As Russian forces are accused of war crimes in the suburbs of kyiv, Joe Biden, President of the United States on Wednesday condemned the Russian state and announced new sanctions. Follow the latest information live.
10:36 p.m.
The situation in Borodianka, a locality northwest of kyiv recently taken over by the Ukrainians from the Russians, is “much more horrible” than in Boutcha, where massacres of civilians have been committed, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There are more victims” in this small town than in that of Boutcha, also northwest of the capital, added Mr. Zelensky in a video message.
10:11 p.m.
The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell has proposed to increase funding by 500 million euros to supply arms to Ukraine, announced the President of the European Council Charles Michel, expressing his “support” for this initiative.
“Once swiftly approved, this proposal will increase EU aid to Ukraine for military equipment to €1.5 billion,” tweeted the official who represents the EU27.
Thanks and support to @JosepBorrellF for your proposal to top up the #EuropeanPeaceFacility with a further €500M. Once swiftly approved this will bring to 1.5 billion the EU support already provided for military equipment for #Ukraine. @ZelenskyyUa
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) April 7, 2022
9:09 p.m.
The representatives of the Twenty-Seven have decided on an embargo on Russian coal and the closure of European ports to Russian ships, as part of a fifth salvo of sanctions against Moscow, announced the French presidency of the Council of the EU.
9:05 p.m.
26 bodies have been extracted by Ukrainian rescuers from the rubble of two bombed apartment buildings in Borodianka, northwest of kyiv, announced the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova. It is “the most destroyed city in the region” of the capital, she pointed out on Facebook, adding that “it is difficult to predict how many deaths there will be” in total in Borodyanka, where ” only the civilian population was targeted”.
8:51 p.m.
The “new mayor” proclaimed by the pro-Russian forces in Mariupol announced that “about 5,000 people” had died among the civilian population of this Ukrainian city, besieged for weeks by the Russian army and its separatist allies. “About 60 to 70% of the housing stock has been destroyed or partially destroyed,” added, quoted by the Russian agency TASS, Konstantin Ivashchenko, appointed head of the city on Wednesday by Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk separatists.
7:17 p.m.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called Russia’s suspension from the United Nations Human Rights Council “unlawful”, in a statement released Thursday.
7:15 p.m.
The G7 countries have announced new economic sanctions against Russia, including a ban on new investment in key sectors in reaction to “the further escalation of the war” in Ukraine.
“We prohibit new investments in key industries of the Russian economy, including energy”, indicate the powers of the G7 in a press release, which also announces “additional sanctions against the Russian defense sector” and against “elites” who support the war decided by Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine.
7:02 p.m.
By a vote in Congress, the United States officially revoked the trade status of Russia and Belarus in response to the war in Ukraine, paving the way for punitive tariffs against these two countries.
6:35 p.m.
The Kremlin regretted Russia’s suspension from the UN Human Rights Council, warning that Moscow intended to “continue to defend its interests by all legal means”.
6:22 p.m.
Moscow has recognized “significant losses” within its army deployed in Ukraine, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, without quantifying them.
6:19 p.m.
The United States believes that Russia continues to commit “atrocities” in Ukraine “at this very moment”, said the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken after a NATO meeting.
Beyond Boutcha, a locality near kyiv where Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of having committed a “massacre” of civilians, “there are many other cities that Russia has occupied and other cities that ‘it still occupies places where we must believe that Russian soldiers are committing more atrocities at this very moment,’ he told reporters in Brussels.
6:16 p.m.
Ukraine said it was “grateful” for the decision to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, saying “war criminals” should not be represented there.
6:06 p.m.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that she would travel to kyiv on Friday to express her “unwavering support” for Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.
5:57 p.m.
The UN General Assembly, made up of 193 member countries, suspended Russia from its seat on the UN Human Rights Council over the invasion of Ukraine, in a vote that garnered 93 favorable votes and reflects an erosion of international unity against Moscow.
Twenty-four countries voted against this suspension – the second in the history of the UN after the ousting of Libya in 2011 -, initiated by the United States. And 58 countries abstained, but the abstentions, a choice denounced by kyiv, were not taken into account in the two-thirds majority required among the only votes for and against.
3:58 p.m.
