Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky. (Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)Russia-Ukraine War News Live Updates: Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskky on Wednesday released a new video in which he warns Poland, Moldova, Romania, and the Baltic states will become the next Russian targets if Ukraine falls. He also said that the war will become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry provided to Ukraine. “We need heavy artillery, armoured vehicles, air defence systems and combat aircraft,” Zelenskky added.
Russia on Wednesday said that “categorically disagrees” with US President Joe Biden’s description of Russian invasion of Ukraine as “Genocide”, news agency Reuters reported. “Statements such as these are unacceptable from the President of the United States, whose own country has committed high profile crimes in recent history,” the statement read. Kremlin also said that pro-russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk’s capturing by Ukraine did not have any back channel to Russia. On Ukrainian proposal of exchanging Medvedchuk with prisoner of war held by Russia, the Kremlin said that Medvedchuk is a Russian and a foreign politican, hinting it would not intiated any deal on this.
Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy addressed the Estonian parliament and said that Ukraine should get “EU candidate” status. Zelenskyy, who has already spoken to more than a dozen assemblies – including the US Congress, the British parliament and the European Parliament, via video conferencing also asserted that Russia can only be stopped by “acting together”. In his address, Zelenskyy also informed the parliament about Russia use of Phosphorus bomb against the Ukrainian forces. Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry said that 1,026 soldiers of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade surrendered in the city of Mariupol, the TASS news agency reported on Wednesday.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said Russia’s war in Ukraine “amounted to genocide,” accusing President Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.” Speaking in Iowa shortly before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington, Biden said he meant it when he said at an earlier event that Putin was carrying out genocide against Ukraine.
Halina Feoktistova mourns the death of her son Volodymyr Feoktistov, 50, who was shot dead on March 4 by Russian soldiers, at a communal grave by the Church of St. Andrews in Bucha, Ukraine, April 8, 2022. As the Russian advance on Kyiv stalled, a campaign of terror and revenge against civilians nearby in Bucha began, survivors and investigators say. (Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times)
More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the port of Mariupol, Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday, signalling that it had moved closer to capturing the ruined city, its main strategic target in eastern Ukraine. Taking the Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, would give the Russians full control of Mariupol, Ukraine's main Sea of Azov port, and reinforce a southern land corridor before an expected new offensive in the country's east.
Surrounded and bombarded by Russian troops for weeks and the focus of some of the fiercest fighting in the war, Mariupol would be the first major city to fall since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Russia's defence ministry said 162 officers were among 1,026 soldiers of the 36th Marine Brigade who had surrendered to Russian and pro-Russian separatist forces near the Illich Iron and Steel Works. Russian television showed pictures of what it said were marines giving themselves up, many of them wounded. Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces were attacking Azovstal and the port, but a defence ministry spokesman said he had no information about any surrender. (Reuters)
Global economic growth will take a hit from Russia's war in Ukraine, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday, noting that it had sent prices for food, energy and some metals sharply higher, fueling existing inflationary pressures.
"It is likely to be a hit to global growth," Yellen told an event hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank, adding that she "worried more about recession prospects" in Europe, which was most vulnerable to disruptions in energy supplies from Russia.
The United States had a "very strong economy, and a very strong labor market," Yellen said, but also faced "strong, strong wage pressures," inflation and the potential for further supply chain pressures due to COVID-19 lockdowns in China. (Reuters)
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskky on Wednesday released a new video in which he warns Poland, Moldova, Romania, and the Baltic states will become the next Russian targets if Ukraine falls. He also said that the war will become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry provided to Ukraine.
"We need heavy artillery, armoured vehicles, air defence systems and combat aircraft," Zelenskky added.
Speaking in English, Zelenskky in the video, also highighted that Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia “much longer than the invaders planned”. Concluding the video, the Ukrainian President said, "Freedom must be armed better than tyranny. Western countries have everything to make it happen. The final victory over the tyranny and the number of people saved depends on them."
