What’s happening in Ukraine on Thursday and how are countries around the world responding? Read live updates on Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
CANBERRA, Australia — The first of 20 Bushmaster armored vehicles has left Australia for Ukraine, one week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically requested the Australian-manufactured four-wheel drives.
A Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport jet that can carry four Bushmasters left the east coast city of Brisbane for Europe on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
The 20 Bushmasters cost 50 million in Australian dollars, which is US$37 million in U.S. dollars.
The vehicles are in addition to $116 million in Australian dollars ($87 million in U.S. dollars) in military and humanitarian aid previously committed to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy requested Bushmasters when he made a video address to the Australian Parliament on March 31.
“And as soon as he asked, we said yes,” Morrison said.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is levying sanctions against Russia’s largest military shipbuilding and diamond mining companies.
The move blocks their access to the U.S. financial system as the United States looks to exact more economic pain on President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.
Alrosa is the world’s largest diamond mining company and accounts for about 90% of Russia’s diamond mining capacity, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Alrosa generated over US$4.2 billion in revenue in 2021. Diamonds are one of Russia’s top 10 non-energy exports by value.
The State Department also said it was blacklisting the United Shipbuilding Corporation, as well as its subsidiaries and board members.
The moves against the two-state owned companies come a day after the U.S. announced it was targeting the two adult daughters of President Vladimir Putin, two of Russia’s largest banks and banning new American investment in Russia.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday night that work has begun to dig through the rubble in Borodianka, another city northwest of Kyiv that was occupied by the Russians.
He also said “it is much scarier” there, with even more victims of the Russian troops.
In his daily nighttime video address to the nation Thursday, Zelenskyy said the Russians were preparing to shock the world in the same way by showing corpses in Mariupol and falsely claiming they were killed by the Ukrainian defenders.
Meanwhile, Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said Thursday on Ukrainian television that investigators have found at least three sites of mass shootings of civilians during the Russian occupation.
Fedoruk said hundreds have been killed and investigators are finding bodies in yards, parks and city squares.
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PHOENIX — A Ukrainian diplomat pleaded for the United States to send weapons to his beleaguered nation in a speech to the Arizona Legislature on Thursday.
Dmytro Kushneruk, Ukraine’s consul general in San Francisco, told Arizona lawmakers that Ukraine needs three things to repel Russian invaders and prevent more civilian deaths — “weapons, weapons and weapons.”
Kushneruk said it’s a “war for the soul of humanity” and time is of the essence as Russia regroups for an expected offensive on the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine.
According to Kushneruk, prompt American help will save civilian lives and he pleaded for people not to look away even as the war drags on.
Kushneruk said Ukraine needs planes, anti-aircraft systems, heavy artillery, tanks, rockets systems and long-range missiles that can target Russian ships in the Black Sea.
The speech continued the outreach by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government to political and cultural institutions around the world.
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WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden called the United Nations’ vote Thursday to suspend Russia from the body’s Human Rights Council “a meaningful step by the international community.”
He also says that it “further demonstrates how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war has made Russia an international pariah.”
The UN General Assembly has suspended Russia from the UN’s leading human rights body over allegations of horrific rights violations by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Thursday’s vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions
The United States and Ukraine have called Russia’s alleged rights violations tantamount to war crimes.
In a statement, Biden said the images out of Bucha and other areas of Ukraine as Russian troops withdraw are “horrifying” and “an outrage to our common humanity.”
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BRUSSELS – European Council president Charles Michel says the bloc’s top diplomat has proposed adding an additional 500 million euros (US$544 million) to Ukraine under the “European Peace Facility,” the fund which has been used for the first time during the war to deliver defensive lethal weapons to a third country.
The EU has previously agreed to spend 1 billion euros (US$1.1 billion) on military supplies for Ukrainian forces in an unprecedented step of collectively supplying weapons to a country under attack.
EU countries and NATO have so far excluded the option of a direct military intervention in Ukraine.
“Once swiftly approved this will bring to 1.5 billion the EU support already provided for military equipment for Ukraine,” Michel said in a message posted on Twitter in which he thanked EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell Josep Borrell.
The proposal needs to be approved by the 27 EU countries. The EU said the instrument should help Ukraine armed forces “defend the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty” and protect the civilian population.
