On the 29th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, three summits – NATO, G7 and EU – await Western heads of state and government. Follow the latest information live.
2:40 p.m.
The G7 and European Union countries will sanction any transaction involving Russia’s gold reserves, to prevent Moscow from circumventing financial isolation measures taken by the West, the White House said in a statement Thursday. .
A senior US administration official also assured that the G7 countries, which are holding an extraordinary summit on Thursday in Brussels on the war in Ukraine, were “united” in considering that “international organizations and multilateral bodies do not should not continue their activities with Russia as if nothing had happened”.
2:40 p.m.
At least six civilians were killed and 15 others injured Thursday in a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, the regional governor said on Telegram. “According to preliminary data, six civilians were killed and 15 others injured and hospitalized,” Oleg Syniegubov wrote. The bombardment, carried out with “long-range weapons”, hit a post office near which local residents were receiving humanitarian aid, he said, denouncing a new “crime of the Russian occupiers”.
Second largest city in the country with almost 1.5 million inhabitants before the war, Kharkiv is located about forty kilometers from the Russian border. Since the beginning of the invasion at the end of February, the city has been pounded by Russian bombardments which have destroyed nearly a thousand buildings there, most of them residential buildings, its mayor, Igor Terekhov, said on Monday, quoted by the media. .
2:20 p.m.
NATO will provide Ukraine with protective equipment against chemical, biological and nuclear threats and will also protect its forces deployed on the eastern flank against these threats, the Alliance’s secretary general announced on Thursday.
The Allies are “concerned” about the possibility of the use of such weapons in Ukraine after the Russian invasion and “have agreed to provide equipment to help Ukraine protect itself against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats” , explained the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg at the end of an extraordinary summit of the leaders of the Alliance.
2:06 p.m.
Finland will send additional military equipment to Ukraine, the Nordic country announced on Thursday, three weeks after an initial arms shipment. For “security reasons”, the details of this new delivery will not be made public, explained to AFP Miikka Pynnonen, an adviser to the Ministry of Defense.
On February 28, Finland announced the shipment of 1,500 anti-tank weapons, 2,500 assault rifles and ammunition to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion, breaking with its doctrine of not delivering arms to war zones.
1:44 p.m.
Russia on Thursday accused Poland of a “dangerous escalation in the region”, after Warsaw expelled 45 Russian diplomats accused of spying.
“Warsaw has carried out a dangerous escalation in the region, guided not by its national interests, but by the principles of NATO based on an open Russophobia elevated to the rank of official policy”, denounced the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement, promising a response “that will make Polish provocateurs think twice”.
12:42 p.m.
The United States “has entered into consultations (with their allies) to provide anti-ship missiles to Ukraine”, indicated a senior American official, stressing however that this scenario presented “technical challenges”.
She also affirmed that during the NATO summit in Brussels, “many” leaders felt that “China (should) assume its responsibilities in the international community” and that it was necessary “to continue to ask China not to support Russia in its aggression.”
12:00 p.m.
Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of using “phosphorus bombs”. “This morning (…) there were Russian phosphorus bombs. Adults were killed and children were killed again,” Zelensky said in a video message posted on his Telegram account. attention of the Heads of State and Government of the Atlantic Alliance, meeting in an extraordinary summit in Brussels.
11:57
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked NATO to provide “unrestricted military aid” to his country, so that it can face the Russian army that kyiv is currently facing “in unequal conditions”.
“To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs unrestricted military assistance. Just as Russia unrestrictedly uses its full arsenal against us,” Zelensky said in a video message posted on its Telegram account, for the attention of the Heads of State and Government of the Atlantic Alliance, meeting in an extraordinary summit in Brussels.
11:37
The German government has announced that it is giving itself the possibility of “suspending” the closure of certain coal-fired power stations to replace Russian gas, but is keeping the objective of phasing out this fossil fuel in 2030.
10:44 am
The UK government has announced a new round of sanctions targeting 59 Russian and six Belarusian individuals and companies, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Companies such as the Russian diamond giant Alrosa or the private military services group Wagner are targeted, or even the founder of Tinkoff Bank Oleg Tinkov, the influential boss of the first Russian bank Sberbank, Guerman Gref, as well as Polina Kovaleva, daughter of the alleged mistress of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
10:23
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for further “pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government over the invasion of Ukraine, including preventing Russia from using its large gold reserves.
“We have to do more and we have to do more economically,” the leader told LBC radio ahead of his participation in an extraordinary Atlantic Alliance summit in Brussels, a month after the start of the war.
09:45
More than half of children in Ukraine have had to leave their homes to flee the insecurity and the fighting sparked by the invasion of the Russian army on February 24, Unicef said. “A month of war in Ukraine has led to the displacement of 4.3 million children – more than half of the country’s estimated child population of 7.5 million,” the UN Children’s Fund detailed. in a press release.
09:05
Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo has asked Total, Leroy Merlin and all French companies to “commit” by imitating Renault which, under pressure from the Ukrainian president, has decided to suspend the activities of its factory in Moscow.
08:55
At least four people died, including two children, and six others were injured in Russian strikes on the town of Roubijné, near Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, said the governor of the region, Serguiï Gaïdaï.
The governor added that the toll could “turn out to be much higher”, accusing the Russians of using phosphorus bombs. Other officials in this region have accused the Russians of using such bombs in recent days, accusations that cannot immediately be verified.
08:32
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a “big mistake” with the invasion of Ukraine, whose resistance he “underestimated”, said Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, before the opening of an extraordinary summit of the Alliance.
06:38
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a strong call for citizens around the world to demonstrate against the Russian invasion of his country, a month to the day after its start and hours before a series of summits in Brussels Thursday between Western leaders .
“Go ahead with Ukrainian symbols to defend Ukraine, to defend freedom, to defend life!” Said Mr. Zelensky overnight from Wednesday to Thursday via a video message in English. “Meet in the squares, in the street, show yourself and make yourself heard!” “Speak out, demonstrate from your offices, your homes, your schools and your universities, demonstrate in the name of peace!” Hammered the president. “The world must stop the war”.
He also addressed the Russians: “If you can, leave Russia and don’t pay your taxes for this war,” he said.
04:15
Allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the year-end G20 summit in Indonesia would go “too far”, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.
03:31
Russia’s media regulator (Roskomnadzor) has restricted access to the News.Google online service, accused of providing access to “false” information about Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.
