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Summary of today's developments
Before we launch our new liveblog, here is a comprehensive rundown of where the situation currently stands:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the situation in the town of Borodyanka was “much worse” than in nearby Bucha, where Russian forces’ suspected killings of civilians received global condemnation. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, added: “Borodyanka is the worst in terms of destruction and in terms of the uncertainty about [the number of] victims.”
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said 26 bodies had been found under two ruined buildings in Borodyanka, a town about 25km west of Bucha. She did not say if the authorities had established the cause of death, but accused Russian troops of carrying out airstrikes on the town, which is being searched by Ukrainian authorities after Russian troops occupying it withdrew.
- The Kremlin has admitted suffering “significant losses” of troops since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, in a rare admission of how badly the war has gone. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he hoped the besieged city of Mariupol would be “liberated from nationalistic battalions” sooner rather than later.
- Zelenskiy highlighted the bravery of his nation in his latest late-night national address. “Being brave is our brand,” he said, while calling for bolder sanctions on Russia. He also claimed Russian troops were preparing “elaborate propaganda scenarios” to make it look like civilians they had killed in Mariupol were killed by Ukrainian soldiers.
- A Russian airstrike on a railway near Barvinkove station in Donetsk Oblast has blocked three evacuation trains from leaving, according to reports. Thousands of passengers who were meant to be evacuated on the trains have been placed at the station, according to the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske.
- Boris Johnson is set to meet the German Chancellor as they look to discuss how to help European countries wean themselves off Russian gas following the attack on Ukraine. Johnson will host Olaf Scholz at Downing Street on Friday, with a press conference planned for the afternoon, PA Media reports.
- Britain is preparing to announce a fresh package of military aid for Ukraine and has demonstrated new missile systems and armoured vehicles that it believes can help Kyiv in the next phases of fighting.
- The European Union approved an embargo on Russian coal imports and the closing of the bloc’s ports to Russian vessels over the Ukraine war. The measure will take effect from mid-August.
- In addition to the sanctions, the EU also backed a proposal to boost its funding of arms supplies to Ukraine by 500 million euros, taking it to a total of 1.5 billion euros.
- Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front, as Russian forces withdraw from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their attacks across the Donbas region. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said the besieged southern city of Mariupol was holding out and that he believed the Russian efforts to surround Ukrainian troops in the east would be in vain. The mayor of Dnipro, a city in central-eastern Ukraine, urged women, children and elderly people to leave. Similar calls were made by authorities in the Luhansk region, east of Dnipro.
- The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, says more than 100,000 people still urgently need to be evacuated from the city. Speaking on national television, he described the situation in the Russian-besieged Ukrainian port city as a humanitarian catastrophe.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had confirmed more than 100 attacks on health services in Ukraine, as it called for humanitarian access to the besieged city of Mariupol.
- The United Nations general assembly voted to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine. Ninety-three countries voted in favour of the US-led motion, while 24 countries voted against and 58 countries abstained.
- Russia will probably renew its attack on Kyiv if it succeeds in taking full control of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the deputy chief of staff of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Hruzevych, said. The Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, earlier warned that Russian forces were biding their time as Moscow ramped up intelligence operations there and learned how best to fight Ukrainian troops.
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US defence secretary Lloyd Austin contradicted these claims, saying he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin has given up on conquering Kyiv after his forces were beaten back by the Ukrainian military.
- General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said the war would be a “long slog” at the US Senate armed services committee in a hearing in Washington DC.
- Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said allies had agreed to strengthen support for Ukraine, and were providing “a wide range” of weapon systems, as well as cybersecurity assistance and equipment to protect against chemical and biological threats. There was no sign Vladimir Putin intended to pull back, he added.
- The prospect of Finland and Sweden joining Nato was part of the discussion between foreign ministers from the military alliance in Brussels this week, a senior US State Department official said.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called for more heavy weaponry from western allies and “ruinous” sanctions against Moscow, warning: “Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks – or your help will come too late, and many people will die.”
- G7 foreign ministers condemned “in the strongest terms” the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha and a number of other Ukrainian towns. In a joint statement, ministers spoke of “haunting” photographs of mutilated bodies, alleged executions and reports of sexual assaults by Russian troops.
- German intelligence agencies have intercepted radio messages from Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in Ukraine, according to reports. Two separate communications are said to have been intercepted in which Russian soldiers describe how they question soldiers as well as civilians, and then proceed to shoot them, the Washington Post cited an intelligence official as saying.
- Russia has imposed sanctions on Australian and New Zealand citizens, including their prime ministers, the Russian foreign ministry announced.
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Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was wounded in Ukraine during an attack that killed two of his colleagues, said on Thursday that he had sustained serious injuries but felt “pretty damn lucky” to have survived.
Russia has imposed sanctions on Australian and New Zealand citizens, including their prime ministers, the Russian foreign ministry announced.
Entry bans have been imposed on 228 Australian government members and lawmakers, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in response to sanctions from Canberra.
The ministry published a list of 228 Australian lawmakers and government members who were barred from entering Russia on Thursday.
It said Australia “obediently follows the decisions of the West” and has decided to sanction Russia’s top managers and almost all of its deputies.
“In the near future, members of the Australian army, businesspeople, experts and members of the media who have contributed to the formation of negative attitudes towards Russia will also be included in the blacklist and announced.”
And a total of 130 New Zealand citizens, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Governor-General Cynthia Kiro and members of the government and parliament were also banned from Russia because of their unfriendly actions against Russia as a matter of reciprocity.
The ministry said the sanctions took effect Thursday.
Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, who was injured in an attack outside Kyiv, has posted on Twitter about his injuries and paid tribute to his colleagues Sasha and Pierre who were killed.
Its been over three weeks since the attack in Ukraine and I wanted to start sharing it all. But first I need to pay tribute to my colleagues Pierre and Sasha who didnt make it that day. Pierre and I traveled the world together, working was his joy and his joy was infectious. RIP pic.twitter.com/gbHduLmd5e
— Benjamin Hall (@BenjaminHallFNC) April 8, 2022
To sum it up, I've lost half a leg on one side and a foot on the other. One hand is being put together, one eye is no longer working, and my hearing is pretty blown… but all in all I feel pretty damn lucky to be here - and it is the people who got me here who are amazing! pic.twitter.com/HNjO6PbdGf
— Benjamin Hall (@BenjaminHallFNC) April 8, 2022
Updated
The United States has blacklisted two Russian state-owned enterprises, United Shipbuilding Corp and the Alrosa diamond mining company, denying them access to the US financial system over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.
“Through these designations, Treasury is cutting off additional sources of support and revenue for the Government of the Russian Federation to wage its unprovoked war against Ukraine,” the US officials said in a press release.
Australia has sent its first convoy of 20 refitted Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine on aircraft C-17 Globemasters leaving Brisbane on Friday.
It is part of a $50m support package worth of military vehicles to the country.
The armoured vehicles have been repainted olive green with Ukraine’s flag stencilled on each side and the words ‘United with Ukraine’ emblazoned in both English and Ukrainian in a pledge of solidarity.
“Australia may be thousands of kilometres away but we’re standing side by side with Ukraine against this illegal invasion with arms, equipment, aid and even energy sources,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
“Our Australian-designed and made Bushmasters are known around the world for their usefulness in a combat zone and they will help boost Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s unprovoked and illegal violence.”
UK PM and German Chancellor to hold talks on reducing dependence on Russian gas
Boris Johnson is set to meet the German Chancellor as they look to discuss how to help European countries wean themselves off Russian gas following the attack on Ukraine.
The prime minister will host Olaf Scholz at Downing Street on Friday, with a press conference planned for the afternoon, PA Media reports.
Johnson is expected to offer assistance to Berlin, which is still heavily reliant on Russian gas, to reduce its dependence on Moscow’s energy exports in a bid to starve Vladimir Putin’s war machine of funds.
It comes after UK foreign secretary Liz Truss, following a meeting of Nato counterparts in Brussels on Thursday, said she hoped to see “more countries” commit to banning Russian energy imports.
The UK has pledged to end all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of 2022, with gas to follow as soon as possible.
Germany has faced criticism from Ukraine and other European nations, including Poland, with claims it has been too slow to phase out Russian energy.
Robert Habeck, the German economy and energy minister, has announced plans to stop importing oil and coal from Russia this year, and gas by mid-2024.
Kyiv earlier called for more heavy weaponry from its western allies, warning that the battle for Donbas will remind Nato members of the second world war.
“Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks – or your help will come too late, and many people will die,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told a meeting of his counterparts in the alliance in Brussels on Thursday.
Watch Kuleba’s address in the video below.
Microsoft Corp said it disrupted hacking attempts by Russian military spies aimed at breaking into Ukrainian, European Union, and American targets.
In a blog post, the tech firm said a group it nicknamed ‘Strontium’ was using seven internet domains as part of an effort to spy on government bodies and think tanks in the EU and the United States, as well as Ukrainian institutions such as media organisations.
Microsoft did not identify any of the targets by name.
Strontium is Microsoft’s moniker for a group others often call Fancy Bear or APT28 - a hacking squad linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency.
The United States has sharply increased the number of Ukrainians admitted to the country at the Mexican border as more refugees fleeing the Russian invasion follow the same route.
The number of Ukrainians arriving at the US-Mexico border to seek asylum in the United States since Russia’s invasion of its neighbour has more than doubled in less than a week, officials said.
A government recreation centre in the Mexican border city of Tijuana grew to about 1,000 refugees on Thursday, according to city officials. A canopy under which children played soccer only two days earlier was packed with people in rows of chairs and lined with bunk beds, the Associated Press reports.
Tijuana has suddenly become a final stop for Ukrainians seeking refuge in the United States, where they are drawn by friends and families ready to host them and are convinced that the US will be a more suitable haven than Europe.
US President Joe Biden said late last month his country would receive up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
British rock band Pink Floyd has released a new song to raise money for humanitarian relief in Ukraine, featuring the vocals of a Ukrainian singer who quit an international tour to fight for his country and was wounded.
The single ‘Hey Hey, Rise Up’ - Pink Floyd’s first original new music in almost 30 years - was recorded last week and highlights singing by Andriy Khlyvnyuk from Ukrainian band Boombox.
Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour said he learned that Khlyvnyuk - with whom he had previously performed - left a US tour with Boombox and returned to Ukraine to join the Territorial Defence Forces.
“Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war,” Gilmour said on Pink Floyd’s website.
Here is the official video for 'Hey Hey Rise Up', Pink Floyd’s new Ukraine fundraiser feat Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox. Stream / download from midnight. https://t.co/4U3P3WAQOZ
— Pink Floyd (@pinkfloyd) April 7, 2022
“It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
Gilmour said he spoke with Khlyvnyuk while he was in a hospital in Kyiv recovering from a mortar shrapnel injury.
“I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future,” he said.
Gilmour said he had a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren and he was feeling “the fury and the frustration” of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
EU approves embargo on Russian coal imports
The European Union has approved an embargo on Russian coal imports and the closing of the bloc’s ports to Russian vessels over the Ukraine war.
The measure will take effect from mid-August, a month later than originally planned, following pressure from Germany to delay, reports Reuters news agency.
That package also includes a 10 billion euro ban on exports to Russia, including high-tech goods, and the freezing of several Russian banks’ assets.
The French presidency of the European Council said the sanction was estimated to be worth 4bn euros ($4.4bn) per year.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that, if not natural gas, oil would follow soon.
The new coal sanction had to be agreed by all 27 member states and there had been concerns from some members about the impact. The EU nations import 45% of their coal from Russia, worth 4 billion euros a year.
In addition to the sanctions, the EU also backed a proposal to boost its funding of arms supplies to Ukraine by 500 million euros, taking it to a total of 1.5 billion euros.
It is the first time the Europeans have targeted the Russian energy sector, on which they are heavily dependent.
In addition to the sanctions, the EU also backed a proposal to boost its funding of arms supplies to Ukraine by 500 million euros, taking it to a total of 1.5 billion euros.
