Live updates: 5,000 Russian soldiers dead or captured

The latest developments on the Russia-Ukraine war:

BRUSSELS — A senior Western intelligence official briefed by multiple intelligence agencies estimated Tuesday that more than 5,000 Russian soldiers have been captured or killed so far, and that Ukrainian forces have eliminated significant numbers of Russian aircraft and tanks and some air defense systems.

The official said that Russian forces have increased use of artillery north of Kyiv and around the eastern city of Kharkiv and northern city of Chernihiv, and have been using heavier weapons over the last 48 hours.

The official also said that Russian forces are bogging down in the Donbas region in the east, where most Ukrainian forces are concentrated after eight years fighting Russian-backed separatists there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence assessment.

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LONDON — Britain is vowing to end London’s status as a haven for oligarchs and their ill-gotten gains with a law intended to prevent the real owners of businesses and properties being hidden from view.

The government said the Economic Crime Bill will force anonymous foreign owners of U.K. property to reveal their real identities ”to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive chains of shell companies.” Those who don’t comply face being unable to sell their property or a five-year prison sentence.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the measure, which has to be approved by Parliament, would help “tear back the facade that those supporting (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s campaign of destruction have been hiding behind for so long.”

Successive British governments have promised for years to end London’s status as a safe haven for dirty money, with little effect.

The anti-corruption group Transparency International says Russians linked to the Kremlin or accused of corruption own 1.5 billion pounds’ ($2 billion) worth of London property, and 90,000 properties in Britain are owned by shell companies.

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PODGORICA, Montenegro — Montenegro, a former ally that turned its back on Russia to enter NATO in 2017, has joined Western sanctions imposed against Moscow because of the war in Ukraine.

Montenegro’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said that by joining the sanctions Montenegro continues with full harmonization of its policies with those of the European Union.

Additionally, “we are showing solidarity with Ukraine and determination to help … re-establish peace in Europe,” said the statement.

Montenegro is seen as the next in line in the Western Balkans to join the EU. The country is divided among those favoring pro-Western policies and the pro-Serbian and pro-Russian camps.

A pro-Serbian government recently fell in a parliamentary no-confidence vote with talks underway for the formation of a pro-Western one soon.

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LONDON — Britain’s Prince Charles offered words of support for Ukraine on Tuesday, saying he stands with residents who are “resisting brutal aggression.”

Charles, 73, was speaking in Southend-on-Sea in eastern England, where he drew parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the murder of a local member of Parliament who was stabbed to death last year while meeting with constituents.

“What we saw in the terrible tragedy in Southend was an attack on democracy, on an open society, on freedom itself,” Charles said.

“We are seeing those same values under attack today in Ukraine in the most unconscionable way,” he said. ’’In the stand we take here, we are in solidarity with all those who are resisting brutal aggression.”

The comments came as Charles attended a ceremony officially conferring city status on Southend. The government last year pledged to make Southend a city in honor of the slain lawmaker David Amess, who had campaigned for cityhood for his community.

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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s defense minister has called for a ceasefire in the conflict in Ukraine during a telephone discussion with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, according to the Turkish defense ministry.

During their conversation, Hulusi Akar “emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire” to improve the humanitarian situation and to allow the evacuation of people caught up in Russia’s military attacks on Ukraine, according to a ministry statement.

The Turkish minister also told Shoigu that Turkey would continue to work to restore peace in the region and to help provide humanitarian aid.

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PARIS — French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the word “war” he used earlier Tuesday to describe economic and financial sanctions against Russia was “inappropriate.”

Le Maire said in a written statement “we are determined to impose massive and efficient sanctions on Russia but we are not in a conflict against the Russian people.”

He added the word “war” is not in line with France’s “strategy of de-escalation.”

Le Maire’s statement comes after his initial comments prompted a stark warning from a senior Russian official. Dmitry Medvedev, a deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said on Twitter : “Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones.”

Tuesday morning on France Info radio, Le Maire had vowed to “to deliver a total economic and financial war against Russia,” adding the sanctions are “going to cause the Russian economy to collapse.”

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KYIV, Ukraine — The leadership of Ukraine’s main Holocaust memorial has asked the International Criminal Court to speak out against Vladimir Putin’s false claims of a genocide in separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

In a letter to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial’s academic council said Putin’s claims that Ukraine committed genocide “is a lie.” Putin has sought to justify his invasion of Ukraine by claiming he is protecting residents in the Donbas region, where separatists have fought Ukrainian forces.

The letter asks Khan to make a “legal statement about this so-called genocide.”

“If President Putin wants to denounce genocide, he should reach out to those in the system of international justice, not begin a war against the people of Ukraine under false pretenses,” it says.

Babi Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within 48 hours in 1941 when the city was under Nazi occupation. The killing was carried out by SS troops along with local collaborators.

The memorial was inaugurated at a ceremony last October attended by the leaders of Ukraine, Israel and Germany. One of the leading donors to the project is Mikhail Fridman, a Ukrainian-born Russian oligarch. Fridman has spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine.

