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The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet sank Thursday after Ukraine claimed to have launched a successful missile attack on it, forcing the crew to evacuate.
The Russian defense ministry said the Moskva warship had been "seriously damaged" and blamed the incident on a fire. U.S. and other Western officials could not confirm the cause of the fire.
The loss of the ship could prove a significant setback in the Russian forces' efforts in Ukraine's south and east, where a fierce battle for Mariupol is ongoing.
The head of the U.N. World Food Program offered a grim assessment of the situation in the city, saying people are being “starved to death” and predicting that the country’s humanitarian crisis will worsen as Russia intensifies its assault in the coming weeks.
- The International Red Cross says it’s rolling out its largest-ever cash assistance program to help more than 2 million people in Ukraine or those who have fled abroad cope with the fallout from Russia’s invasion.
- Russia has committed human rights abuses and broken international law in its invasion of Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has found.
- U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said there is no chance at the moment for a humanitarian cease-fire in Ukraine, as the United Nations had been seeking.
Russian finance minister to attend G-20 meeting virtually, Indonesia says
JAKARTA — G-20 host Indonesia said Thursday that Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov had confirmed he plans to virtually attend next week’s meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 major economies.
Indonesian finance ministry official Wempi Saputra also told a briefing that Jakarta was considering whether to invite Ukraine to the meeting, which will be held April 20 in Washington “to discuss the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on global economic conditions."
“We don’t have the capacity to not invite (any member),” Wempi said. “As the president, Indonesia has invited all members, and as of today, some have confirmed physical attendance and some virtual.”
The issue of Russia’s G-20 membership has split the group, with strong calls from Western nations for it to be excluded, but support for Moscow staying from members, including China.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russia should be expelled from the G-20, and warned that the United States would boycott some of the meetings if Russian officials show up.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner added his voice to Yellen’s in rejecting any form of cooperation with Russia at the G-20 level.
“Russia is at present not a country with which one can interact like in the past,” he said. “We assume that the G-20 will take place next week and we will send a clear political message.”
Moscow has said Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend the G-20 summit in Bali in November.
Indonesia, which will also host a G-20 finance meeting in July, has said Jakarta’s position was one of neutrality and it intended to use its group leadership to try to resolve global economic problems.
Two aid workers, 5 others killed in attack on charity's building in Mariupol
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief said he is deeply saddened by the deaths of two charity aid workers and their relatives who were killed in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol last month.
The two staffers for the Catholic charity organization Caritas Ukraine and five of their relatives were killed, likely March 15, when a tank fired at the organization’s building, Caritas said in a statement Tuesday.
Caritas said the information was just recently learned. Mariupol has been under assault by Russian forces for weeks. It was encircled and residents trapped. The head of the U.N. World Food Program told The Associated Press people there are being “starved to death.”
Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said Thursday that he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths and that the aid workers dedicated their lives to service.
“On behalf of the United Nations and the humanitarian community, I send our heartfelt condolences to their families and colleagues, and to those of the other civilians who were killed,” Griffiths said.
Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Aloysius John said the war must end.
“The international community must do the impossible to stop this massacre immediately. Peace must be given a chance,” he said in a statement.
Canadian soldiers heading to Poland to help with Ukrainian refugees
OTTAWA, Ontario — Canada is sending soldiers to Poland to help with the care, coordination and resettlement of Ukrainian refugees in Poland, including some who will come to Canada.
Defense Minister Anita Anand announced the deployment of up to 150 troops Thursday.
More than 2.6 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since the first Russian troops crossed into Ukraine on Feb. 24 and over 2 million more have fled into other surrounding countries.
Anand said the majority of the deployed troops will head to reception centers across Poland to help care for and register Ukrainian refugees.
Another group is being sent to help coordinate international aid efforts.
Canada has deployed hundreds of additional troops to Eastern Europe since Russia’s invasion as the NATO military alliance seeks to both support Ukraine and prevent the conflict from expanding into a broader war.
2 Republicans become first U.S. officials to visit Ukraine since war started
A pair of Republican lawmakers traveled to Kyiv on Thursday, making them the first U.S. officials known to have visited Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in late February.
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who shared photos of the trip, and Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana visited the Kyiv suburbs and mass graves in nearby Bucha. Daines said the world needed to see what Russian President Vladimir Putin has done.
“There is indisputable evidence of Putin’s war crimes everywhere—the images of shallow mass graves filled with civilians, women and children are heart wrenching,” Daines said in a statement. “America and the world need to know about Putin’s atrocities against the innocent people of Ukraine now, not after time has passed and the aftermath of evil and bloodshed have been cleaned up.”