“Once swiftly approved this will bring to 1.5 billion euros the EU support already provided for military equipment for Ukraine,” European Council chief Charles Michel tweeted, also thanking EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell for proposing the extra funding.
Situation in Borodyanka 'much worse' than Bucha, Zelenskiy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that the situation in the town of Borodyanka was “much worse” than in nearby Bucha, where Russian forces’ suspected killings of civilians received global condemnation.
Officials believe more than 300 people were killed by Russian forces in Bucha, 35km northwest of the capital Kyiv, and around 50 of them were executed.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians and says images of bodies in Bucha were staged by the Ukrainian government to justify more sanctions against Moscow and derail peace negotiations.
“The work on dismantling the debris in Borodyanka began... It’s much worse there,” Zelenskiy said in a late-night national address.
The town is about 25 km from Bucha.
Zelenskiy did not provide any further detail or evidence that Russia was responsible for civilian deaths in the town.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said 26 bodies had been found under two ruined buildings in Borodyanka.
She did not say if the authorities had established the cause of death, but accused Russian troops of carrying out airstrikes on the town, which is being searched by Ukrainian authorities after Russian troops occupying it withdrew.
Speaking in a televised briefing, Venediktova said:
Borodyanka is the worst in terms of destruction and in terms of the uncertainty about [the number of] victims.”
On Tuesday, Venediktova said the number of victims in Borodyanka would be higher than anywhere else, but did not provide further details.
Updated
WHO says more than 100 attacks confirmed on healthcare in Ukraine
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it had confirmed more than 100 attacks on health services in Ukraine, as it called for humanitarian access to the besieged city of Mariupol.
“As of now, WHO has verified 103 incidents of attacks on health care, with 73 people killed and 51 injured, including health workers and patients,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference, calling it a “grim milestone.
Of the confirmed attacks 89 had impacted health facilities and most of the rest hit transport services, including ambulances.
“We are outraged that attacks on health care are continuing,” the WHO chief said, adding they constituted “a violation of international humanitarian law.”
More than 100 attacks on health care in #Ukraine verified by WHO since the start of the war on 24 February.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 7, 2022
The attacks so far have claimed 73 lives and injured 51.
Health workers, health facilities are #NotATarget
Speaking at an earlier press conference in Lviv, WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge lamented that while health assistance had reached many “affected areas”, some were still out of reach.
“It’s true some remain very difficult. I think a priority definitely, I think we all agree, would be Mariupol,” Kluge told reporters.
Kluge noted that the WHO had “delivered over 185 tonnes of medical supplies to the hardest hit areas of the country, reaching half-a-million people”.
The regional director also noted that “50% of Ukraine’s pharmacies are presumed closed and 1,000 health facilities are in proximity to conflict areas or changed areas of control”.
Kluge also stressed that attacks on healthcare service were a clear “breach of international humanitarian law,” but also added that it was not the WHO’s mandate to attribute the attacks to actors and that they had only verified that the attacks had taken place.
Updated
Putin has given up on conquering Kyiv: Pentagon chief
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin has given up on conquering Kyiv after his forces were beaten back by the Ukrainian military.
Austin told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee in Congress on Thursday:
Putin thought that he could very rapidly take over the country of Ukraine, very rapidly capture this capital city. He was wrong.
I think Putin has given up on his efforts to capture the capital city and is now focused on the south and east of the country.”
On Wednesday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Putin “has achieved exactly zero of his objectives inside Ukraine. He didn’t take Kyiv. He didn’t topple the government. He didn’t remove Ukraine as a nation state.”
Mr Putin has achieved exactly zero of his objectives inside Ukraine. He didn’t take Kyiv. He didn’t topple the government. He didn’t remove Ukraine as a nation state. pic.twitter.com/0TpVlrkhps
— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) April 6, 2022
Lithuania’s ambassador to Ukraine has returned to Kyiv after Russian forces withdrew from the Ukrainian capital, becoming one of the few diplomats to return to the city.
Speaking with Agence France-Presse, ambassador Valdemaras Sarapinas said:
I have just walked through the embassy door.
Political and moral support is very important for the Ukrainians.”
Like many others, the diplomat left Kyiv as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and had worked since from the western city of Lviv.
Sarapinas’s return comes a day after Turkey announced it had moved its embassy in Ukraine back to Kyiv after having temporarily relocated it to Chernivtsi near the Romanian border.
Poland and the Holy See were among the few who had maintained their representation in the city.
Sarapinas said the city was “certainly” different following the Russian troop withdrawal from areas around the capital.
“Two weeks ago, it was a dead city... Now there is life,” he said.
The prospect of Finland and Sweden joining Nato was part of the discussion between foreign ministers from the military alliance in Brussels this week, a senior US State Department official said on Thursday.
“Obviously this is going to be those countries’ choices to make,” said the official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity.
“The alliance’s open door remains open and there was discussion about that potential candidacy,” the official said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted the two Nordic countries to consider joining the US-led alliance.
Since the invasion began public opinion polls commissioned by Finnish media outlets have shown a swift U-turn with the majority of Finns now favouring joining Nato.
Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters earlier that Finland will clarify next steps in the coming weeks regarding a possible decision to seek Nato membership.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said that if Finland and Sweden joined Nato then Russia would have to “rebalance the situation” with its own measures.
The UN general assembly earlier voted to suspend Russia from its leading human rights body over allegations of horrific rights violations by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, which the US and Ukraine say are tantamount to war crimes.
Speaking after the vote, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Gennady Kuzmin described the move as an “illegitimate and politically motivated step” and said Russia had decided to quit the human rights council altogether.
“You do not submit your resignation after you are fired,” Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya hit back.
Russia-aligned hackers compromised the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military officers, attempting to upload videos of defeated and surrendering Ukrainian soldiers before being stopped by Meta, a new report revealed.
The report from Facebook and Instagram’s parent company detailed a surge in social media disinformation this year, including an increase in contentlinked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It also indicated an uptick in domestic disinformation and propaganda in countries around the world, suggesting that tactics pioneered by foreign intelligence agencies are now being used more widely.
“While much of the public attention in recent years has been focused on foreign interference, domestic threats are on the rise globally,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s president for global affairs.
Russia and its allies are major players in the disinformation realm, according to the report, with groups linked to the Kremlin spreading disinformation about its invasion of Ukraine while amplifying pro-Russian conspiracy theories at home.
Meta traced the effort to take over the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military leaders back to a shadowy hacker organization known as Ghostwriter, has been previously linked to Russia’s ally Belarus. Ghostwriter has a history of spreading content critical of Nato, and has tried to hack email accounts.
“This is a tried-and-true thing that they do,” said Ben Read, director of cyber-espionage analysis at Mandiant, a prominent US cybersecurity firm that has tracked Ghostwriter’s activities for years. Last year Mandiant said digital clues suggested the hackers were based in Belarus, though EU officials have previously blamed Russia.
Read more:
Wrapping up his address, Zelenskiy said he believed Russian propagandists are preparing a “mirror response” in Mariupol after the world reacted with revulsion at atrocities seen in Bucha.
Specifically, he noted Russia would use “elaborated propaganda scenarios” to make it appear as though Ukrainian soldiers killed their own citizens in Mariupol.
They are going to show the victims in Mariupol as if they were killed not by the Russian military, but by the Ukrainian defenders of the city. To do this, the occupiers collect corpses on the streets, take them out and can use them elsewhere in accordance with the elaborated propaganda scenarios.
We are dealing with invaders who have nothing human left.
To justify their own killings, they take the murdered people simply as scenery, as propaganda props. And this is a separate war crime, for which each of the propagandists will be held accountable.”
Zelenskiy said more countries are supporting Ukraine in the need for a “full and transparent investigation of all war crimes of the Russian occupiers” in Ukraine.
“Every murder case will be solved. Each of the torturers will be found. All those who committed rape or looting will be identified. Responsibility is inevitable,” he said.
Bolder sanctions are needed, Ukraine says
Zelenskiy again pleaded for “bolder” sanctions against Russia and weapons.
I emphasise once again: more sanctions are needed. Even bolder sanctions are needed.
Courage must be a criterion for evaluating decisions. Courage and practicality.
Weapons “will be the strongest sanction against Russia of all possible ones”, Zelenskiy added.
Ukraine needs weapons that will allow us to win on the battlefield.
And this will be the strongest sanction against Russia of all possible ones.”
'Being brave is our brand' Zelenskiy says
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has highlighted the bravery of his nation in his latest late-night national address.
“Being brave is our brand,” he began.
We have always been brave. The bravest in the world. I am sure of that. Because who else would do what Ukrainians do?
Who else had so much courage to constantly fight against any manifestations of tyranny and defend freedom? In every election, in revolutions and in war.
Who else had the courage to fight against all Russian forces on land, in the air and at sea? Who else had the courage to go unarmed against Russian armoured vehicles where the Russians temporarily managed to seize something?
Who else had the courage to tell the world that hypocrisy is a bad weapon? And not just to tell, but to convince and restore honesty in the world.
Who else had the courage to persuade the largest global companies to forget about accounting and recall morality? And to teach all political leaders - whatever they are - to be at least a little Ukrainian... At least a little brave.
In fact, this is our brand. This is what it means to be us. To be Ukrainians. To be brave.
“If everyone in the world had at least ten percent of the courage that we Ukrainians have, there would be no danger to international law at all,” Zelenskiy added.
“There would be no danger to the freedom of the nations. We will spread our courage. We will start a special global campaign. We will teach the world to be not just a little bit, but full of courage. Like us, like Ukrainians.”
Catch up
- The Kremlin has admitted suffering “significant losses” of troops since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, in a rare admission of how badly the war has gone. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he hoped the besieged city of Mariupol would be “liberated from nationalistic battalions” sooner rather than later.
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A Russian airstrike on a railway near Barvinkove station in Donetsk Oblast has blocked three evacuation trains from leaving, according to reports. Thousands of passengers who were meant to be evacuated on the trains have been placed at the station, according to the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske.
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said 26 bodies had been found under two ruined buildings in Borodyanka, a town about 25km west of Bucha. She did not say if the authorities had established the cause of death, but accused Russian troops of carrying out airstrikes on the town, which is being searched by Ukrainian authorities after Russian troops occupying it withdrew.
- Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front, as Russian forces withdraw from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their attacks across the Donbas region. The Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said the besieged southern city of Mariupol was holding out and that he believed the Russian efforts to surround Ukrainian troops in the east would be in vain.
- The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, says more than 100,000 people still urgently need to be evacuated from the city. Speaking on national television, he described the situation in the Russian-besieged Ukrainian port city as a humanitarian catastrophe.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called on the Greek parliament to use its influence to rescue the remaining population in Mariupol, which has had large ethnic Greek populations for centuries.
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In his latest address, Ukrainian president Zelenskiy said that the “Russian state and the Russian military are the greatest threat on the planet to freedom, to human security, to the concept of human rights.” In Mariupol, he said, “the same cruelty, the same heinous crimes” that occurred in , in Bucha and in the Kyiv region” are being replicated, accusing Russian forces of re-staging the war to suit their country’s propaganda.
- The United Nations general assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine. Ninety-three countries voted in favour of the US-led motion, while 24 countries voted against and 58 countries abstained.
- Russia will probably renew its attack on Kyiv if it succeeds in taking full control of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the deputy chief of staff of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Hruzevych, said. The Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, earlier today warned that Russian forces were biding their time as Moscow ramped up intelligence operations there and learned how best to fight Ukrainian troops.
- The mayor of Dnipro, a city in central-eastern Ukraine, has urged women, children and the elderly to leave because fighting with Russia is expected to intensify in eastern regions. Filatov’s warnings follow similar calls by authorities in the Luhansk region, east of Dnipro. On Wednesday, the regional governor of Luhansk urged all residents to evacuate while they still could in relative safety.
- Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said allies had agreed to strengthen support for Ukraine, and was providing “a wide range” of weapon systems, as well as cybersecurity assistance and equipment to protect against chemical and biological threats. There was no sign Vladimir Putin intended to pull back, he added.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called for more heavy weaponry from western allies and “ruinous” sanctions against Moscow, warning: “Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks – or your help will come too late, and many people will die.”
