Daily Archives: April 9, 2022

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

At least 39 people are killed, including four children, in a rocket attack on a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk that is being used for civilian evacuations, according to Ukraine's SBU security service.

AFP journalists on the scene see the bodies of at least 30 people grouped and lying under plastic sheets next to the station.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describes Russia as an "evil with no limits" after the attack, in which he says 300 were injured. The European Union says the attack is "horrifying".

Russia's defence ministry accuses Kyiv of carrying out the attack, saying in a statement it wanted to use fleeing residents "as a 'human shield' to defend the positions of Ukraine's Armed Forces."

The attack comes as civilians in eastern Ukraine struggle to evacuate, after officials tell them they have a "last chance" to avoid a major Russian offensive expected in the Donbas region.

Ukraine's president has warned of worse horrors in the town of Borodianka Photo: AFP / Genya SAVILOV

Russia has redeployed its troops towards the east and south, aiming to create a land link between occupied Crimea and the Moscow-backed separatist statelets of Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbas.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says that she is en route to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, along with the bloc's diplomatic chief Josep Borrell.

They are to meet with President Zelensky.

The destruction left by Russian troops in the town of Borodianka outside of Kyiv is "much more horrific" than the situation uncovered in the nearby town of Bucha, Zelensky says.

Ukraine's prosecutor general says 26 bodies have been recovered from underneath two destroyed apartment buildings there.

A rocket attack on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk killed dozens on Friday Photo: AFP / FADEL SENNA

The European Union approves an embargo on Russian coal -- the first time the bloc has targeted the energy sector -- and the closing of its ports to Russian vessels. It also says it has frozen nearly 29.5 billion euros in Russian and Belarusian assets so far.

The Group of Seven industrialised nations agrees to a ban on new investments in key sectors and fresh export restrictions, as well as the phasing out of Russian coal.

Britain announces sanctions on the daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

It is only the second ever suspension of a country from the council, after Libya in 2011.

World food prices hit an all-time high in March as Russia's invasion of breadbasket Ukraine has disrupted wheat and coarse grain exports, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization says.

The FAO's food price index surged by 12.6 percent between February and March, "making a giant leap to a new highest level since its inception in 1990", the FAO says.

Zelensky urges the West to impose "Molotov cocktail" sanctions on Moscow, including a ban on Russian gas, and appeals for more weapons as he addresses Finnish MPs.

He scolds "those who are making us wait, wait for the things that we need badly, wait for the means of protecting our lives."

Ukrainian forces are in control of the northeast region of Sumy along the border with Russia, governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky says on social media.

He warns: "the region is not safe. There are many areas that have been mined and are still not cleared."

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War In Ukraine: Latest Developments

Issued on: 07/04/2022 - 20:44Modified: 07/04/2022 - 20:42

A Ukrainian official warns residents in the east that they have a "last chance" to flee before a major Russian offensive expected in the Donbas region.

"These few days may be the last chance to leave," says Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region, part of the Donbas, where the city of Severodonetsk is coming under sustained artillery and rocket fire.

However, trains evacuating residents are halted by Russian strikes on the only line still under Kyiv's control.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov's denials of Russian responsibility in the killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha and elsewhere "makes him an accomplice to these crimes".

- More 'atrocities': US -

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says it is likely that Russian forces are carrying out more "atrocities, right now" in parts of Ukraine after bodies were found in Bucha.

German intelligence services have intercepted radio traffic of Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in Bucha, der Spiegel reports.

The Kremlin has denied the accusations of mass killings, claiming instead that the images emerging from Bucha were "fakes" or that the deaths occurred after Russian soldiers pulled out.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey, which is hosting negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, says the images of bodies from Bucha and other areas had "overshadowed" what had been an "emerging positive atmosphere".

Leaders of the G7 biggest economies agree to ban "new investments in key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector", alongside widening export bans on certain goods and tightening the screws on Russian banks and state-owned companies.

They also pledge to "elevate our campaign against the elites and their family members who support President (Vladimir) Putin in his war effort".

The US Congress also votes to end normal trade relations with Moscow and codify the ban on Russian oil.

