Russia Ukraine War Updates: UN General Assembly suspends Russia from Human Rights Council

Ukraine’s president has asked Cypriot lawmakers to ratchet up pressure on Russia by shutting Cypriot ports to all Russian ships, and to stop granting Russian businessmen conveniences including Cypriot citizenship.

Addressing the Cypriot Parliament Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the east Mediterranean island nation for its humanitarian and financial aid and spoke of the destruction and death the Russian invasion has wrought. He warned that the killings of civilians that happened in the town of Bucha may be happening elsewhere.

Zelenskyy also pleaded for backing from Cyprus in Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union. He said EU membership for Ukraine would help strengthen the 27-member bloc.

United Nations General Assembly suspends Russia from Human Rights Council, AFP reported. However, India abstained from voting.

India on Thursday abstained on the resolution with regard to the suspension of the Russian Federation from the Human Rights Council adopted in the UN General Assembly today, said India's Permanent Representative to UN, TS Tirumurti.

We would like to put this draft resolution to vote and call on all present here to really consider your decision and to vote against the attempt by Western countries and their allies to destroy the existing human rights architecture, said Russia at UN General Assembly.

The suspension of rights of membership of the Russian Federation in UNHRC is not an option, but a duty, said Ukraine's representative to UN at UNGA's ahead of voting to exclude Russia from human rights body. 

As the war still continues, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow will continue talks with Kiev despite provocations.

We are in a unique situation now, when on the territory of another sovereign state, a member of the UNHRC commits horrific human rights violations & abuses that would be equated to war crimes and crimes against humanity, said Ukraine's representative at UNGA's emergency session.

— Ukraine girds for renewed Russian offensive on eastern front

— Ukraine appeals to NATO for more weapons

— Russia is moving troops and focus toward the east, but that strategy carries risks as well

— General Assembly to vote Thursday on suspending Russia from UN rights council

— Ukrainian refugees find quickest route into US goes through Mexico

— Seeing Bucha atrocities is turning point for media, viewers

— Russia makes debt payment in rubles, a move that could result in historic default

Italian Premier Mario Draghi says the EU could consider a price cap on Russian gas as a way to limit Europe’s financing of the war in Ukraine without imposing a boycott altogether. But he acknowledged opposition to the proposal.

Draghi made the comments Thursday after meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has expressed reservations about the proposed price cap mechanism.

Draghi said he had made “a fundamental step” forward in nudging Rutte to not rule out the proposal entirely.

“If we’re not able to do a block as has been discussed, the alternative could be imposing a price cap on gas using the power of the market that Europe has as the biggest purchaser of gas,” Draghi said.

Rutte concurred he was not excluding the proposal outright and was willing to look at all options. But he insisted that the benefits must outweigh the drawbacks.

Don't think there's any such pressure. Talks of sanctions going on but it's not on entire trade. A lot of trade is going on, trade of oil too. Our focus is to maintain & stabilise our established economic relations with Russia

India on Thursday asserted that it has established economic relations with Russia and political colouring should not be attributed to the engagement.

The comments by External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi came in response to questions on growing criticism of New Delhi by several Western powers on its trade ties with Moscow notwithstanding the crisis in Ukraine.

At a media briefing, Bagchi said India has been very open about its engagement with Russia and even cited continuing procurement of crude oil from Russia by Europe.

We have established economic relations with Russia and our focus is on stabilising this established economic relations in current circumstances, he said.

Bagchi said discussions are underway to see what kind of payment mechanism can work between India and Russia in the current circumstances.

Ukrainian medical universities have allowed their foreign students to gain practical training at hospitals and clinics in their own countries, giving relief to thousands of Indian students who have fled the war-hit nation.

The universities have also urged foreign governments to provide practical training opportunities to their students so that they can gain requisite skills.

After being shut due to the deteriorating security situation in Ukraine in the face of intense the Russian offensive, universities of the eastern European country have begun online classes since last month.

But the major cause of concern for foreign students was gaining clinical expertise in absence of practical classes.

Coming to the rescue of such students, several hospitals and private clinics here have started offering practical classes and internships.

"In the current situation in Ukraine, students are taught with the help of technologies. But students do not have the opportunity to learn practical skills directly at the clinical departments of the University and treatment and prevention facilities of the Dnipro city," a Dinipro State Medical University (DMSU) said in a notice.

France has summoned Russia’s ambassador over his tweet suggesting that images of civilians killed in Ukraine's town of Bucha were staged. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the tweet “indecent.”

Thursday's tweet, which was later removed but had already been reprinted by numerous French media, showed a street in Bucha with a knocked-out tank and numerous journalists, under the caption “film set.”

