Russia Ukraine News Highlights | Poor countries face economic ruin from simultaneous crises of food, energy and finance due to supply disruptions caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday. Russia is the world's top exporter of combined oil and gas, and Russia and Ukraine are both major producers of grain, together accounting for around a third of global exports. World commodity prices have hit records, hurting countries that rely on imports.
In other major update, Russian troops, thwarted in their push toward Ukraine's capital, are now focusing on the eastern Donbas region, where Ukraine said Tuesday it was investigating a claim that a poisonous substance had been dropped on its troops. It was not clear what the substance might be, but Western officials warned that any use of chemical weapons by Russia would be a serious escalation of the already devastating war.
Russia invaded on Feb. 24, with the goal, according to Western officials, of taking Kyiv, the capital, toppling the government and installing a Moscow-friendly regime. In the six weeks since, the ground advance stalled and Russian forces lost potentially thousands of fighters and were accused of killing civilians and other atrocities.
Putin insisted Tuesday that his invasion aimed to protect people in parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed rebels and to “ensure Russia’s own security.”
He said Russia “had no other choice” but to launch what he calls a “special military operation,” and vowed it would “continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set.”
For now, Putin's forces are gearing up for a major offensive in the Donbas, which has been torn by fighting between Russian-allied separatists and Ukrainian forces since 2014, and where Russia has recognized the separatists’ claims of independence. Military strategists say Moscow appears to hope that local support, logistics and the terrain in the region favor its larger, better-armed military, potentially allowing Russia to finally turn the tide in its favor.
In Mariupol, a strategic port city in the Donbas, a Ukrainian regiment defending a steel mill claimed a drone dropped a poisonous substance on the city. It indicated there were no serious injuries. The assertion by the Azov Regiment, a far-right group now part of the Ukrainian military, could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that while experts try to determine what the substance might be, “The world must react now.” Evidence of “inhuman cruelty” toward women and children in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv continued to surface, he added, including of alleged rapes.
“Not all serial rapists reach the cruelty of Russian soldiers,” Zelenskyy said.
The claims came after a Russia-allied separatist official appeared to urge the use of chemical weapons, telling Russian state TV on Monday that separatist forces should seize the plant by first blocking all the exits. “And then we’ll use chemical troops to smoke them out of there,” the official, Eduard Basurin, said. He denied Tuesday that separatist forces had used chemical weapons in Mariupol.
Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said officials were investigating, and it was possible phosphorus munitions — which cause horrendous burns but are not classed as chemical weapons — had been used in Mariupol.
Much of the city has been leveled in weeks of pummeling by Russian troops. The mayor said Monday that the siege has left more than 10,000 civilians dead, their bodies “carpeted through the streets.” Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the death toll in Mariupol alone could surpass 20,000.
Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak acknowledged the challenges Ukrainian troops face in Mariupol. He said via Twitter that they remain blocked and are having issues with supplies, while Ukraine's president and generals “do everything possible (and impossible) to find a solution.”
“For more than 1.5 months our defenders protect the city from (Russian) troops, which are 10+ times larger," Podolyak tweeted. “They’re fighting under the bombs for each meter of the city. They make (Russia) pay an exorbitant price.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the use of chemical weapons “would be a callous escalation in this conflict,” while Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said it would be a “wholesale breach of international law.”
U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time referred to Russia’s invasion as a “genocide.” He was even blunter later Tuesday, repeating the term and saying: “It's become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the U.S. could not confirm the drone report. But he noted the administration’s persistent concerns “about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents.”
Britain, meanwhile, has warned that Russia may resort to phosphorus bombs, which are banned in civilian areas under international law, in Mariupol.
Most armies use phosphorus munitions to illuminate targets or to produce smoke screens. Deliberately firing them into an enclosed space to expose people to fumes could breach the Chemical Weapons Convention, said Marc-Michael Blum, a former laboratory head at the Netherlands-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
“Once you start using the properties of white phosphorus, toxic properties, specifically and deliberately, then it becomes banned,” he said.
In Washington, a senior U.S. defense official said the Biden administration was preparing yet another package of military aid for Ukraine possibly totaling $750 million to be announced in the coming days. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans not yet publicly announced. Delivery is due to be completed this week of $800 million in military assistance approved by Biden a month ago.
In the face of stiff resistance by Ukrainian forces bolstered by Western weapons, Russian forces have increasingly relied on bombarding cities, flattening many urban areas and killing thousands. The war has driven more than 10 million Ukrainians from their homes — including nearly two-thirds of the country's children.
Moscow's retreat from cities and towns around Kyiv led to the discovery of large numbers of apparently massacred civilians, prompting widespread condemnation and accusations of war crimes.
More than 720 people were killed in Kyiv suburbs that had been occupied by Russian troops and over 200 were considered missing, the Interior Ministry said early Wednesday.
In Bucha alone, Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said 403 bodies had been found and the toll could rise as minesweepers comb the area.
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general’s office said Tuesday it was also looking into events in the Brovary district, which lies to the northeast.
It said the bodies of six civilians were found with gunshot wounds in a basement in the village of Shevchenkove and Russian forces were believed to be responsible.
Prosecutors are also investigating allegations that Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilians trying to leave by car from the village of Peremoha in the Brovary district, killing four people including a 13-year-old boy. In another attack near Bucha, five people were killed including two children when a car was fired upon, prosecutors said.
Putin falsely claimed Tuesday that Ukraine's accusation that hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian troops in the town of Bucha were “fake.” Associated Press journalists saw dozens of bodies in and around the town, some of whom had their hands bound and appeared to have been shot at close range.
Speaking at the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia's far east, in his first known foray outside Moscow since the war began, Putin also said the West would fail to isolate Russia and its economy has withstood a “blitz” of sanctions.
Addressing the pace of the campaign, he said Moscow was proceeding “calmly and rhythmically” to “achieve the planned goals while minimizing the losses.”
