Kyiv, Feb 28: Ukraine's president says 16 Ukrainian children have been killed and another 45 have been injured in the Russian invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video message Monday that "every crime, every shelling by the occupiers bring our partners and us even closer."
He hailed the sanctions that the West slapped on Russia, saying they have brought the Russian currency down. Zelenskyy asked the European Union a special quick path to membership.
Zelenskyy said that over 4,500 Russian troops have been killed and called on Russian soldiers to lay down their guns and leave. "Don't trust you commanders, don't trust your propaganda, just save your lives," he said.
Geneva— The U.N.'s top human rights body has agreed to hold an "urgent debate" on the situation in Ukraine.
The Human Rights Council opened its first meeting of the year by front-loading consideration of the matter in an emergency debate in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.
The vote in the 47-member-state body was 29-5, with 13 abstentions.
Ukraine and Russia, as well as the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, are current members.
The debate is expected to take place Thursday, part of the five-week Human Rights Council session that runs through April 1.
___
Madrid— Spain's foreign minister has called the Russian president's order to put the country's nuclear forces on high alert "one more sign of the absolute irrationality of Vladimir Putin." "I hope they are simply words, but the mere fact of using those words, of using that threat, shows that Vladimir Putin's irrationality has reached an unimaginable point," José Manuel Albares told Spanish national radio on Monday.
Albares didn't clarify if Spain, like other European Union members, is ready to send weapons or other military aid to Ukraine, which is enduring the fifth day of invasion from Russia. The Spanish government sent 20 tons of humanitarian aid and military defensive gear over the weekend.
Instead, the foreign minister defended that sanctions against Russian officials and oligarchs would be a deterrent, and necessary even if they bring negative effects in the West.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told private radio station Onda Cero that Putin's order was "irreponsible."
"Be alarmed, be alarmed, be alarmed!," Borrell said when asked about Putin's announcement during an interview in Spanish private radio Onda Cero. "It is absolutely irresponsible at this time to call for nuclear weaponry." ___
Przemysl— Trains continue to bring refugees fleeing war in Ukraine to safety in Poland and in other countries.
Poland's Border Guard says around 213,000 people have entered Poland from Ukraine since Thursday, when Russia waged war on Ukraine.
Another train carrying hundreds of refugees from Ukraine arrived early Monday in the town of Przemysl, in southeastern Poland.
In winter coats to protect them against near-freezing temperatures, with small suitcases, they lined at the platform to the exit. Some waved at the camera to show they felt relief to be out of the war zone. Many were making phone calls.