Media covering the war in Ukraine, including The Associated Press, have revealed scenes of horror in the Kyiv suburb with bodies of Ukrainian civilians scattered about the town, which was occupied by Russian troops in March. Moscow has been deriding the reports and images as fake, or killings carried out by Ukrainians. AP and other news outlets have provided evidence to the contrary.

Le Drian denounced the “indecency and the provocation” of the Russian Embassy in France, vowing to “continue to fight all Russian manipulation of information on the war in Ukraine.”

Last month, Ambassador Alexei Mechkov was summoned for a tweet showing caricatures that the French called “unacceptable.”

The European Union is poised to ban Russian coal in the first sanctions on the vital energy industry over the war in Ukraine, but it has underlined the 27 nations' inability to agree on a much more sweeping embargo on oil and natural gas that would hit Russia harder but risk recession at home.

The coal ban, which is expected to be approved in a new package of sanctions this week, would cost Russia $4 billion a year, said the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. Energy analysts and coal importers say Europe could replace Russian supply in a few months from other countries, including the US.

The coal ban is significant because it breaks the taboo on severing energy ties with Russia. But compared with natural gas and oil, coal is by far the easiest to cut off quickly and inflicts far less financial damage on Russian President Vladimir Putin's war chest. Europe sends 20 million euros a day to Russia for coal — but 850 million a day for oil and gas.

Shocking pictures of dead civilians from the Ukrainian town of Bucha are keeping discussion of broader sanctions alive, with EU officials saying they are working on targeting Russian oil.

While the European Union ponders such future sanctions, Italian Premier Mario Draghi said no embargo of Russian natural gas is up for consideration at this point.

“And I don't know if it ever will be on the table,'' Draghi told reporters in Rome on Wednesday night.

EU countries, especially big economies like Italy and Germany, rely heavily on Russian natural gas to heat and cool homes, generate electricity and keep industry churning.

The Group of Seven major world powers are warning Russia they will keep ramping up sanctions until its troops leave Ukraine and that those responsible for alleged war crimes will be prosecuted.

G7 foreign ministers vowed Thursday to “sustain and increase pressure on Russia by imposing coordinated additional restrictive measures to effectively thwart Russian abilities to continue the aggression against Ukraine.”

Western nations have already slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia, including on President Vladimir Putin, his family and associates, but have been reluctant to hit the country’s energy sector.

The G7 ministers, meeting on the sidelines of NATO talks in Brussels, say they “are taking further steps to expedite plans to reduce our reliance on Russian energy, and will work together to this end.”

Following allegations this week of war crimes in the city of Bucha, the ministers insist that “those responsible for these heinous acts and atrocities, including any attacks targeting civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure, will be held accountable and prosecuted.”

They also repeated warnings about the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, saying that “any use by Russia of such a weapon would be unacceptable and result in severe consequences.”

Russia’s top diplomat has accused Ukraine of derailing talks with Moscow by changing its negotiating stance.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Ukraine had walked back its proposal that international guarantees of its security don’t apply to Crimea.

Russian annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 and wants Ukraine to acknowledge Moscow’s sovereignty over it.

Lavrov also accused Ukraine of modifying a provision in a draft deal it had submitted earlier that said that military drills on Ukrainian territory could be organized with the consent of all guarantor countries, including Russia.

Lavrov added that Russia intends to continue the talks despite the Ukrainian “provocations.”

There was no immediate response to his claims from the Ukrainian government.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country needs anti-aircraft defense systems, artillery systems, munitions and armored vehicles to hold Russia’s invasion at bay.

“The sooner Ukraine receives this help, the more lives we can save in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in an address to Greek parliament Thursday.

Zelenskyy emphasized the destruction wrought on the southern port city of Mariupol, home to a sizeable Greek-Ukrainian community, and urged Greece to help prevent the same fate befalling Odesa, another Ukrainian port city with deep ties to Greece.

The Ukrainian president called for sanctions on all Russian banks and a ban on Russian ships from entering ports as a way of hindering Russia’s ability to finance the war.

“Russia is absolutely confident in its invincibility and that they could do whatever they want without going unpunished. We have to stop it. We must bring Russia to justice,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelensky's meeting with Ursula von der Leyen will take place in Kyiv, Zelensky's spokesman Serhiy Nikiforov said on April 7.

Three people had been killed by Russian artillery in the city of Balakliya in the region, reported Kyiv Independent quoting Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Synehubov

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is calling on members of the organization to provide more weapons for Ukraine and not just defensive anti-tank and anti-craft arms.

As NATO defense ministers gathered in Brussels on Thursday, Stoltenberg said “I have urged allies to provide further support of many different types of systems, both light weapons but also heavier weapons.”

