Ukraine: Data by US agencies suggest that at least 7,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine and more than 14,000 have been injured in the war so far. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Russia to stop the military actions it started in Ukraine on February 24th. While Ukraine and the US hailed the ICJ’s verdict, Russia maintained that the Hague-based court ‘lacks jurisdiction to hear the case. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “a war criminal”.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues with devastating consequences for civilians. Railways ground to a halt in many places across Poland on Thursday, disrupting an important means of transport for Ukrainian refugees after what the transport minister said was a traffic control system outage impacting several countries. Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk said that identical faults in the traffic control systems, which are produced by a unit of French train maker.
A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development is warning that the conflict in Ukraine is likely to hinder access to food and fuel for many of the world’s most vulnerable people. The report notes that Russia accounted for nearly a third of wheat imports for Africa, or $3.7 billion, in 2018-2020, while 12%, worth $1.4 billion, came from Ukraine.
The report said initial assessments point to a “substantive reduction” in access to food and fuel despite efforts to prevent disruptions of supplies of key commodities such as wheat. Meanwhile, rising costs for shipping and for grains and other staple foods are pushing prices higher, hitting the poorest people the hardest, the report says. Air Serbia has cancelled flights to Russia. The Center for Transport Strategies said on Wednesday that flights to Russia cannot be booked on the airline’s site. Air Serbia was the last European airline that operated in Russia.