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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Samantha Lock (now); Johana Bhuiyan, Gloria Oladipo, Léonie Chao-Fong and Martin Belam (earlier)

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor says ‘Ukraine is a crime scene’ after visiting Bucha – as it happened

Russia Ukraine United States Vladimir Putin Joe Biden United Kingdom Volodymyr Zelenksyy Alexander Dvornikov Viktor Medvedchuk Mariupol
Firefighters work at a burning building, following a missile attack near Kharkiv International Airport
Firefighters work at a burning building, following a missile attack near Kharkiv International Airport Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

This liveblog is now closing.

Please follow all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine by reading our latest coverage in the link below.

Summary so far

It is approaching 8am in Ukraine as the country wakes to face its 50th day of war.

Here is where the situation currently stands:

  • The Russian defence ministry has said the entire crew of the warship Moskva, reported to be struck by Ukraine in the Black Sea late on Wednesday, has been evacuated after an ammunition explosion resulted in a fire on the ship. “The cruiser Moskva of the Black Sea Fleet was seriously damaged as a result of the detonation of ammunition that occurred as a result of a fire, the crew was evacuated,” Russian state media outlet TASS reported, citing the Russian defence ministry. The ship was defied by Ukrainian troops on Snake Island at the start of the war.
  • A Ukrainian official earlier said the Moskva had been hit by two missiles but did not give any evidence. The 12,500-tonne ship has a crew of about 500.
  • Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for an oil embargo in his nightly address on Wednesday. “First of all, we need an oil embargo. And Europe’s clear readiness to give up all Russian energy. The European Union must stop sponsoring Russia’s military machine.”
  • Zelenskiy confirmed forensic experts from the international criminal court visited Bucha on Wednesday to investigate possible war crimes. “Responsibility for the Russian military for war crimes is inevitable. We will drag them all to the tribunal. And not only for what was done in Bucha.” International Criminal Court chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, told reporters “Ukraine is a crime scene” after visiting Bucha on Wednesday.
  • US president Joe Biden announced an additional $800m in military assistance to Ukraine including heavy artillery ahead of a wider Russian assault expected in eastern Ukraine. The package, which brings the total military aid since Russian forces invaded in February to more than $2.5bn, includes artillery systems, artillery rounds, armoured personnel carriers and unmanned coastal defence boats, Biden said in a statement after a phone call with Zelenskiy.
  • The US state department on Wednesday defended Biden’s charge that Russia is carrying out a genocide in Ukraine, saying its forces are trying to destroy the country and its civilian population. Biden levelled the accusation at president Vladimir Putin’s forces for the first time on Tuesday, saying it had “become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian”. US state department official, Victoria Nuland, told CNN: “I am going to predict that what president Biden called it is what we will ultimately likely find when we are able to gather all of this evidence. Because what is happening on the ground is not an accident.”
  • The French president, Emmanuel Macron, declined to repeat Biden’s accusation that Russia was carrying out “genocide” against Ukrainians, warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war. Zelenskiy responded: “Such things are very painful for us, so I will definitely do my best to discuss this issue with him.”
  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending the besieged port city of Mariupol have surrendered, Moscow has claimed. In one of the most critical battles of the war, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” near the city’s Ilyich iron and steelworks. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.
  • The Russian retreat from around Kyiv has led to the discovery of large numbers of apparently massacred civilians, drawing international condemnation and calls for a war crimes investigation. The Kyiv district police chief said the bodies of 765 civilians, including 30 children had been found around the capital.
  • Negotiations are reportedly underway on the exchange of 169 servicemen of the National Guard of Ukraine who were taken prisoner at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs said.
  • The presidents of four countries bordering Russia – Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – travelled to Kyiv in a show of support for their Ukrainian counterpart and his embattled troops. It follows Kyiv’s reported refusal to meet the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited Poland on Tuesday and said he had planned to go on to Ukraine but “was not wanted”.
  • Senior US officials are weighing whether to send a top Cabinet level official to Kyiv as a high profile representative in a show of solidarity with Ukraine, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.
  • Zelenskiy told Estonian MPs, without providing evidence, that Russia was using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces in Mariupol said a drone had dropped a poisonous substance on the city, but there has been no independent confirmation that Russia used banned chemical weapons.
  • Zelenskiy also warned that the war will become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry.
  • In a speech at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen said that countries on the fence of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine could face global isolation. “The unified coalition of sanctioning countries will not be indifferent to actions that undermine the sanctions we’ve put in place.”
  • Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, said the country would decide on whether to apply for Nato membership “within weeks”. Speaking at a joint news conference with her Swedish counterpart, Marin said that as a Nato partner – but not a member – Finland was not covered under article 5, which states that an attack on one member should be considered an attack on all.
  • The UK government has imposed sanctions on another 206 individuals, including 178 people it said were involved in propping up the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the latest sanctions were imposed in a direct response to the “horrific rocket attacks” on a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that killed dozens of civilians.
  • Australia has also imposed targeted financial sanctions on 14 Russian state-owned enterprises on Thursday, including defence-related entities such as truckmaker Kamaz, and shipping companies SEVMASH and United Shipbuilding Corp.
  • A Russian court ordered an artist to be held behind bars for allegedly replacing supermarket price labels with messages protesting against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.
  • Russia is imposing sanctions on 398 US House representatives and 87 Canadiana senators, Interfax news agency reported.
  • The European Space Agency said is has ended cooperation with Russia on three missions to the Moon due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, following a previous decision to do the same for a Mars mission.
  • Russia will seek peace or leave the international arena forever, Zelenskiy said in his latest national address. “Either the Russian leadership will really seek peace, or as a result of this war, Russia will leave the international arena forever.”
  • UN chief, Antonio Guterres, said that a ceasefire in Ukraine “doesn’t seem possible,” possibly indicating that the UN is still waiting on a response from Russia on evacuating Ukrainian civilians and providing aid.

Russia is attempting to mobilise up to 70,000 people in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military claims.

It has been established that the Russian command has assigned the task of mobilising 60-70,000 people in the territory of the so-called ‘DPR’,” the general staff of the armed forces said in its latest morning operational report, adding that the specified figures were completed “by only 20%”.

Russian forces continue to expand units near the eastern border and restore and replenish ammunition, officials added.

Ukrainian troops thwarted eight Russian attacks over the past 24 hours in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the report read.

European Space Agency stops cooperation with Russian lunar missions

The European Space Agency said is has ended cooperation with Russia on three missions to the Moon due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, following a previous decision to do the same for a Mars mission.

The ESA said it would “discontinue cooperative activities” on Luna-25, 26 and 27, a series of Russian lunar missions on which the European agency had aimed to test new equipment and technology.

In late March, collaboration on ExoMars, a plan to land a rover on Mars to drill into the soil and search for signs of life, was suspended as well.

“As with ExoMars, the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the resulting sanctions put in place represent a fundamental change of circumstances and make it impossible for ESA to implement the planned lunar cooperation,” the ESA said in a statement.

The ESA had planned to have a navigation camera called Pilot-D on the Luna-25 probe, whose launch is scheduled for this summer.

ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher told a press briefing the camera was going to be dismantled and taken off the launch, and that Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, had already been informed.

Fiji police are questioning the captain of a luxury vessel owned by a Russian oligarch that arrived in the Pacific islands nation on Tuesday without customs clearance, Reuters reports.

Fiji newspapers reported on Thursday that police had seized the superyacht Amadea, owned by a Russian billionaire, Suleiman Kerimov, who has been sanctioned by the United States, Britain and the European Union over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and detained its crew.

An official at the National Police Command and Control Centre confirmed to Reuters the captain of the vessel was being questioned on how it came to Fiji without customs clearance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, lawmakers and businessmen have faced wide-reaching sanctions in the wake of the invasion, which Moscow calls a special military operation, while European countries have seized property including villas and boats.

Commissioner of Police, Brigadier General Sitivini Qiliho told the Fiji Sun newspaper the Fiji Attorney General’s office had been contacted by a foreign government requesting assistance in a criminal matter, and Fiji had agreements with other countries to enforce sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

The United States embassy and European Union delegations in Fiji had requested cooperation, the Fiji Times reported.

Fiji had been alerted to the approach of the Amadea before it moored at Lautoka Wharf, the media reports said.

The Marine Traffic website showed Amadea left Mexico 18 days ago.

Servicemen patrol next to the ruins of buildings destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Kyiv.
Servicemen patrol next to the ruins of buildings destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Kyiv. Photograph: Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
Rescuers search for bodies under the rubble of a building destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Kyiv.
Rescuers search for bodies under the rubble of a building destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Kyiv. Photograph: Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
Military equipment left abandoned in the city of Bucha.
Military equipment left abandoned in the city of Bucha. Photograph: LOUAI-BARAKAT/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock
Bodies are exhumed from a mass grave on the grounds of the St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints Church in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv.
Bodies are exhumed from a mass grave on the grounds of the St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints Church in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv. Photograph: Sadak Souici/Le Pictorium Agency/ZUMA/REX/Shutterstock

Australia has imposed targeted financial sanctions on 14 Russian state-owned enterprises on Thursday, including defence-related entities such as truckmaker Kamaz, and shipping companies SEVMASH and United Shipbuilding Corp.

Sanctions will also extend to electronic company Ruselectronics, responsible for the production of around 80% of all Russian electronics components, and Russian Railways over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, foreign minister Marise Payne said in a statement.