The Russian defense ministry said Tuesday that it used used air- and sea-launched missiles to destroy an ammunition depot and airplane hangar at Starokostiantyniv in the western Khmelnytskyi region and an ammunition depot near Kyiv.
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Russia-Ukraine Crisis LIVE | Russia closes in on last holdout in Ukrainian port, prepares for new offensive
More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the port of Mariupol, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday, signalling that it had moved closer to capturing the ruined city, its main strategic target in eastern Ukraine.
Taking the Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, would give the Russians full control of Mariupol, Ukraine's main Sea of Azov port, and reinforce a southern land corridor before an expected new offensive in the country's east.
Surrounded and bombarded by Russian troops for weeks and the focus of some of the fiercest fighting in the war, Mariupol would be the first major city to fall since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. (Reuters)
Russia-Ukraine Crisis LIVE | Poor countries face food, energy, finance crises due to Ukraine war, UN chief says
Poor countries face economic ruin from simultaneous crises of food, energy and finance due to supply disruptions caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday.
Russia is the world's top exporter of combined oil and gas, and Russia and Ukraine are both major producers of grain, together accounting for around a third of global exports. World commodity prices have hit records, hurting countries that rely on imports.
"The war is supercharging a three-dimensional crisis - food, energy and finance - that is pummeling some of the world's most vulnerable people, countries and economies," Guterres told reporters, releasing a report by a crisis task force he created shortly after Russia's invasion began on Feb 24. "We are now facing a perfect storm that threatens to devastate the economies of many developing countries," Guterres said. (Reuters)
Russia-Ukraine Crisis LIVE | IMF, World Bank, WFP and WTO urge coordinated action on food security
The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations World Food Program and World Trade Organization on Wednesday called for urgent, coordinated action on food security, and urged countries to avoid export bans on food or fertilizer.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the four institutions warned that the war in Ukraine was adding to existing pressures from the COVID-19 crisis, climate change and increased fragility and conflict, threatening millions of people worldwide.
Sharply higher prices for staples and supply shortages were fueling pressure on households, they said. The threat is greatest to the poorest countries, but vulnerability was also increasing rapidly in middle-income countries, which host the majority of the world's poor. (Reuters)
Russia-Ukraine Crisis LIVE | Germany irritated by Ukraine's snub of a presidential visit
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday criticized a diplomatic snub by Ukraine for his country's president and defended Berlin's record on delivering weapons to Kyiv amid tensions that have flared at a delicate moment in German policymaking on the war.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's largely ceremonial head of state, had hoped to travel to Ukraine on Wednesday with his Polish and Baltic counterparts. But he said Tuesday that his presence "apparently ... wasn't wanted in Kyiv." The German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying that Steinmeier was not welcome at the moment, pointing to his close relations with Russia in the past.
Ukraine's ambassador to Germany later said the government would be glad to welcome Scholz who, unlike Steinmeier, sets government policy. But the snub to Steinmeier may make that more difficult. (AP)
Russia-Ukraine Crisis LIVE | Villagers in Ukraine left with mine-riddled forest after Russian retreat
Residents in Lubianka, a village northwest of Kyiv, are trying to rebuild their lives all while Ukrainian soldiers remove mines from a nearby forest where Russian troops had set up camp. The village, which has less than 3,000 residents, was occupied as soon as Russia's invasion of Ukraine began.
Thousands of Russian soldiers occupied the pine forest, digging trenches and carving out positions from which, residents say, they shelled towns near Ukraine's capital.
Residents gathered at the medical clinic in the village centre said it was dangerous for them to stray from their homes during the occupation. Russian soldiers ordered them all to stay inside, but even from basements residents could hear the sound of missiles flying above them.
"They were shooting, shelling...we were saved by the forest, if not for the forest we would be destroyed," said 43-year-old Oleh Onopriienko, who listed off the names of devastated towns surrounding Kyiv such as Irpin and Hostomel. Inside the forest, local members of the Territorial Defense Force and Ukraine's military cleared the fields of mines and other unexplored ordnance. (Reuters)
Russia-Ukraine Crisis LIVE | Russia says US, NATO weapon transports in Ukraine are legitimate targets
Russia will view USand NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate military targets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency in an interview on Wednesday. Any attempts by the West to inflict significant damage on Russia's military or its separatist allies in Ukraine will be "harshly suppressed," he added.
"We are warning that US-NATO weapons transports across Ukrainian territory will be considered by us as legal military targets," TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying.
"We are making the Americans and other Westerners understand that attempts to slow down our special operation, to inflict maximum damage on Russian contingents and formations of the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics) will be harshly suppressed," he said. (Reuters)
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | European rights experts find "clear patterns" of Russian war crimes in Ukraine
A mission of experts set up by Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe (OSCE) nations has found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by Russia in Ukraine, an initial report by the mission said on Wednesday.
The mission was set up last month by 45 of the OSCE's 57 participating countries to look into possible offences, including war crimes in Ukraine, and to pass on information to bodies such as international tribunals. Russia opposed it.