Russian troops have suffered "significant losses" in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says in an interview with Britain's Sky News, but does not specify a toll.

Russia in late March said it had lost 1,351 soldiers with another 3,825 wounded.

The UN General Assembly votes to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

Of the 193 members of the assembly, 93 voted in favour of suspension while 24 voted against and 58 abstained, in only the second ever suspension of a country from the council, after Libya in 2011.

Russia rejects the suspension as "illegal", while Ukraine says it is "grateful".

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kuleba calls on NATO members to provide Kyiv with all the weaponry it needs to fight Russia.

"My agenda is very simple. It has only three items on it. It's weapons, weapons, and weapons," Kuleba tells journalists at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Ukraine accuses its neighbour and Kremlin-ally Hungary of appeasing Russian aggression and "destroying unity in the EU".

Newly-reelected Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says he is prepared to pay for Russian gas in rubles, a demand of Putin's that was rejected by the West.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says she will travel to Kyiv on Friday to show Europe's "unwavering support" for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

burs-cb-jmy/har

2022 AFP

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War in Ukraine: Latest developments - france24.com

Pentagon official says fighting in eastern Ukraine could be a 'knife fight'

Despite major losses, Russia still has a lot of manpower and that could drag on the conflict for a long time, a senior U.S. Defense official said.

"This will be a knife fight," the official said. "This could be very bloody and very ugly."

After failing to capture capital city Kyiv, Moscow is refocusing its efforts on eastern Ukraine, where Russia and Ukraine have fought for eight years.

"The Russians are limiting their geographic aims, but they still have a lot of combat power available. This could go on for a long time," the official said.

The official also said some of the Russian units that attacked Kyiv were "severely mauled."

"We've seen indications of some units that are literally ... eradicated there's just nothing left at the BTG except a handful of troops and maybe a small number of vehicles," the official said.

Military developments in Ukraine remain difficult or impossible to confirm as the situation on the ground changes rapidly.

Christine Wang

Ukrainian firefighters and volunteer rescue workers search for bodies in the rubble of a collapsed building in the town of Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv.

Volunteers help rescuers to remove rumbles of a damaged building in the town of Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, on April 7, 2022, during Russia's military invasion launched on Ukraine.

Aleksey Filippov | AFP | Getty Images

An aerial view taken on April 8, 2022 shows diggers working in the rubble of collapsed buildings in the town of Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv.

Ronaldo Schemidt | AFP | Getty Images

Ukrainian firefighters inspect a collapsed building in the town of Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, on April 8, 2022.

Ronaldo Schemidt | AFP | Getty Images

Ukrainian firefighters search for bodies in the rubble of destroyed buildings in the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, on April 8, 2022.

Ronaldo Schemidt | AFP | Getty Images

A group photo of Ukrainians is seen in the wreckage of a damaged residential building by the Russian air raids in Borodyanka, Bucha Raion of Kyiv Oblast, on 7 April 2022.

Ceng Shou Yi | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Mint Images RF | Getty Images

The government of the Cayman Islands announced that it has frozen approximately $7.3 billion worth of assets belonging to more than 800 sanctioned Russian oligarchs and entities since Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The Caribbean island chain is an overseas British territory, so banks and regulators follow the same sanctions directives they would in the United Kingdom. The Caymans are also one of the world's most popular tax havens, drawing thousands of wealthy individuals who employ complex corporate structures to avoid taxes back home.

$7.3 billion is a startling amount for a country with fewer than 65,000 residents. By comparison, the global financial powerhouse of Switzerland announced this week that it has frozen only slightly more than the Caymans, approximately $8 billion since the start of the war.

Cayman Premier G. Wayne Panton said the asset freezes highlight that the islands are "responsible and reputable" participants in the global economy.

Christina Wilkie

Leading researcher at the National Medical Research Center for Endocrinology of the Russian Health Ministry, member of the Presidium of the Russian Association for the Promotion of Science Maria Vorontsova attends "The Study of DNA as a Path to Self-Understanding" expert session at the Eurasian Women's Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Ekaterina Chesnokova | Sputnik via AP

The European Union on Friday announced a sweeping new slate of individual sanctions targeting 216 Russian nationals and 18 entities. They include two of the adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as the aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska and Herman Gref, the CEO of Sberbank, Russia's largest lending bank.

