The governor of the Odessa region, Maksym Marchenko, said that the Ukrainians hit the Moskva guided missile cruiser with two missiles and caused “serious damage”. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that the ship was damaged, but not that it was hit by Ukraine – said that ammunition on the ship was fired as a result of fire for unknown reasons. The entire crew was evacuated, he added. the cruiser usually has about 500 passengers. If confirmed, the sinking of the cruiser would be a major blow to Russia, as the tanker Orsk was hit and set on fire in an attack on Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov late last month. The alleged attack on a ship by Neptune cruise missiles came a day after President Joe Biden called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “genocide” and approved new $ 800 million military aid to Kyiv, saying Western weapons had kept the fight going. Ukraine so far and “we can not rest now.” Ammunition includes artillery systems, armored personnel carriers and helicopters. Russia invaded on February 24 with the aim, according to Western officials, of occupying Kyiv, overthrowing the government and establishing a Moscow-friendly replacement. But the land advance slowly stopped and Russia may have lost thousands of fighters. The conflict has killed countless Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee. It also shook the world economy, threatened global food supplies and upset the balance of power in Europe after the Cold War. The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia showed their support for Ukraine during a visit to war-torn areas on Wednesday and demanded accountability for what they called war crimes. They met with their counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and visited Borodyanka, one of the cities near Kyiv, where elements of atrocities were found after the withdrawal of Russian troops to focus on the east of the country. “There is no doubt that they committed war crimes. “And for that, they have to be accountable,” said Latvian President Egils Levic. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda added: “The struggle for the future of Europe is happening here.” He called for tougher sanctions, including against Russian oil and gas shipments and all banks in the country. In one of the most critical battles of the war in the southern port of Mariupol, the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General. Igor Konashenkov said 1,026 soldiers from the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade had been handed over to a metal factory. However, Vadim Denishenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, denied the allegations, telling Current Time TV that “the battle for the port is still going on today.” Russian troops are preparing for a major offensive in the eastern Donbass region, where allied Moscow separatists and Ukrainian forces have been fighting since 2014. Mariupol is a key part of the Russian campaign and is located in Donbass, for which the Russians have struck. weeks. It was not clear when a surrender might have taken place or how many forces were still defending Mariupol. Russian state television broadcast Wednesday footage from Mariupol showing dozens of men in camouflage walking with their hands up and carrying others on stretchers or chairs. A man was holding a white flag. In the background was a tall industrial building with its windows broken and its roof missing, which was recognized by the television station as the Iliich Metallurgy. A UN action group has warned that war threatens to destroy the economies of many developing countries, which face even higher food and energy costs and increasingly difficult economic conditions. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the war “over-indebted” a food, energy and funding crisis in poorer countries already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and lack of access to funding. In his overnight speech, Zelensky noted that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court visited the Bucha suburb of Kiev, which was controlled by Russian forces until recently and where evidence of mass killings and more than 400 bodies were found. “It is inevitable that Russian troops will be held accountable. “We will bring everyone to justice, and not just for what happened in Bucha,” Zelenski said late Wednesday. He also said that work was continuing to clear tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance, mines and cables left in northern Ukraine by the departing Russians. He urged people returning home to be aware of any unknown objects and report them to the police. Also Wednesday, a report commissioned by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe found “clear patterns of (international humanitarian law) violations by Russian forces in conducting hostilities.” It was written by experts selected by Ukraine and published by the Vienna-based organization that promotes security and human rights. The report said there were also violations by Ukraine, but concluded that those committed by Russia “are much larger in scale and nature.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that his troops committed atrocities, saying on Tuesday that Moscow “had no choice but to invade” and would “continue until it has completed its duties and fulfilled its duties.” He insisted that Russia’s campaign was going well despite the long withdrawal, as its forces failed to occupy the capital and suffered heavy casualties.
Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington and AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.
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