It S Just Past 11 P.M. In Kyiv. Here S What You Need To Know.

According to an EU source, there is an agreement to approve this package very soon, but there are many technical questions, which “are normal as it is a very dense package”, according to the source. Meanwhile, the United States has also announced a new round of sanctions, including targeting the adult daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and major Russian financial institutions. On the ground in Ukraine, the number of civilian casualties continues to rise. If you’re just reading now, here’s what you need to know today: Civilian casualties: At least 1,563 civilians have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The UN agency has so far recorded 3,776 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 1,563 killed and 2,213 injured, it said in its latest update released on Wednesday. In Kyiv, at least 89 people were killed, including four children, and 167 houses were damaged since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Kyiv city administration said in a statement on a verified Telegram page on Wednesday. Another 398 people, including 20 children, were injured in the war.
Since February 24, Russian troops have destroyed 44 schools in Kiev, 11 administrative buildings, 26 kindergartens and an orphanage. The administration urged its residents not to lose vigilance and to resort to the first signs of air alarms.
On the ground: The city of Sheverodonetsk has been heavily bombed, the head of the Luhansk region military administration said on Wednesday, adding that 10 high-rise buildings in the city were burning. “The Russians fired on Sheverodonetsk – 10 high-rise buildings are burning,” Governor Serhiy Haidai told the Telegram. “Information for victims is being clarified.” Although the bombing did not affect any strategic or military installations, it did hit a factory workshop in Lysychansk and a house in Rubizhne, Haidai said. Russian forces had hit towns and villages in the Luhansk region a total of 81 times last night, Haidai added. The United States estimates that Russian forces have withdrawn completely from areas near Kyiv and Chernihiv to “relocate and resettle in Belarus and Russia,” according to a senior U.S. defense official. The official also said that Russia has not “insured” Mariupol despite the isolation of the city. Russia has now fired more than 1,450 missiles at Ukraine since the invasion, the official said. The NATO chief predicts that the conflict in Ukraine will continue “for a long time”: Although Russia is now focusing its attack on eastern Ukraine, NATO has seen “no indication” that Putin’s goal is to control the entire country has changed, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO allies’s foreign ministers in Brussels, Stoltenberg also warned that the war in Ukraine could last for years. “We have not seen any indication that President Putin has changed his ambition to control the whole of Ukraine and also to rewrite the international order, so we must be prepared for the long term,” he said. “We have to be realistic and realize that this can take a long time, many months or even years.” NATO foreign ministers are meeting Wednesday and Thursday to discuss stepping up support for Ukraine. Sanctions: The United States is taking additional steps to increase financial pressure on Russia and Putin following horrific images from the Ukrainian city of Bucha, announcing new sanctions on Wednesday on Russian financial institutions and some people, including Putin’s adult daughters. and the wife and daughter of his foreign minister. “Today we are dramatically escalating the financial shock by imposing full foreclosure sanctions on Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, and its largest private bank, Alfa Bank,” a senior administration official told reporters. Sberbank owns almost a third of the total assets of the Russian banking sector, the official said, adding that the United States has now completely blocked “more than two-thirds of the Russian banking sector.”
Second, the senior official said: “In line with the G7 and the EU, we are announcing a ban on new investment in Russia.” This will be implemented by an executive decree signed by US President Joe Biden. The United States will not attend the G20 summit in which Russia participates, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday. Speaking to Parliament’s Financial Services Committee, Yellen said she had clarified this position to other finance ministers in the group.