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G7 foreign ministers condemned “in the strongest terms” the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha and a number of other Ukrainian towns. In a joint statement, ministers spoke of “haunting” photographs of mutilated bodies, alleged executions and reports of sexual assaults by Russian troops.
- German intelligence agencies have intercepted radio messages from Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in Ukraine, according to reports. Two separate communications are said to have been intercepted, in which Russian soldiers describe how they question soldiers as well as civilians, and then proceed to shoot them, the Washington Post cited an intelligence official as saying.
- US general Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had grim warnings for the millions desperately hoping Putin sees sense and stop the attack on Ukraine.“It’s going to be a long slog,” Milley told the US Senate armed services committee in a hearing in Washington, DC.
- Soldiers fighting for Ukraine appear to shoot a Russian prisoner of war outside a village west of Kyiv in a video posted online. The footage was originally shared on social media app Telegram. The New York Times said it had verified the video and the BBC said it had confirmed the location north of the town of Dmytrivka and found satellite images showing bodies on the ground.
- The Nobel laureate editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta was attacked with red paint while he was on a train, he said.The investigative newspaper had suspended publishing until the end of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after Russia’s communications regulator warned them to cease their reporting.
– Léonie Chao-Fong, Joanna Walters, Guardian staff
Canada has earmarked an additional 1b Canadian dollars in loans and 500m in military aid to Ukraine.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that “Putin’s assault has been so vicious that we all now understand that the world’s democracies - including our own - can be safe only if the Russian tyrant and his criminal armies are entirely vanquished,” in a speech to parliament.
“It is in our urgent national interest to ensure they have the missiles and the money they need to win,” she said.
So far, Canada has offered $90m in military aid $180 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
Updated
UK to announce fresh military aid package for Ukraine
Britain is preparing to announce a fresh package of military aid for Ukraine and has demonstrated new missile systems and armoured vehicles that it believes can help Kyiv in the next phases of fighting.
Junior defence ministers Jeremy Quin and James Heappey invited Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Volodymyr Havrylov to Salisbury Plain on Wednesday, where they discussed what extra weapons the UK could supply.
“It was an honour to show Minister Havrylov and his generals the kit the UK hopes to provide next and to discuss some new weapons that have been trialled recently with UK forces,” Heappey said.
The army and Royal Marines demonstrated a range of equipment and “options for further military support”, which, the Ministry of Defence said, included “defensive missile systems and protected mobility vehicles”.
The protected mobility vehicle is thought to refer to the Mastiff, a heavily armoured patrol vehicle, first deployed in Afghanistan, which would help Ukraine’s forces achieve greater manoeuvrability against Russian attacks in the eastern Donbas.
Read more:
The European Union is proposing a 500m euro military aid package to Ukraine.
AFP reports:
European Council chief Charles Michel on Thursday backed a proposal to release an additional 500m euros ($540m) to provide arms for Ukraine.
“Once swiftly approved this will bring to 1.5b euros the EU support already provided for military equipment for Ukraine,” Michel tweeted, also thanking EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell for proposing the extra funding.
The proposal was agreed on Thursday by the 27 EU nations at ambassador level.
The EU has already agreed a 1b euro package to provide arms for Kyiv.
“This may seem like a lot, but one billion euros is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us,” Borrell said on Wednesday.
The money comes from a 5 billion euro European peace fund set up by members states.
In his latest address, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the “Russian state and the Russian military are the greatest threat on the planet to freedom, to human security, to the concept of human rights.”
In Mariupol, he said, “the same cruelty, the same heinous crimes” that occurred in , in Bucha and in the Kyiv region” are being replicated:
More and more information is coming in that Russian propagandists are preparing, so to speak, a “mirror response” to the shock of all normal people from what they saw in Bucha. They are going to show the victims in Mariupol as if they were killed not by the Russian military, but by the Ukrainian defenders of the city. To do this, the occupiers collect corpses on the streets, take them out and can use them elsewhere in accordance with the elaborated propaganda scenarios.
We are dealing with invaders who have nothing human left. To justify their own killings, they take the murdered people simply as scenery, as propaganda props. And this is a separate war crime, for which each of the propagandists will be held accountable.
Soldiers fighting for Ukraine appear to shoot a Russian prisoner of war outside a village west of Kyiv in a video posted online.
The footage was originally shared on social media app Telegram. The New York Times said it had verified the video and the BBC said it had confirmed the location north of the town of Dmytrivka and found satellite images showing bodies on the ground.
In the video, at least three men in camouflage, including one with a head wound and his hands tied behind his back, can be seen lying dead next to a fourth man, who is breathing heavily with a jacket covering his head.
“He’s still alive. Film these marauders. Look, he’s still alive. He’s gasping,” a man in the video can be heard saying in Russian – a language widely spoken in Ukraine.
A soldier then shoots him in the head twice. He continues to move, so the soldier shoots again, and he stops. A soldier can then be heard shouting “Glory to Ukraine”. A man responds with the phrase: “Glory to heroes.”
The audio ends with a man saying: “Do not [expletive] come to our land.”
The living soldiers in the video are wearing the Ukrainian colours of blue and yellow on their arms, while the men on the floor wear white armbands, the colour of Russian troops. A few metres away from the bodies is a BMD-2 infantry fighting vehicle which is used by the Russian airborne unit.
BBC investigators attempted to biometrically match the face of one of the men in the video, who can be seen facing the camera with a distinctive beard. They found a match to a Georgian man with close links to Ukraine, but are yet to confirm his identity. The broadcaster believes the word “Gruziny” – which means Georgians in Russian – can also be heard.
Scenes in the video match the scenery on Google Street View of the main road outside Dmytrivka, which is about seven miles south-west of Bucha with roads to Irpin.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Thursday he was aware of the video and it would “definitely be investigated”.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he had not seen the video, but stated: “I will say that every report on potential violations of international law should be followed or looked into, and of course, any violation of international law and any war crime is always unacceptable.”
A war crime is defined by the United Nations as a serious breach of international law committed against civilians or enemy forces during an armed conflict.
Read more:
The number of Ukrainians seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border has doubled in less than a week.
Reuters reports:
Lying on plastic mattresses, hundreds of Ukrainians including families waited in a crowded shelter run by the local government in the Mexican border city of Tijuana this week.
Enrique Lucero, director of the city’s immigration services, said about 2,829 Ukrainians were waiting, more than double the 1,200 counted last Friday. Nearly two-thirds of them were in shelters, with the rest in hotels and churches, he said.
The number of Ukrainians at the border is also increasing as US processing of claims fails to keep up with new arrivals, he said. Lucero said that US authorities had promised to speed up asylum applications to process up to 578 a day.
The US government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Having housed Haitians and Central Americans who arrived in caravans in 2018, the Benito Juarez sports center once again became an emergency shelter over the weekend.
Joe Biden said late last month his country would receive up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
The Nobel laureate editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta was attacked with red paint while he was on a train, he said.
The investigative newspaper suspended publishing until the end of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after Russia’s communications regulator warned them to cease its reporting.
Muratov appears to have been attacked while he was in the sleeping compartment of a train, in pictures posted to Telegram and Twitter.
“They poured oil paint with acetone all over the compartment. Eyes burning badly,” Muratov said.
❗️Неизвестный напал на главреда «Новой газеты» и лауреата Нобелевской премии мира Дмитрия Муратова прямо в вагоне поезда pic.twitter.com/xrhR62zJts
— Novaya Gazeta. Europe (@novayagazeta_eu) April 7, 2022
The US congress has approved one measure to remove Russia’s “most favored nation” trade status and another to ban oil imports from Russia.
Joe Biden is expected to sign both measures into law.
The measure amending Russia’s trade status clears the way for the Biden administration to raise tariffs on Russian imports. “Putin must absolutely be held accountable for the detestable, despicable war crimes he is committing against Ukraine” said senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“This package is about bringing every tool of economic pressure to bear onVladimir Putin and his oligarch cronies, said Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “Putin’s Russia does not deserve to be a part of the economic order that has existed since the end of World War Two.”
Updated
Also in the committee hearing in Washington on Thursday, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that Moscow has, essentially, stopped taking Washington’s calls on military matters and there had been no dialogue between the two countries since mid-February.
“We’ve not been very successful because the Russians have not responded,” Austin said, declaring himself disappointed at the situation.
But he added: “Based upon what they’ve done, nothing surprises me. And it doesn’t mean that we’ll stop reaching out to engage them
Austin chimed with Milley on grim prospects for the south-east of Ukraine at this point.
But he asserted that Russian president Vladimir Putin has given up on capturing the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
“Putin thought that he could very rapidly take over the country of Ukraine, very rapidly capture this capital city, he was wrong,” Austin said.
He added: “Putin has probably has given up on that.”
Russia's war in Ukraine "going to be a long slog" America's top General warns
The top of the US military top brass testified in Congress earlier on Thursday and the head figure of General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had grim warnings for the millions desperately hoping Russian president Vladimir Putin sees sense and stop the attack on Ukraine.
“Ideally, Putin decides to cease fire, stops his aggression, and there’s some sort of diplomatic intervention, but right now that doesn’t look like it’s on the immediate horizon. It’s going to be a long slog,” Milley told the US Senate armed services committee in a hearing in Washington, DC.
Bearing in mind that regional leaders are begging remaining residents in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine to leave while they have a “last chance” before an expected renewed Russian offensive, Milley added his voice to warnings.
“There’s a significant battle yet ahead down in the south-east, down around the Donbas region where the Russians intend to amass forces and continue their assault,” he told the panel.
The US and NATO did not agree to supply fighter jets to Ukraine or other heavy weaponry, and did not step in to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine because of the stated risk that the west could be drawn into a direct war with Russia in that situation.
But Milley said the US and its allies have delivered around 25,000 anti-aircraft weapons systems and 60,000 anti-tank systems. This has helped Ukraine prevent Putin’s forces from achieving air superiority, despite Russia’s devastating bombardment of parts of the country.
A Ukrainian official is warning residents in the east that they have a “last chance” to flee before a major Russian offensive expected in the Donbas region, AFP writes.
These few days may be the last chance to leave” and Russia was “trying to cut off all possible ways of getting people out,” Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region, part of the Donbas, where the city of Severodonetsk is coming under sustained artillery and rocket fire.
However, trains evacuating residents are halted by Russian strikes on the only line still under Kyiv’s control, the head of the Ukrainian rail operator, Oleksandr Kamychin, said, describing it as a lifeline for tens of thousands.
The enemy carried out strikes on the rail line next to the station in Barbenkovo on the Donetsk line,” he said in a post on the messaging service Telegram.
“We’re waiting for the end of the bombardments to clarify the situation. The passengers on these trains have been moved into the station until this is done,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged Cyprus to revoke passports issued to Russians through an investment scheme and stop relevant private yachts docking in its marinas.
Zelenskiy made the plea during an address to the Cypriot parliament via live video link, the latest in a series of such speeches he has made to foreign legislatures after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reports.
I’m grateful to you for your moral stance. You reacted to the Russian invasion and banned the docking of Russian ships in your ports...
...Stop Russian golden passports, dual citizenship. Except those where there is evidence they do not harm Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
He said that Cyprus has “tools to pressure” its traditionally close friend Russia, and urged Cypriot authorities to “close the ports” to all Russian private yachts.
He called on the Cypriots to revoke passports issued to wealthy Russians under the disgraced citizenship-for-investment scheme shut down under corruption allegations in November 2020.
After attending the session, Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades told reporters that instructions were given for revocation of four passports of Russians on the European Union’s sanctions list.
During the investment scheme, Cyprus issued hundreds of passports to Russian nationals and their families.
In November 2020, the Mediterranean island dropped the initiative after Al Jazeera aired a documentary showing reporters posing as fixers for a Chinese businessman seeking a Cypriot passport despite having a criminal record.
A public inquiry found that around half of the 6,779 passports issued under the programme were granted illegally.
Cyprus, a European Union member, allowed investors to acquire a passport in exchange for an investment of $2.5 million euros (US $3 million).
