What is happening in Ukraine on Thursday and how are countries around the world reacting? Read live updates on Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
MOSCOW – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has admitted that Russia has suffered “significant losses in numbers” during the military operation in Ukraine.
“Yes, we have significant losses in numbers and it is a great tragedy for us,” Peskov said.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with British broadcaster Sky on Thursday, Peskov also hinted that the operation could end “in the near future”. He said that Russian forces had “tried their best to put an end to that operation.”
And we hope that in the coming days, in the near future, this operation will achieve its goal, or we will complete it by negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations. ”
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CANBERRA, Australia – The first of 20 Bushmaster armored vehicles has left Australia for Ukraine, a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically requested an Australian-made four-wheel drive vehicle.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport jet that could carry four Bushmasters left the east coast city of Brisbane for Europe on Friday.
20 Bushmasters worth AU$50 million, or US$37 million in US dollars.
These vehicles are in addition to A$116 million (US$87 million) in military and humanitarian aid previously committed to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy asked for the Bushmasters when he delivered a video address to the Australian Parliament on March 31.
“And as soon as he asked, we said yes,” Morrison said.
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WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Thursday announced it was imposing sanctions on Russia’s largest diamond mining and military shipbuilders.
The move blocks their access to the US financial system as the US more accurately considers the economic pain inflicted on President Vladimir Putin because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Alrosa is the world’s largest diamond miner and accounts for about 90% of Russia’s diamond mining capacity, according to the US Treasury Department.
Alrosa generates more than $4.2 billion in revenue in 2021. Diamonds are among Russia’s top 10 non-energy exports by value.
The State Department also said it was blacklisting United Shipbuilding Corporation, as well as its subsidiaries and board members.
The moves against the two state-owned companies come a day after the US announced it was targeting President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, two of Russia’s biggest banks, and banned new US investment. into Russia.
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LVIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday night that work has begun to dig through the rubble in Borodianka, another city northwest of Kyiv that has been occupied by the Russians.
He also said “it was much scarier there”, with more victims of the Russian military.
In his daily video speech at night before the nation on Thursday, Zelenskyy said that the Russians were preparing to shock the world in a similar way by showing the corpses in Mariupol and falsely claiming that they was killed by Ukrainian defenders.
Meanwhile, Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said on Thursday on Ukrainian television that investigators have found at least three locations where mass shootings of civilians occurred during the Russian occupation.
Fedoruk said hundreds of people had been killed and that investigators were finding bodies in yards, parks and city squares.
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PHOENIX – A Ukrainian diplomat pleaded with the United States to send weapons to his besieged nation during a speech to the Arizona Legislature on Thursday.
Dmytro Kushneruk, Ukraine’s consul general in San Francisco, told Arizona lawmakers that Ukraine needed three things to repel the Russian invaders and prevent more deaths — “weapons, weapons, and weapons.”
Kushneruk said it was a “war for the soul of humanity” and time was of the essence as Russia rallied for a planned attack on the Donbas region, eastern Ukraine.
According to Kushneruk, quick American help will save the lives of civilians and he begs people not to turn away even as the war drags on.
Mr. Kushneruk said Ukraine needs aircraft, air defense systems, heavy artillery, tanks, rocket systems and long-range missiles that can target Russian ships in the Black Sea.
The speech continued the outreach of the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to political and cultural institutions around the world.
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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden called Thursday’s United Nations vote to suspend Russia from its Human Rights Council “a meaningful step by the international community.”
He also said that it further demonstrated how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war “has made Russia an international nation”.
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday voted to suspend Russia from the top UN human rights body over allegations of horrific human rights abuses by Russian troops in Ukraine.
Thursday’s vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions
The United States and Ukraine have called Russia’s alleged rights violations tantamount to war crimes.
In a statement, Biden said the images in Bucha and other parts of Ukraine as Russian troops withdrew were “horrifying” and “outrageous to our common humanity.”
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BRUSSELS – European Council President Charles Michel said the bloc’s top diplomat had proposed an additional 500 million euros ($544 million) for Ukraine under the “European Peace Facility,” a fund to be used for the first time. First in the war to deliver. Defense lethal weapons for third country.
The EU had previously agreed to provide 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in military supplies to Ukrainian forces in the unprecedented step of providing collective weapons to a country under attack.
The EU and NATO countries have so far ruled out the option of direct military intervention in Ukraine.
“Once quickly approved, this will bring back the 1.5 billion EU support already provided for military equipment to Ukraine,” Michel said in a message posted on Twitter, in which he sent Thank you to EU Foreign Affairs Director Josep Borrell.
The proposal needs to be ratified by 27 EU countries. The EU said the tool would help Ukraine’s armed forces “defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country” and protect civilians.
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The World Health Organization has verified more than 100 “attacks on healthcare” in Ukraine since the country was first invaded more than a month ago, the organization’s top official said today. Thursday.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking at a news conference in Washington, said at least 103 attacks on hospitals and other health care facilities in the country, and at least 73 people killed and 51 were injured in those incidents.
This number includes medical staff as well as patients, he said.
He praised the United States for supporting international health efforts in Ukraine, including delivering more than 180 tons of medical supplies to hard-hit areas. “We are outraged that attacks on health care (in Ukraine) continue,” he said.
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BRUSSELS – European Union nations have approved new sanctions against Russia, including an EU embargo on coal imports after evidence of torture and murder cases emerged. from war zones outside Kyiv.
The ban on coal imports would be the first EU sanctions to target Russia’s lucrative energy sector after the war in Ukraine, an official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
The EU ban on coal is estimated to be worth 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) a year. Meanwhile, the EU has begun to carry out additional sanctions, including on oil imports.
– Report by Raf Casert.
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PARIS – The International Energy Agency says member states are releasing 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves in place of a previous US commitment to target energy prices that have skyrocketed since Russia’s invasion. invade Ukraine.
The Paris-based organization said on Thursday that new commitments made by 31 member countries, including the United States and much of Europe, amounted to a total of 120 million barrels over six months. This is the biggest release in the team’s history.
Half of that will come from the United States as part of a larger release of strategic petroleum reserves that President Joe Biden announced last week.
The IEA agreed last Friday to add to the oil spilling into the global market. It is higher than the 62.7 million barrels that members of the agency said they would ship last month to ease shortages.
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