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Russia on Thursday appeared to give the most damning assessment so far of its invasion, describing the "tragedy" of mounting troop losses and the economic hit as Ukrainians were evacuated from eastern cities before an anticipated major offensive.
Moscow's six-week long incursion has seen more than 4 million people flee abroad, killed or injured thousands, left a quarter of the population homeless, turned cities into rubble and led to Russia's near total isolation on the world stage.
In a symbolic move, the United Nations General Assembly suspended it from the UN Human Rights Council, expressing "grave concern at the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis." Russia then quit the council.
Russia has previously acknowledged its attack has not progressed as quickly as it wanted, but on Thursday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov lamented the rising death toll.
"We have significant losses of troops," he told Sky News. "It's a huge tragedy for us."
Russia is facing its most difficult economic situation for three decades due to unprecedented Western sanctions, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said earlier.
Russia says it launched what it calls a "special military operation" on Feb. 24 to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext.
Following new measures announced this week in response to the killing of civilians in the town of Bucha that were widely condemned by the West as war crimes, Ukraine wants allies to stop buying Russian oil and gas amid divisions in Europe over how far to go on energy restrictions.
"Once and for all, we can teach Russia and any other potential aggressors that those who choose war always lose," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Greek parliament.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians and says images of bodies in Bucha were staged to justify more sanctions against Moscow and derail peace negotiations.
An EU ban on purchases of Russian coal is set to be pushed back to mid-August following pressure from Germany, two sources told Reuters.
And Ukraine accused Hungary of undermining EU unity after Budapest broke ranks with the bloc by saying it was prepared to pay roubles for Russian gas, a Kremlin demand that most in the West had resisted.
On the battlefield, Ukraine says following a withdrawal from Kyiv's outskirts, Russia is regrouping to try to gain full control over the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which have been partly held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
The besieged southern port of Mariupol, where the mayor said over 100,000 people were still trapped, was also a target.
"Evacuate! The chances of saving yourself and your family from Russian death are dwindling every day," Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said.
Authorities in Dnipro, a city in central-eastern Ukraine, also urged women, children and the elderly to leave.
Both sides continued to trade accusations, with Moscow opening a criminal investigation into allegations by a Russian soldier that he was beaten and received death threats while being held in Ukraine as a prisoner of war.
Separately, a social media video verified by Reuters and geolocated to an area west of Kyiv appears to show Ukrainian forces shooting and killing a captured and badly wounded Russian soldier.
In the city of Kharkiv, at least one person was killed and 14 wounded in shelling on Thursday, the regional governor said, while Ukraine's prosecutor general reported 26 bodies had been found under two ruined buildings in the town of Borodianka.
Reuters could not immediately verify the accounts.
NATO members have agreed to strengthen support to Ukraine and the United States is looking into what new weapons it could send as Zelenskiy's government says starving Moscow's war machine is the only way to bring it to a settlement at on-and-off peace talks.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Kyiv had presented Moscow with a draft peace deal that contained "unacceptable" elements and deviated from previously agreed proposals.
Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters Lavrov was not directly involved in negotiations and his statements were "of purely propagandistic significance" aimed at diverting attention from the killings in Bucha.
On Wednesday, Reuters reporters saw the body of a man in Bucha with a rope tied around his feet and a charred hole in his forehead, one of at least five victims shot through the head documented by the news organization.
Since Russian troops pulled back last week, Ukrainian officials have said hundreds of civilians have been found dead.
Bucha's mayor has said dozens were the victims of extra-judicial killings carried out by Russian troops. Reuters could not independently verify those figures.
Media outlets including Reuters have seen satellite images released by a private security company that appear to show bodies in the streets while Bucha was still occupied by Russia, contradicting Moscow's assertion that Ukraine staged the bodies after retaking the town.
Accounts by at least a dozen residents of one apartment complex in Bucha painted a picture of violence and intimidation by Russian soldiers.
The mutilated bodies of one resident of the complex and another local were discovered in a stairwell.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Tomasz Janowski, Frances Kerry and Costas Pitas; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Catherine Evans and Daniel Wallis)
Do you have any questions about the attack on Ukraine? Email dotcom@bellmedia.ca.
U.S. forecasters are warning of destructive waves, devastating winds and flash floods through the week as Hurricane Milton makes its way from the Yucatan Peninsula toward Florida.
