Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We have moved our liveblog across to the page below where you can follow all the latest developments.
Interim summary
Shortly, we will launch a new liveblog to continue our coverage on the war in Ukraine.
But before we do here is a comprehensive rundown of where things currently stand:
- Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the new package of western sanctions against Russia is “not enough” and without more painful measures and supply of weapons, Russia will view the actions as permission to launch a new bloody attack. In his daily address on Thursday, he called for the democratic world to reject Russian oil and completely block Russian banks from the international finance system. Zelenskiy said the west’s hesitation to agree on an oil embargo is costing Ukrainian lives. Russia’s export of oil as “one of the foundations of Russia’s aggression” that allows it to not take peace negotiations seriously, he added.
- The US, UK and EU unveiled new sanctions against Moscow. US sanctions target Russian banks and elites, and include a ban on any American from investing in Russia as well as sanctions on Putin’s adult daughters. The UK will impose an asset freeze on Russia’s largest bank, place sanctions on eight more oligarchs and end imports of oil and coal by next year, foreign secretary Liz Truss said. The EU announced a wide-ranging package of sanctions, including import bans on coal and transaction bans on banks.
- Nato’s foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday for two days of talks on bringing an end to the war.
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The UN General Assembly will vote today on whether to suspend Russia from the UN human rights council.
- Hungary’s right-wing, Putin-allied prime minister Viktor Orbán gave a press conference in which he said he had offered to broker talks with Russia. He offered to work towards a ceasefire, while stopping short of agreeing to extend EU sanctions against Russia’s oil and gas shipments.
- Zelenskiy said Kremlin forces were trying to cover up evidence of atrocities. “We have information that the Russian military has changed its tactics and is trying to remove people who have been killed from streets and basements ... this is just an attempt to hide the evidence and nothing more,” he said Thursday, but did not provide evidence.
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US prosecutors are working with their European and Ukrainian counterparts to help collect evidence of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
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Russia’s military has now shifted its focus to the east of the Ukraine, with Ukraine authorities in Luhansk and Donetsk warning that civilians should leave “while the opportunity still exists” before a massive Russian military assault that it expects in the coming days. It comes as western officials say Russia’s retreat from around Kyiv and the north east of the country is now “largely complete” and that it will take “at least a week” before reconstituted units could go to Donbas and perhaps longer.
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Russia is hiding ‘thousands’ killed in Mariupol, Zelenskiy said. Russian forces are blocking humanitarian access to the besieged port city of Mariupol because it wants to hide evidence of “thousands” of people killed there, the president said.
- More than 5,000 civilians, including 210 children, have been killed in Mariupol since the start of Russia’s invasion, the mayor of the besieged city said. Vadym Boichenko said 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed and Russian forces have targeted a hospital where 50 people were burned to death.
- After multiple unsuccessful attempts to access the city, about 1,000 people made it out of Mariupol in a convoy of buses and private cars organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They are now at the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.
- A total of 4,892 people were evacuated from Ukraine on Wednesday using humanitarian corridors, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, compared with 3,846 who were evacuated on Tuesday.
- Ukrainian soldiers are being trained in the US to operate deadly Switchblade drones that Washington is supplying to Kyiv, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Defence department spokesman John Kirby said it was a “very small” number of Ukrainian troops who were already in the US before Russia invaded their country.
- Britain is drawing up plans to send armoured vehicles to Ukraine, according to The Times. Options include sending a protected patrol vehicle, such as the Mastiff, or a vehicle like the Jackal, which can be used as a reconnaissance or long-range patrol vehicle, a ministry of defence report said.
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Sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine should give China a “good understanding” of the consequences it could face if it provides material support to Moscow, US deputy secretary of state said.
- The Pentagon has said Ukraine could “absolutely” win the war against Russia, even as US officials speak of the risk of a protracted conflict. “Of course they can win this,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. “The proof is literally in the outcomes that you’re seeing everyday ... absolutely they can win.”
