Russia-Ukraine live news: US wants Russia expelled from G20 | Russia-Ukraine war News
- The United States has announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s financial institutions, as well as Russian officials and their family members.
- Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says authorities would try to evacuate civilians trapped in Mariupol through 11 humanitarian corridors.
- The Red Cross has said it led more than 1,000 people to Zaporizhzhia in a convoy from the besieged Ukrainian city.
- The mayor of Mariupol says more than 5,000 civilians have been killed to date.
Here are all the latest updates:
Ukraine war is descending towards ‘brutalisation’: expert
Jonathan Leader Maynard an expert on genocide and war crimes at King’s College in London has said that there is now evidence that the war in Ukraine is seeing an increasing “brutalisation.”
“To some extent all wars involve significant civilian suffering, but this kind of severe violations of the laws of war is not universal, it is specific to certain conflicts,” Maynard told Al Jazeera.
“The evidence so far would suggest that this has been much more widespread in areas of Russian occupation particularly against civilians but there have been a few isolated crimes that appears to show Ukrainian forces engaging in violations of the law of war as well,” Maynard said in reference to a recent video that emerged that appeared to show Ukrainian soldiers shooting a captured Russian soldier.
Putin’s daughters Katerina and Maria hiding president’s wealth: US officials
US officials have said that Putin’s two adult daughters, Katerina and Maria are hiding his wealth.
“We have reason to believe that Putin, and many of his cronies, and the oligarchs, hide their wealth, hide their assets, with family members that place their assets and their wealth in the US financial system, and also many other parts of the world,” a senior US administration official said.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members, and that’s why we’re targeting them,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Read more here.
More than 1,000 people evacuated to Zaporizhzhia: Red Cross
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team says it has led a convoy of buses and private cars carrying more than 1,000 people to Zaporizhzhia after the civilians fled Mariupol on their own.
“This convoy’s arrival to Zaporizhzhia is a huge relief for hundreds of people who have suffered immensely and are now in a safer location,” Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Ukraine, said in a statement.
“It’s clear, though, that thousands more civilians trapped inside Mariupol need safe passage out and aid to come in.”
US treasury secretary says Biden wants Russia out of G20
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that Russia’s aggression will have “enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond” and that President Joe Biden wants Moscow expelled from the Group of 20.
“President Biden’s made it clear, and I certainly agree with him, that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in any of the financial institutions,” Yellen said. “He’s asked that Russia be removed from the G20, and I’ve made clear to my colleagues in Indonesia that we will not be participating in a number of meetings if the Russians are there.”
Her comments at a US House Financial Services Committee hearing raised questions about the future of the G20, which has been the premier global economic and policy forum since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Read more here.
US sanctioning relatives of Russian officials in push to seize assets: White House
The US is imposing sanctions on the relatives of Russian officials to prevent them from concealing their assets, the White House has said.
Washington has imposed sanctions on Putin’s two adult daughters as well as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter.
“We’ve seen a pattern over time [that] President Putin and Russian oligarchs stash assets and resources in the bank accounts of their family members. And so, this was an effort to get at those assets, and that’s why these individuals were sanctioned,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
FBI says it disrupted Russian hackers
US officials have said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) disrupted thousands of routers and firewall appliances away from Russian military hackers.
“Fortunately, we were able to disrupt this botnet before it could be used,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
An unsealed and redacted affidavit described the unusual operation as a pre-emptive move to stop Russian hackers from mobilising the compromised devices into a “botnet” – a network of hacked computers that can bombard other servers with rogue traffic.
Boston Marathon restricts Russian and Belarusian runners
The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) has said that Russian and Belarusian athletes who were accepted through open registration to the Boston Marathon and reside in their home countries will not be allowed to compete in this month’s event.
“We are horrified and outraged by what we have seen and learned from the reporting in Ukraine,” BAA President and CEO Tom Grilk said in a statement. “We believe that running is a global sport and, as such, we must do what we can to show our support to the people of Ukraine.”
Runners who are Russian and Belarusian citizens but reside outside either country will be permitted to compete but not under the Russian or Belarusian flag.
Russia faces ‘genocide’ charge, but experts urge caution
Images of corpses lining the streets and bodies stuffed into plastic bags in Bucha, near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, have shaken the world, raising calls for credible investigations and accountability.
But the explosive “genocide” charge levied by Ukrainian and foreign government officials against Russia over the killings has proven contentious.
Legal experts say it is too early to determine whether genocide has occurred in Ukraine, stressing that while the term is politically damning, other human rights violations are also serious and should not be ignored.
Read more here.
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Read all the updates from Wednesday, April 6 here.
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