Katerina Tikhonova and Mariya Putina (above), who are in their 30s, are rarely seen in public and almost never mentioned by their father.

The sanctions are part of a broader package of restrictions announced by the European bloc that includes a ban on imports of Russian coal set to take effect in August. This is the first time the EU has placed an embargo on Russian energy products, a controversial decision in a region that is highly dependent upon Russian oil, coal and gas.

Additionally, the EU imposed full blocking sanctions on four major Russian banks that together represent 23% of the Russian banking sector: VTB Bank, Sovcombank, Novikombank and Otkritie Bank (formerly known as NOMOS Bank).

Finally, the new sanctions bar Russian-flagged maritime vessels from docking in EU member state ports, although it includes a carveout for energy and agricultural shipments.

E.U. officials said the latest round of sanctions came in response to growing evidence of scores of atrocities committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians, including rape, torture and execution-style killings.

Christina Wilkie

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanised Division and the 82nd Airborne Division (USA) take part in tactical and fire training on April 8, 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanized Division and the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division take part in tactical and fire training in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanised Division and the 82nd Airborne Division (USA) take part in tactical and fire training on April 8, 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanised Division and the 82nd Airborne Division (USA) take part in tactical and fire training on April 8, 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

The tactical and fire training for U.S. and Polish units is meant to increase their ability to operate together.

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanised Division and the 82nd Airborne Division (USA) take part in tactical and fire training on April 8, 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanised Division and the 82nd Airborne Division (USA) take part in tactical and fire training on April 8, 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

The training will include shooting from Pioruns (man-portable air-defense systems) and Javelins (anti-tank guided missiles), known for their effectiveness in combating Russian troops in Ukraine.

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanised Division and the 82nd Airborne Division (USA) take part in tactical and fire training on April 8, 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

Troops from the Polish 18th Mechanised Division and the 82nd Airborne Division (USA) take part in tactical and fire training on April 8, 2022 in Nowa Deba, Poland.

Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images

OTR-21 Tochka tactical ballistic missile fired during the Allied Determination-2022 military drill of Russian and Belarusian armed forces in Gomel, Belarus on February 15, 2022.

Stringer | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The devastating attack on the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine was carried out by a Russian short-range ballistic missile fired from inside Ukraine, a senior U.S. Defense official said.

The strike killed dozens of people as civilians wait at train stations to flee the eastern part of the country.

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share new details the Pentagon has gathered about the war, added that the U.S. believes the missile was a Russian OTR-21 Tochka, also known as an SS-21 "Scarab" missile. The SS-21 is a Russian-made mobile, short-range, single-warhead ballistic missile with a warhead payload of about 1,000 pounds.

The U.S. military has observed more than 1,500 Russian missile launches since the start of the war, according to the official. Russia has focused in particular on the coastal city of Mariupol.

Following the attack on the Kramatorsk train station, the Pentagon announced that it would reposition a Patriot missile battery in Slovakia to bolster air defense systems.

Amanda Macias

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (l) speaks at a joint press conference with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine. During her visit to Kiev, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen encouraged Ukraine on its way to the European Union.

Michael Fischer | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to offer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a speedier start to Ukraine's bid to become a member of the European Union.

Handing Zelenskyy a questionnaire which will form a starting point for the EU to decide on membership for Kyiv, she said: "It will not as usual be a matter of years to form this opinion but I think a matter of weeks." Zelenskyy said he would come back with answers in a week.

She underlined the sanctions put on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying: "Russia will descend into economic, financial and technological decay, while Ukraine is marching towards the European future, this is what I see."

Reuters

U.S. Army MIM-104 Patriots, surface-to-air missile (SAM) system launchers, are pictured at Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Poland March 24, 2022.

Stringer | Reuters

The Pentagon will reposition a Patriot missile system in Slovakia under U.S. command after Slovakian officials agreed to send Ukraine its S-300 air defense system.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he expected the long-range missile system, which is made by Raytheon, and U.S. crew will arrive "in coming days." He said U.S. military leaders are talking to Slovakian government "about more permanent air defense solutions," according to a statement released by the Pentagon.