During the 20-minute speech, a short video showed bomb-scarred cities like Mariupol and the bodies of Ukrainian civilians.
Cyprus has sent more than 215 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, its largest contribution overseas.
It has also received around 10,000 Ukrainian refugees in a country with a relatively large Russian diaspora.
A protest against the war took place outside parliament during the session.
At least one person was killed and 14 wounded in shelling on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv earlier today, the regional governor Oleh Synehubov said in an online video address, Reuters reports.
The Ukrainian military earlier said Russian troops were bombarding the city with shells and rockets. Russia denies targeting civilians.
We’ll have more on this shortly. But Synehubov has accused the Russians of pounding civilian infrastructure.
Earlier, Russia’s defence ministry had said it used missiles to destroy four fuel storage facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Mykolayiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Chuchiv.
The ministry said the facilities were used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the cities of Mykolaiv and Kharkiv and in the Donbas region in the southeast of the country.
When this report came out about 11 hours ago, there was no independent verification of the news. Details are sparse.
But we’ll bring you more on what Oleh Synehubov has said as soon as we get it.
Catch up
It is just past 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- The Kremlin has admitted suffering “significant losses” of troops since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, in a rare admission of how badly the war has gone. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he hoped the besieged city of Mariupol would be “liberated from nationalistic battalions” sooner rather than later.
-
A Russian airstrike on a railway near Barvinkove station in Donetsk Oblast has blocked three evacuation trains from leaving, according to reports. Thousands of passengers who were meant to be evacuated on the trains have been placed at the station, according to the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske.
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said 26 bodies had been found under two ruined buildings in Borodyanka, a town about 25km west of Bucha. She did not say if the authorities had established the cause of death, but accused Russian troops of carrying out airstrikes on the town, which is being searched by Ukrainian authorities after Russian troops occupying it withdrew.
- Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front, as Russian forces withdraw from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their attacks across the Donbas region. The Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said the besieged southern city of Mariupol was holding out and that he believed the Russian efforts to surround Ukrainian troops in the east would be in vain.
- The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, says more than 100,000 people still urgently need to be evacuated from the city. Speaking on national television, he described the situation in the Russian-besieged Ukrainian port city as a humanitarian catastrophe. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called on the Greek parliament to use its influence to rescue the remaining population in Mariupol, which has had large ethnic Greek populations for centuries.
- The United Nations general assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine. Ninety-three countries voted in favour of the US-led motion, while 24 countries voted against and 58 countries abstained.
- Russia will probably renew its attack on Kyiv if it succeeds in taking full control of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the deputy chief of staff of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Hruzevych, said. The Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, earlier today warned that Russian forces were biding their time as Moscow ramped up intelligence operations there and learned how best to fight Ukrainian troops.
- The mayor of Dnipro, a city in central-eastern Ukraine, has urged women, children and the elderly to leave because fighting with Russia is expected to intensify in eastern regions. Filatov’s warnings follow similar calls by authorities in the Luhansk region, east of Dnipro. On Wednesday, the regional governor of Luhansk urged all residents to evacuate while they still could in relative safety.
- Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said allies had agreed to strengthen support for Ukraine, and was providing “a wide range” of weapon systems, as well as cybersecurity assistance and equipment to protect against chemical and biological threats. There was no sign Vladimir Putin intended to pull back, he added.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called for more heavy weaponry from western allies and “ruinous” sanctions against Moscow, warning: “Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks – or your help will come too late, and many people will die.”
-
G7 foreign ministers condemned “in the strongest terms” the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha and a number of other Ukrainian towns. In a joint statement, ministers spoke of “haunting” photographs of mutilated bodies, alleged executions and reports of sexual assaults by Russian troops.
- German intelligence agencies have intercepted radio messages from Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in Ukraine, according to reports. Two separate communications are said to have been intercepted, in which Russian soldiers describe how they question soldiers as well as civilians, and then proceed to shoot them, the Washington Post cited an intelligence official as saying.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today as I hand the blog over to my US colleague, Joanna Walters. Thank you for reading.
Updated
Twenty-six bodies found under two ruined buildings in Borodyanka, Ukraine says
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said 26 bodies had been found under two ruined buildings in the town of Borodyanka, around 25km west of Bucha, Reuters reports.
She did not say if the authorities had established the cause of death, but accused Russian troops of carrying out airstrikes on the town, which is being searched by Ukrainian authorities after Russian troops occupying it withdrew.
Speaking in a televised briefing, Venediktova said:
Borodyanka is the worst in terms of destruction and in terms of the uncertainty about [the number of] victims.
On Tuesday, Venediktova said the number of victims in Borodyanka would be higher than anywhere else, but did not provide further details.
Updated
Kremlin spokesman admits 'significant losses of troops'
The Kremlin has admitted suffering “significant losses” of troops since Russia invaded Ukraine, in a rare admission of how badly the war has gone.
In an interview with Sky News, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was asked whether the war had amounted to a humiliation for Russia given the number of troops lost.
Peskov replied:
We have significant losses of troops. And it’s a huge tragedy for us.
He did not specific a casualty toll. In late March, Russia said it had lost 1,351 soldiers, with another 3,825 wounded. By contrast, a senior Nato official estimated in late March that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in four weeks of fighting in Ukraine.
"We have significant losses of troops".
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 7, 2022
Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov says it's a "huge tragedy to us" to have lost Russian troops during the war in Ukraine.https://t.co/X3flQUBL0r
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/PGHoFvdewb
Peskov said Russia was “sorry” about its suspension from the UN’s human rights council over its invasion of Ukraine, adding:
We’ll continue to defend our interests using every possible legal means.
He also insisted Russian forces were “never shelling civilian objects” since the beginning of the war, claiming:
They were just aiming and using high-precision missiles to attack military infrastructure in Ukraine.
The Kremlin spokesman also claimed that the horrifying images that have emerged from Bucha over the last week were “fabricated and fake”. When asked if he realised “how grotesque” that sounded, Peskov replied:
It’s a bold fake and we’ve been speaking about that for a couple of days but no one would listen to us.
Updated
Evacuation trains blocked after Russian airstrike on railway in Donetsk region – reports
A Russian airstrike on a railway near Barvinkove station in Donetsk Oblast has blocked three evacuation trains from leaving, according to reports.
Thousands of passengers who were meant to be evacuated on the trains have been placed at the station, according to the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske.
Russia carried an airstrike on the railway near Barvinkove station (Donetsk Oblast). Three evacuation trains remained blocked, their passengers were placed at the station. This is the only evacuation route controlled by Ukraine from Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) April 7, 2022
It was the only Ukrainian-controlled railway exit from the northern part of Donetsk region, according to reports.
From Ukrainian MP, Lesia Vasylenko:
#Russia air strike destroys only railway out of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. 3 evacuation trains are blocked. Why trap innocent people?
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) April 7, 2022
Note: the Guardian has not yet been able to verify these reports.
Updated
Here’s more on the UN general assembly vote to suspend Russia from the UN’s human rights council.
Ninety-three countries voted in favour of the resolution and 58 countries abstained.
Twenty-four member countries voted against the motion, including Belarus, China, Iran, Russia and Syria.
Here’s the full list:
URGENT🚨
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) April 7, 2022
The UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council @UN_HRC
In favor: 93
Abstained: 58
Against: 24 pic.twitter.com/6EavdZJspc
Updated
Summary
It is almost 7.30pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:
- Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front, as Russian forces withdraw from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their attacks across the Donbas region. Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said the besieged southern city of Mariupol was holding out and that he believed the Russian efforts to surround Ukrainian troops in the east would be in vain.
- The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, says over 100,000 people still need urgent evacuation from the city. Speaking on national television, he described the situation in the Russian-besieged Ukrainian port city as a humanitarian catastrophe. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called on the Greek parliament to use its influence to rescue the remaining population in Mariupol, which has had large ethnic Greek populations for centuries.
- The United Nations general assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine. Ninety-three countries voted in favour of the US-led motion, while 24 countries voted against and 58 countries abstained.
- Russia will likely renew its attack on Kyiv if it succeeds in taking full control of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the deputy chief of staff of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Hruzevych, said. The Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, earlier today warned that Russian forces were biding their time as Moscow ramped up intelligence operations there and learned how best to fight Ukrainian troops.
- The mayor of Dnipro, a city in central-eastern Ukraine, has urged women, children and the elderly to leave because fighting with Russia is expected to intensify in eastern regions. Filatov’s warnings follow similar calls by authorities in the Luhansk region, east of Dnipro. On Wednesday, the regional governor of Luhansk urged all residents to evacuate while they still could in relative safety.
- Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said allies had agreed to strengthen support to Ukraine, and was providing “a wide range” of weapon systems as well as cybersecurity assistance and equipment to protect against chemical and biological threats. There was no sign Vladimir Putin intended to pull back, he added.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called for more heavy weaponry from its western allies and “ruinous” sanctions against Moscow, warning: “Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks – or your help will come too late, and many people will die.”
-
G7 foreign ministers condemned “in the strongest terms” the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha and a number of other Ukrainian towns. In a joint statement, ministers spoke of “haunting” photographs of mutilated bodies, alleged executions and reports of sexual assaults at the hands of Russian troops.
- German intelligence agencies have intercepted radio messages from Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in Ukraine, according to reports. Two separate communications are said to have been intercepted, in which Russian soldiers described how they question soldiers as well as civilians, and then proceed to shoot them, the Washington Post cited an intelligence official as saying.
I’m Léonie Chao-Fong, reporting from London, I’ll continue to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine.
Updated
Kremlin says Mariupol will be ‘liberated from nationalist battalions'
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, is being interviewed by Sky News, which asked him whether Russia was determined to take the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol “whatever the cost of human life”.
Peskov replied:
Mariupol is going to liberated from nationalistic battalions. We hope it will happen sooner rather than later.
He reiterated Russia’s claim that the maternity ward bombing in Mariupol last month was “fake”.
The hospital was a fake hospital. It was a fake and we have very serious reasons to believe that it was a fake.
At least four people were reportedly killed and 16 injured in the Russian bombing of the children’s hospital and maternity ward, including a child, prompting outrage from Ukrainians and the world.
Updated
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he was “grateful” to UN member states who “chose the right side of history” and voted to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council.
Kuleba said:
War criminals have no place in UN bodies aimed at protecting human rights.
Russia’s rights of membership in the UN Human Rights Council has just been suspended. War criminals have no place in UN bodies aimed at protecting human rights. Grateful to all member states which supported the relevant UNGA resolution and chose the right side of history.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 7, 2022
Russia suspended from UN human rights council
The United Nations general assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine.
Ninety-three countries voted in favour of the US-led motion, while 24 countries voted against and 58 countries abstained.
In a draft of the resolution, the 193-member general assembly expressed “grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine”, particularly at reports of rights abuses by Russia.
Updated
In a video address to the Greek parliament, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called on the country to use its influence to rescue the remaining population in the devastated city of Mariupol, Reuters reports.
Some 100,000 people are still trapped in Mariupol, Zelenskiy told Greek lawmakers, urging:
We must save whoever we can.
The Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Odesa, which both have had large ethnic Greek populations for centuries, needed “immediate assistance”, he said.
Please use your influence as EU members to better organise whatever rescue can be carried out in Mariupol.
He also called for stronger bans on Russian banks and tankers, urging the EU to “shut the door” so Russian banks could not make money on the global credit system.
Zelenskiy received a standing ovation in parliament at the close of his speech, which was boycotted by the Greek communists and a small nationalist party.
Earlier today, Greece’s foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, said Athens would call on the international criminal court (ICC) to investigate “crimes of war” in Mariupol, telling reporters:
Greece has a specific, special interest for Mariupol because of the existence of a 100,000 and more Greek community in Mariupol.
Updated
Updated
The World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing for possible “chemical assaults” in Ukraine, the body’s European head, Hans Kluge, said, Reuters reports.
Speaking during a briefing from Lviv, Ukraine, he said:
Given the uncertainties of the current situation, there are no assurances that the war will not get worse.