A seasoned American meteorologist became emotional on air as he gave an update on a major hurricane, later suggesting the reason behind his strong reaction.
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WeightWatchers said on Tuesday it would offer a compounded version of Novo Nordisk's popular obesity drug Wegovy as part of its weight-management programs.
On September 11, 80-year-old Madeleine Gervais was robbed in Ottawa's west end. It happened in the Loblaws parking lot in College Square, when she was approached by a man and a woman who insisted to help her load her groceries into her car.
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On September 11, 80-year-old Madeleine Gervais was robbed in Ottawa's west end. It happened in the Loblaws parking lot in College Square, when she was approached by a man and a woman who insisted to help her load her groceries into her car.
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Donald Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Vladimir Putin since leaving office and secretly sent the Russian president COVID-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic, Bob Woodward reported in his new book, 'War.'
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A German court on Tuesday acquitted a man who is also under investigation in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in a trial on charges of unrelated sexual offences.
Kamala Harris called Donald Trump 'incredibly irresponsible' for spreading falsehoods about the federal response to Hurricane Helene's destruction, offering especially sharp words as a new storm bears down on Florida with just weeks until Election Day.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government has no intention of proroguing Parliament to end an impasse with the Tories over a matter of privilege.
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A bipartisan group of 14 U.S. attorneys general from across the country filed lawsuits on Tuesday against TikTok, alleging that the platform has “addicted†young people and harmed their mental health.
An elevator mechanic mistakenly threw out a piece of artwork, made to look like empty beer cans, assuming it was litter, a Dutch museum revealed earlier this month.
The "Star Trek" star, Chris Pine, has a new children's book out, titled "When Digz the Dog Met Zurl the Squirrel: A Short Tale About a Short Tail."
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Statistics Canada says the country posted a merchandise trade deficit of $1.1 billion in August as lower oil prices weighed on exports.
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A Toronto senior says she can’t believe that two roofers took advantage of her, despite knowing she was recently widowed and suffering from a painful disability.
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New York Jets owner Woody Johnson made the stunning decision Tuesday to fire Saleh five games into his fourth season after the team's 2-3 start following a 23-17 loss to Minnesota in London on Sunday.
Mercedes-Benz has partnered up with the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) and the provincial government to launch a new “incubator programâ€. One of the first three locations is Windsor, with the other two going to Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo.
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Tesla is recalling more than 27,000 Cybertrucks because the rearview camera image may not activate immediately after shifting into reverse, the fifth recall for the vehicle since it went on sale late last year.
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Avry Wortman, 13, scored two touchdowns on Sunday during her team's win in the under 14 Greater Moncton Football Association.
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Border officers in B.C.'s Lower Mainland made more than 60 seizures of methamphetamine bound for Australia in a six-month span earlier this year, totalling more than eight million doses of the drug.
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Some City of Toronto park crews did half as much maintenance work as they reported and instead appeared to hang out at plazas and eateries, a new report from the city’s Auditor General has found.
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Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt said on Tuesday that one of its entities had filed for bankruptcy with a Stockholm court due to its financial situation.
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Manitoba RCMP and the Winnipeg Police Service are launching Manitoba's Most Wanted website.
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Several cars are being pulled out of the Detroit River in west Windsor.
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Chatham-Kent fire is asking residents in and around Wallaceburg to keep their windows and doors closed as they battle a railroad tie fire.
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NDP Leader David Eby is promising to offer a $75-million loan forgiveness program to entice doctors, nurses and heath professionals to expand health-care services in rural British Columbia.
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Lethbridge police say a man who escaped from a psychiatric ward at the Chinook Regional Hospital has been found.
A woman in Greater Sudbury, Ont., said "It doesn't get more Canadian than this" when she spotted a black bear dumpster diving at a Tim Hortons last month.
The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) is the latest organization to call on the Doug Ford government to re-open dialogue with an airline service that transports lower-income Canadians to crucial medical care far from home.
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A Conservative MP from Newfoundland and Labrador says some small towns in his rural riding are overrun with crime, but police say they haven't received reports to that effect.
As millions in federal funding flow into a Labrador group whose claims of Inuit identity have been rejected by Indigenous organizations across Canada, a national Inuit leader worries the Liberal government is putting the rights of Indigenous Peoples at risk.
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