Czech Republic on Wednesday reopned its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Czech Television news station, CT24 reported. Earlier in the day, Czech diplomats had returned to the embassy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said informed. The embassy had been closed since the beginning of the Russian invasion in late February.
Russia on Wednesday told Ukraine to "watch out" after its former Soviet neighbour captured pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk, turning down Kyiv's offer of a swap with a warning that those holding him might soon be detained themselves. Medvedchuk, one of President Vladimir Putin's close allies in Ukraine, was shown handcuffed and wearing the uniform of a Ukrainian soldier on Tuesday in a picture tweeted by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy proposed swapping Medvedchuk, while Ukraine's SBU domestic security service cast him as a traitor whose future would be in shackles.
"Those freaks who call themselves the Ukrainian authorities say that they want to beat testimony out of Viktor Medvedchuk, 'quickly and fairly', convict him, and then exchange him for prisoners," Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said.
"These people should watch out and lock the doors well at night to make sure they do not become the people who are going to be exchanged themselves," said Medvedev, a close Putin ally who served as Russian president from 2008 to 2012. (Reuters)
The UK government on Wednesday announced further 178 sanctions on separatists, including the self-styled Prime Minister and Chair of the government of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, who it says prop up Russian-backed illegal breakaway regions of Ukraine in the ongoing conflict in the region.
The move comes ahead of secondary legislation in the UK Parliament on Thursday, which will ban the import of iron and steel products as well as the export of quantum technologies, advanced materials and luxury goods. Individuals sanctioned in the latest tranche, alongside the European Union (EU), include Alexander Ananchenko and Sergey Kozlov, self-styled Prime Minister and Chair of Government of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.
Family members of Russian oligarchs have also been targeted, with sanctions being imposed on Pavel Ezubov, cousin of Oleg Deripaska, and Nigina Zairova, Executive Assistant to Mikhail Fridman.
“In the wake of horrific rocket attacks on civilians in Eastern Ukraine, we are today sanctioning those who prop up the illegal breakaway regions and are complicit in atrocities against the Ukrainian people. We will continue to target all those who aid and abet Putin's war,” said UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. (PTI)
The Sea of Azov port of Mariupol, reduced to a wasteland by seven weeks of siege and bombardment that Ukraine says killed tens of thousands of civilians, could become the first big city captured by Russia since its invasion.
Russia said on Wednesday more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines, among the last defenders holed up in the Azovstal industrial district, had surrendered, though Ukraine did not confirm that. (Read more)
Switzerland has adopted the latest round of European Union sanctions against Russia and Belarus for Moscow's military aggression against Ukraine, the government said on Wednesday, keeping the neutral country in line with EU measures. It also approved sanctioning a further 200 individuals and entities, including two of Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughters.
"Switzerland's list of sanctions now fully mirrors that of the EU," it said in a statement. The amendments will come into force at 1600 GMT.
The EU on Friday formally adopted sweeping new sanctions against Russia, including bans on the import of coal, wood, chemicals and on all transactions with four Russian banks, including VTB. Switzerland deviated from the package only by omitting bans on road and sea transport to the EU, which it said were not needed due to Switzerland's geographic location. (Reuters)
Russia on Wednesday said that "categorically disagrees" with US President Joe Biden's description of Russian invasion of Ukraine as "Genocide". "Statements such as these are unacceptable from the President of the United States, whose own country has committed high profile crimes in recent history.
Kremlin also said that pro-russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk's capturing by Ukraine did not have any back channel to Russia. On Ukrainian proposal of exchanging Medvedchuk with prisoner of war held by Russia, the Kremlin said that Medvedchuk is a Russian and a foreign politican, hinting it would not intiated any deal on this. (Reuters)
The World Bank cut its economic growth forecast for India and the whole South Asian region on Wednesday, citing worsening supply bottlenecks and rising inflation risks caused by the Ukraine crisis.
