For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:
10:12 p.m.: The U.N.’s office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issues update on Ukraine.
9:05 p.m.: Canada is in talks with Germany to resolve an issue with a Siemens Energy turbine for Russia's Nord Stream 1 pipeline that was sent to Canada for maintenance, reducing gas supply to Europe, Reuters reported.
The capacity of Gazprom's Nord Stream 1 pipeline to supply gas to Europe is partly constrained as sanctions on Russia make it impossible for German equipment supplier Siemens to return the turbine being maintained in Canada, the companies said earlier this week.
"The government of Canada is in active discussions with Germany about the turbines in question, and we are working to reach a resolution," a spokesman for Canada's Natural Resources Minister said in a statement.
Russia's state-controlled Gazprom has cut the capacity along the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 40% of usual levels in recent days citing the delayed return of equipment being serviced by Germany's Siemens Energy in Canada.
8:25 p.m.: Chef Jose Andres sends an update from Ukraine.
7:55 p.m.: Russia promised on Thursday to speed up talks about increased gas sales to China and warned that Europe would pay a hefty price for its oil embargo against Russia, Reuters reported.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Europe would pay an extra $400 billion in higher energy prices and could face a shortage of oil products. He did not give a time frame.
Russia is heavily reliant on its multibillion dollar energy exports for its financial health, while more than half the European Union's gas imports come from Russia, leaving the bloc exposed to any supply disruptions.
EU leaders have agreed an embargo on Russian oil sales which they say could cut out 90% of Russia's oil exports to Europe. Novak predicted the plan to cut oil imports could lead to a shortage of oil products in the European market.
7:10 p.m.: Big Macs remain on sale at some of McDonald’s franchise locations in Russia despite most of its restaurants reopening on Sunday under new branding and ownership, Reuters reported.
McDonald's sold most of its 850 restaurants in Russia to one of its local licensees in May. Some of those reopened Sunday under the new name Vkusno & tochka, or "Tasty and that's it," offering a new menu without the flagship burger.
But other franchisees have kept their locations open, selling authentic McDonald's meals in restaurants adorned with barely concealed McDonald's branding. The Big Mac burger is available, though renamed Bolshoi Burger, or Big Burger.
6:40 p.m.: The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday told Russia to prevent the execution of a Moroccan man sentenced to death in a pro-Moscow separatist region of Ukraine for fighting on behalf of Ukrainian forces.
Brahim Saadoun was sentenced to death along with two British men by the unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic, following his surrender to Russian forces in the conflict sparked by Moscow's invasion of its neighbor.
The ECHR is part of the Council of Europe, which ejected Russia from its membership in mid-March following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Russia simultaneously also took steps to leave the body.
6 p.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government on Thursday to come up with new measures to support the domestic car industry, which has seen sales crater since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Amid a drop in demand from Russian buyers and severe logistics problems as a result of Western sanctions, car sales slumped a record 83.5% in May, according to figures from the Association of European Businesses.
Putin said the government needed to look not only at production issues, but also at how to stimulate demand despite the economic difficulties facing the country.
5:15 p.m.: The United States said on Thursday it has not asked Russia about two U.S. citizens reported missing after traveling to Ukraine to fight against Russian forces and said there are reports of a third missing American, Reuters reported.
"As of today, we have not raised this yet with the Russian Federation ... (We) haven't seen anything from the Russians indicating that two such individuals are in their custody," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, describing reports about the two men as unconfirmed.
Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Huynh, 27, of Hartselle, Alabama, went to Ukraine as volunteer fighters against Russian forces, have been missing for a week, and are feared captured, family members have said.
4:45 p.m.: Russian basketball clubs were suspended Thursday from the next season of the EuroLeague, The Associated Press reported. EuroLeague organizers cited “air travel restrictions and prohibitions or other limitations to issuing visas to Russian residents” during the country’s war with Ukraine.
The 18-team league had three Russian entrants last season — CSKA Moscow on a long-term license and one-year entries for UNICS Kazan and Zenit St. Petersburg. Their results were annulled after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The EuroLeague suspension aligns with many other sports bodies who have removed Russian teams and athletes from their competitions. Several appeal cases are pending at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
4 p.m.:
3:41 p.m.: Temporary silos on Ukraine's border would be intended to prevent Russia from stealing Ukrainian grain and make sure the country's winter harvest is not lost due to a lack of storage, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday. But, during a visit to the United Nations, Vilsack stressed that reviving shipments from Ukraine's Black Sea ports was the most effective and efficient way to export grain and urged Russia to take U.N.-led talks on the issue "seriously," Reuters reported.