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 declined to give further details about the WHO’s preparations. Asked about a possible Russian chemical attack on Ukraine, he responded:
The short answer is that WHO is preparing for any eventuality within our mandate.
Updated
Our foreign correspondent Luke Harding interviews a witness to the bombing of Mariupol’s drama theatre who fled by swimming along the shoreline to reach Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Dmitry Yurin was at home on 16 March when a Russian bomb struck Mariupol’s drama theatre. His flat in Prospect Mira was a couple of hundred metres away, across a square with a fountain. The theatre had become a capacious air raid shelter. Hundreds of women and children were inside.
“It was terrible, a massive blast, an enormous explosion. I heard cries and screams,” Yurin said.
I saw bodies and bits of bodies. I pulled one woman out, then a girl, and then a boy. All were hurt. The boy’s legs didn’t move. He was screaming. My hands were shaking. I was covered in blood.
Nearby a woman lay motionless on the ground. Family members were desperately attempting to resuscitate her, pressing on her chest.
They were trying to bring her back. There was a child standing next to her, saying: ‘Mum, don’t sleep.’ The woman was dead.
The exact number of people who perished in the Russian airstrike is still unknown. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says 300 people were killed. Witnesses including Yurin confirm there were dozens of bodies. They say continuous Russian shelling made rescue work dangerous.
Yurin said he went back to the garage where he had been sheltering with his mother, Nadezhda, lit a cigarette and swallowed some tablets. He decided he had to get out of Mariupol, which for two gruesome weeks Russian forces had attacked and besieged. The city was cut off from all directions.
He came up with an extraordinary plan. Yurin decided he would swim to safety.
Updated
Send weapons to Ukraine now or it will be too late, Kuleba urges Nato allies
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, was speaking earlier to reporters after meeting with Nato foreign ministers in Brussels, where he urged weapons to be sent to Kyiv now or “your help will come too late”, AFP reports.
Kuleba said:
Either you help us now – and I’m speaking about days, not weeks, or your help will come too late, and many people will die, many civilians will lose their homes, many villages will be destroyed. Exactly because this help came too late.
He said he had “no doubts” that Ukraine would have the weapons necessary to fight.
The question is the timeline. This discussion is not about the list of weapons. The discussion is about the timeline.
Took part in the NATO Foreign Ministerial. Strong sense of unity behind Ukraine among allies and partners. More importantly, a strong resolve to take very concrete steps to support us. I laid out priorities and stressed the urgency. Follow-up from a number of allies are coming. pic.twitter.com/PZZFj48muJ
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 7, 2022
Updated
Nato's Stoltenberg: 'the easiest way to end this war is for Putin to pull back'
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, is addressing the media after today’s meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels. He warned the war could last for years, and said the key to an early solution was down to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said:
The easiest way to end this war is for President Putin to pull back all its troops, and to end the war, and to sit down and engage in in serious diplomatic efforts to find the solution.
But we need to be realistic, and we have no indications that President Putin has changed his over overall goal, and that is to control Ukraine and to achieve significant military victories on the battleground.
What we see is Russian regrouping and repositioning their forces moving out of northern Ukraine, but at the same time moving those forces to the east and we expect a big battle in Donbas.
And that’s the reason why allies also highlighted today the urgency of providing more support to Ukraine.
That’s the reason why also allies are imposing heavy costs on President Putin and Russia. But at the same time, we are prepared for the long haul. This war may last for weeks, but also months, and possibly also for years. And therefore we need to prepare for a lot more.
He also warned that as long as the war continued, there would be a risk of the war escalating, saying:
If the war is going to drag on then the risk is first and foremost for the people of Ukraine who will suffer more, we’ll see more damage, more death and more destruction.
But of course, as long as the war continues, there will be a risk for escalation beyond the Ukraine. And that’s exactly what Nato is focused on, to prevent that escalation.
Updated
There are two areas where the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has been saying he is unable to provide more detail. Firstly, this is on the exact nature of weapon supplies to Ukraine. He was keen to paint a picture of continuing support of Ukraine from Nato since 2014.
I fully understand that you’re asking specific questions about specific types of weapons. At the same time, I think it’s important to understand that I believe it is better often to not be specific exactly about what kind of systems, but rest assured allies are providing a wide range of different weapons systems.
Nato have supported Ukraine for many years since the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia’s first invasion in 2014 also into Donbas. Nato allies and Nato have provided significant support with equipment with training tens of thousand of soldiers. And then when we saw the intelligence indicating a highly likely invasion we stepped up last autumn.
He was then asked a specific question about a video that has emerged which appears to show Ukrainian forces shooting a Russian soldier who has been captured. Stoltenberg said he was unfamiliar with the specific video, but said:
I will say that every report on potential violations of international law should be followed or looked into, and of course, any violation of international law and any war crime is always unacceptable.
Updated
On the global and long-lasting impact of Russia’s aggression, Stoltenberg said:
What is happening in Ukraine is being closely watched around the world. We have seen that China is unwilling to condemn Russia’s aggression. And Beijing has joined Moscow in questioning the right of nations to choose their own path. This is a serious challenge. The sanctions introduced by Nato allies and our partners are unprecedented, and they are damaging.
He said that Nato’s new strategy would take into account this global shift and “deliver a response on how we relate to Russia in the future”.
Updated
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that some of the package to help “brave Ukrainians” to “defend their homes and the country and push back the invading forces” included “stepping up humanitarian aid and financial support”.
He said:
We discussed what more we will do, including cybersecurity assistance, and providing the equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical and biological threats.
Updated
Jens Stoltenberg has announced that Nato will be making moves to provide more support to Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
For Georgia, we could increase our support through the substantial Nato Georgia package, including in areas like situational awareness, secure communications, and cyber.
For Bosnia-Herzegovina. We could develop a new defence capacity-building package, and assistance will be tailored, demand-driven, and delivered with the full consent of the countries concerned.
He stressed that nations such as Finland, Sweden, Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Australia and Japan, all non-Nato members, were at the meeting because Russia’s actions had a global security impact.
Updated
Jens Stoltenberg is talking now. The video feed should be available above. The secretary general of Nato has started by saying that the organisation will do more now, and for the medium and longer term to support Ukraine. I will bring you the key quotes and lines.
Updated
Turkey has been attempting to play a mediating role in events. It hosted a round of face-to-face peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and this morning also hosted a video call with countries that border the Black Sea about the security situation there.
Now the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, has said that he will be heading to Washington. Reuters reports he told the media after today’s Nato meeting that he had been invited by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to visit for talks on 18 May.
Updated
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will be giving a press briefing shortly. We will have a live video stream embedded in the blog. You may need to refresh the page and press play in order to see it.
Updated
Dmytro Kuleba has also told the media that the discussion at Nato was not about the list of weapons Ukraine would get, but rather about the timeline for when they would be given. The Ukrainian foreign minister said that he had no doubt that Ukraine would have the weapons necessary to fight.
Reuters reports him reiterating that sanctions inflict damage on Russia, but are not enough alone to stop the war.
Updated
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has warned at today’s meeting in Brussels that the scale of any impending Russian assault on Donbas will remind the Nato allies of the second world war.
“Either you help us now - and I’m speaking about days, not weeks - or your help will come too late, and many people will die,” Reuters reports him telling the media.
Updated
That statement from the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has received a curt reply from the Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak. He dismissed Lavrov’s comments that Kyiv had presented Moscow with a draft peace deal that deviated from proposals both sides had previously agreed on.
Podolyak told Reuters in a written statement that Lavrov was not directly involved in negotiations and his statements were “of purely propagandistic significance”.
Podolyak said Moscow wanted to divert attention from events in the town of Bucha, where Ukraine accuses Russian troops of killing civilians, and added: “That is how any such statements should be regarded.”
- It is Martin Belam back here on the blog for now. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Updated
Russia likely to renew attack on Kyiv if it takes Donbas – Ukrainian military
Russia will probably renew its attack on the Ukrainian capital if it succeeds in taking full control of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the deputy chief of staff of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Hruzevych, said.
Speaking at an online briefing, Hruzevych said:
It is likely the enemy has not given up the goal of a second attack on Kyiv – there is such a threat.
The Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, earlier today warned that Russia’s long-term objective is to seize all of Ukraine despite its short-term focus being the east of the country.
Russian forces were biding their time as Moscow ramped up intelligence operations there and learned how best to fight Ukrainian troops, she said.
Malyar told a video briefing:
The key objective of the Russian Federation was and is the capture of the entire territory of Ukraine.
Russia planned to do this quickly, but Putin’s blitzkrieg failed. Even so, Russia has not abandoned its plan to take the entire territory of Ukraine.
Russia planned to achieve some “smaller objectives” in order to “show results”, she said.
But in reality it is using any moment to gather its forces, to regroup its armies, in order to continue its assault.
The enemy is learning how to fight us. If in the first days the Russian army was disorientated, then they are now adjusting to our tactics and strategy, and taking time ... in order to learn how to fight our strategy.
Updated
A Ukrainian negotiator has accused Russian “propagandists” of being “as responsible for atrocities in Ukraine” as Russian troops.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to President Zelenskiy and a member of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia, said Moscow’s “hostility in media” must be reduced to prove it is ready for dialogue.
🇷🇺 propagandists are as responsible for atrocities in 🇺🇦 as the army. For years, they’ve nurtured hatred for 🇺🇦 in media. Now the 🇷🇺 viewer wants 🇺🇦 blood and doesn’t accept excuses. If Moscow wants to show readiness for dialogue, the degree of hostility in media must be reduced.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) April 7, 2022
Women and children should leave Dnipro, mayor urges
The mayor of Dnipro, a city in central-eastern Ukraine, has urged women, children and the elderly to leave because fighting with Russia is expected to intensify in eastern regions, Reuters reports.
The mayor, Borys Filatov, said in an online video address:
All those who have the ability, as I have already said, should leave.
This involves women, children, the elderly, those who are not …. directly integrated into the economy.
Dnipro, which usually has a population of almost one million people, has so far been spared the worst of the fighting that has devastated cities further east and south, such as Mariupol.
Filatov’s warnings follow similar calls by authorities in the Luhansk region, east of Dnipro. On Wednesday, the regional governor of Luhansk urged all residents to evacuate while they still could in relative safety.
Updated
Boris Johnson described Russia’s actions in Ukraine as the “systematic slaughter of innocent people” but stopped short of using the word “genocide”, PA Media news agency reports.
Johnson said:
I think people are looking at what is happening in Ukraine and they can see this is systematic slaughter of innocent people. Whatever term you want to use, it is totally unconscionable, and the world is now overwhelmingly on the side of the Ukrainians. The UK will continue with our friends and partners to do everything we can to help.
When asked about reports that the UK would be sending armoured vehicles to the Ukrainian army, he said the government was looking at what further military assistance it could give.
Johnson said:
We have tougher sanctions coming in today on [Russian state-owned] Sberbank, individuals, and we are certainly looking at what more military assistance we can give.
Updated
The Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, said his country must be involved in negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Lukashenko was quoted by the Belarusian state news agency Belta as saying that he expected to hold talks with Vladimir Putin in the next few days.
Lukashenko said:
There can be no separate agreements behind Belarus’s back. Since you dragged us into this – principally western countries – the position of Belarus naturally needs to be heard at these negotiations.
Belarus’s foreign minister, Vladimir Makei, insisted Lukashenko himself “must participate in the (final) meeting”.
Lukashenko also claimed Belarus had been unfairly labelled “an accomplice of the aggressor” as a result of western sanctions.
Belta quoted Lukashenko as saying:
We do not need this war.
Because as a result of this conflict between two Slavic peoples, we are the ones who may suffer the most.
Updated
Updated
German intelligence agencies have intercepted radio messages from Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in Ukraine, according to reports.
Local news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Thursday that the country’s office had intercepted the radio messages and presented the findings in parliament.
Separately, the Washington Post reported Germany’s foreign intelligence service claimed to have intercepted two separate communications, in which Russian soldiers described how they question soldiers as well as civilians, and then proceed to shoot them. The Post cited an intelligence official it said was familiar with the findings.
