That's it for our live coverage. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more live updates on the war in Ukraine.

Guterres says 'a third operation' is under way in Mariupol to evacuate civilians

Secretary-General António Guterres told a UN security council meeting that after two evacuation convoys, a third operation is under way in Mariupol. He did not specify where the operation would take place.

On Sunday, a UN convoy evacuated 101 civilians from the plant in Mariupol along with 59 more from another area. In the second operation on Wednesday, more than 320 civilians were evacuated from the city of Mariupol and surrounding areas.

"I hope that the continued coordination with Moscow and Kyiv will lead to more humanitarian pauses to allow civilians safe passage from the fighting and aid to reach those in critical need," Guterres said.

"We must do all that we can to get people out of these hellscapes."

He added that the evacuees spoke of their stories and trauma to UN staff and that some were in need of urgent medical attention.

Russian troops made failed attempts to advance in Kharkiv and Donetsk, Ukraine says

The Ukrainian army says Russian troops made “unsuccessful” attempts to advance in the eastern Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.

A Facebook post published Thursday afternoon on the official profile of the Ukrainian General Staff says the Russians also continue to launch missile strikes on transport facilities in order to prevent the movement of humanitarian cargo and military-technical assistance.

(AP)

Russia: Air force destroys 45 Ukraine targets

The Russian military says its air force has destroyed 45 Ukrainian military facilities in the latest series of strikes.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the targets hit Thursday by the Russian air force included Ukrainian troops and weapons concentrations and an ammunition depot in the eastern Luhansk region.

Konashenkov said the Russian missile units hit a Ukrainian artillery battery at its firing positions near the settlement of Zarozhne, a battery of Uragan multiple rocket launchers near Mykolaiv and four other areas of concentration of military personnel and military hardware. He said the Russian artillery hit 152 Ukrainian troops’ strongholds and 38 artillery firing positions.

Konashenkov’s claims could not be independently confirmed.

(AP)

German foreign minister will travel to Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the nation's foreign minister will soon travel to Ukraine on an official visit after the two countries resolved a diplomatic spat on Thursday.

The German government had traded barbs with Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin after Kyiv appeared to snub an offer to visit by Germany’s president.

It was unclear when exactly Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit Kyiv, and whether she would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Speaking after a meeting with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Scholz also said Germany is working hard to build new infrastructure for energy imports along its northern coast to help replace gas and oil currently delivered from Russia by pipeline. He said Germany is willing to cooperate closely with those countries that don’t have direct access to seaports.

(AP)

'Safe passage operation in Mariupol,' UN says

The UN has confirmed to Euronews that a "safe passage operation" is under way in Mariupol "in coordination with the parties to the conflict".

"No further details can be shared at this point, as it could jeopardize the safety of the civilians and the convoy," a UN spokesperson said.

It is not clear how many people were being evacuated and if people were being evacuated from the steel plant where Ukrainian soldiers continue to fight.

Five countries meet with Ukraine's prosecutor general to discuss efforts to hold war criminals accountable

The attorneys general of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand met with Ukraine's prosecutor general virtually on Wednesday, the US justice department said in a statement.

The leaders "discussed their coordinated efforts to hold accountable individuals whose criminal actions are enabling war crimes in Ukraine. They committed to continued close consultation and coordination."

“America, and the world, are watching very closely what is happening in Ukraine. Every day, we see the heartbreaking images and read the horrific accounts of brutality,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“But there is no hiding place for war criminals."

Putin apologised for Russia's Hitler claims, Israel PM's office says

The Israeli prime minister's office has said that Putin apologised after foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov said that Adolf Hitler had "Jewish blood".

"The Prime Minister accepted President Putin's apology for Lavrov's remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude regarding the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust," Israeli PM Naftali Bennett's office said.

Lavrov's comments caused an uproar in Israel with the country's foreign affairs minister denouncing them as both "unforgivable and outrageous...as well as a terrible historical error."

(Euronews with AFP)

Exclusive: Poland's PM on Ukraine war, 'imperial' Russia, and 'short-sighted' EU states

President Vladimir Putin is a "war criminal" who is committing "genocide" in Ukraine and the European Union must not resume "business as usual" with Russia as long as he remains in power, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Euronews in an exclusive interview.

"This Russia is totalitarian, it's nationalistic, it's imperial, and this Russia wants to re-establish the Russian empire and a post-Soviet Union type of state," Morawiecki said.

"We cannot see a situation where there's a retreat to business as usual. Women and children are dying. Russia [commits] genocide in Ukraine and war crimes. Not with this regime," he added.

