Ukrainian seeks more weapons help

A Fox News journalist who was wounded in an attack outside Kyiv that left two colleagues dead described his injuries for the first time Thursday and paid tribute to colleagues.

The journalist, Benjamin Hall, said he had lost half of a leg, a foot and vision in one eye. One of his hands “is being put together,” and he lost much of his hearing, he said.

“But all in all I feel pretty damn lucky to be here — and it is the people who got me here who are amazing!” he said in a tweet that included a photo of himself in a hospital bed wearing an eye patch.

Hall also paid tribute to colleagues Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova and Pierre Zakrzewski, who were killed in the attack on their vehicle last month in Horenka.

Kuvshynova, 24, was a journalist working as a consultant with the network. Zakrzewski was a longtime war zone photographer whom Hall said he had traveled the world with.

“Working was his joy and his joy was infectious,” he said. “RIP.” 

According to a database maintained by the Committee to Protect Journalists, seven journalists are confirmed to have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. With each, “crossfire” is listed as the type of death.

BRUSSELS — European Union nations have approved new sanctions against Russia, including an EU embargo on coal imports in the wake of evidence of torture and killings emerging from war zones outside Kyiv.

The ban on coal imports will be the first EU sanctions targeting Russia’s lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine, said an official on condition of anonymity because the official announcement had not yet been made.

The EU ban on coal is estimated to be worth 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) per year. In the meantime, the EU has already started working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports.

Calling it a “grim milestone,” the World Health Organization said it has verified more than 100 attacks on health care in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February.

“We are outraged that attacks on health care are continuing. Attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

The 103 attacks — 89 affecting health facilities and 13 affecting transportation, such as ambulances — have killed 71 people, the WHO said in a statement. Another 51 have been injured.

Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. This week there have been new outrage and accusations that Russia has committed war crimes after photos and videos of corpses in civilian clothes found in the Kyiv-area town of Bucha emerged, as well as witness accounts of arbitrary executions of civilians by Russian forces.

A maternity hospital in Mariupol was attacked last month; the U.S. has cited that and other reported attacks on civilian targets in saying it has assessed that Russian forces have committed war crimes.

Russian has denied targeting civilians, and it has claimed that both the attack on the hospital and the horrific scenes in Bucha were “staged.”

President Joe Biden's administration Thursday provided an overview of its assistance to Ukraine, releasing a Defense Department fact sheet that outlines how the U.S. government is "enabling critical success on the battlefield against the Russian invading force."

"The Administration is working around the clock to fulfill Ukraine’s priority security assistance requests, delivering weapons from U.S. stocks when they are available, and facilitating the delivery of weapons by allies and partners when their systems better suit Ukraine’s needs," the fact sheet reads.

The fact sheet goes on to list various military technologies and weapons the U.S. government has "committed" to Ukraine, including more than 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, over 5,000 Javelin anti-armor systems, hundreds of Switchblade drones and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday the United Nations General Assembly's vote to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council was an "important step" in holding Vladimir Putin's government accountable for its alleged atrocities across Ukraine.

"Suspending RF’s participation in the #UNHCR is an important step," Zelenskyy said in a tweet, using an initialism for the Russian Federation. "This is another punishment for RF’s aggression against [Ukraine]."

"We must continue coordinated pressure on RF at all international forums," he added. "Let’s force Russia to seek peace together!"

The U.S.-led push to suspend Russia from the U.N. human rights body drew 93 votes in favor, while 24 countries voted no and 58 abstained.

Twenty-six bodies were found under two ruined buildings in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv, a Ukrainian government official said.

"It is difficult to predict how many victims there will be at the moment. Only from under the rubble of two bombed-out apartment buildings, 26 bodies were recovered," Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook.

"The enemy insidiously attacked the housing infrastructure in the evening, when there were a maximum of people at home," she added. "The target was exclusively civilians — there is no military facility here."

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, but Ukrainians, as well as eyewitnesses, journalists and humanitarian organizations, have reported seeing civilians slaughtered across the country.