"The mission found clear patterns of IHL (international humanitarian law) violations by the Russian forces," the report said, citing failures to take necessary precautions, act proportionately or spare sites like schools and hospitals. (Reuters)
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine war to result in 1.3% lower GDP growth for India, says World Bank official
Russia's war in Ukraine is likely to result in a significant 1.3 per cent lower GDP growth for India and 2.3 percentage point lower income growth, a top World Bank official has said, even as the lending agency observed that India is emerging strongly from the COVID-19 crisis.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | After weeks of bombardment, 1,000 Ukraine marines surrender in Mariupol, says Russia
More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the port of Mariupol, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday of its main strategic target in the eastern Donbas region, which has been reduced to ruins but is not yet under Russian control. If the Russians take the Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, they would be in full control of Mariupol, Ukraine's main Sea of Azov port, allowing Russia to reinforce a land corridor between separatist-held eastern areas and the Crimea region that it seized and annexed in 2014. Surrounded and bombarded by Russian troops for weeks and the focus of some of the fiercest fighting of the war, Mariupol would be the first major city to fall since Russia invaded Ukraine on February24. Russia's defence ministry said that 1,026 marines had surrendered, including 162 officers. "In the town of Mariupol, near the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, as a result of successful offensives by Russian armed forces and Donetsk People's Republic militia units, 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers of the 36th Marine Brigade voluntarily laid down arms and surrendered," the ministry said in a statement. Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces were proceeding with attacks on Azovstal and the port, but a defence ministry spokesman said he had no information about any surrender.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia recovery from sanctions will take 'years': Officials
Russia will take "many years" to rebuild its economy if Western sanctions over Ukraine remain in place for a long time, the head of the audit chamber and former finance minister said Wednesday."If sanctions remain at the current level, it will take about two years of reconstruction, no less," Alexei Kudrin said."Then we will have to rebuild for many years, because what we are talking about is replacing a whole series of imported products," he was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.Kudrin also said that already soaring inflation could be as high as 20 percent by the end of the year. President Vladimir Putin says Russia's economy has managed to weather the barrage of unprecedented sanctions imposed since he sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.But economists believe that the worst economic impact of the sanctions is still to come and expect Russia, which has relied heavily on imports of manufacturing equipment and consumer goods, to plunge into a deep recession."One of the main risks today is the contraction of the economy due to logistical restrictions on the one hand and the lack of liquidity on the other," Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov told Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia says US, NATO weapon transports in Ukraine are legitimate targets
Russia will view U.S. and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate military targets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency in an interview on Wednesday. Any attempts by the West to inflict significant damage on Russia's military or its separatist allies in Ukraine will be "harshly suppressed," he added. "We are warning that US-NATO weapons transports across Ukrainian territory will be considered by us as legal military targets," TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying. "We are making the Americans and other Westerners understand that attempts to slow down our special operation, to inflict maximum damage on Russian contingents and formations of the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics) will be harshly suppressed," he said.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Joe Biden 'genocide' claims against Russia 'unacceptable': Kremlin
The Kremlin said Wednesday it was "unacceptable" for US President Joe Biden to accuse Moscow's troops of committing genocide in Ukraine, where Russia has been conducting a military campaign for nearly two months."We categorically disagree and consider unacceptable any attempt to distort the situation in this way," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Nearly 100 Ukraine heritage sites damaged in invasion
Almost 100 cultural and religious sites in Ukraine have sustained damage since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, the United Nation's cultural agency UNESCO said on Wednesday.The estimate represents a near doubling of the previous number UNESCO issued two weeks ago as concern grows over the consequences of the assault for Ukrainian cultural heritage."The mark of 100 damaged or totally destroyed sites will be reached on Thursday or Friday -- this morning we are at 98 sites and monuments listed in eight regions of the country,"LazareEloundouAssomo, director of world heritage at UNESCO, told AFP in an interview.He said these included a range of sites, including some from the earlymediaevalera to others seen as landmarks of early Soviet architecture."The number could rise still further,"EloundouAssomowarned, saying some areas were becoming accessible only now while others were the scene of intensifying fighting."Some of these sites and monuments will take time to rebuild and others probably cannot be rebuilt at all."
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia violating humanitarian law in Ukraine: OSCE
A report by the world's largest security body on Wednesday accused Russia of "clear patterns of international humanitarian law violations" in Ukraine.The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) report said if Russia had respected its international obligations after invading Ukraine on February 24, "the number of civilians killed or injured would have remained much lower".The 110-page report presented at the OSCE's permanent council meeting pointed at damaged and destroyed houses, hospitals, schools, water stations and other infrastructure.The three experts who wrote the report, which included information from NGOs on the ground, said given the timeline and scope of their mission it was not possible to identify war crimes."Nevertheless, the mission found clear patterns of international humanitarian law violations by the Russian forces in their conduct of hostilities," the report said.The mission was set up following a request by Ukraine on March 3. It covers the period from the invasion on February 24 to April 1, before images of bodies emerged as Russia withdrew from the town of Bucha and elsewhere in northern Ukraine.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | 'Ukraine is a crime scene': ICC chief prosecutor
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor visited the town of Bucha on Wednesday -- the scene of hundreds of civilian killings which Ukraine has blamed on Russian forces who occupied it for several weeks. "Ukraine is a crime scene. We're here because we have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed. We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth," Karim Khan told reporters.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Dnipro official says 1,500 killed Russian soldiers in city morgues
An official in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, which has largely escaped fighting with invading forces, said Wednesday that the remains of more than 1,500 Russian soldiers were being kept in its morgues."Now there are more than 1,500 dead Russian soldiers in the morgues of Dnipro that no one wants to retrieve," Dnipro deputy mayor Mikhail Lysenko told reporters, adding he hoped "Russian mothers will be able to come and pick up their sons".
