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In a video address to a medical charity group, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described how Russia's invasion of his country has devastated hundreds of hospitals and other institutions and left doctors without drugs to tackle cancer or the ability to perform surgery, Reuters reported. Zelenskyy said many sites lacked even basic antibiotics in eastern and southern Ukraine, the focal points of the fighting.
"If you consider just medical infrastructure, as of today Russian troops have destroyed or damaged nearly 400 healthcare institutions: hospitals, maternity wards, outpatient clinics," he said. In areas occupied by Russian forces, he said, the situation was catastrophic, Reuters reported.
The U.S. says it shared intelligence with Ukraine about the location of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva prior to the strike that sank the warship, an incident that was a high-profile failure for Russia's military, The Associated Press reported. An American official said Thursday that Ukraine alone decided to target and sink the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet using its own anti-ship missiles, AP reported. But given Russia's attacks on the Ukrainian coastline from the sea, the U.S. has provided “a range of intelligence” that includes locations of those ships, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United States is confident it can address any security concerns Sweden and Finland may have about the period of time after they apply for NATO membership and before they are accepted into the alliance, the White House said on Thursday, .
Sweden and Finland are concerned they would be vulnerable to Russian threats during an application process, which could take up to a year to be approved by all 30 NATO members, the news agency reported. "We are confident that we could find ways to address any concerns either country may have about the period of time between a NATO membership application and the formal accession to the alliance," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told a briefing.
Both Sweden and Finland are expected to make a decision about whether to apply to join NATO this month, Reuters reported.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in a call that they would not recognize any Russian territorial gains in Ukraine, a German government spokesperson said in a statement, . The two leaders also denounced "recent comments of the Russian leadership seeking to discredit the democratically legitimized Ukrainian leadership," the spokesperson said, Reuters reported. "They agreed that Ukraine needed to be further substantially and continuously supported in the practice of its legitimate right to self-defense," the spokesperson added.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed the war in Ukraine in a phone call on Thursday, the Turkish presidency said, adding that Erdogan congratulated Macron on his election victory, R. "President Erdogan, who said Turkey was doing its utmost to end the war in Ukraine through diplomacy, stated it is important to support the negotiation process," Erdogan's office said in a statement.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the United States was working on a strategy to ensure a steady uranium supply and that the country should not be sending any more money to Russia for the nuclear reactor fuel, Reuters reported. She was questioned during a hearing on President Joe Biden’s proposed budget whether Biden would ban imports of Russian uranium as a way to further weaken Russia. "I'll let the president make that statement, but I can say that this is a point on which I think we have a lot of agreement. We should not be sending any money to Russia for any American energy or for any other reason," she said.
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, , according to a journalists’ union. And at least seven of those deaths took place while the journalists were on assignment, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. VOA’s Oleksii Kovalenko has this story.
Russian troops have been stepping up their offensive in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Constant shelling is destroying civil infrastructure and local residents are forced to hide in basements. correspondent Serhiy Horbatenko was there this week and came under shellfire on the outskirts of the city of Siversk.