3:27 p.m.: The head of Russian energy giant Gazprom says that Moscow plays by its own rules after cutting gas deliveries to Germany and Italy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. "Our product, our rules. We don't play by rules we didn't create," Aleksei Miller said on June 16 during a panel discussion at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Russian gas supplies to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, fell further on June 16. The latest move cuts supply to 40 percent of the pipeline's capacity.
3:03 p.m.:
2:43 p.m.: The U.N. Human Rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, briefed the U.N. Human Rights Council Thursday on conditions in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol after weeks of Russian bombardment. “Between February and the end of April, Mariupol was likely the deadliest place in Ukraine,” she said in a statement. “The intensity and extent of hostilities, destruction and death and injury strongly suggest that serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross violations of international human rights law have occurred,” she added.
2:21 p.m.: Russia must reduce its decades-old reliance on exports of raw materials and stimulate private enterprise to avoid slipping back towards a Soviet-style technological lag with the West, the governor of the central bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported.
After the West imposed the most crippling sanctions in modern history to punish President Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine, Russia's economy is facing its biggest contraction since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Elvira Nabiullina, feted as one of the last economic liberals left at the top table of Russian policy-making, has been left with the job of steering the $1.8 trillion economy through the challenges of war and sanctions.
Speaking at Russia's annual economic conference in the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg, Nabiullina called for a structural "perestroika," or reconstruction, of the economy.
2:02 p.m.: Coca-Cola HBC AG and its existing customers in Russia are "in the process of depleting stock," Coca-Cola Co said in a statement, Reuters reported Thursday. Once the company's stock is depleted, Coca-Cola HBC will "no longer produce or sell Coca-Cola or other brands of the Coca-Cola Company in Russia," Coca-Cola said.
1:53 p.m.: The commander of the Admiral Makarov, a Russian frigate that has been firing on Ukraine, previously served in the Ukrainian Navy before switching sides after Russia seized Crimea in 2014. The Ukrainian authorities accuse Grigory Breyev of war crimes and treason. His cousin and former neighbors in his childhood village spoke of their hurt and anger at what he's doing. Iryna Storozhenko with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service, has this report.
1:36 p.m.: NATO defense ministers on Thursday discussed ways to bolster forces and deterrence along the military alliance’s eastern borders to dissuade Russia from planning further aggression in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
“This will mean more NATO forward-deployed combat formations, to strengthen our battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance, more air, sea and cyber defenses, as well as pre-positioned equipment and weapons stockpiles,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting.
The meeting of defense ministers came ahead of a June 29-30 NATO summit in Madrid that will seek to set a roadmap for the alliance in coming years.
1:19 p.m.: The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday broadened export controls against Belarus's national airline, Belavia, for providing flights on Boeing aircraft in violation of restrictions issued after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Companies around the world are now prohibited from maintaining, repairing and otherwise using U.S. parts to service Belavia's fleet, according to an order issued against the airline. Belavia made over 30 illegal flights on Boeing aircraft after April 8 in and out of Belarus, Russia, Turkey, Moscow, St. Petersberg, Georgia, the UAE and Egypt, the order said.
1:02 p.m.:
12:52 p.m.: Ukraine’s request to join the European Union may advance Friday with a recommendation from the EU’s executive arm that the war-torn country deserves to become a candidate for membership in the 27-nation bloc. The European Commission’s endorsement, while only a tentative step on a path that could take decades to complete, would send a strong symbol of solidarity with Ukraine and further test the EU’s united front against Russia amid the invasion of its neighbor. The Associated Press published a look at why Ukraine’s request to join the European Union is big test for the bloc.
12:47 p.m.: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday won backing from the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania to give Ukraine European Union candidate status, while urging them to send more weapons and impose tougher sanctions on Russia, Reuters reported. In the first such visit to the capital since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Olaf Scholz, Italy's Mario Draghi and Romania's Klaus Iohannis said Ukraine belonged in the "European family."
