Zelenskyy says Ukraine has reached a strategic turning point in war: Key developments

NEW DELHI: Ukrainian authorities evacuated almost 40,000 people from five cities, President Zelenskiy said, but none from the encircled southern city of Mariupol, and Russian planes bombed an institute in Kharkiv that is home to an experimental nuclear reactor.

Meanwhile nearly 700 Indian students from Sumy, an Ukrainian town close to the Russian border, reached Delhi on Thursday after being safely evacuated from the conflict zone.

Russia-Ukraine war: Live updates

Here are the latest developments in the

Ukraine crisis

from the last few hours:

Russian strikes in west Ukraine aimed at halting use of airfields: US official
The United States assesses that Russian strikes in western Ukraine in the past 24 hours were aimed at preventing airfields from being used by Ukrainian forces, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, could not say the extent to which targeted airfields had been used by Ukraine's air force.

Putin sees some 'positive shifts' in Russia-Ukraine talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that there were some "positive shifts" in talks between Russian and Ukraine, two weeks into Moscow's military campaign in the country.

"There are certain positive shifts, negotiators from our side reported to me," Putin told his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko during a televised meeting in Moscow. He said negotiations are "now being held on an almost daily basis."

Ukraine's president says Ukraine is on course for victory
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday Ukraine had reached a strategic turning point in its war with Russia, but cautioned that it was not possible to say how long fighting would continue.

"It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. For we have already reached a strategic turning point," he said in a televised address, urging the international community to increase sanctions pressure on Russia.

Putin agrees to send 'volunteers' to Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to invite volunteers to participate in Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

"If you see that there are people who want on a voluntary basis, especially not for money, to come and help people living in the Donbas - well, you need to meet them halfway and help them get to the combat zone," Putin said at the Security Council meeting, as quoted by Sputnik.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that many volunteers are ready to help people in Donbas, including 16,000 people from the Middle Eastern countries.

This comes as a Pentagon official on Thursday said the Russians have moved about five kilometers closer to Kyiv since Wednesday and are now about 40 kilometers east of the city.



Russian forces hit Ukrainian psychiatric hospital - regional governor
Ukraine accused Russian forces of hitting a psychiatric hospital near the eastern Ukrainian town of Izyum on Friday in what the regional governor called "a brutal attack on civilians".

Oleh Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said 330 people had been at the hospital at the time, some of them confined to wheelchairs or unable to move, and that 73 had been evacuated.

The number of casualties was being established, he said.

"This is a war crime against civilians, genocide against the Ukrainian nation," Synegubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Threat to pathogens housed in labs

The World Health Organization advised Ukraine to destroy high-threat pathogens housed in the country's public health laboratories to prevent "any potential spills" that would spread disease among the population, the agency told Reuters on Thursday.

Biosecurity experts say Russia's movement of troops into Ukraine and bombardment of its cities have raised the risk of an escape of disease-causing pathogens, should any of those facilities be damaged.



The WHO would not say when it had made the recommendation nor did it provide specifics about the kinds of pathogens or toxins housed in Ukraine's laboratories.

Ukraine's laboratory capabilities are at the center of a growing information war since Russia began moving troops into Ukraine two weeks ago.

On Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova repeated a longstanding claim that the United States operates a biowarfare lab in Ukraine, an accusation that has been repeatedly denied by Washington and Kyiv.

No headway in talks

Russia and Ukraine failed to make a breakthrough Thursday in their first top-level talks since Moscow's invasion two weeks ago, as Russian forces advanced on Kyiv.

After talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Turkey, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there had been "no progress", even on a 24-hour ceasefire, although Lavrov said Moscow would keep talking.

The United Nations Security Council will convene on Friday at Russia's request, diplomats said, to discuss Moscow's claims, presented without evidence, of US biological activities in Ukraine.

Russian forces close in on Kyiv

Moscow's military advances have sparked fears the capital Kyiv could soon be surrounded. Russian forces were encircling at least four major Ukrainian cities Thursday and armoured vehicles rolled up to Kyiv's northeastern edge, where suburbs including Irpin and Bucha have endured days of heavy bombardment.



New satellite photos appeared to show that a massive convoy outside the Ukrainian capital has split up and fanned out into towns and forests near Kyiv, with artillery pieces raised into firing position in a potentially ominous movement of the Russian military.

The besieged southern port city of Mariupol, meanwhile, came under fresh assault Thursday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Moscow of launching a "tank attack" targeting a humanitarian corridor where he had dispatched a convoy to try to get food, water and medicine into the city.

Hospital hit in Russia air strike

After international condemnation of a Russian strike on a hospital in Mariupol, the Kremlin said it would investigate further. Moscow had claimed the building no longer served as a healthcare facility. However the Russian defence ministry later denied hitting the hospital.

Video shared from the site by rescue workers showed a scene of complete devastation, with the wounded being evacuated, some on stretchers, past charred and burning carcasses of cars and a massive crater by the building.

US approves $13.6bn aid for Ukraine

The US Congress late Thursday approved a $13.6 billion emergency package of military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine and its European allies.

``We promised the Ukrainian people they would not go at it alone in their fight against Putin,'' Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said just before the vote by the Senate on Thursday. The House passed the bill a day earlier. Biden's signature is certain.

Around half the money is for arming and equipping Ukraine and for the Pentagon's costs for sending U.S. troops to other Eastern European nations. Much of the rest includes humanitarian and economic assistance, strengthening regional allies' defenses and protecting their energy supplies and cybersecurity needs.

More Indians brought back under Operation Ganga

An Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft from Poland's Rzeszow carrying students evacuated from northeastern Ukrainian city Sumy landed at the Hindon air base here on Friday afternoon, officials said.

The flight, which was conducted by the IAF using its C-17 military transport plane, landed at the air base here at 12.15 pm.

This is the second of the three flights being operated by India on Friday -- one each by Air India, IndiGo and the IAF -- from Rzezow to Delhi to bring back 600 students who have recently been evacuated from Sumy.

The first flight had taken off from Rzeszow around 11.30 pm (IST) on Thursday and landed in Delhi at 5.45 am on Friday, officials said.

India has expressed its gratitude to Ukraine, Russia and the Red Cross for helping it evacuate its citizens from various Ukrainian cities in the midst of the ongoing war.

(With inputs from agencies)