"Putin is a war criminal and what he's responsible for in Ukraine is simply beyond one's imagination. I think we should create an international tribunal to trace the crimes and make justice again when the war is over."

Read Euronews' Efi Koutsokosta's full interview with Morawiecki here.

Russia remains 'ready' to allow evacuation of civilians from Azovstal, Putin says

Russia remains "ready" to ensure that civilians holed up with Ukrainian fighters in the Azovstal factory in Mariupol (southeastern Ukraine) are evacuated in a "safe" manner, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

In a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Putin spoke about the evacuation of civilians, the Kremlin said.

"The Russian army is always ready to ensure the evacuation of civilians in a safe way," said Putin, who accused Ukrainian fighters of "holding them back".

He said Ukrainian authorities should order the last defenders in the plant to lay down their arms.

(AFP)

US justice department announces seizure of Russian oligarch's superyacht in Fiji

A $300 million (€285.2 million) superyacht was seized by authorities in Fiji at the request of the United States, the US justice department announced on Thursday.

The US says the 100-metre yacht, the Amadea, is owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov who was previously sanctioned for alleged money laundering. Kerimov made a fortune investing in Russian gold producer Polyus, with Forbes magazine putting his net worth at $14.5 billion.

Defence lawyers had claimed the yacht actually belonged to another Russian oligarch.

The former Russian politician was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018 and has faced further censure from Canada, Europe, Britain and other nations after Russia invaded Ukraine.

(Euronews with AP)

More than €6 billion collected at Ukraine donors' conference, Polish PM says

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that more than €6 billion were collected at a Ukraine donors' conference in Warsaw to support Ukraine.

"When Russia brings death, the countries of the free world have to bring aid," said Morawiecki at a news conference.

"This conference here in Warsaw showed an enormous amount of solidarity."

Ukrainian officer urges evacuation of wounded

A Ukrainian officer leading the defence of the last bulwark of the strategic city of Mariupol has urged the global community to pressure Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers.

Heavy fighting raged Thursday at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, as Russian forces attempted to finish off the city’s last-ditch defenders and complete the capture of the strategically vital port.

Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers are holed up in the steel mill's underground bunkers, many of them wounded. Some civilians are with them, too.

Capt. Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine's Azov Regiment, said in a video statement from the steel mill's bunkers Thursday that the “wounded soldiers are dying in agony due to the lack of proper treatment.”

He urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to help ensure the evacuation of the wounded and civilians still in the bunkers.

Addressing the world community, Palamar denounced the Russians for “refusing to observe any ethical norms and destroying people before the eyes of the world.”

(AP)

German president expresses 'solidarity' in phone call with Ukrainian counterpart

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, and expressed "his solidarity, respect and support for the courageous struggle of the Ukrainian people against the Russian aggressors."

The presidents described the conversation as "very important and very good", according to the German presidency, adding that the conversation allowed them to clear up past irritations.

Zelenskyy also invited Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Steinmeier to Kyiv, AFP reported.

In April, an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat was quoted as saying that the German President was not welcome because of his previous close ties to Russia. This was later refuted by another Ukrainian official.

Steinmeier admitted mistakes in his previous policy toward Russia as a German foreign minister.

“It is true that we should have taken the warnings of our eastern European partners more seriously, particularly regarding the time after 2014 [when Russia annexed Crimea],” the president said last month.

Lithuanian-Polish natural gas pipeline inaugurated 

A €500 million Lithuanian-Polish natural gas transmission pipeline was inaugurated Thursday, completing another stage of regional independence from Russian energy sources.

The Gas Interconnection Poland-Lithuania pipeline that runs more than 500 kilometres, comes “at a time when Russia has once again tried to blackmail us using gas,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at the inauguration.

Lithuania’s Prime Minister Ingridas Simonyte added that “any reduction or disappearance of this source of funding would have a very significant impact on the Russian economy and the ability to continue financing the war in Ukraine.”

The Lithuania-Poland leg is integrated with pipelines in the other two Baltic states — Estonia and Latvia — and Finland, and into the European Union gas transmission system. Before the pipeline was built, the four countries could only receive pipeline gas from Russia.

(AP)

Russia expels Danish diplomats

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said Thursday that Russia has decided to expel four diplomats with Denmark’s Embassy in Moscow.

“They have wrongfully become pieces in Putin’s cynical power play,” Kofod said. “It is a completely unjustified and deeply problematic decision, which underscores that Russia no longer wants real dialogue and diplomacy.”

Moscow said seven Danish diplomats were expelled. Danish media said that those expelled include four diplomats and three others without diplomatic status. They must leave within two weeks.