Our targeting of Russia’s state-owned enterprises in coordination with key partners undermines their capacity to boost the Russian economy. By preventing dealings with these important sources of revenue for the Russian Government, we are increasing the pressure on Russia and undercutting its ability to continue funding Putin’s war,” Payne said.

Australia has now sanctioned about 600 individuals and entities, including most of Russia’s banking sector and all organisations responsible for the country’s sovereign debt.

It has also supplied defence equipment and humanitarian supplies to Ukraine, while banning exports of alumina and aluminium ores, including bauxite, to Russia.

A Russian court has ordered an artist to be held behind bars for allegedly replacing supermarket price labels with messages protesting against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.

Alexandra Skochilenko faces up to a decade in jail for her stealth protest, after she was charged under a new law banning “fake news” about Russia’s armed forces.

Saint Petersburg’s Vasileostrovsky district court ruled that Skochilenko must remain in pre-trial detention in prison until 31 May, the court’s press service said on Telegram.

Investigators accused her of “putting fragments of paper in place of price tags, containing knowingly false information about the use of the Russian armed forces” in a Perekryostok supermarket on 31 March.

They described her motive as “political hatred for Russia”, which means she faces a harsh sentence if found guilty, ranging from a fine of 3m roubles (£27,000) to between five and 10 years in jail.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to call killings in Ukraine “genocide” and his reference to Russians as a “brotherly” people.

“Such things are very painful for us, so I will definitely do my best to discuss this issue with him,” Zelenskiy said at a press conference n Wednesday with the visiting presidents of Poland and the Baltic states.

France and Germany declined Wednesday to repeat US President Joe Biden’s accusation that Russia was carrying out “genocide” against Ukrainians, warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war.

Instead, Macron said leaders should be “careful” with the terminology on genocide in these situations, especially as “the Ukrainians and Russians are brotherly peoples”.

“I would say that Russia unilaterally unleashed the most brutal war, that it is now established that war crimes were committed by the Russian army and that it is now necessary to find those responsible and make them face justice,” Macron said.

“It’s madness what’s happening, it’s incredibly brutal,” he added.

“But at the same time I look at the facts and I want to try as much as possible to continue to be able to stop this war and to rebuild peace. I’m not sure that verbal escalations serve this cause,” he said.

Although the US State Department defended Biden’s remarks that Russia is carrying out a genocide in Ukraine, it stopped short of promising to launch its own inquiry saying it would instead support international efforts to hold Russia accountable.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration would further assess whether to launch its own formal review.

Price said the United States supported international lawyers trying to determine whether a legal threshold was met, but did not say whether the United States would launch its own inquiry.

“What we are doing is the most effective means of achieving that ultimate goal of accountability,” Price said.

Such a state department determination normally follows a meticulous internal process, but the final decision is up to the secretary of state, who weighs whether it advances American interests, officials said.

The US State Department has defended President Joe Biden’s remarks that Russia is carrying out a genocide in Ukraine, saying its forces are trying to destroy the country and its civilian population.

Biden levelled the accusation at President Vladimir Putin’s forces for the first time on Tuesday, while adding however that it would be up to lawyers to decide if Russia’s behaviour actually qualifies as genocide.

“I am going to predict that what President Biden called it is what we will ultimately likely find when we are able to gather all of this evidence,” undersecretary of state for political affairs, Victoria Nuland, said on CNN.

“Because what is happening on the ground is not an accident,” she said. “It is an intentional decision by Russia, by its forces to destroy Ukraine and its civilian population,” she added.

State Department spokesman Ned Price earlier said: “The president was speaking to the impression that he had garnered from watching the horrific footage that we’ve all seen from places like Mariupol, from places like Bucha, from Kharkiv and from other places.

“It is much less important what you call it, rather than how you respond to it, and we’re responding to it, resolutely, by providing our Ukrainian partners with precisely what they need to defend themselves against this Russian aggression.

“Whether this is a war crime, whether this is an atrocity, whether this is genocide, it does not change our strategy.’

Senior US officials are weighing whether to send a top Cabinet level official to Kyiv as a high profile representative in a show of solidarity with Ukraine, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken or defence secretary Austin Lloyd are potential candidates to pay a surprise visit to Kyiv, but no final decision has been made, the source said.

The discussions were first reported by Politico.

Other Western leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, have made trips to Ukraine in show of support following Russia’s invasion in February.

Here are some of the latest images to come out of Ukraine today.

A 12-year-old boy holds a cat standing on the debris of his house destroyed by Russian forces’ shelling in the outskirts of Chernihiv, Ukraine.

His mother, Liudmila Koval, had to have her leg amputated and was injured in her abdomen after shelling. She is still waiting for proper medical treatment.

Chernihiv, a northern Ukrainian city, has been besieged by Russian forces.

Shells and bombs that rained down on the city for weeks have reduced its buildings and neighbourhoods to rubble.

Danyk Rak, 12, holds a cat standing on the debris of his house destroyed by Russian forces’ shelling in the outskirts of Chernihiv, Ukraine.
Danyk Rak, 12, holds a cat standing on the debris of his house destroyed by Russian forces’ shelling in the outskirts of Chernihiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Danyk Rak, 12, and his grandmother Nina Vynnyk stand on the debris of their house which was destroyed by Russian forces’ shelling.
Danyk Rak, 12, and his grandmother Nina Vynnyk stand on the debris of their house which was destroyed by Russian forces’ shelling. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
A Ukrainian man stands among the ruins at a residential area damaged by shelling in Lysychansk, Ukraine.
A Ukrainian man stands among the ruins at a residential area damaged by shelling in Lysychansk, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Biden approves additional $800m in military assistance to Ukraine

US President Joe Biden earlier announced an additional $800m in military assistance to Ukraine including heavy artillery ahead of a wider Russian assault expected in eastern Ukraine.

The package, which brings the total military aid since Russian forces invaded in February to more than $2.5 billion, includes artillery systems, artillery rounds, armoured personnel carriers and unmanned coastal defence boats, Biden said in a statement after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine. These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armoured personnel carriers.”

Biden said he had also approved the transfer of additional helicopters, saying equipment provided to Ukraine “has been critical” as it confronts the invasion.

“We cannot rest now. As I assured President Zelenskiy, the American people will continue to stand with the brave Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom,” Biden said.

The new package includes 11 Mi-17 helicopters and 18 155mm howitzers, along with 40,000 artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, 200 armoured personnel carriers and 300 additional Switchblade drones.

It will be the first time howitzers have been provided to Ukraine by the United States.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said some of the systems, like the howitzers and radars, will require additional training for Ukrainian forces not accustomed to using American military equipment.

“We’re aware of the clock and we know time is not our friend,” Kirby said when asked about the speed of deliveries.

Negotiations are reportedly underway on the exchange of 169 servicemen of the National Guard of Ukraine who were taken prisoner at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials say.

The ministry made the announcement in an update on the Telegram messaging app, citing Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Denis Monastyrsky.

Chernobyl is a tragic page in our history. Unfortunately, we have to state that 169 servicemen of the National Guard were taken prisoner there.

Today, some of them, according to our information, are in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, some - in Russia. We were at the place where they were kept. This is a dungeon without light, without the ability to communicate properly. They were deprived of all means of communication while they were there. And then they were taken out. Unfortunately, I can’t say what their fate is.

Negotiations are underway to exchange them. But we understand that this will probably be only after the end of the active phase of hostilities.”

Here is a little bit more about what we know on the Russian warship strike.

The Moskva was reportedly hit by two Ukrainian missiles late on Wednesday night, a Ukrainian official earlier said.

The 12,500 tonne ship has a crew of around 500. Russian news agencies said the Moskva was armed with 16 anti-ship ‘Vulkan’ cruise missiles, which have a range of at least 700km (440 miles).

The Moskva is the flagship of the Black Sea fleet.

Last month Ukraine said it had destroyed a large Russian landing support ship, the Orsk, on the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast of the Black Sea.

The Moskva, Russia’s flagship of the Black Sea fleet, was reportedly hit by two Ukrainian missiles late on Wednesday night.
The Moskva, Russia’s flagship of the Black Sea fleet, was reportedly hit by two Ukrainian missiles late on Wednesday night. Photograph: Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters

Russian warship 'seriously damaged' after ammunition explosion as crew evacuated, Russian defence ministry says

The Russian defence ministry has said the entire crew of the warship Moskva, reported to be struck by Ukraine in the Black Sea late on Wednesday night, has been evacuated after an ammunition explosion resulted in a fire on the ship.

The ship was famously defied by Ukrainian troops on Snake Island at the start of the war

“The cruiser ‘Moskva’ of the Black Sea Fleet was seriously damaged as a result of the detonation of ammunition that occurred as a result of a fire, the crew was evacuated,” Russian state media outlet TASS reported, citing the Russian defene ministry.

“As a result of a fire, ammunition detonated on the Moskva missile cruiser. The ship was seriously damaged. The crew was completely evacuated,” the ministry added.

Earlier this evening, Ukraine said it struck and damaged a Russian warship in the Black Sea, according to a Telegram messaged posted by Odessa governor Maksym Marchenko.

“It has been confirmed that the missile cruiser Moskva today went exactly where it was sent by our border guards on Snake Island!” Marchenko said.

On the first day of the invasion, the small garrison refused calls from the ship for it to surrender, telling the ship to “go fuck yourself”.

Ukrainian presidential aide Oleksiy Arestovych said the ship could have as many as 510 crew members on board.

Updated

Russia will seek peace or leave the international arena forever, Zelenskiy says

Russian troops are stepping up activity in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, Zelenskiy added.