Stoltenberg says that NATO countries, but not NATO as an organization, are supplying many kinds of arms and other support to Ukraine but that the 30 allies can do more.

Hundreds of Ukrainian refugees arriving daily have a message for family and friends in Europe: the fastest route to settle in the United States is booking a flight to Mexico.

A loose volunteer coalition, largely from Slavic churches in the western United States, is guiding hundreds of refugees daily from the airport in the Mexican border city of Tijuana to hotels, churches and shelters, where they wait two to four days for U.S officials to admit them on humanitarian parole. In less than two weeks, volunteers worked with U.S. and Mexican officials to build a remarkably efficient and expanding network to provide food, security, transportation, and shelter.

The volunteers, who wear blue and yellow badges to represent the Ukrainian flag but have no group name or leader, started a waiting list on notepads and later switched to a mobile app normally used to track church attendance. Ukrainians are told to report to a U.S. border crossing as their numbers approach, a system that organizers liken to waiting for a restaurant table.

The US on Wednesday (local time) threatened China with sanctions if it supports Russia's war in Ukraine.

The US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman at a hearing on "Restoring American Leadership in the Indo-Pacific", told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that 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 and that Beijing eyeing Taiwan should "take away the right lessons" from the sanctions imposed on Russia.

US President Joe Biden's top economic adviser has said that the US warned India against partnering too closely with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, BBC reported.

"Our message to the Indian government is that the costs and consequences for them of moving into a more explicit strategic alignment with Russia will be significant and long-term," White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told reporters.

"There are certainly areas where we have been disappointed by both China and India's decisions, in the context of the invasion," he added.

Ukraine braced for a climactic battle for control of the besieged country's industrial east after Russian forces withdrew from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup and intensify their offensive across the Donbas region, where authorities urged people to evacuate before time runs out.

The mayor of the southern port city of Mariupol said Wednesday that more than 5,000 civilians had been killed there. Meanwhile, in areas north of the capital, Ukrainian officials gathered evidence of Russian atrocities amid signs Moscow's troops killed people indiscriminately before retreating over the past several days.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the Russian military is building up its forces for a new offensive in the east, where the Kremlin has said its goal is to “liberate” the Donbas, Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland. Ukraine, too, was preparing for battle, he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is appealing to NATO to provide his war-torn country with weapons to help avoid further atrocities like those reported in the town of Bucha this week.

Arriving at NATO headquarters Thursday for talks with the military organization's foreign ministers, Kuleba said: “My agenda is very simple… it's weapons, weapons and weapons.”

Kuleba says that “we know how to fight. We know how to win. But without sustainable and sufficient supplies requested by Ukraine, these wins will be accompanied by enormous sacrifices.”

“The more weapons we get and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved.”

He urged Germany in particular to go further, and speed the dispatch of sorely needed equipment and arms, saying that “while Berlin has time, Kyiv doesn't.” 

The Russia-Ukraine conflict continued on Thursday as relevant parties are working to broker a peaceful solution.

On Wednesday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia and Ukraine are continuing negotiations but there remains a long way to go, stressing that Moscow would like Kiev to be more active during the negotiations.

The withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kiev region was to facilitate the peace talks, he told France's LCI broadcaster earlier in the day, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US is consistently building up its military biological potential in various regions of the world, taking advantage of gaps in international law, the Russian military has said.

Washington is creating biological laboratories in different countries and connecting them to a unified system, said Igor Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, Xinhua news agency reported.

In territories bordering Russia and China alone, there have been about 60 facilities modernised since 2005 with funding from the US military, he said at a meeting.

The UN General Assembly will vote Thursday on whether to suspend Russia from the UN's premier human rights body. The move was initiated by the United States in response to the discovery of hundreds of bodies after Russian troops withdrew from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, sparking calls for its forces to be tried for war crimes.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the call for Russia to be stripped of its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council in the wake of videos and photos of streets in the town of Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians.

The videos and reporting from the town have sparked global revulsion and calls for tougher sanctions on Russia, which has vehemently denied responsibility.

“We believe that the members of the Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine, and we believe that Russia needs to be held accountable,” Thomas-Greenfield said Monday.

A security guard for the British embassy in Berlin suspected of working for the Russian intelligence services has been charged with nine offences under the UK Official Secrets Act.

The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday said 57-year-old David Smith was extradited from Germany to the United Kingdom.

"David Ballantyne Smith, 57 (24.07.64), a British national who was living in Potsdam, Germany, is charged with nine offences under the Official Secrets Act 1911," the police said in a statement.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that she was working with G7 partners on new restrictions against more Russian banks over the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

"I am working with our G7 partners to crack down on more Russian banks and agree a clear timetable to eliminate our imports of Russian oil, gas and coal," Truss said, as quoted by The Telegraph.

