Russia-Ukraine war: Donetsk governor claims Russia fired on aid distribution point; Pope condemns ‘massacre of Bucha’ – live

The governor of the eastern region of Luhansk has said that 10 high-rise buildings are on fire in the town of Sievierodonetsk after Russian shelling, with no information yet on casualties.

This morning, authorities in eastern Ukraine urged civilians to evacuate, warning that Russian bombardments could cut off escape routes as forces increase attacks on the Donbas area.

The US Department of Justice is set to outline new enforcement actions “to disrupt and prosecute criminal Russian activity” later today.

Top justice officials, including the attorney general, Merrick Garland, and the FBI director, Christopher Wray, would discuss the action at 10am (1500 BST), the department said in a statement.

New sanctions were announced earlier today by the United States and its allies against Russian banks and officials. They also planned a ban on new investment in Russia, the White House said, after officials in Washington and Kyiv accused Moscow of committing war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

33m ago07:24

Jennifer Rankin

The European Union has given €35bn (£29.1bn) to Vladimir Putin for energy supplies since the start of his war and €1bn to fund Ukraine’s defence, the union’s top diplomat said.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said:

We have to continue arming Ukraine. We need less rounds of applause and more assistance.

The EU has pledged €1bn in military aid for Ukraine, he said, which “might seem a lot” but “€1bn is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us. Since the beginning of the war we have given him €35bn. Compare that to the €1bn we have given to Ukraine in arms and weapons.”

36m ago07:21

Samantha Lock

Here’s a roundup on all the key events from day 42 of the Russian invasion from reporters Samantha Lock and Martin Belam:

Eighty-nine people, including four children, have been killed in Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, according to the city council.

In a statement, the council said a further 398 people had been wounded and 167 residential buildings damaged by Russian strikes.

The statement read:

It has become safer in Kyiv, but the threat of airstrikes remains.

Russia denies targeting civilians.

The sight of tied bodies shot at close range in the Ukrainian streets of Bucha do not “look far short of genocide”, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, has said.

The deaths in Bucha, outside Kyiv, have triggered a global outcry and pledges of further sanctions against Russia from the west.

Johnson told reporters:

I’m afraid when you look at what’s happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what Putin has done in Ukraine, which doesn’t look far short of genocide to me, it is no wonder that people are responding in the way that they are.

And I have no doubt that the international community - Britain very much in the front rank - will be moving again in lockstep to impose more sanctions and more penalties on Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Norway has expelled three Russian diplomats, the Norwegian ministry says.

An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team has led a convoy of buses and private cars carrying more than 500 people to Zaporizhzhia after the civilians fled the besieged Ukrainian town of Mariupol on their own.

“This convoy’s arrival to Zaporizhzhia is a huge relief for hundreds of people who have suffered immensely and are now in a safer location. It’s clear, though, that thousands more civilians trapped inside Mariupol need safe passage out and aid to come in,” Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Ukraine, said in a statement.

Here’s a summary of the new sanctions announced by the European Union this morning:

• An import ban on coal from Russia, worth €4bn a year, intended to cut an important revenue source for Russia.
  
• A full transaction ban on four key Russian banks, among them VTB, the second largest Russian bank, intended to weaken Russia’s financial system. The four banks will be totally cut off from the markets and represent 23% of the Russian banking sector.
• A ban on Russian vessels and Russian-operated vessels from accessing EU ports and on Russian and Belarusian road transport operators, limiting options for Russia to obtain key goods. There are exemptions for essentials, such as agricultural and food products, humanitarian aid as well as energy.
• Targeted export bans, worth €10bn, in areas in which Russia is vulnerable such as quantum computers, advanced semiconductors, sensitive machinery and transportation equipment. This is intended to degrade Russia’s technological base and industrial capacity.
• Specific new import bans, worth €5.5bn, to cut access to funds for Russia and its oligarchs, on products from wood to cement, from seafood to liquor.
• Several targeted measures, such as an EU-wide ban on Russian companies obtaining contracts through public procurement and an exclusion of all financial support to Russian public bodies.
• Sanctions against key high-profile individuals.
• The EU is working on possible additional sanctions, including on oil imports, taxes or specific payment channels such as an escrow account.
  

The Kremlin has said that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv are not progressing as rapidly or energetically as it would like.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said work on setting up a new round of talks was under way but that there remained a long road ahead to achieve any progress.

He added that Russia has all the resources needed to service its debt and there are no grounds to default.

Ukraine’s state emergency services has shared images of a woman who was rescued from debris after a military strike in the town of Rubizhne, in Luhansk region this morning.

In his address to the Irish parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ireland has not remained neutral over the disaster Russia has inflicted on his country.