They are trying to retaliate for their defeats. Rocket bombings and artillery strikes continue. New columns of equipment are being brought in. They are looking for reserves. They are trying to recruit residents of the south of our country - that is, from these temporarily occupied areas in addition to the so-called mobilisation in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”

However, Zelenskiy noted that the recent “feverish activity” of Russian forces reflects Russia’s insecurity and inability to defeat Ukraine.

Even with significant stocks of Soviet military equipment and a significant number of soldiers, whom the commanders do not spare at all, the Russian troops doubt their ability to break us, to break Ukraine. Well, we do everything to justify their doubts.”

“This war against Ukraine can only end in Russia’s strategic defeat - sooner or later,” he added.

Either the Russian leadership will really seek peace, or as a result of this war, Russia will leave the international arena forever.”

Zelenskiy confirmed forensic experts from the International Criminal Court visited Bucha on Wednesday to investigate possible war crimes.

Responsibility for the Russian military for war crimes is inevitable.

We will drag them all to the tribunal. And not only for what was done in Bucha.

The president added that the clean-up of mines left by Russian troops in the north of Ukraine continues.

The occupiers left tens of thousands of unexploded shells, mines and tripwire mines - a lot of everything. Therefore, everyone who wants to return home to the liberated territory should be as careful as possible, as attentive as possible. And immediately inform the police and rescuers in case you find a strange object, an explosive object.”

Zelenskiy calls for oil embargo, EU must 'stop sponsoring Russia’s military machine'

Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy has called for an oil embargo in his latest national address.

First of all, we need an oil embargo. And Europe’s clear readiness to give up all Russian energy.

The European Union must stop sponsoring Russia’s military machine.”

Zelenskiy added that he discussed western sanctions policy with a group of international and Ukrainian experts who “assessed the sanctions imposed and how Russia is trying to circumvent them”.

The group has prepared concrete proposals on how to remove sanctions loopholes and how to immediately enhance sanctions to make it tangible for Moscow, Zelenskiy added.

Today so far...

It’s 6 PM ET/3 PM PT here in the US. I’m signing off and will be handing over the blog to our colleagues in Australia.

Here’s what happened so far:

  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending the besieged port city of Mariupol have surrendered, Moscow has claimed. In one of the most critical battles of the war, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” near the city’s Ilyich iron and steelworks. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.
  • Ukraine claims it damaged a Russian warship in the Black Sea on Wednesday, according to a Telegram messaged posted by Odessa governor Maksym Marchenko.“Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage to the Russian ship. Glory to Ukraine!” Marchenko’s message read. The Guardian could not independently confirm the attack.
  • In a speech at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said that countries on the fence of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine could face global isolation. “The unified coalition of sanctioning countries will not be indifferent to actions that undermine the sanctions we’ve put in place,” Yellen said at the Atlantic Council.
  • Russian troops are reportedly suffering from “low morale and disenchantment” amongst some of the younger troops. While speaking at a press conference today, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby also said that Russian troop leaders are “frustrated” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
  • The presidents of four countries bordering Russia – Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – have travelled to Kyiv in a show of support for their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his embattled troops. It follows Kyiv’s reported refusal to meet the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited Poland on Tuesday and said he had planned to go on to Ukraine but “was not wanted”. The former German foreign minister is facing heavy criticism for his past policy of rapprochement towards Moscow.
  • Zelenskiy told Estonian MPs, without providing evidence, that Russia was using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces in Mariupol said a drone had dropped a poisonous substance on the city, but there has been no independent confirmation that Russia used banned chemical weapons.
  • Zelenskiy warned that the war would become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry. Speaking in English in a video published on Twitter, Zelenskiy said: “Freedom must be armed better than tyranny. Western countries have everything to make it happen.”
  • The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has declined to repeat Joe Biden’s accusation that Russia was carrying out “genocide” against Ukrainians, warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war. The US president said on Tuesday it had “become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian”. In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described Biden’s comments as “unacceptable”.
  • The UK government has imposed sanctions on another 206 individuals in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including 178 people it said were involved in propping up the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the latest sanctions were imposed in a direct response to the “horrific rocket attacks” on a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that killed dozens of civilians.

Ukraine claims it damaged a Russian warship

Ukraine says it struck and damaged a Russian warship in the Black Sea on Wednesday, according to a Telegram messaged posted by Odessa governor Maksym Marchenko.

“Neptune missiles guarding the Black Sea caused very serious damage to the Russian ship. Glory to Ukraine!” Marchenko’s message read.

In a YouTube broadcast, Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said “a surprise happened with the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet”, AFP reported.

The Guardian could not independently confirm the attack. AFP did not receive any confirmation from the Russian military of an attack on the warship.

The US won’t say whether it will launch its own probe into whether Russia has committed genocide in Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Though Biden said on Tuesday that Russia’s actions amount to a genocide, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration would assess whether to launch their own review. In the meantime, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the country supported international efforts to determine whether Russia’s actions met the legal threshold to qualify as a genocide but would not say if the US would launch its own probe.

“What we are doing is the most effective means of achieving that ultimate goal of accountability,” Price said.

On Wednesday, Russia said it disagreed with Biden’s description of the country’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”.

Treasury secretary Yellen issues warning to countries neutral on Russia's Ukraine invasion

In a speech at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said that countries on the fence of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine could face global isolation, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

The US has urged China not to undercut sanctions or provide aid to Russia and has asked countries like India to take a tougher stance on Russia. Yellen said those countries “sitting on the fence” will not be ignored.

“Let me now say a few words to those countries that are currently sitting on the fence, perhaps seeing an opportunity to gain by preserving their relationship with Russia and backfilling the void left by others. Such motivations are shortsighted,” Yellen said. “And let’s be clear, the unified coalition of sanctioning countries will not be indifferent to actions that undermine the sanctions we’ve put in place.”

The only country Yellen mentioned by name was China saying, “The world’s attitude towards China and its willingness to embrace further economic integration may well be affected by China’s reaction to our call for resolute action on Russia.”

She also said that new trade agreements should be drawn up to reduce the reliance on non-allied nations.

“We cannot allow countries to use their market position in key raw materials, technologies or products to have the power to disrupt our economy or exercise unwanted geopolitical leverage,” she said

Updated

In a new letter, close to 3 dozen House Democrats put pressure on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to recalibrate the US-Saudi relationship, the AP is reporting.

Led by Rep Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and senior member of the committee on foreign affairs, and Rep Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the committee on rules, lawmakers wrote that Saudi Arabia has been a bad strategic partner following its refusal to help ease the skyrocketing demand for oil during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Governments that have formed genuine, ironclad alliances with the United States, forged in shared values of democratic norms and respect for human rights, have answered the call to action in the wake of unprovoked invasion. Unfortunately, our longstanding relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not produced a similar response,” Democrats wrote.

“Saudi Arabia’s inability to stand up for international law exemplifies the short- and long-term risks associated with maintaining uncritical US support for the Saudi regime,” the letter added.

Updated

Global leaders are split on whether to follow US President Biden’s lead and accuse Russia of carrying out a genocide, AFP is reporting.

While Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau told reporters it was “right” that more people will be “using the word genocide in terms of what Russia is doing, what Vladimir Putin has done”, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said it was important for world leaders to be careful about avoiding “verbal escalations”.

“I would say that Russia unilaterally unleashed the most brutal war, that it is now established that war crimes were committed by the Russian army and that it is now necessary to find those responsible and make them face justice,” Macron said.

“But at the same time I look at the facts and I want to try as much as possible to continue to be able to stop this war and to rebuild peace. I’m not sure that verbal escalations serve this cause,” he said.

In a radio interview, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said war crimes were being committed in Russia but did not use the term genocide. “This is a terrible war in eastern Europe. And I think that’s what shouldn’t be minimised,” Scholz said. “War crimes are being committed.”

Updated

Russian troops are reportedly suffering from “low morale and disenchantment” amongst some of the younger troops.

While speaking at a press conference today, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby also said that Russian troop leaders are “frustrated” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues.

From ABC News:

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said today that it is correct to call what is happening in Ukraine a “genocide,” reported AFP.

Following US president Joe Biden calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine a “genocide” yesterday, Trudeau parroted that language, saying to reporters in Quebec:

I think it’s absolutely right that more and more people be talking and using the word genocide in terms of what Russia is doing, what Vladimir Putin has done...

We have seen this desire to attack civilians, to use sexual violence as a weapon of war...This is completely unacceptable.

Trudeau, along with Biden, is one of the first world leaders to use the term “genocide” when describing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Updated

As a rising number of children are impacted by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, volunteer groups are dropping into shelters to help young people cope.

In the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya, volunteers used a therapeutic dog to lead group therapy session with children.

From the Reuters’ Idrees Ali:

Updated

The UN chief said today that a ceasefire in Ukraine “doesn’t seem possible,” possibly indicating that the UN is still waiting on a response from Russia on evacuating Ukrainian civilians and providing aid, reported AFP

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, U.S., March 14, 2022.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, U.S., March 14, 2022. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

While speaking at a press conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said:

That was our appeal for humanitarian reasons, but it doesn’t seem possible.

Guterres recently sent UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths to Russia and Ukraine with the goal of finalizing a ceasefire.

Aid agencies have repeatedly tried to evacuate civilians from Ukrainian cities including Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks by Russian forces.

The US Pentagon said today that some military equipment that is being provided to Ukraine will require training, reports Reuters.

In a briefing today, the Pentagon spokesperson, John Kirby, said that some of the new equipment being sent to Ukraine would require training in its use.

