Coverage on this live blog has ended, please click here for the latest developments.
The U.S. has announced new sanctions against Russia and said it would welcome 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine as President Joe Biden met with world leaders for a series of emergency summits.
The war has caused a humanitarian and refugee crisis, with more than 10 million people displaced, including 4.3 million children — more than half of the country's child population, according to the U.N.
Biden said Thursday that Russia should be removed from the G-20, the group that represents 20 of the world's largest economies, as Western allies gathered in Europe to discuss new support for Kyiv.
That includes imposing further punishment on Moscow one month after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged an increase in military aid for his country in an address at the NATO summit in Brussels via video link. His ability to rally countries to Kyiv’s cause in video messages from the capital has served as a symbol of Ukraine’s defiant defense and Russia’s struggling advance.
Biden and U.S. allies were also set to discuss moves to bolster NATO’s eastern flank and how to counter the prospect of escalation from the Kremlin amid fears of a chemical or even nuclear attack.
The White House has established a team of national security officials to plan scenarios should Putin use chemical weapons, a senior administration official said.
More than half of Ukraine's children displaced by war, UNICEF says
More than half of the children in Ukraine have been displaced in the month since Russian forces attacked and invaded the country, UNICEF said Thursday.
A total of more than 4.3 million children have been displaced — more than 1.8 million as refugees to neighboring countries and 2.5 million within Ukraine, the agency said. Ukraine has an estimated child population of 7.5 million, it said.
“The war has caused one of the fastest large-scale displacements of children since World War II,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
Russia's invasion on Feb. 24 has caused a humanitarian crisis. More than 10 million people of all ages have fled the country or been displaced internally, another U.N. agency, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in an update Thursday.
The U.S. has assessed that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week, citing credible reports of attacks targeting civilians. Russia has denied targeting civilians. The World Health Organization says there have been 64 verified attacks on health care in Ukraine, with 15 deaths and 37 injuries.
"That is 2–3 attacks per day. WHO condemns these attacks in the strongest possible terms," the agency said. Attacks on health care is a violation of international law, it said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 128 children have been killed since Russia attacked. The U.N. human rights office has recorded 1,035 civilians killed, 90 of whom were children — but it says the real figures are higher, and many reports are delayed by fighting or pending further corroboration.
U.S. ambassador urges Mexico to side with Ukraine
MEXICO CITY — The U.S. ambassador to Mexico on Thursday urged Mexican lawmakers to join the United States in supporting Kyiv against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a day after his Russian counterpart encouraged Mexico to defy “Uncle Sam.”
“The Russian ambassador was here yesterday making a lot of noise about how Mexico and Russia are so close. This, sorry, can never happen. It can never happen,” U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said in remarks at Mexico’s lower house of Congress on Thursday.
“We have to be in solidarity with Ukraine and against Russia,” he said, before invoking the history of World War II.
“I remember very well that during the Second World War there was no distance between Mexico and the United States, both were united against what Hitler was doing,” he added.
Read the full story here.
Zelenskyy urges E.U.: Don't be 'too late' on Ukraine membership
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told European Union leaders on Thursday that his country needs to be a part of the union and said, "I am asking you to not be too late."
Zelenskyy has submitted an application to the E.U. to grant Ukraine immediate membership.
Speaking a month to the day after of Russia attacked and invaded, Zelenskyy listed atrocities he said were committed by Russian forces, including the killings f 128 children and the intentional bombings of hospitals and shelters.
The E.U. has imposed sanctions on Russia. Zelenskyy thanked members for what he called strong steps, but he said they came after Russia invaded on Feb. 24 and failed to prevent the attack.
"Now we are preparing the membership of Ukraine in the European Union. Finally. And here I am asking you to not be too late," Zelenskyy told the European Council, which is made up of presidents and prime ministers of member countries.
Ukraine says shelling preventing staff rotation at Chernobyl
Ukrainian officials have reported that Russian shelling is preventing staff rotations at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in what the International Atomic Energy Agency director called a concerning development.
The shelling was reported in the city of Slavutych, where many workers at the plant live, the IAEA said.
It was only recently that staff at Chernobyl, which was seized by Russian forces on the first day of the invasion, were able to rotate out after working for almost four weeks, the IAEA said.
An environmental lab was also reported looted, its equipment stolen and environmental samples unaccounted for, but the IAEA said based on the information provided "the IAEA assesses that the incident does not pose a significant radiological risk." It is trying to learn more.
Chernobyl, near Ukraine's border with Belarus, was the site of a deadly 1986 nuclear disaster. An explosion and fire released radiation into the atmosphere. A large exclusion zone surrounds the damaged reactor and a nearby town.
More than 2,700 able to leave besieged Mariupol, Ukrainian official says
More than 2,700 people were able to leave the battered southern city of Mariupol on Thursday, but Russian forces are still not allowing a humanitarian convoy to enter, Ukraine's deputy prime minister said.
The 2,717 people left Mariupol in their own vehicles, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said through the Telegram app.
An effort to evacuate people from Melitopol, which is also in southern Ukraine, failed, Vereshchuk said. Melitopol has been occupied by Russian troops, and Mariupol is blockaded. Ukrainian officials have said 90 percent of Mariupol has been destroyed.
In a video address to NATO on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named those cities and said, "Russia is keeping hundreds of thousands of people hostage and artificially creating famine — no water, no food, nothing there."
The U.S. has assessed that Russian forces have committed war crimes in the country's invasion and continued attack against Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. He mentioned Mariupol, where a maternity hospital and a theater sheltering civilians were attacked, in making the announcement. Officials in Mariupol have said more than 2,400 civilians have been killed in the city alone, Blinken said.
Ukraine, Russia exchanged dozens of military and civilian prisoners, Ukraine official says
LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 50 military and civilian prisoners Thursday.
Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media that Ukraine exchanged 10 “captured occupiers” for 10 Ukrainian troops.
She also said that Ukraine had handed over 11 civilian Russian sailors who Ukraine had rescued from a sinking ship off Odesa, in return for 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors from a Ukrainian search and rescue boat. The boat will also be returned via Turkey, she said.
There have previously been reports of local prisoner exchanges on a smaller scale than those announced by Vereshchuk. They included a swap of nine Russian soldiers for a captured Ukrainian mayor. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday two prisoner swaps had taken place but didn’t provide details of when they happened or who was involved.
