Ukrainian authorities have found a mass burial site of more than 440 bodies in the eastern city of Izium that was retaken from Russian forces, a regional police chief said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy compared the discovery to what happened in Bucha outside Kyiv earlier in the war, Reuters reported. “Russia is leaving death behind everywhere and must be held accountable,” he said.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin to face the international criminal court for war crimes in Ukraine. “That Putin has to lose this war and has to face his actions, that’s important to me,” he told German news channel Bild TV on Thursday.
Ukraine has lost almost 15% of its grain storage capacity during the war, threatening its role as a key food supplier to the world, a report says. The US government-backed Conflict Observatory said the Russians had seized 6.24 million tonnes of food storage capacity and destroyed another 2.25 million tonnes of capacity in their hands of Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported. As a result, farmers were running out of space to store their produce for shipment, which could discourage planting for the next crop, especially winter wheat, the report said.
Pope Francis said it was morally legitimate for countries to provide weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian aggression. “This is a political decision that can be moral, morally acceptable, if it is done under moral conditions… Self-defense is not only lawful, but also an expression of love for the motherland,” he said. “Someone who doesn’t defend himself, who doesn’t defend something, doesn’t love it. Those who defend [something] I love it.”
Vladimir Putin thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his “balanced” approach to the Ukraine crisis and criticized Washington’s “ugly” policies, in a meeting that followed a major setback for Moscow in battlefield Putin told his Chinese counterpart on Thursday: “We understand your questions and your concerns in this regard, and we will certainly provide a detailed explanation of our position on this issue during today’s meeting, although we have already spoken before”.
Germany will supply Ukraine with armored vehicles and additional rocket-launching systems, but not the battle tanks that Kyiv has long demanded, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht says. He said on Thursday that Soviet-made BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles would also go “very quickly” to Ukraine from Greece.
The 35-nation board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog approved a resolution demanding Russia end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Reuters reports. This Thursday’s resolution is the second on the Russian invasion of Ukraine approved by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
US President Joe Biden announced a new $600 million arms package for Ukraine, according to a White House memo sent to the State Department on Thursday. Reuters reports that the memo did not detail how the money would be used, but sources said it was expected to include munitions and more Himars rocket systems.
The US has imposed new sanctions on 22 Russian individuals and two Russian entities. Among the people is Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, who has led Russia’s efforts to deport thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia and forced the adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families. The entities include Task Force Rusich, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has fought alongside the Russian military in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian volunteer doctor captured by Russian forces during their deadly siege of Mariupol gave devastating testimony to US lawmakers on Thursday, recounting his experiences of torture, death and terror. Yuliia Paievska, who was arrested in the port city in March and held by Russian and pro-Russian forces for three months, spoke before the Helsinki Commission, a government agency set up in part to promote international human rights enforcement .