Ukraine war: Authorities urge people in Donbas to evacuate ahead of impending Russian offensive

Russia's war in Ukraine is taking on a new dimension with growing evidence of human rights atrocities by Vladimir Putin's troops, accused of killing civilians in cold blood as they retreated from the Kyiv region.

Despite Moscow denying the accusations, they are fears similar massacres could be discovered in the coming days.

Follow our latest updates from the war in our blog below, or watch TV coverage in the video player, above.

Wednesday's key points:

-Red Cross rescues 1,000 people despite failed trip to Mariupol

-The US on Wednesday announced that it is sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters.

-Mariupol City Council claims Russia is trying to hide evidence of civilian deaths by deploying mobile crematoria to burn bodies in the besieged city.

-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of using hunger as a weapon by targeting food supplies, in a speech to Irish MPs.

-The UK banned all new investment in Russia as part of new sanctions.

-The EU has promised a fifth round of new sanctions “this week”, hitting the energy sector for the first time. The bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell has told the European Parliament that the EU has spent 35 times more on buying Russian fuel since the start of the war than it has given Ukraine in weapons.

-EU Council President Charles Michel has said EU countries should give asylum to Russian deserters.

Ukrainian authorities urge people living in the east to evacuate

Ukrainian authorities urged people living in the Donbas to evacuate now, ahead of an impending Russian offensive, while there is still time. “Later, people will come under fire,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, “and we won’t be able to do anything to help them. ” A Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence estimates, said it will take Russia's battle-damaged forces as much as a month to regroup for a major push on eastern Ukraine.

UN to vote Thursday on suspending Russia from rights council

The UN General Assembly will vote on Thursday on whether to suspend Russia from the UN’s premiere human rights body.

The move was initiated by the United States in response to the discovery of hundreds of bodies after Russian troops withdrew from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, sparking calls for its forces to be tried for war crimes.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the call for Russia to be stripped of its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council in the wake of videos and photos of streets in the town of Bucha strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians. The videos and reporting from the town have sparked global revulsion and calls for tougher sanctions on Russia, which has vehemently denied responsibility.

“We believe that the members of the Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine, and we believe that Russia needs to be held accountable,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Monday. “Russia’s participation on the Human Rights Council is a farce.”

(AP)

New US sanctions target Putin's adult daughters

The US on Wednesday announced that it is sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters as part of a new batch of penalties on the country’s political and economic system in retaliation for its “war crimes” in Ukraine.

The US is also imposing toughened “full blocking sanctions” on Russia’s Sberbank and Alfa Bank, two of its largest financial institutions, as well as some Russian state-owned enterprises. President Joe Biden is also signing an executive order to ban new US investment in Russia.

In addition to Putin’s adult daughters, the new sanctions also target the family of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

The US actions are set to be imposed in concert with toughened sanctions by its European allies.

(AP)