Moscow’s tit-for-tat decision came after Denmark last month expelled 15 Russian intelligence officers who worked at Russia’s Embassy in Copenhagen. Several other European countries also expelled Russian intelligence officers.

(AP)

Russia admits military progress slowed by Western help for Ukraine

Russia acknowledged on Thursday that Western support was slowing its offensive in Ukraine but said it would not "prevent it from achieving its goals".

"The US, the UK, Nato as a whole are sharing intelligence data with the Ukrainian armed forces all the time. Together with the supply of weapons (...) these actions do not allow for a quick completion of the operation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

He was reacting to reports in the New York Times that intelligence provided by the US to the Ukrainian army had helped target several Russian generals near the frontline.

These Western actions "are not, however, able to prevent" the objectives of the Russian offensive in Ukraine from being fulfilled, he added.

So far, Moscow has only been able to claim full control of one major Ukrainian city, Kherson in the south. But it hopes soon to take complete control of Mariupol.

After their failure to take Kyiv, Putin's forces withdrew from areas around the capital and northern Ukraine to focus on the east of the country.

(with AFP)

Zelenskyy launches Ukraine crowdfunding platform

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Thursday the launch of an online crowdfunding platform designed to help Kyiv win the war against Russia and rebuild the country's infrastructure.

Spain arrests Ukrainian politician-blogger

Spanish authorities have arrested a Ukrainian politician-blogger accused of treason in his home country.

An official with the Spanish national police confirmed that Anatoly Shariy had been detained Wednesday in Tarragona under an international arrest warrant. Shariy is being transported to Madrid to appear before a judge, who will decide upon his extradition, the official said.

Ukraine’s security services announced the arrest on Thursday and said there was reason to believe Shariy “was acting on behalf of foreign entities.”

Shariy has been a vocal and active critic of Ukraine’s government. As recently as Tuesday he tweeted that he had been warned that Ukrainian intelligence was trying to track him down. He is the founder of a political party that many Ukrainians consider pro-Russian.

Ukrainian media reported that one of the members of the party said in February, just before the start of the war, that Shariy had asylum in the European Union.

(AP)

Mariupol theatre death toll feared to be double the initial estimate

The number of civilians who are feared to have been killed in the shelling of a theatre in Mariupol in March is higher than originally predicted, according to an investigation by Associated Press. 

It says around 600 people died inside and outside the building, which is double the estimated number of causalities.

AP journalists drew on interviews with 23 survivors, rescuers and people intimately familiar with the shelter operating at the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre, as well as two sets of floor plans of the theatre, photos and video taken inside before, during and after that day and feedback from experts.

Read the full story.

Humanitarian corridors 'working' at Mariupol steelworks — Kremlin

Humanitarian corridors are "working" at the Azovstal metallurgical plant site, the last pocket of resistance to the Russian offensive in the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"The corridors are working there today," Peskov told reporters, assuring that the Russian army was respecting the ceasefire it had announced the day before for Thursday.

The defence ministry in Moscow said yesterday that a three-day unilateral pause in fighting would begin from 0800 CET this morning.

Since then, Ukrainian fighters defending the plant have said that Russian forces have launched a full assault in a "bloody battle".

The two accounts appear to be totally contradictory and are difficult to verify.

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy has appealed to the UN for help in evacuating civilians still trapped at Azovstal.

(with AFP)

Belarus doing 'everything' to stop war, says Lukashenko

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has given a sit-down interview to The Associated Press.

He defended Russia's invasion but said he didn't expect Moscow's "operation" would "drag on this way".

The leader, widely seen to have rigged a 2020 election that kept him in power, also alleged that Ukraine was “provoking Russia” and insisted that Belarus stands for peace.

“We categorically do not accept any war. We have done and are doing everything now so that there isn’t a war. Thanks to yours truly, me that is, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have begun,” he said.

Russia deployed forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of the invasion that began on February 24. Lukashenko publicly supported the operation.

Earlier this week, Belarusian military announced snap drills that raised concerns in Ukraine. However, Lukashenko assured the AP on Thursday that the drills didn’t threaten anyone.

“We do not threaten anyone and we are not going to threaten and will not do it. Moreover, we can’t threaten -- we know who opposes us, so to unleash some kind of a conflict, some kind of war here in the West is absolutely not in the interests of the Belarusian state. So the West can sleep peacefully.”

(with AP)

Russia likely to lure Ukraine troops to face Belarus — UK

Russia is likely to "inflate the threat" to Ukraine from military exercises in Belarus to "fix Ukrainian forces in the North, preventing them from being committed to the battle for the Donbas", says the British Defence Ministry.