12:34 p.m.: European Council President Charles Michel visited North Macedonia on Thursday and said efforts to start European Union membership talks with the landlocked Balkan country and neighboring Albania have become a “top priority” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The war in Ukraine opened a new chapter in European history and put EU enlargement at the forefront,” Michel said at the joint press conference with North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski in the lakeside resort of Ohrid.
12:17 p.m.:
12:08 a.m.: Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday it was sanctioning an additional 121 Australian citizens, including journalists and defense officials, citing what it calls a "Russophobic agenda" in the country, Reuters reported.
Among the sanctioned individuals are journalists from Australia's ABC News, The Sydney Morning Herald and Sky News, as well as various defense officials, it said.
Russia announced a similar move against dozens of British journalists on Tuesday, in what Moscow said was a response to Western sanctions and the "spreading of false information about Russia."
11:52 a.m.: The European Union is beefing up its code of practice on disinformation by enlisting more tech companies beyond Google, Twitter and Facebook parent Meta and adding measures to prevent online purveyors of fake news from profiting, The Associated Press reported.
The EU’s executive Commission unveiled an update Thursday to its four-year-old voluntary code that, together with sweeping new rules in the pipeline for digital companies, will step up its efforts to fight the spread of false information in the 27-member bloc.
EU leaders are alarmed about disinformation flourishing on online platforms, notably involving the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian propaganda amid the war in Ukraine. The code shows Europe’s efforts to take a global lead in clamping down on fake news, while officials in the U.S. have done little to curb its spread.
11:37 a.m.: United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressed a meeting of U.N. ambassadors and officials Thursday, announcing new measures to “enhance coordination between the U.S. and Ukrainian agriculture and food sectors and build a strategic partnership to address food security,” according to an official statement. “Russia is using food as a weapon and a tool of war to threaten the livelihoods of those around the world, and that is something the agriculture community cannot and will not stand for,” Vilsack said. Reuters carried Vilsack’s comments at the U.N. live on Twitter.
11:16 a.m.: All four European leaders who visited Ukraine on June 16 support "immediate" EU candidate status for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Macron, speaking at a joint news conference in Kyiv alongside the leaders of Germany, Italy, and Romania, added that France would step up arms deliveries to Ukraine to help its forces fend off the Russian invasion. The delivery will include six more powerful truck-mounted artillery guns, Macron said, adding that the leaders “are doing everything so that Ukraine alone can decide its fate.”
Macron made the trip to Ukraine with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. Scholz said he supports granting EU candidate status for Moldova, as well as Ukraine.
10:48 a.m.: The Lithuanian parliament on Thursday called for the criminal prosecution of Russia's leadership for its invasion of Ukraine and what it said is the wide-scale forced deportation of Ukrainians to Russian territory, Reuters reported.
10:31 a.m.: U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke about the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the CNAS - Axios 2022 National Security Conference Thursday, saying he thinks the war will have to end through diplomacy and negotiations, and “that has to be the thrust and purpose of our policy.” He added, "Our job is to give (the Ukrainians) the tools they need to put themselves in the strongest position" at the negotiating table, though he noted the outcomes would be “something the Ukrainians will have to shape.” VOA’s National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin followed the briefing and shared more information on Twitter.
10:19 a.m.: A Dutch intelligence agency said Thursday that it foiled a sophisticated attempt by a Russian spy using a false Brazilian identity to work as an intern at the International Criminal Court, which is investigating allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
The General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands said the 36-year-old man, identified as Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, worked for Russia’s shadowy GRU agency and tried to gain access to the global court based in The Hague under the cover name of Viktor Muller Ferreira.
10:01 a.m.: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Thursday he hoped his war crimes investigation in Ukraine would show there can be no escape from justice during conflicts, Reuters reported.
Visiting Ukraine as part of the investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity since Russian forces invaded on February 24, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan described the country as a crime scene.
He said his team had gathered evidence of many alleged crimes including sexual offences, crimes against children, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, but gave no details.
9:51 a.m.:
9:46 a.m.: Britain announced a new round of sanctions Thursday against Russia, targeting the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for his prominent support for the war in Ukraine as well as Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, who Britain said is responsible for the forced transfer and adoption of hundreds of Ukrainian children into Russia, The Associated Press reported.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has “repeatedly abused his position to justify the war” on Ukraine. Kirill is a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Truss also targeted children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, who has been accused of enabling the taking of 2,000 vulnerable children from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine and facilitating their forced adoptions in Russia.