John Kirby
John Kirby. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

In terms of training options, the US will likely train a small number of Ukrainian forces who will then go and train more of their colleagues.

From Reuters’ Idrees Ali:

Updated

Here is a statement from US president Joe Biden on his talk with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy today and the decision to provide Ukraine with an additional $800m in military assistance.

From CNN’s Natasha Bertrand:

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said it was expelling a senior Czech diplomat from Moscow, reported Reuters.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said it was expelling a senior Czech diplomat from Moscow after Prague last month told a top Russian official at the embassy to leave.

In a statement, the ministry said the Czech diplomat had to leave Russia before the end of day on 16 April.

Updated

Russia is imposing sanctions on 398 US House representatives and 87 Canadiana senators, reports Reuters citing a Russian news agency.

According to Interfax news agency, Russia’s foreign ministry said the move to impose sanctions came after the US announced sanctions last month against 328 members of the Russian Duma, or parliament.

Russia plans to announce additional sanctions in response to U.S. punitive measures soon, Interfax said.

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, called the war in Ukraine “terrorism” today, adding that those who committed crimes must be brought to justice along with those who gave orders, reports Reuters.

While meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, along with leaders from three Baltic states, Duda said:

This is not war, this is terrorism.

While visiting Ukraine, Duda also visited the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where the discovery of hundreds of slain civilians sparked global outrage.

Russia has routinely denied targeting civilians and has dismissed allegations of committed war crimes as fake news.

Updated

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that he was not approached about a meeting with the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, following reports that Ukraine refused to meet with Steinmeier, reports Reuters.

During a press conference today about his meeting with Poland and three other Baltic countries, Zelenskiy said:

We were not officially approached by the German president or the office of the German president for this visit.

Steinmeier, a supporter of Ukraine’s reconciliation with Russia, had said earlier that Ukrainian officials had refused to meet with him.

A Ukrainian official later denied that Zelenskiy had refused a visit from Steinmeier.

Updated

The US president, Joe Biden, announced today that the US will be giving an additional $800m in military assistance to Ukraine, reports Reuters.

With the additional funds announced today, the total aid that the US has given Ukraine is more than $2.4bn.

This latest package includes artillery systems, artillery rounds and armored personnel carriers, said Biden in a statement today following a call with the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Updated

It is just past 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending the besieged port city of Mariupol have surrendered, Moscow has claimed. In one of the most critical battles of the war, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” near the city’s Ilyich iron and steelworks. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.
  • The presidents of four countries bordering Russia – Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – have travelled to Kyiv in a show of support for their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his embattled troops. It follows Kyiv’s reported refusal to meet the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited Poland on Tuesday and said he had planned to go on to Ukraine but “was not wanted”. The former German foreign minister is facing heavy criticism for his past policy of rapprochement towards Moscow.
  • Zelenskiy told Estonian MPs, without providing evidence, that Russia was using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces in Mariupol said a drone had dropped a poisonous substance on the city, but there has been no independent confirmation that Russia used banned chemical weapons.
  • Zelenskiy warned that the war would become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry. Speaking in English in a video published on Twitter, Zelenskiy said: “Freedom must be armed better than tyranny. Western countries have everything to make it happen.”
  • The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has declined to repeat Joe Biden’s accusation that Russia was carrying out “genocide” against Ukrainians, warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war. The US president said on Tuesday it had “become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian”. In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described Biden’s comments as “unacceptable”.
  • The UK government has imposed sanctions on another 206 individuals in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including 178 people it said were involved in propping up the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the latest sanctions were imposed in a direct response to the “horrific rocket attacks” on a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that killed dozens of civilians.

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today. I’ll be back tomorrow but my colleague, Gloria Oladipo, will continue to bring you today’s developments from the war in Ukraine.

Updated

The US is continuing to see “significant morale issues” among Russian troops in Ukraine, with new intelligence reports of low morale even at officer level, a senior US defence official said.

The official said the US has recent evidence that Russian forces “have been disillusioned by this war, weren’t properly informed, weren’t properly trained, weren’t ready, not just physically, but weren’t ready mentally for what they were about to do”.

The US also has indications that Russian officers are “frustrated with their troops’ performance, frustrated with their colleagues’ performance”, said the official.

“Almost half” of the Russian troops in Ukraine are conscripts “who don’t receive a lot of training”, they noted.

There still are morale and unit cohesion problems that are bedeviling the Russians even as they now try to refit, resupply, and focus on a more concentrated geographic area.

Foreign Policy’s Jack Detsch shared additional highlights from the US defence official’s briefing today:

Updated

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, discussed additional defensive and financial aid for Kyiv as well as sanctions and alleged Russian war crimes, Zelenskiy said.

A member of the Ukrainian delegation, Mykhailo Podolyak, has accused European politicians of “closing eyes on Russian crimes for years”.

Writing on Twitter, Podolyak said Ukraine needed “not words of support or sympathy, but actions”.

Russian forces ‘ready to attack’ in eastern Ukraine

Russian forces are fully ready for a fresh assault in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and southern Kherson region, Ukraine’s armed forces command said, Reuters reports.

In a Facebook post, the armed forces said:

In the Donetsk and Tavria (Kherson) directions, according to available information, the enemy is ready for offensive actions.

Standing next to a Chernobyl checkpoint, Vasily Davidenko recalled the day Russia invaded. “They were hooligans,” he said, pointing to a tourist kiosk shot up and adorned with the words “Chernobyl ice-cream”. Next to a pockmarked bus stop was debris left behind by Vladimir Putin’s army: machine-gun bullets, cigarette packets and an empty tin of tuna.

“It was a difficult time. People are worried the Russians might come back,” Davidenko said. He added:

I talked to the Russian soldiers as they drove past. They were young guys from Siberia. They asked me: ‘Batya [Dad], how are you living?’ I answered: ‘We are fine here, thanks very much.’

Russian forces trundled into the Chernobyl exclusion zone on 24 February in the early hours of the invasion. According to Davidenko, they crossed over the Pripyat River from Belarus using a pontoon bridge. They then headed towards the Chernobyl nuclear power station, covered with a giant sarcophagus, the scene of the disastrous 1986 accident.

By breakfast time they had seized the station. Russian troops disarmed the 169 Ukrainian national guards based at the plant and rounded up its technical staff, 103 people. They established a command centre and began digging fortifications including tank shelters, trenches and an underground kitchen. For 1,000 servicemen, Chernobyl became home.

The Kremlin seemed unaware of – or indifferent to – the risks posed by radiation to its service personnel. The bulk of Putin’s invading army kept going. It headed south through the pine forest and along a smooth asphalt road leading to Kyiv, 130km away. The route goes past bucolic mini-lakes and bogs, and past gulls and the odd swan.

Read more of Luke’s report: ‘They were hooligans’: Chernobyl locals reeling after Russian invasion

Russian forces are potentially planning to launch a “large-scale offensive” to “conquer” the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, French military spokesperson Col Pascal Ianni said.

Ianni told reporters:

Within the next few days, 10 days or so maybe, Russia could relaunch its efforts with a large-scale offensive in the east and south to conquer the Donetsk and Luhansk regions […] or even to push as far as the Dnipro [river] if its capacities allow it.

Russian forces were carrying out airstrikes and bombings in Ukraine not only “to weaken the coherence of the Ukrainian defence system, but also to disrupt Ukrainian logistical movements and capacity”, Ianni added.

He also noted that there were “no significant advances at this stage in terms of territorial gains for the Russian forces on the eastern front.”

Updated

A puppy was pulled out alive from the rubble of a shelled building by rescuers with the Donetsk regional police in the Donetsk oblast area.

The Ukrainian police organisation said the dog, recovered in the town of Mykhailivka, belonged to a 77-year-old man they claimed the man miraculously survived Russian shelling and his puppy was recovered from the debris from the explosion.

Updated

An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andriuschenko, has dismissed Russian reports of more than 1,000 marines surrendering in the besieged port city.

Ukraine still holds several areas of the city, Andriuschenko told the BBC, dismissing Russia’s statements as “impossible”.

Andriuschenko said:

They don’t control our harbour, they don’t control Azovstal [iron and steel works].

It is not currently possible to verify his comments as the full picture of what is going on in Mariupol is still unclear.

Updated

Presidents of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, Andrzej Duda, Gitanas Nauseda and Egils Levits, in Borodianka near Kiev, Ukraine, 13 April 2022.
Presidents of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia: Andrzej Duda, Gitanas Nauseda and Egils Levits, in Borodianka near Kiev, Ukraine, 13 April 2022. Photograph: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP Handout/EPA
Residential buildings destroyed by shelling in Borodianka town, Kyiv Region.
Residential buildings destroyed by shelling in Borodianka town, Kyiv region. Photograph: Ukrinform/Rex/Shutterstock
Interior view of a destroyed residential building in Borodianka, Kyiv Oblast.
Interior view of a destroyed residential building in Borodianka. Photograph: Alex Chan Tsz Yuk/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Summary

It is just past 6.30pm in Kyiv. Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening so far:

  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending the besieged port city of Mariupol have surrendered, Moscow has claimed. In one of the most critical battles of the war, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” near the city’s Ilyich iron and steelworks. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.
  • The presidents of four countries bordering Russia – Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – have travelled to Kyiv in a show of support for their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his embattled troops. It follows Kyiv’s reported refusal to meet the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who visited Poland on Tuesday and said he had planned to go on to Ukraine but “was not wanted”. The former German foreign minister is facing heavy criticism for his past policy of rapprochement towards Moscow.
  • Zelenskiy told Estonian MPs, without providing evidence, that Russia was using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces in Mariupol said a drone had dropped a poisonous substance on the city, but there has been no independent confirmation that Russia used banned chemical weapons.
  • Zelenskiy warned that the war would become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry. Speaking in English in a video published on Twitter, Zelenskiy said: “Freedom must be armed better than tyranny. Western countries have everything to make it happen.”
  • The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has declined to repeat Joe Biden’s accusation that Russia was carrying out “genocide” against Ukrainians, warning that verbal escalations would not help end the war. The US president said on Tuesday it had “become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian”. In response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described Biden’s comments as “unacceptable”.
  • The UK government has imposed sanctions on another 206 individuals in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including 178 people it said were involved in propping up the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the latest sanctions were imposed in a direct response to the “horrific rocket attacks” on a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that killed dozens of civilians.

Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here bringing you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Jersey has frozen more than $7bn (£5.4bn) of assets linked to the sanctioned Russian oligarch and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, Rupert Neate and Pjotr Sauer report.

The Royal Court of Jersey announced on Wednesday that it had imposed “a formal freezing order” on “assets understood to be valued in excess of US$7bn which are suspected to be connected to Mr Abramovich and which are either located in Jersey or owned by Jersey incorporated entities”.

The government of Jersey, a self-governing British crown dependency favoured by the world’s wealthy for its very low taxes and reputation for strict banking secrecy, said the local police had raided several properties linked to Abramovich.

Jersey has frozen more than $7bn (£5.4bn) of assets linked to Roman Abramovich.
Jersey has frozen more than $7bn (£5.4bn) of assets linked to Roman Abramovich. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

The island’s Law Officers’ Department said in a statement:

Search warrants were executed by the States of Jersey police on Tuesday 12 April 2022 at premises in Jersey suspected to be connected to the business activities of Roman Abramovich.

The Guardian last week revealed that a 50-metre superyacht linked to Abramovich had been transferred to a Jersey company on the day of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The department would not comment on the yacht, and said it would not be providing any further details. A spokesperson for Abramovich did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The yacht, Aquamarine, is the fifth vessel to have been linked to Abramovich. On 24 February, ownership of the yacht passed from a company previously controlled by Abramovich to a close associate of his, the Russian businessman David Davidovich.

The BBC has warned that a video carrying its branding which claims that a missile attack on a railway station that killed dozens was carried out by Ukraine is fake.

The video, mocked up with a BBC News logo and using a similar graphics style to the broadcaster, gives the false impression that the BBC has confirmed that Ukrainian armed forces were behind the recent attack on the Kramatorsk railway station.

The clip has been aired on Russian state television and spread across social media, and appears to have originated among pro-Kremlin accounts on the social media app Telegram, the BBC said.

No such video has been produced by the BBC, it said, adding that it has not yet been possible to verify the source of the missile.

The BBC press office said:

The BBC is taking action to have the video removed. We urge people not to share it and to check stories on the BBC News website.

Zelenskiy: War will become ‘endless bloodbath’ without more weapons

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has released a new video in which he warns that the war will become an “endless bloodbath, spreading misery, suffering, and destruction” without additional weaponry.

Speaking in English, Zelenskiy says Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia “much longer than the invaders planned”.

But Russia still has the capacity to attack “not only against Ukraine”, Zelenskiy continues:

Poland, Moldova, Romania, and the Baltic states will become the next targets if the freedom of Ukraine falls.

More weapons were needed to “save millions of Ukrainians as well as millions of Europeans”, he says:

We need heavy artillery, armoured vehicles, air defence systems and combat aircraft.

Zelenskiy concludes the video by saying:

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.

The Czech Republic has reopened its embassy in Kyiv, the Czech foreign ministry said.

The ministry said:

It is one of many steps expressing our support for Ukraine.

Czechia has and always will stand behind Ukraine.

Internationally appointed human rights monitors have found “clear patterns” of violations of international humanitarian law by “Russian forces in their conduct of hostilities” in a preliminary assessment of the conduct of the seven-week-long war in Ukraine.

The three experts, appointed by the 57-country OSCE, whose members cover Europe, North America and central Asia, said that had Russia respected humanitarian law and avoided shelling hospitals and other protected infrastructure then “the number of civilians killed or injured would have remained much lower”.

“Considerably fewer houses, hospitals, cultural properties, schools, multi-storey residential buildings, water stations and electricity systems would have been damaged or destroyed,” the monitors continue in a report released by the OSCE on Wednesday.

But it also found human rights “violations and problems” attributable to Ukraine, in particular “the treatment of prisoners of war, who originally were considered criminals” after video emerged that appeared to show Russian soldiers being shot in the leg by their captors.

The UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has so far formally recorded 4,450 civilian casualties in Ukraine since the war began, of which have been 1,892 killed and 2,558 injured. But the figure is almost certainly an underestimate due to the difficulties of accurate documentation while fighting is ongoing.

Ukraine was one of 45 OSCE countries that agreed to appoint the monitors, but Russia did not cooperate, meaning that the monitoring group had to rely on Russian public statements, where available, for its perspective on alleged human rights violations.

Updated

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has just tweeted that he has been speaking on the phone with his British counterpart Liz Truss. He said:

Focused call with Liz Truss. Grateful to the UK for its leadership in increasing sanctions pressure on Russia. Underscored the importance of speeding up arms deliveries to Ukraine. Discussed further steps to hold Russia accountable for its crimes.

While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was addressing the parliament in Estonia, and Estonia’s president Alar Karis was heading to Kyiv, there was a dramatic protest outside the Russian Embassy in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, against the rape and abuse of women and children in Ukraine by Russian forces.

A group of women surrounded the Russian embassy on Pikk tänav with their hands tied behind their backs, bags over their heads, and fake blood applied on their underwear and down their legs.

Demonstrations against Russian aggression in Ukraine continued for the third day in front of the Russian Embassy in Tallinn on Wednesday. This time, a few dozen women gathered in front of the embassy building on Pikk tänav to draw attention to Russian soldiers’ abuses of women and children in Ukraine.
Demonstrations against Russian aggression in Ukraine continued for the third day in front of the Russian embassy in Tallinn on Wednesday, with dozens of women drawing attention to Russian soldiers’ abuses of women and children in Ukraine. Photograph: ERR / Priit Murk

The protesters’ statement was reported by Estonia’s ERR public broadcasting channel as saying:

Russian soldiers are raping and murdering innocent women and children in Ukraine. People who support this war also support war crimes, jarring murders to which they are accomplices. That is our message to the supporters of the Putin regime in Russia, Estonia and everywhere.

Updated

Here is Jon Henley’s round-up of the latest reports from the war on Ukraine:

More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines defending the besieged port city of Mariupol have surrendered, Moscow has said, as the presidents of four countries bordering Russia head to Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine.

In one of the most critical battles of the war, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” near the city’s Ilyich iron and steelworks. There was no independent confirmation of the claim.

The city, the main target yet to be brought under Russian control in the eastern Donbas region, has been encircled and largely reduced to rubble during Moscow’s seven-week invasion. The city’s mayor has said 21,000 civilians have died.

Its capture would mark the first fall of a major Ukrainian city and would help Russia secure a land passage between the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas and Crimea, which Moscow occupied and annexed in 2014.

Read more of Jon Henley’s round-up here: More than 1,000 Ukraine marines have surrendered in Mariupol, says Russia

Updated

Russia has responded to Joe Biden’s comments about genocide. The US president said his Russian counterpart “is trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian”.

Reuters reports Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters:

We consider this kind of effort to distort the situation unacceptable. This is hardly acceptable from a president of the United States, a country that has committed well-known crimes in recent times.

Updated

Russia will view US and Nato vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as “legal military targets”, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said, Reuters reports.

Speaking in an interview with the Russian state-owned news agency Tass, Ryabkov said:

We are warning that US-Nato weapons transports across Ukrainian territory will be considered by us as legal military targets.

We are making the Americans and other westerners understand that attempts to slow down our special operation, to inflict maximum damage on Russian contingents and formations of the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics) will be harshly suppressed.

Updated

Joe Biden has upped the ante in his criticisms of Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine by accusing him of genocide, saying the Russian leader is “trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian”.

But how significant is the allegation and how likely is Putin to face genocide charges?

US President Joe Biden said Russia’s war in Ukraine amounted to a “genocide,” accusing President Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”
Joe Biden said Russia’s war in Ukraine amounted to a ‘genocide’, accusing Vladimir Putin of trying to ‘wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian’. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Genocide is one of four crimes prosecuted by the international criminal court (ICC) and generally considered to be the most grave.

The court defines it as being:

Characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means: causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, has been criticised over its limited number of successful prosecutions: 10, all for war crimes and/or crimes against humanity, with none for genocide. When the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced in February that he was opening a case into events in Ukraine, he said there was “a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed”.

Updated

UK announces new sanctions on Russian oligarchs and other groups

The UK is imposing sanctions on 178 individuals who are deemed to be “propping up the illegal breakaway regions” in eastern Ukraine, the British Foreign Office has said.

In a statement today, the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said:

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.

In total, the UK government announced new sanctions for 206 individuals, including 178 separatists, six oligarchs, their close associates and employees, and a further 22 individuals.

Among those sanctioned are Sergei Kozlov, the self-styled chairman of the government of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, and Alexander Ananchenko, whom the Foreign Office named as the self-professed prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Maria Lavrova, the wife of Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is also among those subject to a travel ban and asset freeze.

