Russia-Ukraine war Russian

The Kremlin admits suffering 'significant losses', Russia is kicked off the UN human rights council and Zelenskiy calls for 'bolder' sanctions.

Soldiers fighting forUkraineappear to shoot a Russian prisoner of war outside a village west of Kyiv in a video posted online. 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. German intelligence agencies have intercepted radio messages from Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in Ukraine, according to reports. 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. In a joint statement,ministers spoke of “haunting” photographs of mutilated bodies, The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he hoped the besieged city of Mariupolwould be “liberated from nationalistic battalions” sooner rather than later.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Thursday that the slaughter of civilians in Mariupol, the port city that has been under extended Russian ...

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. - Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky touted diplomats’ return to the capital in his address Thursday, as Russian forces have retreated from the area. - Borodyanka: When Ukrainian authorities returned to the newly liberated community, 30 miles northwest of Kyiv, they discovered decimated buildings, rattled survivors and a growing number of bodies. Some 100,000 residents are believed to be caught up in clashes as their supplies dwindle. Roughly 1,200 of them are from Mariupol, the devastated port city that has endured weeks of Russian attacks. On one side, 95 nations — just slightly more than half the U.N. membership, but enough to reach the necessary two-thirds of those casting a vote — supported the resolution backed by the United States and dozens of others. A significant number are probably spies posing as diplomats, according to U.S. and European officials. “Mr. Lavrov is not directly related to the negotiation process, and so his statements are pure propaganda.” “For sure, at the next round, the Ukrainian side will ask for the withdrawal of troops and will add more preconditions,” Lavrov said. The proposal would also allow for foreign military exercises to be held in Ukraine without Russia’s consent, Lavrov said. Kyiv’s mayor said on Telegram that the city would help residents of its suburbs “return to a peaceful life.” Missing from the new proposal was a “clear statement” that future NATO-style security guarantees would not apply to Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen heads to Kyiv on Friday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Do not drive on the roadsides and do not use forest roads. They are neutralizing the ammunition left by the Russian military on our land." "The area is free of [Russian forces], so if you hear explosions (and there have been many in recent days) — it’s rescuers and explosives. “This is not a question of the actual conduct of negotiations, but the emotional background against which these negotiations are conducted," he said. Ukrainian Railways said on its Telegram channel that more than 100 people were also wounded in the strikes. In televised comments Friday, Podolyak, a presidential adviser, said there was an "ongoing online process" for peace talks between the two countries. "Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population. Five evacuation routes out of Luhansk will also be available. NBC News has been unable to independently verify the strikes or the death toll. NBC News was unable to independently verify the strikes or the reported death toll and injuries. Zelenskyy also said around 30 people had died. "This is an evil that has no limits.

Ukrainian leaders have warned that the fighting in the Donbas is expected to be brutal and resemble the battles of World War II.

Moscow is widely expected to shift the focus of its offensive to the Donbas region, where Russia has engaged in military adventurism for years. Any jump in prices will be a concern for Asia, given the region's high levels of dependence on energy and agricultural commodity imports, warned the EIU. A rocket attack on a crowded train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has killed more than 30 people and injured more than 100, Ukraine's state railway company said. "Either you help us now — and I'm speaking about days, not weeks — or, your help will come too late. Moscow denied being behind the strike, and denies targeting civilians despite well-documented evidence to the contrary. The Pentagon also confirmed that all of the anti-armor and anti-air systems from the two weapons packages announced in March have been delivered to Ukraine. The Defense Department added that the U.S. is working to "identify additional weapons systems to help the Ukrainian military." "This is a deliberate blow to the passenger infrastructure of the railway and the residents of Kramatorsk." Meanwhile, Russia continues to shell cities in the east and south of Ukraine, the ministry said. With Russia and the United States — the two countries with the largest nuclear arsenals in the world — on the brink of conflict, Ferguson said this is a "much more dangerous" situation than most people appreciate. More than 30 people were killed and over 100 injured in a rocket attack on a railway station in eastern Ukraine where families and individuals were waiting to evacuate to safer parts of the country, the national railway company said. "According to operational data, more than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the rocket attack on Kramatorsk railway station," Ukrainian Railways said via Telegram. Ukrainian leaders have warned that the fighting in the Donbas, where Russia has been engaged in military operations for years, is expected to be brutal and resemble the battles of World War II. Authorities have urged civilians in Ukraine's east to evacuate while they still can.

Sanctions: The U.K. sanctioned the daughters of both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. U.S. Congress passed ...

"We support an objective and impartial investigation of this crime and call for severe punishment for the perpetrators. Those sanctions would only come into force when the list is published, which could happen as soon as Friday. The chairman of aluminum giant United Co. Rusal PLC has called for an investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine, a rare criticism of Russia’s invasion from a major Russian company.

Fighting · British military intelligence says Russian forces are shelling cities in the east and south and had advanced further south from the city of Izyum, ...