An investigation into the circumstances of the deaths of people dressed in civilian clothes, found dead in Boutcha by the Ukrainian authorities after the withdrawal of the Russian army, is “the next step”, a senior UN official said during a meeting. trip to this city near kyiv.
3:26 p.m.
Ukraine needs the weapons of NATO countries “now”, or “it will be too late”, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba said Thursday at a meeting of the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels.
“I have no doubt that Ukraine will have the necessary weapons to fight. The question is when,” he insisted after meeting his counterparts from NATO countries, also demanding with the same urgency as the Westerners stop buying Russian oil and gas.
3:26 p.m.
The images of the massacres perpetrated in Boutcha or Irpin, near kyiv, have “eclipsed” the talks initiated between Russia and Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu regretted on Thursday.
Turkey has twice hosted direct negotiations between the two parties, the last of which on March 29 in Istanbul, but “the positive atmosphere that emanated from them was unfortunately overshadowed”, insisted the minister who was speaking to the press in Brussels, following the meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
2:32 p.m.
kyiv has called on Moscow to “reduce its degree of hostility” in the negotiations after Russia accused Ukraine on Thursday of backtracking on proposals made during their talks in late March in Istanbul.
“If Moscow wants to show that it is ready for dialogue, it must reduce its level of hostility,” said on Twitter an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, also a member of the Ukrainian delegation in charge of talks with Russia. .
1:51 p.m.
Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of reneging on some of the proposals it made during talks in late March in Istanbul, which Moscow said it welcomed.
“This inability once again to reach a negotiated agreement demonstrates kyiv’s true intentions, its line aimed at dragging out or even derailing the negotiations, by rejecting the agreements that had been reached,” said in a video the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
12:57
The G7 countries on Thursday called for Russia’s suspension from the United Nations Human Rights Council, in a joint statement.
“We are convinced that the time has come to suspend Russia’s membership of the Human Rights Council”, a proposal which will be put to the vote on Thursday by the UN General Assembly, say the foreign ministers G7 member countries.
They further promise that the perpetrators of the Boutcha massacre “will be held to account and will be prosecuted”.
10:39
kyiv has accused Hungary of “helping Putin” in the war against Ukraine, the day after statements by Viktor Orban saying he was ready to buy Russian gas in rubles, unlike other countries of the European Union.
“Budapest has taken the next step: helping Putin continue his aggression against Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement, saying Hungary was “destroying unity of the EU” with this position.
10:33 am
Paris summons the Russian ambassador after his “indecent” communication on the abuses in Boutcha.
7:50 am
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba on Thursday asked NATO members to provide more weapons to his country to fight Russian forces. “I come to ask for three things: arms, arms and arms.
The faster they will be delivered, the more lives will be saved and destruction avoided”, pleaded the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs on his arrival at NATO headquarters in Brussels for a meeting with his counterparts from the countries of the Atlantic Alliance.
6:00 a.m.
Eastern Ukraine, now a priority target of the Kremlin, was trying to evacuate its civilian population, before a new Russian offensive expected despite new “devastating” American sanctions against Moscow. “We managed to evacuate more than 1,200 people today” on Wednesday, said Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the Lugansk region (east), still under Ukrainian control.
This official specified that all these evacuations had been carried out in the absence of any ceasefire and under very difficult conditions due to the intense bombardments of the Russian forces. “I ask people to evacuate, because we clearly see that before going on the all-out offensive, the enemy will just completely destroy all these places,” he said in an interview with Ukrainian television. . “Please go” while there is still time. These evacuations are made during brief lulls, or are made impossible as in Popasne, south of Sverodonetsk, where the intensity of the bombardments prevented any operation with the inhabitants of this locality of the Lugansk region, according to Mr. Gaïdaï.
“We have nowhere to go, it’s been like this for days,” a 38-year-old Severodonetsk resident, Volodymyr, told AFP on Wednesday as he watched a burning building. “I don’t know who this war is for, but we are there under the bombs…” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk also launched from kyiv on Wednesday an appeal to the inhabitants of the east of the country to evacuate the region “immediately”, due to fears of a major Russian military offensive. We must leave “now” on pain of “risking death” in the coming days, she also insisted. If the Russian army launched a major attack in the region, “we could no longer help” the population, she warned.