"This deployment of Patriot capabilities to Slovakia aligns perfectly with our previous efforts to bolster NATO's defensive capabilities and to demonstrate our collective security requirements under Article 5 of the NATO treaty," Austin wrote.

President Joe Biden also confirmed in a statement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously asked for the S-300 missile defense system.

"The entire world has now witnessed the effectiveness of those weapons, as courageous Ukrainian forces have used them to repel the Russian attack on Kyiv, keep the skies of Ukrainecontested, and deliver severe blows to the Russian military," Biden wrote.

Amanda Macias

Editor's note: Graphic content. The following article contains a photo of casualties at Bucha.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the deaths of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha showed the "cruel face" of Russian President Vladimir Putin's army, pledging to support Kyiv in its defense of the "border of Europe."

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (M) and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell (behind) and Denys Shmyhal (green cap), Prime Minister of Ukraine, stand behind body bags in Bucha on April 8th, 2022.

Michael Fischer | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

During a visit to Bucha, where forensic investigators started to exhume bodies from a mass grave, von der Leyen looked visibly moved by what she saw in a town where Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian forces.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (M), EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell (M,r) and Denys Schmyhal (behind von der Leyen), Prime Minister of Ukraine, stand behind destroyed military vehicles in Bucha on April 8th, 2022.

Michael Fischer | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Russia denies targeting civilians in its more than six-week war against Ukraine and has called the allegations that Russian forces executed civilians in Bucha while they occupied the town a "monstrous forgery" aimed at denigrating the Russian army.

Speaking to reporters in Bucha, von der Leyen, wearing a flak jacket, said the EU would do everything to support Ukraine to do "the necessary steps" to secure membership of the bloc a demand Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell (2nd from right) light candles for the victims of the massacre in a church next to a mass grave in Bucha on April 8th, 2022.

Michael Fischer | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

"The unthinkable has happened here. We have seen the cruel face of Putin's army. We have seen the recklessness and the cold heartedness with which they have been occupying the city," von der Leyen told reporters in Bucha.

Reuters

People wave flags during a rally in support of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, in Simferopol, Crimea on April 7, 2022.

- | Afp | Getty Images

The proportion of Russians who trust President Vladimir Putin has risen to 81.6% from 67.2% before he ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to a survey by the state-run pollster VTsIOM.

The conflict has displaced more than 10 million Ukrainians from their homes, killed or injured thousands, turned cities into rubble and led to sweeping Western sanctions that will push down Russian living standards.

VTsIOM said 78.9% of respondents in its latest survey said they approved of Putin's actions, compared to 64.3% in the last poll before the start of what Russia calls its "special military operation." The proportion who disapproved of his actions fell to 12.9% from 24.4%.

Ukraine and Western leaders have condemned Russia's military campaign as unprovoked aggression. The Kremlin says it had to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine to protect Russian-speakers and pre-empt a threat from the Western NATO alliance.

Reuters

Editor's note: Graphic content. The following article contains a photo of casualties and wounded in Kramatorsk

At least 50 people have been killed after a Ukraine railway station was hit by rockets, according to the governor of the Donetsk region. That number includes five children.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Ukrainian soldiers clear out bodies after a rocket attack killed at least 35 people on April 8, 2022 at a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that was being used for civilian evacuations.

Fadel Senna | AFP | Getty Images

Pavlo Kyrylenko said the number of victims at Kramatorsk train station is "constantly changing" as a result of the attack, with 98 believe reported to have been taken to hospitals.

Two rockets hit a station in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region, where scores of people were waiting to be evacuated to safer areas, according to Ukrainian Railways.

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Rocket attack on Ukraine train station kills at least 50 trying to flee, scores injured - CNBC

Every week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the Ukraine war, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion.

On Monday, Daniel Boffey visited the devastated town of Bucha, speaking to the residents of blighted Vokzalna Street as they emerged from their hideouts after Russian forces retreated.