Others on Thursday’s list include four colonels from a brigade known to have killed, raped and tortured civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
9:22 a.m.: Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova spoke Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an American think tank. She participated in a discussion sponsored by the CSIS Project on Prosperity and Development and the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program. Reuters shared video from the program on Twitter.
9:17 a.m.: Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Russia is causing casualties and suffering among civilians in its war against Ukraine by using antipersonnel landmines that have been banned internationally, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
In a report published on Thursday, HRW says that while both Russia and Ukraine have used anti-vehicle mines Russia is the only party to the conflict that is documented to have used banned antipersonnel mines that are injuring civilians as well as disrupting food production.
The report, titled Landmine Use in Ukraine, describes seven types of antipersonnel mines documented to have been used by Russian forces in Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24.
The 19-page report says Ukraine appears to be respecting its obligations as a signatory of the international treaty prohibiting antipersonnel mines that Kyiv ratified in 2005.
9:06 a.m.: The residents of Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv are beginning to rebuild their damaged homes. VOA’s Eastern Europe bureau chief Myroslava Gongadze is at one of the damaged residential buildings, and tweeted this video.
8:51 a.m.: Germany’s vice chancellor is stepping up an appeal for the country’s residents to save energy after Russia’s Gazprom announced significant cuts in natural gas deliveries through a key pipeline,The Associated Press reported Thursday.
8:32 a.m.: A Ukrainian official on Thursday indicated that Ukraine’s military casualty figures may be much higher than originally understood, as fierce fighting continues in the eastern Donbas region, the Kyiv Independent tweeted.
8:21 a.m.: The Kremlin said it hoped the leaders of France, Germany and Italy would not only discuss weapons supplies in their visit to Kyiv on Thursday, but rather to "push President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy to take a realistic look at the state of affairs," Reuters reported. "I would hope that the leaders ... will not focus only on supporting Ukraine by further pumping it with weapons," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a call with reporters.
8:09 a.m.: The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania had a walking tour of Irpin, a small city which bore the full brunt of Russia’s failed assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the first weeks of the war. The tour preceded a meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who met them wearing army green pants, a matching T-shirt and sneakers, The Associated Press reported.
7:55 a.m.: The Russian ruble and stocks gained on Thursday, as the head of the central bank said the currency would remain free-floating and that capital controls should continue to be relaxed, Reuters reported.
7:34 a.m.: Ukrainian authorities have asked the 15,000 residents of Lysychansk to evacuate immediately, but there is only one road out and many refuse to take it. Even with shells falling nearby, people insist they and their children will stay. Current Time, a co-production of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and VOA, has this story.
7:22 a.m.: Russia needs to rethink the contours of its export-dependent economy to ensure that industry works for the domestic market but most capital controls should be scrapped, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said on Thursday. Nabiullina, speaking at Russia's flagship annual economic conference in St. Petersburg, said that a "substantial part" of Russian industry should start working for the domestic market, rather than rely on exports for revenue, Reuters reported.
7:16 a.m.: NATO defense ministers gathered Thursday for talks focusing on bolstering forces and deterrence along the military alliance’s eastern borders to dissuade Russia from planning further aggression, The Associated Press reported.
The war by the Kremlin in Ukraine since February has led allies to rethink strategies and to agree that NATO forces should be present in greater numbers on that flank. They have already beefed up the deployment of troops and material and want to guarantee a long-term presence of forces.
In response to the invasion of Ukraine, NATO says it has placed over 40,000 troops under its direct command, mainly on the eastern flank. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said allies will take decisions on the scale of their posture for the longer term “to ensure that we can defend every inch of Allied territory.”
The meeting of defense ministers came ahead of a June 29-30 NATO summit in Madrid that will seek to set a determined course for the alliance in coming years.
7:04 a.m.: As the war nears the 17-week mark, a prominent U.S. military scholar and strategist says Moscow seems determined to plow troops into Ukraine as "cannon fodder" for a brutal campaign that has encouraged Kyiv to seek total victory and made the West "more and more committed to a favorable outcome."
