Ten people were killed while standing in line for bread in the northern city of Chernihiv, the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office said. Satellite images from the Maxar space technology company showed Russian self-propelled artillery and multiple-rocket launchers deployed on the outskirts of Chernihiv, their barrels and tubes aimed at the city. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter that the attack on the theater in Mariupol is a “horrendous war crime.” Maxar’s satellite imagery from Monday showed the word “children” written in large white letters in Russian in front of and behind the building. The Russian defense ministry denied…

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would achieve its goals in Ukraine and would not submit to what he called a Western attempt to achieve global dominance and dismember Russia. Putin said Russia was ready to discuss neutral status for Ukraine, three weeks into a war that has killed thousands of people and forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes. He said that what Russia calls its special military operation was “going to plan”. In a televised speech to government ministers, Putin went further than before in acknowledging the pain that Western sanctions were inflicting on the…

Kiev is proposing that Ukraine become a Swedish or Austrian version of a demilitarized state that has its own armed forces, said Kremlin Aide Vladimir Medinsky, who leads Russia’s delegation at the talks. "The preservation and development of Ukraine’s neutral status, a demilitarization of Ukraine, a whole range of issues related to the size of the Ukrainian armed forces are being discussed," he said. "Ukraine is proposing the Austrian, Swedish versions of a neutral demilitarized state, which is a state that has an army and a navy." "All these issues are being discussed at the level of the leadership of…

The US greatly increased its arms exports in the past five years despite the downward trend of the global arms trade, the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has revealed. This shows US arms firms and some politicians took advantage of wars to become rich, analysts said. Arms exports by the US grew by 14 per cent between 2012-16 and 2017-21, increasing its global share from 32 per cent to 39 per cent, the SIPRI said in a press release on Monday. US arms exports in 2017-21 more than doubled those of the second largest exporter,…