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PRISTINA, Kosovo — Fearing Russia’s intervention through its regional ally Serbia, Kosovo leaders on Tuesday called on NATO to accelerate Kosovo’s membership into the alliance.

Kosovo has joined the United States, European Union and other global powers in slapping ever-tougher sanctions on Russia, a move which has not been done by neighboring Serbia.

Defense Minister Armend Mehaj said that after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “Kosovo’s accelerated membership to NATO is an immediate need to guarantee security and stability in the region and beyond,” adding that, “we should not wait for the worst to take decisions.”

Kosovo relations with Serbia are still tense despite an 11-year long EU-facilitated dialogue.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 after a bloody conflict with Serbia years earlier left more than 10,000 people dead and triggered a NATO intervention. Pristina’s government is recognized by the U.S. and most EU nations, but Belgrade has refused to recognize its independence and relies on support from Russia and China in its bid to retain claims on the territory.

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GENEVA — The U.N.‘s refugees chief is warning that many more vulnerable people will begin fleeing their homes in Ukraine if Russia’s military offensive continues and further urban areas are hit.

Filippo Grandi told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that his agency has so far recorded 677,000 people fleeing from Ukraine to neighboring countries, with about half of those currently in Poland.

Queues along the border are now tens of kilometers (miles) long and some people are having to wait days to cross.

“It is likely that if the military offensive continues and urban centers are hit one after the other, that we will see more and more people with less resources, with less connections, more vulnerable in every respect,” he said.

Grandi criticized instances where non-Ukrainians fleeing the country had reportedly suffered discrimination, but said this did not appear to be the result of government policies.

He spoke at the launch of the U.N.’s humanitarian appeal for Ukraine for $1.1 billion to help six million people in Ukraine over the next three months.

U.N. humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths said shelling and bombing have already damaged water pipes, electricity lines, basic services. "Hundreds of thousands of families are without drinking water,” he said.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The commander of the Dutch defense forces says that a shipment of anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons has been handed to Ukrainian forces so they can be used to defend the country against the Russian invasion.

Gen. Onno Eichelsheim told Dutch radio station NPO 1 on Tuesday that the 50 anti-tank systems and 200 Stinger anti-aircraft rockets “have been moved toward Ukraine and are at this moment being handed over to the Ukrainian armed forces.”

He did not elaborate on where the weapons were given to the Ukrainians but said he expected they would be immediately deployed.

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GENEVA — Scores of diplomats have walked out of two meetings at the United Nations in Geneva in which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was beamed in for a video statement, as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Lavrov spoke by video to the Conference on Disarmament and the Human Rights Council, which he had planned to attend before closure of airspace to Russian planes by several European countries prevented his travel to the Swiss city.

“What you have seen is strong support for Ukraine,” said Bonnie Jenkins, U.S. Undersecretary of State for arms control and international Security, after the walkout from the disarmament meeting.

Shortly afterward, in a conference room two floors higher, scores of diplomats — including Ukraine’s ambassador in Geneva and the foreign ministers of Canada and Denmark —poured out of the Human Rights Council chamber.

A spokesman for the council said about 100 people left the room.

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NEW DELHI, India — A 21-year-old Indian student died in shelling in Kharkiv on Tuesday morning, as Russian attacks intensified in Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to India's foreign ministry.

Around 8,000 Indian nationals in Ukraine have made it back home in recent weeks, with nearly 1,400 of them evacuated on six special flights from border countries since last week’s invasion. An estimated 12,000 are believed to still be stuck as efforts continue to evacuate them.

India has sent a group of high-ranking ministers to Ukraine’s neighboring countries to help evacuate the thousands still stranded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in contact with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But India has refrained so far from condemning Russia or acknowledging Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty. Last week, it abstained from voting on a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Russia stop its invasion.

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LASK AIR BASE, Poland — NATO’s chief says the alliance sees no need to change its nuclear weapons alert level, despite Russia’s threats.

NATO's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke to The Associated Press following talks on European security with Polish President Andrzej Duda an air base in Poland where NATO’s Polish and U.S. fighter jets are based.

“We will always do what is needed to protect and defend our allies, but we don’t think there is any need now to change the alert levels of NATO’s nuclear forces,” Stoltenberg said.

The Kremlin has raised the specter of nuclear war, reporting on Monday that its land, air and sea nuclear forces were on high alert following President Vladimir Putin’s weekend order. NATO itself has no nuclear weapons, but three of its members, the United States, Britain and France, do.

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BRUSSELS — The president of the European Commission has committed at least half-billion euros of the bloc’s budget to deal with the humanitarian consequences of the unfolding war in Ukraine.

Ursula von der Leyen told a special session of the EU legislature on Tuesday that the $560 million in funds would be used to deal with the crisis both in Ukraine itself and the hundreds of thousands of refugees getting out of the country as they flee the Russian invasion.