From tomorrow, the UK government is “banning the import of Russian iron and steel, as well as the export of quantum technologies and advanced materials that Putin sorely needs”, Truss said, adding:

We will not rest in our mission to stop Putin’s war machine in its tracks.

Updated

The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have arrived in Ukraine for talks with their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nauseda, tweeted earlier that he was heading to the Ukrainian capital “with a strong message of political support and military assistance”.

The Latvian president, Egils Levits, said the visit to Ukraine was intended to show “full solidarity with the heroic people and their President”.

The office of the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, also tweeted about the visit:

The meeting will focus on ways to assist civilians and the military in Ukraine, as well as with investigations of war crimes, a spokesperson for Estonia’s president, Alar Karis, said.

The four presidents’ offices declined to provide details of the visit for security reasons.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, visited the Ukrainian town of Bucha today, telling reporters: “Ukraine is a crime scene”.

The ICC is investigating potential war crimes committed by Russian forces during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The ICC has “reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed”, Khan said, AFP reports.

Khan said:

We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth. That requires independent, impartial investigation.

Khan said an ICC forensic team was set to work “so that we can really make sure we separate truth from fiction”.

We have to keep an open mind and we have to follow the evidence.

Khan met with Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova in the capital Kyiv, the ICC said.

The pair agreed that “deepening engagement and further strengthening partnerships” was “crucial to delivering accountability” for possible international crimes committed in Ukraine, it said.

Here’s more from Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, who has told reporters that the country would decide on whether to apply for Nato membership “within weeks”.

Finland’s government is expected to publish an update of its foreign and security policy in a white paper later today.

Marin stressed that as a Nato partner – but not a member – Finland was not covered under Article 5, which states that an attack on one member should be considered an attack on all, AFP reports.

She said:

There is no other way to have security guarantees than under Nato’s deterrence and common defence as guaranteed by Nato’s Article 5.

From the Economist’s Shashank Joshi:

Sweden is also reviewing its security policy with conclusions expected next month. Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, said it was important to carry out a thorough analysis of whether the country should also apply to join the alliance.

Andersson said:

There are of course pros and cons with being a member of Nato as there are pros and cons of other security choices.

She added:

Being a member of Nato, you do have the security with Article 5... You also have another responsibility towards other countries.

Jamie Rann, a lecturer in Russian at the University of Glasgow, writes for us today about how Ukrainians’ enthusiastic use of bad language contrasts with Putin’s linguistic prissiness – and shows that Russia doesn’t own Russian:

A man, cigarette jammed into his mouth, carries a land mine off a road. A woman teases a tank driver with threats of witchcraft. A coastguard responds to the threat of bombardment with the now infamous line “Russian warship, fuck off”. The people in these viral videos, as in many others that have emerged from Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s barbaric invasion, are doing the same three things: they are showing incredible courage in defending their homeland, they are speaking Russian, and they are swearing.

Taken separately, there is nothing surprising in these things. Of course people swear in wartime and the fact that many Ukrainians, especially in the east and south, speak Russian has long been a talking point for armchair experts.

What underinformed Ukraine-watchers, with Vladimir Putin foremost among them, failed to anticipate is that speaking Russian in no way guarantees support for the Russian state. But the combination of these three things – resistance, Russian and expletives – and their prominence in the coverage of the war is itself significant.

Obscenity might seem a trivial sidenote in such a horrific conflict, but understanding it is a way of understanding language, and language has played a big part both in Moscow’s professed motivations for this invasion and in Kyiv’s defiant response.

Updated

Finland to decide whether to apply to Nato ‘within weeks’

Finland will make a decision about whether to apply to join the Nato alliance in the next few weeks, the country’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, said.

Speaking at a joint news conference with her Swedish counterpart, Marin told reporters:

There are different perspectives to apply (for) Nato membership or not to apply and we have to analyse these very carefully. But I think our process will be quite fast, it will happen in weeks.

On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned Finland and Sweden against joining Nato, claiming the alliance’s further expansion would “not bring stability to the European continent”.

Russia has also previously warned it would have to “rebalance the situation” with its own measures if the two countries join Nato.

Finland, an EU member state, shares a 1,300km (810-mile) border with Russia.

Updated

A man wearing a mask which reads Stand With Ukraine browses through food at a supermarket in Beijing on April 13, 2022.
A man wearing a mask which reads Stand With Ukraine browses through food at a supermarket in Beijing on April 13, 2022. Photograph: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images
Pope Francis denounced “the armed aggression of these days” as “an outrage against God” at his weekly general audience during Easter Holy Week at Paul VI Hall on April 13, 2022 in Vatican City, Vatican.
Pope Francis denounced “the armed aggression of these days” as “an outrage against God” at his weekly general audience during Easter Holy Week at Paul VI Hall on April 13, 2022 in Vatican City, Vatican. Photograph: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Russia can easily redirect exports of its vast energy resources away from the west to countries that need them, Reuters reports.

Speaking at a meeting with officials to discuss development in the Russian Arctic, Putin said domestic consumption of oil, gas and coal could also be increased.

He also accused “unfriendly countries” of destroying supply chains in Russia’s Arctic regions and said some nations were not fulfilling their contractual obligations, which he said had created problems for Russia.

Updated

Today so far …

  • 1,026 soldiers of Ukraine’s 36th marine brigade, including 162 officers, have surrendered in the besieged port city of Mariupol, according to a statement from the Russian defence ministry. Ukrainian authorities say that have no information on the reported surrender.
  • Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address to Estonia’s parliament that Russia was using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine, accusing Moscow of using terror tactics against civilians. He did not provide any evidence to back up the claim. The world’s chemical weapons watchdog has said it is “concerned” over reports of the use of chemical weapons in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol.
  • Zelenskiy had previously said it was not possible to draw 100% firm conclusions about allegations that Russian forces had used chemical weapons. Russia has denied it has used the weapons, with the Russian embassy in the US claiming that all of Russia’s stockpile of chemical weapons was destroyed in 2017.
  • US president Joe Biden has labelled Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”, saying Russian president Vladimir Putin “is trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian”. “We’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me,” he added. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy promptly responded: “True words of a true leader. Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil.”
  • Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said it was not possible to open any humanitarian corridors on Wednesday. She said “The situation along the routes is too dangerous. The occupiers not only disregard the norms of international humanitarian law, but also cannot properly control their people on the ground”, accusing Russian forces of violating an agreement to halt shooting while people escape.
  • The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, said in televised remarks that more than 100,000 people still remained in the city awaiting evacuation.
  • More than 6,000 alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are under investigation, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has said.
  • Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk, has been captured by Ukrainian law enforcement. Medvedchuk is the leader of the Opposition Platform for Life, Ukraine’s biggest opposition party. Zelenskiy proposed releasing him to Russia in exchange for Ukrainians captured by Russian forces. Zelenskiy also warned Russia: “Let Medvedchuk be an example for you. Even the former oligarch did not escape, not to mention much more ordinary criminals from the Russian boondocks. We will get everyone.”
  • Polish president Andrzej Duda and the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are on their way to Kyiv to meet Ukraine’s president Volodimir Zelensky in person.
  • The United Nations’ refugee agency has called on the UK government to intervene to stop single British men from being matched up with lone Ukrainian women seeking refuge from war because of fears of sexual exploitation.
  • Joe Biden has accused Russia of carrying out genocide in Ukraine, saying that Vladimir Putin is “trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian”.
  • The Pentagon will host leaders from the top eight US weapons manufacturers on Wednesday to discuss the industry’s capacity to meet Ukraine’s weapons needs if the war with Russia lasts years.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I am handing over to Léonie Chao-Fong for the next few hours.

Updated

Zelenskiy tells Estonian parliament: Russia is using phosphorus bombs

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address to Estonia’s parliament that Russia was using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine, accusing Moscow of using terror tactics against civilians.

He did not provide any evidence to back-up the claim. The world’s chemical weapons watchdog has said it is concerned over reports of the use of chemical weapons in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol.

Zelenskiy had said previously it was not possible to draw 100% firm conclusions about allegations that Russian forces had used chemical weapons. Russia has denied it has used the weapons, with the Russian embassy in the US claiming that all of Russia’s stockpile of chemical weapons was destroyed in 2017. [see 7.59am]

Reuters reports that Zelenskiy also told Estonia’s lawmakers:

  • The visits of Polish president Andrzej Duda and the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Kyiv later today is an important symbol of solidarity.
  • Sanctions are needed to continue to apply pressure on Russia. He also said that instruments need to be found to prevent Russia forcibly deporting people from Ukraine.
  • He also asked that Ukraine become an EU ‘candidate country’.

Updated

At least seven people were killed and 22 wounded by shelling in Ukraine’s north-eastern region of Kharkiv over the past 24 hours, governor Oleh Synegubov has said.

Reuters reports he said in an online post a two-year-old boy was among those killed in the 53 artillery or rocket strikes he claimed Russian forces had carried out in the past day in the region.

The information has not been independently verified. Russia has repeatedly denied making civilians targets in Ukraine.

Updated

Lana Estemirova writes for us this morning, saying that everything Russian president Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine, he did to her home, Chechnya, first:

The indiscriminate shelling, the looting, the evidence of rape, torture and executions, and, above all, the sense of enthusiasm with which these war crimes are being carried out are painfully familiar. In recent days, my mind has kept wandering to a photo, taken 18 years ago in Rigakhoy village in Chechnya by my mum, human rights activist Natalya Estemirova. It shows the corpses of five tiny, grey-faced children, all siblings, lined up according to height. The oldest is five years old, the youngest – twins – were not even 12 months old. The children and their mother, Maydat Tsintsayeva, were killed in a deliberate bombing by the Russians on 9 April 2004.

