As Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbour enters its third week, the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Turkey.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, stated ahead of his face-to-face meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that his expectations were “limited.” It comes after Ukraine accused Russia of committing a “war crime” by bombing a children’s hospital. The attack in Mariupol killed three people, including a child, according to officials.
According to the local mayor’s office, seventeen people were injured, including staff and patients. A building that once housed a maternity ward has been reduced to a shell, with a massive crater nearby. The Kremlin announced on Thursday that it would seek information from the Russian military about what had occurred.
Overnight, Russian strikes in north-eastern Ukraine claimed the lives of seven more people: four people, including two children, were killed near Kharkiv, and three people, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed on Okhtyrka in the Sumy region.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister announced that seven evacuation routes would open on Thursday, including routes out of Mariupol and Sumy.
Western officials, including the White House, have warned that Russia could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or stage a “false flag” operation, in which the other side is falsely blamed and a counter-attack is staged.
Moscow previously claimed that Ukrainian forces had transported 80 tonnes of ammonia to the country’s north-east, but provided no proof.
The US House of Representatives approved nearly $14 billion (£10.6 billion) in aid for Ukraine, as well as a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports. The bills must still pass the Senate, which is expected to vote on them later this week. Meanwhile, US Vice President Kamala Harris is in Poland, a day after the US rejected Poland’s plan to transfer its jet fleet to the US rather than to Ukraine directly.
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