Even if she had held out the perspective of EU membership to Ukraine, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had signed an official application, she cautioned that “there still is a long path ahead. We have to end this war. And we should talk about the next steps."

Any process from application to actually becoming an EU member takes many years as applicant nations must meet strict conditions and benchmarks including on trade, judicial independence and corruption.

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KYIV, Ukraine — Russian shelling has pounded the main central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and other civilian targets.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, a convoy 65 kilometers (40 miles) long of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital, Kyiv, on the sixth day of the Russia invasion of its neighbor.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of resorting to terror tactics to press Europe’s largest ground war in generations.

In strategic Kharkiv, videos posted online showed explosions hitting the region’s Soviet-era administrative building and residential areas. A maternity ward moved to a shelter amid shelling.

Zelenskyy called the attack on Kharkiv’s main square “frank, undisguised terror,” blaming a Russian missile and calling it a war crime.

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MOSCOW — A senior Russian official has launched a new stark warning over its sanctions against his country for its war in Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, a deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, was retorting to a comment by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Tuesday that the European Union was going to unleash an all-out economic and financial war against Russia.

“Today, some French minister has said that they declared an economic war on Russia,” said Medvedev, who served as placeholder president in 2008-2012 when Vladimir Putin had to shift into the prime minister’s post because of term limits. “Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones.”Medvedev said on Twitter.

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WARSAW — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russian President Vladimir Putin is using “barbaric and indiscriminate tactics against innocent civilians” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking on a visit to Poland, Johnson said Putin was prepared to “bomb tower blocks, to send missiles into tower blocks, to kill children, as we are seeing in increasing numbers.”

Johnson thanked Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the violence. He said the U.K. would send more humanitarian aid and would take in refugees “in considerable numbers.”

The British government has been criticized for not matching the European Union, which says it will let Ukrainians stay for up to three years without applying for asylum. Britain says it will allow Ukrainians in the country to bring their immediate family members to the U.K. That applies to partners and children, but not parents or siblings

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LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- A French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has docked in Cyprus’ main port of Limassol as part of a two-month deployment to the eastern Mediterranean. .

The Charles de Gaulle leads a strike group composed of two destroyers and a frigate tasked with anti-submarine and air defense duties, as well as a supply ship and a nuclear-powered submarine.

The French navy said the carrier’s deployment was intended to project France’s military might in the region and to support the fight against the remnants of the Islamic State group on Iraqi soil that “still constitute a threat.”

The carrier’s 20 Rafale marine fighter aircraft had been set to conduct flights over the Black Sea and hold joint air exercises with the Romanian Air Force. But it was unclear how the ongoing war in Ukraine could alter the strike group’s mission.

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GENEVA — The U.N. human rights office called Tuesday for the release of all peaceful protesters who were arrested after taking part in Russia in demonstrations protesting the war in Ukraine.

The Geneva-based office said reports suggested about 6,400 people have been arrested in Russia since last week for taking part in peace protests.

“We understand the vast majority are released within hours, many after paying an administrative fine, while some are given prison sentences ranging from seven to 25 days under various laws,” it said. “There are also reports of unnecessary and excessive use of force by police during and after the arrests.”

Separately, it also urged the release of some 744 people detained in neighboring Belarus, saying some had been arrested for chanting “no war” and expressing support for Ukraine.

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GENEVA — The Red Cross is appealing for 250 million Swiss francs ($272 million) to help people affected by the war in Ukraine.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Cross federation said in a statement Tuesday they fear “millions of people face extreme hardship and suffering without improved access and a rapid increase in humanitarian assistance.”

“Casualty figures keep rising while health facilities struggle to cope,” said the head of the ICRC, Robert Mardini.

“We already see long-term disruptions in regular water and electricity supplies,” he added. “People calling our hotline in Ukraine are desperately in need of food and shelter.”

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MOSCOW — The Kremlin has denied that the Russian military has used cluster munitions in Ukraine and insisted that the Russian forces only have struck military targets.

Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Tuesday that “the Russian troops don’t conduct any strikes against civilian infrastructure and residential areas.” Peskov’s claim contradicts abundant evidence documented by the AP of indiscriminate shelling of homes, schools, and hospitals across Ukraine.

Peskov also rejected the accusations that the Russian military has used cluster munitions and devastating vacuum weapons, dismissing them as fabrications.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, he wouldn’t respond to questions about whether the Kremlin is happy with the pace of the offensive and wouldn’t comment on Russian military casualties.

The Russian Defense Ministry said for the first time Monday that it has suffered losses but didn’t name any numbers.

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GENEVA — The U.N. human rights office says it has recorded the deaths of 136 civilians, including 13 children, in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, but warned the toll may be far higher.

The Geneva-based office said Tuesday that it has also recorded 400 civilians injured in the conflict, among them 26 children.

“Most of these casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and air strikes,” it said. “These are only the casualties we were able to cross-check, and the real toll is likely to be much higher.”

It urged parties to the conflict not to use explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas because of the “very high risks of indiscriminate and disproportionate impact on civilians.”