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russian troops shoot dead seven people in Ukrainian village: Prosecutor
Russian troops shot dead six men and one woman in a home in a village near the frontline in southern Ukraine and then blew up the building to hide the evidence, Ukrainian prosecutors said on Wednesday."On April 12 in the village of Pravdyne, Russian soldiers shot dead six men and one woman in a residential home. After this, intending to hide their crime, the occupiers blew up the building with the bodies," prosecutors said in a statement.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russian gas stop promises 'sharp recession' for Germany
An immediate end to Russian energy imports would send Germany into "sharp recession" next year, the country's leading economic institutes said in a forecast published Wednesday.Persistently higher energy prices and geopolitical risks herald the beginning of a new era for Europe's industrial powerhouse, they warned, one which not every company will survive."Not all business models that were profitable in Germany in the past will have a future," Stefan Kooths, vice-president of the IfW Kiel institute, said at a Berlin press conference.The government must keep this in mind when it considers support measures for struggling firms, he added.Germany, which is highly dependent on Russian gas for its energy needs, has so far resisted calls for a European boycott in response to the war in Ukraine.Closing the taps in "mid-April" this year would limit growth to 1.9 percent in 2022 and push Germany into a recession in 2023, causing the economy to shrink by 2.2 percent, according to the forecast.The impact of a boycott would "not be overcome" over the next two years, the institutes (DIW, Ifo, IfW Kiel, IWH and RWI) said in a joint statement.Europe's largest economy could yet suffer a "set back" at the end of 2023 into 2024, as demand for energy rises in the European winter, before "gradually" returning to growth.Before Moscow began its war in Ukraine, a third of Germany's oil imports, 45 percent of its coal purchases and 55 percent of gas imports came via pipelines from Russia.The country has set about weaning itself off Russia energy imports, accelerating investments in renewables and building LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals on the North Sea coast to import gas from further afield, though they would take years to come online.Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at the end of March that it would likely take until mid-2024 for Europe's largest economy to wean itself off Russian deliveries.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | More than 1,000 Ukraine marines surrender in key port of Mariupol, says Russia
More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the besieged port of Mariupol, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday of Moscow's main target in the eastern Donbas region which it has yet to bring under its control. If the Russians take the Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, they would be in full control of Mariupol, which would allow Russia to reinforce a land corridor between separatist-held eastern areas and the Crimea region that it seized and annexed in 2014. Surrounded by Russian troops for weeks, Mariupol would be the first major city to fall since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, with the battle for the industrial heartland of Donbas likely to define the course of the war. Ukraine's general staff said that Russian forces were proceeding with attacks on Azovstal and the port, but a defence ministry spokesman said he had no information about any surrender. Reuters journalists accompanying Russian-backed separatists saw flames billowing from the Azovstal district on Tuesday. On Monday, the 36th Marine Brigade said it was preparing for a final battle in Mariupol that would end in death or capture as its troops had run out of ammunition. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in Mariupol and Russia has been massing thousands of troops in the area for a new assault, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Ukraine says tens of thousands of civilians have been trapped inside the city with no way to bring in food or water, and accuses Russia of blocking aid convoys.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russian shelling kills 7 in Ukraine's Kharkiv region
Seven civilians have been killed by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine over the past 24 hours, the regional governor said on Wednesday."Twenty-two civilians, including three children, have been injured during shelling of the region. Seven people have died. A two-year-old boy injured by shelling a few days ago has died in hospital," the governor, Oleg Synegubov, said on social media.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Leaders of Poland and Baltic states head to Kyiv, will discuss military assistance
The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are on their way to Kyiv to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an adviser to the Polish leader said on Wednesday. The four join a growing number of European politicians to visit the Ukrainian capital since Russian forces were driven away from the country's north earlier this month. "Heading to Kyiv with a strong message of political support and military assistance," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda tweeted on Wednesday, along with a picture of the presidents next to a train. The meeting will focus on ways to assist civilians and the military in Ukraine, as well as with investigations of war crimes, said a spokesperson for Estonian President Alar Karis. It comes the day after U.S. President Joe Biden said Moscow's invasion of Ukraine amounted to genocide, while President Vladimir Putin promised Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation and achieve its goals. The four presidents' offices declined to provide details of the visit for security reasons.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Macron urges caution after Biden 'genocide' claim against Russia
French President Emmanuel Macron declined Wednesday to repeat President Joe Biden's accusation that Russia was carrying out "genocide" against Ukrainians, warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war.Biden had accused Vladimir Putin's forces on Tuesday of committing genocide in Ukraine, saying it has "become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian."But speaking to France 2 television as he ramps up his re-election campaign against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron said leaders should be careful with language."I would say that Russia unilaterally unleashed the most brutal war, that it is now established that war crimes were committed by the Russian army and that it is now necessary to find those responsible and make them face justice," Macron said."It's madness what's happening, it's incredibly brutal," he added."But at the same time I look at the facts and I want to try as much as possible to continue to be able to stop this war and to rebuild peace. I'm not sure that verbal escalations serve this cause," he said.Macron said it was best to be "careful" with the terminology on genocide in this situations, especially as "the Ukrainians and Russians are brotherly peoples". Biden's comments were welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has repeatedly accused Moscow of genocide since the invasion was launched on February 24. The comments by Macron, who has kept dialogue going with Putin during the conflict, echo concerns the French leader expressed last month after Biden called Putin a "butcher".Macron responded at the time that the priority was to achieve a ceasefire through diplomacy, and "if we want to do that, we can't escalate either in words or actions".In his interview with France 2, Macron indicated he would be holding new telephone talks with both Putin and Zelensky in the coming days.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Finland risks Russia's ire with NATO membership debate
Rattled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland will kickstart a debate Wednesday that could lead to seeking NATO membership, a move that would infuriate Moscow. The assault on Ukraine sparked a dramatic U-turn in public and political opinion in Finland and neighbouring Sweden regarding their long-held policies of military non-alignment.
Attempting to join NATO would almost certainly be seen as a provocation by Moscow, for whom the alliance's expansion on its borders has been a prime security grievance. A government-commissioned report released Wednesday will examine the "fundamentally changed" security environment, according to Finland's foreign ministry, and will make its way through parliament.
An opening debate is planned for a week later. It is expected to analyse different security options for Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia. Former prime minister and long-time NATO advocate Alexander Stubb believes Finland making a membership application is "a foregone conclusion". Finland has a long history with Russia. In 1917 it declared independence after 150 years of Russian rule.
During World War II, its vastly outnumbered army fought off a Soviet invasion, before a peace deal saw it cede several border areas to the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, Finland remained neutral in exchange for guarantees from Moscow that it would not invade.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Kyiv wants Scholz visit and arms, not president
A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday said Kyiv wanted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to visit and pledge more arms deliveries, explaining a snub to Berlin's head of state. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted on Tuesday he had offered to visit Ukraine with other EU leaders, but Kyiv had told him he was not welcome right now.