Russian battalions, meanwhile, are blockading and bombarding the northeastern city of Kharkiv. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warns of a war that could last months or even years. - The European Union has approved an embargo on Russian coal – the first time the bloc has targeted the energy sector, on which they are heavily dependent – and the closing of its ports to Russian vessels.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces hit the railway station with missile known as Tochka-U. The Russian Ministry of Defense denied ...

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Russian troops 'forcibly deport' more than 600000 Ukrainians, says Kyiv; pledge to fast-track EU membership bid; investigators exhume Bucha mass ...

Russian troops have “forcibly deported” more than 600,000 Ukrainians, including about 121,000 children, to Russia, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Lyudmila Denysova, has said. Since Russian troops pulled back from Bucha last week,Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians have been found dead. Some Russian military units have experiencedmajor losses, a senior US defence official said, and the Pentagon estimates Russia’s combat power is between 80% and 85% of pre-invasion levels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian troops invading from Belarus, ...

Graphic images provided by Ukrainian officials showed the aftermath of the attack -- bodies lying on the ground next to scattered luggage and debris, with charred vehicles parked nearby. The remains of a large rocket with the words "for our children" in Russian painted on the side was also seen on the ground next to the main building of the station. "Anyone who wants to leave the region will be able to do so." Through the G-7, we are ending the use of Russian energy and hitting Putin's ability to fund his illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine." The number of injured was down from earlier estimates of more than 100. In recent days, Russian forces have retreated from northern Ukraine, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. Two E.U. officials told The Associated Press that Putin's adult daughters, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, who were sanctioned by the United States earlier this week, have been hit with asset freezes and a travel ban. Russian forces have since been met with "stiff resistance" from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials. Two Russian rockets struck the train station in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast on Friday morning, according to Ukraine's state-owned railway company, which in a statement via Facebook called the attack "a purposeful strike on the passenger infrastructure of the railway and the residents of the city of Kramatorsk." The attack occurred as "thousands" of civilians fleeing the Russian invasion were at the train station waiting to be taken to "safer regions of Ukraine," according to Kyrylenko, who accused Russian forces of "deliberately trying to disrupt the evacuation of civilians." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov alleged that the involvement of Russian forces in the attack on the railway station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk was already ruled out by the Russian Ministry of Defense, based on the type of missile that was used -- a Tochka-U short-range ballistic missile. Russia denied involvement in a rocket attack that killed dozens of people at a train station in eastern Ukraine on Friday.

On the ground in the devastated Bucha and Trostianets; when rape is used as a weapon; and will Putin face a war crimes tribunal?

The next phase of the war – which could yet be decisive – is expected to unfold in the Donbas in the next month as Russian forces seek to capture Mariupol, create a land bridge to Crimea, expand the area of occupation in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk – and perhaps encircle Ukraine’s main fighting force ranged against it. Local authorities and organisations have been distributing medical, legal and psychological support and trying to find safe shelters for women and girls fleeing both the war and domestic violence. She said a soldier who had come to search the house they were staying in left without completing the task, his eyes filled with shame as her daughter cried out in fear at the intruder. They had dirty faces, they stank and they looked completely lost,” says Yana Lugovets, who spent a month sleeping in the basement with her husband, daughter and friends. “ The Russians set up their weapons and a fire in the front garden. “He walked just 20 metres from the house and the Russians killed him.

Ukrainian president condemns deadly train station bombing as 'war crime', vowing to bring those responsible to justice.

Two were women and the rest were men, she said. “Refugees in Ukraine and around the world need our help now,” Springsteen said in a video. “He was not married, he did not have a chance, he was young, very young. “We are defending the ability of a person to live in the modern world,” Zelenskyy said. “We are anticipating a solid global reaction to this war crime.” The goods include fertilizer, pipe valves, ball bearings and other parts, materials and chemicals. Refugees in Ukraine and around the world need our help now. Join all of us on E Street and@glblctznas we #StandUpForUkraine, and stand up for those displaced globally because everyone deserves safe and humane living conditions. “He was from a large family, and he was the only one who provided for it. Do they not want their children to go to university, do they not want their grandfather to live for 100 years? “We will continue to work on Russia, and we will continue to press for the protection of civilians in Russia’s war in #Ukraine,” HRW said. Someone who lives in the United States or Europe, do they also not like children?

As the invasion of Ukraine loomed, Western intelligence officials decided to tell the world what they knew.

In 2003, amid accusations of politicisation, the reputation of US and UK spies was damaged - especially after the intelligence proved to be wrong. On one level, much of the intelligence was spot-on. There have been other occasions since Iraq when intelligence has been made public, for instance over the use of chemical weapons in Syria, but never on the scale seen over Ukraine. The next stage was to make some of the intelligence public. A common problem inside and outside government was that people simply could not believe a major land war could break out in Europe in the 21st Century. France has recently sacked its head of military intelligence for failing to appreciate what was being planned. By early December, details of Russia's plans for a 175,000-strong invasion had appeared in the Washington Post. In Washington, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines - who briefed allies at Nato in November - and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan are credited with pushing for the release of material. A crucial moment came in early November when CIA Director William Burns travelled to Moscow - to warn that Washington knew what was being planned. That decision, those involved say, was taken at the very highest level of the White House by President Biden. And he believed the only way to do so was by using force. The decision had been taken to make the whole world know about it.

