Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
– Residents in East told to leave –
Ukraine tells residents in the country’s east to evacuate “now” or “risk death” ahead of a feared Russian onslaught on the Donbas region, which Moscow has declared its top prize.
President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia is working to “accumulate fighting force to realise their ill ambitions in Donbas.”
– Ukraine FM asks NATO for weapons –
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calls on NATO members to provide Kyiv with all the weaponry it needs to fight Russia.
“My agenda is very simple. It has only three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons, and weapons,” Kuleba tells journalists at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
– Bucha killings ‘war crimes’: Biden –
US President Joe Biden denounces the killing of Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha allegedly by Russian troops as “war crimes”.
“Civilians executed in cold blood, bodies dumped into mass graves, the sense of brutality and inhumanity left for all the world to see, unapologetically. There’s nothing less happening than major war crimes,” he says, urging the world to hold the killers accountable.
– Putin speaks on Bucha –
Russian President Vladimir Putin meanwhile accuses Ukrainian authorities of being behind “crude and cynical provocations” in Bucha, with Moscow denying any responsibility.
– Denials ‘not tenable’ –
The German government says that satellite images of Bucha from last month undercut Russian claims that its troops were not involved in deaths there.
Claims of “posed scenes or that they were not responsible for the murders are in our view not tenable”, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit says.
– Putin daughters sanctioned –
The United States announces sanctions on two of Putin’s daughters, saying family members are known to hide the Russian president’s wealth.
It also declared “full blocking” sanctions on Russia’s largest public and private financial institutions, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, and says all new US investments in Russia are now prohibited.
The EU is also looking to add Putin’s daughters to its sanctions blacklist, European diplomats tell AFP.
– More UK sanctions –
Britain slaps new sanctions on Russia, targeting two banks and eliminating all Russian oil and coal imports by the end of the year.
The latest UK measures also outlaw all new British investment into Russia.
– Putin ‘still wants all Ukraine’ –
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says there is no sign Putin has dropped “his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine”.
– Orban invites Putin, Zelensky –
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Putin’s rare allies in Europe, says he has urged the Russian leader to declare an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
He also invites the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine to meet Putin in Budapest.
– UN rights body suspension –
The UN General Assembly votes Thursday on suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council as punishment for invading Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for Russia to be expelled from the UN Security Council “so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression, its own war.”
– Marathon bars Russians, Belarusians –
Organisers of the Boston Marathon say Russian and Belarusian runners will be barred over the invasion of Ukraine.
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