It was not clear in which part of Ukraine the recordings come from.
The Kremlin said it was bewildered by the US decision to impose sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s daughters, describing the move as “difficult to understand and explain”, Reuters reports.
The US announced fresh sanctions yesterday targeting the Russian leader’s two adult daughters, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, as well as Russia’s biggest public and private banks.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters today:
Of course we consider these sanctions in themselves to be the extension of an absolutely rabid position on the imposition of restrictions. In any case, the ongoing line on imposing restrictions against family members speaks for itself.
The Kremlin could not comprehend why Putin’s daughters would be targeted, he claimed.
This is something that is difficult to understand and explain. Unfortunately, we have to deal with such opponents.
Updated
Russian troops used civilians as human shields to try to protect themselves from a counter-attack from Ukrainian forces in a village in northern Ukraine, the BBC reports.
Villagers from Obukhovychi, just south of the exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, said Russian troops were losing soldiers and armoured vehicles to a counter-attack from Ukrainian forces on the night of 14 March.
They said Russian troops went door-to-door to round up about 150 people at gunpoint and held them in a freezing cold school gym as protection for Russian forces.
Lydmila Sutkova, one of the villagers interviewed by the BBC, told them:
They took us from the cellars where we were hiding and forced us out.
Old ladies, children, everyone. It was terrifying. They broke open the doors of anyone who wouldn’t open up.
Another villager, Maryana, said her daughter was still showing signs of anxiety since the night:
A two-year-old girl should not see this. I was afraid that we would all be shot in that gym. I was scared for my daughter. I don’t have the words.
Updated
When the Russian invasion reached Mariupol in Ukraine at the end of February, Alena Zagreba, 15, went from filming vlogs with her friends to chronicling the destruction of her home city.
While most people hid in bunkers and cellars, Alena and her parents stayed above ground, and her videos are a rare insight into the intense attacks by Russian forces.
Alena melted snow for water while her parents cooked on makeshift firepits outside. The family survived by moving from house to house as shelling made their home and other shelters uninhabitable. Alena said at one point in the diary that her nerves had been “destroyed” by the constant bombardment.
Updated
Our Helena Smith watched Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy address the Greek parliament in Athens. Here is her report:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has received rapturous applause addressing the Greek parliament today.
The leader went to the heart of the matter by kicking off his speech with mention of Mariupol, the strategically important south-eastern port city that has become a symbol of the suffering Ukraine has suffered at the hands of Russian forces. With over 100,000 ethnic Greeks living there the besieged town has a special place in Greek hearts, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly said.
“For over a month I have woken up every day thinking of Mariupol,” Zelenskiy told Greek MPs. “What has happened [there] has not happened in European history for more than half a century … Russian soldiers are destroying everything, they have bombed hospitals, maternity wards even the town’s municipal theatre. We have all seen these things, we have all seen what Russian pilots have done. Mariupol has been destroyed. This peaceful town has experienced the violence of Russian troops.”
Appealing to Greek sensitivity regarding the presence of a once vibrant diaspora in the Black Sea region, Zelenskiy said there were now fears that the country would lose a large part of its identity “that Greek culture had brought”.
“This was the cradle of the Greek community for centuries,” he said before two Ukrainian fighters of Greek heritage also addressed the chamber.
Invoking the mantra of battle-hardened Greeks during the war of independence against the Ottoman empire which began in 1821, the Ukrainian leader added: “Your own revolutionaries said ‘freedom or death’ and that today is what we are saying. Beside Mariupol, Odesa, another big centre of Hellenism, is also threatened.”
Zelenskiy also referred to the Filiki Etairia, a secret society of friends that was founded in Odesa with the aim of overthrowing Ottoman rule. “The Filiki Etairia was also created here and this is of huge significance,” he told lawmakers. “A Filiki Etairia could [now] be created in Greece [for the purpose of giving] immediate help which Mariupol and Odesa so need … With the practical solidarity of Greece we will be able to emerge victorious.”
Updated
G7 condemns Russian ‘atrocities’ committed in Bucha ‘in the strongest terms’
G7 foreign ministers have condemned “in the strongest terms” the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha and a number of other Ukrainian towns.
In a joint statement, they said:
Haunting images of civilian deaths, victims of torture, and apparent executions, as well as reports of sexual violence and destruction of civilian infrastructure show the true face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine and its people.
The massacres in the town of Bucha and other Ukrainian towns will be inscribed in the list of atrocities and severe violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights, committed by the aggressor on Ukrainian soil.
Ministers expressed their “heartfelt solidarity with the Ukrainian people and our deepest condolences to the victims”.
We underline our unwavering support for Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders and express our readiness to assist further, including with military equipment and financial means, to allow Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s aggression and to rebuild Ukraine.
Russia should be suspended from the UN human rights council, they added. Ministers “welcome and support” the work to investigate and gather evidence of potential war crimes and crimes against humanity.
They urged Russia to “withdraw completely its military forces and equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders”.
.@G7 is united in response to Putin’s appalling war.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) April 7, 2022
Leaders and Foreign Ministers have agreed:
➡️ More sanctions to strengthen Ukraine’s hand
➡️ Condemn the atrocities in Bucha
➡️ Severe consequences for use of chemical or biological weapons
Statement:👇https://t.co/jxz2NuhK4A
Hello, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news from the war in Ukraine. As always, feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Today so far …
- Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front, as Russian forces withdraw from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their attacks across the Donbas region.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called on Nato allies to supply more weapons to bolster Ukraine’s war effort, including warplanes, heavy air defence systems, missiles and armoured vehicles. Speaking at Nato headquarters, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting later today, Kuleba said there were three items on his agenda for when he spoke to the allies and held bilateral meetings: “Weapons, weapons and weapons.” The UN general assembly will vote later today on whether to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the new package of western sanctions against Russia is “not enough” and without more painful measures and supply of weapons, Russia will view the actions as permission to launch a new bloody attack.
- Russia’s defence ministry says it used missiles to destroy four fuel storage facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Chuchiv. The ministry said the facilities were used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the cities of Mykolaiv and Kharkiv and in the Donbas region in the south-east of the country.
- Russian air attacks are now focused mainly on areas of eastern Ukraine, and Russian forces are trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in the region, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.
- There are to be 10 humanitarian corridors open for civilian evacuations across Ukraine today, but Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said residents trying to leave Mariupol would again have to use their own vehicles. The mayor of the besieged city says more than 100,000 people still need urgent evacuation from the city, and that more than 5,000 civilians, including 210 children, have been killed since the start of Russia’s invasion.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the US supplying Ukraine with weapons “will not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian talks”.
- Poland’s deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz has said the country needs financial assistance after the arrival of 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees, many of them children, into his country.
- The Greek foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, said Athens would ask the international court of justice at The Hague to investigate war crimes in the besieged city of Mariupol.
- Ukraine and Hungary have again exchanged barbed words. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it considered Hungary’s willingness to pay for Russian gas in roubles an “unfriendly act”. Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, has confirmed that fuel for Hungary’s nuclear power plants has arrived by air from Russia, and restated that Hungary does not support proposals for European energy sanctions against Russia.
- Defence ministers from Black Sea coastal countries have held a video call to discuss the war in Ukraine, mines floating in the sea and regional security, the Turkish defence ministry said, adding that the ministers called for an immediate ceasefire.
- Russia’s communications watchdog said it was taking punitive measures against Google, including a ban on advertising the platform and its information resources, for allegedly violating Russian law. Roskomnadzor accused YouTube of being one of the “key platforms” it claims is spreading fake information about Russia’s conduct in the war.
- YouTube has suspended the account of Chinese national Wang Jixian in Odesa who has criticised Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, after being reported to the platform for content containing “suspected violence”.
- The number of alleged Russian war crimes Ukraine says is currently under investigation has increased to 4,820 according to a recent update from Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office.
- The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, said her country was imposing sanctions on 67 Russians over the invasion of Ukraine. Austria, meanwhile, is to expel four Russian diplomats.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later on. I am handing over to Léonie Chao-Fong
Updated
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday called on the west to “bring Russia to justice”, saying Moscow’s actions were directed not only against Ukraine but also Europe.
“Once and for all, we can teach Russia and any other potential aggressors that those who choose war always lose ... those who blackmail Europe with economic and energy crisis always lose,” Zelenskiy said in an address to Greek lawmakers in Athens, speaking through an interpreter.
Reuters reports that he reiterated calls that the democratic world reject Russian oil and completely block Russian banks from the international finance system.
“Let us be honest, since the very beginning Russia’s actions were directed not only against Ukraine but also Europe,” he said.
He accused Russia of doing all it could economically to provoke inflation across the continent.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images that have been sent to us over the newswires from Hostomel and Borodyanka in Ukraine.
The mayor of Mariupol says over 100,000 people still need urgent evacuation from the city, Reuters reports. There are set to be ten humanitarian corridors open for civilian evacuations across Ukraine today, but earlier Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said residents trying to leave Mariupol will again have to use their own vehicles.
Kremlin: US weapons being sent to Ukraine 'will not contribute to success' of peace talks
“Pumping weapons into Ukraine will not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian talks,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters when asked about US weapons supplies to Ukraine. “Of course this will most likely have a negative effect.”
Reuters also reports these key lines from Peskov’s regular briefing:
- Peskov said sanctions being applied by the US on Putin’s family speak for themselves, and that it is hard to understand or explain the move
- He said Putin has yet to decide whether to attend the next G20 summit – which is due in Indonesia in November – and a decision will be taken according to how events unfold.
Also on the energy side of things, Finland has said it will invest up to €850m (£700m) to ensure sufficient energy supply and to speed up breaking away from its dependence on Russian energy.
Reuters reports the country will also acquire a new floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal together with Estonia to be placed in Finland to put an end to gas deliveries from Russia, minister of economic affairs Mika Lintila said
The oil company Shell has confirmed it will take a hit of between $4bn and $5bn (£3.1bn and £3.8bn) from offloading its Russian assets as the firm pulls back from the country.
Bosses said they will no longer buy oil on the spot market but will continue to fulfil contracts on buying fuel from Russia signed before the invasion of Ukraine.
PA Media quotes the company saying: “Shell has not renewed longer-term contracts for Russian oil, and will only do so under explicit government direction, but we are legally obliged to take delivery of crude bought under contracts that were signed before the invasion.”
The Greek foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, says Athens will ask the international court of justice at The Hague to investigate war crimes in the besieged city of Mariupol.
“Greece will request that the international court of justice investigate war crimes that have occurred in Mariupol,” he said in comments made before attending today’s meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.
“Greece has a particular interest in Mariupol because of the Greek community of more than 100,000 people there. In addition I will ask my counterparts in the alliance to do the best that they can to [not only] help Ukraine but to protect Odesa, so that Odesa does not suffer the same fate as Mariupol.”
Dendias, who led a humanitarian aid mission to the southern port city at the weekend, made the comments before Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addresses Athens’ 300-seat parliament today.
During his trip to Odesa on Sunday, the Greek foreign minister also announced the reopening of Greece’s consulate there to help ethnic Greeks flee areas in the south-east that are now the focus of Russia’s military offensive.
“The reopening of [Greece’s] consulate will help distribute humanitarian aid and set up corridors for the Greek ethnic community to leave from any areas of Ukraine, if needed, via Odesa,” he said.
Updated
Russian air attacks are now focused mainly on areas of eastern Ukraine, and Russian forces are trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in the region, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.
He said the besieged southern city of Mariupol was holding out and that he believed the Russian efforts to surround Ukrainian troops in the east would be in vain.
“The situation is under control,” he said on national television, Reuters reports.
Russia's communications watchdog taking punitive measures against Google
Russia’s communications watchdog said it was taking punitive measures against Google, including a ban on advertising the platform and its information resources, for allegedly violating Russian law.
Reuters reports that the Roskomnadzor watchdog accused YouTube, which has blocked Russian state-funded media globally from using its platform, of becoming “one of the key platforms spreading fakes about the course of special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”.