The move against Steinmeier, a former foreign minister who recently apologised for a too conciliatory stance toward Moscow in the past, was widely seen as a diplomatic affront in Germany. Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych told German public television on Wednesday it had not been Zelensky's intention to offend Berlin.
"I think the main argument was different -- our president expects the chancellor so that he (Scholz) can take direct practical decisions, including weapons deliveries," he told broadcaster ZDF. The German president has a largely ceremonial role while the chancellor heads the government. Arestovych said the fate of the strategic port city of Mariupol and the civilian population of eastern Ukraine "depends on the German weapons we could get", but that have not been promised. Time is of the essence because "every minute that a tank doesn't arrive... it is our children who are dying, being raped, being killed", Arestovych said.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | For Jews fleeing Ukraine, Passover takes on new meaning
“Good morning! Happy morning!” Rabbi Avraham Wolff exclaimed, with a big smile, as he walked into the Chabad synagogue in Odesa on a recent morning. Russian missiles had just struck an oil refinery in the Ukrainian city, turning the sky charcoal gray. Hundreds were lining up outside his synagogue hoping to receive a kilo of matzah each for their Passover dinner tables. The unleavened flatbread, imperative at the ritual meal known as a Seder, is now hard to find in war-torn Ukraine amid the war and a crippling food shortage.
But the rabbi wanted no challenge to get him down — be it the lack of matzah or that he was missing his wife and children who had fled the Black Sea port for Berlin days ago. “I need to smile for my community,” Wolff said. “We need humor. We need hope.”
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews have fled while about 80% remain in Ukraine, according to estimates from Chabad, one of the largest Hasidic Jewish organizations in the world. Inside and outside Ukraine, a nation steeped in Jewish history and heritage, people are preparing to celebrate Passover, which begins sundown on April 15. It’s been a challenge, to say the least.
The holiday marks the liberation of Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt, and their exodus under the leadership of Moses. The story is taking on special meaning for thousands of Jewish Ukrainian refugees who are living a dramatic story in real time.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Over 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers surrender in Mariupol: Russia
Russia's defence ministry said Wednesday more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered in Mariupol, a strategic port city in eastern Ukraine that has been besieged by Moscow's troops for over a month. "In the city of Mariupol... 1,026 Ukrainian servicemen of the 36th Marine Brigade voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered," the ministry said in a statement.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Mayor exhumed as Ukraine confronts grim cost of war
The funeral of the Gostomel mayor plays out in reverse. His body is pulled out from the ground, the crowd of mourners disperses, then a priest hugs his weeping wife and says a few kind words. Yuriy Prylypko "was a great patriot, a great man", says Father Petro Pavlenko. "He was loved." Prylypko was killed on March 7, after Russian forces rolled into the Kyiv commuter town he managed. The municipal council said he was shot dead while "handing out bread to the hungry and medicine to the sick".
Pavlenko collected his buckled corpse in a wheelbarrow and oversaw a burial in a shallow grave between the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin and a pistachio green local government building. On Tuesday, AFP saw the grave exhumed as Ukrainian war crime investigators opened a probe. Workers hauled the mayor from the earth using a wide yellow cord. Police videotaped his wounds, including a bloody head injury. His wife Valentyna wept as a group of around 30 mourners looked solemnly on. Then the body was sealed in a crumpled black body bag and placed in a van.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Over 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers surrender in Mariupol: Russia
Russia's defence ministry said Wednesday more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered in Mariupol, a strategic port city in eastern Ukraine that has been besieged by Moscow's troops for over a month. "In the city of Mariupol... 1,026 Ukrainian servicemen of the 36th Marine Brigade voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered," the ministry said in a statement.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | 'Too dangerous' for humanitarian corridors today
: UkraineUkraine said Wednesday it was halting all humanitarian corridors allowing for the evacuation of civilians from war-scarred regions of the country, accusing Russian forces of violating agreements to allow people to flee. "Unfortunately, we are not opening them today. The situation along the routes is too dangerous and we are forced to refrain from opening humanitarian corridors today," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Allied leaders going to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia say they are headed for Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Twitter posts by the leaders on Wednesday showed them standing outside a Ukrainian railroad passenger car, but did not give details about the trip. “We are visiting Ukraine to show strong support to the Ukrainian people, will meet dear friend President Zelenskyy,“ Estonian President Alar Karis said in his post. Polish President Andrzej Duda, Lithuania’s Gitanas Nauseda and Egils Levits of Latvia also are on the trip.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine team hope BJK Cup tie will bring distraction from war
Ukraine's players hope to provide some much-needed distraction for their compatriots this week when they face the United States in the Billie Jean King Cup but concede it is difficult to keep their thoughts from drifting to the war back home. The two teams will meet on Friday and Saturday in Asheville, North Carolina in a qualifier for the BJK Finals in November, with the tie being held against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special operation".
Ukraine captain Olga Savchuk and team member Katarina Zavatska said if they go on to win the Finals later in the year, they would happily swap the trophy for peace in their country. "We also think at least maybe our match, our tie, will give our people some things to get their mind off," Savchuk told reporters on Tuesday. "It's probably impossible, but at least some hope. I think it's also very important that we play, we fight and we try to win."
The seven governing bodies of tennis have each donated $100,000 to relief efforts in Ukraine while the United States Tennis Association will contribute a further 10% of their overall ticket revenue from this week's qualifier. King, a 12-times Grand Slam singles champion in whose honour the revamped Fed Cup was renamed, will be donating $50,000.
Former world number 103 Zavatska said her mother, grandmother and some others moved to her apartment in France, where she trains, during the first week of the war. "It's very tough. Every day it's tough. There is no one day that we don't think about it," said the 22-year-old, whose father and some other family members remain in the western Ukrainian city of Rivne.
"First week it was tough to do anything. Just to be even around, I don't know, surrounded by people, who listen to music, who laugh, who live, who talk, it was impossible. I understand people have to live, but at that time ... "What I can do is play tournaments, earn money, send this to my family to help them because nobody has a job right now there in my family. Everybody is just home. They have nothing to do to earn."
