NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880/AP) -- The U.S. announced another wave of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, targeting President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters and toughening penalties against Russian banks in retaliation for “war crimes” in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities continued to gather their dead and collect evidence of Russian atrocities on the ruined outskirts of Kyiv, as the two sides geared up for what could be a climactic push by Moscow's forces to seize the Donbas, the country's mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2022
6 p.m. - Thousands flee Ukrainian combat areas: Deputy prime minister
Ukrainian authorities say nearly 5,000 people were evacuated from combat areas Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 1,171 people were evacuated from the besieged Sea of Azov port of Mariupol, and 2,515 more left the cities of Berdyansk and Melitopol and other areas in the south. She said an additional 1,206 people were evacuated from the eastern region of Luhansk.
Vereshchuk and other officials have been urging residents of eastern regions to evacuate in the face of an impending Russian offensive, saying that people in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions should leave for safer regions.
Donetsk region Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said at least five civilians were killed and eight others wounded by Russian shelling Wednesday.
Over 10 million people, about a quarter of Ukraine’s population, have been displaced by the war, and more than 4 million of them have fled the country.
5:30 p.m. - Biden calls devastation in Bucha 'nothing less' than 'major war crime'
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke in-depth for the first time about the images of multiple civilian deaths at Bucha, arguing in a speech that it's nothing less than a "major war crime."
"Bodies dumped into mass graves… There is nothing less happening than major war crimes," he said.
Biden also said in the speech at the North America's Building Trade Union conference in D.C. that Russian sanctions are expected to have a devastating effect on the Russian economy.
"Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia's economic gains and because we've cut Russia off from important technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century. We're going to stifle Russia’s ability in its economy to grow for years to come," Biden added.
3:30 p.m. - More than 5K civilians killed in Mariupol: mayor
The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol says more than 5,000 civilians have been killed during the monthlong Russian blockade, among them 210 children.
Mayor Vadym Boichenko said Wednesday that Russian forces have among other targets bombed hospitals, including one where 50 people burned to death.
Boichenko said that more than 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian shelling.
The Russian military is besieging the strategic Sea of Azov port, and has cut food, water and energy supplies and pummeled it with artillery and air raids. Capturing the city would allow Russia to secure a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
12:45 p.m. - Zelenskyy says, ‘The fate of our land and of our people is being decided’
With Western governments set to toughen sanctions against the Kremlin and send more weapons to Ukraine following allegations of gruesome war crimes by invading troops, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces were trying to push deep into Ukraine in the east, but the Ukrainian army was holding them back.
“The fate of our land and of our people is being decided. We know what we are fighting for. And we will do everything to win,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian officials have stepped up calls for civilians to evacuate westward from towns near the front line ahead of the anticipated Russian offensive, and some essential services were being moved away. Local authorities in Sloviansk said postal and pension operations were clearing out and bank branches in town were shutting down.
Thwarted in their efforts to take the capital and forced to withdraw, President Vladimir Putin’s troops, along with mercenaries, are now pouring into the Donbas, Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east.
Overnight Tuesday, Russian forces attacked a fuel depot and a factory in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, just west of the Donbas, authorities said. In the Luhansk region, which lies in the Donbas, shelling of Rubizhne on Tuesday killed one person, the regional governor reported.
12:30 p.m. - Yellen warns Russia's invasion will have 'enormous repercussions' worldwide
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned a House panel Wednesday that Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe will have "enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond.”
“Globally, spillovers from the crisis are heightening economic vulnerabilities in many countries that are already facing higher debt burdens and limited policy options as they recover from COVID-19," Yellen said in remarks to the House Financial Services Committee. They were part of her annual testimony on the state of the international financial system.
Yellen said Russia's invasion “including the atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainians in Bucha, are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront to the rules-based global order, and will have enormous economic repercussions for the world.”
Her remarks also touched on the need for food and energy security and debt sustainability globally, and included a request for Congress to provide support to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank organizations, which have provided grants and humanitarian funds financing to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.
12 p.m. - Threat posed to Kyiv ‘limited for foreseeable future’ as Russians regroup: official
A Western official told the Associated Press that it will take Russia up to a month to regroup its forces for a major push on eastern Ukraine.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, said Wednesday that a “reasonable estimate” would be of three to four weeks before troops that have pulled back from the area around Kyiv and northern Ukraine can be re-equipped and redeployed against the Donbas region in the east.
The official said the Russian units would “have to go through a pretty lengthy period of reconstitution and refurbishment” before they could rejoin the war.
The official said almost a quarter of the Russian ground units known as battalion tactical groups in Ukraine had been “rendered non-combat-effective” in the fighting and either withdrawn or merged with other units.
The losses and pullback of Russian troops mean “the threat posed to Kyiv is limited for the foreseeable future” from Russian ground troops, the official said.
11:45 a.m. - Olympic gold medalist swims through ‘blood’ in protest at Russian embassy
Olympic gold medalist Ruta Meilutyte swam in a red-dyed pond outside the Russian Embassy in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Wednesday to protest against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The performance called “Swimming Through” was organized by a local art community. The pond was dyed red with environmentally friendly paint to resemble blood, according to the organizers.
“It’s crucial that we keep acting, spreading truthful information, volunteering, protesting, donating, and pressuring our governments to take action,” Meilutyte said on Instagram.