Belarusian military drills announced earlier this week raised concerns in Ukraine. 

Poland and Sweden host donors' conference for Ukraine

Poland and Sweden are co-hosting an international donors’ conference on Thursday in Warsaw to raise funds for humanitarian efforts to help Ukraine.

The Polish government says Ukraine’s needs are huge despite funds already donated due to the large scale of damage from the war, and millions of Ukrainians require urgent help.

Thousands have been killed, cities devastated and millions of people displaced by Russia’s attack.

The High-Level International Donors’ Conference for Ukraine is jointly organised by the Polish and Swedish prime ministers in collaboration with the European Commission and European Council presidents.

The aims are to allow the international community to announce new pledges to meet immediate humanitarian needs and to create a forum to discuss how to support Ukrainian society over the longer term.

The co-hosts are prime ministers Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland and Magdalena Andersson of Sweden.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to address the participants by video, who are gathering in Warsaw’s National Stadium.

(with AP)

Ukraine: Russian shelling in the east hit houses and a school 

Five people were killed and at least 25 more wounded in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours because of the Russian shelling, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.

Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said the Russian troops shelled the region 24 times on Wednesday, hitting the cities of Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Girske and Popasna, damaging at least 23 houses and killing five people.

An overnight shelling of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region wounded at least 25 people, Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Thursday. He added that nine houses, a school and other civilian infrastructure were damaged as the result.

Video footage released by Kramatorsk City Council on Thursday showed damage to an apartment building after overnight shelling.

(AP)

France 'confident' EU27 will agree on Russian oil embargo

France’s ecology minister says she is confident that the European Union’s 27 nations will quickly agree to a proposed ban on oil imports from Russia.

Speaking to FranceInfo radio Thursday, the minister, Barbara Pompili, said the embargo could be agreed upon within days.

“I am confident,” she said. “It is normal that there are discussions because some counties are more dependent than others on Russian oil, so we have to try to find solutions so they can get on board with these sanctions.”

She added: “I think we’ll get there perhaps by the end of the week or at least as soon as possible.”

Pompili said the embargo would be “for everyone” in the bloc and that “is to show Russia that Europe, from the end of this year, will completely do without its oil.”

On Wednesday Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed that EU member nations phase out imports of Russian crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year.

The proposals must be unanimously approved to take effect. Von der Leyen said that getting all 27 member countries — some of them landlocked and highly dependent on Russia for energy supplies — to agree on oil sanctions “will not be easy.”

Hungary says it will oppose a sixth round of sanctions unless it is exempted from the oil embargo. 

(AP with Euronews)

Ukraine FM: 'UN's reputation at stake' over Mariupol evacuations

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine was not afraid of Russia and would win the war "because we have no other choice."

Kuleba said he did not anticipate negotiations with Russia would be successful any time soon.

"If you prefer talks to war, you do not hit Ukrainian cities' infrastructure across the entire country with cruise missiles," he said.

Kuleba said some NATO allies had been more active in their support for Ukraine than others.

"Since 24th of February, I do not see NATO acting as an alliance in providing Ukraine with weapons. We see some allies providing us with weapons," he told the UK's Sky News on Wednesday. 

"Some allies are more active than others. The role of such NATO members as the United Kingdom, the United States, Poland, Turkey is crucial."

The foreign minister went on to comment on the United Nations' involvement in the evacuation process in the besieged city of Mariupol and the Azovstal steelworks.

"This evacuation is taking place under the auspices of the United Nations," he said. "So the reputation of the United Nations is also at stake in this process and we are 100% open to working with them because we need to save as many human lives as possible."

(AP with Euronews)

Ukraine claims to have repelled Russian attacks in the east

Ukraine’s General Staff says the country’s forces made some gains on the border of the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv and repelled multiple Russian attacks in the east.

In its daily morning update, the General Staff said that the Russians “lost control over several settlements on the border of Mykolayiv and Kherson regions.” Ukrainian forces also repelled 11 attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the update said.

At the same time, fighting over the Azovstal plant in Mariupol continued, the General Staff said.

“With the support of aircraft, the enemy resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” the update said, adding that the Russian troops were “trying to destroy Ukrainians units” at this last remaining pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the ravaged port city.

The General Staff also noted Russian efforts to stir tensions in the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova, which borders with Ukraine and has a Russian peacekeeping contingent. The Russian military “carries out regrouping of troops in certain areas, takes measures to replenish reserves” and is “trying to improve the tactical position of its units.”