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia heads for Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia say they are headed for Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Twitter posts by the leaders on Wednesday showed them standing outside a Ukrainian railroad passenger car, but did not give details about the trip. “We are visiting Ukraine to show strong support to the Ukrainian people, will meet dear friend President Zelenskyy,“ Estonian President Alar Karis said in his post. Polish President Andrzej Duda, Lithuania’s Gitanas Nauseda and Egils Levits of Latvia also are on the trip.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Finland risks Russia's ire with NATO membership debate
Rattled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland will kickstart a debate Wednesday that could lead to seeking NATO membership, a move that would infuriate Moscow. The assault on Ukraine sparked a dramatic U-turn in public and political opinion in Finland and neighbouring Sweden regarding their long-held policies of military non-alignment.
Attempting to join NATO would almost certainly be seen as a provocation by Moscow, for whom the alliance's expansion on its borders has been a prime security grievance. A government-commissioned report released Wednesday will examine the "fundamentally changed" security environment, according to Finland's foreign ministry, and will make its way through parliament.
An opening debate is planned for a week later. It is expected to analyse different security options for Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia. Former prime minister and long-time NATO advocate Alexander Stubb believes Finland making a membership application is "a foregone conclusion". Finland has a long history with Russia. In 1917 it declared independence after 150 years of Russian rule.
During World War II, its vastly outnumbered army fought off a Soviet invasion, before a peace deal saw it cede several border areas to the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, Finland remained neutral in exchange for guarantees from Moscow that it would not invade.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov says over 1,000 Ukrainian marines surrender in Mariupol
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered in the besieged port city of Mariupol and urged remaining forces holed up in the Azovstal steel mill to surrender. There was no comment from Ukrainian officials on the statement made on Kadyrov's Telegram channel. Ukraine's General Staff, in its morning report on Wednesday, said that Russian forces were proceeding with attacks on Azovstal and the port.
Russian television showed pictures of what it said were marines giving themselves up at Illich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol on Tuesday, many of them injured. It was not clear what plant - Azovstal or Illich Iron and Steel Works - Kadyrov meant when he talked about the 1,000 surrendered Ukrainian marines. "Within Azovstal at the moment there are about 200 wounded who cannot receive any medical assistance," Kadyrov said in his post. "For them and all the rest it would be better to end this pointless resistance and go home to their families."
Kadyrov is an ardent supporter of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and has deployed many of his fighters in Ukraine to bolster Russia's drive to "demilitarise" and "denazify" Ukraine. In earlier postings, he vowed to proceed with the capture of Mariupol and to press on to take all other Ukrainian cities, including KyivRussian television pictures showed what it said were Ukrainian soldiers being marched down a road with their hands in the air. One of the soldiers was shown holding a Ukrainian passport.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Joe Biden says Russia committing genocide in Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, as President Vladimir Putin said Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation and achieve its goals. Biden used the term genocide, a significant escalation of the presidents rhetoric, in a speech at an ethanol plant in Iowa and later stood by the description as he prepared to board Air Force One.
Yes, I called it genocide because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian and the evidence is mounting," Biden told reporters on Tuesday. "We'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me." Biden has repeatedly called Putin a war criminal, but Tuesday was the first time he had accused Russia of genocide.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and has said Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes are made up to discredit Russian forces. Many of the towns Russia has retreated from in northern Ukraine were littered with the bodies of civilians killed in what Kyiv says was a campaign of murder, torture and rape. The Kremlin says it launched a "special military operation" on Feb. 24 to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext.
Moscow's nearly seven-week long incursion, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has seen more than 4.6 million people flee abroad, killed or injured thousands and led to Russia's near total isolation on the world stage. Putin on Tuesday used his first public comments on the conflict in more than a week to say Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation, and expressed confidence his goals, including on security, would be achieved.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Mariupol's tunnel warriors seek to slow Russian onslaught
As Russian forces close in on the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, a small number of resistance fighters hope to slow them down using a tunnel system below a vast industrial site as their base. Experts say the fall of the city, seen as strategically vital for Russian plans to attack eastern Ukraine, is inevitable. But holdouts in their underground bases hope to make conquering the Sea of Azov port as hard as possible for the attackers.
The urban landscape where the Ukrainian resistance plans to take on the invaders seems almost tailor-made for guerrilla warfare, with sprawling rail lines, warehouses, coal furnaces, factories, chimneys and tunnels. The maze-like area is a metal works complex, Azovstal, owned by Metinvest, which is run by Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov. It has been the focus of urban fighting in Mariupol, just like the nearby Azovmash factory which makes rail components, cranes and other large metal structures. "It's a city within a city," said Eduard Basurin, a representative for pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Mayor exhumed as Ukraine confronts grim cost of war
The funeral of the Gostomel mayor plays out in reverse. His body is pulled out from the ground, the crowd of mourners disperses, then a priest hugs his weeping wife and says a few kind words. Yuriy Prylypko "was a great patriot, a great man", says Father Petro Pavlenko. "He was loved." Prylypko was killed on March 7, after Russian forces rolled into the Kyiv commuter town he managed. The municipal council said he was shot dead while "handing out bread to the hungry and medicine to the sick".
Pavlenko collected his buckled corpse in a wheelbarrow and oversaw a burial in a shallow grave between the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin and a pistachio green local government building. On Tuesday, AFP saw the grave exhumed as Ukrainian war crime investigators opened a probe. Workers hauled the mayor from the earth using a wide yellow cord. Police videotaped his wounds, including a bloody head injury. His wife Valentyna wept as a group of around 30 mourners looked solemnly on. Then the body was sealed in a crumpled black body bag and placed in a van.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Vladimir Putin vows war will continue as Russian troops mount in east
Russia vowed to continue its bloody offensive in Ukraine as the war neared its seventh week Wednesday, as President Vladimir Putin insisted the campaign was going as planned despite a major withdrawal and significant losses. Thwarted in their push toward the capital, Kyiv, Russian troops focused on the eastern region of Donbas, where Ukraine said it was investigating a claim that a poisonous substance had been dropped on its troops. It was not clear what the substance might be, but Western officials warned that any use of chemical weapons by Russia would be a serious escalation of the already devastating war.