Russia has continued to officially describe its attack on Ukraine as a “special military operation”, and has made varying claims that images of atrocities that have emerged from Bucha and elsewhere in the country are a staged “provocation”.
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign minister has called on Nato allies to supply more weapons to bolster the country’s war effort, including war planes, heavy air defence systems, missiles and armoured vehicles. Speaking at Nato’s headquarters, where foreign ministers are due to meet today, Dmytro Kuleba said there were three items on his agenda: “Weapons, weapons and weapons”. Here is the video clip:
UK's MoD: 'Russian artillery and air strikes continue along the Donbas line of control'
The UK’s Ministry of Defence have issued their latest assessment of the situation in the ground in Ukraine. They say:
Progressing offensive operations in eastern Ukraine is the main focus of Russian military forces. Russian artillery and air strikes continue along the Donbas line of control.
Russian strikes against infrastructure targets within the Ukrainian interior are likely intended to degrade the ability of the Ukrainian military to resupply and increase pressure on the Ukrainian government.
Despite refocussing forces and logistics capabilities to support operations in the Donbas, Russian forces are likely to continue facing morale issues and shortages of supplies and personnel.
Earlier the Russian defence ministry says it used missiles to destroy four fuel storage facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Mykolayiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Chuchiv, which are all towards the east of Ukraine and the Donbas area. [see 8.32am]
(1 of 4)
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 7, 2022
Progressing offensive operations in eastern Ukraine is the main focus of Russian military forces.
Poland’s deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz has been on the media in the UK this morning, telling the BBC Today programme that the country needs financial assistance over the volume of Ukrainian refugees now in Poland. PA Media quotes him saying:
They could offer a bit more financial support, you know, those 2.5 million people need accommodation. Half of them basically are kids, which we are successfully integrating to the Polish schooling system.
But it also brings some costs. Suddenly, in a couple of weeks, we are 2.5 million bigger. So any kind of financial assistance would be very much welcome.
Przydacz also said that he opposed countries having quotas on accepting refugees:
These are our neighbours. Ukrainian friends are very much welcome to stay in Poland. People are free people.
If they want to go to the Great Britain and the Great Britain is ready to host them - we have absolutely nothing against them.
But we are strongly opposing the policy of quotas or forcing people to live in a country.
Ukraine describes Hungary's willingness to pay for Russian gas in roubles as an 'unfriendly act'
Tension between Ukraine and Hungary has not eased this morning, with Reuters carrying quotes from two simultaneous briefings.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has this morning said that it considers Hungary’s willingness to pay for Russian gas in roubles an “unfriendly act”. Ukraine also said that Hungary’s stance over the allegations of Russian atrocities strengthens Russia’s sense of impunity and encourages Russia “to commit new atrocities against Ukrainians.”
Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said “If Hungary really wants to help end the war, here’s how to do it: stop destroying unity in the EU, support new anti-Russian sanctions, provide military assistance to Ukraine, and not create additional sources of funding for Russia’s military machine. It is never too late to get on the right side of history,”
For their part, Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó has confirmed that fuel for Hungary’s nuclear power plants has arrived by air from Russia. The Russian attack on Ukraine has made shipments by rail impossible.
He has restated that Hungary does not support proposals for European energy sanctions against Russia. He added that imposing any sanctions on activities related to nuclear energy would also be a “red line” for Hungary.
There has been an increasing tension between Hungary and Ukraine in the last few days. Viktor Orbán described Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the enemies he “over-powered” with his election victory at the weekend. For his part, Zelenskiy said Orbán was frightened of Moscow and needed to choose between Russia and the “other world”.
The two countries share about 135 km (85 miles) of border, roughly following the Tisza river to the west of Ukraine.
Defence ministers from Black Sea coastal countries have held a video call to discuss the war in Ukraine, mines floating in the sea and regional security, the Turkish Defence Ministry said, adding the ministers called for an immediate ceasefire.
Reuters reports from Ankara that in a statement, Turkey said the defence ministers of Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland, Romania and Ukraine had met via video conference upon the invitation of Turkey, adding they held “very efficient” talks.
“Aside from the mines, the importance of cooperation in the Black Sea for peace, calm and stability was emphasised,” Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, who participated in the call, said after the meeting.
According to his ministry, the ministers discussed possible steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis and get aid to Ukraine.
Turkish military diving teams have so far detonated three separate floating naval mines in the Black Sea, while Romania has also defused a stray mine in its waters since the Ukraine war.
Russia claims to have destroyed four fuel storage facilities in Ukraine
A quick Reuters snap here that Russia’s defence ministry says it used missiles to destroy four fuel storage facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Mykolayiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Chuchiv. The ministry said the facilities were used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the cities of Mykolaiv and Kharkiv and in the Donbas region in the southeast of the country.
There is as yet no independent verification of this claim.
Yesterday the Ukrainian State Emergency Service released images of firefighters working to extinguish flames at a fuel storage depot that had been struck in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
A quick quote from UK foreign secretary Liz Truss in Brussels here, after she briefly spoke to the media ahead of today’s round of meetings.
She said in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine: “the G7 and Nato is stepping up our efforts on sanctions and on weapons. The UK is now banning all imports of Russian energy. We’re sanctioning more banks, and we’re stepping up our supply of weapons to Ukraine.”
Mark Voyger is an expert on eastern Europe and Russia – he is a non-resident senior fellow with the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Analysis – and he has been interviewed on Sky News in the UK, and made two particularly interesting points. Speaking from Warsaw, on the issue of the Black Sea, he was in favour of Nato patrolling it to deter Russian military activity. He said:
The Black Sea is now being turned into a Russian lake just like the Azov Sea was, and the Black Sea actually is shared by multiple Nato members: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey. So I would say ultimately we need to do that.
If there is no no-fly zone, if we feel reluctant to impose it, we can do something about a no-sail zone, if you will, in the Black Sea, because Russia has been targeting international navigation.
He was asked who was winning the war, and he had this to say:
Ukraine is winning it on the ground, tactically, operationally, internationally, strategically. I will say information-wise, the information warfare is definitely critical.
Unfortunately, you know, Putin is still in power and he’s winning the war at home. He is slowly but surely recreating the Soviet system – a totalitarian system that bans all dissent and stifles access to free information.
So internationally, Ukraine is winning. Domestically, Russia is winning, until such time that we’re able to penetrate through this thick wall of lies and propaganda and convince the Russian people that he’s bad even for Russian.
Australia to impose sanctions on 67 Russians over Ukraine
Foreign minister Marise Payne said this that Australia was imposing sanctions on 67 Russians over the invasion of Ukraine.
“Today, I’m announcing 67 further sanctions of Russian elites and oligarchs, those close to Putin who facilitate and support his outrageous actions,” Reuters reports she told reporters as she arrived at Nato.
Australia is not a member of Nato, but like Japan, is present at today’s meeting as a guest.
Austria to expel four Russian diplomats
Austria is the latest European country to announce diplomatic sanctions against Russia. This morning the foreign ministry there has announced that it is expelling three Russian diplomat from the embassy in Vienna, and one from the consulate in Salzburg.
Reuters reports that a foreign ministry spokesperson said the Russian officials had behaved in a way that was incompatible with their diplomatic status. They must leave the country by 12 April.
There has been a wave of expulsions of Russian diplomatic staff – although some countries, notably Britain, Canada and Australia, have yet to take any action.
Here’s the video clip of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying that Russia will regard weak sanctions as “permission to attack”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has posted some pictures of him in his Nato meetings in Brussels, and has repeated his “three things” line:
Met with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at Nato HQ in Brussels. I came here today to discuss three most important things: weapons, weapons, and weapons. Ukraine’s urgent needs, the sustainability of supplies, and long-term solutions which will help Ukraine to prevail.
Met with Secretary General @jensstoltenberg at NATO HQ in Brussels. I came here today to discuss three most important things: weapons, weapons, and weapons. Ukraine’s urgent needs, the sustainability of supplies, and long-term solutions which will help Ukraine to prevail. pic.twitter.com/247GdqdPwj
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 7, 2022
Yesterday EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the EU has given €35bn to Russia in energy payments since the start of the war, compared to €1bn given to Ukraine in arms and weapons. There’s no sign of that changing any time soon.
Russian state-owned gas producer Gazprom said today it continued to supply natural gas to Europe via Ukraine on Thursday in line with requests from European consumers. Requests stood at 105.4 million cubic metres for 7 April, slightly down on the day before.
Ukraine announces it aims to open ten humanitarian corridors today
Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, has announced that Ukraine is aiming to open ten humanitarian corridors on Thursday. Residents trying to leave the besieged city of Mariupol will again have to use their own vehicles.
Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs has just published some images of people being evacuated within the country. They say:
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Donetsk region evacuated 198 people on April 6, 45 of them children.
Силами рятувальників ГУ ДСНС України у Донецькій області 6 квітня було евакуйовано 198 осіб, з яких 45 - діти.
— МВС України (@MVS_UA) April 7, 2022
Громадян вивозили з різних населених пунктів Донецької області, таких як місто Вугледар Волноваського району, Красногорівка та Новогродівка Покровського району. pic.twitter.com/4Y2GJSwFpD
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Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has just tweeted out a response to developments in the US. He said:
Grateful to the US Senate for passing the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act. Important first step towards a lend-lease program to expedite the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine. Looking forward to its swift passage in the House and signing by the US President.
Grateful to the U.S. Senate for passing the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act. Important first step towards a lend-lease program to expedite the delivery of military equipment to Ukraine. Looking forward to its swift passage in the House and signing by the U.S. President.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 7, 2022
- This is Martin Belam here in London taking over the blog from Samantha Lock. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
The number of alleged Russian war crimes Ukraine says is currently under investigation has increased to 4,820 according to a recent update from Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office.
It is also believed that 167 children have been killed in Ukraine as result of Russia’s invasion.
#Stoprussia #russiaterrorist pic.twitter.com/vWHFhfi8Jv
— Верховна Рада України (@verkhovna_rada) April 7, 2022
Ukraine makes in-person plea to Nato for more weapons
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has called on Nato allies to supply more weapons to bolster Ukraine’s war effort, including war planes, heavy air defence systems, missiles and armoured vehicles.
Speaking at Nato headquarters, where Nato foreign ministers are meeting later today, Kuleba said there are three items on his agenda when he talks to the allies and holds bilateral meetings: “Weapons, weapons and weapons”.
The Ukrainian foreign minister said there is no distinction between offensive and defensive weapons - any weapons, including tanks and fast jets, would be used to defend Ukraine.
He added that any country making this distinction are being hypocritical.
“As weird as it may sound, but today weapons serve the purpose of peace.”
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) April 7, 2022
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calls on allies to provide weapons. G-7 and NATO foreign ministers are in Brussels for an emergency meeting on the Russia-Ukraine war https://t.co/8mg5bmythK pic.twitter.com/vb3vje1bZ8
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Ukraine could 'absolutely' win the war against Russia, Pentagon says
The Pentagon has said Ukraine could “absolutely” win the war against Russia, even as US officials speak of the risk of a protracted conflict.
“Of course they can win this,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.
“The proof is literally in the outcomes that you’re seeing everyday ... absolutely they can win.”
Of course, they can win this. And if you look at what they’ve been able to do just thus far, Mr. Putin has achieved exactly zero of his strategic objectives inside Ukraine. He didn’t take Kyiv. He didn’t topple the government. He didn’t remove Ukraine as a nation state. And he’s really only taken control of a small number of population centres.
And even they weren’t the ones that he was really going after. So, you know, Mariupol is still not taken. He’s moved his forces out of Kyiv. He’s moved his forces out of Cherniniv. They haven’t taken Kharkiv. They haven’t taken Mykolayiv in the south.
So, I think the proof is literally in the outcomes that you’re seeing every day.
The Ukrainians are bravely fighting for their country. And they have denied Mr. Putin so many of his strategic objectives. So absolutely, they can win.”