Meilutyte won gold at the 2012 Games in London as well as gold at the 2013 world championship and European titles in 2014 and 2016.
11:30 a.m. - US slaps Vladimir Putin's 2 daughters, major Russian banks with sanctions
The U.S. slapped Russia with another round of sanctions Wednesday that aren't just targeting the country's financial institutions -- but Vladimir Putin's two daughters, as well.
Putin's two daughters -- with ex-wife Lyudmila Putina -- are Mariya Putina, a 36-year-old pediatric endocrinologist, and 35-year-old Katerina Tikhonova, the deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University.
"We have reason to believe that Putin and many of his cronies and the oligarchs hide their wealth, hide their assets, with family members that have placed their assets and their wealth in the US financial system, but also many other parts of the world," a senior Biden administration official said, according to CNN.
"That's why the coordination, the coordinated efforts to freeze their assets and seize their physical luxury goods -- their cars, their yachts, their homes, etc. -- that's why it's so important that we act together," the official added.
Sanctions -- in response to Russia's horrific assault on Ukraine -- were also imposed on two of Russia's largest banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank.
Sanctions are also targeting Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin; the wife and children of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; and members of Russia’s Security Council, including Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister.
10:30 a.m. - Chanel restricts sales to Russians abroad
Luxury fashion brand Chanel said it has stopped selling its clothes, perfumes and other luxury goods to Russian customers abroad if they plan to take the products back home — a bold response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move comes after the Parisian stalwart had already shuttered its boutiques in Russia. It concerns products valued at over $328 — which is the majority of Chanel's design output.
“The most recent EU and Swiss sanction laws include a prohibition on the ‘sale, supply, transfer or export, directly or indirectly, of luxury goods to any natural or legal person, entity or body in Russia or for use in Russia,’” Chanel said Wednesday in a statement.
“We have rolled out a process to ask clients for whom we do not know the main residency to confirm that the items they are purchasing will not be used in Russia,” Chanel said, without elaborating on what that process looks like.
It’s a difficult measure to enforce, yet some Russian social media influencers have already said they are being asked for identification and denied the ability to buy goods at Chanel boutiques worldwide, including Russian socialite Anna Kalashnikova, who said last week that she had seen “Rusophobia in action” after not being allowed to purchase earrings and a Chanel bag in an outlet in Dubai.
10 a.m. - Kremlin says negotiations continue but ‘much more tough’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says negotiations with Ukraine are continuing despite allegations of war crimes against civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
Peskov said Wednesday the talks continued with Ukraine but that the Bucha revelations — which he referred to as a “staging” — had hampered talks and there was “a fairly long road ahead.”
“The working process continues, but it is going much more tough than we would like. Of course, we would like to see more dynamism from the Ukrainian side, but the process has not been broken off and is continuing,” Peskov said.
Since the talks in Turkey last week, Russia and Ukraine’s delegations have continued talks via video link.
9:30 a.m. - Russia using hunger as a ‘weapon’ of war, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of using hunger as a weapon of war by deliberately targeting Ukraine’s essential food supplies.
In an address to Irish lawmakers Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Russian forces “are destroying things that are sustaining livelihoods” including food storage depots, blocking ports so Ukraine could not export food and “putting mines into the fields.”
“For them hunger is also a weapon, a weapon against us ordinary people,” he said, accusing Russia of “deliberately provoking a food crisis” in Ukraine, a major global producer of staples including wheat and sunflower oil.
He said it would have international ramifications, because “there will be a shortage of food and the prices will go up, and this is reality for the millions of people who are hungry, and it will be more difficult for them to feed their families.”
Zelenskyy spoke by video to a joint session of Ireland’s two houses of parliament, the latest in a string of international addresses he has used to rally support for Ukraine. On Tuesday, he addressed the U.N. Security Council via video.
9 a.m. - US chipmaker Intel suspends all business operations in Russia
Intel said it is suspending all its business operations in Russia, becoming the latest foreign company to leave because of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
“Effective immediately, we have suspended all business operations in Russia,” the U.S. chipmaker said late Wednesday.
The company had already suspended shipments to customers in Russia and neighboring ally Belarus after the war broke out.
Intel said it’s working to support its 1,200 employees in Russia and has put in place “business continuity measures” to reduce disruption to its global operations, though it didn’t provide details.
“Intel continues to join the global community in condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine and calling for a swift return to peace,” it said in a statement.
8:30 a.m. - Pope kisses battered Ukrainian flag from Bucha
Pope Francis kissed a battered Ukrainian flag that was brought to him from the Ukrainian city of Bucha and called again for an end to the war.
Francis welcomed a half-dozen Ukrainian children up to the stage of the Vatican audience hall at the end of his Wednesday general audience and gave them each a giant chocolate Easter egg. He urged prayers for them and for all Ukrainians.
“The recent news from the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, brought testimony of new atrocities, like the massacre in Bucha, even more horrendous cruelty carried out against civilians, defenseless women and children," the pope said.
He told the crowd: “These children had to flee to arrive in a safe place. This is the fruit of war.”
The pontiff held up a grimy Ukrainian flag that he said had arrived at the Vatican on Tuesday from Bucha, where evidence has emerged of what appears to be intentional killings of civilians during the city’s occupation by Russian troops.
Kissing it, he said: “This flag comes from the war, from that martyred city Bucha .... Let us not forget them. Let us not forget the people of Ukraine.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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