Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Biden arrives in Europe for Ukraine war summits, NATO to bolster eastern flank Russian forces bombed areas of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday and U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels for a series of summit meetings on the war while NATO's chief said the alliance was bolstering battle groups in Eastern Europe.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Biden arrives in Europe for Ukraine war summits, NATO to bolster eastern flank

Russian forces bombed areas of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday and U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels for a series of summit meetings on the war while NATO's chief said the alliance was bolstering battle groups in Eastern Europe. NATO, G7 and EU summits will on Thursday discuss the conflict, which began on Feb. 24 and has caused more than 3.6 million refugees to flee the country and already led to the unprecedented isolation of Russia's economy.

Australia PM Morrison flags concerns over Putin's plans to attend G20 meeting

Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday said he has been raising concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to attend the next G20 summit in Indonesia this year. "The idea of sitting around a table with Vladimir Putin, who the United States are already in the position of calling out (for) war crimes in Ukraine, for me is a step too far," Morrison said during a media briefing.

UK to provide 6,000 missiles to Ukraine in new support

Britain will provide Ukraine with about 6,000 new defensive missiles and almost 30 million pounds ($40 million) to support the BBC's coverage in the region and pay Ukrainian soldiers and pilots. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce the new package of support on Thursday at the NATO and G7 leaders' meetings while also signalling a willingness to bolster Ukraine's defence capabilities further, his office said on Wednesday.

WHO says there were 64 instances of attacks on health care since Ukraine war started

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it had verified 64 instances of attacks on health care in Ukraine between Feb. 24 and March 21 resulting in 15 deaths and 37 injuries. Close to 7 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced in the one month of war, with one in three of them suffering from a chronic health condition, according to the global health agency.

Russian move on Ukraine aid fails at U.N. Security Council

A Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine that does not mention Moscow's role in the crisis failed at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining. "If Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, it would stop bombing children and end their siege tactics. But they haven't," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council after the vote. Russia denies attacking civilians.

U.S. says Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine

The United States has assessed that members of Russia's forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, adding that Washington's conclusion was based on a "careful review" of available information from public and intelligence sources. Blinken said there had been "numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities" by Russia's forces in Ukraine, specifying attacks in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Russia says sending international peacekeepers to Ukraine would be 'very reckless'

Russia on Wednesday condemned what it called a "reckless" Polish proposal to send international peacekeepers into Ukraine and warned that it could lead to a direct clash between Russian and NATO forces. Poland said last Friday it would formally submit a proposal for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine at the next NATO summit.

'Russia will pay': West to warn Putin in trio of summits

Western nations will warn Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that his country will pay "ruinous" costs for invading Ukraine during an unprecedented one-day trio of NATO, G7 and EU summits that will be attended by U.S. President Joe Biden. The hectic day of summitry to maintain Western unity will kick off at the transatlantic defence alliance's headquarters in Brussels, where leaders will agree to ramp up military forces on Europe's eastern flank.

Russia's Putin gets Chinese backing to stay in G20

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the next G20 summit in Indonesia later this year and received valuable backing from Beijing on Wednesday in a pushback to suggestions by some members that Russia could be barred from the group. The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters.

China finds first black box from crashed jet, U.S. discussing quarantine for investigators

Chinese emergency workers found on Wednesday one of two black boxes from a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed with 132 people onboard, but U.S. efforts to join the investigation are on hold because of COVID-19 quarantine rules. The black box device recovered is the plane's cockpit voice recorder, based on an early assessment, a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official told a media briefing, adding that the recording material appeared to have survived impact in relatively good shape.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)