We were in our cellar the whole time, says Serhiy Savenko, 43, who lives with his mother, Larisa, 72, at No 35. The Russians set up their weapons and a fire in the front garden. One came down to the cellar and saw us. He said to be quiet. He said he was a nice guy but his colleagues would get us on our knees and shoot us. They took our phones and said no fires, as if we could make some sort of signal.

Zinaida, 62, lives at No 31, and has been in her cellar since 5 March. She faces the prospect of telling her daughter that her husband is dead, killed by soldiers after going to pick up some items up from a neighbours house. He walked just 20 metres from the house and the Russians killed him. No warning, no reason How can I tell them?

If you want to read more about Bucha, journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk has written about how the atrocities there have changed the way Ukrainians look at the war.

Shaun Walker visited the spa town of Trostianets on Tuesday, one of the very first places to fall into Russian hands when Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. There he found evidence of summary executions, torture and systematic looting during a month of occupation. Yet residents described an initial sense of guilt among Russian soldiers. We were scared of them, but after a while we started pitying them. They had dirty faces, they stank and they looked completely lost, says Yana Lugovets, who spent a month sleeping in the basement with her husband, daughter and friends. She said a soldier who had come to search the house they were staying in left without completing the task, his eyes filled with shame as her daughter cried out in fear at the intruder.

Daria Sasina said soldiers who had broken into the beauty salon she ran were apologetic, saying: Listen, Im sorry. We didnt know it would be like this. However, after the Ukrainian army called in strikes, the Russians became more and more angry.

Investigators are uncovering the scale of sexual violence committed in Ukraine, including gang-rapes, assaults at gunpoint, and rapes committed in front of children, writes Bethan McKernan in Lviv.

Rape and sexual assault are considered war crimes, and both Ukraines prosecutor general and the international criminal court have said they will open investigations.

Every break between curfew and bombing I was looking for emergency contraception instead of a basic first aid kit, said Antonina Medvedchuk in Kyiv, who woke up to the sound of bombing on the day the war broke out. My mother tried to reassure me: This is not a war like that, they dont exist any more, they are from old movies.

Local authorities and organisations have been distributing medical, legal and psychological support and trying to find safe shelters for women and girls fleeing both the war and domestic violence. But the fighting has hampered the effort. We have had several calls to our emergency hotline from women and girls seeking assistance, but in most cases its been impossible to help them physically. We havent been able to reach them because of the fighting, said Kateryna Cherepakha, the president of charity La Strada Ukraine.

After Joe Biden called for the prosecution of Vladimir Putin for war crimes following the discovery in Bucha of mass graves and bodies of bound civilians shot at close range, David Smith explained that bringing the Russian president to trial would be far from simple.

The US, China, Russia and Ukraine are not members of the international criminal court, but dozens of prominent lawyers and politicians, including the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and the former British prime minister Gordon Brown, have launched a campaign to create a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.

Models include the tribunals set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the Balkan wars in the early 1990s and during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Even if it does go ahead, prosecution could take many years.

On Thursday, Luke Harding in Lviv reported on the extraordinary story of Dmitry Yurin, a man who witnessed the bombing of the Drama Theatre in Mariupol and decided that he had to escape the city by any means necessary.

It was terrible, a massive blast, an enormous explosion. I heard cries and screams, Yurin said. I saw bodies and bits of bodies. I pulled one woman out, then a girl, and then a boy. All were hurt. The boys legs didnt move. He was screaming. My hands were shaking. I was covered in blood.

Yurins plan involved wading into the frigid sea of Azov with four five-litre plastic bottles, for use as buoyancy aids, and swimming for two-and-a-half hours. His remarkable journey took him to the village of Melekine, where he staggered out of the sea and was rescued by an elderly couple who gave him vodka and borscht.

Dan Sabbagh examines how Nato countries have been gradually stepping up their supply of weapons to Kyiv as the war in Ukraine enters a new phase and asks if the gradual escalation in arms deliveries can avoid a Russian retaliation and turn the tide on the battlefield.

The next phase of the war which could yet be decisive is expected to unfold in the Donbas in the next month as Russian forces seek to capture Mariupol, create a land bridge to Crimea, expand the area of occupation in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk and perhaps encircle Ukraines main fighting force ranged against it. It is a struggle that will unfold over the course of April, but it is probably not until the end of April that a clearer picture will emerge of the revised military balance.

