All updates in Central European Time (CET).
18:06 | Putin says Ukraine uses foreigners as hostages
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” of using the civilian population as a human shield and foreign students as hostages.
In a meeting with the Russian Security Council, the president also highlighted the heroism of his soldiers during the offensive in Ukraine and recounted how the Ukrainian forces allegedly prevent civilians from using the humanitarian corridors set up by the Russian army.
18:01 | At least 33 people killed in Russian attack on Ukrainian city of Chernigov
A total of 22 people died this Thursday in a Russian bombing of residential areas, including schools, in the Ukrainian city of Chernigov (north), indicated the emergency services.
Emergency services also released images of the area, showing smoke billowing from destroyed apartments, rubble strewn across a wide area, and rescuers carrying bodies on stretchers.
17:17 | Zelensky: If Ukraine falls, Russia will seek to invade “up to the Berlin Wall”
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky on Thursday called on the West to increase its support for Kiev, warning that if his country is defeated by Russia, it will attack the Baltic states and the rest of Europe “up to the Berlin Wall.”
“If we disappear, may God protect us, then it will be Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, etc. Up to the Berlin wall, believe me,” Zelensky told reporters. He also considered that the Kremlin could seek to rebuild the entire European sphere of influence of the Soviet Union and called on Western countries to “close the sky” over Ukraine to Russian planes.
17:11 | Russia will focus on manufacturing satellites for military purposes
The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced Thursday that henceforth it will prioritize the development of satellites for military purposes, as a result of the international isolation that Russia is suffering. “Of course, our space program will be adjusted. To begin with, priorities will be established,” Dmitri Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, said in an interview on public television network Rossiya-24.
“The current priority is the manufacture of space devices according to the needs of both Roscosmos and the Ministry of Defense,” he added.
17:02 | Russia’s second largest oil company calls for “quickly stop” war in Ukraine
Lukoil, the second largest Russian oil company, called on Thursday to “quickly stop” the war in Ukraine, making it the first major company in the country to oppose the offensive launched by Moscow. “We unreservedly ask that it be resolved in a negotiation process and through diplomatic means,” Lukoil’s board of directors said in a statement.
Lukoil is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is not a public company, unlike other major companies in the Russian energy sector such as Rosneft and Gazprom. Within the framework of the sanctions against Russia for the offensive in Ukraine, international oil companies such as the Anglo-Dutch Shell, the British BP and the American ExxonMobil announced that they were withdrawing their participation in extraction projects in Russia.
16:59 | EU agrees to grant temporary protection to war refugees
The European interior ministers reached a political agreement on Thursday for the “historic decision” to grant temporary protection to refugees “fleeing the war” in Ukraine, the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Ylva Johansson, announced on Twitter.
The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, made the same announcement on the same network. For the moment, the sources did not specify whether the protection will also apply to people who escape the war but do not have Ukrainian nationality, a controversial issue that still divides the bloc’s states.
16:54 | Half a million children have left Ukraine as refugees, UNICEF warns
Half a million children have already left Ukraine as refugees after a week of war, UNICEF warned Thursday, confirming that at least 17 minors have died as a result of the fighting and 30 have been injured.
In a statement, the UN agency for children noted that these figures are expected to continue to grow in the coming days and that humanitarian needs multiply. In total, the number of refugees resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine now exceeds one million, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi.
16:46 | Mexico evacuates 138 people who fled attacks in Ukraine
The Mexican government evacuated 81 people, including 44 Mexicans, who had arrived in Romania fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a military plane, the government announced Thursday. “The rescue operation instructed by President (Andrés Manuel) López Obrador is being carried out,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter.
“Families who were at risk from the bombing of Kiev will soon be in Mexico City,” Ebrard added, although the Foreign Ministry did not specify when the plane will arrive in the Mexican capital. The Foreign Ministry also specified that 28 Ukrainian citizens travel, seven from Ecuador, one from Peru and one from Australia.
16:44 | Second negotiation between Russia and Ukraine begins
“The key points on the agenda are a ceasefire, an armistice and humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from cities and towns destroyed or constantly bombed,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
Belarusian and Russian sources stated that the negotiations are taking place in the town of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in the Belarusian region of Brest, near the border with Poland. The first meeting, held on Monday, ended without concrete progress.