The same day that a missile struck a Kramatorsk train station, the Pentagon predicted that combat ahead will be a “knife fight ... very bloody and very ugly ...

More than 6,600 people fled from embattled areas in the south and east via humanitarian corridors Friday, according to Kyiv, the highest count this week. The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike in Kramatorsk “another war crime of Russia” and vowed to hold the perpetrators responsible. The ineptitude displayed by the Russian military in its initial attempt to overrun Ukraine has astounded military professionals. - Mariupol: Russian forces claim to have successfully captured central Mariupol, which the city’s mayor denies. Makariv mayor Vadym Tokar said 132 people were discovered fatally shot and 40 percent of the city had been destroyed,Ukrainian Pravdareported. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited nearby Bucha on Friday and witnessed bodies being pulled from a mass grave. Speaking to reporters alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “willing to consider anything by way of defensive weaponry to help the Ukrainians protect themselves,” when asked if he would provide Ukraine with tanks. The aid, worth about $130 million, comes after consultation with Ukraine’s military, the Defense Ministry said in a news release. More than 5,000 of the evacuees were from Mariupol and Berdyansk, port cities occupied by Russian forces, Vereshchuk said. In a clearing not far away there was another body, left with the detritus of what had been a Russian military camp. “Amnesty’s closing down in Russia is only the latest in a long list of organizations that have been punished for defending human rights and speaking the truth to the Russian authorities,” Callamard said. More than 6,600 people fled from embattled areas in those regions via humanitarian corridors Friday, according to Kyiv, the highest count this week.

The attack came as workers unearthed bodies from a mass grave in Bucha, a town near Ukraine's capital where dozens of killings have been documented after a ...

One analyst added that only Russia would have reason to target railway infrastructure in the Donbas. He also suggested that Russia specifically chose the missile type because Ukraine also has it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military assessments. While some combat units are withdrawing to be resupplied in Russia, Moscow has added thousands of troops around Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, he said. About 67 people were buried in the grave, according to a statement from Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova's office. Some of the grisliest evidence has been found in towns around Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, from which Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops pulled back in recent days. So did the region's Moscow-backed separatists, who work closely with Russian regular troops. I don't have a machine gun. "There are (Russian) soldiers talking with their parents about what they stole and who they abducted. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who says he expects a tough global response, and other leaders accused Russia's military of deliberately attacking the station. More than 4 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and millions more have been displaced. "There are almost no words for it," European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in Ukraine, told reporters.

The gruesome killings in Bucha could further isolate Moscow as the U.S. sanctions Putin's daughters and the E.U. will vote on a Russian coal ban.

The last independent newsletter in Russia suspended its operations. The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. The total toll remains unclear, but survivors describe atrocities echoing those that have emerged from other cities Russia has occupied. On Monday, Biden repeated his assertion that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and called for further evidence-gathering to prepare for a war-crimes trial. The Switchblade drones come in two versions. Many yearn to return home, even if it’s not the same. The continued violence came amid fresh reports of human-rights atrocities in Ukrainian cities and towns that had been under Russian control. U.S. analysts said Moscow has begun gradually shifting the focus of its military operations to the eastern border provinces after withdrawing thousands of troops that previously encircled the capital, Kyiv. She also declared that an agreement between NATO and Russia inked after the Cold War is dead. Failure to heed the commands could mean death at the hands of Russian forces. Russia has fully withdrawn its troops from Kyiv and further north in the city of Chernihiv, according to the Pentagon. Ukraine appealed to NATO Thursday to give its forces more firepower to fight Russia as the alliance’s foreign ministers meet for a second day and European diplomats weighed a ban on Russian coal.

In an attempt at damage control on Friday, Peskov said he was referring to the official defence ministry numbers of 1,351 soldiers killed since Russia launched ...

Of the confirmed deaths in the military, more than 15% come from Russia’s elite airborne, or VDV, units. “For protection from a possible criminal investigation, please contact our lawyers.” A phone camera pans slowly across the portraits of 55 men, each wearing the dress uniform of Russia’s elite airborne units. Russia has called the Ukrainian numbers inflated. Senior Russian officers often fight alongside their units because decisions must be confirmed by higher-ranking personnel. “This is a substantial number.”

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says new sanctions on Russia 'not enough' to prevent more deadly attacks as citizens in the east of the country urged to flee.

Vadym Boichenko said 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed and Russian forces have targeted a hospital where 50 were burned to death. Zelenskiy said Kremlin forces were trying to cover up evidence of atrocities. 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.