- EU countries will stop importing Russian oil and refined products, the bloc’s leader said, in a sixth round of sanctions against Moscow.
- Russian attacks killed 21 civilians and wounded 27 others in eastern Ukraine, the governor of Donetsk says.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says 156 civilian evacuees from Mariupol have reached the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia.
- Another convoy of buses left Mariupol Wednesday morning as evacuation attempts resumed.
- The EU has unveiled its plan to phase out Russian oil imports in a sixth package of sanctions.
- The mayor of Lviv says air raids have injured two people and damaged power and water stations, affecting utilities across the city.
Here are all the latest updates:
EU unveils plan to ban oil imports in new Russia sanctions
The European Union’s leader has called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia in a sixth package of sanctions against Moscow, calling on the EU’s members to phase out imports of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system.
The proposals need to be unanimously approved to take effect and are likely to be the subject of fierce debate. Von der Leyen conceded that getting all 27 member countries – some landlocked and highly dependent on Russia for energy supplies – to agree on oil sanctions “will not be easy”.
Today we are presenting the sixth package of sanctions.
First, we are listing high-ranking military officers and other individuals who committed war crimes in Bucha.
We know who you are.
And you will be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/WO2S8ly0qw— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 4, 2022
More buses of evacuees leave Mariupol
A convoy of buses left Mariupol on Wednesday morning in a new attempt by Ukraine, the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate civilians from the southern Ukrainian city, the governor of Donetsk has said.
The buses were heading for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, Pavlo Kyrylenko said. He did not say whether any more civilians had been evacuated from the steelworks in Mariupol where the city’s last defenders are holding out against Russian forces.
Moscow politician says NATO was prepping Ukraine to attack Russia in January
The speaker of Russia’s parliament has said NATO was arming Ukraine to attack Russia in January and Putin’s decision to start a “special military operation” prevented “a huge tragedy”.
“NATO was preparing Ukraine for an attack on our country. How else to explain that all decisions on the supply of weapons to Ukraine were made by the US Parliament in January. Even before the start of the special military operation,” Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.
He also said that Ukraine’s citizens were only “expendable material” for Washington and nationalism had become “the state ideology of Kyiv”, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
Road accident death toll climbs to 26
Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has confirmed that 26 people died in a highway accident in the Rivne region.
“In total, 26 people died in the accident: 24 passengers and two drivers (of a minibus and a bus); 12 people were injured; 11 were bus passengers and a fuel tanker driver; all passengers were aged 17 to 69. The youngest was supposed to turn 18 on May 12,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.
In his nighttime address last night, Zelenskyy said a bus, a car and a fuel truck had collided. The ministry said the bus was heading to Poland and carrying 34 passengers.
Read More: Russia-Ukraine live news: EU chief calls for Russian oil ban | Russia-Ukraine war News