The General Staff’s statements could not be independently verified. (AP)

EU plan for Russian oil embargo 'impossible' for Hungary

Hungary’s foreign minister says the country won’t support a European Union proposal for banning oil imports from Russia in a move that could derail the bloc’s efforts to apply united pressure against Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

In a video on social media, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Wednesday that Hungary’s energy supply “would be completely destroyed” by an EU embargo of Russian oil, which he said would make it “impossible for Hungary to obtain the oil necessary for the functioning of the Hungarian economy.”

Szijjarto’s statement came as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed that EU member nations phase out imports of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year as part of a sixth package of sanctions against Russia.

The proposals must be unanimously approved to take effect, and reluctance by governments in Hungary and Slovakia to support sanctions against Russian fossil fuels has placed roadblocks before a united EU response.

Szijjarto said Hungary would only support the sixth round of sanctions if oil imports were exempted. (AP)

'Better than nothing': Ukraine FM welcomes EU oil embargo

In a video message posted on Twitter, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the European Union’s decision to propose an embargo on Russian oil. He said Ukraine isn’t happy it will be delayed for several months, but “it’s better than nothing.”

Kuleba said it should be clear now “that times for half-sanctions or half-measures when it comes to sanctions is gone.” He says the EU can no longer support Ukraine on one hand by imposing sanctions, while continuing to pay Russia for oil and gas and support their “war machine.”

He also said if any country continues to oppose the embargo on Russian oil, it will be a reason to say the country is complicit in the crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. (AP)

Air raid alarms and missile fire in several cities

Air raid sirens sounded in cities across Ukraine on Wednesday night and missile fire followed shortly after in the cities of Cherkasy, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

In Dnipro, Mayor Borys Filatov said one strike hit the centre of the city. The strikes in Dnipro also hit a railway facility, authorities initially said, without elaborating. Ukrainian Railways said none of its staff were injured in the Dnipro attack.

Complaining that the West is “stuffing Ukraine with weapons”, Russia bombarded railway stations and other supply-line points across the country. Meanwhile, the European Union moved to further punish Moscow for the war by proposing a ban on oil imports, a crucial source of revenue for Russia.

(AP)

Russia 'has resumed offensive' to take control of Mariupol plant

The Ukrainian General Staff said in its daily update at around 04:00 GMT (0600 CET) on Thursday that "the Russian invaders are concentrating their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy our units in the Azovstal area. With the support of the air force, the enemy has resumed the offensive to take control of the plant."

Ukrainian fighters inside Azovstal are fighting "difficult, bloody battles" against Russian troops, Denis Prokopenko, a commander with Ukraine's Azov regiment, said late on Wednesday. A Ukrainian parliamentarian said Russian forces were inside the plant. (AFP)

Azovstal remains one of the biggest hubs of Ukrainian military resistance and has been subjected to massive Russian aerial bombardments and shelling. Russian State TV showed smoke rising over Azovstal.

Hundreds of Ukrainian forces from different parts of the army, as well as civilians, remain in the plant’s underground shelters. (AP)

Russia pledges ceasefire to evacuate civilians from Mariupol steelworks

A unilateral Russian three-day ceasefire is due to come into effect on Thursday morning around the Mariupol steel plant, the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in this strategic port city, but fighting continues in the rest of Ukraine.

"The Russian armed forces will open a humanitarian corridor from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Moscow time (0700 to 1700 CET, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. GMT) on 5, 6 and 7 May from the site of the Azovstal metallurgical plant to evacuate civilians," the defence ministry said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

"During this period, the Russian armed forces and units of the Donetsk People's Republic (unilaterally proclaimed by the pro-Russian separatists, editor's note) will cease fire and hostilities unilaterally," it continued, assuring that civilians who had taken refuge in the factory would be allowed to return to Russia or to territories controlled by Kyiv.

The statement appeared on the Telegram messaging app Wednesday and pledged the forces would refrain from military actions, withdraw to a safe distance and facilitate the withdrawal of the civilians to any destination they choose.

But there was no immediate confirmation of those arrangements from other sources and similar promises to set up evacuation corridors have collapsed, because of what the Ukrainians blamed on continued fighting by Russians. A United Nations spokesman said discussions about future evacuations were ongoing.

In his late night address, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine stood ready to ensure a ceasefire in Mariupol and appealed for help from the UN.

"It will take time simply to lift people out of those basements, out of those underground shelters. In the present conditions, we can not use heavy equipment to clear the rubble away. It all has to be done by hand," Zelenskyy said.

(AFP, AP and Reuters)

Good morning, this is Alasdair Sandford with Thursday's latest updates on the war in Ukraine.