The international lender lowered its growth estimate for India, the region's largest economy, to 8% from 8.7% for the current fiscal year to March, 2023 and cut by a full percentage point the growth outlook for South Asia, excluding Afghanistan, to 6.6%.
In India, household consumption will be constrained by the incomplete recovery of the labour market from the pandemic and inflationary pressures, the bank said.
"High oil and food prices caused by the war in Ukraine will have a strong negative impact on peoples' real incomes,” Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Vice President for South Asia, said in a statement. (Reuters)
Russia will view U.S. and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate military targets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency in an interview on Wednesday.
"We are warning that US-NATO weapons transports across Ukrainian territory will be considered by us as legal military targets," news agency TASS quoted him as saying. (Reuters)
Ukraine's Deputy Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskiy said on Wednesday at a conference in Prague that Ukraine could export 2 million tonnes of wheat by the end of the current season. (Reuters)
Western countries are trying to provoke a default in Russia, the TASS news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Wednesday.
Ryabkov also said that Russia remained open to finding solutions to problems on strategic issues, TASS reported. (Reuters)
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Serhiy Leshchenko, denied in an interview with CNN that Zelenskiy had rejected a visit offer from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as reported by the Bild newspaper.
Steinmeier said on Tuesday that he had planned to visit Kyiv with his Polish counterpart and the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia "to send a strong signal of European solidarity with Ukraine ... (but) that was not wanted in Kyiv".
Bild reported that Zelenskiy had rejected Steinmeier's plans to visit due to his close relations with Russia in recent years and his years of support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a project designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany but which has since been cancelled. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Russia was using phosphorous bombs in Ukraine and he accused Moscow of deploying terror tactics against civilians.
Adressing the Estonian parliament, Zelenskiy said: "The Russian army is using all types of artillery, all types of missile, air bombs in particular phosphorous bombs against residential districts and civilian infrastructure. "This is clear terror against the civilian population."
Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and has said Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes are fabricated. Ukraine has said it is checking unverified information that Russia may have used chemical weapons while besieging the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. But Russia-backed separatists trying to seize complete control of the city have denied using chemical weapons and Moscow has in the past labelled U.S. talk of Russian forces using chemical weapons a tactic to divert attention away from awkward questions for Washington. (Reuters)
Britain on Wednesday said that it had added a further 206 listings under its Russia sanctions regime, in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the country has also announced an asset freeze and travel ban on Russian–Azerbaijani businessman, and the president of the leading Russian oil company LUKOIL, Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov and also on an Ukrainian lawyer Viktor Volodymyrovich Medvedchuk, who is considered close to Kremlin. (Reuters)
Russia can easily redirect exports of its vast energy resources away from the West to countries that really need them while increasing domestic consumption of oil, gas and coal, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
Putin also said that "unfriendly countries" had destroyed supply chains in Russia's Arctic regions and some nations were not fulfilling their contractual obligations.
Speaking at a meeting with officials to discuss development in the Russian Arctic, Putin said this had created problems for Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday addresed the Estonian parliament and said that Ukraine should get “EU candidate” status. Zelenskyy, who has already spoken to more than a dozen assemblies – including the US Congress, the British parliament and the European Parliament, via video conferencing also asserted that Russia can only be stopped by “acting together”.
The President also said that the visits of President of Poland and Baltic countries on Wednesday is important signal of support for Ukraine. In his address, Zelenskyy also informed the parliament about Russia use of Phosphorus bomb against the Ukrainian forces.
Meanwhile, talking about pressuring Russia for peace, Zelenskyy said, "Sanctions on Russia need to continue, it is the only instrument that could force Russia toward a path of peace."
"Russia military operations in Ukraine is clear terror against civilian population," he added. (Reuters)
Germany will go in recession by 2023 if they stop buying gas from Russia, country's leading economic institutes said in a forecast, news agency AFP reported.
The statement read: An immediate end to Russian gas imports would send Germany into a "sharp recession" next year.