16:12 | Russia will not treat foreign mercenaries as prisoners of war
“I want to officially underline that all the mercenaries sent by the West to help the nationalist regime in Kiev are not combatants according to international humanitarian law,” warned the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashénkov, so “they have no right to prisoner of war status.
According to the soldier, “what awaits foreign mercenaries if they are arrested is a criminal case.” He also called on foreigners planning to move to Ukraine to fight Russia to “think seven times before the trip.”
16:04 | Canada imposes tariffs on products from Russia and Belarus
Canada will revoke the special trade status of Russia and Belarus, imposing import tariffs of 35% on the products of the two countries, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Thursday.
“Russia and Belarus will no longer benefit from the advantages, in particular low customs tariffs, that Canada offers to the other member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO),” he explained at a press conference, adding that only North Korea was outside this regime until now.
15:57 | Germany expects sanctions against Moscow to have a “huge impact” on the Russian economy
Germany hopes that the sanctions adopted by the West against Russia will have a “big impact” on its own economy, its Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday.
These effects are “predictable and partially perceptible,” he added, while considering that they face “a situation of a complexity that has not been seen for many years.” In addition, Habeck estimated that “German companies have about 20,000 million euros invested in Russia” and only “7,400 are covered by insurers.”
15:26 | Macron affirms that “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine, after talking with Putin
French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that “the worst is yet to come” in the conflict in Ukraine, he said after a telephone conversation with Putin, who told him of his determination to continue the offensive and that he could “take control” of the entire country. country and the Russian operation is developing “according to the plans”, indicated the French presidency.
Likewise, Macron responded to Putin’s accusations about Ukraine by stating that “he made a serious mistake with the Ukrainian regime”, which “is not a Nazi”. The French president would also have told him that he was making up “stories” and looking for “excuses”, according to the Elysee.
15:19 | Ikea suspends its activities in Russia and Belarus
The Swedish furniture retail giant Ikea announced on Thursday the suspension of its activities in Russia and Belarus due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which affects some 15,000 employees, 17 stores and three production factories.
“The war has a huge human impact and also translates into serious disruptions in the production and trade chain, which is why the group’s companies decided to temporarily suspend Ikea’s activities in Russia,” the group said in a statement. .
15:11 | EU warns that Russia intensifies repression of independent media
The high representative of Foreign Affairs of the EU, Josep Borrell, warned this Thursday that Russia is “intensifying” the repression of the protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the censorship of the country’s independent media.
Borrell noted in a statement that Russian authorities on Wednesday banned two other media outlets, Moscow’s Eco radio station and TV Rain, as well as the websites of other independent media organizations.
15:08 | Some 400,000 refugee children are at risk of hunger and disease
“At least 400,000 children are on the move across Eastern Europe and are at risk of hunger, disease, trafficking and abuse,” child rights organization Save the Children warned Thursday.
Save the Children estimates that around 40% of the people who have fled the Russian invasion to Romania, Poland, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia and Lithuania are children. He also warned that many of these minors have left their country with little more than a few items of clothing.
15:05 | UEFA bans Belarus from hosting European matches at home
Belarusian soccer teams and the national team will have to play their European home matches in a neutral stadium, UEFA announced on Thursday, three days after excluding Russian teams from its competitions.
“In addition, no spectator will be able to attend these matches,” the European institution wrote in a statement. This sanction completes the one announced on Monday by UEFA and FIFA on the Russian team, excluded from the World Cup, and Russian teams, suspended from European competitions, as happened for example to Spartak Moscow, excluded from the Europa League .
14:55 | Kasparov calls Putin an “insane dictator” and yearns for the “collapse of his regime
Former world chess champion Gary Kasparov called Putin an “insane dictator” and said he longed for the end of his regime, speaking to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“I hope this will lead to the collapse of his regime. Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined such a wave of solidarity in one or two days,” Kasparov said. The chess player was world champion between 1985 and 2000, he has always been one of the harshest critics of Putin within Russia.
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