He said:

You did not doubt starting helping us, you began doing this right away and, although you are a neutral country, you have not remained neutral to the disaster and to the mishaps that Russia has brought to Ukraine.”

He said he is grateful to every citizen of Ireland and for the country’s support of sanctions against Russia, and urged Ireland’s political leaders to use their influence to convince other EU nations to introduce even tougher sanctions to halt the Russian war machine.

Zelensky went on to say that he cannot tolerate indecisiveness in sanctions against Russia.

Today, when the whole world knows about the crimes against our people, we still have to convince even some of the European companies to abandon Russian markets, we still have to convince Russia of foreign politicians that we need to cut any ties of global banks of Russian banks with the global financial system.

We still have to convince Europe that Russian oil cannot feed Russian military machinery with new sources of funding.”

Zelensky told those gathered that Russia is using hunger as a weapon in its war against his country.

They are destroying things that are sustaining livelihoods to people. They also have blocked all of our sea ports, together with the vessels that had already agricultural cargos for exports.

“Ukraine is one of the leading food-supplying country in the world with exports. This is not just about the deficit and the threat of hunger.

“There will be a shortage of food and the prices will go up, and this is reality for the millions of people who are hungry, and it will be more difficult for them to feed their families.”

Zelensky also said that Russia needs to be held responsible for everything it has done in Ukraine. He said that in 42 days of war at least 167 children have been killed.

They were targeting even churches and shelters that they knew for sure that there is nobody but women and children, and this is a fact.

“The country which is doing this is not doesn’t deserve to be in the circle of the civil countries.”

Speaking after the historic address, Irish premier Micheal Martin said he is certain that Ukraine will prevail in its war with Russia.

We are a militarily neutral country. However, we are not politically neutral in the face of war crimes. Quite the opposite.

“Our position is informed by the principles that drive our foreign policy - support for international human rights, for humanitarian law and for a rules-based international order. We are not neutral when Russia disregards all of these principles. We are with Ukraine.

“Ukraine’s political, economic and humanitarian needs are now manifold and pressing.

“Our efforts, as a friend and as a partner of Ukraine, are aimed at using all the levers at our disposal to bring a just end to this war; applying international pressure on Russia; pursuing accountability for violations of international law; and meeting the humanitarian needs of those caught now in the midst of this terrible and immoral war.”

Rachel Hall here taking over the blog for the day. Please send over anything ideas for coverage, or things we’ve missed, to [email protected].

• The governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said at least two civilians were killed and five wounded today when Russian artillery fire struck a humanitarian aid distribution point in the town of Vuhledar.
• The governor of Russia’s Kursk region has claimed that border guards were fired on from Ukraine yesterday. Ukraine’s military has claimed to have no knowledge of the alleged incident.
• Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said that eleven humanitarian corridors have been agreed in total for Wednesday. Luhansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai told civilians to “evacuate while it is safe”.
• Russian soldiers have committed sexual violence against Ukrainian women and men, children and elderly people,” Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova has alleged.
• Pope Francis has condemned what he called “the massacre of Bucha” and held up a Ukrainian flag sent from the town at his weekly audience in the Vatican’s auditorium. He described the war on Ukraine as “cruelty that is increasingly horrendous”.
• The United States and its allies are preparing to impose new sanctions on Moscow over civilian killings in Ukraine as the west makes a fresh attempt to cripple Vladimir Putin’s economy and war effort.
• Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, has commented on the latest tranche of EU sanctions on Russia, saying that he appreciates the strengthening of the package. However, he called on his European neighbours to go further. saying “difficult times require difficult decisions”.
• Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia will fight Western attempts to expropriate Russian property overseas with lawsuits.
• Hungary’s foreign ministry has summoned Ukraine’s ambassador over what it called his offensive statements on Hungary’s stance regarding the war.
• The European Council president, Charles Michel, has said European Union countries should think about ways to offer asylum to Russian soldiers willing to desert Ukraine battlefields.
• The UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss has announced the country is to donate some NHS ambulances to Ukraine.
• A driver has died after ramming his car into the gate of the Russian embassy in Bucharest early on Wednesday, police in the Romanian capital said in a statement.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later on. Rachel Hall will be with you shortly.

Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, has commented on the latest tranche of European Union sanctions on Russia, saying that he appreciates the strengthening of the package. However, he called on his European neighbours to go further. saying “difficult times require difficult decisions”.

The governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said at least two civilians were killed and five wounded today when Russian artillery fire struck a humanitarian aid distribution point in the town of Vuhledar. Reuters report Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko shared graphic photos online of the aftermath of the alleged attack. Russia continues to deny targeting civilians.