The World Health Organization has verified more than 100 “attacks on health care” in Ukraine since the country was first invaded more than a month ago, the organization’s top official said Thursday.
At least 103 attacks on hospitals and other health-care facilities in the country, and at least 73 were killed and 51 injured in those incidents, said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
The toll includes medical workers as well as patients, he said.
He praised the United States for supporting international health efforts in Ukraine, including the delivery of more 180 metric tons of medical supplies to hard-hit areas. “We are outraged that attacks on health care (in Ukraine) continue,” he said.
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BRUSSELS – European Union nations have approved new sanctions against Russia, including an EU embargo on coal imports in the wake of evidence of torture and killings emerging from war zones outside Kyiv.
The ban on coal imports will be the first EU sanctions targeting Russia’s lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine, said an official on condition of anonymity because the official announcement had not yet been made.
The EU ban on coal is estimated to be worth 4 billion euros (US$4.4 billion) per year. In the meantime, the EU has already started working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports.
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PARIS — The International Energy Agency says its member countries are releasing 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves on top of previous U.S. pledges to take aim at energy prices that have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Paris-based organization said Thursday that the new commitments made by its 31 member nations, which include the United States and much of Europe, amount to a total of 120 million barrels over six months. It’s the largest release in the group’s history.
Half of that will come from the U.S. as part of the larger release from its strategic petroleum reserve that President Joe Biden announced last week.
The IEA agreed last Friday to add to the amount of oil hitting the global market. It comes on top of the 62.7 million barrels that the agency’s members said they would release last month to ease shortages.
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly voted to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, ratcheting up the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid reports of atrocities.
House action came Thursday after the Senate approved the two bills and the measures now go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
Biden has already taken executive action to ban Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal to the United States. The legislation puts the effort into law.
The bill to end normal trade relations with Russia paves the way for Biden to enact higher tariffs on various imports, such as certain steel and aluminum products, further weakening the Russian economy under President Vladimir Putin. It also ensures Belarus receives less favourable tariff treatment.
The bills also provide the president with the authority to return normal tariff treatment for Russia as well as resume trade in Russian energy products subject to certain conditions.
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LONDON – Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson have discussed the need for ending imports of energy sources from Russia as a form of tough sanctions on Moscow for its brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Following his talks with Johnson Thursday, Duda said they also analyzed a proposal for Europe to levy additional taxes on Russian gas, oil and coal until the imports are ended.
The U.K. said it will stop importing Russian coal and oil by the end of this year and gas imports will cease soon after. Poland is to end Russian coal imports by May, gas by the year’s end and oil in 2023, possibly.
“Russia is not a credible partner and we should not assume that it will ever be,” Duda told reporters.
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NICOSIA, Cyprus – Ukraine’s president has asked Cypriot lawmakers to ratchet up pressure on Russia by shutting Cypriot ports to all Russian ships, and to stop granting Russian businessmen conveniences including Cypriot citizenship.
Addressing the Cypriot Parliament Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the east Mediterranean island nation for its humanitarian and financial aid and spoke of the destruction and death the Russian invasion has wrought. He warned that the killings of civilians that happened in the town of Bucha may be happening elsewhere.
Zelenskyy also pleaded for backing from Cyprus in Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union. He said EU membership for Ukraine would help strengthen the 27-member bloc.
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STOCKHOLM — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has urged European Union members to stay together and not decide unilaterally on imposing sanctions against Russia.
"We have been successful by being together. My plea is that we move forward together," von der Leyen said during a visit to Stockholm where she met with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
The EU chief on Friday will travel to Kyiv to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Saturday, she attends a pledging event in favour of Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland.
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PODGORICA, Montenegro — NATO-member Montenegro is joining a number of countries that expelled Russian diplomats over the past week.
The foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday that the four diplomats have a week to leave the small Balkan nation.
The decision is based on information provided by security authorities about the diplomats’ activities in Montenegro, the ministry said. No other details were immediately available.
Montenegro last month expelled another Russian diplomat. Local media said at the time that he was believed to be an intelligence officer.
Montenegro is not a member of the European Union but has joined Western sanctions against Moscow.
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LONDON — Pink Floyd are releasing their first new music in almost three decades to raise money for the people of Ukraine.
