This article was last updated at 21:30 PM IST
Mariupol council says 350,000 still sheltering
- Blast destroys Mariupol theater used as refuge for hundreds
- UN Security Council emergency meeting scheduled for later on Thursday
Mariupol council says 350,000 still sheltering
The city council of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol has said more than 350,000 people are still taking shelter in the besieged city.
The authority said only about 30,000 people had left the city so far.
It also said work was ongoing to determine the number of possible casualties from the Wednesday bombing of a theater where many people were hiding as Russia continued to shell the city.
The search for survivors at the theater continued on Thursday. The building reportedly survived the impact for the most part, but the entrance was blocked by rubble.
Inside, hundreds of men, women and children, possibly up to 1,000 according to some officials, had ben sheltering.
Mariupol has represented the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the war, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to hide and take shelter in basements with no food, water or power for weeks
Ukrainian officials say 21 dead after shelling of eastern town
Local officials said shelling of the town of Merefa, outside the city of Kharkiv, killed at least 21 people and injured 25.
Regional prosecutors said artillery fire hit a school and a cultural center in Merefa.
Along with their statement, prosecutors shared an image showing a building of several stories that was destroyed in the middle with windows blown out and emergency workers combing through the wreckage.
Merefa Mayor Veniamin Sitov said the attack occurred just before dawn on Thursday.
Erdogan invites Putin for talks with Zelensky
Turskish President Recap Tayyip Erdogan is said to have offered to Vladimir Putin to host him and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for talks, according to his office. The offer was reportedly communicated to Putin during a phone call between the two leaders.
A Turkish government statement said Erdogan told Putin that agreement on certain issues could require a meeting between the leaders. Erdogan also told Putin that a lasting ceasefire could lead the way to a long-term solution, according to the statement.
Both Kiev and Moscow have expressed openness to having Turkey mediate the talks and offer security guarantees for a potential peace accord.
Canada to sanction Belarusian officials
Canada's government said it would impose sanctions on 22 senior officials of Belarus's Department of Defense, over their support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Just as Canada is imposing severe sanctions on the Russian regime, Belarusian leadership must also be held accountable for enabling and supporting Vladimir Putin's unprovoked attacks," Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement. "We will not hesitate to take further action."
It comes as diplomats at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva voiced outrage at Belarus for "enabling" Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
A wide range of countries decried Minsk's role in supporting Moscow's war, with US Ambassador Michele Taylor saying Belarus was now party to "a dangerous crisis which could irrevocably harm global security and that of every sovereign state."
'Kidnapped' Melitopol mayor was reportedly exchanged for 9 Russians
The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who Kyiv had said was abducted by Russian forces last week, has been freed, according to Ukrainian officials.
Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was released on Wednesday, Ukraine's presidential office said.
Local media reported, citing officials, that his release was in exchange for nine captured Russian conscripts.
Fedorov appeared in a video after his release, in which he thanked President Zelenskyy "for not letting me down."
Ukrainian lawmakers had said Russian forces abducted him because he had refused "to cooperate with the enemy."
European Space Agency confirms suspension of Mars mission
The European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed that it's indefinitely suspending its ExoMars rover mission with partner Roscosmos, Russia's state space corporation.
The ESA had previously said the mission was "very unlikely" due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We deeply deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression towards Ukraine," an ESA statement said. "While recognizing the impact on scientific exploration of space, ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states."
The ExoMars mission had already been pushed back from 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. It would have blasted off on a Russian Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan in September.
German police report 187,428 refugees arrived from Ukraine
German Interior Ministry said 187,428 people fleeing the war in Ukraine have arrived in Germany. "Most of them are women, children and old people," it added.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Berlin's central train station has become "something of a symbol of willingness to help" as he thanked volunteers who welcome refugees.
Steinmeier called on the federal, state and local governments in Germany to work together to help Ukrainian war refugees.
The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, said more than 100,000 people fled Ukraine over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of refugees since the war started to 3,169,897.
"Hour by hour, minute by minute, people are fleeing the terrifying reality of violence in Ukraine. Unless the conflict ends, this heart-breaking crisis is set to grow. We need peace, now," the UNHCR said.
According to the agency, six in 10 Ukrainian refugees crossed the Polish border, or some 1,916,445 people so far.
Ukrainian MP says dozens rescued from Mariupol theater
Ukrainian member of parliament Olga Stefanishyna said around 130 people were rescued from a theater in the port city of Mariupol after it was bombed on Wednesday.
