A meeting in Turkey between Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, ended with little progress appearing to have been made. In a news conference afterwards, Reuters reports that Kuleba said that no progress was made on a ceasefire and that Lavrov did not commit to a humanitarian corridor in the south-eastern city of Mariupol, where Kuleba said the situation was most difficult. Lavrov also said that Russia would try never again to be dependent on the west.
A humanitarian convoy trying to reach Mariupol on Thursday was forced to turn around owing to fighting, Reuters reports the Ukrainian deputy prime minister as saying. An airstrike on a hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday killed three people, including a child, the city council said on Thursday, reports the Associated Press. The attack wounded 17 people in the besieged port city, including pregnant women, doctors and children.
Ukraine opened seven humanitarian corridors, including the one from Mariupol, according to the country’s deputy prime minister. The governor of Sumy said three columns of evacuees were leaving after a ceasefire was agreed.
The UK’s home secretary has pledged to streamline the online visa application system for Ukrainians following criticism of her response to the crisis. Priti Patel said that from Tuesday, Ukrainian refugees would no longer have to go to a visa application centre to provide their biometrics before coming to the UK.
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, says she will discuss issues with Poland that will force Russia to pay a price for its invasion on Ukraine, reports Reuters. During a visit to Warsaw on Thursday, she also said that Poland was doing “extraordinary work” to help Ukrainian refugees.
More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion two weeks ago, the UN said on Thursday. The UN migration agency said that of those who had been forced to take refuge in neighbouring countries, 112,000 people are third-country nationals.
The UK has frozen the assets of seven Russian businessmen including Roman Abramovich, Igor Sechin, Oleg Deripaska and Dmitri Lebedev after they were added to the country’s sanctions list, reports Reuters. Abramovich is the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group, Sechin is the chief executive of Rosneft and Lebedev is chair of the board of directors of Bank Rossiya.
Russia’s foreign ministry has said Moscow will no longer participate in the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation founded in response to the humanitarian outrages of the second world war.