Meanwhile, the wests aims are becoming less clear. Is the goal to allow Ukraine to force the Kremlin into peace talks or try to inflict a more heavy defeat that would risk provoking an unpredictable Russian president?

Our visual guide to the invasion is updated regularly and can be found here.

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Russia-Ukraine war: catch up on this week's must-read news and analysis - The Guardian

Since the outset of my administration, the United States has placed the highest priority on delivering critical military capabilities to Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russian aggression. The entire world has now witnessed the effectiveness of those weapons, as courageous Ukrainian forces have used them to repel the Russian attack on Kyiv, keep the skies of Ukraine contested, and deliver severe blows to the Russian military.

In addition to U.S.-produced weapons, we have also worked to facilitate the transfer of capabilities from our Allies and partners around the world. I want to thank the Slovakian government for providing an S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, something President Zelenskyy has personally raised with me in our conversations. To enable this transfer and ensure the continued security of Slovakia, the United States will reposition a U.S. Patriot missile system to Slovakia.

Now is no time for complacency. The Russian military may havefailed in its objective of capturing Kyiv, but it continues to inflict horrific acts of brutality on the Ukrainian people. As the Russian military repositions for the next phase of this war, I have directed my Administration to continue to spare no effort to identify and provide to the Ukrainian military the advanced weapons capabilities it needs to defend its country.

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Statement from the President on Delivery of Air Defense Systems to Ukraine - The White House

World food prices hit an all-time high in March following Russias invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, a United Nations agency said on Friday, adding to concerns about the risk of hunger around the world.

The disruption in export flows resulting from the February 24 invasion and international sanctions against Russia has spurred fears of a global hunger crisis, especially across the Middle East and Africa, where the knock-on effects are already playing out.

Russia and Ukraine, whose vast grain-growing regions are among the worlds main breadbaskets, account for a huge share of the globes exports in several major commodities, including wheat, vegetable oil and corn, their prices reached their highest levels ever last month.

Ukrainian ports have been blocked by a Russian blockade and there is concern about this years harvest as the war rages on during the sowing season.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of commodities, averaged 159.3 points last month, up 12.6 percent from February. As it is, the February index was the highest level since its inception in 1990.

FAO said the war in Ukraine was largely responsible for the 17.1 percent rise in the price of grains, including wheat and others like oats, barley and corn. Together, Russia and Ukraine account for approximately 30 percent and 20 percent of global wheat and corn exports, respectively.

While predictable given Februarys steep rise, This is really remarkable, said Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of FAOs markets and trade division. Clearly, these very high prices for food require urgent action.

The biggest price increases were for vegetable oils: that price index rose 23.2 percent, driven by higher quotations for sunflower seed oil that is used for cooking. Ukraine is the worlds leading exporter of sunflower oil, and Russia is second.

Prices of sugar and dairy products also rose significantly the FAO said.

There is, of course, a massive supply disruption, and that massive supply disruption from the Black Sea region has fueled prices for vegetable oil, Schmidhuber told reporters in Geneva.

He said he could not calculate how much the war was to blame for the record food prices, noting that poor weather conditions in the United States and China also were blamed for crop concerns. But he said that logistical factors were playing a big role.

Essentially, there are no exports through the Black Sea, and exports through the Baltics is practically also coming to an end, he said.

Soaring food prices and disruption to supplies coming from Russia and Ukraine have threatened food shortages in countries in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia where many people already were not getting enough to eat.

Those nations rely on affordable supplies of wheat and other grains from the Black Sea region to feed millions of people who subsist on subsidised bread and bargain noodles, and they now face the possibility of further political instability.

Other large grain producers like the US, Canada, France, Australia and Argentina are being closely watched to see if they can quickly ramp up production to fill in the gaps, but farmers face issues such as climbing fuel and fertiliser costs exacerbated by the war, drought and supply chain disruptions.

In the Sahel region of Central and West Africa, the disruptions from the war have added to an already precarious food situation caused by COVID-19, conflicts, poor weather and other structural problems, said Sib Ollo, senior researcher for the World Food Program for West and Central Africa in Dakar, Senegal.