"Good news that we need so urgently. The air raid shelter under the theatre of Mariupol has stood up to it. Around 130 people have already been saved," Stefanishyna said in a Facebook post.
"It's a miracle," she said, adding that the rescuers were still searching for more survivors.
Ukrainian authorities had said that over 1,000 people had been hiding in the theater's bomb shelter when a Russian airstrike hit.
HRW urges Ukraine to stop posting footage of Russian prisoners
Rights group Human Rights Watch called on Ukraine to stop publishing videos of captured Russian soldiers as it violated the Geneva conventions.
"The obligation to protect POWs (prisoners of war) from being objects of public curiosity, as well as protecting them from intimidation or humiliation, is part of the broader requirement to ensure their humane treatment and protect their families from harm," said HRW's senior legal advisor Aisling Reidy. "The Ukrainian authorities should stop posting these videos online."
HRW noted that it documented numerous violations and apparent war crimes by Russian forces, but stressed that Ukraine still had to uphold "clear obligations" of human rights.
"The violations by Russian forces are pervasive and widespread, causing intense civilian harm," Reidy said. "At the same time, Ukraine has clear obligations that it must uphold, including lawful treatment of POWs."
In a separate statement, HRW reported that Russian forces fired cluster munition rockets into the densely populated city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, killing and injuring several civilians in multiple attacks.
The rights group noted that cluster munitions are subject to an international treaty ban, citing its long-lasting danger to civilians.
Stoltenberg: NATO has 'responsibility' to prevent escalation
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is determined to stop the war in Ukraine from escalating further.
"NATO has a responsibility to prevent this conflict from escalating further. That would be even more dangerous and cause more suffering, deaths and destruction," Stoltenberg told a joint news conference in Berlin with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Stoltenberg and Scholz reiterated their support for Ukraine and sharply criticized Russian President Putin for the war.
"This is President Putin's war. He must stop the war, withdraw his forces and engage in diplomacy in good faith," Stoltenberg said.
UK says will deploy Sabre missile system in Poland
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said the UK will deploy its Sky Sabre missile system in Poland as NATO moves to bolster the security of its eastern flank.
"We are going to deploy the Sky Sabre medium-range, anti-air missile system to Poland with about 100 personnel to make sure that we stand alongside Poland, protecting her airspace from any further aggression by Russia," Wallace told a news conference, according to the Reuters news agency.
Wallace made the announcement during a trip to Warsaw.
Russia rejects ICJ order to halt invasion
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed an order by the United Nation's highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to suspend military action in Ukraine.
"We cannot take this decision into account," Peskov said, adding that both parties — Moscow and Kyiv — had to agree for the ruling to be implemented.
ICJ judges in The Hague announced their ruling a day earlier in a case raised by Ukraine to challenge the Russian invasion.
Rulings by the ICJ are binding, but the court has no executive means to implement them.
Search for Mariupol theater survivors underway
The bomb shelter underneath the drama theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol is said to have withstood a Russian airstrike, city officials said, adding that there may be survivors.
"The bomb shelter held. Now the rubble is being cleared. There are survivors. We don't know about the number of victims yet," mayoral adviser Petro Andrushchenko told Reuters.
Ukrainian lawmaker Serhiy Taruta wrote that some survivors had already emerged. "After a terrible night of uncertainty, on the morning of the 22nd day of the war finally good news from Mariupol! The bomb shelter has held," Taruta wrote.
"People are coming out alive!" adding that the removal of the rubble had begun.
Ukraine war a wall through Europe, Zelensky tells Bundestag
Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky spoke directly to Germany's lawmakers in a video call on Thursday. The address follows a series of appeals Zelenskyy had been making to world powers, seeking to drum up support after Russia invaded his country.
Zelenyky warned German MP's that Russia was trying to build a new wall against freedom.
"It's not a Berlin Wall, it is a wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb" dropped on Ukraine," he said.
"Dear Mr. Scholz, tear down this wall," Zelenykyy added, evoking US President Ronald Reagan's Cold War appeal to then Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Berlin in 1987.
The Ukrainian president previously addressed the Canadian parliament and the US Congress, calling for tougher economic sanctions on the Kremlin and enablers of the invasion.
Mariupol council will 'never forgive' theater attack
Ukraine claimed on Wednesday that Russia had destroyed a theater in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Russia disputed the claim, as it had with explosions last week at a maternity hospital, claiming that a Ukrainian nationalist regiment, the Azov Batallion was behind the attack.
