Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating a series of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces, including the fatal shooting of two unarmed civilians outside Kyiv, officials said Thursday. A security camera footage showing two Ukrainian civilians shot in the back by Russian soldiers near a car dealership outside of Kyiv on March 16th.
Russia faced mounting accusations of war crimes in Ukraine including forcing thousands of people into interrogation camps, as the number of refugees reported to have fled the conflict surpassed six million. Ukrainian forces successfully prevented an attempted Russian river crossing in the Donbas, the British defence ministry said in a regular Twitter bulletin on Friday. Images suggest that Russia has lost armoured manoeuvre elements of at least one battalion tactical group and the deployed pontoon bridging equipment, Britain said in its intelligence update.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Gazprom has reduced the booked capacity for gas transit through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point on May 13th to 60.8 million cubic metres (mcm) from the previously announced 65.7 mcm. Ukraine said it had damaged a Russian navy logistics ship near Snake Island, a small but strategic outpost in the Black Sea, while relatives of Ukrainian soldiers holed up in Mariupol’s besieged steelworks pleaded for them to be saved.
Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations will discuss how to alleviate food security concerns when they meet in Germany on Friday as fears mount that the war between Russia and Ukraine could further destabilise Moldova. The war in Ukraine is a “child rights crisis” where education is under attack, nearly 100 youngsters have been killed in just the last month, and millions more have been forced to flee their homes, the UN children’s agency said Thursday.