"Hey Hey Rise Up" features group members David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the band BoomBox. It’s Pink Floyd’s first original recording since "The Division Bell" in 1994.
The song features Khlyvnyuk singing a patriotic Ukrainian song, from a clip he recorded in front of Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral and posted on social media.
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UNITED NATIONS — The UN General Assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the UN’s leading human rights body over allegations of horrific rights violations by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, which the United States and Ukraine have called tantamount to war crimes.
Russia is the second country to have its membership rights stripped at the Human Rights Council, which was established in 2006. In 2011, the assembly suspended Libya when upheaval in the North African country brought down longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The vote on Thursday was 93-24 with 58 abstentions. That is significantly lower than votes on two resolutions the assembly adopted last month demanding an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, withdrawal of all Russian troops and protection for civilians. Both resolutions were approved by at least 140 nations.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield launched the campaign to suspend Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council in the wake of videos and photos of streets in the Ukrainian town of Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians after Russian soldiers retreated. The deaths have sparked global revulsion and calls for tougher sanctions on Russia, which has denied its troops were responsible.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. moved Thursday to choke off U.S. exports to three Russian airlines as part of what officials described as an unprecedented enforcement action.
The Commerce Department said the move would prevent the Russian national flag carrier Aeroflot, Utair and Azur Air from receiving items from the U.S., including parts to service their aircraft.
Matthew Axelrod, an assistant commerce secretary for export enforcement, told reporters the sanctioned airlines will largely be unable to continue to fly since they will be cut off from the parts and services needed to maintain their fleets.
The actions, known as temporary denial orders, do allow the Commerce Department to grant exceptions when the safety of a flight would be at risk. The orders extend for 180 days, though they can be renewed.
The private sector has also taken its own action against Russian airlines in response to the war against Ukraine, with Delta Air Lines in February suspending its codesharing partnership with Russian national airline Aeroflot.
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LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday announced plans to build more nuclear power plants, boost renewable energy production and further tap domestic oil and gas reserves to help the U.K. reduce its dependence on Russian energy following the invasion of Ukraine.
Johnson announced the strategy three weeks after he said Western countries had made a "terrible mistake" in failing to wean themselves off Russian energy following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
The goal is to build eight new nuclear reactors by 2050, tripling U.K. production of nuclear energy to 24 gigawatts, or a quarter of projected electricity demand.
In addition, the strategy targets a 10-fold increase in production of electricity from offshore wind farms and an unspecified boost from onshore wind farms in a "limited number of supportive communities."
The government also announced a new round of licensing for oil and gas projects in the North Sea, saying these fuels would be key to U.K. energy security and as a transition to low-carbon renewable energy. Other elements include promoting solar power and increasing hydrogen production for use in fuel cells.
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WARSAW, Poland — A surgeon in Poland says a seriously wounded 13-year-old boy from Ukraine will require long, specialized treatment for the injuries he suffered in the early days of Russia’s invasion.
Pediatric surgeon Professor Jan Godzinski, of the T. Marciniak hospital in Wroclaw said Thursday that a detailed diagnostic scan has been performed on the "very serious" injuries that Volodymyr, or Vova, has suffered to his back, spine and facial nerves.
Vova was injured and his father was killed in late February when the car in which the family were trying to flee Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv was shelled by Russian forces. Doctors in Kyiv were able to save his life, and he was later transferred to Lviv, but he is now in a wheelchair due to the spine injuries and one side of his face is paralyzed.
Some shrapnel particles in his body still need to be removed, Godzinski said.
"What moved me most was that he smiled when we told him we will be able to help him," Godzinski said on Poland’s private TVN24.
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is calling for his country to be included in negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine.
"There can be no negotiations without the participation of Belarus," Lukashenko said at a meeting Thursday of his national security council. "There can be no separate agreements behind the back of Belarus."
Russia has launched missile attacks on Ukraine from Belarus and Russian troops invaded Ukraine from Belarus. There has been no confirmation of claims that Belarusian forces entered Ukraine.
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says scenes that have emerged from the Ukrainian town of Bucha, which was recaptured from Russian forces, have "cast a shadow" over negotiations between Russia and Ukraine but says the sides must continue to talk under all circumstances.
