Russian missiles struck a city, Vinnytsia, in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others far from the front lines, Associated Press reports. Ukraine’s President accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in locations without military value. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated his call for Russia to be declared a state sponsor of terrorism. “No other country in the world represents such a terrorist threat as Russia,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “No other country in the world allows itself every day to use cruise missiles and rocket artillery to destroy cities and ordinary human life,” President Zelensky said.

“This morning, Russian missiles hit our city of Vinnytsia — an ordinary, peaceful city. Cruise missiles hit two community buildings; houses were destroyed, a medical center was destroyed, the cars and trams were on fire. This is the act of Russian terror. People couldn’t do this, they are animals,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address to the participants in a conference in the Hague on Russian war crimes, and called for a “special tribunal” to investigate Russia’s war crimes.

45 countries signed, in the Hague, the seat of the International Court of Justice, a political declaration on the joint investigation of war crimes in Ukraine.  They vowed to allocate EUR 20 million to help the work of the court, of the prosecutor general of Ukraine, and the UN.

Moscow-backed separatist authorities in the temporarily occupied southeastern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia said they planned to stage a referendum on joining Russia this year, AFP reports. The occupation authorities in neighbouring Kherson region are also planning a referendum on joining Russia later in the year.

The European Commission is expected next week to ask EU countries to reduce heating and cooling of public buildings and offices to cut demand for gas, AFP reports, citing a document the news agency says it has seen. In order to better withstand the drastic fall in Russian gas supplies, which could be cut off altogether, the commission is expected to urge governments across the 27-nation bloc to set limits on the amount of energy used by public buildings, offices, commercial properties and outdoor terraces. For optimal energy use, it will recommend the rules require that public buildings be heated to no more than 19 degrees Celsius and cooled by air conditioning units set no lower than 25°C, AFP writes.

Meanwhile, Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said the bloc could be forced to "ration" its energy consumption in the worst case scenario - if President Vladimir Putin turns Russian gas exports to Europe off. “It will be a really tough winter in Europe. We will all face very significant escalation in energy prices," Ben van Beurden said, addressing the Aurora Spring conference in Oxford.

Photos: EPA/BGNES