Ukraine war latest: Live news as Russian economy ‘near brink of collapse’

The UK, US and Australia have agreed to work collectively on each hypersonic and anti-hypersonic weaponry because the three nations reiterated their “unwavering dedication” to a world system that “respects human rights”.

The international locations’ leaders, prime minister Boris Johnson, US president Joe Biden, and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison issued an announcement on Tuesday which got here as part of the Aukus navy pact.

Eleanor Sly has the story.

Donald Trump isn’t recognized for cautious remarks that at all times replicate the reality, however there’s one topic on which he appears to veer from actuality the sharpest: Russia.

Listed here are 5 of his wildest claims on the Ukrainian disaster, reported by John Bowden.

The World Well being Group will provide 1000’s of doses of life-saving antiretroviral medication to Ukraine to cowl the wants of HIV sufferers within the nation for the subsequent 12 months.

WHO, together with the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Reduction (PEPFAR), Ukrainian authorities and different companions, has procured 209,000 packs of generic antiretroviral drug TLD.

Ukraine has an estimated 260,000 folks dwelling with HIV, the second largest quantity in Europe after Russia.

Final month, the UN company for HIV/AIDS warned that Ukraine was left with lower than a month’s provide of medication for HIV sufferers.

“This battle has the potential to undermine the hard-earned progress of latest years on quite a lot of well being points, together with HIV. We couldn’t let that occur when Ukraine had begun to show a nook on HIV,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Henri P. Kluge stated.

The primary batch of the HIV medication has crossed the Polish border into Ukraine and is about to be transported to HIV service services throughout the nation, WHO stated.

Six charred our bodies piled collectively have been being investigated on Tuesday in Bucha, the city the place graphic proof of killings and torture has emerged following the withdrawal of Russian forces

It was not clear who the folks have been or below what circumstances they have been killed.

“It’s horrible,” stated Ukrainian Inside Minister Denys Monastyrsky on the scene, which included different journalists. The minister stated Russian President Vladimir Putin ought to “go to hell.” Andrii Nebytov, head of police within the Kyiv area, famous one of many charred our bodies was a baby.

The Related Press has seen dozens of lifeless our bodies round Bucha, the place Russian forces withdrew prior to now week. The photographs, which included some with their arms sure, have horrified the world. Many victims appeared to have been shot at shut vary, some within the head. Not less than two had their fingers tied.

Latvia and Estonia every ordered the closure of two Russian consulates and advised workers to depart their international locations, the overseas ministries stated on Tuesday, in measures taken in response to the battle in Ukraine.

“The choice was taken in solidarity with Ukraine in its combat towards the unprovoked and unjustified navy aggression and battle began by Russia,” Latvian International ministry stated in an announcement.

The consulates within the Latvian cities of Daugavpils and Liepaja and Estonian cities of Tartu and Narva should shut by the top of April. Employees should depart by that point, the statements of the ministries stated.

The US and its allies will impose new sanctions on Wednesday, together with sanctions on Russian banks and officers, and a ban on new funding in Russia, the White Home stated. This comes after officers in Washington and Kyiv accused Moscow of committing battle crimes within the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

The sanctions will enhance curbs on monetary establishments and state-owned enterprises in Russia and goal Russian authorities officers and their households, White Home press secretary Jen Psaki advised reporters on Tuesday.

“Tomorrow, what we’re going to announce… in coordination with the G7 and EU, is a further sweeping bundle of sanctions measures that may impose prices on Russia and ship it additional down the highway of financial, monetary and technological isolation,” Psaki stated, noting that the G7 and EU comprised round 5 per cent of the worldwide economic system.

The measures will “degrade key devices of Russian state energy, impose acute and rapid financial hurt on Russia, and maintain accountable the Russian kleptocracy that funds and helps Putin’s battle,” she stated.

She declined to touch upon studies that the sanctions would goal the daughters of Putin.

Grim pictures rising from Bucha embody a mass grave and our bodies of individuals shot at shut vary, prompting requires more durable motion towards Moscow and a world investigation.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Tuesday, with out providing proof, that the killings have been no random act of a rogue unit however a part of a deliberate Russian marketing campaign to commit atrocities.

Russia, which says it launched a “particular navy operation” in Ukraine on February 24 to demilitarise and “denazify” its neighbour, denies concentrating on civilians and stated the deaths have been a “monstrous forgery” staged by the West to discredit it.

A senior French official stated earlier on Tuesday that the European Union would additionally seemingly impose new sanctions on Wednesday. The Wall Road Journal reported Sberbank could also be among the many banks focused.

Two European diplomats stated the ultimate bundle of sanctions was nonetheless being finalised and could be introduced in a coordinated vogue on Wednesday.

Psaki stated Washington would proceed to pile strain on different international locations like India to abide by the sanctions and play a “constructive” function in holding Russia accountable.

Due to the battle and Western sanctions, specialists forecast a contraction of the Russian economic system of as a lot as 15 per cent.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian troops of “chopping out civilians’ tongues” in Ukraine amongst a listing of ugly atrocities.

Chatting with the UN Safety Council on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky advised council members about alleged assaults that had taken place by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s troops “only for pleasure” in not too long ago liberated cities in Ukraine.

Showing through video hyperlink, Mr Zelensky described how civilians had been shot at the back of the top after being tortured, blown up with grenades of their houses and crushed to loss of life by tanks whereas in vehicles.

A lady was “raped and killed” by Russian forces earlier than they allegedly burned a swastika onto her lifeless physique, a Ukrainian MP has claimed.

Lesia Vasylenko, a politician for the Holos celebration, shared a graffic picture on Twitter of what she claimed was the “tortured physique of a raped and killed girl”. The picture appeared to indicate a lady’s torso with a swatsika burned and scratched onto it.

The White Home says that Russia’s monetary system is “close to the brink of collapse” following world sanctions in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Press secretary Jen Psaki stated how quickly Russia begins defaulting on its money owed is dependent upon choices the nation makes in response to the outcomes of sanctions.

Observe the growing story:

The UK and EU are on a collision course over the profitable gasoline exports funding Russia’s assault on Ukraine, after Brussels ignored a plea to set a “clear timetable” to eradicate provides.

The conflict will come to a head at this week’s G7 assembly, when Liz Truss will confront fellow overseas ministers with a requirement for a lot more durable sanctions that may ship Moscow’s economic system “again into the Soviet period”, writes Rob Merrick.

Talking in Poland, the overseas secretary stated she could be urging western allies to affix the UK in banning Russian ships from ports, sanctioning extra Russian banks, and concentrating on the nation’s gold.