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Russia Ukraine News Highlights | The US Congress has approved the bills suspending normal trade relations with Russia and banning its oil, sending measures to Biden.
Ukrainian authorities continued gathering up the dead in shattered towns outside the capital amid telltale signs Moscow's troops killed civilians indiscriminately before retreating over the past several days.
In other developments, the U.S. and its Western allies moved to impose new sanctions against the Kremlin over what they branded war crimes.
And Russia completed the pullout of all of its estimated 24,000 or more troops from the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas in the north, sending them into Belarus or Russia to resupply and reorganize, a U.S. defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow is now marshaling reinforcements and trying to push deeper into the country's east, where the Kremlin has said its goal is to “liberate” the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland.
“The fate of our land and of our people is being decided. We know what we are fighting for. And we will do everything to win,” Zelenskyy said, six weeks into the war.
Ukrainian authorities urged people living in the Donbas to evacuate now, ahead of an impending Russian offensive, while there is still time.
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The US Congress has approved the bills suspending normal trade relations with Russia and banning its oil, sending measures to Biden, news agency AP reported.
Ukraine was trying to evacuate as many trapped civilians as possible on Thursday, warning of a new offensive by Russian forces pounding cities in the east and south of the country. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced agreement with Russia on opening 10 safe corridors, mostly in southern and eastern Ukraine, but said residents trying to leave the besieged city of Mariupol would have to use their own vehicles.
Underlining the problems facing civilians, the head of the state railway company said three trains carrying evacuees had been blocked by an air strike on a line near the town of Barvinkove in the eastern region of Kharkiv.(Reuters)
India, maintaining its neutral position at the United Nations General Assembly, decided to abstain from the voting held over the proposal to dismiss Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. The proposal was passed successfuly, with Moscow being eliminated from the top human rights' body. While 93 nations voted in its favour, 58 abstained from voting, and 24 voted against the measure.
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council over reports of "gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights" by invading Russian troops in Ukraine.
The U.S.-led push garnered 93 votes in favor, while 24 countries voted no and 58 countries abstained. A two-thirds majority of voting members - abstentions do not count - was needed to suspend Russia from the 47-member council. (Reuters)
Ukraine is effectively using landmines in the conflict with Russia, forcing Russian armored vehicles into engagement areas where they are vulnerable to U.S.-supplied anti-tank weaponry, the top U.S. general told a Senate hearing on Thursday."That's one of the reasons why you see column after column of Russian vehicles that are destroyed. So anti-tank or anti-personnel mines are very effective," Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday he had told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba that peace talks with Russia can be held in Turkey from now on. Speaking after a NATO meeting in Brussels, Cavusoglu said there were still around 30 Turkish citizens, including their companions, stuck in Ukraine's southern port city of Mariupol, where thousands of people are believed to have died after a month under Russian siege and relentless bombardment.
Ukrainian Foreign MinisterDmytroKulebasaid Thursday he expected NATO members to sendKyivthe weapons it needs but insisted they had to act quickly before Russia launches another major offensive."Either you help us now and I'm speaking about days, not weeks, or your help will come too late. And many people will die, many civilians will lose their homes, many villages will be destroyed. Exactly because this help came toolate,"Kulebasaid after meeting NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
More than 4.3 million Ukrainians have now fled their country since the Russian invasion, the United Nations said Thursday.UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 4,319,494 Ukrainians had fled across the border since the war began on February 24 -- a figure up 40,705 since Wednesday.The agency says it is Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.The UN's International Organization for Migration estimates that 7.1 million internally displaced people had fled their homes but were still in Ukraine.The IOM says that in addition to Ukrainian refugees, more than 210,000 non-Ukrainians living, studying or working in the country have also left. This means that in total, more than a quarter of the population have been forced to flee their homes.
