxes.
The government approved a range of measures two weeks ago to cut fuel prices, including a temporary reduction in excise taxes on motor fuels, expansion of a rebate for truckers and bus operators that use diesel fuel, and extension of a program that helps low-income people with their heating costs.
But those reductions were quickly overtaken as international prices continued to rise.
Protests began with slow-moving convoys that restricted access to some of the busiest streets in Dublin and blocked fuel depots that supply half the country. Some protesters slept in their vehicles overnight, demanding that the government speak with them.
Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said Thursday that outsiders were manipulating the demonstrators to advance their own agendas or “really want to damage our country.”
A man crosses a road where vehicles are parked on O'Connell Street, on the second day of a national fuel protest against rising fuel prices, in Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday April 8, 2026. (Brian Lawless/PA via AP)
A man walks in between vehicles parked on O'Connell Street on the second day of a national fuel protest against rising fuel prices, in Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday April 8, 2026. (Brian Lawless/PA via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drone strikes killed at least two people in the Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight into Saturday, local authorities reported, ahead of a proposed ceasefire for Orthodox Easter.
A further two people were wounded in the attack on the Black Sea port city, when drones hit a residential area, damaging apartment buildings, houses and a kindergarten.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia targeted Ukraine with 160 drones overnight, of which 133 were shot down or intercepted, hours before a proposed Easter ceasefire was due to come into force.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 99 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire over the Orthodox Easter weekend, ordering Russian forces to halt hostilities from 4 p.m. Saturday until the end of Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised Saturday to abide by the ceasefire, describing it as an opportunity to build on peace initiatives. But he warned there would be a swift military response to any violations.
“Easter should be a time of silence and safety. A ceasefire (at) Easter could also become the beginning of real movement toward peace,” Zelenskyy wrote in an online post on Saturday.
But he added: “We all understand who we are dealing with. Ukraine will adhere to the ceasefire and respond strictly in kind.”
Ukraine earlier proposed to Russia a pause in attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure over the Orthodox Easter holiday.
Previous ceasefire attempts have had little impact, with both sides accusing each other of violations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday described Putin’s move as a “humanitarian” gesture, but said Moscow remains focused on a comprehensive settlement based on its longstanding demands — a key sticking point that has prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that a prisoner swap Saturday brought home 175 of its soldiers.
Zelenskyy confirmed Saturday’s exchange, saying that 175 service members and seven civilians were returned.
“Most had been held in captivity since 2022. And finally, they are home,” he wrote on X.
At the exchange site in northern Ukraine, Svitlana Pohosyan waited for her son’s return. Asked about the ceasefire, she said: “I want to believe it. God willing, may it be so. We will believe and hope that everything will be fine, that a ceasefire will come on such a holy day, and that there will be peace — peace in Ukraine and peace in the whole world.”
“My celebration will come when my son returns,” she added. “I will hold him in my arms — and that will be the greatest celebration for me. And for every mother, every family."
Periodic prisoner exchanges have been one of the few positive outcomes of otherwise fruitless monthslong U.S.-brokered negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. The talks have delivered no progress on key issues preventing an end to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, now in its fifth year.
Separately, seven residents of Russia's Kursk region returned from Ukraine Saturday after they were captured by the Ukrainian army, Russian state media reported. They were greeted at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border by Russia's human rights ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova.
According to Moskalkova, the returnees were the last of those who were taken to Ukraine from the Kursk region after the Ukrainian army took control of parts of the region in 2024.
Ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion into Kursk in August 2024 in one of their biggest battlefield successes in the war. The incursion was the first time Russian territory was occupied by an invader since World War II and dealt a humiliating blow to the Kremlin.
Zhyhinas reported from northern Ukraine. Morton reported from London.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade press service on April 10, 2026, a Ukrainian serviceman looks at FPV drone takeoff during a training at the polygon in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade press service on April 10, 2026, a Ukrainian serviceman prepares a machine gun on a combat ground drone during a training at the polygon in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade via AP)
A rescue worker walks in front of residential building which was heavily damaged after a Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Shtekel)
