Ukraine war highlights: 4,892 evacuated from Ukrainian cities on Wednesday

A small number of Ukrainian soldiers are receiving training in the US to operate Switchblade drones, news agency AFP reported on Thursday citing a Pentagon official. 

Ukraine wants sanctions that are economically destructive enough for Russia to end the ongoing war. In his daily video address early Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the democratic world must reject Russian oil and block Russian banks from the international finance system.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Wednesday that 4,892 evacuated from Ukrainian cities during the day.

Russian lawmakers introduced a bill in the lower parliament house that would tighten already harsh restrictions on media outlets in the country and their coverage of Ukraine war. 

Russia said Wednesday it had been forced to make foreign debt payments on dollar-denominated bonds in rubles, raising the prospect of a potential default amid unprecedented Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

The announcement came on the 42nd day of Russia's military campaign in pro-Western Ukraine, with thousands killed and more than 11 million having fled their homes or the country in the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Dragging trolleys and clutching plastic bags with their meagre belongings, residents of the northeastern Ukrainian town of Derhachi, near the border with Russia, boarded buses on Wednesday to be evacuated as fears of a Russian assault grew, news agency Reuters reported.

Since pulling back from outside the capital Kyiv last week, Russian forces have shifted their assault towards Ukraine's south and east.

Ukraine's general staff said the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the country's second-largest, remained under attack on Wednesday, and authorities expect Russian forces to launch a full-blown assault soon to try to take the city.

NATO would quickly welcome Finland and Sweden into its ranks with open arms if they decided to apply, the military alliance’s top civilian official said Wednesday, as Russia’s war on Ukraine spurs public support in the two Nordic countries for membership.

The European Commission has proposed a ban on Russian coal imports as part of a sweeping new package of sanctions on Moscow, and EU officials say oil could be next.

The coal ban, if approved by member states, would be the European Union's first on any energy import from Russia since it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Calls for the EU to sanction oil and possibly gas have gained impetus this week in response to civilian killings that Ukraine and its allies have called war crimes.

Here's what an EU oil embargo would mean.

US sanctions Putin's two adult daughters, toughens penalties on Russian banks in retaliation for 'war crimes' in Ukraine.

Russia's foreign ministry reserves the right to take steps against YouTube after it blocked Russian government channels, the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday as per news agency Reuters.

The German government said on Wednesday that satellite pictures from last month provided strong counterevidence against Russian denials of involvement in civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, AFP reported.

Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters that the "evaluation of satellite images" led Berlin to conclude that "Russian declarations" that images of civilian deaths "were posed scenes or that they were not responsible for the murders are in our view not tenable".

UN General Assembly to vote Thursday on suspending Russia from Human Rights Council, reports AFP.

The sight of tied bodies shot at close range in the Ukrainian streets of Bucha do not "look far short of genocide," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.

The deaths in Bucha, outside Kyiv, have triggered a global outcry and pledges of further sanctions against Russia from the West.

Refugees fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion are set to receive a new source of support from Europe’s debt market, news agency Reuters reported. The Council of Europe Development Bank is raising $1.1 billion via social inclusion bonds to aid countries taking in large numbers of refugees, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The offering dwarfs the almost 2.6 million euros of additional grants already handed to its member states to help them deal with the massive displacement of people from Ukraine. It had earlier approved a 150,000 euro grant to the International Organization for Migration Slovakia to support refugees and third country nationals from Ukraine.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday told Lok Sabha that India is in touch with Ukraine's neighbouring countries Hungary, Romania, Kazakhstan and Poland to help the evacuated medical students from the war-torn country to pursue their studies.

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Pope Francis on Wednesday hit out at the "ever more horrendous cruelty" in Ukraine, after the murder of civilians in the town of Bucha near the capital, news agency AFP reported.

"The recent news about the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, instead attests to new atrocities, such as the Bucha massacre," the pope said during his weekly general audience at the Vatican.

"Ever more horrendous cruelties, also perpetrated against defenceless civilians, women and children. These are victims whose innocent blood cries out to heaven and begs for mercy," he said.

Withdrawal of Russian forces from Kiev region is gesture of goodwill to create conditions for negotiations, during which serious decisions are possible, says Kremlin, reports Russian media RT as per news agency ANI.

Russia has no contact with NATO as Moscow and the alliance have nothing to discuss at the moment, the TASS news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying on Wednesday.

Netherlands government has announced that it has seized 14 Russian yachts, reports AFP.

A car has crashed into the gate of the Russian Embassy in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, bursting into flames and killing the driver, AP reports quoting police.

The European Commission proposed sweeping new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday including banning coal imports and halting trade worth nearly 20 billion euros ($22 billion) in retaliation over possible war crimes in Ukraine.

The proposals include banning imports of coal, wood, cement, liquors and seafood worth about 9.5 billion euros.

Russia supplied 8,500 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes to Ukraine, reports Russia's media outlet Sputnik.

The New Zealand government said it was introducing a 35% tariff on all imports from Russia and would extend the existing export prohibitions to industrial products closely connected to strategic Russian industries.

"The images and reports emerging of atrocities committed against civilians in Bucha and other regions of Ukraine is abhorrent and reprehensible, and New Zealand continues to respond to Putin’s mindless acts of aggression," Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement.

The US will provide $100 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, announced Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, as reported by AFP.

"I have authorized... security assistance valued at up to $100 million to meet Ukraine’s urgent need for additional anti-armor systems," said Blinken.