Ukraine's Health Minister Oleh Lyashko said on Thursday evening, that 57 people had been killed and 169 wounded on Thursday after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine including during bombings in the evening hours near the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials claimed forces recaptured the Hostomel Military Airport outside Kyiv, after it fell to Russian troops earlier.
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Ukrainian civilians seek shelter from Russian shelling in a metro station on Thursday evening
(Photo: EPA)
The deputy defense minister reported heavy Russian shelling was still underway in the eastern Donetsk region.
After Russian troops took control of the Chernobyl nuclear energy plant, a move that would enable them to cut power from the entire country, the IAEA announced that Ukraine's operational nuclear power plants are running safely and securely and there has been no "destruction", citing Ukraine's nuclear regulator.
"Ukraine has informed the IAEA that 'unidentified armed forces' have taken control of all facilities of the State Specialized Enterprise Chornobyl NPP, located within the Exclusion Zone," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.
"The counterpart added that there had been no casualties nor destruction at the industrial site."
Ukraine has requested an urgent debate be held at the U.N. Human Rights Council on the situation stemming from the 'Russian aggression', the United Nations said on Thursday.
"This is (a) response to the extremely grave deterioration in the human rights situation in Ukraine as a result of Russia's hostilities on Ukrainian territory," Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukraine's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said in a letter sent to the president's forum, posted in a tweet by its mission to the U.N. in Geneva.
The European Union (EU) said in a separate tweet that it supported the move.
Meanwhile the United States said it was expelling the No. 2 diplomat at the Russian Embassy in Washington in response to Russia's recent expulsion of the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Moscow, a senior State Department spokesperson said on Thursday.
"The U.S. believes that it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments. However, we will not let actions like these go without a response," the spokesperson said.
First published: 22:29, 02.24.22