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BUSINESSTODAY 21 April 2022

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10 UKRAINE 21.4.2022 EU chief Charles Michel said on Wednesday that there must be justice for war crimes committed in Ukraine as he toured the devastated town of Boro- dianka on a visit to the country. "In Borodianka. Like Bucha and too many other towns in Ukraine. History will not forget the war crimes that have been committed here. ere can be no peace without justice," European Coun- cil head Michel wrote on Twitter. Michel is the latest foreign leader to head to Kyiv in a show of support for the pro-Western authorities as they battle the onslaught from Moscow's forces. Western nations are aiding Ukrain- ian and international efforts to probe alleged crimes committed by Russia's forces in areas they occupied. Moscow's troops withdrew from towns such as Borodianka and Bucha near Kyiv at the end of March as the Kremlin refocused efforts on the east of the country. Local authorities have said that over 1,200 bodies have been found in the Kyiv region so far. Mariupol ultimatum expires Russia's latest ultimatum to Ukrain- ian fighters holding out in Mariupol expired on Wednesday afternoon with no sign of mass surrender as Moscow pressed ahead with its offensive in the east and Western governments prom- ised Ukraine more military help. ousands of Russian troops backed by artillery and rocket barrages were attempting to advance in what Ukraini- an officials have called the Battle of the Donbas – a final push by Moscow to seize two eastern provinces it claims on behalf of separatists. Russia's nearly eight-week-long in- vasion has failed to capture any of Ukraine's largest cities. Moscow was forced to retreat from northern Ukraine after an assault on Kyiv was repelled last month, but has poured troops back in for an assault on the east that began this week. e biggest attack on a European state since 1945 has led to nearly 5 million people fleeing abroad and reduced cit- ies to rubble. In the ruins of Mariupol, site of the war's heaviest fighting and worst hu- manitarian catastrophe, Russia was hitting the last main Ukrainian strong- hold, the Azovstal steel plant, with bun- ker-buster bombs, Kyiv said. Ukraine says hundreds of civilians are sheltering beneath the factory. "e world watches the murder of children online and remains silent," presidential adviser Mykhailo Podol- yak wrote on Twitter. EU chief Charles Michel said Wednesday (20 April) that there must be justice for war crimes committed in Ukraine as he toured the devastated town of Borodianka on a vis- it to the country. "In Borodianka. Like Bucha and too many other towns in Ukraine. History will not forget the war crimes that have been committed here. ere can be no peace without justice," European Coun- cil head Michel wrote on Twitter. Russia has been trying to take full control of Mariupol since the war's first days. Its capture would be a big strategic prize, linking territory held by pro-Rus- sian separatists in the east with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014. Russian-backed separatists said short- ly before a 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) Wednes- day deadline that just five people had surrendered, a day after Russia said no- one had responded to a similar surren- der call. Ukraine has vowed never to surrender in Mariupol and its general staff said fighting was continuing at the plant. Ukraine announced plans to send 90 buses to evacuate 6,000 civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday, saying it had reached a "preliminary agreement" with Russia on a safe corridor, the highest profile announcement of such an at- tempt for weeks. Moscow has blocked all previous attempts to send convoys to Mariupol, including one by the Red Cross at the end of March. Civilians have been able to escape to other parts of Ukraine only in their own vehicles, while tens of thousands have been bussed to Russia in what Moscow calls humanitarian evacuation and Kyiv calls forced deportation. Once a prosperous port of 400,000 people, Mariupol has been reduced to a blasted wasteland with corpses in the streets and residents confined to cellars. Ukrainian officials say tens of thousands of civilians have died there. 'History will not forget war crimes' in Ukraine: EU chief Council President Charles Michel in Kyiv WITH the war in Ukraine approaching eight weeks, more than 5 million peo- ple have fled the country since Russian troops invaded on Feb. 24, the U.N. ref- ugee agency reported Wednesday. When the number reached 4 million on March 30, the exodus exceeded the worst-case predictions of the Gene- va-based U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. e even bigger milestone in Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II was reached as Russia unleashed a full-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine that will disrupt and end more lives. Ukraine had a pre-war population of 44 million, and UNHCR says the con- flict has displaced more than 7 million people within Ukraine along with the 5.03 million who had left as of Wednes- day. According to the agency, 13 million people are believed to be trapped in the war-affected areas of Ukraine. More than half of the refugees, over 2.8 million, fled at least at first to Po- land. ey are eligible for national ID numbers that entitle them to work, to free health care, schooling and bonuses for families with children. Farther south, Hungary has emerged as a major transit point for Ukrainian refugees. Out of more than 465,000 who arrived, some 16,400 have applied for protected status, meaning they want to stay. Many are members of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine. Hungary's government says it has pro- vided around $8.7 million to several charitable organizations and is giving subsidies to companies that employ Ukrainians granted asylum. In March, a non-governmental or- ganization, Migration Aid, rented an entire five-story building in Budapest, a former workers' hostel, to provide tem- porary accommodation for people es- caping the war in Ukraine. It has helped some 4,000 refugees so far. Neighbouring Romania has received over 750,000 refugees from Ukraine so far. e European nations hosting refu- gees say they need international help to manage the challenge, especially now as Russia has intensified attacks in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Data from Poland shows that some 738,000 people have crossed back into Ukraine during the war. Some of them shuttle back and forth to do shopping in Poland, while others return to Ukraine to check on relatives and property, electing to either stay or depart again depending on what they find. More than half of the refugees from Ukraine are children, according to UN- HCR. ousands of civilians, including children, have been killed or wounded in shelling and air strikes. U.N. agency says more than 5 million refugees have fled war in Ukraine

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