Zelensky to UN: Remove Russia or 'dissolve yourself'

A car crashed into the gate of the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, on Wednesday morning, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. 

The incident happened around 6:30 a.m. local time, TASS said, citing Radio Romania. According to the radio station, the car subsequently caught fire, TASS reported. 

According to police, the driver has died, the Russian state news agency said.  

Traffic has been restricted on the street where the embassy is located and law enforcement is investigating the causes of the incident, the report added.

India’s ambassador to the United Nations condemned the killings of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, marking a noticeable shift in Indian officials’ public approach to the invasion of Ukraine by its long-time partner Russia. 

T.S. Tirumurti, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, called reports of the killings “deeply disturbing” during a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday. 

“We unequivocally condemn these killings and support the call for an open investigation,” Tirumurti said, without naming Russia. 

“The situation in Ukraine has not shown any significant improvement since the Council last discussed the issue. The situation has only deteriorated, as well as its humanitarian consequences,” he said. 

Some context: Previous statements issued by the Indian government have fallen short of condemning Russia’s aggression, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead appealing for a “cessation of violence.”

India has also abstained from various UN resolutions condemning Russia, maintaining that peace talks should be held and the two nations focus on “diplomacy and dialogue.”

Criticism from opposition at home: Tirumurti made his statement on the same day as India’s opposition Congress Party expressed concerns over the nation’s position on the war. 

During a parliamentary discussion on the issue, Shashi Tharoor described India’s first UN statement in February as “deplorable.” 

“I was shocked, I’ll say very honestly, at our first couple of statements at the United Nations … it was not just the abstention,” Tharoor said. 

Fellow Congress Party lawmaker Manish Tewari spoke on the evolving geopolitics, saying “this new Iron Curtain has the potential of actually dividing the world,” and added that India “may not have the option of being able to sit atop this new Iron Curtain.” 

“…Russia has been a trusted friend of India, and it has been a long-standing ally. Russia has come to India's aid in probably our most difficult times … But then Mr. Speaker, sir, friends also have to be told if they are wrong, that they possibly need to get their act together,” Tewari said.

Discussion is scheduled to continue Wednesday with India’s Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar to respond.

The US will announce new sanctions on Russia Wednesday in coordination with Group of Seven nations and the European Union, according to an administration official.

The official said the sweeping package "will impose significant costs on Russia and send it further down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation."

The new sanctions package will:

• Ban all new investment in Russia
• Increase sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises in Russia
• Sanction Russian government officials and their family members

The new sanctions package will mark the latest escalation in efforts by the US and its allies to impose costs on Russia for its invasion and, over time, cut off critical economic sectors the country utilizes to wage the ongoing war.

They also follow new revelations of further atrocities committed by Russian forces in northern Ukraine, with the images of the atrocities committed in Bucha serving as an accelerator to ongoing discussions between the US and its European allies to ramp up the economic costs, officials said.

"These measures will degrade key instruments of Russian state power, impose acute and immediate economic harm on Russia, and hold accountable the Russian kleptocracy that funds and supports Putin's war," the official said. "These measures will be taken in lockstep with our allies and partners, demonstrating our resolve and unity in imposing unprecedented costs on Russia for its war against Ukraine."

The official added, "We had already concluded that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine, and the information from Bucha appears to show further evidence of war crimes. And as the President said, we will work with the world to ensure there is full accountability for these crimes. One of those tools is sanctions — and we have been working intensively with our European allies on further sanctions."

More context: The expected sanctions come after the US Treasury announced it will no longer allow Russia to pay down its debt using dollars stockpiled at American banks. While Washington had imposed sanctions on the Russian Central Bank freezing their foreign currency at US banks, the Treasury Department had previously allowed Russia to use those reserves to repay its debt.

It's a move that officials say will substantially raise the risk of default and undercut urgent efforts by the central bank to stanch the economic bleeding that immediately arrested the Russian economy in the wake of the Western response to the invasion.

Read more about the sanctions here and watch CNN's reporting below:

European leaders have planned to phase out Russian coal imports in response to harrowing scenes in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv.

On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed a phased ban of €4 billion ($4.3 billion) worth of Russian coal imports per year as part of a fifth package of sanctions designed to further diminish Russian President Vladimir Putin's war chest. Other proposals target Russian technology and manufacturing imports, worth another €10 billion ($10.9 billion).

Europe has imposed punishing sanctions on Russia's economy since Putin's tanks rolled into Ukraine in late February, but stopped short of targeting Russia's energy sector — until now. Images of unarmed civilians, bound and shot, lying along Bucha's roads — which were until recently under Russian occupation — have convinced leaders to change tack.

More details on the new round of sanctions, including the timeline for the ban on coal, are expected Wednesday when EU ambassadors meet for talks. The measures still need the approval of all 27 member states.

Sanctioning coal will bite some European countries, but it's among the easiest energy sources to wean off — much of the world is already doing just that. The trickier question is: What happens next?

How much Russian coal goes to Europe? Russia was the world's third-largest exporter of coal in 2020, behind Australia and Indonesia, according to the International Energy Agency, with Europe by far its biggest customer.

The continent received 57 million tons of Russian hard coal that year, compared to 31 million tons for China, IEA data shows. This amounted to more than half of Europe's coal that year, according to Eurostat.

But the EU was already turning away from the world's dirtiest fossil fuel.

The amount of electricity generated by coal has decreased steadily across the block in recent years, falling 29% between 2017 and 2019, according to analysis by energy think tank Ember.

And despite a brief uptick last year as gas prices hit record highs, the IEA anticipates that European demand for coal will resume its steady decline. Total imports were expected to drop 6% by 2024 even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Other countries could step in to buy Russian coal. The IEA expects India's coal imports to rise 4% in 2024, and more than 6% in Southeast Asia. Russia has already benefited from a jump in exports to China following Xi Jinping's block on Australian imports, the agency said in a December report.

Read more:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian troops of indiscriminately killing civilians "just for their pleasure" in an emotionally-charged address to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, before questioning the very mandate of the Security Council itself.

Zelensky's speech came a day after he visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where shocking images of bodies in the streets emerged over the weekend.

On Tuesday, he related the aftermath of Russia's retreat from the town in horrifying detail, describing entire families killed, people with their throats slashed, and women raped and killed in front of their children. Zelensky said Russia's actions were no different from those of a terror group, except that Russia is a permanent member of the UNSC.

The Ukrainian leader then criticized the body, asking representatives point blank: "Where is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee? It is not there, though there is a Security Council."

Zelensky added: "It is obvious that the key institution of the world designed to combat aggression and ensure peace cannot work effectively.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you of Article 1, Chapter 1 of the UN Charter. What is the purpose of our organization? Its purpose is to maintain and make sure that peace is adhered to. And now the UN charter is violated literally starting with Article 1. And so what is the point of all other Articles?" he asked.

At least 1,480 civilians have been killed and at least 2,195 have been injured in Ukraine between the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 and April 4, a UN official said at the meeting, citing updated numbers from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The latest figures on the number of Ukrainian civilians in the conflict had "more than doubled" since the last briefing to the UNSC on March 17.

In Bucha, bodies strewn across the streets and in basements were found by human rights groups and documented by independent journalists. Satellite images suggest some bodies had been there since at least March 18.

In his damning speech, Zelensky said there was "not a single crime" that the Russians "would not commit," alleging that Russian troops had "searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country."

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