Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that work has begun to dig through the rubble in Borodianka, another city northwest of Kyiv that was occupied by the Russians. He also said the situation in Borodianka is “significantly more dreadful” than in Bucha. The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over reports of “gross and systematic violations and abuses of human rights” by invading Russian troops in Ukraine.
The US-led push garnered 93 votes in favour, while 24 countries voted no and 58 countries abstained. The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is levying sanctions against Russia’s largest military shipbuilding and diamond mining companies. The move blocks their access to the US financial system as the United States looks to exact more economic pain on President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.
The International Energy Agency said Thursday that its member countries are releasing 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves on top of previous US pledges to take aim at energy prices that have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine. The Paris-based organisation says the new commitments made by its 31 member nations, which include the United States and much of Europe, amount to a total of 120 million barrels over six months, the largest release in the group’s history.
In the weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine and images of the devastation wrought there flooded the news, Hoan Ton-That, CEO of the facial recognition company Clear view AI, began thinking about how he could get involved. Moscow has previously acknowledged its attack has not progressed as quickly as it wanted, but on Thursday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov lamented the rising death toll.