 "Russia Ukraine conflict")
The UN migration agency says the number of people displaced within Ukraine since Russia's invasion began has risen to 7.7 million.
The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration said Thursday that more than 600,000 additional people were displaced within the country in the first 17 days of April.
The figures from the IOM came a day after the UN refugee agency said the number of people who have fled Ukraine since the war began on Feb 24 has risen to more than 5 million.
The IOM said more than half of the internally displaced people, mostly in the east of the country, reported a lack of some food products. It said their most pressing problems include cash and access to financial support, followed by medicines.
Ukraine had a pre-war population of 44 million.
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Warsaw: Poland's Foreign Ministry says that Poland has frozen the bank account of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw over suspicions it was being used for purposes that were not good.
Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina said Thursday that the account was frozen by prosecutors. He said that Poland's embassy and consulates in Russia have been exposed to various retaliatory steps - with roads around the embassy in Moscow dug up for the past two weeks, complicating entry to and exit from the compound.
He said that almost prevented the departure of Polish diplomats expelled by Russia in the international spat over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Jasina didn't give further details of the action by prosecutors. According to the Business Insider portal, prosecutors ordered the freezing of the embassy account and that of Russia's trade mission in Poland for six months shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, saying the money in the accounts may be used to finance terrorism.
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Madrid: Spain's prime minister says he was shocked to witness the horror and atrocities of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's war on the streets of Borodyanka, a town in northern Ukraine that has been devastated by the invasion.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez commented on Twitter after visiting Borodyanka on Thursday with his Danish counterpart, Denmark's Mette Frederiksen. He said that we will not leave the Ukrainian people alone.
Television images showed the leaders walking through the bombed streets of the town accompanied by Ukrainian military and government officials.
Sanchez and Frederiksen are to hold a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later Thursday.
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London: Britain's government has announced new sanctions against leaders in Russia's army responsible for committing atrocities on the frontline.
The Foreign Office said Thursday that it's targeting several Russian generals and military commanders including Lt Col Azatbek Omurbekov. Authorities say the so-called Butcher of Bucha commanded forces that occupied the town outside Kyiv where multiple reports of war crimes and civilian killings have surfaced.
Omurbekov and several others were subject to a travel ban and asset freeze. British authorities also said Thursday that they are expanding their sanctions list to individuals and companies that are supporting President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. They include Oleg Belozyorov, CEO of logistics company Russian Railways, and Russian weapons suppliers and manufacturers such as Kalashnikov Concern.
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Milan: Italian energy company ENI has signed a deal with the Republic of Congo to increase natural gas production and supply to Italy, as part of European moves to cut dependence on Russian energy over its invasion of Ukraine.
The deal signed Thursday comes on top of recent deals to increase production and delivery from Algeria and Angola. Italy currently gets some 38% of its natural gas from Russia, and has signed deals to replace about half.
The new deal signed in Brazzaville calls for a new liquefied natural gas project that is expected to launch next year with a capacity of up to 4.5 billion cubic metres a year for export. ENI said it also agreed to back sustainable energy projects in the central African country.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