Russia invaded on Feb. 24 with the goal, according to Western officials, of taking Kyiv, toppling the government and installing a Moscow-friendly regime. In the six weeks since, the ground advance stalled and Russian forces lost potentially thousands of fighters and were accused of killing civilians and other atrocities. Putin said Tuesday that Moscow “had no other choice” and that the invasion aimed to protect people in parts of eastern Ukraine and to “ensure Russia’s own security.” He vowed it would “continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set.”
For now, Putin’s forces are gearing up for a major offensive in the Donbas, where Russian-allied separatists and Ukrainian forces have been fighting since 2014, and where Russia has recognized the separatists’ claims of independence. Military strategists say Moscow believes local support, logistics and the terrain in the region favor its larger, better-armed military, potentially allowing Russia to finally turn the tide in its favor.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Russia has yet to slow a Western arms express into Ukraine
Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia's initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching, potentially decisive, battle for Ukraine's contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express. The U.S. numbers alone are mounting: more than 12,000 weapons designed to defeat armored vehicles, some 1,400 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to shoot down aircraft, and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition, among many other things. Dozens of other nations are adding to the totals.
The Biden administration is preparing yet another, more diverse, package of military support possibly totaling $750 million to be announced in coming days, a senior U.S. defense official said Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans not yet publicly announced. The additional aid is a sign that the administration intends to continue expanding its support for Ukraine's war effort.
These armaments have helped an under-gunned Ukrainian military defy predictions that it would be quickly overrun by Russia. They explain in part why Vladimir Putin’s army gave up, at least for now, its attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital, and has narrowed its focus to battling for eastern and southern Ukraine.
U.S. officials and analysts offer numerous explanations for why the Russians have had so little success interdicting Western arms moving overland from neighboring countries, including Poland. Among the likely reasons: Russia's failure to win full control of Ukraine's skies has limited its use of air power. Also, the Russians have struggled to deliver weapons and supplies to their own troops in Ukraine.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Joe Biden says Russia committing genocide in Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, as President Vladimir Putin said Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation and achieve its goals. Biden used the term genocide, a significant escalation of the presidents rhetoric, in a speech at an ethanol plant in Iowa and later stood by the description as he prepared to board Air Force One.
Yes, I called it genocide because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian and the evidence is mounting," Biden told reporters on Tuesday. "We'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me." Biden has repeatedly called Putin a war criminal, but Tuesday was the first time he had accused Russia of genocide.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and has said Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes are made up to discredit Russian forces.
Many of the towns Russia has retreated from in northern Ukraine were littered with the bodies of civilians killed in what Kyiv says was a campaign of murder, torture and rape. The Kremlin says it launched a "special military operation" on Feb. 24 to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | World Bank to send Ukraine $1.5 billion as food, energy prices spike
The World Bank is preparing a $1.5 billion support package for war-torn Ukraine and plans to aid developing countries struggling to keep up with surging food and energy prices, World Bank President David Malpass said on Tuesday. In remarks at the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland, Malpass said the bank was helping Ukraine provide critical services, including paying wages for hospital workers, pensions and social programs.
"The World Bank was created in 1944 to help Europe rebuild after World War Two. As we did then, we will be ready to help Ukraine with reconstruction when the time comes," Malpass said. Malpass said the package was enabled by Monday's approval of $1 billion in International Development Association (IDA) aid by donor and recipient countries, along with a $100 million IDA payment to neighboring Moldova.
The IDA disbursement plan still needs full approval by the World Bank's board of directors in coming weeks, a World Bank spokesperson said. Malpass did not specify the source of the additional $500 million for Ukraine. The aid comes on top of about $923 million in fast-disbursing financing approved by the World Bank last month, which also includes donor country contributions. That package includes $350 million in budget support financing from the World Bank's main lending arm, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Putin says peace talks with Ukraine are at dead end, goads the West
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday peace talks with Ukraine had hit a dead end, using his first public comments on the conflict in more than a week to vow that his troops would win and to goad the West for failing to bring Moscow to heel. Addressing the war in public for the first time since Russian forces retreated from northern Ukraine after they were halted at the gates of Kyiv, Putin promised that Russia would achieve all of its "noble" aims in Ukraine.
In the strongest signal to date that the war will grind on for longer, Putin said Kyiv had derailed peace talks by staging what he said were fake claims of Russian war crimes and by demanding security guarantees to cover the whole of Ukraine. "We have again returned to a dead-end situation for us," Putin, Russia's paramount leader since 1999, told a news briefing during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow.
Asked by Russian space agency workers if the operation in Ukraine would achieve its goals, Putin said: "Absolutely. I don't have any doubt at all." Russia, he said, would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation. Putin said Russia had no choice but to fight because it had to defend the Russian speakers of eastern Ukraine and prevent its former Soviet neighbour from becoming an anti-Russian springboard for Moscow's enemies.
The West has condemned the war as a brutal imperial-style land grab targeting a sovereign country. Ukraine says it is fighting for its survival after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and on Feb. 21 recognised two of its rebel regions as sovereign. Putin dismissed the West's sanctions, which have tipped Russia towards its worst economic contraction since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, as a failure.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | U.S. cannot confirm use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, Blinken says
The United States is not in position to confirm reports of the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine but was working to determine what actually happened, U.S. Secretary of State AntonyBlinkensaid on Tuesday.Ukraine said earlier it was checking unverified information that Russia may have used chemical weapons while besieging the city of Mariupol."We're in direct conversation with partners to try to determine what actually has happened,"Blinkentold reporters, adding that it had been a focus of concern even before Russia moved its troops into Ukraine.
