Putin to interact with Russian leaders in St. Petersburg on April 27 amid raging war

As the Russia Ukraine war has entered day 60 with no breakthrough ceasefire in sight, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has reportedly confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has planned a face-to-face interaction with members of the Council of Legislators of the Federal Assembly in St. Petersburg on  April 27. Putin is also scheduled to hold talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres. 

UN chief Guterres to meet Russian President Putin

Meanwhile, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres is set to travel to Moscow on April 26. Gutteres will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for lunch and hold discussions. The UN chief will also discuss "steps that can be taken right now in order to silence the guns, in order to help the people, and in order to allow the people who need to get out and have safe passage," UN Associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko told reporters. The meeting was confirmed by Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

Following his two-day visit to Moscow, Guterres will embark on a trip to Ukraine. In a statement, Kaneko informed that “The Secretary-General will visit Ukraine next week. He will have a working meeting with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and will be received by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28 April. He will also meet with staff of UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine." The announcement came hours after Kaneko informed about Guterres' visit to Moscow on April 26.

Russia mulls forcing captured Ukrainian troops to donate blood to wounded invaders: Ukraine

Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova recently claimed that Russia is considering forcing captured Ukrainian military to donate blood to wounded invaders. "The Russian State Duma is proposing to force captured Ukrainian servicemen to donate blood for the wounded occupiers. This fact testifies to the analogy of the atrocities of the Nazis in the concentration camps during the Second World War," she stated, as per reports. 

(With Agency Inputs)