Russia-Ukraine war: Putin blocks Facebook & restricts Twitter, signs law introducing jail terms for 'fake news' on army

In a series of tweets, Graham said, "Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country - and the world - a great service." Julius Caesar, a Roman general, was assassinated by Brutus while Colonel Stauffenberg, a German army officer, had attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944.

From a huge Russian military convoy snaking its way to Kyiv to missile strikes and refugee crossings, commercial satellite imagery of the Ukraine conflict is helping lift the fog of war, illuminating for the public what was previously the domain of spy agencies.Technologies that can pierce cloud cover and work at night are also coming to the fore, as a growing army of open-source intelligence analysts offer near real time assessments of battleground developments."Governments are no longer the only place to go for high precision satellite data," Craig Nazareth, a former US intelligence officer turned scholar at the University of Arizona, told AFP.

Those targeted by the new U.S. sanctions include Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, and Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov, one of Russia's wealthiest individuals and a close ally of Putin. The U.S. State Department also announced it was imposing visa bans on 19 Russian oligarchs and dozens of their family members and close associates.``The goal was to maximize impact on Putin and Russia and minimize the harm on us and our allies and friends around the world,'' President Biden said as he noted the new sanctions at the start of a meeting with his Cabinet and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Prime Minister said he would be seeking an emergency UN Security Council meeting in the coming hours, and that the UK would raise this issue immediately with Russia and close partners: UK govt statement

UK PM Johnson spoke to Ukrainian Pres Zelenskyy in the early hours today. PM Johnson said reckless actions of President Putin could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe. He said UK would do everything it could to ensure situation didn't deteriorate further: UK govt statement

Russia offered a glimmer of hope to Indians stuck in the war zone, saying it is ready to send 130 buses to evacuate them from Ukraine's battle-scarred Kharkiv and Sumy to its Belgorod region.The remarks by Russian National Defence Control Center head Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed the safe evacuation of Indians.In terms of the departure points from Europe, there will be seven flights from Bucharest (Romania), five from Budapest (Hungary), three from Rzeszow (Poland) and one from Košice (Slovakia).

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Thursday the reactors at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station "are protected by robust containment structures and reactors are being safely shut down".Granholm said on Twitter she had just spoken with Ukraine's energy minister about the situation at the plant, where a fire broke out during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces."We have seen no elevated radiation readings near the facility," Granholm said.

A top American Senator has urged the Ukrainian government to end racial discrimination at its border, a prickly issue that has been pointed out by numerous students who have been frantically trying to flee the war-ravaged country. Foreign students, especially Africans and Asians, who are attempting to flee the country have been complaining that they have been experiencing racist treatment by Ukrainian security forces at border check-posts. “I want to call attention to a growing body of disturbing reports along Ukraine's western borders, which allege discriminatory treatment and processing of certain non-Ukrainian individuals – in particular, individuals from African nations,” Senator Mark Warner said in a letter to Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the US on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden spoke on Thursday evening with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to receive an update on the fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the White House said in a statement. Biden joined Zelenskiy "in urging Russia to cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site," the statement said. Biden also received an update on the situation from the U.S. Energy Department's under secretary for nuclear security, it said.