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Russia Ukraine News Highlights | Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has set off on a one-day trip to Ukraine during which he will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Saturday morning, his office said in a statement on Friday.
Neutral Austria has been providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine as well as helmets and body armour for civilians rather than weapons. Nehammer, a conservative, has been visibly moved by telephone conversations with Zelenskiy and says he wants to show support.
Before the visit was announced, Ukraine confirmed the death of at least 50 persons in a rocket strike at the railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.
Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the death toll rose to 50 from an earlier reported 39 as some of the several dozen wounded had died after being taken to hospital or medical centers.
He said the station was hit by a Tochka U short-range ballistic missile that contained cluster munitions, which explode in mid-air, spraying small lethal bomblets over a wider area. "They wanted to sow panic and fear, they wanted to take as many civilians as possible," he said.
The Russian defence ministry was quoted by RIA news agency as saying the missiles said to have struck the station were used only by Ukraine's military and that Russia's armed forces had no targets assigned in Kramatorsk on Friday.
Zelenskiy said no Ukrainian troops were at the station. "Russian forces (fired) on an ordinary train station, on ordinary people, there were no soldiers there," he told Finland's parliament in a video address.
With inputs from Reuters
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Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has set off on a one-day trip to Ukraine during which he will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Saturday morning, his office said in a statement on Friday.
Neutral Austria has been providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine as well as helmets and body armour for civilians rather than weapons. Nehammer, a conservative, has been visibly moved by telephone conversations with Zelenskiy and says he wants to show support.
His trip will include a visit to Bucha, a town just outside Kyiv where invading Russian forces are alleged to have executed civilians whose bodies were left strewn in the streets. Russia denies the allegations. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visited Bucha on Friday. (Reuters)
The Russian Ministry of Justice on Friday said in a statement that it had revoked the registration of 15 foreign organisations, including those of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Reuters reported.
A group of inter-generational stars from film, TV, sports and music including Bruce Springsteen, Hugh Jackman, Elton John, Jon Bon Jovi, Jonas Brothers and Billie Eilish have signed up for a social media campaign to show support for Ukraine.
The Global Citizen-organized social media rally Friday urges governments, institutions, corporations and individuals to help fund humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and other regions of the world. Celebrities are being asked to use their social media accounts to publicize the effort, using the hashtag #StandUpForUkraine. (AP)
AIG, one of the world's biggest commercial insurers, is considering cutting cover for Russia and Ukraine, to shield itself from the risk of hefty claims as sanctions ratchet up and the war drags on, an insurance broker and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
AIG is looking at adding exclusion clauses to policies for businesses operating in the region across a range of policies, according to the two sources who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity. Other major insurers are also looking to exclude Russia, Ukraine and even Belarus from a range of policies, the sources reportedly said, citing some insurers and policyholders.
Russia's central bank has managed to stabilize key aspects of the economy with severe controls, artificially propping up the ruble to allow it to rebound to levels seen before the invasion of Ukraine even as the West piles on more sanctions.
That became evident as central bank of Russia said Friday that it was lowering its benchmark interest rate and said more rate cuts could be on the way. The decision indicates it thinks strict capital controls and other strict measures are stabilizing Russia's currency and financial system despite severe pressure from U.S. and European sanctions.
The bank lowered its benchmark rate from 20% to 17%, effective Monday. The interest rate cut reflected the changed balance of risks among inflation, economic growth and banking system stability, the bank said.
It had raised the rate from 9.5% on Feb. 28, four days after the invasion, as a way to support the rubles plunging exchange rate. A currency collapse would worsen already high inflation for Russian shoppers by ballooning the cost of imported goods. (AP)
Ukraine said as many as 50 people, including five children, were killed and many more were wounded and lost limbs in a rocket strike at a railway station packed with civilians fleeing the threat of a major Russian offensive in the country's east. As regional authorities scrambled to rush civilians out of harm's way, a group of European Union leaders meanwhile visited Kyiv to offer President Volodymyr Zelenskiy support and assure him there will be a path to EU membership for Ukraine. Zelenskiy called the strike on the station in Kramatorsk in the eastern region of Donetsk region a deliberate attack on civilians. (Reuters)
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday denounced an "abominable" airstrike on a train station in eastern Ukraine, saying France would "support the investigations so that justice is done.""Ukrainian civilians fleeing to escape the worst. Their weapons? Prams, toy dolls, baggage. This morning at the station in Kramatorsk, families who were leaving experienced horror. Deaths by the dozens, hundreds injured. Abominable," Macron said in a tweet.
At least 50 people, including five children, were killed in strikes on a train station in the east Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the local governor said Friday."Fifty dead, five of them children. This is the death toll at this hour after the strike by Russian occupational forces on the train station in Kramatorsk," Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said on Telegram.
Finland on Friday said it will expel two Russian diplomats over the war in Ukraine, following a wave of similar moves across Europe.Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) land border with Russia, and is currently considering whether to join NATO."The measure is in line with those taken by other EU member states", the prime minister's office said in a statement."In addition the visa extension of one Russian embassy staff member has been cancelled."Earlier this week EU countries expelled almost 200 Russian diplomats over two days for alleged spying or "national security reasons", amid increasing outrage over apparent evidence of widespread killing of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops.On Friday, Japan also announced it would send eight Russian embassy staff home. The Kremlin has slammed the mass expulsions as a "short-sighted move" and warned of retaliatory steps.The Finnish move came the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Nordic country's parliament, the Eduskunta, by video link.Zelensky asked the West to impose a "cocktail" of sanctions on Moscow, including a ban on Russian gas, and appealed for more weapons.Before Zelensky's address, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told a press conference that Finland was prepared to give more "military help, humanitarian help (and) monetary help" to Ukraine.Marin also said she expected Finnish lawmakers to come to a decision "before midsummer" on whether to apply to join NATO as a deterrent against potential Russian aggression.The Kremlin has warned that it would take steps to "rebalance the situation" in the event of Finland joining NATO.
Russia’s central bank has cut interest rates to 17 percent from its previous 20 percent, Financial times has reported.