Mr Putin has achieved exactly zero of his objectives inside Ukraine. He didn’t take Kyiv. He didn’t topple the government. He didn’t remove Ukraine as a nation state. pic.twitter.com/0TpVlrkhps
— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) April 6, 2022
Russia has stepped up conscript recruits, Ukraine says
Russia is focusing on an impending offensive operation in eastern Ukraine with the aim to take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine’s ministry of defence has said, corroborating western intelligence report.
Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces said some withdrawn Russian units are now located in “tent camps” in a number of regions bordering Ukraine.
“The Russian servicemen refuse to take part in further hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. The moral and psychological condition of these personnel is low and tends to deteriorate,” an operational report published this morning reads.
Russia “continues to look for ways to solve the problem of replenishing its units with human resources” and has “stepped up work with conscripts who have been discharged from military service since 2012” officials added.
The Russian occupiers continue to use violence against civilians in the temporarily occupied territories and are forcible deporting residents of Mariupol to the temporarily occupied districts of Donetsk, the report claimed.
More than 5,000 civilians killed in Mariupol, mayor says
More than 5,000 civilians, including 210 children, have been killed since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the city’s mayor has said.
Vadym Boichenko noted that Russian forces bombed hospitals, including one where 50 people burned to death.
Boichenko also said that more than 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed due to Russian bombardments.
The Russian military has besieged the port city, cutting off access to food, water and energy supplies while continually dropping artillery and air raids on the town.
On Wednesday, about 1,000 people were able to make it out of the besieged port city in a convoy of buses and private cars organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They are now at the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.
The ICRC team had tried for five days and four nights to reach Mariupol, coming within 12 miles of the city, but security conditions made it impossible to enter.
Ukrainian officials said the Russian military had pounded the city over the past 24 hours, with 118 airstrikes. They also said Russian soldiers were gathering bodies in order to destroy evidence of war crimes. A mobile crematorium was going from street to street, collecting and disposing of corpses from people killed by shelling and shooting.
In its latest assessment, the UK’s ministry of defence said the humanitarian situation in Mariupol was deteriorating. “More than 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water. Russian forces have prevented humanitarian access, likely to pressure defenders to surrender,” it said.
Russia hiding ‘thousands’ killed in Mariupol, Zelenskiy says
Russia is blocking humanitarian access to the besieged port city of Mariupol because it wants to hide evidence of “thousands” of people killed there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
In an interview with Turkey’s Haberturk TV, he said:
I think Russia is afraid that [if] we successfully send humanitarian aid to Mariupol, then the whole world will see what’s going on here.
Russia doesn’t want anything to be seen until they take control of the city until they clean it all up.
Mariupol is hell right now. Thousands have either been killed or injured.
The number of those killed and injured is increasing day by day ... we do not have clear information on the number of those who lost their lives.
They are trying to cover up the situation. In this case, they are trying to prevent the humanitarian supply. They will not be able to cover up everything. They will not be able to bury or hide thousands of people. The world has seen the real situation. It has seen what has been done to a Ukrainian city.”
Ukrayna Devlet Başkanı Zelenskiy: Buça'da toplu mezar ortaya çıktı, pek çok sivil katledildi. Çocukların askeri hedef olarak görülmesi söz konusu olmamalı https://t.co/M2heDk7OKM pic.twitter.com/41QCV4BNia
— Habertürk (@Haberturk) April 5, 2022
Zelenskiy said that Russia had already attempted to conceal evidence of crimes in the town of Bucha outside of Kyiv and several nearby communities, where Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of carrying out widespread killings of civilians.
“They burned families. Families. Yesterday we found again a new family: father, mother, two children. Little, little children, two. One was a little hand, you know,” Zelensky said. “That’s why I said ‘they are Nazis’.”
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Ukraine braces for renewed Russian offensive on eastern front
Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian offensive on its eastern front, as Russian forces withdraw from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their attacks across the Donbas region.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, urged civilians to leave the east of the country “while the opportunity still exists” before a massive Russian military assault that it expects in the coming days.
Vereshchuk said authorities would “not be able to help” residents who stayed behind once large-scale fighting erupted. She said the governors of the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions were calling on people to move immediately to safer areas. “It has to be done now, because later people will be under fire and face the threat of death. There is nothing they will be able to do about it,” she posted on Telegram.
The Kremlin has said it intends to seize the entire Donetsk region, amid reports that Putin is keen to declare victory in Ukraine in time for 9 May, the annual commemoration of the Soviet defeat of Hitler in the second world war.
In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that the Russian military continued to build up its forces in preparation for a new offensive in the east, where the Kremlin has said its goal is to “liberate” the Donbas.
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YouTube has suspended the account of a Chinese national in Odessa who has criticised Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine after being reported to the platform for content containing “suspected violence”, the Guardian’s Rhoda Kwan reports from Taipei.
Wang Jixian, whose daily Mandarin vlogs detailing his life in the Ukrainian city made him an internet sensation, was temporarily suspended on Thursday last week. In his video immediately before the suspension, his video showed Chinese translations of a voice recording of Ukrainians speaking about atrocities committed by Russian soldiers.
The Beijing native began posting daily vlogs on his YouTube channel shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. “Today is … I am still in Odesa. I am still alive,” his videos begin. His daily updates quickly drew more than 100,000 followers but also the ire of China’s legions of nationalistic netizens. His channel suddenly went quiet last week.
Read the full story below.
Hesitation to agree on oil embargo is costing Ukrainian lives, Zelenskiy says
Zelenskiy described Russia’s export of oil as “one of the foundations of Russia’s aggression” that allows it to not take peace negotiations seriously.
Some politicians are still unable to decide how to limit the flow of dollars and euros to Russia from the oil trade, so as not to jeopardise their own economies...
The embargo on Russian oil supplies will be applied anyway. The format will be found. The only question is how many more Ukrainian men and women the Russian military will have time to kill, so that you, some politicians - and we know you, can borrow a little determination somewhere.”
Zelenskiy said Ukraine will also continue to insist on a complete blockade of the Russian banking system from international finance.
Here are some of the latest images to come from Ukraine today.
In Bucha, two young girls walks hand-in-hand past destroyed Russian military machinery littering the main town street.
A child’s teddy bear hangs from a tree in front of a building bombed by the Russian army in Borodyanka while a damaged playground is seen next to a heavily damaged apartment building in Hostomel.
Russia will regard weak sanctions as 'permission to attack', says Zelenskiy
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the new package of western sanctions against Russia is “not enough” and without more painful measures and supply of weapons, Russia will view the actions as permission to launch a new bloody attack.
New investments in Russia are blocked, restrictions are applied against several systemic banks in Russia, personal sanctions are added, as well as other restrictions. This package has a spectacular look. But this is not enough.”
In his signature nightly national address the Ukrainian president added:
If there is no really painful package of sanctions against Russia and if there is no supply of weapons we really need and have applied for many times, it will be considered by Russia as a permission. A permission to go further. A permission to attack. A permission to start a new bloody wave in Donbas.”
However, Zelenskiy remained optimistic saying “it is still possible to prevent this”.
It is still possible to impose such sanctions, which Ukraine insists on, our people insist on. It is still possible to give us weapons that will really stop this aggression. The west can do it.
Just as it could have applied preventive sanctions last year to prevent this invasion. If the mistake is made again, if there is no preventive action again, it will be a historic mistake for the whole western world.”
Nato foreign ministers to meet today
Nato foreign ministers will meet in Brussels today to address Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine”, the alliance said.
Moscow is not giving up its ambitions in Ukraine. We now see a significant movement of troops away from Kyiv, to regroup, re-arm and resupply, and they shift their focus to the east,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of the meeting.
Targeting and murdering civilians is a war crime. All the facts must be established and all those responsible for these atrocities must be brought to justice,” Stoltenberg added, commenting on the horrific images of murdered civilians in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities.
Ministers will arrive for talks from 3:30pm local time (2:30pm GMT) and will be joined by their counterparts from Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Georgia, and the European Union, and by Nato’s Asia-Pacific partners - Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea.
#Russia's war in #Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe & has global repercussions. #NATO's next strategic concept must reflect this new security reality, a more assertive #China, cyber & hybrid threats, terrorism & climate change. #ForMin
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) April 6, 2022
“At a time when authoritarian powers are pushing back on the rules-based international order, it is even more important for democracies to stand together, and protect our values,” Stoltenberg said in a statement published by Nato.
Allies are stepping up their support for Ukraine’s right to defend itself, including with anti-tank weapons, air-defence systems and other equipment, as well as increased humanitarian assistance and financial aid.”
Allied foreign ministers will also discuss the development of Nato’s next strategic concept, to guide the Alliance’s adaptation to the new global security reality.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments.
- Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the new package of western sanctions against Russia is “not enough” and without more painful measures and supply of weapons, Russia will view the actions as permission to launch a new bloody attack. In his daily address on Thursday, he called for the democratic world to reject Russian oil and completely block Russian banks from the international finance system. Zelenskiy said the west’s hesitation to agree on an oil embargo is costing Ukrainian lives. Russia’s export of oil as “one of the foundations of Russia’s aggression” that allows it to not take peace negotiations seriously, he added.
- The US, UK and EU unveiled new sanctions against Moscow. US sanctions target Russian banks and elites, and include a ban on any American from investing in Russia as well as sanctions on Putin’s adult daughters. The UK will impose an asset freeze on Russia’s largest bank, place sanctions on eight more oligarchs and end imports of oil and coal by next year, foreign secretary Liz Truss said. The EU announced a wide-ranging package of sanctions, including import bans on coal and transaction bans on banks.
- Nato’s foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday for two days of talks on bringing an end to the war.
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The UN General Assembly will vote today on whether to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council.
- Hungary’s right-wing, Putin-allied prime minister Viktor Orbán gave a press conference in which he said he had offered to broker talks with Russia. He offered to work towards a ceasefire, while stopping short of agreeing to extend EU sanctions against Russia’s oil and gas shipments.
- Zelenskiy said Kremlin forces were trying to cover up evidence of atrocities. “We have information that the Russian military has changed its tactics and is trying to remove people who have been killed from streets and basements ... this is just an attempt to hide the evidence and nothing more,” he said Thursday, but did not provide evidence.
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US prosecutors are working with their European and Ukrainian counterparts to help collect evidence of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
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Russia’s military has now shifted its focus to the east of the Ukraine, with Ukraine authorities in Luhansk and Donetsk warning that civilians should leave “while the opportunity still exists” before a massive Russian military assault that it expects in the coming days. It comes as western officials say Russia’s retreat from around Kyiv and the north east of the country is now “largely complete” and that it will take “at least a week” before reconstituted units could go to Donbas and perhaps longer.
- Russia is hiding ‘thousands’ killed in Mariupol, Zelenskiy said. Russian forces are blocking humanitarian access to the besieged port city of Mariupol because it wants to hide evidence of “thousands” of people killed there, the president said.
- More than 5,000 civilians, including 210 children, have been killed in Mariupol since the start of Russia’s invasion, the mayor of the besieged city said. Vadym Boichenko said 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed and Russian forces have targeted a hospital where 50 people were burned to death.
- After multiple unsuccessful attempts to access the city, about 1,000 people made it out of Mariupol in a convoy of buses and private cars organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They are now at the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.
- A total of 4,892 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities on Wednesday using humanitarian corridors, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, compared with 3,846 who were evacuated on Tuesday.
- Ukrainian soldiers are being trained in the US to operate deadly Switchblade drones that Washington is supplying to Kyiv, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Defence department spokesman John Kirby said it was a “very small” number of Ukrainian troops who were already in the US before Russia invaded their country.
- Britain is drawing up plans to send armoured vehicles to Ukraine, according to The Times. Options include sending a protected patrol vehicle, such as the Mastiff, or a vehicle like the Jackal, which can be used as a reconnaissance or long-range patrol vehicle, a ministry of defence report said.
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Sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine should give China a “good understanding” of the consequences it could face if it provides material support to Moscow, US deputy secretary of state said.
- The Pentagon has said Ukraine could “absolutely” win the war against Russia, even as US officials speak of the risk of a protracted conflict. “Of course they can win this,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. “The proof is literally in the outcomes that you’re seeing everyday ... absolutely they can win.”
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