War In Ukraine Latest: Mayor Says Half Of Kyiv’s Population Have Left The City, Indians From Sumy To Return Home And More

The mayor of Kyiv  Vitali Klitschko said that half of Kyiv’s population have left the city, news agency AFP reported. Kyiv continues to face Russian aggression as Russian army tanks try to encircle Kyiv. A separate report by the news agency said that tanks have reached the northeastern edge of Kyiv.

Kyiv’s northwest suburbs such as Irpin and Bucha have faced consistent shelling from the Russian army. The Ukrainian government earlier asked Russia to open humanitarian corridors from these cities to evacuate its civilians. The Kyiv oblast governor Oleksiy Kuleba said that Irpin, which is in Kyiv’s suburbs, along with Bucha, Hostomel and Vorzel are among the most dangerous areas right now due to advancing Russian forces, news agency Kyiv Independent reported.

Here are the other latest updates from Ukraine:

Indian Students Stranded In Sumy To Return Home

More than 600 Indian citizens and students who were stuck in the battle-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy are currently in Poland. They will board the repatriation flights from Poland’s Rzeszow and return to India early Friday morning, people familiar with the developments told CNNNews18.

Sanctions Imposed On Premier League Club Owner

Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich has been hit with a UK assets freeze and travel ban by the Boris Johnson government. This will dent the Russian tycoon’s plans to sell the club. VTB bank chairman Andrey Kostin, Transneft president Nikolai Tokarev and Bank Rossiya chairman Dmitri Lebedev also faced sanctions.  Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin, the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller and Abramovich’s business partner Oleg Deripaska were hit with restrictions.

Antalya Talks End With No Progress

The much-anticipated meeting between Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov ended with no agreement over a ceasefire. Kuleba said that Lavrov was not in a capacity to make a decision while Lavrov said that Belarus-format talks are the only way ahead to reach a solution to the crisis.

Kremlin Warns Against Attacks On Russian Soldiers

Russia said that any attacks on Russian soldiers in Ukraine will lead to retaliation, signalling that civilians and paramilitary forces who fire at Russian soldiers will also become the target of Russian soldiers. The Kremlin reiterated Russian president Vladimir Putin’s message and said that Ukrainians should lay down their arms to prevent further escalation of the conflict

Russia Claims US Helped Develop Bioweapons

Russia doubled down on its claims that the US helped Ukraine develop biological weapons. The Kremlin alleged that the US was funding research into biological weapons in Ukraine with the aim of ‘establishing a mechanism for the stealthy spread of deadly pathogens’.

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