This was one of the many unprosecuted crimes committed by the Russian army in the name of “counter-terrorism” in Chechnya. My mum hoped that these photos would alert the world to what Chechen civilians were going through, but it was to no avail. Years later it was her turn – as someone took a grainy photo of her lifeless, bullet-ridden body lying on the side of the road in the sunburned grass. Her murderers walk free. That is Russia’s legacy in Chechnya.

Read more here: Lana Estemirova – Putin’s terror playbook: everything he is doing to Ukraine, he did to my home, Chechnya, first

Updated

Ukraine defence spokesperson: no information on Mariupol surrender claims

A quick snap from Reuters here that Ukraine’s defence ministry spokesperson, questioned on the Russian claim that 1,026 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in Mariupol, told reporters that they had no information on any surrender.

The United Nations’ refugee agency has called on the UK government to intervene to stop single British men from being matched up with lone Ukrainian women seeking refuge from war because of fears of sexual exploitation.

In the wake of claims that predatory men are using the Homes for Ukraine scheme to target the vulnerable, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told the Guardian “a more appropriate matching process” could be put in place to ensure women and women with children are matched with families or couples.

The suggestion from the global refugee agency follows reports that Ukrainian refugees, predominantly women and sometimes accompanied by children, are at risk in the UK of sexual exploitation.

Read more of Rajeev Syal’s report here: Stop matching lone female Ukraine refugees with single men, UK told

1,026 soldiers of Ukraine's 36th marine brigade have surrendered in Mariupol – Russian defence ministry

1,026 soldiers of Ukraine’s 36th marine brigade, including 162 officers, have surrendered in the besieged port city of Mariupol, according to a statement from the Russian defence ministry.

“In the town of Mariupol, near the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, as a result of successful offensives by Russian armed forces and Donetsk People’s Republic militia units, 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers of the 36th Marine Brigade voluntarily laid down arms and surrendered,” it said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian president’s office, the Ukrainian general staff or the defence ministry. Ukraine’s general staff, in its morning report, had said that Russian forces were proceeding with attacks in Mariupol on the Azovstal iron and steel works and the port.

Russia said 151 wounded Ukrainian soldiers were treated on the spot and taken to Mariupol’s city hospital. Russian television had showed pictures of what it said were marines giving themselves up at the iron and steel works in Mariupol on Tuesday.

Reuters reports that earlier the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered, and he urged remaining forces in the Azovstal steel mill to surrender.

“Within Azovstal at the moment there are about 200 wounded who cannot receive any medical assistance,” Kadyrov said in his post. “For them and all the rest it would be better to end this pointless resistance and go home to their families.”

eople pass by a Russian soldier in central Mariupol on 12 April.
People pass by a Russian soldier in central Mariupol on Monday. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

In a Facebook post on Monday, the last Ukrainian soldiers defending Mariupol said they were “running out of ammunition” and expected to be killed or taken prisoner very soon.

“We were bombed from airplanes and shot at by artillery and tanks. We have been doing everything possible and impossible. But any resource has the potential to run out,” said the 36th brigade.

Updated

AFP is carrying a couple of further quotes from Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk’s message about the lack of humanitarian corridors being set up today. It quotes her saying:

Unfortunately, we are not opening them today. The situation along the routes is too dangerous and we are forced to refrain from opening humanitarian corridors today. The occupiers not only disregard the norms of international humanitarian law, but also cannot properly control their people on the ground

She said that around Zaporizhzhia in the south, Russian forces were blocking buses used in the evacuations, and that in the east Lugansk region Moscow’s army was violating an agreement to halt shooting while people escape. The claims have not been independently verified.

One civilian was killed in Russian shelling of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region over the past 24 hours, Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said this morning.

Reuters reports he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that three trains would be offered on Wednesday to residents who wanted to leave the region, which he said was under constant shelling and may face a new large offensive by Russian forces.

Earlier today, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said it was not possible to open any humanitarian corridors for Wednesday, and she accused occupying Russian forces of violating a ceasefire and blocking buses evacuating civilians.

Updated

Russia's US embassy calls on Washington to 'stop spreading disinformation' over chemical weapons

Russia said on Wednesday that claims by the US and Ukraine that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine were disinformation because Moscow destroyed its last chemical stockpiles in 2017.

US department of state spokesman Ned Price told reporters yesterday that the US was concerned Russia may seek to resort to chemical weapons in Ukraine.

Reuters reports Russia’s embassy in Washington said Ukrainian radicals were preparing to stage provocations with the use of chemical weapons and that the state department’s Price was spreading disinformation.

“We call on Washington to stop spreading disinformation,” the embassy said in a statement. “Ned Price once again distinguished himself by his idle talk, not substantiated by a single piece of evidence.”

The claim that chemical weapons have been used in Mariupol is based on video posted by Ukrainian fighters in the area, and has not been independently verified. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said it was not possible to draw 100% firm conclusions about whether Russian forces had used chemical weapons. Russia has dismissed the claims.

Updated

Matti Maasikas, the European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, has been asked on Sky News in the UK about the prospects of the country joining the EU, which he said was being done at an accelerated pace. He told viewers:

The Ukrainian’s EU path has started. And it has started with an unprecedented speed. What is normally being done over a two-year period is now being attempted in three months, namely the first assessment by the European Commission of Ukraine’s compliance with the basic criteria of membership, namely a working democracy and a working market economy. Or that’s the working assumption – to hear more in June.

Updated

Mariupol mayer: 100,000 people still require evacuation from city

Reuters reports that the mayor of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, said in televised remarks this morning that more than 100,000 people remained in the city awaiting evacuation.

Ukraine deputy PM: no humanitarian corridors today

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said it was not possible to open any humanitarian corridors on Wednesday.

She accused occupying Russian forces of violating a ceasefire and blocking buses evacuating civilians. Reuters reports Vereshchuk added in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that authorities would work to reopen the humanitarian corridors as soon as possible.

Updated

China’s overall trade with Russia rose by more than 12% in March from a year earlier in dollar terms, in sync with previous gains, even as Beijing criticised western sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Overall trade with Russia increased 12.76% in March to $11.67bn and jumped 30.45% in the first quarter from the same period last year, Chinese customs data showed on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The gains in total trade – comprising the values for both exports and imports – were in line with previous increases, with Russia a major source of oil, gas, coal and agriculture commodities for China.

Beijing has refused to call Russia’s action an invasion and has repeatedly criticised what it says are illegal western sanctions to punish Moscow.

Several weeks before the attack on Ukraine, China and Russia declared a “no-limits” strategic partnership. Last year, total trade between China and Russia jumped 35.8% to a record $146.9bn.

As sanctions against Russia mount, China could offset some of its neighbour’s pain by buying more. But analysts say they have yet to see any major indication China is violating Western sanctions on Russia.

China’s economic and trade cooperation with other countries including Russia and Ukraine remains normal, customs spokesman Li Kuiwen said at a news conference.

Updated

Chemical weapons watchdog ‘concerned’ by Mariupol reports

The world’s chemical weapons watchdog has said it is “concerned” over reports of the use of chemical weapons in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol.

Reports first emerged on Monday from Ukraine’s Azov battalion that a Russian drone had dropped a “poisonous substance” on troops and civilians in Mariupol.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement:

The Technical Secretariat of the OPCW is monitoring closely the situation in Ukraine. The Secretariat is concerned by the recent unconfirmed report of chemical weapons use in Mariupol, which has been carried in the media over the past 24 hours.

This follows reports in the media over the past few weeks of shelling targeted at chemical plants located in Ukraine, together with accusations levelled by both sides around possible misuse of toxic chemicals.

All 193 OPCW Member States, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine, are parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty of major importance in the field of disarmament that has been in force since 1997.

In doing so, they have solemnly and voluntarily committed never to develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons.”

Updated

The Pentagon will host leaders from the top eight US weapons manufacturers on Wednesday to discuss the industry’s capacity to meet Ukraine’s weapons needs if the war with Russia lasts years, two people familiar with the meeting said on Tuesday.

Demand for weapons has shot up after Russia’s invasion spurred US and allied weapons transfers to Ukraine. Resupplying as well as planning for a longer war is expected to be discussed at the meeting, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon’s office of Acquisition and Sustainment, the weapons buyer for the US Department of Defense, will host the 90-minute meeting and deputy secretary of defence Kathleen Hicks was expected to attend, one of the people said.

The Pentagon has said that the most useful weapons are smaller systems such as Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which Washington and allies have been shipping to Ukraine on a nearly daily basis.

The intense usage, as well as the battlefield effectiveness displayed by Ukrainian forces, has driven interest in restocking these weapons.

Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin Corp jointly produce Javelins, while Raytheon makes Stingers. Other top weapons makers are Boeing Co Northrop Grumman , General Dynamics and L3Harris Technologies.

Updated

More than 6,000 alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are under investigation, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has said.

A total of 6,261 cases have been reported and 191 children have been confirmed to have been killed, the office added.

US to send Ukraine another $750m in weapons - reports

US president Joe Biden’s administration is expected to announce another $750m in military assistance for Ukraine as soon as Wednesday, two US officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The equipment would be funded using presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, in which the president can authorise the transfer of articles and services from US stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

One of the officials said final determinations were still being made about the mix of equipment.

