Ukraine will never forgive the Russian troops responsible for alleged atrocities in Bucha, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, as the town near Kyiv marked the anniversary of its recapture after 33 days of occupation in 2022. The leaders of Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia travelled to Ukraine on Friday to take part in commemorative events, the Croatian government said.
Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join Nato, clearing the way for Helsinki to join the western defence alliance. The Turkish parliament was the last among the 30 members of the alliance to ratify Finland’s membership, after Hungary’s legislature approved a similar bill this week. Sweden’s Nato bid faces objections from Ankara over claims it is harbouring what it considers members of terrorist groups.
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, has said he has intensified talks with Russia about deploying tactical nuclear weapons in his country, alleging there were plans to invade Belarus from neighbouring Poland. Belarus had deployed a special forces contingent to its southern border with Ukraine “to prevent provocations”, he added.
The White House says it has new evidence that Russia is looking again to North Korea for weapons and munitions to fuel the war in Ukraine. “We also understand that Russia is seeking to send a delegation to North Korea and that Russia is offering North Korea food in exchange for munitions,” White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said “severe violations” of human rights and international humanitarian law have become “shockingly routine” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine was far higher than official figures show, Türk said in an address to the UN’s human rights council in Geneva, where he said Ukraine was a nation “struggling to survive” in the face of Russia’s invasion.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has encouraged the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to speak to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and learn first-hand Ukraine’s peace formula to help end Russia’s invasion. Sanchez, speaking at a news conference during his visit to China, said he had informed Xi that Spain supported Zelenskiy’s proposals, which include a demand to restore Ukraine’s territory to before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. A readout of the meeting from the Chinese side said Xi called for an end to a “cold war mentality” and to the pressure of “extreme” sanctions against Russia.
Russian authorities have arrested a US journalist working in the country and accused him of espionage, a charge that could carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Evan Gershkovich, a well-respected reporter from the Wall Street Journal, was detained on Wednesday during a reporting trip to the Urals city of Ekaterinburg.
The US is “deeply concerned” over Gershkovich’s detention. The state department “has been in direct touch” with the Russian government over the journalist’s detention, “including actively working to secure consular access” for him, the White House confirmed.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will chair a UN security council meeting in April when Russia assumes the international body’s presidency, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said. Russia’s coming UN security council presidency was “the worst joke ever for April Fool’s Day”, said Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning”.
Turkey’s parliament approved a bill on Thursday to allow Finland to join Nato, clearing the way for the country to become part of the western defence alliance as war rages in Ukraine. The Turkish parliament was the last among the 30 members of the alliance to ratify Finland’s membership after Hungary’s legislature approved a similar bill earlier this week.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has rejected charges brought against President Vladimir Putin by the international criminal court (ICC) for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children. The ICC issued an arrest warrant earlier this month for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children and their transfer from areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said Moscow will continue to give the US advance notice about its missile tests despite suspending participation in the New Start nuclear arms treaty, reversing a statement he made on Wednesday. The White House said on Tuesday that the US had told Russia it would cease exchanging certain data on its nuclear forces after Moscow’s refusal to do so.
Russian forces have had some success in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday evening, adding that their fighters were still holding on in a battle that has lasted several months. The regular update from US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War appeared to support this, saying: “Geolocated footage published on 28 and 29 March indicates that Russian forces advanced in southern and south-western Bakhmut.”
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to call up 147,000 Russian citizens for statutory military service as part of the country’s spring conscription campaign, Russian state media reported. The Russian leader last signed a routine conscription campaign in September, calling up 120,000 citizens for statutory service, the state-run Tass news agency said. The general staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation stated on Friday that it was not a second wave of mobilisation.
Some Ukrainian parents have been hiding their children in basements to prevent them from being taken, Ukrainian volunteers who have been evacuating civilians from the frontlines of the war with Russia have said. While parents have given different reasons, most volunteers have attributed the phenomenon to a combination of poverty and the psychological condition of the families, who have been living under bombing for months.
A Russian man who fled house arrest after being sentenced to jail for discrediting Russia in social media posts, following an investigation prompted by his daughter’s anti-war drawings, was arrested in Belarus, his lawyer said. Alexei Moskalyov, 54, was sentenced to two years for his criticism of Kremlin policies in social media posts. Police investigated him after his 13-year-old daughter, Maria, refused to participate in a patriotic class at her school and made drawings showing rockets being fired at a family standing under a Ukrainian flag and another that said “Glory to Ukraine!”.
Russian and Belarusian players will be allowed to compete at Wimbledon and the British grass-court tournaments this year after the All England Club (AELTC) and the LTA jointly opted to reverse their bans on players for this season’s events. Russian and Belarusian players will be required to sign neutrality agreements, which prohibit them from expressing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, receiving funding from the Russian or Belarusian state and being sponsored by organisations funded by their governments.
Ukrainian athletes will not be allowed to take part in qualifying events for the 2024 Paris Olympics if they have to compete against Russians, government minister Oleh Nemchinov has said. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations on Tuesday for the gradual return to international competition for Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals.
The International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, has hit back at criticism by some European governments – including Ukraine’s – of a plan for a full return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sport. “It is deplorable to see that some governments do not want to respect the majority within the Olympic movement and all stakeholders, nor the autonomy of sport,” Bach said on Thursday.
King Charles III has lauded the unity between the UK and Germany in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying “the scourge of war is back in Europe”. Both the UK and Germany had shown “vital leadership”, the king said in a bilingual speech in the Bundestag, praising Berlin’s decision to provide large military support to Ukraine as “remarkably courageous, important and appreciated”.