Day 77 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Kyiv to Stop Russian Gas to Europe, Zelensky warns of Global Food Crisis

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Ukraine to stop the transit of Russian gas to Europe through Luhansk region

The Ukrainian gas transmission operator announced it would suspend the transit of Russian natural gas through the Luhansk region and blamed the Russian occupiers for its decision. Gazprom has announced that the proposed switching of the suspended part of the transit through the station in the Sumy region controlled by Ukraine is technically impossible

"You are savagely destroying everything in Ukraine. Stop the war!"

The mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov made this appeal to Vladimir Putin in an interview with Euronews. It came a day after a fatal attack in which Russia fired several missiles at the port city. Trukhanov warned that Odessa could become a second Mariupol.

The Ukrainian city of Dnipro has become a key hub for Ukrainian military and humanitarian operations during the war in eastern Ukraine

After repeated air strikes on the city in March and early April, the Dnieper, Ukraine's fourth-largest city, became tensely calm.

The European Union cannot be a mediator in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine

This opinion was expressed by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"Not us. The Russians will not accept it, just as we will not accept Russia as a mediator," Borrell said when asked if the EU could play a mediating role in the Russia-Ukraine talks. However, he added that "China is also not suitable because it leans towards Russia. Turkey is doing a very good job there. It has good relations with both countries," said the head of European diplomacy.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and US President Joe Biden emphasized transatlantic unity over the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine at a White House meeting today

"The ties between our two countries will always be strong, and if nothing else, this war in Ukraine has made them even stronger," Draghi said.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin thought he could separate us. He failed," Draghi told Biden. "We are together."

Biden, who hosted Draghi in the Oval Office, told reporters that "Putin believed he could divide us, but we all rose together."

Senior spy leaders have told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Vladimir Putin appears determined to stay in Ukraine for a long time and that the war is unlikely to end soon

Ukraine's ambassador to the EU told Euronews that member states must be prepared to make "economic sacrifices", expressing disappointment with Hungary's refusal to agree to a ban on Russian oil imports.

Ukraine's accession to the EU has become a "matter of war or peace" in the context of Russia's invasion of the country, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the first member of the German government to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion, vowed, in Bucha, to hold perpetrators of Russian atrocities accountable. She also announced the reopening of the German embassy in Kyiv.

The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine is likely to be "thousands higher" than initially estimated, said the head of the UN human rights mission in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Zelensky has called on the international community to help unblock Ukrainian ports to prevent a global food crisis

Ukrainian authorities estimate that the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol still has 1,000 fighters and 100 civilians dug into it.

According to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, nearly two-thirds of Kyiv's 3.5 million population have already returned to the Ukrainian capital.

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