US and its allies to ban new Russia investments
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the UN Security Council that the Russian military must be brought to justice for “war crimes“.
- Russia calls the allegations a “monstrous forgery” aimed at denigrating the Russian army.
- The White House has said Washington and its allies are preparing to issue additional sanctions against Moscow, including a ban on new Russian investments.
- The European Commission also proposes more sanctions, including a ban on coal imports from Russia.
- Ukraine says people have only been able to flee the besieged city of Mariupol by private car or on foot, as wider evacuation efforts continue to fail.
Here are all the latest updates:
New York Jets to donate $1mn to assist Ukraine
The New York Jets, the famed American football team, has announced a $1mn donation to help aid the people of Ukraine.
The donation will be split between several organisations over the next year, with each receiving $100,000.
“I wanted to do my part in helping and to bring awareness because this is a problem that’s not going to go away,” said Suzanne Johnson the wife of team owner Woody Johnson and whose mother was born to Ukrainian immigrant.
“The money, they’re going to need for a long time for rebuilding and for the aid. It’s going to be there. So I just hope we could start something going. The world has been quite generous and I just hope it continues to be that way.”
Some civilians allowed to leave Mariupol
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says Russian troops have allowed 1,496 civilians to evacuate the besieged city of Mariupol by private vehicle.
Vereshchuk said the Russian forces stopped buses accompanied by workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross from travelling to the Sea of Azov port, but that civilians who were able to leave in their personal vehicles travelled to Zaporizhzhia.
ICC investigation to take a long time, former US official says
A former Obama administration official specialised in war crimes has said any International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into alleged crimes committed in Ukraine will take a long time, unless more effort is put in by Western powers.
“The ICC has only 71 investigators and 16 analysts for 15 countries,” Stephen Rapp, who served as the US ambassador-at-large on war crimes under ex-President Barack Obama, told Al Jazeera from Miami.
“There needs to be hundreds of individuals provided by Western law enforcement agencies to come in and work with [the ICC],” he said. “And then support civil society organisations that are also employed in order to really have the evidence that’s needed.”
US to tap Asia for more natural gas to help Europe break from Russia
The US will continue to explore ways to help Europe wean itself off Russian energy supplies, the White House has said, including asking Asian countries to supply more liquified natural gas (LNG) to the region.
“One of the steps we’ve taken successfully, which we will continue to build on, is to tap into countries in Asia who have LNG, excess LNG capacity, to provide that to Europe,” Psaki told reporters.
Russia is the world’s largest supplier of LNG, accounting for about 45 percent of the European Union’s imports in 2021.
Lviv honours the dead with candlelit vigil
Hundreds of yellow and blue candles have been lit in a central square in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to honour civilians killed in the Russian invasion of the country.
“So we want just to pray for their soul and at the same time we want to pray for Ukraine,” Svitlana Shkulova, 54, from Kyiv told The Associated Press news agency. “We hope that our nation will win this war.”
The vigil in Lviv was preceded by a religious service performed by leaders of various Christian denominations.
US Secretary of State arrives in Brussels
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has landed in Belgium’s capital ahead of a NATO meeting of foreign ministers.
Earlier on Tuesday Blinken said the killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha were part of a deliberate Russian campaign to commit atrocities.
“What we’ve seen in Bucha is not the random act of a rogue unit,” he said. “It’s a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities. The reports are more than credible, the evidence is there for the world to see.”
No casualties reported after explosions in Lviv, local officials say
No casualties have been reported following explosions in the Lviv region of western Ukraine, local officials said.
“Explosions near Radekhiv,” regional governor Maksim Kositsky said on Telegram, referring to a town about 70km (40 miles) northeast of Lviv. “Everybody must remain in shelters.”
A short while later he said in another post: “As of this hour, there is no information on victims.”
Nearly 4,000 people evacuated from Ukrainian cities on Tuesday: Official
A total of 3,846 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Tuesday, Vereshchuk said in an online post.
That is slightly more than the 3,376 who escaped on Monday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said.
Ukraine says people can still only flee Mariupol by car or on foot
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said that people are still only able to flee the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol on foot or by private car.
Efforts to organise mass evacuations by bus to safer parts of Ukraine have so far failed, and efforts with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have repeatedly broken down.
In an online post, Vereshchuk said seven buses trying to get to Mariupol had not managed to make its way through a Russian blockade.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukrainian forces had “cynically disrupted” the evacuation effort, the TASS news agency cited a senior official as saying.
US to announce new sanctions on Russia: White House
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has said that the US will announce new sanctions on Russia on Wednesday, including a ban on all new investment in Russia.
“They will target Russian government officials, their family members, Russian owned financial institutions, also state-owned enterprises,” Psaki said during a news conference, about the upcoming measures.
“It’s part of the continuation of our efforts to put consequences, [to] hold Russian officials accountable.”
US providing Ukraine with protective chemical weapons gear: Official
A Biden administration official has said that the US is providing Ukraine with life-saving protective equipment that could be deployed if Russia were to use chemical and biological weapons.
The equipment and supplies, which were requested by Kyiv, are being delivered on a rolling basis and some has already been delivered, the unidentified official told the Reuters news agency.
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Read all the updates from Tuesday, April 5 here.