Speaking after a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday, Cavusoglu said he told his Ukrainian counterpart that Turkey was prepared to host possible peace talks.
"The only way is diplomacy," he told Turkish journalists in Brussels.
Turkey, which has maintained its close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv, has hosted a meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers as well as talks between the two negotiating teams.
The minister said Turkey was also talking with both Russia and Ukraine about the possible evacuation of civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol by sea. Some 30 Turkish citizens as well as their companions were still trapped in the city, he said.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — European Union police agency Europol says representatives of member states have discussed ways of tackling organized crime linked to the war in Ukraine.
Europol said after a meeting Thursday that initial intelligence analysis has uncovered "crime patterns" including human trafficking, online fraud, cybercrime and firearm trafficking and warned that the war could lead to more activity by organized crime networks.
The agency says it is "necessary to mobilize resources and increase the preparedness" of a multidisciplinary platform that tackles serious and organized crime.
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BRUSSELS — Ukraine’s foreign minister says he’s cautiously optimistic that some NATO member countries will increase their weapons supplies to his country, helping it resist Russia’s invasion, but he urged swift decisions and action.
Speaking Thursday after talks in Brussels with NATO foreign ministers, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: "I’m cautiously optimistic about the outcome of our discussions."
He declined to say which countries would be providing equipment or what kind they would be, but he said the weapons must get to Ukraine quickly as Russia gears up for a new offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
Kuleba said: "Either you help us now, and I’m speaking about days, not weeks, or your help will come too late."
He also criticized Western countries for failing to impose sanctions quickly enough, citing the case of the town of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv where war crimes have been reported.
"How many Buchas have to take place for you to impose sanctions? How many children, women, men, have to die — innocent lives have to be lost — for you to understand that you cannot allow sanctions fatigue, as we cannot allow fighting fatigue," Kuleba told reporters.
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ROME — Italian Premier Mario Draghi says the EU could consider a price cap on Russian gas as a way to limit Europe’s financing of the war in Ukraine without imposing a boycott altogether. But he acknowledged opposition to the proposal.
Draghi made the comments Thursday after meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has expressed reservations about the proposed price cap mechanism.
Draghi said he had made "a fundamental step" forward in nudging Rutte to not rule out the proposal entirely.
"If we’re not able to do a block as has been discussed, the alternative could be imposing a price cap on gas using the power of the market that Europe has as the biggest purchaser of gas," Draghi said.
Rutte concurred he was not excluding the proposal outright and was willing to look at all options. But he insisted that the benefits must outweigh the drawbacks.
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BERLIN — A game park in Germany says it’s renaming a wild boar called "Putin" because of the war in Ukraine.
German news agency dpa on Thursday quoted park owner Eckard Mickisch saying: "It turns out that no swine deserves such a name."
The Mehlmeisel park in Bavaria named the animal after Russia’s president four years ago.
While the 440-pound animal is still growing, the other pigs in the group make room for him when he comes to the trough.
"But he’s no dictator," Mickisch was quoted as saying.
The park has launched an online poll to decide on an alternative name from a shortlist including "Igor," "Frederick" and "Mir" — Russian for peace.
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HELSINKI — Finland and Estonia say they are jointly planning to rent a floating liquefied natural gas, or LNG, terminal to ensure gas supply in the two countries in efforts to break energy dependence on neighbouring Russia.
Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintila and his Estonian counterpart Taavi Aas said in a statement Thursday that a movable off-shore LNG terminal would offer a quick solution in guaranteeing gas supply in the two European Union members separated by the Baltic Sea.
"Due to the war in Ukraine, we must prepare for possible interruptions of gas import" through pipelines from Russia, Lintila said, adding that a floating LNG terminal "is an efficient way to secure gas supply, including in industry
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PARIS — France has summoned Russia’s ambassador over his tweet suggesting that images of civilians killed in Ukraine’s town of Bucha were staged. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the tweet "indecent."
Thursday’s tweet, which was later removed but had already been reprinted by numerous French media, showed a street in Bucha with a knocked-out tank and numerous journalists, under the caption "film set."
