World News | First Bushmaster Vehicle to Reach Ukraine from Australia

Canberra, Apr 8 (AP) The first of 20 Bushmaster armoured vehicles has left Australia for Ukraine, one week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically requested the Australian-manufactured four-wheel drives.

A Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport jet that can carry four Bushmasters left the east coast city of Brisbane for Europe on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Also Read | Tel Aviv Shooting: At Least Two Dead And Eight Wounded During Attack in Israeli City.

The 20 Bushmasters cost 50 million in Australian dollars, which is $37 million in US dollars.

The vehicles are in addition to $116 million in Australian dollars ($87 million in US dollars) in military and humanitarian aid previously committed to Ukraine.

Also Read | Pakistan Political Crisis: Supreme Court Reinstates National Assembly, Orders Voting on No-Confidence Motion Against PM Imran Khan.

Zelenskyy requested Bushmasters when he made a video address to the Australian Parliament on March 31.

“And as soon as he asked, we said yes,” Morrison said.

___

Washington: The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is levying sanctions against Russia's largest military shipbuilding and diamond mining companies.

The move blocks their access to the US financial system as the United States looks to exact more economic pain on President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.

Alrosa is the world's largest diamond mining company and accounts for about 90% of Russia's diamond mining capacity, according to the US Treasury Department.

Alrosa generated over $4.2 billion in revenue in 2021. Diamonds are one of Russia's top 10 non-energy exports by value.

The State Department also said it was blacklisting the United Shipbuilding Corporation, as well as its subsidiaries and board members.

The moves against the two-state owned companies come a day after the US announced it was targeting the two adult daughters of President Vladimir Putin, two of Russia's largest banks and banning new American investment in Russia.

__

Lviv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday night that work has begun to dig through the rubble in Borodianka, another city northwest of Kyiv that was occupied by the Russians.

He also said “it is much scarier” there, with even more victims of the Russian troops.

In his daily nighttime video address to the nation on Thursday, Zelenskyy said the Russians were preparing to shock the world in the same way by showing corpses in Mariupol and falsely claiming they were killed by the Ukrainian defenders.

Meanwhile, Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said Thursday on Ukrainian television that investigators have found at least three sites of mass shootings of civilians during the Russian occupation.

Fedoruk said hundreds have been killed and investigators are finding bodies in yards, parks and city squares. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)