David Johnson, a U.S. Army veteran and principal researcher at the RAND Corporation think tank who specializes in military strategy, innovation, and doctrine, warns that Russian troops "are slowly grinding their way through Donbas" in eastern Ukraine with "massive firepower [and a] very slow, incremental attrition maneuver" that will be "very hard to stop," he said in a recent interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
6:37 a.m.: Three multiple rocket launchers that Germany pledged to Kyiv can be delivered in July or August after Ukrainian troops have been trained on the weapons, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Thursday. "The training on these multiple rocket launchers can begin at the end of June, meaning they can be delivered at the end of July or the start of August," she told reporters as she arrived for a second day of talks with her NATO counterparts in Brussels, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Slovakia has donated five Soviet-designed Mi-series military helicopters and thousands of Grad multiple-rocket launcher rockets to Ukraine, its defense minister said on Thursday.
6:00 a.m.: Russia and the United States must discuss the extension of the START nuclear arms reduction treaty, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency in an interview on Thursday. The matter was important for global security and Russia's military operation in Ukraine was no reason to avoid its discussion, Peskov added, according to Reuters.
5:56 a.m.: The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Thursday released its latest Global Trends report showing that the total number of people worldwide forced to flee their homes is now more than double what it was a decade ago, and the agency’s director Filippo Grandi tweeted Thursday that unless the world learns how to resolve its conflicts, that number could continue to grow.
“With millions of Ukrainians displaced and further displacement elsewhere in 2022, total forced displacement now exceeds 100 million people. This means 1 in every 78 people on earth has been forced to flee – a dramatic milestone that few would have expected a decade ago,” the report stated.
5:48 a.m.: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have toured a Kyiv suburb to witness firsthand the massive destruction wrought on the area by Russian forces who invaded and then withdrew after encountering stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
5:41 a.m.: Russian gas supply to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline fell further on Thursday and Moscow said more delays in repairs could lead to suspending all flows, putting a brake on Europe's race to refill its gas inventories, Reuters reported. Russia's state-controlled Gazprom said on Thursday it was reducing supply for a second time in as many days via Nord Stream 1, which runs under the Baltic to Germany. The latest move cuts supply to just 40% of the pipeline's capacity.
5:37 a.m.: Al Jazeera, citing the Japan Times, reports that a Japanese airline is changing its logo to avoid being mistaken for a supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Zipair Tokyo currently uses the letter Z on the tail of its aircraft. That also happens to be the letter the Russian army uses as a symbol of its campaign in Ukraine.
Zipair plans to replace the Z logo with a new one that features a green, black and white geometric pattern, Al Jazeera reports.
5:10 a.m.: VOA's Myroslava Gongadze with French President Emmanuel Macron in Kyiv:
4:13 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry says all bridges over the Siverskyy Donets River are likely destroyed. The bridge links the town of Sieverodonetsk and Ukrainian-held territory.
Russia's combat force in the Donbas is severely undermanned, the update says, noting that according to Ukrainian authorities, some groups that would normally have 600-800 people now have as few as 30 soldiers.
Additionally, the update says, front-line combat "is likely increasingly devolving to small groups of troops typically operating on foot."
3:15 a.m.: Leaders from Italy, France and Germany arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday to show their support.
President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Premier Mario Draghi traveled to Kyiv together, The Associated Press reports, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will join them in Kyiv. They're expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
2:31 a.m.: The BBC reports that civilians trapped in Severodonetsk are in dire straits. About 12,000 people are trapped in the city, and essential supplies are running low.
"The lack of water and sanitation is a big worry. It's a huge concern for us because people cannot survive for long without water," spokesperson for the UN's Humanitarian Affairs office Saviano Abreu told the BBC.
1:13 a.m.: In its latest assessment, The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, says that Russia is engaged in ground assaults in and around Severodonetsk, Ukraine, but has has not yet taken control of the city.
Russia's also fighting around Kharkiv City and around the T1302 Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway, where it aims to cut Ukrainian lines of communication to Lysychansk. The latter offenssive has been largely unsuccessful, the update says.
12:02 a.m.: Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt and Yemen are already feeling the effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on food prices, The Washington Post reports.
Ukraine and Russia produce about a third of the wheat traded in global markets, the Post says, and about a quarter of the world's barley. The United Nations warns that the war in Ukraine could increase the number of people facing acute food insecurity by 47 million this year.
