WORLD

A total of 249 civilians have been killed and 553 were wounded in the first week of hostilities in Ukraine, the UN Human Rights office said on Thursday. Most of the civilian casualties were caused by missiles, airstrikes, shelling and other explosive impacts, the UN said. The figures cover the …

Families of Russian soldiers who died in the line of duty in Ukraine are set to receive compensation of over seven million rubles ($65,000) from the government, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Putin made the pledge during a meeting with the members of the country’s Security Council. The leader …

During the second round of talks in Belarus on Thursday, Moscow and Kiev agreed on mechanisms to establish routes via which to evacuate civilians from combat zones in Ukraine. “The parties have reached an understanding on the joint establishment of humanitarian corridors with a temporary ceasefire. Russia and Ukraine will …

Putting an end to the war in Ukraine is the EU’s chief concern at present, but Kiev’s bid to join the bloc will be reviewed by member states, Brussels has announced, as Russia’s armed forces continue to attack the Eastern European nation. Speaking at a press conference in Bucharest on …

President Vladimir Putin has detailed Russia’s demands concerning Ukraine, during a phone call on Thursday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Moscow has said. He reiterated the objectives of the Russian military operation, including demilitarization of Ukraine and its neutral status in the future, the readout of the two men’s …

Berlin has approved the delivery of 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, German media have claimed. According to the DPA news agency, the weapons in question are Soviet-designed ‘Strela’ missiles from the stockpiles of the former East German army. Unlike the US and the UK, up until February …

The command of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces has released a statement allegedly threatening that all Russian soldiers will be killed, including those who try to surrender, as Moscow’s military carries out an attack on the Eastern European nation. Critics have condemned it, describing it as tantamount to a threat to …

A televised meeting of security officials in Belarus may have inadvertently revealed that Russia plans to expand its war in Ukraine by invading neighboring Moldova, according to Western media reports. However, the stories specified the attack target as Moldova’s breakaway state of Transnistria, a close Russian ally. The reports were …

A massive power outage left thousands of people without electricity in Taiwan on Thursday morning, with authorities blaming the grid malfunction on a sudden system failure at Hsinta Power Plant. Taiwan Power Co. confirmed that the blackout was caused by “equipment failure” at the island’s second largest coal-fired power plant …

Parcels containing a “suspicious” white powder were sent to the Russian Embassy in Australia’s capital of Canberra, according to police and diplomatic staffers, prompting a hazmat team to respond to the scene. Two mysterious packages containing an “unknown white powder” were discovered outside the embassy early Thursday morning, the diplomatic mission told …