The secretary also called on the G7 partners to close ports for Russian vessels and make Russian gold unavailable for the Russian government.

"We need to rebuild our international security architecture. We can no longer labour under outdated agreements with Russia that they blatantly disregard and undermine. The days of the NATO-Russia Founding Act are over," she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the government to formalise the cessation of Ukraine's trade with Russia, the presidential press service said in a statement.

The import and export operations between Ukraine and Russia have been completely terminated since the start of the conflict, the statement said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the talks between Ukraine and Russia will continue despite the evidence of "atrocities carried out by the Russian military", the Ukrinform news agency reported.

"In any case, we must find even small opportunities for the negotiation process. Without this, I think it is difficult to end the war," Zelensky was quoted as saying in an interview with Turkey's Haberturk television channel on Wednesday.

He emphasised the importance of the mediation mission of other countries, including Turkey, in the talks, Xinhua news agency reported.

The mayor of the besieged port city of Mariupol put the number of civilians killed there at more than 5,000 Wednesday, as Ukraine collected evidence of Russian atrocities on the outskirts of Kyiv and braced for what could become a climactic battle for control of the country's industrial east.

Ukrainian authorities continued gathering up the dead in ruined towns outside the capital amid telltale signs Moscow's troops killed civilians indiscriminately before retreating over the past several days.

In other developments, the U.S. and its Western allies moved to impose new sanctions against the Kremlin over what they branded war crimes.

The Biden administration has charged a Russian oligarch linked to the Kremlin with violating U.S. government sanctions, and disrupted a cybercrime operation that was launched by a Russian military intelligence agency, officials said Wednesday.

The actions came as the Justice Department said it was accelerating efforts to track down illicit Russian assets and as U.S. prosecutors helped European counterparts gather evidence on potential war crimes committed by Russia during its war on Ukraine.

FBI and Justice Department officials announced the moves on the same day that the U.S. separately revealed sanctions against the two adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and sanctions that blocked two key Russian banks.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned a House panel Wednesday that Russia's aggression in Eastern Europe will have “enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond.”

She added that the rising price of energy, metal, wheat and corn that Russia and Ukraine produce "is going to escalate inflationary pressures as well.”

Russia's invasion “including the atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainians in Bucha, are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront to the rules-based global order, and will have enormous economic repercussions for the world," she told the House Financial Services Committee.

Her remarks were part of her annual testimony on the state of the international financial system.

A powerful Republican Senator on Wednesday welcomed India’s condemnation of the killings of Ukrainian people in Bucha by the Russian army, terming it as the country’s “hardening of stance”. Amid India’s intensifying its outreach to the US Capitol, the Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus, Senator John Cornyn, who has so far been critical of India abstaining itself from the UN Security Council votes on the issue of Russia, welcomed India’s remarks on the issue.

“Welcome response by our friends: India condemns killings in Ukraine's Bucha in apparent hardening of stance,” Cornyn said in a tweet as he tagged a story of India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations T S Trimurti in which he condemned the Russian killings in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

Due to the “problematic” position taken by India on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the India-US bilateral relationship is “entering uncharted territory”, a top former official of the Trump Administration said Wednesday. Lisa Curtis, who was the Trump Administration’s point person for India during his four years of presidency, made the remark cautioning that in the absence of a course correction by New Delhi, it would become increasingly difficult for the two countries to expand their defence and security ties beyond a certain level.

“I think the US India relationship is entering uncharted territory. The issue of India's close ties with Russia has always been an irritant in the US-India partnership. But with Russia's unjustified and unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country, there are expectations that India would adjust its relationship with Russia,” Curtis told PTI in an interview.

The White House has announced a wide new slate of sanctions on Russia that includes first-time individual sanctions on the two adult daughters of President Vladimir Putin in response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Asked why the US was targeting Putin's daughters, a senior Biden administration official said the US thought they could be in control of some of their father's assets.

"We believe that many of Putin's assets are hidden with family members, and that's why we're targeting them," said the official who spoke on background to preview the new measures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lauded the "rich level of debate" in Lok Sabha on the Ukraine situation and evacuation of Indian citizens through Operation Ganga and said there is bipartisanship on matters of foreign policy which augurs well for India at the world stage. The Prime Minister, who made a series of tweets, said the government will leave no stone unturned to ensure people do not face any troubles in adverse situations.

"Over the last few days, Parliament has witnessed a healthy discussion on the situation in Ukraine and India's efforts to bring back our citizens through Operation Ganga. I am grateful to all MP colleagues who enriched this discussion with their views," PM Modi said.