Media covering the war in Ukraine, including The Associated Press, have revealed scenes of horror in the Kyiv suburb with bodies of Ukrainian civilians scattered about the town, which was occupied by Russian troops in March. Moscow has been deriding the reports and images as fake, or killings carried out by Ukrainians. AP and other news outlets have provided evidence to the contrary.
Le Drian denounced the "indecency and the provocation" of the Russian Embassy in France, vowing to "continue to fight all Russian manipulation of information on the war in Ukraine."
Last month, Ambassador Alexei Mechkov was summoned for a tweet showing caricatures that the French called "unacceptable."
Face à l’indécence et la provocation de la communication de l’ambassade de Russie en France sur les exactions de Bucha, j’ai décidé la convocation au Quai d’Orsay ce matin de l’Ambassadeur de Russie.
— Jean-Yves Le Drian (@JY_LeDrian) April 7, 2022
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BRUSSELS — The Group of Seven major world powers are warning Russia they will keep ramping up sanctions until its troops leave Ukraine and that those responsible for alleged war crimes will be prosecuted.
G7 foreign ministers vowed Thursday to "sustain and increase pressure on Russia by imposing coordinated additional restrictive measures to effectively thwart Russian abilities to continue the aggression against Ukraine."
Western nations have already slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia, including on President Vladimir Putin, his family and associates, but have been reluctant to hit the country’s energy sector.
The G7 ministers, meeting on the sidelines of NATO talks in Brussels, say they "are taking further steps to expedite plans to reduce our reliance on Russian energy, and will work together to this end."
Following allegations this week of war crimes in the city of Bucha, the ministers insist that "those responsible for these heinous acts and atrocities, including any attacks targeting civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure, will be held accountable and prosecuted."
They also repeated warnings about the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, saying that "any use by Russia of such a weapon would be unacceptable and result in severe consequences."
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MOSCOW — Russia’s top diplomat has accused Ukraine of derailing talks with Moscow by changing its negotiating stance.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Ukraine had walked back its proposal that international guarantees of its security don’t apply to Crimea.
Russian annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 and wants Ukraine to acknowledge Moscow’s sovereignty over it.
Lavrov also accused Ukraine of modifying a provision in a draft deal it had submitted earlxjmtzywier that said that military drills on Ukrainian territory could be organized with the consent of all guarantor countries, including Russia.
Lavrov added that Russia intends to continue the talks despite the Ukrainian "provocations."
There was no immediate response to his claims from the Ukrainian government.
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GENEVA — The World Health Organization says 73 people have died in 91 attacks on public health care in Ukraine during the war with Russia.
The targets have included ambulances, hospitals and clinics, and medical workers.
"The life-saving medicine that Ukraine needs right now is peace," WHO Europe regional director Hans Kluge told reporters Thursday in the western Ukraine city of Lviv.
About half of Ukraine’s pharmacies are believed to be closed and 1,000 health facilities are near conflict areas, endangering the provision of care to those who need it, WHO said.
More than 250,000 people in Ukraine are living with HIV, routine immunizations for polio and measles are below sufficient levels, and "roughly 80,000 babies will be born over the next three months with insufficient pre- and post-natal care available due to the war in these dark days," Kluge said.
"WHO is considering all scenarios and making contingencies for different situations that could afflict the people of Ukraine — from the continued treatment of mass casualties to chemical assaults," Kluge said.
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ROME — Ukraine’s new ambassador to the Vatican says he is convinced the Holy See is a "sincere partner" of Ukraine and is doing "everything possible to stop the war."
Ambassador Andrii Yurash tweeted the comments Thursday after presenting his diplomatic credentials to Pope Francis and also meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The audiences came a day after Francis kissed a battered Ukrainan flag from Bucha and condemned the "massacre" in the city where evidence has emerged of what appears to be intentional killing of civilians since the Russians pulled out.
Francis has said the Vatican’s diplomats are working tirelessly to try to end the war. He himself went to the Russian embassy in the early days of the invasion to speak to the ambassador. He told reporters his aim with the unprecedented visit was to "ask him questions and convey my impressions."
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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.
- Read more: Who are Putin’s daughters?
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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 Odessa, 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 needed 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 U.S. 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."
- Read more: Europe set to ban Russian coal, but struggles on oil and gas
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Men ride bicycles by a destroyed apartment building in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on April 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