There is a sharp deterioration of the food and nutrition security in the region, he told reporters, saying six million children are malnourished and nearly 16 million people in urban areas are at risk of food insecurity.

Farmers, he said, were particularly worried that they would not be able to access fertilisers produced in the Black Sea region. Russia is a leading global exporter.

The cost of fertilisers has increased by almost 30 percent in many places of this region due to the supply disruption that we see provoked by a crisis in Ukraine, he said.

The World Food Program has appealed for $777m to meet the needs of 22 million people in the Sahel region and Nigeria over six months, he said.

To address the needs of food-importing countries, the FAO was developing a proposal for a mechanism to alleviate the import costs for the poorest countries, Schmidhuber said. The proposal calls for eligible countries to commit to added investments in their own agricultural productivity to obtain import credits to help soften the blow.

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Ukraine war disruptions send food prices to their highest ever - Al Jazeera English

A phone camera pans slowly across the portraits of 55 men, each wearing the dress uniform of Russias elite airborne units. Small candles have been placed by the photographs of the men, as have sky blue berets and the blue-and-white striped undershirts worn by the paratrooper units who led Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The video of the memorial for the soldiers of the 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment is unverified it was first published by Russias iStories news outlet, which said it was submitted by a reader.

But the footage adds weight to a growing consensus that the numbers of Russian casualties especially among elite units such as the Russian airborne are far higher than officials have so far admitted.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said on Thursday that the country had significant losses of troops and its a huge tragedy for us during an interview on Sky News.

The frank admission of the scale of Russian losses is rare among government officials, who have consistently assured the public and Vladimir Putin that Russias special operation is going according to plan.

In an attempt at damage control on Friday, Peskov said he was referring to the official defence ministry numbers of 1,351 soldiers killed since Russia launched its invasion on 24 February.

You and I have the same numbers as those published by the defence ministry, Peskov said. This is a substantial number.

Ukraine has estimated that 18,900 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of the war, citing its own recovery of bodies and intercepted Russian communications. Russia has called the Ukrainian numbers inflated.

But questions about the Russian militarys accounting practices remain, as official statistics may not count soldiers missing in action, and critics have accused the Kremlin of intentionally covering up the high number of war dead to prevent discontent at home.

And growing evidence suggests high numbers of casualties among the units that led Russias invasion in February, including paratrooper units considered to be the tip of the spear.

The video of the memorial for the 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment, which is based in Stavropol, Russia, showed a number of men whose deaths have already been confirmed through public accounts.

Another video from a nearby cemetery that is used by the unit, along with others, showed a long row of funeral wreaths.

The unit was reported to have fought in southern Ukraine near the city of Kherson, which has been held by the Russian army since late February. A Ukrainian counter-attack near Kherson has led to heavy losses for Russian troops there.

Last month, Russia reported the death of the commander of the regiment, Col Konstantin Zizevsky, one of at least eight Russian colonels to have been killed during the war in Ukraine.

BBC Russian, which has kept a confirmed count of the number of Russian losses, has said that 217 of its 1,083 confirmed Russian war dead were officers, from junior lieutenants to generals. Senior Russian officers often fight alongside their units because decisions must be confirmed by higher-ranking personnel.

Of the confirmed deaths in the military, more than 15% come from Russias elite airborne, or VDV, units. The high number of losses among those units has also been accompanied by reports of desertions.

According to the opposition Pskovskaya Guberniya newspaper, about 60 Russian paratroopers are facing disciplinary action after refusing to travel from Belarus, where many had been dispatched for what they believed were exercises, into Ukraine. Those reports have not been confirmed.

But Russian media have also reported on members of two national guards units that have refused to fight in Ukraine. And lawyers say that soldiers from more than 17 cities have requested aid to either avoid being sent to Ukraine or ask for help in returning home.

Theyre all reporting being pressured, facing the threat of criminal charges, being discharged, or having their documents withheld, wrote Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora international human rights group. For protection from a possible criminal investigation, please contact our lawyers.

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Russians start to see evidence of high military casualties in Ukraine - The Guardian