A post on Telegram from the Mariupol local council appeared to suggest that as many as 1,000 people were sheltering inside.
"Today, the invaders destroyed the Drama Theater. A place, where more than a thousand people found refuge. We will never forgive this," the Mariupol local council said in a Telegram post.
The number of casualties from the incident is still not known.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister said that "the Russians could not have not known this was a civilian shelter. Satellite images of the building showed the words "children" written in Russian on either side of it, presumably in the hope that this could be seen by either pilots or artillery units.
Europeans are defying Putin by helping refugees, says migration expert
An expert on forced migration has told DW that Russian President Vladimir Putin's plan to "destabilize" Europe with an influx of refugees from war-torn Ukraine has failed.
Gerald Knaus, chairman of the European Stability Initiative, said: "I am sure that Vladimir Putin had the intention these people would destabilize Europe. A large number of refugees would scare the Europeans. And it's not happened. If the Europeans mobilize, they can defy his blackmail."
To give an idea of the magnitude of the migration following the conflict, Knaus used the influx of refugees in Europe in 2015 as an example, where "the big refugee movement in the Aegean, saw 1 million people" coming "from Turkey to Greece in 1 year. Now, 1 million people come from Ukraine to the EU in 1 week."
Japan: Sanctions on Russia needed
Japanese sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are necessary, even if they squeeze energy supplies.
That is the view of Taro Kono, a former defense chief and ex-foreign minister. Kono says Japan may one day need to call on allies to help it counter China.
"We need to tell the people in Japan that in order to protect ourselves we need to help the others too," Kono told the Reuters news agency. "If there is any aggression anywhere on this planet, we need to stop them."
Japan sees neighboring China as its primary national security threat, followed by North Korea and Russia.
Zelensky addresses Bundestag
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky spoke directly to Germany's lawmakers in a video call on Thursday. The address follows a series of appeals Zelenskyy had been making to world powers, seeking to drum up support after Russia invaded his country.
The Ukrainian president previously addressed the Canadian parliament and the US Congress, calling for tougher economic sanctions on the Kremlin and enablers of the invasion.
Mariupol council will 'never forgive' theater attack
Ukraine claimed on Wednesday that Russia had destroyed a theater in the besiged port city of Mariupol. Russia disputed the claim, as it had with explosions last week at a maternity hospital, claiming that a Ukrainian nationalist regiment, the Azov Batallion, was behind the attack.
A post on Telegram from the Mariupol local council appeared to suggest that as many as 1,000 people were sheltering inside.
"Today, the invaders destroyed the Drama Theater. A place, where more than a thousand people found refuge. We will never forgive this," the Mariupol local council said in a Telegram post.
The number of casualties from the incident is still not known.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister said that "the Russians could not have not known this was a civilian shelter. Satellite images of the building showed the words "children" written in Russian on either side of it, presumably in the hope that this could be seen by either pilots or artillery units.
Ukraine prosecutor general seeks punishment for 'war criminal' Putin
Ukraine's prosecutor general has welcomed the International Court of Justice's ruling for Russia to "immediately suspend" military operations in Ukraine.
Iryna Veneditktova told DW it as an "important first step" for Ukraine though "we understand that such decisions cannot stop the war, can't punish the people who are guilty in the deaths of Ukrainian citizens."
The prosecutor wants to eventually see proceedings brought against Russian "soldiers, their top management, and the main war criminal of the 21st century — President Putin" over the "brutal and aggressive war."
Japan: Sanctions on Russia needed
Japanese sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are necessary, even if they squeeze energy supplies.
That is the view of Taro Kono, a former defense chief and ex-foreign minister. Kono says Japan may one day need to call on allies to help it counter China.
"We need to tell the people in Japan that in order to protect ourselves we need to help the others too," Kono told the Reuters news agency. "If there is any aggression anywhere on this planet, we need to stop them."
Japan sees neighboring China as its primary national security threat, followed by North Korea and Russia.
Summary of Wednesday's events in Ukraine-Russia crisis
The United Kingdom, United States, Albania, France, Norway, and Ireland requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting, asking for it to take place on Thursday.
Ukraine accused Russia of bombing a theater in Mariupol. Hundreds of people were said to have been sheltering there at the time.
Prosecutors in France opened a war crime investigation into the death of Franco-Irish Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski.
The Kremlin said US President Joe Biden's characterization of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a war criminal was "unacceptable and unforgivable," the Tass news agency reported.
Russia released Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Europe would "suffer" over the sanctions it has imposed.
