Russia's war in Ukraine entered its third week on Thursday with none of its key objectives reached despite thousands of people killed, more than two million made refugees, and thousands forced to cower in besieged cities under relentless bombardment.
Ukrainian forces including citizen-soldiers who only last month never dreamed of firing a weapon in anger were holding out in Kyiv and other frontlines, while Russian troops, tanks and artillery made slow progress from the north, south and east.
HOSPITAL HIT
* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of genocide after Ukrainian officials said Russian aircraft bombed a children’s hospital on Wednesday, burying patients in rubble despite a ceasefire deal for people to flee Mariupol city.
* Local authorities say the hospital was hit several times, causing “colossal” destruction, and that 17 people were wounded.
* The White House condemned the hospital bombing as a “barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians”.
* A Kremlin spokesman said: “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets” and blamed Ukraine for the failure of a planned evacuation from Mariupol.
ESCAPE ROUTES
* Local officials said some civilians had left Sumy in the east and Enerhodar in the south through the safe corridors promised by Russia. But Russian forces were preventing buses from evacuating civilians from Bucha, a town outside the capital Kyiv, they said.
NUCLEAR POWER CONCERNS
* Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator said it was concerned for safety at Chernobyl, mothballed site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, after a power cut caused by the fighting. It warned of a potential radiation leak if the outage continued, although the UN nuclear watchdog saw no critical impact on safety.
* The watchdog said it had lost touch with remote monitoring systems at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where there were clashes and a fire last week. Both plants are being held by Russian forces.
SANCTIONS
* The Kremlin accused the United States of declaring an economic war on Russia that was sowing mayhem through energy markets, and said it was considering its response to a US ban on imports of Russian energy.
* The European Union announced more sanctions against oligarchs and lenders in Russia and Belarus.
* Rio Tinto, Nestle, Philip Morris and Sony joined the list of multinationals stepping back from Russia.
DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Turkey for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, but Kuleba said his expectations were “low”.
FOOD CRISIS
* With the conflict threatening grain production, a global food crisis deepened. Indonesia tightened curbs on palm oil exports, adding to a growing list of producers seeking to keep vital food supplies within their borders.
HUMANITARIAN TOLL
* The United Nations said it had verified 516 civilian deaths and 908 injuries since the conflict began, but the true toll was likely to be “considerably higher”.
* Over 2 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began, the UN said. EU officials say up to 5 million could leave if the conflict continues.
* Ukraine says its forces have killed more than 11,000 Russian troops. Russia has confirmed about 500 losses. Neither side has disclosed Ukrainian casualties.
AID
* The US Congress agreed to allocate $13.6 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine, alongside a separate package for pandemic relief.
* The International Monetary Fund is poised to approve $1.4 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine.