3 Russians charged in alleged scheme that targeted U.S. lawmakers
Federal prosecutors have charged a high-ranking Putin-aligned Russian legislator and two of his staff members with operating a foreign influence and disinformation network in the U.S. that included attempts to sway members of Congress.
According to an indictment unsealed Thursday in federal court in New York City, Aleksander Babakov, the deputy chairman in the lower house of the Russian Parliament, and two of his aides, Aleksandr Nikolayevich Vorobev and Mikhail Alekseyevich Plisyuk, conspired to violate U.S. sanctions and recruited a New York-based American with experience in international relations and media to act as an unregistered agent of Russia to help them gain access to elected officials and affect U.S. policy toward Russia.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the alleged propaganda campaign was levied “to advance Russia’s malevolent political designs” against Ukraine, the U.S. and other countries.
“Today’s indictment demonstrates that Russia’s illegitimate actions against Ukraine extend beyond the battlefield, as political influencers under Russia’s control allegedly plotted to steer geopolitical change in Russia’s favor through surreptitious and illegal means in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West,” Williams said in a statement.
‘Russia wants to destroy Donbas,’ Zelenskyy says in address
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the 50th day of Russia’s full-scale attack on his country by hailing the heroism of Ukrainians.
“To put it mildly, nobody was sure that we would withhold. Everyone sympathized, many advised to leave the country, advised to practically surrender. But they did not know us,” Zelenskyy said.
He also noted that fighting has been going on in eastern Ukraine for eight years, since Russia annexed Crimea.
“During the 50 days of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, they showed that Donbas is the main target for Russia, that Russia wants to destroy Donbas,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what has been condemned as an unprovoked and unjustified assault.
Russian forces moved on the capital, Kyiv, but faced setbacks and then withdrew forces from around the capital — exposing what Ukrainian officials say are mass graves and dead civilians in territories that were held. Ukrainian and other officials have warned that Russia is posturing for an intensified offensive in the east of the country.
U.N. food chief says Mariupol is starving
KYIV, Ukraine — The head of the U.N. World Food Program said people are being “starved to death” in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and he predicted the country’s humanitarian crisis is likely to worsen as Russia intensifies its assault in the coming weeks.
World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley also warned in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press in Kyiv that Russia’s invasion of grain-exporting Ukraine risks destabilizing countries far from its shores and could trigger waves of migrants seeking better lives elsewhere.
The war, which began Feb. 24, is “devastating the people in Ukraine,” he said, lamenting the lack of access the food program and other aid organizations face in reaching those in need amid the conflict.
“I don’t see any of that easing up. I just don’t see it happening right now,” he said.
U.S. State Department eyes return to Ukraine when practical
The U.S. will re-establish a diplomatic presence in Ukraine as soon as it is safe and practical to do so, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday.
The U.S. moved diplomats out of Kyiv in February amid fears that an invasion was imminent, and a consular presence was kept in Lviv, a city in Ukraine’s west. The State Department later moved embassy operations to Poland.
Other countries also relocated staff members. The European Union said last week it would return diplomats to Kyiv. France said Thursday its embassy, currently in Lviv, would move to the Ukrainian capital.
"It is, of course, our goal to have a diplomatic presence re-established in Ukraine as soon as it would be safe and practical to have U.S. diplomats on the ground there," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said when he was asked about a possible move.
"But I would also hasten to add that the lack of a U.S. diplomatic presence, U.S. diplomatic officials, in Ukraine has in no way hampered our ability to coordinate and to consult with our Ukrainian partners," he said.
Death toll in Kramatorsk railway station attack rises to 59, Ukraine says
Two children who were injured in last week’s missile attack on a railway station in eastern Ukraine have died, bringing the death toll in the blast to 59, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.
The attack in Kramatorsk occurred as thousands of people were trying to flee ahead of an expected Russian offensive.
The attack sparked condemnation from international leaders and others and new accusations that Russian forces have committed war crimes.
Seven of the 59 dead were children, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.
NBC News has not independently confirmed the number of deaths. The Defense Department has said it assesses that Russia carried out the attack with a short-range ballistic missile. Russia has claimed it did not attack the station.
Russian warship sinks in Black Sea
LVIV, Ukraine — Russia's Defense Ministry said its warship Moskva sank in a stormy sea because of a fire started by "the detonation of ammunition."
Ukraine said it damaged the ship's hull with a missile strike.
“Due to damage to the hull received during the fire caused by the detonation of ammunition, the ship lost stability,” the ministry said in a statement. “The ship sank in a stormy sea.”