The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to reprimand Russia for invading Ukraine and demanded that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its military forces, an action that aims to diplomatically isolate Russia at the world body.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last night spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone and the two leaders reviewed the situation in Ukraine, especially in the city of Kharkiv where many Indian students are stuck and their safe evacuation.

A sailor of the Bangladeshi flagged vessel Banglar Samriddhi, that remained stranded at a Ukrainian port, was killed after a missile attack on the bridge of the ship last night.

Russian forces said they had captured a port on the Black Sea yesterday as Russian and Ukrainian troops battled for another city and US President Joe Biden vowed to make his Russian counterpart “pay a price” for the invasion.

Right after Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, Bangladeshi medical student Fabiha Binte Mahbub was bunkered up in an underground subway station in the city of Kharkiv.

A Bangladeshi sailor was killed after the vessel Banglar Samriddhi, which remains stranded at a port in Ukraine, came under a “missile” attack yesterday.

The Ukrainian special forces commander inspected the remains of a bridge his teams had blown up at the gates of Kyiv and explained his strategy for fighting Russian “saboteurs”.

KHARKIV FIGHTING

Russia is aiming to erase Ukraine, its history and people, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video yesterday as the seventh day of Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour started with heavy shelling of the Black Sea port of Mariupol.

Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday that 498 Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine and another 1,597 had been wounded since the beginning of Moscow's military operation there, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

Ukraine hopes for positive signals on its bid to join the European Union, the president and foreign minister of the former Soviet republic said on the seventh day of war waged on them by Russia.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has killed more than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians and destroyed hundreds of structures including transport facilities, hospitals, kindergartens and homes, Ukraine's emergency service said on Wednesday.

Keiichi Kurogi was one of dozens of men in Japan who offered to join an "international legion" to fight Russian invaders after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for volunteers, reports Reuters.

China will not join in sanctions on Russia that have been led by the West, the country's banking regulator said on Wednesday, adding that he believed the impact of the measures on China would be limited.

European Union diplomats have approved new sanctions against Belarus for its supporting role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the French presidency of the EU said on Wednesday.

Bangladeshis who live in Ukraine but are currently stuck here due to Russian invasion of the country, staged a human chain in front of the National Press Club today -- demanding end of the war.

At least 21 people were killed and 112 wounded in shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in the last 24 hours, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on Wednesday.

The United States closed its airspace to Russian planes as the Russian military attempted to encircle and subdue Ukrainian cities with intensifying bombardments on Wednesday, almost a week into an invasion that has sparked massive international sanctions.

Meta Platforms (FB.O) is globally demoting content from Russian state-controlled media outlets' Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, as well as posts containing links to those outlets on Facebook, the company's head of global affairs said on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday Russia must stop bombing Ukrainian cities before meaningful talks on a ceasefire could start, as a first round of negotiations this week had yielded scant progress.