A senior U.S. defense official on Tuesday said much the same thing about Mariupol, adding that the United States had no information to support the movement of chemical agents by Russia in or near Ukraine.U.S. President Joe Biden last month said Russia's unsubstantiated accusations thatKyivhad biological and chemical weapons suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin may be laying the groundwork to use them.
Chemical weapons production, use and stockpiling is banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Although condemned by human rights groups, white phosphorous is not banned under the convention.Russia'sdefenceministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Russian-backed separatist forces in the east denied using chemical weapons in Mariupol, theInterfaxnews agency reported."There is a theory that these could be phosphorous munitions," Ukraine's DeputyDefenceMinister HannaMalyarsaid on Tuesday.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukraine secret service says it has arrested top Putin ally
Ukraine's security services on Tuesday said they had arrested pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is President Vladimir Putin's closest and most influential ally in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier published a photo of a tired-looking and handcuffed Medvedchuk, who says Putin is godfather to his daughter.
In February, Kyiv said Medvedchuk, the leader of the Opposition Platform - For Life party, had escaped from house arrest. Last year authorities opened a treason case against Medvedchuk, who denies wrongdoing. "You can be a pro-Russian politician and work for the aggressor state for years. You may have been hiding from justice lately. You can even wear a Ukrainian military uniform for camouflage," the security services said in an online post.
"But will it help you escape punishment? Not at all! Shackles are waiting for you and same goes for traitors to Ukraine like you." The post cited Ivan Bakanov, head of the secret services, as saying his operatives had "conducted a lightning-fast and dangerous multi-level special operation" to arrest Medvedchuk but did not give details. Last month Zelenskiy said the Opposition Platform - For Life, which is Ukraine's largest opposition movement, and several other smaller political parties with ties to Russia had been suspended. A spokesperson for Medvedchuk was not immediately available for comment.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Joe Biden says Russia committing genocide in Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, as President Vladimir Putin said Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation and achieve its goals. Biden used the term genocide, a significant escalation of the presidents rhetoric, in a speech at an ethanol plant in Iowa and later stood by the description as he prepared to board Air Force One.
Yes, I called it genocide because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian and the evidence is mounting," Biden told reporters on Tuesday. "We'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me." Biden has repeatedly called Putin a war criminal, but Tuesday was the first time he had accused Russia of genocide.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and has said Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes are made up to discredit Russian forces. Many of the towns Russia has retreated from in northern Ukraine were littered with the bodies of civilians killed in what Kyiv says was a campaign of murder, torture and rape. The Kremlin says it launched a "special military operation" on Feb. 24 to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext.
Moscow's nearly seven-week long incursion, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has seen more than 4.6 million people flee abroad, killed or injured thousands and led to Russia's near total isolation on the world stage. Putin on Tuesday used his first public comments on the conflict in more than a week to say Russia would "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation, and expressed confidence his goals, including on security, would be achieved.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | US to announce $750 million more in weapons for Ukraine, officials say
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to announce as soon as Wednesday another $750 million in military assistance for Ukraine for its fight against Russian forces, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told Reuters. The equipment would be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, in which the president can authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency. One of the officials said final determinations were still being made about the mix of equipment. The White House said last week that it has provided more than $1.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Oil prices rise on tight supply outlook as Russia spurns peace talks
Oil prices climbed on Wednesday on worries that sliding output in sanctions-hit Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter, will tighten supply after Moscow said peace talks to resolve its invasion of Ukraine had come to a dead end. Brent crude futures rose 59 cents, or 0.6%, to $105.23 a barrel at 0053 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped 60 cents, or 0.6%, to $101.20 a barrel. Both contracts surged more than 6% in the previous session.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday blamed Ukraine for derailing peace talks, and said Moscow would not let up on what it calls a "special operation" to disarm its western neighbour. "Russian President Vladimir Putin said peace talks with Ukraine are 'at a dead end', while suggesting the seven-week offensive is going to plan. This raises the spectre of continued risk of supply disruptions in the oil market," ANZ oil analysts said in a note. The latest data showed Russian oil and gas condensate production dropped below 10 million bpd on Monday, its lowest level since July 2020, as sanctions imposed by many countries after Russia invaded Ukraine and logistical constraints hamper trade, people familiar with the data said on Tuesday.
Russia Ukraine News LIVE Updates | Ukrainian in Japan returns home to help parents, country
As millions of Ukrainians fled their country, a longtime Tokyo resident did the opposite. Sasha Kaverina left her life in Japan and rushed to Ukraine to rescue her parents after a Russian missile hit their apartment building. Kaverina's main goal in returning was to get her parents out of their hometown of Kharkiv, the second-largest city in battered eastern Ukraine, to a safer place in western Ukraine. But Kaverina, who had organized fund-raising and antiwar rallies in Japan for her homeland, also delivered medicine, first-aid kits and other relief goods.
Like many Ukrainian expats around the world, the war in her homeland has upended her life. Despite reports of horrendous Russian attacks, she said she is not afraid for herself, but for her parents and relatives. Because of her antiwar and pro-Ukraine activities in Japan, she fears that the Russians could persecute or kill those close to her if they return to Kharkiv, which is now under fierce attack and may fall under Russian control.
“A lot of Ukrainians are worried (that) if Russians occupy us, pro-Ukrainian people would be killed,” as they were in Bucha and other cities, she said in an online interview from Chernivtsi, a city in southwestern Ukraine near the border with Romania where she took her parents. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Since then, more than 4 million Ukrainians have fled the country and millions more have been displaced internally.
Kaverina's parents narrowly survived in early March when a Russian missile badly damaged their eighth-floor apartment in a 16-story building and forced them to evacuate to their relatives' home in the suburbs. After nearly two days on planes and buses, Kaverina made it to Chernivtsi, where she reunited with her parents, who had driven across the country from Kharkiv to meet her.
