What’s happening in Ukraine today and how are countries around the world responding? Read live updates on Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Russia intends to respond to U.S. sanctions against President Vladimir Putin’s daughters as it sees fit.
"Russia will definitely respond, and will do it as it sees fit," Peskov said Thursday.
The U.S. on Wednesday announced that it is sanctioning Putin’s two adult daughters as part of a new batch of penalties on the country’s political and economic systems in retaliation for its alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Peskov told a conference call with reporters that the sanctions "add to a completely frantic line of various restrictions" and the fact that the restrictions target family members "speaks for itself."
"This is something that is difficult to understand and explain. But, unfortunately, we have to deal with such opponents," Peskov said.
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BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s meeting in Kyiv with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to take place on Friday.
EU commission chief spokesman Eric Mamer said that von der Leyen will convey a message of "complete solidarity" and will reiterate the support provided by the 27-nation bloc to Ukraine.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell will also be on the trip.
Von der Leyen is the second president of an EU institution to travel to Ukraine following the trip by EU Parliament president Roberta Metsola last week.
Von der Leyen’s visit will come a day before she attends a pledging event in favour of Ukraine in Warsaw.
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LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain’s new energy strategy will ensure that his country won’t be subjected to "blackmail" by outsiders such as Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Speaking outside the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, Johnson said Thursday that the U.K. will take a "sensible and pragmatic view" on domestic hydrocarbons. He says that the country will "license stuff in the North Sea, rather than importing higher carbon fossil fuels from Russia."
Johnson says the strategy is meant to make certain the country is "never again subject to the vagaries of the global oil and gas prices and … subject to blackmail, as it were, from people such as Vladimir Putin."
The strategy comes after oil and natural gas prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid concerns that energy supplies could be curtailed.
High energy prices are fuelling a cost-of-living crisis in Britain, where household gas and electricity prices jumped 54% this month.
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ATHENS, Greece — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country needs anti-aircraft defence systems, artillery systems, munitions and armoured vehicles to hold Russia’s invasion at bay.
"The sooner Ukraine receives this help, the more lives we can save in Ukraine," Zelenskyy said in an address to Greek parliament Thursday.
Zelenskyy emphasized the destruction wrought on the southern port city of Mariupol, home to a sizeable Greek-Ukrainian community, and urged Greece to help prevent the same fate befalling Odesa, another Ukrainian port city with deep ties to Greece.
The Ukrainian president called for sanctions on all Russian banks and a ban on Russian ships from entering ports as a way of hindering Russia’s ability to finance the war.
"Russia is absolutely confident in its invincibility and that they could do whatever they want without going unpunished. We have to stop it. We must bring Russia to justice," Zelenskyy said.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Satellite photos show a Ukrainian naval vessel on fire in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
The images from Planet Labs PBC, analyzed Thursday by The Associated Press, appear to show the Ukrainian command ship Donbas ablaze at the port, as a nearby building also burned around 2:30 p.m. local time Wednesday.
The cause of the fire remained unclear.
Russian forces are strangling the city on the Sea of Azov as they press forward in their war that began Feb. 24. Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine had accused Ukrainian forces of setting fire to the vessel as a "provocation" to "discredit the Russian military."
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities on the blaze.
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LONDON — Britain’s defence ministry says Russia is bombarding infrastructure targets to wear down Ukraine’s government and military as it prepares for a renewed assault on the country’s east.
The ministry said in an intelligence update Thursday that "progressing offensive operations in eastern Ukraine is the main focus of Russian military forces."
It says Russia is targeting the "line of control" between Ukrainian-held areas in the Donbas and those held by Russia-supporting separatists with artillery and airstrikes.
The Russian military is also targeting infrastructure in the Ukrainian interior "to degrade the ability of the Ukrainian military to resupply and increase pressure on the Ukrainian government."
Even so, the U.K. says that "Russian forces are likely to continue facing morale issues and shortages of supplies and personnel."
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine is accusing Hungary of undermining the unity of the European Union by supporting Moscow as Russia presses its invasion.
Hungary is an EU member, and Ukraine wants to join the 27-nation bloc. Ukrainian officials are angry about Hungary’s response to evidence that Russian troops killed people indiscriminately before recently retreating from in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, which the EU has condemned.
Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said Thursday that "Hungary’s reluctance to acknowledge Russia’s responsibility for atrocities in Bucha strengthens Russia’s sense of impunity and encourages it to commit new crimes."
Nikolenko also blasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s statement about Hungary’s readiness to pay for the Russian gas in rubles, describing it as unfriendly and flying in the face of the EU’s rejection of Moscow’s currency demand.
In a statement, Nikolenko dismissed Orban’s offer to host talks between Russia and Ukraine as cynical, saying that "if Hungary wants to help end the war, it must stop damaging EU unity, support new sanctions, offer military assistance to Ukraine and stop creating additional resources to finance the Russian war machine."
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says Russian forces have agreed on 10 humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians in three eastern regions of Ukraine on Thursday.
Russia is expected to intensify its military campaign for control of Ukraine’s industrial east in coming days and weeks, and Ukraine has appealed to NATO for more weapons to help stop it.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said civilians from the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions will be able to evacuate to the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut.
Vereshchuk said on the messaging app Telegram that it would be possible to travel from Mariupol and Enerhodar to Zaporizhzhia by car and from Berdyansk, Tokmak and Melitopol by car and on buses.
Evacuations to Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk region, will take place in Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna, Girske and Rubizhne of the Luhansk region.
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BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is calling on members of the organization to provide more weapons for Ukraine and not just defensive anti-tank and anti-craft arms.
As NATO defence ministers gathered in Brussels on Thursday, Stoltenberg said "I have urged allies to provide further support of many different types of systems, both light weapons but also heavier weapons."
Stoltenberg says that NATO countries, but not NATO as an organization, are supplying many kinds of arms and other support to Ukraine but that the 30 allies can do more.
He says that "Ukraine is fighting a defensive war, so this distinction between offensive and defensive weapons doesn’t actually have any real meaning."
Stoltenberg is insisting that it is also important for NATO not to be dragged into a wider war with Russia.
"NATO is not sending troops to be on the ground. We also have a responsibility to prevent this conflict from escalating beyond Ukraine, and become even more deadly, even more dangerous and destructive," he said.
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BRUSSELS — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is appealing to NATO to provide his war-torn country with weapons to help avoid further atrocities like those reported in the town of Bucha this week.
Arriving at NATO headquarters Thursday for talks with the military organization’s foreign ministers, Kuleba said: "My agenda is very simple: it’s weapons, weapons and weapons."
Kuleba says that "we know how to fight. We know how to win. But without sustainable and sufficient supplies requested by Ukraine, these wins will be accompanied by enormous sacrifices."
"The more weapons we get and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved."
He urged Germany in particular to go further, and speed the dispatch of sorely xjmtzywneeded equipment and arms, saying that "while Berlin has time, Kyiv doesn’t."
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate will take up legislation Thursday to end normal trade relations with Russia and to ban the importation of its oil.
Both bills have been bogged down in the Senate, frustrating lawmakers who want to ratchet up the U.S. response to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to be held accountable for what Schumer said were war crimes against Ukraine.
The trade suspension measure paves the way for President Joe Biden to enact higher tariffs on certain Russian imports.
The bill banning Russian oil would codify restrictions Biden has already put in place through executive action.
In a virtual speech to Congress last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said "new packages of sanctions are needed constantly every week until the Russian military machine stops."
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Men ride bicycles by a destroyed apartment building in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on April 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
