Moscow accused of forcibly removing civilians to Russia

Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcibly removing hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia to pressure Kyiv to give up, while president Volodymyr Zelensky urged his country to keep up its military defence and not stop “even for a minute”.

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsman, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken against their will into Russia, where some may be used as “hostages” to pressure Kyiv to surrender.

The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia.

Ukraine’s rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.

With the war heading into a second month, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition.

Ukraine’s navy said it sank a large Russian landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to bring in armoured vehicles.

Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.

Mr Zelensky used his nightly video address to rally Ukrainians to “move toward peace, move forward”.

“With every day of our defence, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We can’t stop even for a minute, for every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live.”

He said thousands of people, including 128 children, have died in the first month of the war.

Across the country, 230 schools and 155 nurseries have been destroyed. Cities and villages “lie in ashes”, he said.

At an emergency Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, Mr Zelensky pleaded with the western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defence systems and other weapons, saying his country is “defending our common values”.

US president Joe Biden, in Europe for the summit and other high-level meetings, gave assurances that more aid was on the way, though it appeared unlikely the West would give Mr Zelensky everything he wanted, for fear of triggering a much wider war.

Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders have fought Moscow’s ground troops to a near-stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian president Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Mr Biden also announced the US would welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, though he said many would probably prefer to stay closer to home, and provide an additional one billion dollars (£760 million) in food, medicine, water and other supplies.

The western leaders spent Thursday crafting the next steps to counter Russia’s month-old invasion and huddling over how they might respond should Mr Putin deploy chemical, biological or even a nuclear weapon.

They met in a trio of emergency summits that had them shuttling across Brussels for back-to-back-to-back meetings of Nato, G7 and the 27-member European Council.

Mr Biden, in an early evening news conference after the meetings, warned that a chemical attack by Russia “would trigger a response in kind”.

However, a White House official said later that did not imply any shift in the US position against direct military action in Ukraine.

Mr Biden and Nato allies have stressed that the US and Nato would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky, while thankful for the newly promised help, made clear to the western allies he needed far more than they are currently willing to give.

“One per cent of all your planes, 1% of all your tanks,” Mr Zelensky asked members of the Nato alliance.

“We can’t just buy those. When we will have all this, it will give us, just like you, 100% security.”