US President Joe Biden speaks to the media after saying Russia’s war in Ukraine amounted to a “genocide,” and accusing President Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”
Joe Biden speaks to the media after saying Russia’s war in Ukraine amounted to a ‘genocide’, and accusing Vladimir Putin of trying to ‘wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian’. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

A senior congressional aide said the equipment to be announced would likely include heavy ground artillery systems to Ukraine, including howitzers.

The White House said last week that it has provided more than $1.7bn in security assistance to Ukraine since the 24 February invasion of Ukraine.

The congressional aide said some lawmakers had been informed within the last 24 hours about the upcoming announcement, which was expected within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Weapons shipments have included defensive anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles, as well as ammunition and body armour.

Updated

Here is a selection of some of the latest images to come out of Ukraine today.

Volunteers load bodies of civilians killed in Bucha onto a truck to be taken to a morgue for investigation, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday.

A woman shows a hole in a house after shelling in the village of Zalissya, northeast of Kyiv.

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack destroyed the building of a school in Kharkiv.

Local resident Nadiya, 65, shows a hole in a house after shelling in the village of Zalissya, northeast of Kyiv.
Local resident Nadiya, 65, shows a hole in a house after shelling in the village of Zalissya, northeast of Kyiv. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
The tail of a missile sticks out in a residential area in Yahidne, near of Dnipro, Ukraine.
The tail of a missile sticks out in a residential area in Yahidne, near of Dnipro, Ukraine. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
Volunteers load bodies of civilians killed in Bucha on to a truck to be taken to a morgue for investigation, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine.
Volunteers load bodies of civilians killed in Bucha onto a truck to be taken to a morgue for investigation, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP
Women wave to bid farewell to relatives as they are about to leave by train at Slovyansk central station, in the Donbas region.
Women wave to bid farewell to relatives as they are about to leave by train at Slovyansk central station, in the Donbas region. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
A woman carries the portrait of Dmytro Stefienko, 32, a civilian killed in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv.
A woman carries the portrait of Dmytro Stefienko, 32, a civilian killed in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv. Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP

Polish President Andrzej Duda and the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are on their way to Kyiv to meet Ukraine’s President Volodimir Zelensky, an adviser to the Polish leader said on Wednesday.

“Our countries are showing support to Ukraine and President Zelenskiy in this way,” Jakub Kumoch, the adviser, posted on Twitter.

Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda, also posted an image showing himself and his team appearing to step off a Ukrainian train.

“Heading to Kyiv with a strong message of political support and military assistance,” Nausėda posted to Twitter this morning. “Lithuania will continue backing Ukraine’s fight for its sovereignty and freedom.”

Updated

Russia's appointment of new army general reflects 'ineffective pre-war planning', UK MoD says

Russia’s appointment of a new army general as commander of the war in Ukraine represents an attempt to “centralise command and control” and reflects its “ineffective pre-war planning”, forcing Russia to reassess its operations, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.

The latest British intelligence report, published just after 6am GMT, reads:

Russia’s appointment of Army Gen. Alexander Dvornikov as commander of the war in Ukraine represents an attempt to centralise command and control. An inability to cohere and coordinate military activity has hampered Russia’s invasion to date.

Like many senior Russian generals, Dvornikov has previous command experience in Syria. Furthermore, since 2016 he has commanded Russia’s Southern Military District bordering Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Russian messaging has recently emphasised progressing offensives in the Donbas as Russia’s forces refocus eastwards. Dvornikov’s selection further demonstrates how determined Ukrainian resistance and ineffective pre-war planning have forced Russia to reassess its operations.

Updated

Biden accuses Putin of committing genocide in Ukraine

Joe Biden has accused Russia of carrying out genocide in Ukraine, saying that Vladimir Putin is “trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian”.

Biden first used the word in passing on Tuesday at a domestic policy event in Iowa about the use of ethanol in petrol.

“Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away,” he said.

Questioned later on whether he intended to apply the term to Russians actions in Ukraine, Biden told journalists: “Yes, I called it genocide because it’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian.

“And the evidence is mounting,” he said. “More evidence is coming out of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine. And we’re going to only learn more and more about the devastation. We’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me.”

The prosecutor at the international criminal court in the Hague opened a case in February saying there was “a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine”.

Proving a case under the 1948 Genocide conventions requires an “intent [by the accused] to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Biden has been consistently outspoken in denouncing Russian wholesale killing of Ukrainian civilians, labelling Putin as a “war criminal” in mid-March. Multiple investigations are under way into Russian atrocities in Ukraine, which include the razing of Mariupol and the executions of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

Updated

Russia building up troops on eastern border, satellite images show

Satellite images suggest Russia is building up troops and equipment in at least three regions near Ukraine’s eastern border.

According to images released by Maxar Technologies, a convoy of armoured vehicles and trucks was seen on a highway in the village of Vilkhuvatka, near Kharkiv, over the weekend.

Multiple deployment areas and equipment in revetments were also seen at Kherson airbase with on April 7 with some of the vehicles displaying the Z marking.

A closer view of a convoy of military vehicles was purported to be seen near Bilokurakyne in the Luhansk region in east Ukraine earlier this week.

A convoy of armoured vehicles and trucks seen on a highway in the village of Vilkhuvatka, near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 9.
A convoy of armoured vehicles and trucks seen on a highway in the village of Vilkhuvatka, near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 9. Photograph: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Tech/AFP/Getty Images
An overview of Kherson airbase with multiple deployment areas and equipment in revetments in Kherson on April 7. Some of the vehicles have the Z marking on them.
An overview of Kherson airbase with multiple deployment areas and equipment in revetments in Kherson on April 7. Some of the vehicles have the Z marking on them. Photograph: AP
A closer view of a convoy of military vehicles near Bilokurakyne, Ukraine, on April 11.
A closer view of a convoy of military vehicles near Bilokurakyne, Ukraine, on April 11. Photograph: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Tech/AFP/Getty Images
This satellite image released on April 12, shows buildings on fire in eastern Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 9.
This satellite image released on April 12, shows buildings on fire in eastern Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 9. Photograph: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Tech/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Summary and welcome

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold.

Here is a comprehensive re-cap of where things stand:

  • US president Joe Biden has labelled Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”, saying Russian president Vladimir Putin “is trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be Ukrainian”. “We’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me,” he added. Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy promptly responded: “True words of a true leader. Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil.”
  • Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk, has been captured by Ukrainian law enforcement. Medvedchuk is the leader of the Opposition Platform for Life, Ukraine’s biggest opposition party. Zelenskiy proposed releasing him to Russia in exchange for Ukrainians captured by Russian forces. Zelenskiy also warned Russia: “Let Medvedchuk be an example for you. Even the former oligarch did not escape, not to mention much more ordinary criminals from the Russian boondocks. We will get everyone.”
  • Zelenskiy said it is “not yet possible” to draw 100% conclusions about what kind of substance was used in Mariupol during his national address late on Tuesday. Earlier, he voiced concerns that Russian forces were preparing “a new stage of terror” that could involve the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Andriy Biletsky, the leader of the Azov volunteer regiment, claimed on Monday that three people in the southern port city had experienced “poisoning by warfare chemicals, but without catastrophic consequences”.
  • The world’s chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said it is “concerned” over reports of the use of chemical weapons in Mariupol.
  • Britain’s armed forces minister James Heappey said “all options are on the table” if evidence of chemical weapons use emerges in an interview with Sky News. “There are some things that are beyond the pale, and the use of chemical weapons will get a response,” he added.
  • Ukraine’s interior ministry said it has received $4m- worth of equipment to digitise Russia’s war crimes. “Two private companies, AXON and Benish GPS, have donated $4m-worth of special equipment (chest video recorders) to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine,” the agency said in an update over the Telegram messaging app.
  • The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, said the latest estimate was that about 21,000 civilian residents had been killed in the city since the start of the Russian invasion. The number of deaths in Mariupol could be as high as 22,000, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, told CNN.
  • Vladimir Putin also claimed Russia’s military operation was going as planned, and that Russia’s aim in Ukraine was to meet all its goals and minimise losses. “We will achieve our objectives, there are no doubts,” Putin told workers at the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s far east. “Its goals are absolutely clear and noble,” he said of Russia’s military campaign. He said Russia “had no other choice” but to launch what he calls a “special military operation”, and vowed it would “continue until its full completion and the fulfilment of the tasks that have been set”.
  • The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming it was a pre-emptive strike against the west.
  • The World Bank is planning financial support to Ukraine worth $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to help keep critical services running as the country fights a fresh assault by Russia. The bank said the funds would be used to support the continuation of key government services, including wages for hospital workers, pensions for elderly people and social programmes for vulnerable people.
  • Without Europe’s abandonment of Russia’s energy resources and the complete restriction of Russia’s banking system, Russia’s leadership will not attempt to seek peace, Zelenskiy argued.
  • Ukraine’s border force said more than 870,000 people who fled abroad since Russia’s invasion have returned to the country, including a growing number of women and children, AFP reports.
  • US president Joe Biden’s administration is expected to announce another $750m in military assistance for Ukraine as soon as Wednesday, two US officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.
  • The Pentagon will host leaders from the top eight US weapons manufacturers on Wednesday to discuss the industry’s capacity to meet Ukraine’s weapons needs if the war with Russia lasts years, two people familiar with the meeting said on Tuesday.
  • The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, spoke with Biden on Tuesday to discuss boosting military and economic support to Ukraine as well as the need to end western reliance on Russian oil and gas.

Updated

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